Unleash Your Voice with Priya Sam

Hailey Dawood is the Owner & CEO at The Idea Hunter, where she helps corporate clients bring creativity and impact to their events to deliver memorable, high-value experiences that transform their brand presence. During Covid, Hailey was forced to completely pivot her business and that period of uncertainty laid the foundation for the 7-figure business she leads today.  Her biggest turning poi...

What if one story could change the trajectory of your entire career? In this solo episode, I’m sharing how I went from an $80K salary as a national news anchor to a $160K role in tech in under two years and without changing my resume or adding new certifications. The key? A Power Story that clearly and confidently communicated my value, even in an industry I had no prior experience in. If you’re n...

In this deeply personal episode of Unleash Your Voice , I’m sharing the story I’ve never told in full: How my so-called “dream job” as a TV anchor nearly broke me. From the outside, I had it all: a high-profile role, a steady voice on morning shows, and a path I’d worked toward since childhood. But behind the scenes? It was costing me my mental health. If you’ve ever found yourself in a role you o...

A Power Story is your unique story - it highlights how you're different. Your Power Story should include your passion, values, the themes from your life and career, and micro-stories.  You don't just need this story in job interviews or for your website or speaker bio. You need these stories in every day life - especially at work. Your personal brand is being built whether you're do...

If you've been listening to the pod for awhile - you'll remember Dr. Chika Stacy Oriuwa from episode 24. She's the first repeat guest we've had! Chika was the only Black medical student in her class at the University of Toronto in 2016 and she became an advocate for more diversity and inclusion in healthcare. Since then she has accomplished A LOT - she was her class valedictori...

Hey friend! If you've been a loyal listener here - you know we've been going through a transition at Turning Point in the past few months and I so appreciate you bearing with me.  I can now officially tell you that we're rebranding!! Turning Point started off as a stand alone passion project for me in 2020 - YES it's been FOUR years! During that time - I've gone through a...

You have 7 seconds to make a first impression and what you wear is a big part of that. In professional settings like conferences, events, and job interviews, dressing the right way for YOU can help calm your nerves and support your confidence. You’re going to learn exactly how to do that in this episode of Unleash Your Voice. We’ll get 4 Styling Tips to Elevate Your Professional Presence from ward...

Everyone deserves to have self-confidence and to believe in their own unique value. When you have that, you can ask for what you deserve and advocate for yourself in professional settings.  If you're anything like the average person - you've struggled with confidence at tone time or another. If that time is now - this episode is for you.  My guest is Gazal Amin - a Sales Consultant for t...

In this episode, I speak with my guest Jennifer Trask about how hustle culture affects women and three steps we can take NOW to get out of it.  I'll be honest, I struggle with this one. It can be hard to set time boundaries around work for me. Sometimes I get an idea and I just want to run with it, even if that means working late. But in this episode - we get some tangible tips for setting bo...

In this week's episode, I'm joined by the lovely Joyel Crawford. Joyel is a leadership consultant and the author of the best selling book “Show Your Ask”. On our IG Live, Joyel shared her proven 4-step framework for advocating for yourself and it's SO good!  I have to say, she also has the best energy - that magnetic presence and the ability to tell compelling stories - she's d...

We all know that interviews start with some variation of, "tell me about yourself..." or "give us an overview of your career..." This is NOT a throwaway question - in fact, it is a HUGE opportunity to make a meaningful connection and differentiate yourself from other candidates.  In this episode (recorded in my IG Live on August 6th), I share what NOT to do along with three tip...

Hello friend! It's been awhile and I have an update on the future of Turning Point in this episode.  A huge thank you to all of you who have been with me for the past three years of Turning Point interviews. The content will be shifting a bit going forward but we're still going to be here. You'll see a mix of traditional Turning Point episodes and some recordings from my weekly IG L...

Dondréa Erauw is an award-winning Music Supervisor who worked on shows including Degrassi and Netflix’s Spinning Out. After 10 years in that industry, she left after experiencing severe burnout. After taking some time for herself, Dondréa knew that she had to follow her heart and get back to her first love - making music. She currently licenses music in the live sports broadcasting space across th...

Mamta Chail is a results driven mental health advocate and the President/CEO of Youthdale Treatment Centres. Mamta’s biggest turning point happened after she gave birth to her daughter. She experienced severe postpartum anxiety and she details the impact of this experience including the cultural stigma she faced.  Mamta also shares her experience immigrating to Canada at the age of eleven and how...

Based out of Brampton via Toronto, Haviah Mighty is a songwriter, vocalist, producer, and performer. Her music is complex and unique  with rap, song, and instrumentals transitioning seamlessly from hip-hop to soul to Afrobeats.    Haviah's biggest turning point happened in 2016 when she was part of a rap cypher that went viral. That moment gave her the confidence she needed to pour all of her...

In 2018, Mike Shoreman was thriving. He had a successful paddle boarding business in Toronto and he had just returned from a trip to California full of new ideas for excursions he could add to his business offerings.  Everything changed when Mike's chicken pox virus was reactivated and he ended up with Ramsay Hunt syndrome. This neurological condition left him with shattered nerves in the rig...

Tara MacLean is a singer and songwriter known for her hit songs, “ Evidence ” and “ If I Fall ”. She was discovered singing on a BC ferry (more on that in the episode!) and has toured with Dido, Tom Cochrane and performed at Lilith Fair. Tara recently released a new book called Song of the Sparrow where she shares her whole life story for the first time. Tara had a difficult childhood where she ex...

Emm Gryner is an award-winning singer, songwriter, actor and best-selling author. Emm sang and played keyboard in David Bowie’s band, and appears on numerous recordings with him.  In this episode, we take a trip through Emm's biggest turning points including: getting her first record deal and being dropped by her label, touring with David Bowie, becoming a mother, getting divorced and finding...

Meera Estrada is a radio host and the founder of Fusia Media, a company engaged in digital lifestyle publishing catered to South Asian Canadian Women. Her biggest turning point happened when she shared publicly that her family were part of the Dalit caste, also known as the untouchables or the lowest caste in the Hindu caste system.  Meera found out that her family was in this caste as a teenager...

Dan Shaikh is the co-founder of Speaker Slam, a speaker development agency and the organization behind North America's largest speaking competition.  When Dan was a teenager, he developed a condition known as gynecomastia  which caused him to develop breasts. He hid away behind baggy clothes and tried to fade into the background in general to avoid drawing any attention to himself.  Eventuall...

Julie Lawrence is the editor of the newly launched DEFY magazine. The publication focuses on validating the experiences women have with misogyny in the workplace and offers tips and tools from professionals for how to deal with it.  Julie’s biggest turning point was getting sober after years of drug and alcohol addiction almost took her life. Julie is raw and open about that period of her life in...

Leroy Hibbert is a speaker, workshop facilitator and community educator. He delivers messages of anti-racism, anti-bullying, and cross-cultural conflict and understanding to community and civic organizations, police services, schools and businesses. Through his work, he hopes to help people understand how to identify racism, interrupt it, and take action to create a more inclusive community.  In t...

Farah Nasser was named Global National's weekend anchor in June, 2022. Shortly before that she was co-anchor of Global Toronto's 6:00 news. Towards the end of her time at Global Toronto, Farah ended up taking a leave of absence. She spent a large part of it going to therapy and unpacking her past including the death of her son.  In this episode, Farah opens up about her mental health jou...

Bridget George is an an award-winning children’s book author and illustrator. Their debut book is a dual Language, English and Ojibwe children’s book, called “ It’s a Mitig .” In this episode, Bridget opens up about taking an unconventional path. As a teen, Bridget was experiencing mental health issues and was expelled from high school but was determined to get an education. They went back and got...

Mary Berg won Masterchef Canada Season 3 and has since written two cookbooks, hosted two cooking shows ( Mary Makes it Easy and Mary's Kitchen Crush ), and makes regular appearances on morning shows and talk shows around the country. I'm so thrilled to have her as a guest for episode 50 and the final episode of season 2. There have been many turning points in Mary's life but the big...