Sipping on Stories

History may remember Georgia Simmerling for her as the first Canadian to compete in three different sports in three Olympic different Games. This summer will be Georgia’s fourth Olympics in Tokyo. But her success goes beyond podium finishes as a competitor in Alpine, Ski Cross and Track Cycling teams. Even her Bronze Medal finish in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio is just the tip of this virtuoso competitor who is truly greater than the sum of her accomplishments. Time and again, Georgia’s many successes demonstrate the power of what can happen if we believe in ourselves enough to overcome adversity. Georgia’s determination, sportmanship, and sheer grace of character testify to the potential that lives within each of us when we embrace life and hope. This is her story.

Manny Osborne-Paradis is a four-time Olympic Downhill Ski racer with three World Cup Championship titles. He’s famous for winning both a World Cup Downhill and World Cup Super G Race but what’s most compelling about this Canadian from British Columbia goes well beyond his fierce competitive drive and need for speed. Manny is one of those larger-than-life guys with an reputation for being one of the most affable and magnanimous competitors. His generosity of spirit and humility is admirable and refreshing, especially when it comes to motivating younger, upcoming athletes on the circuit. Manny shares a few memorable highlights from his skiing career. including what it’s like to ski the notorious and death-defying race in Kitzbuhel, Austria. It’s no wonder when Manny announced his retirement from the skiing last fall, the biggest television network in Canada - the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) - threw him a farewell party. This is his story.

What if we could end the racial warfare and name calling in America, eliminate the angry finger-pointing and dispel some of our fears with one simple step: knowing yourself? It’s that easy for Lexie Brockway Potamkin, the author of six books, including her latest, Know Yourself: Develop A More Compassionate, Stronger, and Happier You. Lexie’s deep insights speak to powerful recipes for healing and discovering our individual gifts, meaning and purpose in life. As a former Miss World USA, her light shines from the inside and comes from her experiences as a successful business leader, humanitarian, psychologist and ordained minister. It’s no surprise the Dali Lama nicknamed Lexie his “englightened daughter.” This, my friends, is her story.

The New York Times and Washington Post have called Fiona Davis’ work intricate, unpredictable, and stunning. All five of her bestselling historical fiction novels take place in storied New York landmark buildings like the Barbizon Hotel and Grand Central Station. Each wrestles with social conflicts crisscrossing the lives of women from different eras. In August 2020, Good Morning America named Fiona’s latest novel, The Lions of Fifth Avenue, GMA Book Club Pick of the Month. What readers love most about Fiona’s work is her sweeping determination to shed light on strong women who find their place in a world complicated by family secrets and legacies of untold truths. Fiona shares her writing process, what inspires her and the page-turning secrets of her success. This is her story.

Pieces of Yara Zgheib’s heart are scattered in the many places she’s lived and traveled in the world, but there’s also a steady stream of new hearts flocking to her as readers celebrate her smashing debut novel, The Girls at 17 Swann Street. It’s impossible not to fall in love with Yara and the breathtaking beauty of her writing and gut-wrenching book. The protagonist, Anna Roux, battles anorexia nervosa – an eating disorder of epidemic proportions. As a Fulbright scholar with a doctorate in International Human Security from Georgetown University, Yara is poised to become one of the most creative and compelling voices of our time. With a second book coming in 2022 and a third proposal on the way, this is Yara’s story.

What does it mean to be brave and to move away from fear, doubt and an unsatisfying life? Today’s episode is all about Margaret Davis Ghielmetti, the author of Brave(ish) – a memoir about exotic globetrotting, luxury adventures and the steady realization that Ghielmetti is extremely unhappy. The symptoms - loneliness, atheism, and addiction spiral out of control until Ghielmetti faces the pending death of her mother and the truth about what it means to be at home with herself. Forgiveness and love are at the heart this story, this interview, and this writer and performance artist whose work has appeared in the Story Moth, Second City and StoryStudio. Overcoming perfectionism is everything for Ghielmetti and this, is her story.

Paul McBlaine’s first job assignment with the Navy was a station in Morocco. Tough conditions in a specialty field provided valuable lessons for creative career building throughout a life of more than 20 career pivots. Four continents and many years later, Paul has coached hundreds of professionals into successful jobs and careers in diverse industries. This lead to Paul’s new book, Getting Hired, which offers a step-by-step HOW TO approach for building an action plan and winning a job during these challenging times. His insights, best practices and personal stories help those who are unemployed or looking to make a career change. Paul’s job-winning toolkit will get you battle-ready to face the emotional fears while helping to manage the stress as you put the right action plan in place, This is Paul’s story.

The bestselling book Beyond the Pews: Breaking with Tradition and Letting Go of Religious Lockdown shares the personal story of Jillian Maas Backman. Jillian wrote the book years after years of study and greater understanding about her unique ability to communicate with angels and see colorful auras around people. Equipped with this rare gift and the knowledge that the spiritual realm is available to us all, Jillian works with celebrity clients and everyday people helping them to make better life decisions using three pillars from her Change Already approach. Intellect, emotion and intuition are foundational to her work as a seasoned podcaster, radio host and wellness practitioner and coach. If you want a roadmap for living with greater joy and balance, Jillian may be the person you need to break free from the things locking you down and preventing you from realizing the Art of Being over the Art of Doing. This is her story.

How can we save kids from gun violence in America? Pearl Dick is the Artistic Director of PROJECT Fire, a healing arts program for victims of gunshot violence in Chicago. As the flagship healing arts program at Chicago’s Firebird Community Arts (FCA) Program in East Garfield Park, it helps kids who suffer from SELF: a fear for their safety, emotional trauma and anger, loss from injury and a limited sense of the future. Pearl is a visionary leader who offers lessons of the power that lives within each of us to change the world. She shares the compelling stories and program practices transforming lives through the arts, community, hope and reimagined futures. Opening hearts and changing minds, this is her story.

What does it take for women to be financially independent? Wealth management expert Tuula Jalasjaa shares decades of industry experience and two very exciting online platforms helping women close the gender gap around financial knowledge and wealth creation. Tuula is the founder of The Women’s Collection and Smart Money For Her, the first - a free online platform of educational and confidence-building tools. The second platform is a technology-driven website that helps women start investing with the help of financial experts. A steady diet of happiness may just be about loving yourself enough to reduce your financial stress and setting goals and safeguards to protect against life challenges like COVID. With your financial health in mind, here is Tuula Jalasjaa.

Author Elizabeth Gilbert says the universe buries strange jewels deep within us. This helps to explain in part why broadcast journalist Sheree Franklin left a successful marketing career as an entrepreneur to become an intuitive coach and meditation teacher. She’s traveled the world, gone Down Under with Oprah Winfrey, and been featured on news outlets discussing the powerful wisdom of her book, Intuition: The Hidden Asset Everyone Should Learn To Use. Sheree has lived an incredible life of leadership and discovery, mining and sharing these hidden jewels. This is her story.

Today’s changemaker is an award-winning interior designer who left a career in the financial services industry to build the life she wanted. Armed with courage, tenacity, a paint brush and a few good ideas, Felicia Gimza built a new life and the interior design company, The Expert Touch Interiors. Sip on some designer secrets and the story of how Felicia created a new life around design and new opportunities. With some great advice on how to avoid decorating disasters and bringing light into your home for the holidays, this is her story.

Micheal Lewis popularized the idea of blind spots in his bestselling book, The Blind Side. Blind spots can be anthing from a football quarterback not seeing the tackle spot, a hidden view in your rear view mirror or decisions made regardless of things unknown. Typically, we see blind spots as a deficiency, a gap in judgment where mistakes can happen. But what if we saw them as opportunities for nudging us to take chances with the possibility of silver linings? As we celebrate Thanksgiving and our many blessings, Sipping on Stories host Rose McInerney shares three blind spots in the most painful experiences of her life. Each is connected to the number 13 and every one eventually stirred her soul to happiness and transformation. To all those who have lost someone and something special, remain steadfast in hope, courage and the promise of new life.

Cristina Mittermeier is a world-class Fine Arts Photographer whose global influence extends well beyond her Mexico City roots. More than 1.5 million people recognize this award-winning Sony Artisan, National Geographic Woman of Impact and She’s Mercedes Empowered Woman. Cristina founded the International League of Photographers and co-founded of Sea Legacy to tell photographic stories that protect our oceans, Indigenous Peoples and women and girls everywhere. This love-affair and dedication to our ecosystems is inspired by her travels to over 120 countries. This is her story.

Lise Poulsen Floris is a Danish freelance writer currently based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her articles have been published internationally, most notably by ABC Australia, Global Times, Beijing KIds and Womanscape. She is a former EU worker turned writer, whose global travels have helped her to find the big story in every little story she discovers. Lise shares some of the highlights of her new lifestyle and the challenges of globetrotting and the writer’s life. This is her story.

Ching Tien grew up in Beijing in the 1960s with dreams of becoming a journalist until the Cultural Revolution changed everything. Ching’s father was jailed and her mother, a doctor, was forced to work in Gansu, one of the poorest provinces in China. For eight years, Ching labored in a factory and witnessed dire poverty alongside her mother - people living in caves with no running water or electricity. This stayed with Ching, who moved to Canada in 1983. After raising a family, Ching created Educating Girls in Rural China (EGRC), a nonprofit to help educate impoverished young women hold up half the sky. This is her amazing story.

Adriana Bertini is a brilliant fashion designer whose innovative creation of condom art hangs in over 35 museums around the world. Her collections belong to some of the greatest celebrities and designers, even though Bertini left the haute couture fashion industry three decades ago to work with impoverished youth living in the streets of San Paulo, Brazil. Many of them are LGBTQ kids that suffer violence and also the scourages of sex trafficking. Bertini educates them about sexual health and rebuilding their self-esteem through art. Her selfless and dangerous work in a COVID-ravaged city models leadership built on kindness, sacrifice and radical generosity. This is her story.

This entrepreneur helps women to feel beautiful from the inside out. Words like confident, graceful and free are favorite expressions of Aradhana, a jewelry designer from India. She has lived in Indonesia and Shanghai, where she discovered the healing power of gemstones. If we are all the sum of our experiences and the nature that lives within our hearts, ARRA by Aradhana Designs reveals the potential that lives within us if we dare to be open to building freedom, joy and a life of passion. This is Aradhana’s story.

She escaped a revolution only to build a new one. But this time, Shermin Kruse is reimagining political and structural systems of leadership that actually work. As a corporate lawyer turned strategist, Kruse is a Northwestern Law Professor, entrepreneur, writer, and TEDTalk speaker and producer. Kruse understands twenty-first century challenges like COVID and America’s civil rights protests are a call for change and empowering transformational leadership. This is her story.

Today’s changemaker is Arica Hilton, a poet, a visual artist, and a Chicago gallerist for Hilton Asmus Contemporary. She has traveled the world chasing creativity, from the peaks of the Himilayan mountains to the deep diving waters of Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Working to protect our waters from plastic pollution with art exhibits from North America to Europe, and the Middle East to Asia, Arica embodies the cosmic energy of nature with the greatest passion and universality. This is her story.

Rose water is a centuries-old elixir for wellness and beauty. Cleopatra bathed in it for glowing skin as did Hollywood’s Elizabeth Taylor. The tradition continues with Candice Crane, a mompreneur, alchemist and the CEO behind Petal Sparkling Botanical beverages. Her unique blend of healthy flavors including rose water hydrates from the inside out. Crane’s success is forged on hard work, a bold imagination and an uncompromising dedication to balancing family and career. Crane’s story reminds us anything is possible when we reach for the stars. This is her story.

Today’s changemaker is Sue Britton, a revolutionary entrepreneur and CEO of Fintech Growth Strategies (FGS). Her company is a value-based, solutions provider in the Canadian financial and technology sector. When Britton decided to invest her talent, skills and thought leadership in today’s money and tomorrow’s technology, she reframed what it means to mix innovation and a culture of kindness with excellence. As a female entrepreneur whose business was named Canada’s 2019 Top FinTech Advisory Firm of the Year, this is Sue Britton’s story.

Today’s changemaker is a fighter, a knock-down, drag ‘em, get back up, fighter. Her harrowing story as a victim of an international human trafficking ring is both a warning about online predators as well as a story about forgiveness and redemption. Lured from her homeland of Budapest, Hungary, she flew to Toronto, Canada to become a nanny. Instead, Timea Nagy would fight for her freedom and renewed meaning in life. Now the CEO of TimeasCause, an best-selling author and international activist, this is Timea’s story.

Imagine fighting a losing battle everyday as an oncologist before learning your retirement plan is funding what’s killing your patients. Meet Dr. Bronwyn King, an accidental activist and one of the most powerful, “butt-kicking” CEOs. Founder of Tobacco-free Portfolios, Dr. King is fighting for a tobacco-free world to end the annual global death-rate of 8 million who die from cancer-related illnesses. Hear how Dr. King is cutting off the blood supply and reducing human trafficking in this trillion-dollar global industry. This is her story.

Dear Happiness: I’ve been looking for you since forever. I see people suffering, huge economic and racial divides, and a world torn apart by fear, sickness and isolation. Is there a happy life? Renowned thought leader and doctor of happiness, Dr. Jay Kumar, is in. His book, The Science of the Happy Brain, will help you to understand the overwhelming struggles of our world and provide real, actionable ways to heal. Hear how the good doctor’s experience and work has made him the most popular professor on campus and a guru of happiness. This is his story.

Season One of the Sipping on Stories podcast takes you into the lives of global changemakers whose lives inspire courage and hope for a more caring, connected, empowered world. When we dig into their stories, we tap into our own emotions and experiences that help us to embrace new ideas around freedom and success. Join host Rose McInerney, a philosophy-seeking writer and purpose-driven entrepreneur, as she sips on favorite drinks in the lounge with this diverse range of special guests.