It’s Not A Straight Line – Détails, épisodes et analyse

On this episode of It’s Not A Straight Line, I’m joined by Clayton Peters, producer, writer, and long-time manager of his brother, global comedy icon Russell Peters. For almost 20 years, Clayton has been at the helm of Russell’s remarkable career, managing one of the longest and most successful runs in comedy, with Russell selling out venues worldwide since 2005.

Clayton’s journey into management is rooted in a promise made to his father on his deathbed when he told Clayton to take care of and always look out for his younger brother. After years of working in corporate jobs where he felt like a “square peg in a round hole,” Clayton transitioned into the comedy and entertainment space around the age of 40. From early work in international business and managing other acts alongside his brother like Joe Koy, to focusing fully on Russell’s career, Clayton’s path to manage one of comedy’s stars has been anything but a “straight line”.

In this episode, Clayton shares thrilling stories about their successes and challenges—especially navigating the pandemic, while not spending time in person together—and the time they defied critics by filling the Air Canada Centre (now Scotiabank Arena) despite being told they’d fail. Clayton’s insights are inspiring, and his advice to “not take it personally” is a lesson anyone can apply to life and career, and one he has learned in Entertainment.

We also discuss his thoughts on what would happen if Russell ever wanted to go with another manager and the life lessons Clayton now passes on to his own son. Recorded in-person in August 2024, this conversation is full of insights, honesty, and candid moments.

Plus, don’t miss seeing Russell’s upcoming Canadian and World Tour, Relax It’s Not That Serious, which hits Toronto this December 2024. For tour information, head to https://www.russellpeters.com/

On Episode 46 of the It’s Not A Straight Line podcast, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Hugh Lawson, a business development expert, Vanier Cup football champion, and leadership advisor. As the Principal at Lawson Leadership Advisory, Hugh is a purpose-driven, people-centric leader who embodies the principles of Ikigai—finding the intersection of what the world needs, what you love, what you're good at, and what you can get paid to do.

During our conversation, Hugh shares his journey towards living a life of purpose, emphasizing the importance of making a positive impact while also earning a living. We delve into his experience as a University football player at Laurier, where he won the Vanier Cup, and how his successes have always been achieved through teamwork. We also explore his involvement in socially impactful companies like the grocery buying platform, Tre’dish, and how African proverbs have shaped his leadership philosophy.



With over 25 years of experience in business development, enterprise sales, and leadership, Hugh’s insights on resilience, relationship-building, and teamwork are invaluable. Join us as we discuss his pursuit of Ikigai, the wisdom he’s gained from his career, and his commitment to creating positive change in the world.

In this episode, Kevin Craig shares his remarkable journey across continents, careers, and personal transformations. Kevin's life has been anything but a straight line. From growing up in the UK and Muscat to establishing a call centre in Delhi, India to venturing into a scuba diving business, to building a thriving coaching business in Bahrain, and much more in between.

Kevin is a Master Certified Coach and a Professionally Certified Kinesiopractic. His engaging personality, combined with his cheekiness and unwavering courage, enables him to challenge his clients with tough love and guide them toward their highest potential. He is an Executive Coach to esteemed clients ranging from Government Entities and Royal Family Members to Senior Business Leaders throughout the Gulf in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council).

In a candid moment, Kevin reveals two major challenges he faced, including being caught up in a fraudulent investment scheme, where a shadow trading scam left him in immense debt. He recalls calling on a group of people in his network each morning by 9 am for nine months to get him through this incredibly challenging time. He also recounts a near-death experience resulting from being in a car accident, which propelled him onto a profound spiritual path. These personal trials have shaped his purpose, driving him to focus on his two purposes.

His external purpose is to raise the consciousness of leadership and his internal purpose is to hand his soul back in its best possible condition.

Kevin's company has received multiple consecutive awards for "Best Executive Coaching Company - Middle East," while he himself was recently honoured as one of the "Best 100 Global Coaching Leaders" by CHRO Asia.

Tune in to this thought-provoking episode as Kevin Craig shares his extraordinary life experiences, profound wisdom, and invaluable lessons on conscious leadership.

On this episode of "It's Not A Straight Line," we are joined by Lauren Ammon, a former athlete turned mental performance coach. Lauren's journey in sports began at the young age of five when she was "thrown" into the pool with her older sisters and swam her first race. She went on to achieve remarkable successes, including winning a U.S. High School Championship, a top three finish in the Mid-American Conference, and swimming at the Division 1 NCAA Level while also serving as the Captain of the Swim Team at Eastern Michigan from 2003-2004.

As Lauren touched the wall for the final time in her last race in the NCAA, she realized that her 17-year athletic career had come to an abrupt end. She went on to complete a Master's degree at the University of Cincinnati and worked for over a decade in Human Resources, but she felt that something was missing. In 2019, Lauren received her professional coaching certification and founded her own practice called Performance Reimagined.

In this episode, Lauren shares with us how her coaching focus changed after a pivotal moment during the 2020 Olympics (which took place in 2021). She recalls watching as Simone Biles pulled out of competition, noticing the expression on Katie Ledecky's face during her gold medal win, and listening to Michael Phelps, the world's greatest swimmer of all time, speak about mental health and the need for athletes to have someone to listen to them. It was at that moment that Lauren knew she was being called to help athletes master the mental part of the game and perform at the highest level in all aspects of life's competition.

Join us as Lauren Ammon shares her inspiring story and insights on mental performance coaching for athletes of all ages and levels.

Learn more about Lauren Ammon and her coaching practice, Performance Reimagined, at https://www.performancereimagined.com/

Follow Lauren on Instagram: @mrslaurenammon and @performance_reimagined_

Lauren's LinkedIn profile

What stood out about Eric's story - aside from his tenures at entertainment powerhouses like Cirque du Soleil and Just For Laughs - was the lessons he learned from the record label (Grenadine Records) that he started in University and ran for six years. If he could go back in time, he said he wouldn't have been so strict with what the record label had to be. They were "after" two sounds, and it restricted their progress. In the early days, Sam Roberts Band's manager came to them, and even though they loved the songs that would eventually be on Sam Roberts' first EP, they decided to pass on it. It didn't fit what they were trying to create. How often do we try to make things fit with who we think we should be? And who we think we should be is many times influenced by others and not ourselves.

Another key part of the conversation was Eric leaving Quebec to move to Vancouver for family reasons. He knew three people in Vancouver, was leaving a dream job and didn't know how his skillset would fit into Vancouver. He was even told that Vancouver is a "production town", not a content sales and distribution "town", and there are no jobs for you here. But Eric persevered and has gone on to launch "And Now Global", the Global VID Podcast and helps his hometown BIA program and facilitate the White Rock 5 Corners Buskers & Comedy Festival.

Eric is the founder of Greater Vancouver's international TV/Digital distribution & development consulting company "And Now Global" and brings over 15 years of content sales experience with major brands Just For Laughs and Cirque du Soleil, where his primary focus has been on Foreign TV & VOD sales (over 4000 TV hours licensed in over 100 countries).

Eric's LinkedIn profile

AndNowGlobal.com

What amazed me about Andrew Case's story was how his entrepreneurial journey unfolded. After two years in Sales at Xerox, Andrew and his colleague from Xerox took the sales skills and training they learned and launched a sales consulting company.

They focused on going to small and medium-sized businesses and would offer sales training based on their Xerox sales training. Andrew and his partner would ask for a reasonable rate of pay (less than many of their competitors) and a percentage of the sales lift. When they would visit their clients six months later, they would find out that some of the businesses did not experience the increase in revenue that they initially expected.

They realized to be successful, they needed a way to assess the people on the sales team to make sure the right people were in the right roles. Even with excellent sales training, some people were not meant to be in those types of roles. This led Andrew to meet Dr. Herb Greenberg, learning about the Caliper profile and a long and successful career in talent assessment.

Andrew Case is the Country Manager of Talogy Canada, previously Caliper. The business has a Caliper Profile, which delivers critical insights to leaders and managers to put the right people in the right place at the right time. It is about assessing employees, leaders, athletes and personalities to find out how their strengths will fit into a new role, venture, spot on a professional sports team, etc.

Kevin Rempel made a major shift at the end of 2022. He sold his beloved business, the Sledge Hockey Experience, shifted his speaking business, started to build new training programs, and moved from Canada to the Dominican Republic.

What strikes me about Kevin is his mindset and his ability to say "yes" to things that will improve his life. When speaking with his sister about how good he felt on vacation in the Dominican Republic, he said - I wish I could live here all the time. Her response was -  well, why don't you? And that's when Kevin thought - well, what's stopping me?! 

Our discussion ranges from Kevin "letting go" of the Sledge Hockey Experience,  the challenges of moving to a new country, and his mindset as he faced setbacks.

Kevin is a 2014 Paralympic Bronze Medalist, a speaker, an expert on mental health, and an entrepreneur.  

Kevin Rempel on LinkedIn
KevinRempel.com

Andrea Shaw is the owner and founder of TTG Canada, one of Canada's leading sponsorship and marketing agencies. She started TTG (formerly TwentyTen Group) around her kitchen table after working as the Senior Vice-President Sponsorship, Sales, and Marketing at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games. 

What strikes me about Andrea is her passion for partnerships, sports marketing and her ability to stay true to her heart's desire. 

Andrea was diagnosed with colon cancer shortly after launching her second business, and she had to decide whether to wind down the operations or keep going. She chose to push forward, and since day 1 of her career, Andrea has decided to challenge herself and face adversity head-on.

Our discussion ranges from her early career to the Olympic Games, a tragedy in the early days of the Games, uniting a Country, and bringing her learnings from the Olympics to the Canadian sponsorship industry.

Andrea Shaw LinkedIn Profile
TTGCanada.com

Chris Coulter co-led a successful business that went bankrupt after 18 years, he tragically lost his 14-year-old daughter to mental health, and he is the Executive Director of "How Are You Feeling?" and Owner of the Finish Line Group. 

Chris' life mission is to scale "How Are You Feeling?" to get it into as many schools as possible. He knows the importance of kids being able to understand their mental health, and his organization uses TV shows and movies that kids will relate to for educational purposes. 

Sumerlee Office Solutions reached $35 million in revenue before the financial crisis of 2008/2009, which was the catalyst that forced him and his partner to declare bankruptcy. From $2 million in revenue to $35 million, to winding down its operations.   

Closer to the end of the episode, I asked Chris an important question and he kindly answered. How do we approach someone who has just lost a close friend, daughter, son, father, mother or sibling to mental health? 

Chris Coulter on LinkedIn
HowAreYouFeeling.org

After close to ten years working at marketing agencies, John Sime decided he wanted something new. Him and one of Canada's leading ad agencies "broke up" only a month before the global pandemic, he was in for a lengthy job search during a time that challenged all of us.

John wanted to break into another industry and he stayed true to that desire, ignoring the external "noise." Many people asked him - why don't you just go back to being an Account Director at an agency. You're good at it they said. 

John admitted that at one point, you start thinking you might be wrong thinking you can break into a new industry. It's kind of like you saying the "sky is green" and everyone saying "no John, it's blue."

He is now at Shopify Capital, a division of Shopify - one of Canada's most valuable businesses. 

We discuss why three years later, John wanted a mulligan on the podcast. Why he felt "guarded" when answering my questions the first time around? He commented - "what scares me the most is talking about myself... the last two years have been pretty humbling and turbulent. 

John on LinkedIn