Some people wait to be seen. George Sully stopped waiting and built the thing that made his whole community impossible to ignore.
Signature Quote
"you seek that light, eventually you'll find it, and when you find it, surprise, surprise, you're better than everybody else in the daylight."
Why This Quote Matters
George spent twenty years creating brilliance while the fashion industry refused to count him. The dark did not break him. It trained him, and the light found a man who was already ready.
George Sully is a Toronto fashion designer, the founder of Black Designers of Canada, and the author of the memoir Designing in the Dark. He went from public housing in Ottawa to the Bata Shoe Museum, the Starfleet boot on Star Trek: Discovery, and a platform that counts hundreds of Black designers the industry once pretended did not exist.
In this conversation, George talks about the leap from music to fashion, the twenty years of being excellent and overlooked, and the day he put out the call and found 300 designers in a matter of weeks. He talks about systemic racism as carbon monoxide, ghost haters in Canada, and why AI might be the best thing that ever happened to designers like him.
This is a conversation about vision that refuses to wait for permission. If you are building something the world has not noticed yet, George is your proof that the dark is not the end of the story.
THIS EPISODE IS FOR YOU IF...
- You are building something excellent while the room pretends not to see you.
- You have ever been told to wait your turn, and you are done waiting.
- You want to hear how one platform can multiply hundreds of careers.
- You need proof that resilience is a skill the dark teaches, not a gift you are born with.
- You are curious what happens when the people who were overlooked stop asking and start counting.
GUEST BIO
George Sully is an Ottawa-born, Toronto-based designer, entrepreneur, and cultural advocate. He co-founded Sully Wong in 2010, built House of Hayla and Sully and Son Co., and made the Starfleet uniform boot for Star Trek: Discovery. Two of his designs live in the Bata Shoe Museum's permanent collection, one of them created with high school students.
In 2020, George founded Black Designers of Canada, an interactive index of Black designers that grew to more than 300 names in a matter of weeks. His memoir, Designing in the Dark, traces the journey from public housing in Ottawa to the heights of Canadian fashion. He holds the CAFA Changemaker Award and an honorary degree from George Brown.
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Become the Person Your Future Requires: Barbara Daoust on the Terror Barrier and the Next Chapter
Episode 727
Friday, October 30, 2026 • Duration 01:02:14
What if the next chapter of your life is not a reinvention, but a becoming? Barbara Daoust spent decades directing other people's performances, then lost the person she had built her life around, and had to stop performing herself.
Signature Quote
"It is more what your future requires. So becoming the person your future requires."
Why this quote matters: it is the thesis of the whole conversation. Barbara does not believe in going back to reinvent what you already know. She believes in creating the new identity your future is asking for, then walking toward it before you feel ready.
Barbara Daoust is a former theatre, television, and film director who spent ten years coaching celebrity children on television sets. Then her husband of 28 years died within weeks of a terminal cancer diagnosis, and four more family members followed in under two years. She went looking for a way to heal, and what she found remade her completely.
In this conversation, Barbara shares the Terror Barrier, the fear, doubt, and worry that crash in the moment you commit to a dream bigger than your experience. She explains why that fear is a survival mechanism, not a stop sign, and how to walk through it. She also shares the acting techniques she now uses with entrepreneurs and leaders: character building, scripting, and visioneering, the craft of pretending your way into the person you have not met yet.
This episode is for you if...
- You are standing at the edge of a dream that feels bigger than you
- You have been waiting to feel ready, confident, or qualified before you begin
- You know what to do and still cannot seem to do it
The Mentor You Need May Already Be in Your Life with Dave Schmit
Season 1 · Episode 726
Wednesday, October 28, 2026 • Duration 52:54
Who helped you become the person you are today, and have you ever told them? Sometimes the relationships that shape us most begin long before we recognize them as mentorship.
Signature Quote
“Dr. Brown had 4,000 students during the time he was director, but I only had one Dr. Brown.”
That distinction captures something deeply personal about mentorship. Someone may influence thousands of lives, yet the relationship they build with you can feel entirely your own.
What if finding a mentor begins with noticing the people already around you?
In this episode of The Audacious Living Podcast, Audley Stephenson sits down with Dave Schmit, author of Five Men, to explore the relationships that quietly shape our confidence, choices and direction. Drawing on his construction career, baseball coaching and longstanding connections with students, Dave shares why mentorship means more to him than giving instructions or offering advice.
A drive home after a mentor’s funeral became the starting point for Dave’s book. Our conversation follows the questions that emerged from that reflection: How do meaningful relationships take root? What keeps them alive? Could one small act of willingness open a door you cannot yet see?
THIS EPISODE IS FOR YOU IF...
• You are starting your career and wondering where to find guidance.
• You have received good advice but want a deeper, lasting connection.
• You hesitate to volunteer before you know exactly what is involved.
• You want to support someone younger without having every answer.
Your Strongest Point Is Your Equilibrium: Joseph Coco on Audacity, Work, and Calling
Season 1 · Episode 725
Monday, October 26, 2026 • Duration 49:19
Some people chase the highs of life and dread the lows. Joseph Coco says he have it backwards.
Signature Quote
"It's not about being dominant or it's not about overpowering people, but it's about doing your thing in life."
Why this quote matters: Joseph defines audacity as something quieter and braver than dominance. It is the willingness to keep doing your thing, and to touch fear and move through it, again and again.
Joseph Coco is an author and a tradesman who has spent a working life learning what strength actually looks like. In this conversation he talks about the wall of doubters he had to break through, family and friends included, and the line he borrowed to do it: lead, follow, or get out of the way. He talks about vocation as a calling, not a paycheck, and why he tells the people he works with to work for principle, not money.
The heart of the episode is an electrician's image that stops you in your tracks. A sine wave has highs and valleys, but the electricity does not live at the top or the bottom. It lives where the wave crosses the center line. Joseph calls that equilibrium, and he says that is where you are strongest. Not when you feel your best. When you are steady.
This episode is for you if...
- You have been told who you are, or what your ceiling is, and you refuse to accept it
- You are tired of chasing the highs and crashing into the lows
- You want your work to mean something deeper than a paycheck
- You are facing a wall of doubters and need the nerve to break through it
- You are looking for steadiness, not just success
About the guest:
Leave Your Bubble: Wesley Warshawer on Curiosity, Courage, and Finding Common Ground
Season 1 · Episode 724
Saturday, October 24, 2026 • Duration 55:15
What would you learn about your own country if you moved to the place you understand the least?
Signature Quote
"It's the audacity to have the guts to choose curiosity over comfort."
Why this quote matters: Wesley's whole journey runs on that one choice. Every story in this conversation, from a failed knock-knock joke to eighteen months in rural North Dakota, starts with him picking curiosity over staying comfortable.
My guest this week is Wesley Warshawer. By day he is a data analyst at a semiconductor company in Silicon Valley. By choice, he has spent years leaving his bubble on purpose: a semester in India, two years in South Korea, and five years as a digital nomad, including eighteen months in rural America starting in Bismarck, North Dakota, a place he had never been, where he knew no one.
Wesley did not go to prove a point. He went to test one. He had read the polls about his own country and realized the Silicon Valley bubble he lived in did not look anything like America. So he moved to the place he understood the least and asked a different question. Instead of asking people which candidate they supported, he asked them to paint a picture of a fair immigration policy or a fair healthcare system. What he heard changed him from a skeptic into an optimist.
This episode is for you if:
- You catch yourself judging people you have never actually met
- You feel like the country is more divided than it has to be
- You want to grow but you are tired of advice that never leaves the screen
- You are curious about what a stranger's life can teach you about your own
- You are ready to be uncomfortable at least once a week
About Wesley Warshawer
Wesley Warshawer is a data analyst in Silicon Valley who studies numbers for a living and studies people for the love of it. His years abroad and his five years as a digital nomad taught him that growth accelerates the further you get from your routine, and that the most embarrassing moments often carry the biggest lessons.
Who Needs to Hear from You Today? with Janice Porter
Season 1 · Episode 723
Sunday, October 18, 2026 • Duration 01:06:51
Someone crossed your mind today. Did you reach out, or did you talk yourself out of it?
Signature Quote
"Send the unexpected note or card. Send a card to someone when they least expect it, because it always comes at the right time."
Janice's mentor taught her this practice, and the story she tells to prove it, a thank-you card that stopped a church organist from quitting, is the beating heart of this conversation.
Janice Porter asks herself one question every morning: who needs to hear from me today? That simple practice has shaped her entire philosophy of relationships, and it might change how you think about the people in your own life.
In this conversation, Janice, host of the Relationships Rule podcast, shares her five relationship rules, from doing what you say you will do to sending the note nobody expects. She tells the story of a thank-you card that arrived on the exact day a church organist was about to quit, and why the note you almost do not send is so often the one that matters most.
This is a warm, practical conversation about turning connections into real relationships, one small courageous reach at a time.
This episode is for you if...
- You have ever thought of someone and then talked yourself out of reaching out
- You want to turn your network into genuine relationships instead of a contact list
- You believe trust is built in small moments and want a system for it
- You are curious how a simple card can change someone's whole week
Rewrite the Story Your Childhood Wrote with Rochelle Cook
Season 1 · Episode 722
Friday, October 16, 2026 • Duration 56:26
What if the reason you keep ending up in the same place has nothing to do with willpower, and everything to do with a story you learned before you were old enough to question it?
Signature Quote
"When we worry, we pray for what we don't want."
Rochelle says this about the subconscious mind, which takes our worries as instructions. It reframes anxiety not as a feeling to fight, but as a broadcast we can change.
Rochelle Cook has spent more than twenty years as a clinical hypnotherapist, working where real change happens: the subconscious mind. In this conversation she explains why willpower keeps losing, why we keep attracting the same relationships and the same struggles, and why none of it means anything is wrong with us. We simply learned a story as children, and we have been playing it out ever since. She calls it storybook syndrome.
She also brings her own story to the table. Childhood abandonment, brain surgery, a lung cancer diagnosis less than a year ago, and the long climb out of depression. She calls herself a wounded healer, and she does not speak from theory. She speaks from the chair on both sides of it.
You will hear why hypnotherapy is nothing like the stage show, where the inner critic actually comes from, and the small daily practices that interrupt old patterns: challenging the thought, writing down what disturbs your peace, and the three words she repeats to herself, I don't do that anymore.
This episode is for you if...
- You know better but keep doing the same thing anyway
- Your inner critic is loud, convincing, and exhausting
Audacity Without a System Is Just Hope with Jason Vanderground
Episode 722
Wednesday, October 14, 2026 • Duration 59:10
What if your dream is not stalling for lack of passion, but for lack of a plan?
Signature Quote
"Audacity without a system is probably just hope. And hope's great, but it's not a strategy and it's not a plan."
That line landed like a bell in the middle of this conversation, because it names the gap most of us live in. We have the vision. We have the wanting. What we do not have is the next most important action written down anywhere.
Jason Vanderground has spent thirty years closing that gap for brands and movements, including the He Gets Us campaign that reached the Super Bowl. In this conversation he walks through his DREAM framework, Define, Research, Experience, Apply, Measure, the same system he has refined across three decades, and shows why it works just as well on a personal dream as on a national campaign. He also gets honest about the detours: losing his corporate job at forty, missing a live radio interview for his own book launch, and the two words, "only forward," that pulled him out of the spiral.
This is a conversation about giving your boldest vision some scaffolding, and about the quiet kind of audacity that does not need a spotlight.
This episode is for you if...
- You have a dream you have rehearsed more than you have built
- You want a practical system for turning vision into measurable progress
- You are navigating a detour and need the pivot from "why" to "what's next"
- You believe audacity is quiet courage, not loud performance
Jason Vanderground is the president of Brand Haven, a Grand Rapids, Michigan agency, where he has spent thirty years using the principles of marketing and branding to build things that matter. His team was part of the work behind He Gets Us, the faith-based campaign that became a Super Bowl advertiser. His first book, DREAM to Reality, was published this September and lays out the framework he has refined across three decades of practice.
It Took 20 Years to Finish His Book: Paul Hlabse on Grief, Faith, and "Violent Disturbance"
Season 1 · Episode 720
Monday, October 12, 2026 • Duration 44:10
Some books take a weekend to read and twenty years to write. Paul Lapsey knows, because his sat on a shelf for eighteen of them.
Signature Quote
"Whatever you start, you have to finish it. It may not be the outcome you want, but you have to see it done."
Paul dusted off a twenty-year-old manuscript after his daughter was born, determined to show her that finishing matters more than the outcome. That decision became his debut psychological thriller, Violent Disturbance.
Paul Lapsey started writing his novel when he was a young man, put it down for eighteen years, then picked it back up two years ago after his daughter was born. He wanted her to see that whatever you start, you finish. The result is Violent Disturbance, a psychological thriller with true crime elements that asks what if, and keeps readers up at night.
In this conversation, Paul opens up about the grief that reshaped his writing, the faith that pulled him through it, and the hard question at the center of his book: what does revenge actually cost? He and Audley compare notes as two fairly new authors, including the surreal moment of holding your first finished book in your hands.
If you have ever shelved something that mattered to you, this one might be the nudge to dust it off.
This Episode Is For You If...
- You have a project sitting on a shelf that you keep meaning to finish
- You want to hear how grief and faith can shape a creative life
- You are curious what it really takes to publish your first book
From Napkin Sketch to QVC: Lisa Ascolese on Inventing the Right Way
Episode 719
Saturday, October 10, 2026 • Duration 55:02
You have an idea. Maybe you have had it for years, sketched on a napkin or sitting in a journal. The difference between you and the inventor on QVC is not talent. It is knowing the right way to move.
Signature Quote
"Do not share your information until the ink dries."
Lisa learned the hard way that an unprotected idea is a vulnerable one. This line from her book is the rule she lives by, and the one she wants every new inventor to hear first.
Lisa Ascolese, known as The Inventress, has spent decades turning everyday frustrations into products that sell. Her first invention came from being embarrassed to breastfeed in public, so she created the Bosom Buddy nursing cape. A sock she used to tie her hair into a church-ready bun became the Bun Tie, her first product on QVC. A lost pair of scissors while wrapping gifts became the Wrap and Store organizer, which sold out on QVC.
In this conversation, Lisa shares what inventing the right way actually means. Do your due diligence. Build a working prototype before you ever call a patent attorney. Do not add so much to a simple product that it can never get made. And keep your idea close until it is protected, because the naysayers will talk you out of it before it has a chance.
She also talks about the audacity it took to pick up the phone and call buyers and celebrities, including a 30-year relationship with Dionne Warwick that started with one cold call, and why she founded the Association of Women Inventors and Entrepreneurs to lift other women up. This is a practical, no-fluff conversation for anyone sitting on an idea.
This episode is for you if...
- You have an idea sketched somewhere and no clue what to do next
- You have wondered whether to patent first or prototype first
- You want to get a product onto QVC, HSN, or a store shelf
- You have been burned before and want a trustworthy guide this time
- You are rebuilding after a loss and wondering who you are now
- You suspect the gap between your life and your goals is a self-image problem, not a strategy problem
About Barbara Daoust
Barbara Daoust holds an MFA in Theatre Directing from UCLA and spent more than 25 years as a theatre, television, and film director, producer, and acting coach. She founded a theatre company in San Francisco and an acting academy in Sherman Oaks, and coached young actors on television sets for a decade, including the Olsen twins, Vanessa Hudgens, and Aaron Paul. Her work earned an award-winning production at the Kennedy Center.
After losing her husband of 28 years and several more loved ones in under two years, Barbara went on a journey of self-discovery through Spiritual Psychology, Neuroscience, and Metaphysics. She realized she had lived her whole life seeking approval outside herself and did not truly know her own worth. In 2013 she certified with Bob Proctor at the Proctor/Gallagher Institute as a "Thinking into Results" consultant, and she now helps entrepreneurs and leaders break through the Terror Barrier using the same acting techniques that built A-list careers. She is the author of True Love, True Self: A Journey to Self-Love.
Connect with Barbara
Website: https://www.barbaradaoust.com
Free Code to Success script download: https://codetosuccess.com
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• You are reflecting on the people who helped you along the way.
ABOUT DAVE SCHMIT
Dave Schmit is an Atlanta-area construction professional and the author of Five Men, a novel drawn from his own experiences of mentorship. Raised in a military family, Dave went on to study at the University of Florida and build a career in construction, while maintaining relationships with people who influenced his personal and professional life.
His experience also includes coaching high school baseball and speaking with graduating construction management students over many years. Today, he finds particular satisfaction in conversations and workshops that help young people think more clearly about themselves, their relationships and their next steps.
CONNECT WITH DAVE
https://a.co/d/0dbOxcQ8
Book: Five Men
Dave mentions that paperback and Kindle editions are available on Amazon.
READ THE BLOG ARTICLE
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Joseph Coco is the author of The Tradesman. He has spent decades in the trades, working with crews, serving customers, and learning firsthand what it takes to keep clients, keep your word, and keep going when the people closest to you think you are taking too big a risk. His story runs from a kid who was told he was bad to a man who decided that did not have to be his destiny. He joins Audley to talk about audacity, calling, and the equilibrium that holds a life together.
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Janice Porter is the host of the Relationships Rule podcast, where she has recorded nearly 400 conversations with people who believe, as she does, that it is all about relationships.
A former teacher of 14 years and longtime corporate trainer, Janice found her way back to teaching through LinkedIn, where she now helps business owners build their presence and turn connections into real relationships. She is known for her five relationship rules: be curious, do what you say you will do, add value, follow up, and send the unexpected note.
Janice lives what she teaches. Her daily practice starts with a note on her computer that reads, "Who needs to hear from me today?"
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- You keep attracting the same kind of relationship or the same kind of trouble
- You are curious about hypnotherapy but carry the stage-show stereotype
- You want practical ways to challenge the thoughts running your life
Rochelle Cook, MA, Cht, is a clinical hypnotherapist with more than twenty years of practice, specializing in trauma. She is the author of The Soul's Coach: Seven Paths to Healing Your Relationship and a co-founder of Joymind.com.
Her path into this work runs through her own life. She describes herself as a wounded healer: childhood abandonment, brain surgery twelve years ago with an eight-year recovery, and a lung cancer diagnosis less than a year ago as a non-smoker. She did, in her words, all the therapies in the world, until a friend hypnotized her and her fear of public speaking vanished. She went back to school, and she has been helping people change the perception of the subconscious mind ever since.
She joined the podcast to make the case that lasting change does not live in willpower. It lives underneath it.
Connect with Rochelle: https://joymind.com
Her book, The Soul's Coach: Seven Paths to Healing Your Relationship, is available on Amazon.
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What sets Jason apart is where he points all of that expertise. His name means healer, and he describes his life's work as healing and reconciliation, finding where things are broken and helping make them whole. He is a self-described introvert and a father of three boys who still feels the same spark he felt in his first college marketing class.
He joined the podcast to share the system behind the dream, and to make the case that audacity without one is probably just hope.
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- You love a thriller that leaves you thinking about it for weeks
About the Guest
Paul Lapsey is a first-time author and the writer of Violent Disturbance, a psychological thriller with true crime elements that explores grief, faith, and the cost of revenge. He started the book twenty years ago, shelved it for eighteen, and finished it after his daughter was born, determined to show her that whatever you start, you finish.
By day, Paul works full time as a process improvement manager in manufacturing plants, a career spanning twenty-five years. Writing has always been his true passion. He lives in Perry, Ohio, where his book is already finding its way into local stores.
Paul is nearly finished with his second novel and is planning a third, a prequel to Violent Disturbance. He joined the podcast to talk about finishing, faith, and what happens when you finally put your work into the world.
Connect with Paul
https://paullapsey.com
Violent Disturbance is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and anywhere books are sold in the United States.
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- You believe inventors should lift each other up
Lisa Ascolese is known as The Inventress, a name her publicist coined years ago and one she has since trademarked. Born in London and raised in Brooklyn by West Indian parents, she was inventing as a child, taking things apart around the house and making them work for her. Her first product, the Bosom Buddy breastfeeding cape, sold nationally and internationally, and she went on to sell multiple products on QVC, including the Bun Tie, the Wrap and Store organizer, and the Perfect Pockets organizer, which she later redesigned for HSN.
Today Lisa helps inventors go from a napkin idea all the way to the marketplace, teaching them to do it the right way with due diligence, working prototypes, and protected ideas. She is the founder of the Association of Women Inventors and Entrepreneurs, now celebrating its 13th year, and host of The Inventors Podcast. Her book is "The Inventress Guide to Inventing the Right Way: All or Nothing, Now or Never." Her mission is simple: lifting each other up two hands at a time.
🌐 Website: https://inventingatoz.com/
Her podcast, The Inventors Podcast, and her social channels are all linked from her website.
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