The Unknown Path

Jem Fuller

The Unknown Path is about the quiet grit behind “overnight” success. Each week I sit down with founders, entrepreneurs, artists and change-makers to mine the moments that shaped them—doubts, detours, decisions, and the choice that changed everything. Come for the wins; stay for the wisdom. Build a fulfilled life that actually feels like you.

  1. 2d ago

    On Love, Loss and Becoming: The Story of Hilary DeCesare

    "The past is not something we want to ignore, there's so much wisdom there." In this episode of The Unknown Path, Jem Fuller sits down with Hilary DeCesare — founder of The ReLaunch, award-winning coach, three-time international bestselling author and host of the podcast ReLaunch to a Rich Life. Hilary spent almost ten years at Oracle in Silicon Valley before she left at the height of her career and moved into entrepreneurship. Her 3HQ™ framework brings together neuroscience, intuition and small practical steps, and she has been featured on ABC's Secret Millionaire and in Forbes and USA Today. By her own count she has been through 27 significant relaunches, and her work in 2026 is helping people build a solid foundation for their own. This week's conversation goes back to the roots. We discover where Hilary's optimism came from, and it wasn’t from an easy childhood. A child of divorce where her family moved through 11 homes, to the unspoken grief following her grandparents sudden death, Hilary never felt like she belonged with either parent and had to navigate loss of stability in her home life. But in between it all, Hilary recalls the importance of love and gratitude modelled by her mother and hope that lived within the moments of confusion that’s ultimately shaped who she is today. In this episode, we get into why Hilary tells people who think they are having a midlife crisis are actually having an identity shift, and why she believes that matters more now than at any point in history. She shares the three beliefs she calls the queen bees of our belief system, "I'm not good enough, I'm not loved, and I'm not safe," and how they sat underneath her own sense of not belonging. She takes us to the narrow twin bed at her mum's place where she lay down in the middle of a divorce, a melanoma diagnosis and businesses that were falling apart. The kismet experiences that let her to the man who would teach her neuroscience for the next 15 years that launched the depth in her work and the deepest grief of sitting with a parent as they take their last breath. This week's conversation covers what it means to build a foundation that can take the cracks, the mother who showed her daughter exactly where to stand to see the view, and why grief is powerful and how love ultimately comes down to connection. ⸻ In this conversation we go into: — Being told as a child to be happy all the time, and the facade she carried until it almost broke her — Her mum hand painting the house for two years, finishing on the day it had to be sold, and calling it her Mount Everest — Writing "I want to meet John Assaraf" on her mum's notepad, and walking into a hotel lobby six weeks to the day later — Hearing "I'm done" in the driveway at the height of her career at Oracle — Diana Ross singing "I Will Survive", and what Hilary heard in the middle of the night months after her mum died ⸻ About Hilary DeCesare: Hilary DeCesare is the founder of The ReLaunch, an award-winning coach and a three-time international bestselling author. Her 3HQ™ framework combines neuroscience, intuition and small practical steps, and she works with people, especially women in midlife, who are stepping into their next chapter. 🌐 https://www.therelaunch.com 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hilarydecesare ▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@hilarydecesare 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hilarydecesare ⸻ About The Unknown Path: The Unknown Path is a podcast about the untold stories behind success — real conversations with extraordinary people about the parts of their journey nobody asks them about. Hosted by Jem Fuller. ⸻ Follow the show: 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jemfuller 💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jemfuller 🌱 More from Jem: https://www.jemfuller.com #TheUnknownPath #HilaryDeCesare #TheReLaunch

    On Love, Loss and Becoming: The Story of Hilary DeCesare
  2. Sep 27

    Tuning into the Heart with Barry Goldstein

    "Reconnecting to that 14-year-old kid who has nothing figured out except that he knows what he loves." In this episode of The Unknown Path, Jem Fuller sits down with Barry Goldstein — Grammy Award-winning composer, producer, and author of The Secret Language of the Heart. As a kid in Queens he was fascinated by the way a note kept hanging in the air after it's played. That curiosity lead him to becoming a New York producer, and later composing music for some of the most recognised teachers in healing and consciousness. Across more than thirty years, Barry has been exploring what music can do for the people who listen to it. He won a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental in 2005 on a track with Les Paul. He has collaborated with Dr Joe Dispenza, Dr Daniel Amen, Dave Asprey and Neale Donald Walsch, and his work has reached millions of people around the world. Chances are you too have been touched by the incredible creative work of Barry. This week's conversation explores the untold events of Barry's story. How did he get to where he is? What was his drive? What was the promise that has shaped his whole life and then career? In this episode, we get into what happened when Barry stopped trying to compose and let himself decompose instead. He set his metronome to sixty beats per minute, the rhythm of a relaxed heart. Then he began making music no one was ever supposed to hear, as an experiment to heal himself, and those recordings led to the collaborations that followed. He talks about letting go of the starving artist story handed down from father to son, and about the moment he realised he couldn't keep serving two masters. He also describes years of inviting God into every piece he played before realising that the one who needed inviting into his music was himself and why music is just as important as the food we eat. This week's conversation covers what it means to create from healing rather than pressure, the promise that carried a fourteen-year-old through a lifetime in music, and why each of us gets to be the DJ of our own life. ⸻ In this conversation we go into: — The Gibson Les Paul his dad couldn't afford, and the promise he made outside the shop to get it — Playing the blues with Les Paul at the Iridium, gripping a borrowed guitar so his pants wouldn't fall down — Setting a metronome to sixty beats per minute and allowing himself to "decompose" instead of compose — Letting go of the starving artist belief passed down from father to son — Treating music like breakfast, lunch and dinner, and becoming the DJ of your own life ⸻ About Barry Goldstein: Barry Goldstein is a Grammy Award-winning composer, producer and sound expert whose work sits at the intersection of music and healing. His music is used in hospitals, hospices and medical practices, and he brings his Acousticeuticals™ work into corporate workshops and healthcare settings. He has collaborated with Dr Joe Dispenza, Dr Daniel Amen, Dave Asprey, Neale Donald Walsch and Les Paul, and he is the author of The Secret Language of the Heart. 🌐 https://www.barrygoldsteinmusic.com 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barrygoldsteinmusic ▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/4444oh ⸻ About The Unknown Path: The Unknown Path is a podcast about the untold stories behind success — real conversations with extraordinary people about the parts of their journey nobody asks them about. Hosted by Jem Fuller. ⸻ Follow the show: 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts 🌐 theunknownpathpodcast.com 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jemfuller 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jemfuller 🌱 More from Jem: https://www.jemfuller.com If something in this conversation lands for you, share it with someone who might need it today. #TheUnknownPath #BarryGoldstein #SoundHealing

    Tuning into the Heart with Barry Goldstein
  3. Sep 20

    On Choosing Hope: The Story of Katherine Dudtschak

    "I was living two lives inside the corporate world, and people knew it." On this episode of The Unknown Path, Jem Fuller sits down with Katherine Dudtschak — two-time CEO, author, and founder of Sincerely Inc. From nearly forty years leading inside some of Canada's largest financial institutions to founding a platform built to collect the stories she once had no space for, Katherine has spent her career learning what it costs to keep succeeding at a life that isn't fully true. She's a two-time CEO who led more than 25,000 people and steered a bank across nineteen countries back from insolvency, the author of Sincerely, Katherine, and a 2022 Catalyst Honours Award recipient for her work advancing inclusive leadership. This week's conversation explores Katherine's story and the choice that changed everything for her. She grew up on a mink farm in Canada, the child of two immigrant parents who carried decades of unspoken trauma from war before she was even born. From a young age she knew there was a truth about herself she couldn't explain, one she buried beneath thirty years of proving she was capable, driven, and unshakeable. That drive built an extraordinary career, but it also meant living two different people depending on which room she was in. Only years later, at the height of her success, did that truth become impossible to keep suppressing any longer. In this episode, we get into what it actually means to choose truth when the cost of it feels unbearable. Katherine talks about the lunch where she first said the word "transgender" out loud, the anxiety that followed, and the night she chose hope over everything else. It's a lesson she ties to something bigger than her own story: that vulnerability from the top of an organisation can give everyone underneath permission to stop pretending too. We also get into what happened after the announcement, the seven-minute video that reached eighty thousand colleagues, and what she's building now out of everything it cost her and everything it gave back. This week's conversation covers what it means to lead from truth rather than performance, the choice between hope and despair, and why one person's honesty can open space for so many others. ⸻ In this conversation we go into: — Growing up on a Canadian mink farm as the child of immigrant parents who carried their own hidden trauma — The leadership review that named her "feminine" attributes, and the night that cracked open — The lunch where she told her wife she believed she was "wired female on the inside" — The seven-minute coming-out video that reached 80,000 colleagues, and what came back to her afterward — Why she named her company and forthcoming show Sincerely, and what the word means to her ⸻ About Katherine Dudtschak: Katherine Dudtschak is the founder of Sincerely, a storytelling and research platform built to collect human journeys of transformation, hope and purpose, with The Sincerely Show launching alongside it. Before that, she spent nearly forty years in global finance, including two CEO roles leading more than 25,000 people across three continents. She is the author of Sincerely, Katherine, and you can find her at sincerelyinc.com. 🌐 https://www.sincerelyinc.com 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kdudtschak 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-dudtschak-icd-d-7673a036 ▶️ YouTube: @Sincerelyinc ⸻ About The Unknown Path: The Unknown Path is a podcast about the untold stories behind success — real conversations with extraordinary people about the parts of their journey nobody asks them about. Hosted by Jem Fuller. ⸻ Follow the show: 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts 🌐 theunknownpathpodcast.com 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jemfuller 💼 LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jemfuller 🌱 More from Jem: https://jemfuller.com If something in this conversation lands for you, share it with someone who might need it today. #TheUnknownPath #KatherineDudtschak #Leadership

    On Choosing Hope: The Story of Katherine Dudtschak
  4. Sep 13

    From Fire to Stillness: The Journey of Dr Shamini Jain

    "What if I stand still for a moment and allow that fire to completely move through me to illuminate the path?" In this episode of The Unknown Path, Jem Fuller sits down with Dr. Shamini Jain — scientist, Clinical psychologist, author, and founder of the Consciousness and Healing Initiative. From studying neuroscience at Columbia in the early nineties to Clinical work, to researching consciousness, healing and the biofield inside institutions built to dismiss them, Dr. Shamini Jain has spent three decades bridging rigorous science with ancient wisdom. Her work spans wide impacting thousands of people to live more fully, to heal and to understand whats possible. She's a clinical psychologist, the founder of the Consciousness and Healing Initiative, an adjunct professor at UC San Diego, and the author of the award-winning book Healing Ourselves: Biofield Science and the Future of Health, with research and teaching featured in TIME, CNN and GAIA. But as you know, this podcast is about the human journey underneath the incredible success. This week’s conversation explores Shamini’s story and the wisdom she’s learnt along the way. Shamini's parents were the first Indian family in Greer, South Carolina, arriving from Punjab more than sixty years ago and building a life there from nothing. Growing up, she inherited two very different temperaments from that household: the reserved discipline of her family's Jain tradition, and the fire and joy of their Punjabi side. That same fire is what's driven her ever since, first into a research career built on questions the scientific establishment wouldn't touch, and eventually into a nonprofit she never set out to start, one instinct leading to the next until she found herself running something far bigger than she'd planned. Only recently has she started learning how to soften that fire into stillness. In this episode, we get into what it actually means to stop being the one who drives everything forward. Shamini talks about the biggest lesson she's had to learn this year: that leadership can look like stillness rather than force, and that stepping back from holding, fighting for, and intending an outcome is what actually lets other people step into their own light. It's a shift she ties to something bigger than her own habits this year, the discipline of honouring the elders and lineages who did the hard work long before her, both in her own family and in the scientific field she's spent her career trying to legitimise. We also talk about what it costs to keep driving forward when driving forward is all you've ever known, and what she's finding on the other side of finally letting go. This week's conversation covers what it means to lead without controlling the outcome, the fire she inherited and the stillness she's learning to meet it with, and why honouring what came before her matters more than being first. ⸻ In this conversation we go into: — The biggest leadership lesson of her year: learning to lead by standing still — The scientists who took biofield and consciousness research seriously before there was a field to belong to — The album she wrote and released on her fiftieth birthday — The moment men in her life stepped into their "divine masculine" during the Epstein fallout, and what that support meant to her — Why she calls it joy, not courage, that keeps her doing this work ⸻ About Dr. Shamini Jain: Dr. Shamini Jain is a clinical psychologist, scientist, singer, and social profit leader, and the founder of the Consciousness and Healing Initiative (CHI), a collaborative accelerator advancing the science and practice of healing. She's an adjunct professor at UC San Diego's Department of Family Medicine and the author of the two-time award-winning book Healing Ourselves: Biofield Science and the Future of Health. Her research and teaching have been featured in TIME, CNN, and GAIA, alongside two TEDx talks and a string of documentaries. Follow Shamini: 🌐 https://www.shaminijain.com 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drshaminijain 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaminijain ⸻ About The Unknown Path: The Unknown Path is a podcast about the untold stories behind success — real conversations with extraordinary people about the parts of their journey nobody asks them about. Hosted by Jem Fuller. ⸻ Follow the show: 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts 🌐 theunknownpathpodcast.com 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jemfuller 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jemfuller 🌱 More from Jem: https://www.jemfuller.com If something in this conversation lands for you, share it with someone who might need it today. #TheUnknownPath #ShaminiJain #ConsciousnessAndHealingInitiative

    From Fire to Stillness: The Journey of Dr Shamini Jain
  5. Sep 6

    The Man they Call Trustworthy: The Story of Kevin Thompson

    “There's not a single person on the face of this earth that gets too much appreciation” In this episode of The Unknown Path, Jem Fuller sits down with Kevin Thompson — host of the Million Dollar Relationships podcast, and the man a lot of entrepreneurs call before they call anyone else. He works exclusively with founders and decision-makers running businesses anywhere from half a million to $750 million dollars, and his job, as he puts it, is being a conduit of trust: making the kind of introduction that turns into a five, six or seven figure collaboration. For close to three decades, that's meant building a career on relationships instead of pitch decks. But long before any of that, Kevin was sixteen and had just lost his father to cancer, trying to find his footing in a town where he didn't feel like he fit. By 2019, the very business he'd built on connecting people had grown into something he could no longer sustain, bringing him to a breaking point that later catapulted into something even more meaningful. In this episode, we explore the cost of continuously proving your worth to people to be seen, and how to turn that into an unstoppable power. Kevin shares his experiences in trying to prove himself, where ignoring the inner questions that surfaced every time he didn't feel worthy almost cost him everything. We talk about the moment someone else finally saw in him what he couldn't yet see in himself, and why he believes nobody, no matter how far they've come, ever stops needing to hear that they matter. And from someone who’s work is built on trust and connection — the wisdom in this episode is nothing short of transformational. ⸻ In this conversation we go into: — The moment his business model outgrew him, and the breaking point that forced him to rebuild it — Losing his father to cancer the year he turned sixteen, and the "sliding door" school decision that came after — The one question he runs every introduction through before he'll ever make it — The random Facebook message from a stranger in 2012 that became a fourteen-year friendship — Introducing a rock drummer to an event promoter, and watching two strangers say yes within ninety minutes ⸻ 00:00 — The line about appreciation that opens the episode 01:00 — Welcome to The Unknown Path 02:11 — Meet Kevin Thompson, the connector usually on the other side of the mic 11:05 — What "conduit of trust" actually means for entrepreneurs from half a million to $750 million 19:51 — The model that grew to 25 clients and nearly broke him 24:48 — Getting out of his own head, and off the pedestal 27:51 — The one question he asks before making any introduction 34:20 — The mentor who first called him "the best connector he knew" 40:12 — A stranger's Facebook message that became a fourteen-year friendship 46:50 — What he wants listeners to take from all of it ⸻ About Kevin Thompson: Kevin Thompson is the founder of Impact & Legacy Collective and host of the Million Dollar Relationships podcast, where he does publicly what he does privately for his clients: connect founders whose businesses are vehicles for a bigger impact. He's spent close to three decades building the kind of trust that turns introductions into five, six and seven figure collaborations. Follow Kevin: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kevintheconnector About The Unknown Path: The Unknown Path is a podcast about the untold stories behind success — real conversations with extraordinary people about the parts of their journey nobody asks them about. Hosted by Jem Fuller. ⸻ Follow the show: 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts 🌐 theunknownpathpodcast.com 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jemfuller 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jemfuller 🌱 More from Jem: https://www.jemfuller.com If something in this conversation lands for you, share it with someone who might need it today. #TheUnknownPath #KevinThompson #MillionDollarRelationships

    The Man they Call Trustworthy: The Story of Kevin Thompson
  6. Aug 30

    When Terrible Becomes Amazing with Karen Dillon

    “The single biggest determinant of long-term happiness are the personal relationships in our life, not anything else.” In this episode of The Unknown Path, Jem Fuller sits down with Karen Dillon, former editor of the Harvard Business Review and co-author of the New York Times bestseller How Will You Measure Your Life. For years Karen built her career the way most of us are taught to: heads down, career first, certain the meaning would show up later once she'd cleared the next milestone. Then a routine assignment turned into an afternoon in the office of legendary Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, and what was meant to be a quick interview became years of collaboration, a bestselling book, and the moment she started questioning what she was actually building toward. In her mid-forties, at the peak of her career, she and her husband sold their house and moved their family into a tiny flat in London with no car, and rebuilt a life around what actually mattered to them. This conversation is about the questions most of us don't ask ourselves until it's almost too late, like what we're actually building our life around, and whether the thing we're chasing today will still matter to us in ten years. We talk about why resilience is a skill anyone can build regardless of how they were raised, why she believes AI should sharpen our judgement rather than replace it, and why permission to change direction is something we already have, whether we use it or not. It's a reminder that the journey matters more than wherever we think we're heading, and that it's never too late to choose differently. If you've ever wondered whether you're allowed to want something different for your life, this one's for you. ⸻ In this conversation we go into: — The cold call to a stranger that put her across the desk from Clayton Christensen — Why she believes AI should sharpen our judgement and experience, not replace them — Writing a bestselling book with a co-author who had lost his ability to speak and write after a stroke, and the strange sense she had of finding his voice through her own hands — The hardest year of her career, working for a boss once ranked below cleaning New York's public toilets on a list of the city's worst jobs — Selling the house and moving her family into a tiny London flat with no car, in the middle of her most successful career years About Karen Dillon: Karen Dillon is an award-winning author and the former editor of the Harvard Business Review. She co-authored the New York Times bestseller How Will You Measure Your Life with Clayton Christensen and James Allworth, and now works as editorial director at Banyan Global Family Business Advisors and as a senior fellow at the Christensen Institute. Follow Karen: 🌐 https://www.karendillon.net 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-dillon-author/ ⸻ About The Unknown Path: The Unknown Path is a podcast about the untold stories behind success — real conversations with extraordinary people about the parts of their journey nobody asks them about. Hosted by Jem Fuller. ⸻ Follow the show: 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts 🌐 theunknownpathpodcast.com 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jemfuller 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jemfuller 🌱 More from Jem: https://www.jemfuller.com If something in this conversation lands for you, share it with someone who might need it today. #TheUnknownPath #KarenDillon #HowWillYouMeasureYourLife

    When Terrible Becomes Amazing with Karen Dillon
  7. Aug 23

    Find Peace First with Tom Cronin

    "Peace is what happens when we move the noise. We clear the clutter. We stop the motion." In this episode of The Unknown Path, Jem Fuller sits down with the one and only Tom Cronin — former money broker turned meditation teacher, film producer, and founder of the Stillness Project, an organisation that's introduced meditation to thousands of people around the world. For nearly three decades, Tom's work has centred on the idea that the anxiety, panic and unrest most of us carry isn't just ours to begin with — it's inherited, encoded, and passed down long before we ever get a say in it. He's taught meditation inside boardrooms at Amazon, Coca-Cola and Harvard Business School, and now runs retreats across four countries a year, but his work started on the floor of his own home, in the middle of a nervous breakdown he didn't see coming. In this conversation, we go beyond the retreats and the resonance charts into the story you likely haven't heard. It’s a journey that starts on the trading room floor in the eighties that ran alongside the Wolf of Wall Street years, through the health collapse that landed him in an ambulance thinking he was dying, and the two-minute documentary clip of a man meditating in a pinstripe suit that changed the entire direction of his life. This episode explores the beliefs that gets passed down through generations, directly impacting how we navigate the world and how Meditation can help us to live the life of peace and freedom many of us desire. You’'ll hear about the film Tom poured years into that never quite became what he wanted it to be, and the moment he got shouted down in a San Francisco cinema for saying AI might have something to teach an enlightened mind. If you've ever felt like the world's noise is louder than your own, this episode will offer you a perspective and medicine you may not have known you needed. This week's conversation covers a story of collapse and reconstruction, the inheritance we don't get to choose, and what it actually costs to build a life around stillness in a world that won't sit still. ⸻ In this conversation we go into: — Nine years on a trading room floor, and the night his body gave out on the kitchen floor — A documentary of a man meditating in a suit, and the Yellow Pages ad that started everything — Why a broken leg heals in a cast, and what that reveals about the nervous system's need for rest — The anxiety he says was never fully his — and what the "long body" means for what we inherit — Making the film The Portal, and the vision that got lost somewhere in the edit — Getting shouted down in San Francisco for putting AI next to enlightenment About Tom: Tom Cronin is the founder of the Stillness Project and a Vedic meditation teacher, retreat facilitator and film producer who has introduced meditation to people around the world through corporate training, his Zen Academy mentoring program, and retreats across Australia, Bali, New Zealand and the UK. He spent sixteen years as a broker on a trading room floor before a breakdown in 1996 led him to meditation, and he later produced the documentary The Portal. Follow Tom: 🌐 https://www.tomcronin.com 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tomcronin ⸻ About The Unknown Path: The Unknown Path is a podcast about the untold stories behind success — real conversations with extraordinary people about the parts of their journey nobody asks them about. Hosted by Jem Fuller. ⸻ Follow the show: 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts 🌐 theunknownpathpodcast.com 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jemfuller 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jemfuller 🌱 More from Jem: https://www.jemfuller.com If something in this conversation lands for you, share it with someone who might need it today. #TheUnknownPath #TomCronin #StillnessProject #VedicMeditation

    Find Peace First with Tom Cronin
  8. Aug 17

    When Success no Longer Feels Like Success - Alena Uzhnyeva's Story

    "You can't connect to your spirit through your mind. It's only through the heart, because the heart is the portal to the quantum, to the universe, to the higher self." In this episode of The Unknown Path, Jem Fuller sits down with Alena Uzhnyeva — entrepreneur, founder of the I Am Creation Retreats and Summits, and a woman who's built two entirely different lives on two different continents. Known as the "fish queen" of Ukraine and Estonia's seafood trade, Alena started at twenty, sending emails for her uncle's small import company because nobody else on the team spoke English. Ten years later she was running purchasing negotiations worth millions and leading a team, before she left it all to build her own trading business from Estonia — now turning over twenty million euros a year with a team of seventeen. Then, six and a half years ago she landed in Bali for a holiday with her two-year-old son and she never left. But what sits underneath that success isn't a straightforward story of rewarded ambition. It's a story about a body that had to break down before a life of alignment and fulfilment could be fully rebuilt. Alena grew up in a military household in small-town Ukraine, where achievement was an instruction — be first, be the best, don't ask questions. The messaging and childhood carried her into success in the corporate world where she out-worked everyone around her, until insomnia, gut issues and failing eyesight became her everyday reality. In hopes of finding a reset to keep moving forward, Alena attended a three-day retreat that cracked her wide open and led her to returning back into her office to resign with no plan moving forward. This week's conversation moves through what came after that leap — a new business built from nothing while raising her son alone, a fifteen-year silence with her father that she chose to end, a relationship that finally didn't repeat the old pattern, and the slightly chaotic decision to run Bali's first fully legal international summit with three months' notice and forty speakers flying in from around the world. It's a conversation about the difference between chasing significance and building a life you can actually feel present in, and about what happens when you finally stop treating your intuition as something to override and go all in. Alena’s story is one of inspiration that redefines success beyond the numbers, money and burnout. ⸻ In this conversation we go into: — The three-day retreat in Kyiv that ended a ten-year career in one weekend — Building a twenty-million-euro seafood business from Estonia while living in Bali — The message that reconnected her with her father after fifteen years of silence — Turning an idea into Bali's first legally licensed international summit, with forty speakers and 750 people, in three months — Why she makes major business decisions in seconds now, instead of hours of meetings About Alena Uzhnyeva: Alena is the founder of the I Am Creation Retreats and Summits in Bali, bringing together international speakers and hundreds of attendees each year for conscious gatherings and heart-led leadership work. She spent ten years building one of Ukraine's largest fish export companies before leaving corporate life after a single retreat, and now runs both the seafood trading business she built from Estonia and her growing summit and retreat brand from her home in Bali. Follow Alena: 🌐 https://www.iamcreationretreat.com 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/padmini.devi_ 🌍 We Are Creation Community: https://www.wearecreation.world/community ⸻ About The Unknown Path: The Unknown Path is a podcast about the untold stories behind success — real conversations with extraordinary people about the parts of their journey nobody asks them about. Hosted by Jem Fuller. ⸻ Follow the show: 🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts 🌐 theunknownpathpodcast.com 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jemfuller 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jemfuller 🌱 More from Jem: https://www.jemfuller.com If something in this conversation lands for you, share it with someone who might need it today. #TheUnknownPath #AlenaUzhnyeva #IAmCreationSummit

    When Success no Longer Feels Like Success - Alena Uzhnyeva's Story

About

The Unknown Path is about the quiet grit behind “overnight” success. Each week I sit down with founders, entrepreneurs, artists and change-makers to mine the moments that shaped them—doubts, detours, decisions, and the choice that changed everything. Come for the wins; stay for the wisdom. Build a fulfilled life that actually feels like you.