YouPotential

Shaun Maslyk
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YouPotential explores what it truly means to live a life well lived — through the lens of psychology, money, and meaning. Hosted by Shaun Maslyk—Certified Financial Planner®, Financial Behaviour Specialist®, and Positive Psychology Practitioner—the podcast delivers science-backed insights, candid conversations, and real stories that help people live with more intention.

  1. DDP on Discipline, Belief, and Becoming Who You Were Meant to Be

    19H AGO

    DDP on Discipline, Belief, and Becoming Who You Were Meant to Be

    Diamond Dallas Page was running one of the hottest clubs in southwest Florida when he first started calling himself Diamond Dallas Page — before anyone else did. He was doing voice impressions of wrestlers in radio commercials, managing bars in leopard skin jackets, and watching Bruce Springsteen play 18 Sundays in a row at the Stone Pony. None of it looked like a path to the WWE Hall of Fame. That's exactly the point. What emerges in this conversation is a portrait of a man who has spent his entire life operating from a simple and radical belief: if you can see it before it exists, you can build it. Not as a motivational slogan — as a daily practice. DDP describes turning down a teaching career at 24, attempting to break into wrestling in his early 30s through sheer creative persistence (including a homemade tape that got him noticed by Paul Heyman), and eventually rebuilding his body and career after a devastating back injury at 42. The conversation moves through territory most Hall of Famers don't touch. DDP talks openly about energy as a finite resource, about the cost of always being 'on,' and about why he still does what he does even though he's made more money than he'll ever spend. The answer — that helping others change their lives is the most selfish thing he does, because it fills him up — is one of the most honest things said on this show. He also talks about time. Standing under the stars in Bora Bora for his 70th birthday, watching satellites move across the sky, thinking about how brief all of this is. 'We're a blip,' he says. And yet the work continues. Because the work, for DDP, is the point. KEY TOPICS COVERED • The Jersey Shore music scene: How watching Springsteen and Bon Jovi night after night taught DDP everything about energy, commitment, and leaving it all on the stage. • Building the Diamond Dallas Page character: How a leopard skin jacket, a local TV segment, and a radio appearance to meet Captain Lou Albano became the unlikely origin of one of wrestling's most beloved personas. • Starting at 35: The homemade tape, Paul Heyman, and the AWA — and why DDP's late start made him more relentless, not less. • Belief before evidence: The philosophy that separates people who build things from people who only watch — 'I believe it because I see it' vs 'I'll believe it when I see it.' • DDP Yoga origin: Breaking his back at 42 and creating a program that now has over 500 workouts and has helped hundreds of thousands of people reclaim their mobility. • What the work gives back: Why DDP says helping others is 'selfish' — because nothing fills him up the same way. • Time, money, and energy: A rare honest accounting of how DDP thinks about his finite resources as he approaches 70 — and why time is the only one he actually guards. • The long game: Eight years of building before it became an 'overnight' sensation — and what that teaches about discipline, consistency, and commitment. MEMORABLE QUOTES "There's only one person that has to believe in you at anything and that's you." 📍 17:13 "The people who say I believe it when I see it — those people never see shit. But the people who say I believe it because I see it — those are the game changers." 📍 1:10:15 "Never underestimate the power you give someone by believing in them. More importantly, never underestimate the power you give yourself by believing in you." 📍 1:20:08 "I've never gotten off the mat and thought to myself, phew, I wish I didn't do that." 📍 1:21:35 "You can get whatever you want as long as you're willing to help people get what they want." 📍 1:16:34 "It took eight years for DDP Yoga to become an overnight sensation." 📍 1:11:12 ABOUT DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE Diamond Dallas Page spent his twenties and early thirties running some of the most successful nightclubs in New Jersey and Florida. He was a natural entertainer — a connector, a performer, a man who knew how to read a room. But there was something else he wanted, something that seemed, by any reasonable measure, impossible. He wanted to be a professional wrestler. At 35. What followed was not an overnight success story. It was eight years of creative persistence, several false starts, a broken back, and a complete reinvention — not once, but twice. DDP became a WWE Hall of Famer on his own terms. Then, at 42, he broke his back and was told it would define the rest of his life. Instead, it became the origin of DDP Yoga — a program that has since reached hundreds of thousands of people, including Jake 'The Snake' Roberts and Scott Hall, whose transformations are documented in the viral documentary 'Change or Die.' Today, approaching 70, DDP is still on the mat every morning. Still building. Still helping people get off the couch, out of wheelchairs, and back into their lives. CONNECT WITH DDP • 🌐 Website: https://www.diamonddallaspage.com/ RESOURCES MENTIONED • 'Change or Die' — documentary series featuring Jake The Snake Roberts, Scott Hall, Mick Foley • Zig Ziglar — 'You can get whatever you want as long as you're willing to help people get what they want' • Stone Pony, Asbury Park NJ — legendary venue in the Springsteen story

    1h 25m
  2. Why You Feel Poor Even When You Have Enough | Elizabeth Husserl

    6D AGO

    Why You Feel Poor Even When You Have Enough | Elizabeth Husserl

    Elizabeth Husserl grew up in New Orleans with a physician father and a therapist mother. By every measurable standard, her family had enough. But underneath the stability, there was a hum of scarcity that didn’t match the numbers — a felt sense passed down from her Austrian-Jewish grandfather who fled Europe during World War II, and a different kind of poverty carried by her Colombian mother who never quite felt she belonged in the United States. That dissonance sent Elizabeth on a 20-year journey — from studying economics at Tulane, to teaching indigenous women in Oaxaca how to build savings cooperatives, to a moment of being completely lost in a remote Mexican village where she first felt what “enough” actually feels like in the body. It wasn’t an intellectual insight. It was somatic — a shift beneath the fear, beneath the panic, into a deeper holding she didn’t know existed. That experience led her to Schumacher College in the UK, where an elder named Satish Kumar told her to go back to the root word of economics — “management of the household” — and go within. She’s been sitting with that instruction ever since. She built a career as a financial advisor, co-founded Peak 360, wrote The Power of Enough (with a foreword by Lynn Twist), and developed the Wealth Mandala — a practical tool that maps human needs far beyond the financial stability slice of the pie. This conversation is for anyone who has “enough” on paper but feels poor somewhere they can’t name. Elizabeth doesn’t offer platitudes. She offers a mirror — and a practice. Because as she puts it, you don’t go to the gym on January 1st and say you’re done for the year. Your relationship with money works the same way. KEY TOPICS COVEREDLynn Twist & The Foreword: How Elizabeth spent 20 years tracking down her mentor, joined a six-month workshop, traveled to the Amazon, and ultimately sat in Lynn’s living room on launch day to record her reading the foreword aloud.Growing Up in New Orleans: How a city that celebrates everything — crawfish fest, jazz funerals, po’boys on the porch — taught her about non-monetary wealth before she had the words for it.Oaxaca & The Reversal: Going to Mexico as the economics expert to teach indigenous women about savings cooperatives, and discovering they were richer than anyone she knew back home.The Moment of Being Lost: A walk outside a remote village that turned into a panic — and then a somatic awakening about what lies beneath scarcity when you let yourself soften.Financial DNA & Inherited Scarcity: How her grandfather’s wartime survival instinct became her father’s “no before yes” and her own complicated relationship with money as an entrepreneur.Conversations With Money: The gestalt chair exercise where you speak to money, money speaks back, and you discover whether your relational style is anger, avoidance, or grasping.The Wealth Mandala: A free tool that maps 12 human needs — not just financial stability — so you can see your actual wealth portfolio and where you feel poverty beyond money.The 30-Day Satiation Challenge: A simple nightly practice of writing three things that satisfied you, building awareness of what’s already working before trying to fix what isn’t. MEMORABLE QUOTES“I had the privilege of knowing what enoughness felt like in my body before I understood what it meant in my brain.” “Wealth and money are not the same thing. Money’s a tool. Wealth is a state of well-being.” “God damn it, money, where have you been my whole life?” “There was a sense of scarcity that had nothing to do with financial stability, but had everything to do with the need for safety. The need for belonging.” ABOUT ELIZABETH HUSSERLElizabeth Husserl is a registered investment advisor, Certified Money Coach, and co-founder of Peak360 Wealth Management — a boutique wealth planning firm built on the radical idea that wealth is a state of well-being, not a number. She holds a B.S. in Economics from Tulane University and an M.A. in East-West Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies, where she also served as an adjunct professor. She holds the Series 6, 63, and 65 licenses. Her book, The Power of Enough: Finding Joy in Your Relationship with Money, is a 20-year distillation of what she learned about scarcity, satiation, and what it actually means to feel wealthy — informed by her multi-generational story spanning Austria, Colombia, New Orleans, and the Bay Area. Lynn Twist, author of The Soul of Money, wrote the foreword. The book has been featured in Forbes, Oprah Daily, The Guardian, Yahoo Finance, and WBUR’s Here and Now. Elizabeth is a highly sought-after speaker who has presented at Wisdom 2.0 (Los Angeles and San Francisco) and led workshops at Airbnb, Unity, and Google. She brings a mandala to a spreadsheet industry. She dances Zumba every Thursday morning during work hours because she knows that’s the strategy that keeps her grounded. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, daughter, and two cats. CONNECT WITH ELIZABETH HUSSERLWebsite: https://elizabethhusserl.com/Book: The Power of Enough (also available as an audiobook read by Elizabeth)Instagram: @elizabethhusserl RESOURCES MENTIONEDThe Soul of Money by Lynn TwistSmall is Beautiful by E.F. SchumacherManfred Max Neif — Chilean economist, work on human needs and satisfiersSatish Kumar — activist, writer, and founder of Schumacher CollegeThe Wealth Mandala — free download at elizabethhusserl.comAbraham Maslow — hierarchy of human needsSophia Sisters — workshop program by Lynn TwistThe Remarkable Women’s Journey — immersive journey to the Amazon with Lynn TwistVandana Shiva — environmental activist mentioned at Schumacher College

    1h 7m
  3. Happiness Is a Practice, Not a Destination | Dr. Gillian Mandich

    MAR 19

    Happiness Is a Practice, Not a Destination | Dr. Gillian Mandich

    Most people think happiness is something you find. Dr. Gillian Mandich has spent her career showing it's something you build — one rep at a time. Dr. Mandich holds three degrees from Western University — all three hooded by her mother, who earned her own PhD while raising seven children in nine years and then went on to serve as Vice Provost and Dean of Health Sciences at Western. The image of those two women standing together in matching regalia, same institution, same arc — tells you everything about where Gillian's sense of what's possible comes from. But this conversation isn't a credentials parade. It opens with Jocko — her 41-pound French bulldog who models for Canada Pooch, refuses to walk in boots, and volunteers in crisis and critical care at CAMH every Tuesday. And through Jocko, Gillian surfaces something the research keeps confirming: that the moments we rush past are often the ones that matter most. Savoring. Weak ties. The chin rest of a dog who somehow always knows when you need him. The harder conversation is about happiness itself — and what the research actually says, which turns out to be more complicated than most people want to hear. Trying to be happy all the time makes you less happy. The struggle isn't an obstacle to a good life; it might be the mechanism. And money — which she calls 'a Trojan horse into a much bigger conversation' — is something she's personally wrestled with: the guilt of non-linear income, the story she inherited about what work is supposed to cost, the first vacation in her adult life where she didn't open her laptop for ten days. She's now integrating happiness research into CBT at the University of Manitoba's psychiatry department — arguing that well-being is more than the absence of mental illness — and writing a book she keeps rethinking, because the more she sits with it, the more she believes that telling someone how to be happy is actually disempowering. What she can do is point the compass. The rest is yours. KEY TOPICS COVERED • Jocko's two jobs and what a dog teaches a happiness researcher about slowing down • Savoring: Barbara Fredrickson's micro moments and why little things aren't small • Her mother hooding her three times at Western — and the layered meaning of that moment • Ikigai and what happens to identity when work ends • The dark side of happiness: why trying too hard backfires • Post-traumatic growth as a reframe for what struggle can do • Broaden and build: the 1998 theory that changed how we understand resilience • The morning routine trap and the grace she finally gave herself • Integrating happiness with CBT in psychiatry — and why that's still a radical idea • Her personal relationship with money: guilt, non-linear income, and the first real vacation • Happiness as a practice, not a destination — and what that reframe changes MEMORABLE QUOTES "I'm a happiness researcher and I am not happy all the time, but nor do I wish to be." 📍 00:18:03 "A happy life doesn't mean that hard things don't happen. It means that as we start to build our happiness muscle, our highs get higher." 📍 00:19:03 "It's not that the weights get lighter. You get stronger." 📍 00:19:41 "Happiness is a Trojan horse into a much bigger conversation about emotional resilience and psychological flexibility." 📍 00:44:17 "I had this constant, like, gingivitis-level guilt — that low-grade guilt about I should be doing more all the time." 📍 00:48:46 "I think I'd be like, in a committed relationship — not married yet." 📍 00:59:30 ABOUT DR. GILLIAN MANDICH Dr. Gillian Mandich is a happiness researcher, founder of the International Happiness Institute, and one of Canada's most prominent voices on the science of living well. She holds three degrees from Western University in health science — and her mother, a former Vice Provost and Dean at Western who earned her own PhD while raising seven children in nine years, hooded her at all three convocations. Gillian started her career studying childhood obesity, pivoted when she discovered happiness was a science, and spent the next decade building the case that emotional wellbeing and physical health are inseparable. She's appeared on The Social, Breakfast Television, and two TEDx stages, and is now integrating happiness research with CBT in the psychiatry department at the University of Manitoba. She lives in downtown Toronto with Jocko — a 41-pound French bulldog who volunteers in crisis and critical care at CAMH every Tuesday, models for Canada Pooch, and has his own calendar. She started at a grocery store cashier at 15. She still knows the code for bananas. It's 4011. RESOURCES MENTIONED • Barbara Fredrickson — Broaden and Build Theory (1998) • Daniel Kahneman — 'happy in your life' vs 'happy with your life' • Ikigai — Japanese concept meaning 'reason for living' • CBT Hub, University of Manitoba — free 6-week CBT course (Manitoba residents) • Melissa Leong — referenced from a previous YouPotential episode • Hawksley Workman — musician, previous YouPotential guest • Angela Duckworth — mentioned (new book referenced) • Canada Pooch — dog brand (Jocko's modeling client)

    1h 6m
  4. The Only Thing Stopping You Is You | Dr. Christian van Nieuwerburgh

    MAR 12

    The Only Thing Stopping You Is You | Dr. Christian van Nieuwerburgh

    Dr. Christian van Nieuwerburgh was born in 1971 to a Japanese mother and Belgian father in Beirut, Lebanon — in the middle of a civil war. He grew up in his mother’s Japanese restaurant, serving tables at eleven, managing the front of house as a young man. He assumed this was his life, permanently, until his mother said five words that changed everything: “You can do your own thing.” This conversation traces the invisible thread from a wartime restaurant kitchen to a PhD in Elizabethan drama to one of the world’s leading voices on coaching and positive psychology. Along the way, Christian reveals how the Japanese concept of Mizushobai (“water business”) encoded a scarcity mindset he still carries, how his mother’s insistence on a chest freezer in England told the story of a lifetime of uncertainty, and how saving five-pound notes for fifteen years became a permission ritual he didn’t know he needed. The emotional center of this episode is a single coaching question: “What’s stopping you?” When Christian’s coach asked him why he hadn’t ridden Route 66 on a Harley Davidson — a dream he’d held since age thirteen watching CHiPs in Beirut — he eliminated every excuse until only the real answer remained: he wasn’t giving himself permission. The man who teaches others to live their best life almost didn’t live his. If you’ve ever felt like you’re waiting for someone to tell you it’s okay to do the thing you’ve always wanted to do — this conversation is for you. MEMORABLE QUOTES “I grew up in a war zone. I grew up in Beirut, Lebanon, and there’d be shelling and bombing and whatever else going on. And I just loved the way that music can transport you.” 02:24 “When I’m thinking or speaking in Japanese, I think differently. I think with more humility. I think with more care about how my words are gonna land with others.” 11:42 “She said, if you want this restaurant, it’s yours. But she also said, if you want to do your own thing, you can do it. And without that conversation, I would have never done anything else.” 18:50 “I always have had this idea of we need every opportunity, I have to take it. You can’t turn down an opportunity. It affects me even today.” 35:48 “She did say, I’ve brought this with me, haven’t I? This idea of just in case, make sure you’ve got enough stuff to keep you going.” 38:36 “I wasn’t giving myself permission. The only thing stopping me.” 59:09 “Investing or looking after our own wellbeing is not an indulgence. And that’s probably why I wasn’t doing Route 66. It sounded too selfish.” 01:15:18 RESOURCES MENTIONED Mizushobai — Japanese concept: “water business” (the unpredictability of restaurant income)Moktainai — Japanese concept: “use everything, waste nothing”Joyce, B. & Showers, B. (1983) — Coaching increases implementation by ~80%CHiPs (TV series) — California Highway PatrolThe Lotus of Thriving (forthcoming) — Buddhism and coachingRadical Listening — with Robert Biswas-DienerCoach on a Motorcycle YouTube Channel

    1h 23m
  5. The Money Story You Inherited (And Can't Shake) | Melissa Leong

    MAR 5

    The Money Story You Inherited (And Can't Shake) | Melissa Leong

    The Money Story You Inherited (And Can't Shake) | Melissa Leong Her six-year-old whispered it in the dark: "Mommy, I think there's something wrong with me." He didn't love his old stuffies anymore. This episode will change how you think about every dollar you spend — and every dollar you don't. EPISODE SUMMARY Melissa Leong is one of Canada's most respected voices at the intersection of money and psychology. A journalist, speaker, and author of Happy Go Money, she's spent years unpacking why smart people make irrational financial decisions — and she starts with herself. In this conversation, Melissa opens up about her inherited scarcity mindset — rooted in her Chinese-Canadian family's history of war, immigration, and a 70-year-old restaurant in Winnipeg's Chinatown. Her grandfather helped build that community and quietly funded a pagoda in one of Winnipeg's biggest parks. Her mother taught her that money was scarce, that you worked for every dollar, and that the expensive toilet paper was not for your family. These stories didn't stay in the past. They followed Melissa into adulthood, into her marriage, and into how she eats breakfast (leftover toast crusts, if you're wondering). But the heart of this conversation isn't about scarcity. It's about the pause. Melissa makes a case that our spending is often not a budgeting failure — it's a neurological response to a system designed to hijack our reward systems. Dopamine doesn't reward having, it rewards seeking. One-click buy, frictionless spending, personalized ads that never sleep. And in the middle of all this, a six-year-old kid is already feeling the pull of hedonic adaptation — he just doesn't have words for it yet. Shaun and Melissa explore how couples with opposite money stories can stay connected (her husband's abundance mindset vs. her scarcity lens), what it means to feel "enough" in a world that profits from your dissatisfaction, and why the happiest time of her life involved cockroaches, five dollars, and dollar dumplings in a basement apartment in Taiwan. This is one of those episodes that sneaks past your defenses and sits with you for days. KEY TOPICS COVERED Hedonic Adaptation in Real Time: How a six-year-old's stuffie confession reveals what's happening to all of usThe Dopamine Trap: Why spending isn't a willpower problem — it's a neurological oneInherited Money Stories: How war, immigration, and family restaurants shape financial behavior generations laterThe Grandfather's Legacy: Philanthropy, Chinatown, and what generosity really looks likeCouples and Money Conflict: When scarcity mindset marries abundance mindset — and the ongoing negotiationThe Pause: Why friction in spending is actually a health practiceFinancial Socialization: What your kids learn about money from watching you (not from any course)Enough: What it feels like, why we can't find it, and the meditation of okayness MEMORABLE QUOTES "When I get new stuffies, I don't like my old stuffies anymore." Timestamp: [02:20] "We are swimming in this system that is designed to hijack our reward systems." Timestamp: [03:30] "I don't think that you are being irresponsible. I think you're tired. I think you're overwhelmed. I think you are stressed. I think you're overstimulated." Timestamp: [06:18] "Money is just an accelerant. Money shows you who you are because you use it to navigate this world." Timestamp: [11:08] "Right now, in this exact moment, I am okay." Timestamp: [51:12] "I love you forever. My love is forever, which means wherever I am, and even if I'm not here, you will feel my love." Timestamp: [01:17:01] ABOUT MELISSA LEONG Melissa Leong is a journalist, author, and speaker who has spent her career making money conversations feel human. She's the author of Happy Go Money, a book that bridges personal finance and the science of happiness. A former Financial Post reporter, she's appeared on screens across Canada bringing warmth and wit to a topic most people avoid. But what makes Melissa different isn't her credentials — it's her honesty. She openly talks about eating her kids' leftover toast crusts instead of buying herself breakfast, about the scarcity mindset she inherited from immigrant parents who survived war, and about the ongoing money arguments with her husband that she expects will never fully resolve. She's not teaching from a pedestal. She's teaching from the kitchen table. Melissa grew up in Winnipeg, where her grandfather helped build Chinatown and ran a restaurant for 70 years. She now lives with her husband and two kids (ages 6 and 10), a collection of stuffies in various states of abandonment, and an arcade game with a price tag that may never be fully disclosed. CONNECT WITH MELISSA LEONG Website: melissaleong.comBook: Happy Go Money RESOURCES MENTIONED Happy Go Money by Melissa LeongDaniel Kahneman's research on money and happinessHedonic adaptation researchStudy: Living next to a lottery winner increases bankruptcy risk2020 study: Giving $10K to 200 people — those who spent on others were happierViktor Frankl — "Between stimulus and response there is a space" ABOUT YOUPOTENTIAL YouPotential explores what it means to live a meaningful life — through conversations about money, purpose, relationships, and becoming. Hosted by Shaun Maslyk. "Sometimes it's not the answers we learn from — but the questions."

    1h 22m
  6. The Voice You Ignored Has Been Right All Along | Craig Mannix

    FEB 26

    The Voice You Ignored Has Been Right All Along | Craig Mannix

    Craig “Big C” Mannix has spent four decades at the intersection of culture and commerce in the Canadian music industry. From championing the domestic release of Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter the 36 Chambers and Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready to Die, to turning Sean Paul into Canada’s per-capita number one territory in the world, Craig has been the person in the room fighting for the music everyone else wanted to ignore. But this conversation goes deeper than career highlights. Craig opens up about what it feels like to be told your culture doesn’t matter—on Day 1, and then repeatedly over 40 years. He talks about the tension between the art he loves and the business that profits from it, and why he believes the industry has traded culture for content and creativity for process. We explore how growing up in Toronto while spending formative years in Antigua gave him the cultural fluency that would later become his superpower. How fatherhood changed his lens on everything—including music. And what led him to co-found ADVANCE, Canada’s Black Music Business Collective, to ensure the next generation doesn’t face the same barriers he did. The episode closes with Craig’s definition of a good life—borrowed from a friend’s simple but devastating observation: go to bed easy, wake up excited. It’s a conversation about what you refuse to compromise when the machine asks you to trade in everything you believe. KEY TOPICS COVERED Fatherhood and Legacy: How becoming a father at an older age reshaped Craig’s priorities and his relationship with golf, music, and time Music vs. Music Culture: The critical distinction between what you hear and the lifestyle, community, and meaning that surrounds it Cultural Roots: How formative years in Antigua and Toronto created a unique lens for navigating the music business Industry Gatekeeping: Being told on Day 1 that Black music wouldn’t succeed in Canada—and proving them wrong with Wu-Tang, Biggie, and Sean Paul The 10% Rule: Why the music industry runs on a 10% success rate for new signings and what that means for patience and vision ADVANCE and Systemic Change: Co-founding Canada’s Black Music Business Collective and changing internship policies across the industry The Culture Erosion: How stripping culture from music turns art into noise—and why the future belongs to bespoke, mid-level companies Hip Hop and Money: The evolution from aspirational to layered—and the financial education gap that still plagues artists MEMORABLE QUOTES "I’m not going to put on skates. I’m not going to play basketball. But I’ll golf with you. And so that’s what we did." 📍 Timestamp: 01:23 "Once you have people handling it that don’t respect the culture around it, it just becomes noise." 📍 Timestamp: 08:41 "We’re selling art here. It’s much more nuanced than that. This is art. It’s living, breathing." 📍 Timestamp: 09:24 "Every successful artist you see right now charting, they had a 3 to 5 year journey to get there. I guarantee it." 📍 Timestamp: 21:13 "My series isn’t canceled." 📍 Timestamp: 01:05:27 ABOUT CRAIG MANNIX Craig “Big C” Mannix is a Toronto-based music industry executive with over 30 years of experience shaping the Canadian music landscape. His career spans Virgin Records, EMI Music, Sony Music, and Universal Music Canada, where he rose to Vice President of Black Music—integrating marketing and A&R to champion Black Canadian artists. Beyond his corporate career, Craig is a founding member of ADVANCE, Canada’s Black Music Business Collective, and co-chairs The Remix Project’s Board of Directors. He sits on the boards of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall and represented Canada on Universal Music Group’s Task Force for Meaningful Change. In 2025, Craig joined the CMRRA as an Industry Relations Consultant for Community Engagement while running Big Consulting, his own firm focused on artist development, marketing, and protecting the culture he’s spent a lifetime championing. He’s a father, a golfer, and a man who wants to go to bed easy and wake up excited. ABOUT YOUPOTENTIAL YouPotential explores what it means to live a meaningful life—through conversations about money, purpose, relationships, and becoming. Hosted by Shaun Dwyer Maslyk. “Sometimes it’s not the answers we learn from—but the questions.”

    1h 17m
  7. The $3 Million Rule That Changed How I Think About Enough | John Buckman

    FEB 19

    The $3 Million Rule That Changed How I Think About Enough | John Buckman

    John Buckman started with an idealistic vision inspired by Buckminster Fuller — build global conversations that make war impossible. He created Lyris, email software so successful that at its peak, one third of the email on the internet ran through it. But idealism has a shelf life when payroll is due. What began as technology for tracking jelly bean flavor preferences became a tool for political micro-targeting — suppressing paragraphs in newsletters based on a voter's tracked behavior. When John refused to sell to Philip Morris, his sales team learned a simpler lesson: don't ask the boss. And when the White House called asking for 24-hour tech support so they could send an email at 2 a.m. to declare war in Iraq, John knew he'd crossed a line he couldn't uncross. This conversation traces the full arc — from a childhood watching his parents buy a Porsche with a legal settlement while facing bankruptcy, to making $100,000 in shareware donations by age 18, to selling Lyris and creating Magnatune, a fair trade music company with legal provisions so radical his own lawyer resisted. Now in Hong Kong, John builds high-end espresso machines with Decent Espresso, trying to create something that outlives him — not because it makes money, but because it matters. What emerges is a portrait of someone who has wrestled with money, morals, and meaning across a dozen companies and three decades — and arrived at a deceptively simple philosophy: always be ready to die next year. KEY TOPICS COVERED The White House call: How building email software led to being part of the war effort — and the moral reckoning that followed.The slippery slope: How small compromises — feminist porn, political newsletters, tracking dots — compound until you wake up somewhere you never intended to be.The Porsche story: A childhood financial flashpoint — watching his parents buy a Porsche with a legal settlement while facing bankruptcy — that shaped everything.The $3 million rule: A VC's advice on the number you need to never work again, and why John didn't listen until it was almost too late.Fair trade music: Building Magnatune with legal poison pills so no acquirer could corrupt its mission — and convincing his lawyer to draft agreements that screwed the founder.Decent Espresso: Why giving someone a better cup of coffee in the morning became John's most meaningful venture.BookMooch: Creating BitTorrent for books, processing 10 million books a month, and receiving three lawsuit threats from Amazon."Why employees suck": John's contrarian argument that productive people should quit and sell the fruits of their labor instead of their time.The immigrant mindset: Growing up in France until age 10, arriving in the US without English, and choosing to be a nobody again in Hong Kong.Legacy and enough: Trying to build something that lasts five years after you leave — and why that's harder than it sounds. MEMORABLE QUOTES "And I realized at that moment, I was gonna be part of the war effort." 📍 Timestamp: 05:39 "It is absolutely a slippery slope. So I had a rule, which was no porn, no politics. That was our rule. Otherwise, freedom of speech." 📍 Timestamp: 08:49 "They're about to go bankrupt. And they got a settlement and they bought a Porsche." 📍 Timestamp: 21:19 "I've got the moving quality outlook of a Frenchman, but the business acumen of an American. And thank God it's not in reverse." 📍 Timestamp: 29:44 "I'm glad I found my limit. It's much, much worse to have that, could have been a contender." 📍 Timestamp: 01:06:35 "Always be ready to die next year." 📍 Timestamp: 01:12:07 "You gotta live well now. Even if you're working your brains out, if you're having a bad day, you gotta figure out how to get out of that because this might be all you got left." 📍 Timestamp: 01:12:30 ABOUT JOHN BUCKMAN John Buckman is a serial entrepreneur who has started over a dozen companies across email technology, music, publishing, and coffee. He built Lyris, email software that at its peak powered one third of the email on the internet, and sold it after the moral compromises of scale became untenable. He then created Magnatune, a fair trade music company with legally binding ethical provisions, and BookMooch, a book-swapping platform that processed 10 million books a month and drew legal threats from Amazon. Now based in Hong Kong, John runs Decent Espresso, a high-end espresso machine company competing with billion-dollar Italian families. He has served on the boards of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Creative Commons. He grew up in France until age 10, didn't speak English until arriving in the US, and describes himself as having the quality-of-life outlook of a Frenchman with the business acumen of an American. His guiding philosophy: always be ready to die next year.

    1h 15m
  8. Why Billionaires Aren't the Happiest People He Knows | Dave Chilton

    FEB 12

    Why Billionaires Aren't the Happiest People He Knows | Dave Chilton

    Dave Chilton doesn't need an introduction in Canada. The Wealthy Barber sold over 3 million copies and shaped how an entire generation thinks about money. He's been on Dragons' Den, built multiple successful businesses, and counts billionaires among his close friends. But in this conversation, Dave reveals something unexpected: the retired teachers in his life seem happier than the ultra-wealthy. And he wouldn't trade places with any of them. What unfolds is a masterclass in gratitude, grounding, and what Dave calls "enoughness" — a disposition he admits he was lucky to be born with, but one we can all cultivate. He shares how his 93-year-old father's philosophy of radical acceptance shaped him, why he never changed his friend groups despite his success, and the one thing that still "knocks him backward" after all these years: the speed of time. This isn't a conversation about money management. It's about what money can never manage — our relationships, our contentment, and our sense of enough. KEY TOPICS COVERED Tiger Stadium and three-generation bonding: How Dave's most powerful memory involves his father, grandfather, and the Detroit TigersThe speed of time: Why this is the only thing that disrupts Dave's positive dispositionGreat parent privilege: Dave's reflection on the advantage of loving parentsStaying grounded through success: Why he never changed friend groups and what that taught himBillionaires vs. retired teachers: His observation that moderate wealth + good relationships = more happinessThe enoughness mindset: Why Dave has no interest in becoming a billionaireHis father's acceptance philosophy: "What has happened has happened — get to acceptance quickly"Homeschooling and parenting: Trading opportunity for presence with his kidsFriends are family: The frame that's guided his most important relationshipsSpending summaries: Why this simple tool creates the biggest ripple effect in financial planning MEMORABLE QUOTES "I've got friends who are ridiculously wealthy, like literally billionaires in some cases. And then I've got all my friends who tend to be teachers, retired teachers. I find that the latter group tends to be happier." 📍 Timestamp: 17:02 "I wouldn't even want to be a billionaire, by the way. I have no interest in that. I don't want a lot. I find stuff weighs you down." 📍 Timestamp: 18:42 "The only thing that tends to knock me backward is the speed of time. I do find it dismaying." 📍 Timestamp: 04:08 "You never lose your temper ever and are glad after the fact you did." 📍 Timestamp: 38:27 "Friends are family. And that's how I've always thought of my friends — that we're a family." 📍 Timestamp: 01:12:03 ABOUT DAVE CHILTON Dave Chilton is a Canadian author, entrepreneur, and financial educator best known for The Wealthy Barber, which has sold over 3 million copies since its original publication in 1989. The book pioneered a storytelling approach to personal finance that made complex concepts accessible to everyday readers. Dave appeared as a Dragon on CBC's Dragons' Den from 2011-2015 and has invested in numerous Canadian businesses. Despite his success, he still lives in a small house in Wellesley, Ontario, drives a Jeep with 120,000 kilometers on it (full of dog hair, he'll tell you), and measures his wealth primarily in relationships. His 2025 updated edition of The Wealthy Barber brings his timeless principles to a new generation facing very different financial realities — and reminds us all that the psychology of money matters more than the math. CONNECT WITH DAVE CHILTON 🌐 Website: thewealthybarber.com 📖 Book: The Wealthy Barber (2025 Updated Edition) — available at Indigo, independent bookstores, and thewealthybarber.com 🎧 Audiobook: thewealthybarber.com (read by Dave himself) RESOURCES MENTIONED The Wealthy Barber (2025 Updated Edition) by Dave ChiltonThe Wealthy Barber Returns by Dave ChiltonSpending summaries — the simple tool Dave calls "the best starting point" ABOUT YOUPOTENTIAL YouPotential explores what it means to live a meaningful life — through conversations about money, purpose, relationships, and becoming. Hosted by Shaun Dwyer Maslyk. "Sometimes it's not the answers we learn from — but the questions."

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About

YouPotential explores what it truly means to live a life well lived — through the lens of psychology, money, and meaning. Hosted by Shaun Maslyk—Certified Financial Planner®, Financial Behaviour Specialist®, and Positive Psychology Practitioner—the podcast delivers science-backed insights, candid conversations, and real stories that help people live with more intention.

Information

  • Creator
    Shaun Maslyk
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    45
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Shaun Maslyk
  • Show Website
    YouPotential

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