This special episode of Magic Hour Podcast takes us to the floor of Vancouver Startup Week for a collection of candid conversations with women in tech, entrepreneurship, and innovation.

Through short, on-the-spot interviews, we explore what it means to build a business in real time. The moments of momentum, the barriers that still exist, the lessons learned from founders and speakers, and the future women in tech are actively creating. Part recap, part reflection, part love letter to the builders in the room, this episode highlights the voices, perspectives, and ideas shaping Vancouver’s startup community.

Featured guests include:

• Laura Fortey, Flow State Founder
• Kristin Zerbin, Hoochie Booch Kombucha
• Priya Tronsgaurd, Edify Learning Spaces
• Mikayla Stewart, Atono, ColdStart, and Athena Collective
• Kim Jacob, Arvorei Communications Group
• Chaandani Khan, Return to Life
• Lindsay Johnson, The Radical Connector
• Ashley Armstrong, Success Monster
• Lorraine Wong, Wake Collective and Cue North
• Stephanie Chan, My Care Base
• Danielle Ryan, Video Content Creator and Creative Strategist

📖 Read the full show notes and transcript at unicornmarketingco.ca/podcast

✨ Stay in the magic: Follow @itsthemagichourpodcast for behind-the-scenes content, guest updates, and more!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We don't talk about death, and we certainly don't talk about grief. And we especially don't talk about the kind that has no clear cause, no funeral, and no casserole on the doorstep. But maybe we should.

In this episode of the Magic Hour Podcast, I sit down with Sarah Savoy, end-of-life doula, educator, and founder of A Good Farewell, for a conversation that is equal parts tender and quietly transformative.

Sarah has dedicated her life to sitting with people in their most vulnerable moments, through caregiving, life-limiting illness, dying, and grief. But what we explore in this conversation goes far beyond death. It's about how we live. The grief we absorb without realizing it. The joy we talk ourselves out of. And the quiet but radical act of choosing meaningful work over comfortable work.

We talk about what it really looks like to walk away from a successful business because something deeper is calling. Sarah shares the reality of her own midlife pivot — the gradual unravelling, the moment of clarity, and what it took to rebuild her life around work that truly reflects who she is. We also explore what it means to move through a society that is, as Sarah puts it, deeply grief illiterate. One that doesn't give us the language, the permission, or the space to grieve the things that aren't just the loss of a person — the loss of identity, of community, of the life we thought we were going to have.

This conversation also holds space for the grief we inherit. The kind passed down through generations without a word ever being spoken. And the micro joys (small, deliberate, tender moments) that become the way we survive it all.

🎧 In this episode, we talk about:

⚡ Walking away from a successful brick and mortar business to find heart-centred work

⚡ The big G and the little G, understanding grief in all its forms

⚡ Why our society is grief illiterate and what it costs us

⚡ Cultural and intergenerational grief and the weight we carry without knowing it

⚡ How to hold space for others without losing yourself

⚡ Micro joys as a daily practice and a survival strategy

⚡ The invisible weight of navigating grief while keeping up appearances

⚡ How to let small joys back in without feeling like you're betraying the pain

This one is for anyone who has ever felt like their grief was too complicated, too quiet, or too hard to explain. Sarah has a gift for making the heaviest things feel a little more possible to hold. I hope this conversation does the same for you. ✨

📖 Read the full show notes and transcript at unicornmarketingco.ca/podcast

📝 This episode is sponsored by Flodesk. The beautiful, easy-to-use email marketing platform I swear by. Get a free month of Flodesk here: https://flodesk.com/c/UNICORNMARKETING 💌

✨ Stay in the magic: Follow @itsthemagichourpodcast for behind-the-scenes content, guest updates, and more!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when you stop performing who you think you should be… and start getting honest about who you actually are?

In this episode of the Magic Hour Podcast, I sit down with Emily Shimwell, founder of Dine Wilder Events and co-founder of Graze Wilder Charcuterie, for a conversation that feels both grounding and quietly confronting in the best way.

Emily has built multiple businesses in a short amount of time, but what we explore in this conversation goes far beyond growth or strategy. It’s about identity. The kind that shifts as you evolve. The kind that doesn’t always have a clear answer.

We talk about what it really looks like to jump before you’re ready, and how that decision can shape not just your business, but your sense of self. Emily shares the reality of building something quickly while raising young kids, and what it means to let your personal and professional worlds blur without losing yourself entirely.

This conversation also holds space for the tension so many women carry. The pressure to be polished but still relatable, confident but still likeable, soft but still taken seriously. And what it costs, energetically, to keep showing up that way. We explore reinvention as something deeper than a pivot. The reframes that ask more of you than a simple no ever could. And the process of becoming someone new without abandoning who you’ve been.

🎧 In this episode, we talk about:

⚡ Jumping before you’re ready and what happens on the other side of that decision

⚡ The identity shifts that come with building and evolving quickly

⚡ Navigating motherhood and business without separating the two

⚡ The pressure women feel to show up a certain way in professional spaces

⚡ The energetic cost of constantly performing in business and life

⚡ Reinvention as a lived experience, not just a strategy

⚡ The difference between saying no and reframing what’s actually aligned

Above all, this episode is an invitation to look a little closer at yourself. To question the roles you’ve been playing. And to consider who you are when you’re not performing for the room.✨

📖 Read the full show notes and transcript at unicornmarketingco.ca/podcast

📝 This episode is sponsored by Flodesk. The beautiful, easy-to-use email marketing platform I swear by. Get a free month of Flodesk here: https://flodesk.com/c/UNICORNMARKETING 💌

✨ Stay in the magic: Follow @itsthemagichourpodcast for behind-the-scenes content, guest updates, and more!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.