In this episode of The Unknown Path, Jem Fuller sits down with Jack Canfield — Entrepreneur, co-creator of the billion-dollar ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’® series and author of the international bestseller ‘The Success Principles’. Jack’s conducted more than 2,500 workshops and trainings worldwide, sold over 500 million books in 43 languages, and spent five decades helping people close the gap between where they are and their highest vision of themselves.

For decades, Jack's work has centred around the idea that most of what holds people back isn't a lack of ability, but a belief formed in childhood about who they are and what they deserve that holds the drivers seat of their life. He’s stood in boardrooms to stadiums filled with thousands of people transforming the lives of millions of people, but his impact started many years ago in a small classroom teaching self-esteem to teenagers who needed someone to believe in them.

In this conversation, we go beyond the success into the journey in a way you haven’t heard before. Jack shares his story, as a scholarship kid at a West Virginia military school to the man behind one of publishing's most improbable success stories, and the mentors, chance encounters, and discipline that shaped the way there. We go through the early years, starting as a teacher earning $8,000 a year, to becoming a best selling author and deeply impactful entrepreneur by discovering and embodying the work that has changed the lives of so many people. If you know of Jacks work, you’ll know his impact on the world is big, but chances are you haven’t heard the man underneath the success in this way and I can’t wait for you to sit and listen and soak up all the wisdom.

This weeks episode covers an incredible journey of self discovery, the mechanics of building something successful that lasts and the work of unbecoming what no longer serves you. It's a conversation about permission, persistence, and the difference between striving for significance and simply being who you are.

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In this conversation we go into:
— Cold email to Harvard scholarship, and the private school that changed everything
— A mentor's challenge to set a goal twelve times his salary, and the visualization ritual he kept every morning for three years
— Fourteen months of daily outreach before Chicken Soup for the Soul hit a single bestseller list
— The ayahuasca journey that forced him to forgive Vladimir Putin — and what it revealed about his own need for significance
— Why "discover" is the word he'd choose over "become"
— His take on AI, job displacement, and why human connection becomes more valuable, not less
— The free belief-change call he still runs twice a year for thousands of people, decades after he stopped needing to

About Jack:

For over 40 years, he has been teaching entrepreneurs, educators, corporate leaders, and people from all walks of life how to create the life they desire.

As the beloved originator of the Chicken Soup for the SoulⓇ series, he’s taught millions of individuals his modernised formulas for success, and has trained and certified over 2,700 students to teach his content and methodology in 107 countries around the world.

Follow Jack:
🌐 https://jackcanfield.com
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jackcanfield_official

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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.

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Follow the show:
🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts
📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/jemfuller
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jemfuller/
🌱 More from Jem: https://jemfuller.com

#TheUnknownPath #JackCanfield #ChickenSoupForTheSoul

In this episode of The Unknown Path, Jem Fuller sits down with Brandon Fong — founder of Curiosity Island, creator of the Find Your Four framework, and host of the podcast Beyond Curious.

In this conversation, Brandon shares how a childhood shaped by financial insecurity, in one of the wealthiest school districts in his state, built the identity of someone who had to earn everything the hard way. Years later, that same drive led him into the business of building other people's visions, until a mentor ended their partnership without warning and left him with nowhere to go but inward.

Brandon's story is one of reinvention, and one that will make you question what permission you're still waiting for to chase the things you desire.

In this episode, we talk across a number of themes including the difference between learning and channeling, the cost of walking away from a version of success that isn't yours, and how the period of building for others became the foundation for Curiosity Island, and framework for finding the small percentage of actions that create the majority of impact.

This conversation explores what it takes to stop chasing someone else's definition of success, and a real look at what it means to build a life, and a community, from complete alignment. You wont want to miss this one.

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In this conversation we go into:
— Cold calling at twelve, and the free lunch program in the wealthiest school district in the state
— The single cold email that turned into running a mentor's marketing, adding 250,000 students to his courses, and a year spent living in Israel, Italy, and Thailand
— The business partner who left without warning, and the question it forced: what do I actually want?
— Why he still cringes at the old name of his own podcast, and why he wouldn't undo any of it
— What changed when he stopped calling it effort and started calling it channeling
— Dunbar's number, soul family, and why Curiosity Island will never grow past 54 people
— The plan to send a piece of it into outer space

Timestamps:

Chapters

• 00:00:00 Intro
• 00:02:13 Brandon's World Right Now
• 00:03:00 What Is Curiosity Island?
• 00:07:00 Learning to Slow Down and Just Be Present
• 00:09:29 What His 10-Year-Old Self Would Think
• 00:10:43 Growing Up in an Entrepreneurial Household
• 00:14:24 Free Lunch Programs in the Wealthiest School District
• 00:16:05 Meeting His Mentor Jonathan and Genius Network
• 00:19:25 The Business Failure That Started Everything
• 00:20:13 Publishing a Book at 21
• 00:22:07 The Power of the Cold Email
• 00:23:30 What's the Worst That Can Happen?
• 00:24:54 Rebuilding From the Ground Up
• 00:28:03 Why "Seven Figure Millennials" Still Makes Him Cringe
• 00:30:05 Would He Undo That Chapter?
• 00:31:27 What It Feels Like to Be Fully Aligned
• 00:32:52 Consciousness, Telepathy, and Holding Beliefs Loosely
• 00:37:45 David Hawkins and the Levels of Consciousness
• 00:40:52 Mirrors, Not Mentors
• 00:44:08 What Curiosity Island Actually Is
• 00:45:46 Introducing Find Your Four
• 00:49:09 The 4% and the Exponentially Renewable Resource
• 00:51:00 The 4% Files Project
• 00:54:19 A World Record Sent Into Outer Space
• 00:57:30 Shortcutting a Friend's Dream: The Roderick Adventure Day Story
• 01:00:20 Founding the Center of Love Alliance
• 01:03:21 Dunbar's Number and the Future of Curiosity Island
• 01:05:12 Final Thoughts

About Brandon:

Brandon is a husband to his high school sweetheart, Leah, father to their daughter Kaiya, and head world builder of Curiosity Island™, the invite-only community he founded to help visionary leaders solve their hardest problems and accelerate their biggest projects. He also hosts the top 1% globally ranked Beyond Curious® podcast, where he's interviewed everyone from Olympians and NYT bestselling authors to an FBI hostage negotiator and the man who invented the cell phone. His life purpose is to create a more deeply connected world.

Follow Brandon:
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonsfong/
▶️ YouTube: https://gobeyondcurious.com/podcast/
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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.

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Follow the show:
🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts
📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/jemfuller
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jemfuller/
🌱 More from Jem: https://jemfuller.com

#TheUnknownPath #BrandonFong #CuriosityIsland

In this episode of The Unknown Path, Jem Fuller sits down with Catalina Magee — former Miss Romania, Vogue Italia model, and founder of Trend Prive magazine, now a real estate investor, podcast host, and someone who volunteers her time with Las Vegas's homeless community.

Catalina shares what it was like growing up under communism in Romania, the ultimatum she gave her mother at sixteen, and the night in Germany she stood in a car park screaming for help while her husband lay fighting for his life after a house fire.

We talk about the years of abuse that shaped her childhood, the choice she made to forgive the man who caused it, and why she's landed on humility — not love — as the biggest lesson life has taught her. This conversation explores what it actually costs to build a life of gratitude out of a childhood built on scarcity and pain, and why the people we overlook are so often the ones who save us.

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In this conversation we go into:
— The ultimatum a sixteen-year-old Catalina gave her mother about her father, and the divorce it forced
— A stranger's invitation to Capri, and the night Mariah Carey stood two feet away
— The house fire in Germany that nearly took her husband's life, and the phone call that finally got him a hospital bed
— Growing up under communism in Romania, where the family had one orange at Christmas and prayed in secret beneath the floor
— Why homelessness isn't the choice people assume it is, and the questions Catalina asks instead of judging

About Catalina Magee:
Catalina Magee is a real estate investor, entrepreneur, actress and published author based in Las Vegas. She began her career as a model featured in Vogue Italia and the winner of Miss Romania, before founding Trend Prive magazine and going on to work across the U.S. Army, MWR, NCIS, the USDA and the US Embassy in Tel Aviv. She has since built and sold multiple businesses, and currently oversees a real estate portfolio, a wedding venture and a celebrity magazine, alongside ongoing volunteer work with Las Vegas's homeless community.
Connect with Catalina:
🌐 https://catalinamagee.com
📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/officialcatalinamagee
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catalinamagee/
▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdWGKSdXcO04gZV30EIM7tQ
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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://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 #CatalinaMagee #Forgiveness

In this episode of The Unknown Path we have the incredible Jared Angaza - Founder of Passage Collective, human rights worker turned indigenous wisdom keeper, and creator of the Coherence Protocol — an AI framework grounded in indigenous values.

In this conversation, Jared shares how a decade of human rights work across Rwanda and Kenya led to a profound low point, on the dirt floor of a Rwandan jail forcing him to find another way to respond to rage and look inside. Jared's story is one of fierce advocacy and resilience, and one that will make you look twice at what you've mistaken for strength.

We talk about the difference between resilience and anti-fragility, what surrender means when it isn't about giving up, and how that decade of hands-on community work became the foundation for the work he does today, building AI systems grounded in indigenous governance rather than fixed rules. This conversation explores what it takes to stop fighting for control and make space for something better to come through, and a beautiful exploration of the impact one driven person can have on a global community for the better.

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In this conversation we go into:
— A decade of human rights work across Rwanda and Kenya, including informant work that led to jail time
— Building a safe house in Kigali for forty-nine women and seventy-eight kids
— Adopting a son off the streets and learning a language with no textbook to teach it
— The night in a dirt-floor jail cell that changed how he responds to rage
— Building an AI framework out of indigenous wisdom instead of fixed rules

About Jared Angaza:
Jared Angaza is the founder of Passage Collective, building AI systems grounded in indigenous values through the Coherence Protocol and an Indigenous Governance Council of elders and knowledge holders from around the world. Before this work, he spent a decade living and working across Rwanda and Kenya, founding Team Africa Rising and the Treasure Center safe house, and building the ethical fashion brand Kaza alongside the women he worked with. More at passagecollective.com

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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.

In this episode of The Unknown Path, I talk with Dr Donese Worden, NMD, a physician who has spent twenty-seven years working across conventional and integrative medicine, and co-founder of a nonprofit researching metabolic approaches to cancer.

In her first year of medical school, Donese watched her mother suffer a stroke caused by a medical error. Doctors told the family she wouldn't survive the night and advised them to stop treatment. Donese trusted her gut over the doctors in front of her, refused, and her mother recovered. That same instinct has shaped her whole career. She now argues cancer should be treated as a metabolic disease rather than a purely genetic one, a position most mainstream cancer research still doesn't accept.

This episode is about trusting your own read on something, especially when the noise around you is telling you the opposite. Donese helps unpack the difference between conviction and stubbornness, and why waiting for permission to trust yourself usually costs more than getting it wrong.

In this episode:
— Why she believes cancer is a metabolic disease, not a genetic one
— The questions worth asking before starting any medical treatment
— Why she told the United Nations that AI still doesn't account for women properly

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Dr Donese Worden, NMD: Physician, researcher, and co-founder of a nonprofit researching metabolic approaches to cancer.
🌐 drworden.com
📸 Instagram: @DrDoneseWorden

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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.

theunknownpathpodcast.com │ Instagram: @jemfuller

In this episode of The Unknown Path, Jem Fuller sits down with Ron Carucci, co-founder of Navalent and a leadership consultant who has spent three decades advising CEOs through major organisational change. Ron shares his own honest reckoning with the origin stories we all carry, the vows we make young without realising it, and what it actually takes to unlearn a habit without losing the ability behind it. From a client whose entire career was built on protecting an old wound, to Ron's own journey through faith, depression, and the moments that quietly redirected his life, this conversation explores how facing where we come from can change how we move forward — without asking us to give up who we've become.

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In this conversation we go into:
— A client whose career was built on protecting a wound from childhood
— The vow made in silence, and the one that finally replaced it
— Ron's own years of depression and anxiety, and what shifted them
— The mentor who split his life into two distinct eras
— Why he almost didn't publish his article on the state of democracy

Ron Carucci: Co-founder and managing partner of Navalent, and author of Rising to Power and To Be Honest.
🌐 navalent.com

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The Unknown Path explores the unseen journeys behind extraordinary lives — real conversations about the failures, turning points, and unexpected moments that shaped who people became.

theunknownpathpodcast.com │ Instagram: @jemfuller

Sean Swarner is a two-time cancer survivor and the first person with one functioning lung to summit Everest. He's gone on to complete the seven summits, ski to both Poles, and complete the Hawaii Ironman World Championship. But what moves me most about this conversation isn't the scale of what he's done, although they are incredible. It's what he came back with from being given fourteen days to live at sixteen that has platformed a meaningful and incredible life.

In this conversation, Sean shares his story from being a boy in a hospital bed to the man on the other end of incredible feats. But this conversation isn't about survival, it's the story of being alive. From resilience, choice and failure and what it all means when faced with the limits of what the body can achieve and survive, Sean opens up about this amazing perspective on what we can truly grow into as individuals when we strip away our comforts and certainty. If everything you knew was pulled away, what would you be left with? Who would you be? There are so many incredible teachings in this week's conversation, and it has left me with such awe and understanding of what it means to face life, even when there's fear staring back at you.

In this episode:

— What's left of a person when comfort, certainty and health have all been stripped away
— Why resilience has nothing to do with grit, and everything to do with loyalty to who you are
— The difference between chasing something you think will complete you, and meeting your own life with eyes open
— Why reaching the top can leave you hollow, and what Sean now calls a false summit

A conversation about what it means to be alive, from someone who was told he wouldn't be.

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Sean Swarner:
🎬 True North: The Sean Swarner Story — Sean's documentary of his North Pole expedition. Watch free https://www.amazon.com/True-North-%20Sean-Swarner-Story/dp/B07LBCSFCD
🏔️ The CancerClimber Association — Sean's organisation sponsoring cancer survivors up Kilimanjaro: https://www.seanswarner.com/philanthropy-2/cca
🌐 More from Sean: : https://www.seanswarner.com/

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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, a coach, facilitator, speaker and author who has spent two decades working with leaders on resilience, presence, and the human capabilities that shape how we live and work. Through coaching, workshops, speaking and retreats, both at home in Australia and in the Himalayas, Jem works with individuals and teams across business, government and education. You can learn more about his work, or join an upcoming retreat, by visiting https://jemfuller.com/ │ Instagram: @jemfuller

Neale Donald Walsch is a best-selling international author of the Conversations with God series and a spiritual messenger whose work has touched the lives of millions. Last week's conversation resonated so deeply with so many of you, and I cannot wait for you to sit with this one. (If you missed it, make sure to have a listen). This is Part B of my conversation with Neale, and where we move into the wisdom of what eight decades of living has taught him about being human. Neale opens up and shares stories with me he hasn't told on a podcast before, the ones that have quietly shaped his understanding of love, abundance, and what it actually means to give people back to themselves. This is one of those conversations that stays with you. Neale's warmth, his humour, and the simplicity with which he reframes some of the biggest questions we carry as humans, made this such a gift to record. I'm so honoured to share it with you.

In this episode (Part B):—

• What it has actually been like for Neale to be known by millions as the man who talks to God
• Why some people read a book and intellectually understand its message, but never embody it 
• The "be the source" teaching Neale was given, and how to practise it in everyday life 
• The three assignments Neale says he was given by God 
• A story from his time on the street, and the understanding of abundance that came out of it 

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Neale Donald Walsch:
His latest book, Letters to a Young Seeker: Departing Thoughts from an Elder, is written for young people, and for anyone still finding their way. It brings together the twenty-one most important messages from his Conversations with God dialogue, paired with poetry by his wife, award-winning poet Em Claire, and shares what Neale wishes he had known in his twenties, thirties, and forties.

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Resources:
📖 Neale's latest book, Letters to a Young Seeker: Departing Thoughts from an Elder: [LINK]
📚 Conversations with God series: [LINK]
🌐 Work with Neale: nealedonaldwalsch.com

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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.

You can learn more about Jem and stay up to date with his incredible work that spans across the globe or join an upcoming retreat by visiting the website.

jemfuller.com │ Instagram: @jemfuller

For thirty years, Neale's work has been a companion to people walking through the hardest questions of being human and into the deeper truths of the joys of being human. What he has offered, in his best selling Conversations with God Collection is something profound that has changed the lives of many - a truth that we are loved without condition, that the divine is not somewhere we have to earn our way to, and that the wisdom we are reaching for already lives inside us. It has reached five million people across thirty-seven languages, and continues to reach more every year.

What most people don't know is where that dialogue with God began for Neale. In this conversation we go beyond the books and into the humanness of his story right into the one-room flat above someone's garage, at rockbottom, where the morning he picked up a yellow legal pad and wrote an angry letter to God demanding to know what it takes to make life work. What came back was the beginning of everything that followed.

This is Part A of a two-part conversation. In this episode we move through the full arc of Neals life — the childhood in Milwaukee that built the man, the unravelling that emptied him out, the morning the dialogue began, and the eighty-two years of living that have now distilled into his newest book, Letters to a Young Seeker. 

I can't wait for you to dive into this week's conversation. If you've ever come across Neale's work, you'll know we're in for an incredible episode.

In this episode (Part A):

• The two weeks his marriage ended, his job ended, and a car accident nearly ended his life 
• Fifty weeks on the sidewalk, asking what it takes to make life work 
• The 4.30am morning the dialogue began, and the moment he realised the answers weren't his 
•  His mother, dying, asking him to dance on her grave 
•  Whether a soul actually chooses its parents before it arrives 

Neale Donald Walsch: Author of the Conversations with God series, translated into thirty-seven languages. His latest book is Letters to a Young Seeker.

Resources:
📖 Neale's latest book, Letters to a Young Seeker: Purchase
📚 Conversations with God series: Find the Books Here
🌐 Work with Neale: nealedonaldwalsch.com

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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.

theunknownpathpodcast.com │ Instagram: @jemfuller

This weeks episode is with Nabeela Elasyed. Former COO of Walmart Canada and CHRO of IKEA US, a Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coaches member, and the author of the forthcoming Breaking Burnout. She's spent 20 years leading some of the world's largest organisations before stepping away to follow a different journey. 

This conversation was such a pleasure. Nabeela and I are on very aligned missions in the world — and she brings a perspective I rarely get to sit across from. She went from a first-generation immigrant childhood, where work became both her escape and her identity, through twenty years at the top of the corporate world, to walking away from a seven-figure career and starting over. What she traces in this conversation is the interior cost of that climb — the postpartum depression and anxiety she carried in silence for years, what happens when the role that defined you is gone, and what it actually looks like to reimagine success once the title is gone. She's thought deeply about all of this. And she's lived every part of it.

In this episode:

• The internal operating system that drives overachievers - where it comes from, and what it does
• A decade of high-level executive performance sustained alongside hidden mental illness 
• Why anchoring your identity in your career, your title, or any single thing puts you at serious risk when that thing is interrupted
• The difference between loving your work and being in love with it 
• Why people with deep purpose are actually more vulnerable to burnout
•  Her faith as the one constant through the lowest moments
• What the Gallup thriving scale tells us about the state of the global workforce, and why she's still optimistic

This is an incredible episode and if there's anything to take away from it, it's that that your value is inherent.
You don't have to produce to rest, to be worthy, or to be loved. For a lot of high achievers, that's not an easy thing to hear — and she'd know.

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Nabeela Elsayed:  

🌐 Website: nabeelaelsayed.com
📖 Pre-order Breaking Burnout: https://www.nabeelaelsayed.com/breaking-burnout
📸 Instagram: @nabeelaelsayed
💼 LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/nabeelaixtabalan/?originalSubdomain=ca 

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The Unknown Path is a podcast about the untold stories behind success — real conversations with extraordinary people. 

JP Newman is the founder of one of Austin's most respected real estate private equity firms, with over a billion dollars in transaction volume, and the founder of Fulfillionaire, a space where leaders and high performers come to redefine success and explore why so many people who reach the success they've chased still feel like something is missing.

In this conversation, JP reflects openly on how reaching the goals he'd sought for years brought anxiety instead of peace. From the limiting beliefs picked up in a childhood shaped by refugee family history, through twelve companies that didn't work and a decade of feeling like he had nothing to show, to building a billion dollar firm and discovering the money didn't bring the peace he expected.

What emerges is something far more personal than a framework. A moment on a mountain trail at twenty-nine, alone, asking the universe something, where he found a fortune cookie on an otherwise clean path, read four words, and cried in a way he couldn't immediately explain. It was the first time he understood that everything he'd been searching for externally was something only he could give himself.

This is a conversation about money, meaning, the net worth trap, ancestral scarcity, and what it really means to build a life that's genuinely rich, not just financially.

In this episode:

• The net worth trap and why the anxiety that drives accumulation doesn't leave when the money arrives 
• The limiting beliefs inherited from a refugee family history that meant money never felt safe, even when it came 
• Twelve companies that didn't work and a decade of carrying no good story at parties 
• The two questions he took an oath to at seventeen that quietly reorganised everything that followed 
• A fortune cookie on a mountain trail and the story he's never told publicly before 
•  What love actually feels like to him now, in his own words

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JP Newman: fulfillionaire.com | @jpnewman_

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.

theunknownpathpodcast.com Instagram: @jemfuller

The Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera. Jean Valjean in Les Misérables. Performing some of the biggest roles in musical theatre on Australia’s largest stages and London’s West End.

But this conversation became much less about success itself, and much more about what happens when your identity becomes fused with performance.

Josh speaks openly about masks — the personas we build to feel worthy, validated, and enough and the danger of losing yourself inside them. He talks about the adrenaline and exhaustion of eight shows a week, the imposter syndrome that never fully disappears, the burnout that accumulated underneath the applause, and the moment his body finally forced him to stop.

What stayed with me most was hearing him describe standing backstage during Les Misérables, staring into the mirror before a show, and realising something inside him already knew he was done.

In this episode:

• The performer mask and mistaking achievement for self-worth
• The physical toll of carrying major theatre roles night after night
• The role Delta Goodrem played in changing the trajectory of his career
• Singing at the Opera House and the call from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s team
• Burnout, throat surgeries, and learning to listen when the body says no
• Meditation, breathwork, and the practices that helped quiet his mind
• Why purpose isn’t something you achieve — it’s something you give
• The difference between becoming somebody and knowing who you are

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Josh Piterman is an internationally acclaimed musical theatre performer, singer, speaker, author, and coach best known for playing The Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera and Jean Valjean in Les Misérables in Australia and London’s West End.

He now also works in breathwork, mindset, meditation, and transformational coaching.

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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.

theunknownpathpodcast.com
Instagram: @jemfuller

If something in this episode lands for you, share it with someone who might need it today.

This conversation touches on burnout, identity, emotional struggle, and healing. If it brings something up for you, be gentle with yourself, and reach out to someone you trust.

I first met Cynthia earlier this year, sharing a stage at a conference before a mutual friend reconnected us months later. What's really stayed with me isn't the showgirl years or the cheque Ed McMahon handed her on TV — it's what got passed down to her through her lineage. Cynthia comes from a line of women who survived a great deal, and what came down to her through her grandmother wasn't the weight of it — it was a knowing. A voice in the body she learned to trust over her own mind, the thing that kept telling her when a chapter was finished, long before it was convenient or rational or anything she wanted to hear.

In this episode: 

• Growing up in a redlined Minneapolis neighbourhood she didn't know she was being kept inside
• One of the first Black showgirls on the Vegas strip, and her grandmother's reaction to the feathers
• The Star Search producer's single question before the finals, and the $100,000 that followed 
• The song running through her head when she woke up crying during a painful divorce 
• A conversation about what it costs to trust that voice, and what it gives back. 

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Cynthia James: Emotional integration leadership coach, international speaker, author of six books, and host of The Women Awakening Podcast.
Website: cynthiajames.net
Instagram: @cynthiajames777
Cynthia's Books: What Will Set You Free · I Choose Me · Does My Voice Matter
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This conversation touches on trauma and healing. If it brings something up for you, be gentle with yourself, and reach out to someone you trust.

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.

theunknownpathpodcast.com
Instagram: @jemfuller

Confession — when we first got introduced, I jumped on the call not knowing who I was meeting. We just connected straight away. It was only afterwards that I went and looked him up and realised how many people this man has made an impression on.

And here's the thing — the credentials are real. But they're not who he is. Yannick is someone who has spent decades doing the inner work alongside the outer work. Who sees synchronicities not as coincidence but as communication — a love letter from the universe across time and space. There's a story he tells in this episode about a chance meeting and a pizza dinner that ended with a blank cheque for hundreds of families in the Himalayan mountains to have their children's education funded. The number of things that had to align for that moment to happen is staggering. Yannick just calls that Tuesday.

In this episode:

— The moment he threw a cereal bowl across the room and what it forced him to confront 
— Why he sold his Aston Martin but kept his ticket to space
 — Non-dominant handwriting as a tool for accessing wisdom beyond the front brain 
— What he asked his 111-year-old self — and the answer that became Maverick 1000

The question he left me with: What might be within your grasp if you went higher in your thinking?

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Yannick Silver is the founder of Maverick 1000, author of Evolved Enterprise, and one of the early pioneers of digital marketing turned cosmic catalyst. Find him at maverick1000.com and 1000sunsparks.com.

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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.

theunknownpathpodcast.com Instagram: @jemfuller

Melissa Bernstein co-founded Melissa & Doug Toys with her husband Doug at 22 — just dating, no money, no design training.
 Over 32 years they grew it to over 1,000 employees and a global brand. Then they lost it. Not the way they'd planned.

I met Melissa recently and knew straight away this conversation needed to happen. What she carries about creativity, darkness, identity, and starting over in your 50s is exactly what nobody else had ever asked her about.

In this episode: 

• The childhood existential depression and "psychic entropy" she never talked about publicly
•  Hiding in stores on weekends, pretending not to know their own toys, watching strangers pick one up for the first time 
• The three Ps that shaped her: perfectionism, pleasing, performance 
• The real ending of Melissa & Doug and the identity crisis that followed 
• Rebuilding from scratch in her 50s, Lifelines, and Viktor Frankl's logotherapy 
• Why the meaning is always in the striving — never at the top of the hill 

One of the most honest conversations I've had on this show.
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 Melissa Bernstein: melissa@lifelines.com| Melissa and Doug | lifelines.com
Find Melissa on Instagram @melissabernsteinofficial

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.
Website | Instagram: @jemfuller

This week I sat down with one of my childhood heroes. Simon Madden played 378 games for Essendon, won two premierships, a Norm Smith Medal, and four Best and Fairests — and almost none of this conversation is about that. 
In this episode: 

• Why "overnight success" is the most misleading phrase in sport 
• Being called "two yards of pump water" at 16, and what Simon did about it 
• Getting sacked as captain at 23 and ending up on the interchange bench in the seconds and the question that turned it around
• Confidence, conviction, courage: Simon's framework for what he calls "a whole performance" 
• Losing his dad at 13, and what his mother taught him about just continuing 
• Ubuntu — "I am because we are" — and the philosophy that runs through everything Simon believes about teams 

The line I'm carrying out of this one: it's not what happens to you. It's how you respond to it.

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Simon Madden is an AFL Hall of Fame inductee and former Essendon captain who now works with businesses, schools and charities on leadership, culture and performance.
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The Unknown Path is a podcast about the unseen journeys behind success — the failures, turning points, and quiet moments that shape lives we admire from the outside.
Website: theunknownpathpodcast.com
Instagram: @jemfuller

In this expansive episode of The Unknown Path, Jem Fuller sits down with Lee Holden, a globally respected Qigong teacher and founder of Holden Qigong. Drawing from Daoist philosophy, traditional Chinese medicine, and decades of practice, Lee shares how ancient energy arts can help modern humans reconnect with vitality, clarity, and inner balance.

From studying with Daoist master Mantak Chia to bringing Qigong to a global audience through PBS and international programs, Lee reflects on the deeper purpose of energy work — not as mystical escape, but as a practical path toward health, presence, and conscious living.

On this episode:

• The Daoist roots of “The Unknown Path” and meeting life with relaxation instead of contraction
• How stress shapes the nervous system — and why it’s considered the root of illness
• Lee’s journey from psychology student to Qigong teacher and energy practitioner
• Training with Mantak Chia and early experiences of Qi and life force energy
• The difference between Qigong and Tai Chi — and why Qigong is accessible for beginners
• Ancient Chinese medicine as preventative health care
• The Three Treasures: Jing (body), Qi (emotion), Shen (spirit)
• Technology, humanity, and the future of consciousness

About Lee:

Lee Holden is an internationally recognised Qigong teacher, traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, and founder of Holden Qigong. Trained in acupuncture, herbalism, and Daoist internal arts, he studied closely with master Mantak Chia and helped translate foundational teachings for Western audiences.

Through global programs, retreats, and PBS features, Lee’s work focuses on making ancient practices accessible for modern life — helping people cultivate vitality, reduce stress, and reconnect with the body’s innate intelligence.

Links & Resources
Holden Qigong: holdenqigong.com
Docu-Series: superhumanexperience.io

About the Unknown Path
Hosted by Jem Fuller - Author, Coach, TedX speaker, The Unknown Path explores the real journeys behind transformation — the unseen stories, challenges, and turning points that shape meaningful lives and movements.

In this powerful and deeply reflective episode of The Unknown Path, Jem Fuller sits down with Marcia Martin — often called the “godmother of the human potential movement.” From the early days of San Francisco’s transformational scene to helping build some of the most influential personal development organizations in history, Marcia shares an unfiltered story of vision, power, shadow, and awakening.

With honesty and humility, she explores the paradox of transformational leadership — where profound intentions can coexist with ego, control, and complexity — and reflects on the deeper calling that has guided her life’s work.

What We Explore in This Episode

• The origins of the human potential movement in 1960s–70s San Francisco
• Marcia’s role in the early days of EST and transformational training
• Power, ego, and the hidden dynamics inside large personal development organizations
• The cost of devotion to a cause — including personal sacrifice and hard lessons
• Patterns of trauma, authority, and the desire to belong
• Three stages of consciousness: Victim, Creator, and Higher Purpose
• Radical awareness as the foundation of purpose and growth
• Why authentic storytelling includes the “dark, light, good, bad, and ugly”

Key Takeaways

• Awareness begins with noticing thoughts, body sensations, and emotional patterns
• Leaders must resist believing they hold the only answer
• Real growth requires becoming willing to be a beginner again
• Meaning is not fixed — we create it through how we relate to experience

About Marcia Martin
Marcia Martin is a pioneering leader in the human potential and personal development movements. Active since the late 1960s, she played a key role in launching early large-scale transformational training organizations and helped shape the foundations of modern coaching and transformational education.
Author of Sex, Power, and Transformation, Marcia offers candid reflections on the rise of the self-help industry — exploring both its light and its shadow. Today, her work centers on helping individuals access deeper awareness, authenticity, and purpose.

Links & Resources
Book: Sex, Power, and Transformation https://marciamartin.com/thebook

Website: https://marciamartin.com/
Instagram: @marcia_martin_
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcia-martin-/

About The Unknown Path Podcast

Hosted by Jem Fuller, The Unknown Path explores the real journeys behind transformation — the unseen stories, challenges, and turning points that shape meaningful lives and movements.

In this profoundly raw and courageous episode of The Unknown Path, Jem Fuller sits down with transformational guide and leadership advisor Sally Anderson. After years away from the public eye, Sally returns to share one of the most confronting and powerful stories ever told on the podcast.

From surviving extreme violence and decades of silent suffering, to working with global leaders and redefining what true healing looks like — Sally’s journey is one of radical resilience, spiritual depth, and unwavering commitment to ending human suffering.

This is not just a conversation about trauma — it’s about what becomes possible when we face the uncomfortable, reclaim our power, and choose to lead from truth.

What We Explore in This Episode

· Surviving extreme trauma and the long path of healing

· The concept of “default DNA identity” and how childhood shapes our lives

· Why unacknowledged pain continues to control our behavior

· The difference between intellectual vs experiential forgiveness

· Leadership in a world of uncertainty, fear, and mental health challenges

· Cancel culture, public shaming, and rebuilding after character assassination

· Transforming pain into purpose and global impact

· Spirituality, intuition, and trusting the unknown

· Why true healing requires ownership, not avoidance

 Healing, Trauma & Inner Work Insights

Sally shares powerful frameworks for transformation:

· You cannot transform what you are unwilling to own

· Stop making meaning from past events to reduce suffering

· Observe your “default identity” and consciously shift it

· Healing is not managing pain — it’s transcending it

· True forgiveness is when your past no longer shapes your future

· Compassion for yourself is the foundation of all healing

About Sally Anderson

Sally Anderson is a transformational leader, advisor, and author with over 30 years of experience working with high-performing individuals, CEOs, and global change-makers. Her work focuses on deep identity transformation, leadership consciousness, and helping individuals transcend trauma to access clarity, power, and purpose.
After decades of private work and a long absence from the public domain, Sally returns with her book Beyond Brave: The Art of Living Courageously, sharing her story and mission to end human suffering at scale.

 Links & Resources

Sally Anderson — LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sallyanderson-exclusive-strategic-counsel/
Book: Beyond Brave: The Art of Living Courageously

About The Unknown Path

Hosted by Jem Fuller, The Unknown Path explores the real journeys behind transformation — the unseen stories, challenges, and defining moments that shape who we become.

In this heartfelt episode of The Unknown Path, Jem Fuller sits down with fellow Surf Coast local, educator, and longtime friend Lael Stone. Known for reshaping conversations around parenting, education, and emotional well-being, Lael shares a deeply personal journey through entrepreneurship, motherhood, trauma, and profound healing.

From founding Woodline Primary School to navigating birth trauma and rediscovering trust in intuition, this conversation explores what it truly means to slow down, stay open, and meet life with compassion — for ourselves and for the next generation.

 What We Explore in This Episode

• Designing a life grounded in “flow and slow” on the Surf Coast
• Highlights from a prolific year — documentary Scene, mentorship programs, and a new book
• Parenting as an investment in future adult relationships
• Entrepreneurship at age 20 and following intuitive nudges
• The evolution from birth work to education and emotional intelligence
• Trauma, surrender, and healing through compassion and nervous system awareness
• The power of intuition and trusting life’s timing
• Why parents must do their own inner work to truly support their children

Parenting & Inner Work Insights

In this episode, Lael shares practical reflections for parents beginning their own inner journey:

• Start with curiosity — “What am I making this mean?”
• Observe your reactions rather than suppressing them
• Look behind behavior to understand what children are communicating
• Recognize when your own needs or inner child wounds are being activated
• Meet both yourself and your child with compassion and nervous system awareness

About Lael Stone

Lael Stone is an educator, speaker, and founder whose work integrates neuroscience, compassion, and lived experience to support emotional well-being in families and schools. She is the co-founder of Woodline Primary School, a pioneering learning environment grounded in respectful relationships and emotional intelligence.

Author of Raising Resilient Compassionate Children and Own Your Story, Lael helps individuals and educators understand how childhood imprints shape adult lives — and how healing in relationship can transform future generations.
 
Links & Resources

Woodline Primary School: https://woodlineprimary.vic.edu.au/
Lael Stone — Official Website: https://laelstone.com.au/
Books: Own Your Story | Raising Resilient Compassionate Children

Work with Jem  https://jemfuller.com/

Episode Description

What does it take to stay devoted to a creative life — not just for a moment, but for decades?

In this deeply personal episode of The Unknown Path, Jem Fuller sits down with actor, writer, director, and longtime friend Damian Walshe-Howling. Having known each other since their teenage years, the conversation moves beyond career highlights into a raw exploration of anxiety, resilience, grief, creativity, and the power of storytelling to transform both artist and audience.

From early days immersed in Melbourne’s theatre scene to landing a breakthrough role on Blue Heelers, and now directing award-winning films like Unspoken, Damian shares what it means to walk the wire of uncertainty while staying connected to your North Star.

What We Explore in This Episode

• Growing up around theatre and discovering storytelling through the body
• Advice Damian would give his anxious 16-year-old self
• The Blue Heelers audition story — and the unexpected twists along the way
• Staying resilient and present across decades in the acting industry
• Depression, friendship, surfing, and nature as anchors through difficult times
• Regret, grief, and the transformative power of loss
• Influences from Alan Watts, Joseph Campbell, Patti Smith, and others
• Lessons in generosity inspired by Heath Ledger
• Directing, writing, and creating safe collaborative spaces for storytelling

Creative Process & Craft

Damian reflects on storytelling as a living process — allowing ideas to emerge organically rather than forcing them into structure. As a director, his philosophy is simple: cast the right people, create safety, then step back and allow the work to unfold.

About Damian Walshe-Howling

Damian Walshe-Howling is an Australian actor, writer, director, producer, and musician whose career spans decades across television, film, and theatre. Beginning his journey in Melbourne’s vibrant arts scene, he has built a reputation for depth, presence, and creative integrity.

His recent short film Unspoken won the Grand International Prize at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and is currently eligible for Oscar consideration. Damian also teaches at Brave Studios, supporting the next generation of storytellers.

 Links & Resources

Unspoken — SBS On Demand (Australia)
Brave Studios: Here
 

About The Unknown Path

Hosted by Jem Fuller, The Unknown Path explores the real journeys behind transformation — the unseen stories, challenges, and turning points that shape meaningful lives and movements.

🌿 Episode Description

What happens when the journey to understand yourself becomes the path to helping others connect more deeply?

In this episode of The Unknown Path, Jem Fuller sits down with Jennifer Hill — founder of OptiMatch and often called the “fairy godmother of human connection.” Jen shares a raw and deeply personal story of transformation, from mental health struggles and radical self-reflection to building a global community rooted in authenticity and care.

Together they explore resilience, neurodiversity, inner child work, and the evolving relationship between humanity and technology — all through the lens of what it truly means to be human.

🔎 What We Explore in This Episode

• 
  Jennifer Hill’s journey from loneliness to global connection
• The perspective shift that transformed her relationship with her father
• Turning hardship into self-reliance and growth
• Practices for emotional regulation, coherence, and resilience
• Inner child work and daily grounding rituals
• Neurodiversity as a superpower in leadership
• Staying deeply human in a rapidly evolving technological world

🧠 Tools & Practices Jen Shares

• 
  Heart-focused breathing and daily coherence practices
• The Sedona Method for processing fear
• Grief and completion letters
• Inner child check-ins for emotional safety and self-compassion
• Reflection practices to shift from judgment toward unconditional acceptance

🌍 About Jennifer Hill

Jennifer Hill is the founding director and CEO of OptiMatch, a visionary human connection and technology company focused on intelligent matching to help people build deeper, more meaningful relationships.

A speaker, author, and evolutionary leader, Jennifer’s work bridges technology, presence, and human potential. Known by many as the “fairy godmother of human connection,” she empowers individuals and organizations to lead with integrity, awareness, and care.

🔗 Links & Resources

OptiMatch:
Upcoming book: The Recovering Asshole

In this opening episode of The Unknown Path, Jem Fuller sits down with Garry Lineham — co-founder of Human Garage — to explore a journey that spans entrepreneurship, adversity, deep surrender, and radical transformation.

Garry shares how years of physical suffering, personal trials, and profound self-inquiry ultimately led him to help millions reconnect with their bodies through accessible fascia-based movement. This is not just a conversation about healing — it’s a raw, honest exploration of resilience, consciousness, and the unexpected paths that shape who we become.

This episode sets the tone for the podcast itself: real stories behind “overnight success,” filled with synchronicity, struggle, reinvention, and awakening.

🔎 What We Explore in This Episode

• The deeper stories behind success and transformation
  
• Garry’s journey through chronic pain, entrepreneurship, and personal reinvention
  
• How Human Garage became a global movement focused on stress, alignment, and self-healing
  
• The moment surrender changed everything — including time spent in solitary confinement
  
• Why pain may be a messenger rather than something to eliminate
  
• Fascial maneuvers as a “language” between body and consciousness
  
• The role of coherence, higher awareness, and self-sovereignty in a rapidly changing world
  
• Predictions about global change and why inner alignment may matter more than ever

🌍 About Garry Lineham

Garry Lineham is the co-founder and driving force behind Human Garage, a global movement focused on stress reduction, fascia health, and the body’s innate capacity to heal.

After spending over two decades and millions of dollars searching for relief from chronic pain, Garry’s personal journey evolved into a mission to make healing tools accessible to everyone. Human Garage’s fascial maneuvers are practiced by millions worldwide and have generated hundreds of millions of downloads and views.

Today, Garry travels internationally sharing a philosophy rooted in awareness, sovereignty, and the intelligence of the human body.

🔗 Links & Resources

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd3dxTJ4ZaqaJkWEsmixRAw

Website

humangarage.net

Instagram

instagram.com/humangarage

TikTok

tiktok.com/@humangarage

Facebook

facebook.com/profile.php?id=100085629812255

🎧 About The Unknown Path

Hosted by Jem Fuller, The Unknown Path explores the real journeys behind transformation — the grit, synchronicity, hard knocks, and unseen moments that shape meaningful lives and movements.