In this opening segment of the Pass the Mic podcast, host Virginie Glaenzer introduces the episode’s focus on authenticity and conducts a rapid round‑table introduction of the guests. Each participant shares their name, professional background, and personal motivation for exploring authenticity. Jim Spivey, a partner at Mazzi Partners and veteran executive coach, frames authenticity as stripping away ego to live one’s true self. Aaron Forrest, an architect‑turned‑spiritual seeker, recounts a sudden awakening that shifted his perception beyond ego, prompting a quest to understand reality and purpose. A philosopher (referred to as Speaker D) describes an existential‑beat perspective, linking authenticity to reconciling personal freedom with societal roles after a long road‑trip. Misty Gilbert, a former cult survivor and transformation coach, speaks of turning pain into power by shedding masks and embracing vulnerability. The segment sets the stage for deeper discussion by highlighting diverse life experiences that converge on the central theme of living authentically.
Chapters
Welcome to Pass the Mic podcast with Melissa Nadia Viviana, who will lead our conversation on the topic of authenticity. My name is Virginie Glaenzer, and I'm your host with a million questions. Pass the Mic podcast, if you're not familiar, is about sharing different perspectives on a specific topic, not only to help us expand our understanding of the world, but also to explore new ways of of looking at it. Before we start our conversation, let's begin as we always do with a tour de table and have each of you tell us your name, what you do, and why you're interested in this topic. Please try to be brief and keep it to your introduction to about a minute. So why don't we begin with Jim?
Okay, wonderful. Well, it's a pleasure to be here and nice to meet everyone. My name is Jim Spivey. I'm a partner in a small consultancy called Mazzi Partners. Mazzi means together in Greek. Our life's work, all of our work is about authenticity, strangely enough.
Yeah.
Uh, discovering and living out of our true selves is what we're about. My background is in business. I've been a CEO of a technology company. I've been an executive coach for 20 years. I've, I've done a lot of different things, and most of them were out of my ego. And learning how to strip that away to get to my authentic self is what I care about. So this is perfect for me, and I feel really welcome and excited to be here.
Wonderful. Well, thank you to be— thank you for being here. Aaron?
Hi, yes, I'm Aaron Forrest. I'm from Seattle, Washington. And my background is in architecture and design. I have a degree in architecture, never really followed up on it that much professionally. I got involved with a family business building log homes, and I am involved in the design and the project management of that. In fact, I'm speaking to you from my office at that particular business. My story somewhat is one of not really having figured out life, until, uh, just a few years ago, I really struggled and bumbled about in life, uh, feeling like I was just not accomplishing, not really, uh, being a very worthy person. Um, I just didn't feel like I fit in or knew my life's purpose. And one day about 5 years ago, completely out of the blue, it was not something I was searching or seeking. I was hit with a spiritual awakening, which essentially is a perceptual shift outside of the ego and a new awareness as such of, well, for one, our authentic self and a better idea of the nature of reality comes outside of that too as well. So these last 5 years or so have been one of a skyrocketing purpose and mission that I've had, uh, similar to, I think a lot of people here just to discover more about Who I am, who we are, what life and reality is. And so I, I do a lot of study on the topic, uh, in general of spirituality and authenticity is real key to that. As I know we're going to find out from most of us, uh, outside of ego is where we begin to find authenticity.
Wonderful. Thank you very much for being here, Melissa.
Oh, I thought I went last.
I'm changing a little bit the turn, so you— because I do want to hear who you are and why you're here, and then I, you know, so—
Okay, perfect.
Sorry, this is our third video together, so— I know, not planning on speaking yet. So I'm actually a philosopher. I write philosophy, a little bit of psychology, and about society. I kind of call myself an existentialist and also a beat philosopher because I like to express that I'm outside of the institutions, that I have more of an artistic view of philosophy. Last year I went on a road trip, 8 months, 15,000 miles with my Dalmatian and just me and my Dalmatian. We actually spent a lot of time in Seattle. That's why I know that winter there is awesome, Aaron. But it was very interesting for me to be on the road and get back to a little bit of a memory that I had when I grew up in Montana. I was kind of alone with the mountains and I realized for the first 7 years of my life I had developed without any interference. I had just been free to express myself. So there was a reconciling of who I had become from living in a city, which I live— I live in DC, and who I used to be in that freedom. So recently, authenticity, even though it was always important, has been mostly a reconciling of how do you balance being something for society and being something for yourself. So that's going to be my perspective today.
Thank you so much. Can't wait.
Misty? My name is Misty Gilbert and I am from Fort Worth, Texas. I was born and raised in California. I spent 37 years in a cult environment, something I was born and raised to. My mom was born and raised to a very abusive childhood and I lived hiding behind my pain and the religion and spirituality. And so my journey of transformation since that time the last 6 years or so has been learning how to be authentic, how to be myself, how to own my story, how to share that with the world who is generally unable to accept and really have compassion or empathy or even relate to someone who's had the abuse that I've had. And so my journey of my life is to be a ripple effect to encourage, support, and inspire other people. To be themselves. And to be yourself means you have to be authentic, which means you have to remove the mask. You have to be open, real, raw, and vulnerable. So as a transformation coach, my purpose is to help people do what I've done, which is to embrace my pain and turn my pain into power.
Beautiful. Thank you very much. Um, and finally, um, Ashok.
Right.
Uh, my name is Ashok Zaman. I was, uh, born and raised in Sydney, Australia. I'm currently living in Shanghai at the moment. My background, especially with regards to this conversation, is in meditation. I've worn many hats in the world. I've been a full-time journalist, an actor and a model. I've run my own company for a little while. And teaching meditation as well. I started meditating when I was about 19, so that was in 1996. If you're good at maths, very quickly you can figure out how old I am. And I started with a year of full-time practice. So I dropped out of university at the time. I was studying psychology and I just felt as though what I was learning there lacked meaning. It lacked, It felt like it was empty and I was looking for something more meaningful. And I'd always been interested in meditation and sort of looking at what's behind all these appearances and all the masks. So I basically dove in the deep end and went for a year full-time practice, at its peak doing like 10, 12 hours a day for a few months. And needless to say, it's changed a lot of things and it's been a major part of my life ever since then.
