Arlene Is Alone with Todd Talbot

Todd Talbot, co-host of Love It or List It Vancouver, joins Arlene for a conversation about the pressure of being a public persona, how life has changed for younger generations, and his passion for sustainable housing. Todd opens up about losing his family's EhFrame cabin to the McDougall Creek Wildfire in 2023, how that loss shaped his mission to build climate-resilient homes, and the personal work he's doing to keep growing and evolving. Plus, a hilarious story about his unexpected 'cameos' in Barbie and Wicked.

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:04

One of the things that that I hear oftentimes, and we did the show for so long, so kids would watch it with their parents because it was family-friendly content. And I never thought that that would happen. I thought, well, why would kids care about this conversation? But they did, and they kind of grew up with it, and it was a kind of a bonding experience for families to watch this content. And um, and people like it gave them a little bit of joy watching the show. And uh that was one of the things I strategically went into it with. Like I was gonna bring, I was gonna try and bring humor to it. You know, that was one of the things I thought.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

You do have a good sense of humor in it.

SPEAKER_06 0:46

Yeah, I I feel like recently I've kind of lost it. I'm not sure. I was hoping it might be here.

SPEAKER_03 0:53

Hi everyone, it's Arlene Dickinson.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Welcome to this week's episode of Arlene is alone. Most people know Todd Talbot as the guy who spent over a decade on Canadian television helping families decide whether to love it or list it. As co-host of Love It or List It Vancouver, he's walked hundreds of families through one of the biggest decisions they'll ever make: stay in the home they've outgrown or start over somewhere new. But anyone who's watched him knows the show was never really about real estate. It was about the people standing in the kitchen, what they wanted, what they were afraid of, what they were trying to build together. Off camera, Todd is a husband and a dad, a Vancouverite, someone who pays attention, and someone who genuinely cares how the people around him are doing. Today, on Arlene is alone, Arlene sits down with Todd Talbot.

SPEAKER_03 1:53

Hi everyone, welcome back to this episode of Arlene's Alone, and today I am alone with Todd Talbot.

SPEAKER_06 1:58

You're alone with me? I am alone with a joke about that. I was like, you're not alone. I'm here on your Dusty Rose couch. Isn't that pretty? Is that what the color is?

SPEAKER_03 2:08

I don't know. It's uh yes, I would call it Dusty Rose. It's pretty. You can call it whatever you want. Okay, cool. You're the design guy. Like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 2:15

These guys in the camera, they can just color correctly to whatever I say.

SPEAKER_03 2:18

Make it whatever color. It's like a green screen, it could be whatever color it wants to be. So, Todd, you you've had a like, first of all, thank you for coming on.

SPEAKER_06 2:26

Thanks for having me. Thanks for buying a place in the in Vancouver. And uh, you know, hosting down here.

SPEAKER_03 2:32

Well, you said you I heard you say when you came in on set, you said, you know, I say yes to everything. You said that. Yes. I felt a little bit like, really? It wasn't like this wasn't special.

SPEAKER_06 2:43

Well, it is special for a couple of reasons. One, uh, when Fiona, one of your producers, reached out to me, who I've known for a long time, and said that you were doing a podcast, and I was like, oh, there was a like a little bump of excitement. That's why I said yes. Because, although, you know, in this format it sounds like I'm sucking up to you, but I am a fan. I I uh watched Dragon's Den in the early years a lot. Um, and one of the things that always struck me was the episode that you did where you you guys went back and looked at your childhood home. That I watched that episode of your journey and uh and it always stuck with me. So I've always I've kind of observed uh you and kind of your goings on in the media world, and but we've never crossed paths. No, we so that's why I said yes, and I also have a problem saying yes to everything.

SPEAKER_03 3:32

Yeah, I get that. I'm I'm kind of the same way, but that episode that you just brought me back. Like honestly, I forgot that we had done that episode, and that episode was when we had moved to Calgary. Um, when we had come to from South Africa to Edmonton and then Edmonton to Calgary. And when we came to Calgary, we had my dad had finally saved enough money to buy a home in Varsity Acres, which is a community in the northwest of Calgary, and he paid $12,000 for that home. And I'll never forget him telling us that that home was costing him $120 a month for the next 20 years or whatever it was, and that like he didn't know how he was gonna pay the mortgage payment. And um, and I I just and it was back then they built homes like every it was a New West development. Do you remember New West developers? No, so New West would it was a New West development, and so what they did was every third or fourth house was exactly the same. So they would have a bungalow, right? They would have a uh split level, they would have a two-story, and then they'd have a another bungalow and it would be the same, but they would just change the color of the exterior. We had a bungalow. Oh, yeah. It was like we only had a $12,000 budget.

SPEAKER_06 4:39

Like it was like imagine $12,000. Oh, I know, but you can't even pay your property taxes for $12,000 now.

SPEAKER_03 4:45

But going back to that home was it, it was it was it was surreal for me because you know how you remember things as a kid, like the rooms are bigger and everything is like is different in terms of kind of size and scale. And that home had not changed. Whoever had bought that home over the years hadn't done any renovation to it. So I literally walked into my childhood and it was like wow. I you know, like it was like just so many weird movies.

SPEAKER_06 5:13

How many years were you there? I feel like I'm doing the interview.

SPEAKER_03 5:15

Yeah, I was gonna say well, it's not really an interview, it's a conversation. If it's an interview, it's alone.

SPEAKER_06 5:21

Thomas alone with a welcome back.

SPEAKER_03 5:23

Um, I was we were there from the time I was uh six years old to the time I was 13 years old. Okay. So yeah, a lot enough of my childhood to really have formative years, yeah. And when I got bullied and I was like a loner, and you know, that's a that is a whole other Arlene is a loser show. Arlene was a loser show. Arlene was a loner show, not a loser. We all have those stories. I wouldn't say loser, I'd say I was a loner. I was very much a loner.

SPEAKER_06 5:48

Were you?

SPEAKER_03 5:49

Yeah, now I'm uh Arlene is alone. You can see it's kind of simple. A theme. It's a theme. You, however, are not alone. You're married, you've got kids.

SPEAKER_06 5:58

I am married uh uh to Rebecca. Um we've been married for almost 20 years now. We've been together for over 25 years, and um we have two kids. My daughter's 16, and my son will be 15 in a couple weeks.

SPEAKER_03 6:14

What is it like to watch your kids going through the things that you still feel like you're probably still going through yourself, right? Because you remember those years.

SPEAKER_06 6:22

Those are really you start to remember them. Yeah. Uh I would say that like right now in this stage of life, what they're going through and what I'm learning, kind of going through with them. Um it's uh it's a tricky time. Um not that I want to be emotional about it, but it's it's um lots of uh lots of learning uh for me as I observe and remember as well, like kind of what I went through. But I I'm not sure it's the same experience that kids are going through today that that I went through or generations before went through. I think it's more complicated. We were talking before we started about some of the changes in in the jobs that uh people are looking to do, and will will those be around and wars are breaking out. I mean, there's all kinds of crazy stuff going on, and I think that part of that pressure weighs very heavily on kind of young adults kind of through their teen years and as they're looking and being asked about what they're going to do and where they're gonna go to school, if they go to university, and it's just a it's a ton of pressure, and kind of watching it and really wanting to jump in and help them be happy and safe, and knowing that finding that balance of being like, How much are you being involved and how much are you stepping back to let them fail a little bit from time to time? And I'm not sure I've got it right, but um I'm trying to figure it out every day.

SPEAKER_03 8:02

Why does that make you emotional? Like I I could I could see it in your face.

SPEAKER_06 8:06

Like, what what what what impacts you like in um it's tricky in these formats to be able to be completely open and transparent about it, especially if you're telling someone else's story. Yeah. So to kind of relate it back to me is is um yeah, just you know, I think the experience of going through high school is very interesting. Um and I I personally didn't love high school. Uh I didn't, I didn't like I was really looking forward to getting out. And I think you know, my life started to get better and better as I left high school and I was able to kind of do some of the things that I wanted to do. And the social dynamic is is tricky at that age. And I think a lot about like how I navigated it and how we talk about being alone, you know, sometimes you are alone, and how how did you figure that out? And um, I also think you know, go our our kids went through COVID at a really uh pivotal time, and um so I think some of that weighs in on it. But don't get me wrong, my kids are amazing and they're gonna flourish, and I'm sure everyone finds their path through. But um this particular time is is tricky.

SPEAKER_03 9:26

Yeah, it is. I I as you're talking, I'm thinking about, you know, I've my children are grown, but they're no matter where they are, what I whatever age they are, you really wear their their pain. You you wear it in a different way. You you want to to take it away from them, you want to live their life and tell them not to make the mistakes, and and yet they do. And I've dealt with lots of challenges with my family over the years. I've I always said if you have more than one child, there's always going to be drama somewhere with one of them at any given time. Maybe even with one child, there's always drama. But I I I do feel like it's um in today's world, it's very difficult for to you want your kids to have hopes and aspirations and to feel like anything's possible. And I think right now that's not what they're think they're feeling.

SPEAKER_06 10:15

I think that idea of possibility is the thing that must be very tricky. Because I've always operated my life with this idea that, yeah, if we work hard enough, uh have a clear enough vision or a dream, just put your head down and it's possible. And I think that, you know, I've managed to make a lot of those things come true for myself. Um, but if I put myself into being a 16-year-old again, I don't know. Like I don't I don't want to sound uh like a downer about the whole thing. I think that it will reshape and and people are resilient and they can figure out a way through. But like you said, it's it's hard to watch and not jump in and try and fix. Yeah. And I think that's where like I'm 52 now and I feel like I'm in a kind of a Bambi-ish stage again in my own life, trying to figure out how I upgrade myself to kind of this new experience. And um yeah, so you know, lots of therapy these days and working on myself and just trying to figure it all out.

SPEAKER_03 11:21

And and what are you what are you uncovering? Like that's interesting to me because I there's like are you are you when you when you I mean I I'm not asking you to tell us what's happening in the in the on the on the not Dusty Rose couch, but um when you're when you're on the couch and you're talking about yourself at 52, because I remember that age, you know, the 50s are really an interesting time in your life that you are kind of going, who am I? Like I need to like my own.

SPEAKER_06 11:46

I thought this exploration was gonna be done. No, I had this idea that um when I was in my 20s, you'll appreciate this as you know, an entrepreneur and business person. It's like I had a very clear financial path. It was ridiculous because the first 20 years of my life, I was a professional actor primarily in live theater. So you're not making a ton of money. Uh, but it was great when you were single and all that stuff. So I opened an ING savings account. I don't even think ING exists anymore. And you could put a few dollars into this thing, but you had to name the account. And I was like, Freedom 45. That's when I'm gonna retire. I'm gonna retire at free at 45, and at least kind of financially. And so that was that was kind of how I uh lived my life. I was kind of always had that as a goal. And then you get to 45 and you think, oh my goodness, like there's just so much going on, lots of opportunities, lots of responsibilities, and this idea of retirement also starts to shift. Like, what is that? Is it what you saw in your grandparents' age? And I don't know, like I've really abandoned this idea of retirement and kind of trying to redefine it and figure out what I want to do. But yeah, the 50s feel almost like the late teens. Maybe that's what's going on, is that I'm in a parallel experience with my kids. And um, you know, in terms of in terms of like me trying to figure out what's going on is the best way that I can describe it is like an analogy of like the operating system on your phone. You get this little update, and you go, I don't want to update my phone because I really love the operating system. It works really well. It's got lots of track record, lots of success. You know, I've kind of accomplished the things that I wanted to accomplish, and I've done it in a way that has been successful for me. But I'm not sure there's a point in time where you have to kind of let that go and sit with a new operating system and figure out if some of those shifts are better. And I think for me, one of them is not to push so hard, um, kind of uh in terms of like my way of doing things being the right way and uh listening to my wife and my daughter and my son, and um trying to just recalibrate a little bit. I mean, it's it's it's nuanced, it's not like full swing of some kind of massive change, but um yeah, I'm not sure that answers your question. No, it does. It's a little it's tricky to answer.

SPEAKER_03 14:30

It is, but it's like reinvention. You know, you you've reinvented yourself several times in your career already, right? You and I know like I was just doing some homework on you, and I and I know that you had to reinvent yourself, or you have reinvented yourself when you lost your family cottage, as an example, right? Yeah. Um so tell me, like, let's just go back to like tell me about it.

SPEAKER_06 14:49

Yeah, just kind of throw that all in the mix for the last like three years.

SPEAKER_03 14:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 14:53

Um, yeah, I'd spent, I decided to leave Love It Orlisted, which was a uh interesting journey. And um the thing that I wanted to do after that was I wanted to build this home uh in the Okanagan. So I took three years and I really dedicated myself to it. I built it with my own two hands and another buddy of mine, and we brought some other people in from time to time. But it was a it was the most ambitious thing I had ever done. I was really passionate about something that uh is quite nerdy in the building world, but passive host construction and high performance building. And on this cliff, we built this A-frame.

SPEAKER_04 15:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 15:32

And uh, and then right at the finish line, the McDougall Creek Wildfire comes through in 2023 and wipes out us along with another hundred homes. And um, you never think that that's ever gonna happen. You watch it happen all around, like anything in life. Um, you know, you think you're kind of naively immune to some of these things, and then all of a sudden it reaches up and slaps you. So we've gone through that process, and uh, you know, the the house is what it is, and no one was hurt uh anywhere in that fire. So that's all great. But there's like trailing effects to some of these things in terms of like you had this vision of how you were going to live there. And I figured that, you know, Rebecca and I would probably, you know, once the kids move out, maybe we would live there. And uh so you it kind of shifts the trajectory of what you're doing and how you might experience life. And um, you know, it was a big that property was a big part of our life for uh, you know, in the summers. And um, and I and I I put three years into it away from the my family who are living down here in Vancouver. So that's probably the biggest, uh, the biggest cost that, you know, besides the financial side of it, which was significant too.

SPEAKER_03 16:47

But out of out of that came like a purpose for you, right? Out of that came what you're now doing, correct?

SPEAKER_06 16:52

Yeah, I mean, ultimately I am wired to be positive and and kind of look for the opportunity within something like that. And um, you know, we spent a couple years trying to figure out what the next stage would be, and and uh we had an opportunity to again document this part of the journey. So we're shooting another television series for cottage life, and um we've kind of taken it on in two ways. One is to address how people are building today in our changed climate. Like that's that's just a reality we're living in right now. We're going through an atmospheric river right now. We've got extreme heat in the summer, cold, we've got forest fires, all kinds of things that are going on. So we need to actually protect the space that we should feel the safest in. And that's gonna take some changes. It's gonna change, take changes in the building code, it's gonna take changes with construction. And the other part which is exciting is to do with our housing crisis and our ability to build homes faster. And so there's a lot of push right now around modularity and how we can build homes within a controlled environment, so in a factory situation, and then get them out in a way that still people want to live in these spaces. So they need to be aspirational, right? Um, but they also need to be able to be built fast and at a high quality. So we are embracing volumetric modular, which means like done, done. These mods come, six mods, we crane them onto the cliff and we stagger them so they look very cool. And technically you can move right in. So there's lots going on in the conversation around housing. You talk about, you know, your first home was $112,000. Well, that's a that's a pipe dream now. So, you know, we need to find new solutions. And uh, you know, this was an interesting opportunity to kind of test that theory, showcase it, and see if there's um, you know, a way to kind of speed up this process.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

One of the things that I notice when I come to Vancouver, I mean, I I love the city, um, obviously I'm I'm here, but I can't help but notice the divide. And the divide between the the homelessness, the the drug challenges that are here, the you know, there the the lack of social construct that allows people to live with dignity and to, you know, like there you've got homes that are worth a lot of money, and then you know, you'll walk outside and you will see somebody on the street who has no money. And and and you see it everywhere, but in Vancouver, I think you see it more than in most cities.

SPEAKER_06 19:30

It's very concentrated right here in the downtown east side, and it's I I live on the east side, so I drive right through that. Coming down here, I drove through it. Yeah, and it is incredibly shocking for anyone who has never experienced it. It is, it feels like Armageddon. And at the same time, there's you know, real people struggling there, and it's very difficult to sit in your car and see this and try and understand how it's even possible, as you say, like in this city of extreme wealth, to have that uh situation going on. Where actually I was at uh the YWCA yesterday. We had uh we've been having these meetings with the, and I've been learning about their organization, which is so impactful. Um, and we're looking at a development site to do social housing with them. Um and um, you know, we started off with this property that I've owned for over 20 years, and we were gonna develop it. And of course, your first instinct is well, it's gonna be market housing and they'll be sold, kind of like everyone does. And then we moved to like, oh, well, maybe it should be market rental. And then we got kind of keyed into the social housing element, which is a whole different world, and got connected with YWCA. And the reason I bring that up is because a lot of times on the downtown east side, you see the you see you in your face, you get to see the homelessness right there. Um, but the homelessness that you don't see is women with children. Because if you're on the street with a child, your child will be taken away. Right. And the stakes are too high for that. So you have this hidden homelessness that's happening not only here, but I'm sure everywhere. But it's a huge problem in Vancouver as well. And so organizate there's many organizations, but YWCA is a key one where they're focused on, you know, women who have kids and trying to find housing in this in this market that's extremely difficult to pay for.

SPEAKER_03 21:38

I love that you're that you have found that purpose. Like I I love that. I mean, I your career's interesting to me because you uh there's some parallels to what I've gone through. When I think about you started off as an actor, you wanted to be an actor, and your acting career took you into Love It or List It. Yeah. Vancouver. In a weird way. In a weird way. Yes. And the that Is that what got you into property development and and like what got you from being an actor to having a passion for building and development?

SPEAKER_06 22:07

Like where was where was Yeah, I mean I I I'm not exactly sure where the first part of it started, but I was really because I was a theater actor and I was, you know, I was very grateful to be successful enough to work full-time. As a guy who could do uh, you know, film and television and straight plays as well as musical theater, there was kind of enough work around the country to jump around. So that was great. Um, but I also looked down the line at like, okay, what happens in the future? I need to be able to like buy a place at some point. So I managed to buy my first place. Um, my brother introduced me, who's an accountant, um, uh, gave me this book about refinancing. And I was like, this idea, like, does everyone know about this?

SPEAKER_02 22:57

Was it like Wealthy Barber?

SPEAKER_06 22:58

Well, The Wealthy Barber was I I had read The Wealthy Barber as a teenager. Um, so I'd kind of had that idea. But David wasn't a huge real estate guy at the time.

SPEAKER_03 23:09

At the time.

SPEAKER_06 23:09

So there wasn't a lot of real estate exposure in that book. Um, but it was actually Robert Kaisaki's real estate guy, Dolph DeRuz. I don't know if you know him. And uh, anyways, long story short, I thought this was an interesting thing, and I'd always in the back of my mind wanted to buy an old house and renovate it. Like I just really liked that idea. And so I started experimenting with buying properties in Vancouver, and one thing kind of led to another. And I was really kind of closeted in my real estate journey. I was a full-time actor and I didn't want to kind of dilute that image. So I just kept this side quiet. I had no interest in ever having it be a business for anything else. But actor friends would ask me, well, how do you do this? Like, how do you buy a place? And so I'd go out for a coffee or a beer with people and explain it. And eventually I got everyone together and we did like a workshop. I didn't even know that people got paid for workshops. I think we made people pay 10 bucks and we donated it to charity. Um, so this momentum of understanding the mechanisms in real estate and how you could use it on a personal level to kind of figure out your financial foundation and kind of set yourself up, primarily as an actor.

SPEAKER_04 24:21

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_06 24:22

Give yourself some leeway. So if you've got this financial peace underneath you, you don't have to be desperate when you go into an audition room. And that desperation is a killer. So that's kind of how it started. And as things grew, I kind of expanded my exploration into the world of real estate. I was still acting at the same time. And then I don't know if you know Shell Pierce, he was hired to produce Love and Orliste Vancouver. And Shell and I had worked on a number of shows since I was a teenager. And he phones me on the first day of rehearsal uh for High Society. I was doing the musical at uh at the arts club. And he said, uh, you know, would you be interested in doing this show? Uh Love and Orlisted. And uh, you know, we're looking for a guy and we haven't been able to find somebody. And and I was like, sure. I had two babies.

SPEAKER_03 25:09

Because you always say yes to everything. Yeah, you say yes to everything. There's a theme here. I gotta say yes to that.

SPEAKER_06 25:13

Yeah, so we had like two babies. I figured we'd do one season, it would be a gig like anything else. And um, you know, it kind of brought these two worlds together, and we ended up doing a 131-hour episodes. We shot for like eight years almost straight. And um it was definitely time for me to leave. Um, but and I I I Wikipedia'd you as well. We have a very similar time frame because I think you left Dragon's Den at around kind of that seven, eight year mark.

SPEAKER_03 25:42

Um, it was nine years for me. Nine years. Yeah, nine years, and then I left for two years, but I went back.

SPEAKER_06 25:47

You went back. I went back, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:49

Um, but I went back for different for different reasons than I went in the first place. So yeah, it's I think sometimes we get into these shows and we think they're they're gigs, like you say, but then you get into them and you go, wait a minute, this is actually really meaningful because I I I can imagine for you when you when people the emotional roller coaster that you take people on in that show is insane. That's very much like Dragon's Den. You know, they go on this emotional roller coaster. They're this is their this is where they live in your case. This is their home. They have attachments to things and they're very vulnerable, and they're putting it in your hands to do stuff with, right? It's like crazy.

SPEAKER_06 26:25

And there's this weird dichotomy with these types of shows, too. There's the public-facing side, right? So the thing that people see, and then of course, there's the behind the scenes elements that you're living on a couple of different layers, the part that you might not show the public. Um, and so you know, you the sausage being made. Yeah, and I think, you know, as a as a host, some people are not affected by the authenticity of things, and they're happy to be like, yeah, it's great. You know, I'm a host. I come out here, I do my dog and pony show, and then I go and live my life. And it's and it's uh, you know, it has its benefits. And for me, I I just I felt like I was ready to move on from that. It just felt like it was time kind of took it.

SPEAKER_03 27:08

Because it was hard on you because you were involved, like you were.

SPEAKER_06 27:11

Yeah, it was just more kind of like the behind the scenes part. I I don't think I appreciated the impact. I think, you know, one of the things that that I hear oftentimes, and we did the show for so long, so kids would watch it with their parents because it was family-friendly content. And I never thought that that would happen. I thought, well, why would kids care about this conversation? But they did, and they kind of grew up with it, and it was a kind of a bonding experience for families to watch this content. And um, and people like it gave them a little bit of joy watching the show. Right. And uh that was one of the things I strategically went into it with. Like I was gonna bring, I was gonna try and bring humor to it. You know, that was one of the things I thought.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

You do have a good sense of humor in it.

SPEAKER_06 27:59

Yeah, I I feel like recently I've kind of lost it. I'm not sure. I was hoping it might be here. Um, but yeah, I, you know, so I think people enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_03 28:07

You left it behind at 50 at 51.

unknown 28:10

Yeah, 51.

SPEAKER_06 28:11

Is that what happened? At 52. It's 52.

SPEAKER_03 28:13

Your humor goes.

SPEAKER_06 28:14

Yeah, 52. Yeah. Do you get it back?

SPEAKER_03 28:18

A different version of it. You get something back. I'm not sure what you get. Yeah, I think you do get it back.

SPEAKER_06 28:23

Okay, good. Yeah. So anyway, you know, it's it's the scripted world is interesting because everyone knows it's make-believe.

SPEAKER_04 28:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 28:29

And there's this agreement that everyone has that if you do a good enough job, a scripted TV show or a play, uh, you do it well, people go, oh, that was great. But when you come off, they don't think you're the character. They go, Arlene, you did such a great job in this in the show. And then you do kind of this lifestyle y reality world where you're using your own name and a lot of who you are, but not necessarily all of it, and you're within a structure that is kind of like put on you. And people think that that is who you are. And I struggled with that a lot.

SPEAKER_04 29:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 29:06

Um, I didn't like the fact that people thought I was this one thing. I now have come to terms with it and realized that, you know, the public has trouble understanding that you can be multiple things at any one time. We know that in real life, but we don't recognize it on TV, um, generally speaking. And uh I'm cool with it now, but I wasn't. No, I really swam upstream against that idea.

SPEAKER_03 29:36

Yeah, no, I really resonate. Everything you're saying really resonates with me because I would say when I left the show was a little bit of that. I went to see a psychologist the same time. I don't know, like I'm on this show, and I don't know what I should do. And you know, there was a lot of, well, maybe it's it's too much of your identity. And I said, but it's really not my identity. And um, what it's fascinating for me is one of the reasons I love doing this show is that many people say, It's so nice to see a different side of you. And I'm thinking, but this is this is who I am, and all it also is who I am on the show. I mean, one of the things about Dragons Den is we can be, you know, I I am, I I can't, I don't know how to act. I'm not an actor.

SPEAKER_06 30:14

But there is a heightened performative nature to it, right? So, like there's an edited nature to it.

SPEAKER_03 30:19

And there's an edited nature, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 30:21

And that also is out of, you know, depends on how far up the food chain you are. But you know, it's it's kind of out of your control to a certain extent. You can start to self-edit and know that I'm not gonna say that on camera because they're gonna use it. And so you start to kind of manipulate the edit and the performance that you'll give. At least that's what I would do. Um, so I could kind of force their hand on the edit side uh by not giving them an option.

SPEAKER_03 30:47

You're way smarter than I. I mean, had I thought of that, I might have tried that. But you know, I I I think in Dragon's Den, they don't really, you know, I don't think they're it's not edited like some reality TV is where it really is trying to find the sensationalism. I don't think that's this is more about trying to find the story in the entrepreneur, and I think it's a little bit different, but um I would have traded places with you. Well, you could have left. Oh, topic, real estate mobile. I mean, honestly, that's what you you like. Think about what you've done.

SPEAKER_06 31:15

Well, they've got Drew on there now, so they've got that, they've got that corner.

SPEAKER_03 31:18

Uh, Drew, yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah. Maybe maybe we should have had you on there to put you on next. Who knows? Um, you're very understated because you are very accomplished. And there's a humbleness about you, Todd, that I find really it's really endearing because you have done a lot. Like you, you don't sit here and brag about it, but you know, the theater, the TV, you've done multiple shows, you've been in uh many casts, you've done a lot of cameo appearances on major, major productions.

SPEAKER_06 31:49

So the two that you're about to name is a is a funny story. So uh Barbie and Wicked.

SPEAKER_04 31:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 31:55

So I went to theater school in England, yeah, and I show up as the only Canadian there. And uh in my second year, this guy shows up who's British and he has the exact same name as me. His name is Todd Talbot. And so he and I went through this program, him one year behind me. And so he's performing in England, but IMDB gets us confused. I don't know what the other Todd has to explain about real estate or unrelated or anything like that. But he's a great guy. He's a great performer. He was in the uh he was in the cast of Wicked and and uh I took the kids to C Barbie and I saw him in that. So those two credits are his.

SPEAKER_02 32:37

Oh, those aren't you?

SPEAKER_06 32:39

Those aren't me.

SPEAKER_02 32:39

Shut up.

SPEAKER_06 32:41

See, people ask me about that.

SPEAKER_02 32:43

In fact, I would say to people, yes, that was me. Kate, didn't you see me on the screen?

SPEAKER_06 32:47

So people again, authenticity. It's my downfall. Yeah, I don't know. So the funniest thing is I get a call from uh my lawyer who got a call from another lawyer with a check for me.

SPEAKER_02 33:04

Did you take the check? I didn't. I didn't honestly.

SPEAKER_06 33:07

Yeah, that was honest, but I had a check for Barbie coming to me. It was in my name. I'm sure I could have catched it. I was like, oh my God, this is crazy. Like someone's trying to track me down. Multiple lawyers, they finally get to me, and I was like, nope, you get the wrong ton. But I know the other ton.

SPEAKER_02 33:25

Okay, well, you're still very humble because you still have outside the fact that you know I'm a little, I gotta say it's a lunch bag let on that.

SPEAKER_03 33:31

You weren't on Barbie and you weren't on Wicked. But that's okay. Yeah, I can get past it. I mean, uh, but I I you is it because you're Canadian? Is it your upbringing? Like, what makes you what makes you so authentic and real and like so humble about what you've done? Because you are understating kind of the real estate, the development, like all of it.

SPEAKER_06 33:55

I think Canadian might be a little bit of the mix. Yeah, I started in film and television when I was quite young. Like uh started acting professionally when I was 13 or 14. Had my first big break doing a television series for five seasons for Nickelodeon in the States, alongside to name drop Ryan Reynolds and a few other kind of established Canadian actors. So that was our first gig that we kind of all did together. We cut our teeth on that. I think it's part of my upbringing. My parents, if they if they listen or watch, uh, you know, I don't think they celebrated what any of their kids did in a way that some people might think, you know, to land your first big gig, you know, you're on an international television show. And it was like, it was really no big deal in our house. Yeah, I rode my bike the very first season. We ended up shooting it at Universal Studios in Orlando, Orlando, but the very first season we shot at the BC TV Studios, uh, which isn't called that anymore. But we lived close by. Like, I literally rode my bike for the callback. I took the bus from Penticton, had to get my buddy to run lines with me. Like, my parents were like, Yeah, you can go, but you gotta figure out how to get there. I was 15 years old. So there's a kind of like a worker attitude. Um, I also believe strongly, which I reserve the right to change my opinion, but I've really uh believed that hard work is kind of at the core of my success at whatever level that may be. And I think when you think about it that way, it's like it can be fleeting. There's a part of me that's always a little bit worried about it. So um to overstate something it feels dangerous to me.

SPEAKER_03 35:48

Um, I understand that. Do you did you grow up with uh were you was your middle class family or yeah, middle class family?

SPEAKER_06 35:54

I mean, uh we I would say definitely privileged on a certain level, but I'm the oldest of five kids. Maybe that plays into it too. We moved around a lot, you know. I started working at 14. So there's like this grind attitude to it.

SPEAKER_03 36:11

I feel that you could lose it at any time.

SPEAKER_06 36:13

Yeah, I think so. And also, like I I really don't like hearing people brag. It really turns me off. So I'm I'm on extra guard for that with myself. And I remember I remember the executive producer for Love It Or List at the very first dinner that we had here, actually just over here at uh Carderos. And she leaned over to me and said, Don't let this go to your head. And I was like, I felt extremely offended by that comment because I she didn't know me, so fair enough. But I was like, You you don't know who I am. Like I I have enough track record and I know who I am that this will not change. That the, you know, it's not gonna change me. Um it's it's not gonna go to my head in any way, shape, or form. Like, I really think long-term, it's it's it probably pulls me out of the experience of being in the here and now, which uh probably pay for. But the upside of that is I'm always protecting against the downside in the future and trying to like guard against regret. It's a big thing for me.

SPEAKER_03 37:25

It's it's a little bit of the eldest child syndrome, which is probably something you can talk to your counselor about, not me, but I think there are probably all sorts of reasons why you are.

SPEAKER_06 37:35

I'm hoping that I'm not gonna have to go and spend more money after this session.

SPEAKER_03 37:39

Maybe, maybe. I've I've I've opened up a whole other category.

SPEAKER_06 37:41

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 37:42

Um I we only just touched the surface of so many things that I wanted to talk to you about. But uh, Todd, what what's the you know, to the camera? What would you say to people about living your life? You've had such a full life and you've got lots of life ahead of you, but what would you tell people right now about the journey they're on and and how to navigate what's going on in the world?

SPEAKER_06 38:02

Oh my goodness. So to finish on a nice light question.

SPEAKER_03 38:07

Yeah, light question.

SPEAKER_06 38:08

Yeah, I mean, I I th I think the biggest thing is that everybody I think we we look at other people and we think that the circumstances are different over there, and they're oftentimes so similar underneath the surface. You know, it's funny because when I walked in here, this is your place, and you immediately apologized that things were disheveled. And I had people at my house this morning, and I immediately like I'm like, is there gonna be a time that we don't live in the chaos of life? Like that is the experience that everyone is going through in the macro and in the micro. And so I think that when we remember that everyone is going through it kind of in the same-ish way, there is comfort in that. Um, we don't have to try and pretend to be something, even though that's always in our nature. We always want to present, uh, we got our shit together, or I am more successful than I am, or whatever, whatever the case may be. The the leveling uh thing that I hope would give people comfort is that you know we're we're really all in this together. And I think that applies to so many of the challenges that we're we're facing today. And if we don't figure that out quickly, we are gonna have even more problems than we have right now. It's just so fucking divisive right now.

SPEAKER_03 39:43

And it's too much hate and too much division. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's uh that's a profound answer to what what is a a challenge and a question we're all asking ourselves. So um thanks, Todd. I uh I I hope wherever you are on your journey that uh what you've learned from Todd is going to help you along the way. And uh I'm really grateful for having a conversation with you. You made me think.

SPEAKER_06 40:09

I appreciate it. I mean, I don't know how long we spent, but that flew by.

SPEAKER_03 40:12

It did fly by