“There’s often a misconception about confidence. It’s not that I don’t feel scared, it’s that I do it anyway.” ~ Chandler Price

The parents of Chandler Price knew she was meant for the arts after seeing her dance around on the soccer field instead of helping her teammates win the game one too many times. So, they decided to enroll her in dancing, acting, and singing classes instead and young Chandler was in bliss.

She carried that bliss with her throughout her childhood and adolescence, jubilantly singing along with Disney movies; her Grammy’s musicals like Grease, Annie, and Singing in the Rain; and putting a lot of mileage on her Dad’s stereo and microphone.

But, one night before taking the stage in a musical her sophomore year of college as a theater major at Temple University in Philadelphia, Chandler was suddenly overcome with an intensely painful amount of worry and anticipation. She was fearful even. She felt too nervous to take the stage. Somehow, she pulled herself together and powered through the performances but she was left feeling miserable about the whole ordeal.

After that experience Chandler knew two things:

1) She loved music, dancing and acting.

2) She never wanted to feel that nervous again.

So, instead of giving up her passion for performing, Chandler sought out tools to help her cope with this new found self-doubt and anxiety, including yoga, journaling, mantras, learning more about her craft and preparing for it much more thoroughly.

She says this about the high-level of confidence she now cultivates, “My mantra is: ‘I’m safe and supported.’ I trust that the universe has my back as I charge ahead. I’ve made my life about getting out of my comfort zone because I’ve found that my comfort zone doesn’t include many opportunities for growth and personal growth is very important to me. So, I put myself in situations where I have to trust on a deeper level, expand, and make mistakes.”

After college, Chandler decided she needed to leave Pennsylvania or risk living in the same state her whole life. It was hard leaving her entire family behind but she packed up her cat, a few boxes of belongings and set her course for San Diego, with no place to live once she got there and no job lined up either.

But her mantra proved true.

Now, Chandler is an innovative voice & acting coach, dedicated to helping clients to express themselves with authenticity, and hone their ability to captivate any audience and make a great impact. She also has a decade of experience as a yoga teacher and somatic guide.

AND she just started hosting The Confidence Download, a podcast that explores vocal freedom, embodiment, creativity, and self-trust.

I feel so lucky to have her join me in conversation.

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**Video broadcast available** on YouTube @imperfectbest

**Learn more about Jason Freeman** at AwkwardlyAwesome.com

When I, Jason Freeman, host of Awkwardly Awesome Podcast, began talking about the power of doing my Imperfect Best in 2015, I somehow assumed I was the expert on it thanks to the adversity my speech impediment and coordination issues caused me. But, the more I spoke and wrote about it, the more I found that far from being an expert on Imperfect Best, I was very much still an eager student learning more about the concept every day and then awkwardly applying the learnings to my own life.

When I launched Awkwardly Awesome Podcast back in October of 2020, I began asking each of my guests, “What does doing your Imperfect Best mean to you?” thinking it would be a nice way to cap off the episode. I was elated to hear answers as varied as the guests I interviewed, each brilliant and expanding upon the concept of what Doing Our Imperfect Best means.

Recently, I’ve had a few fresh insights into what Imperfect Best means to me, that while very simple in nature, have created an epiphany in my way of thinking and and acting. During this episode, I’m excited to share my current Imperfect Best thinking with you and talk a bit about how 2026 has been going so far. Chris Taylor, who is a frequent Awkwardly Awesome Podcast guest and the right-hand man in my business, will be assuming the role of host for this episode. Won’t you join us for this Abundantly Imperfect Best episode?

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**Video broadcast available** on YouTube @imperfectbest

**Learn more about Jason Freeman** at AwkwardlyAwesome.com

QUESTION: What do you do when the sofa in your home becomes way too comfortable?

ANSWER: You rent out your home for half a year and become a part-time nomad.

This is precisely the type of change Breezy is continually innovating her life with.

When I met Breezy, her name was Briana. She came into my life as a mentor when I was relatively new to San Diego and needed some kind, insightful guidance. Fortunately for me, after her exceptional mentorship, we became friends.

When I met up with Briana recently during a trip to San Diego, one of the first things I learned is that she’s now going by the name given to her at Burning Man, Breezy. Life doesn’t stay the same for any of us and to proactively choose big changes like traveling the country as a nomad or asking to be called by a different name is definitely embracing the freedom to change right along with life’s constant changes and evolution.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, the youngest of four siblings, Briana’s first brush with powerfully navigating change was when she transferred from a private school where all the students wore uniforms to a public school where students had the freedom to dress as they wished. Such changes are a big deal to a kid. Briana went on to the University of Kansas, majoring in Journalism, only to realize that she had no desire for the lifestyle of being perpetually on-call, hoping to land the next news story. So, she found great success being a portrait photographer, bringing out the best in people and helping them see themselves in a new light. In her twenties, Briana also found the courage to leave a marriage with a partner who struggled with addiction. Then, one day she realized she had had it with the weather in Missouri, so after visiting various places in California, she decided to move to San Diego.

At a Mardi Gras celebration in downtown San Diego, Briana found herself mesmerized by the amount of people walking and dancing around with face and body paint. On her friend’s advice and willingness to teach the trade, Briana added face and body artist to her growing resume, discovering that she loved painting people’s faces and sometimes their entire bodies, witnessing the joy and boost of self-confidence that brought them.

Part-time nomad, Breezy is meeting many wonderful people along her journey. Sometimes she stays at their homes. Sometimes she turns her car into a house on wheels. She’s even traveled in Europe as part of this adventure. As she continues, she’s intent on finding a box truck that she can use as a mobile art studio.

Talking with Breezy reminds me that the image we hold of ourselves can become so fixed and at times even negative. Sometimes it takes a portrait photographer or a body artist to help us see the essence of ourselves in a kinder way. Sometimes it takes us deciding to travel the world for part of the year. Sometimes we even decide to change our name.

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**Video broadcast available** on YouTube @imperfectbest

**Learn more about Jason Freeman** at AwkwardlyAwesome.com

“To me money isn’t a big deal. I was a pastor. I was a teacher. I’ve worked with the homeless. My wife is an artist. We get by on less. My house tilts to the east, but it’s classy.” ~ Steve Boint

If you’ve listened to this podcast long enough, you know how much I love a good tale. Fortunately for all of us, Steve Boint, has had a life chock full of great ones. Take this one for example: During a gap year between high school and college, Steve and his friend set off on an epic, cross country hitchhiking adventure intent on exploring as much of the United States and Canada as they could. Some months into their trip they managed to get kicked out of Canada for vagrancy and were traveling through Washington State when suddenly they found themselves in the middle of what appeared to be a massive snow storm. Only it wasn’t snowing. They were engulfed in falling white ash. At the moment they were clueless as to its source but would later discover it was fallout from the Mount St. Helens eruption!

Want another one? While in college, Steve got bored one afternoon and decided to explore the art department of his small campus. He found most of the paintings dull and unimpressive and just as he began to think his trip had been a waste of effort, he stumbled upon a series of paintings that stopped him dead in his tracks because they felt like they’d somehow captured his life. The following semester, by sheer chance, he met the woman who painted the series of paintings. They soon fell in love and have now been married for over forty years!

In his early thirties, Steve decided he needed a career change and remembering his love for science, went back to college. Almost immediately he found himself facing the prospect of getting kicked out of his chemistry class because he’d somehow never taken one before, not in his first round of college, not even in high school. But he managed to impress his professor by being the only student to get a perfect score on the beginning of semester pre-test and was allowed to stay without the prerequisite.

These are but a small taste of the tales that make up Steve’s life. He’s earned master degrees in both divinity and education. He’s been a security guard who refused to carry a gun, because to his way of thinking, property is never as important as human life. He’s been a pastor, worked with people who experience homelessness, and has been a high school chemistry teacher. He’s also built musical instruments from flutes to hammer dulcimers. Today he owns Scurpea Publishing, which publishes Midwestern poets and authors, and has become a cornerstone of the South Dakota literary community.

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**Video broadcast available** on YouTube @imperfectbest

**Learn more about Jason Freeman** at AwkwardlyAwesome.com

“Pop culture isn’t just a source of entertainment; it’s a powerful force in society. It influences our beliefs, it affects our personality, and it often reflects the importance of our lives.”

~ Aiza Shahid as published on Medium

Between kindergarten and 12th grade, Chris Taylor moved five times, attended four different elementary schools, two middle schools, and two high schools, across four states spread across the country, namely Kansas, Michigan, Virginia and California. There’s no way to downplay how challenging changing schools, let alone changing states, can be for a kid, yet, Chris says the moves taught him “so much about learning to make new friends and adapt to new environments. It really helped me learn to reinvent myself and discover who I was.”

Through all the changes, Chris had the consistency of two loving parents, a brother three-and-a-half years younger than him, and pop culture. Taylor talks fondly about everything from Star Wars to Pee-Wee’s Playhouse to Nintendo to his Fisher Price record player. Things like this remained familiar friends when everything else changed around him. These cultural references, known from coast to coast, also offered great bonding tools for making new friends.

Chris talks with great passion about the importance of remembering the music, movies, TV shows and hobbies we loved when we were younger. Sometimes, we think that we become too “adult” to entertain the things that brought us joy in our youth. However, those things might not only bring us joy now, but could also hold the key to core memories that inspire our creative ideas and passion projects. For instance, as an award-winning graphic designer, Chris loves to combine imagery from the many eras of pop culture he’s witnessed into artwork that is at times parody and at other times satirical. He calls this emerging body of work Culture Pop. Chris Taylor explains, “It’s all about turning pop culture on its head and experiencing it from a different perspective. If Culture Pop makes you think, makes you laugh, makes you examine how pop culture has shaped your own identity, then it’s functioning as designed.”

I’m fascinated with how Chris uses pop culture references and memories of being a kid to energize the life he lives now. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!

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**Video broadcast available** on YouTube @imperfectbest

**Learn more about Jason Freeman** at AwkwardlyAwesome.com

David Sunde is a former firefighter and avid adventurer whose career was cut short when he suffered a stroke at the age of 56. Not content with the prospect of being mostly stuck at home while others cared for him, David leaned into his determination to continue on with his life of adventure and service. David was fortunate that he was young and in shape but still recovery was immensely challenging.

During physical therapy David discovered spin class which grew his determination to once again ride on his own, out on the open road. This evolved into connecting with friends he’d ridden with in the past and biking extremely long distances, often multi-day rides of around FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILES. He didn’t stop at exploring land, either. After his stroke, David also resumed scuba diving, even though his doctors weren’t thrilled about the idea. He also once more took up the hobby of “shooting walleye”, a fishing method I’ll be sure to ask him about during our interview.

Strokes are one the leading causes of disability in the United States and there’s much need to let survivors know there’re rewarding paths forward. David also mentors other survivors by sharing hope, stories and practical insights. As he says, “I know if I don’t do anything, I don’t help anybody. We are here on this earth to help each other.”

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**Video broadcast available** on YouTube @imperfectbest

**Learn more about Jason Freeman** at AwkwardlyAwesome.com

“Why people? People just need a little inspiration, a positive and supportive voice in their head, because when people get out of their own way, they can change the world.”

~ Aaron Johnson

Sometimes the most defining opportunities show up long before we understand their impact. Aaron Johnson was twelve years old when his father stepped away from the business that had long supported his family and chose a new path into hospitality. Along with a business partner, his father built a new Days Inn in Oacoma, South Dakota, a town of roughly 400 people along the Missouri River.

That decision set a trajectory that continues more than three decades later.

Today, Aaron is the CEO and Visionary of KAJ Hospitality, a second-generation, family-owned hotel ownership and management company founded by his father, Kevin Johnson. Now managing 14 hotels across the Midwest under brands like Hilton and Marriott, KAJ has grown with a clear belief at its core: strong businesses are built by investing in people. Aaron has been instrumental in shaping a culture that empowers team members, guests, and partners to grow, lead, and achieve more than they thought possible.

That people-first philosophy doesn’t stop with hospitality or adults.

When Aaron and his wife found themselves underwhelmed by traditional education options for their children, they began searching for something different. That search led them to the Acton Academy model, a learner-driven approach to education centered on ownership, curiosity, and resilience. Believing deeply in the model, they opened Acton Academy Sioux Falls, serving learners from pre-K through high school.

At Acton, students are called learners and teachers are guides, a reflection of the school’s belief that young people are capable of far more than we often give them credit for. Aaron describes the model this way: “Acton helps young people practice the things many of us spend our adult lives learning. Taking ownership of their work, pushing through obstacles, learning from failure, and staying motivated without someone constantly telling them what to do.”

Across both KAJ Hospitality and Acton Academy, the thread is the same. Aaron believes that leadership is not reserved for a few, and potential is not limited by age or title.

As he puts it simply, “We are all capable, and we all have the ability to lead.”

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**Video broadcast available** on YouTube @imperfectbest

**Learn more about Jason Freeman** at AwkwardlyAwesome.com

I met Jason Ranek in high school. We bonded over our shared interest in writing poetry. He challenged and inspired me to become the best poet I could be. Through the years Jason has invited me to think deeply about life, to explore meditation and rigorously reflect on what it means to be human.

I’ve also had the privilege of getting to witness his epic journey of transformation. I’ll never forget the day I asked Jason to meet me at the Greyhound station in Omaha, Nebraska so I could introduce him to the friends I was traveling with. Well, let’s just say Jason and one of these friends, a wonderful Norwegian woman, took a liking to each other. They dated and eventually got engaged and married. I’d say they hit it off pretty well! Together, they eventually moved from the prairie of South Dakota to the fjords of southern Norway.

Just as Jason had no way of knowing that his crosstown jaunt to a Greyhound station to humor a friend would have such major delightful life implications, he also had no way of predicting that his immigration to Norway would inspire an epic, decade-long book project called The Vigeland Oracle, which was published in November of 2025.

The project began taking shape shortly after Jason arrived in Norway and became immersed in its culture. He found himself especially drawn to the works of Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland, as explained on the back cover of The Vigeland Oracle, “Vigeland built a universe of granite and bronze in the heart of Oslo—statues and reliefs that capture every human emotion, struggle and triumph.” Jason’s book transforms Gustav’s “monumental sculpture park into a tool for inner work, rooted in the principle of synchronicity.”

What the back of the book doesn’t mention in its description is the thousands of hours of dedication, courage, and persistence it takes to write, edit and publish a book of this caliber. If you can’t tell, I’m extremely proud of Jason Ranek and I’m honored to have him as my next guest on the Awkwardly Awesome Podcast.

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**Video broadcast available** on YouTube @imperfectbest

**Learn more about Jason Freeman** at AwkwardlyAwesome.com