Interview with Linda McLachlan of The Arena podcast

[00:00:00] Steve Heatherington: Hi, Steve here and welcome to the pod buffet, a podcast of podcasts and an eclectic mix of flavors.

[00:00:18] And in this episode, we talk to Linda McLachlan of The Arena.

[00:00:24] Linda McLachlan: Welcome to The Arena where sometimes the hardest part is showing up. My name is Linda McLaughlin. Thank you for being here.

[00:00:35] Steve Heatherington: Hi, Linda. And welcome to the Pod Buffet. It's so good to have you here.

[00:00:40] Linda McLachlan: Thank you for asking me.

[00:00:42] Steve Heatherington: So why don't we start with you, tell us a bit about yourself and your background and where you are.

[00:00:45] Linda McLachlan: So I'm Linda McLaughlin and I have had a checkered past. I started as an actor, in my training and moved to the other side of the desk fairly quickly after I finished my training. Partly because I always wanted to be involved in the arts in some way. And so got involved in producing events, et cetera, left that a few years ago, joined a commercial company and then left that in 2018,

[00:01:18] having reached a bit of a crossroads in my life. And so I was in the process of becoming an actor again, when the pandemic struck and because we couldn't do live events and I wanted to become a performer again, I thought that maybe podcasting was a way of me being able to express myself. And what I discovered through the workshop was.

[00:01:43] A desire to share my story of radical change in my life. And to tell the stories of others who have been through something major in their life and whether they made the choice to live courageously and step into the arena of their life, or it was sort of thrust upon them through an illness or through some other sort of tragedy.

[00:02:07] So that's basically the story of how I've arrived at having a podcast.

[00:02:13] Steve Heatherington: Mm,

[00:02:14] interesting. And you're based in Canada because you've got that lovely accent. Not that, not that you think you've got an accent, you don't hear it in ourselves. I mean, I haven't got an accent any anyway.

[00:02:25] Linda McLachlan: No. No, of course not.

[00:02:28] Steve Heatherington: The title of your podcast is the arena, which evokes really strong imagery.

[00:02:34] I'm curious how you came to settle on that for the title. What does it mean for you and why did you choose it?

[00:02:41] Linda McLachlan: Renee Brown's books I've read the complete works of Bernay brown. One of her books is called daring greatly, which was drawn from the man in the arena speech, which was. Teddy Roosevelt's speech and years ago, I wasn't familiar with it and then was, was exposed to it through her, her book.

[00:03:02] And it really struck a chord with me and it stayed with me. And so as I was reflecting upon both the theme of my podcast, but also, you know, what am I going to call this? The man in the arena speech really stayed with me because I wanted to talk about courage. I wanted to give the opportunity for ordinary people to talk about their courageous journey.

[00:03:26] And so evoking the arena of Woking, that idea of, of stepping in like a gladiator to do battle with whatever it is that you are challenged by was a really strong image for me. I think it works for people when they understand where that comes from.

[00:03:47] Steve Heatherington: When your guests come on your podcast, they seem pretty relaxed.

[00:03:51] Even when they're talking about some pretty deep experiences and the difficulties, challenges, things. What is it that you hope to bring to your listeners from that?

[00:04:01] Linda McLachlan: I hope that they see for themselves an ability, a way through, I think sometimes when you're faced with difficulties in your life or your wanting to set a goal for yourself, it's really a matter of working at it on a daily basis.

[00:04:20] And that I think is the through-line or the theme that I hear over and over again from the people who come on the podcast is you have to go through something. Day by day, there is no skipping over steps or getting to the finish line quickly. You have to walk each one of those steps and as difficult as it may seem at the beginning, if you focus on the next step, you can get through it.

[00:04:53] If you focus on how big the goal is or how. Insurmountable the, the challenge seems to be, it will, it will over overtake you. It will overcome you, the guests also, they don't seek out the tragedies that they've been been through in some cases, but they certainly seek out the opportunity to continue to grow as a result perhaps of those tragedies or to challenge themselves to, to go to the next.

[00:05:24] Steve Heatherington: Yeah, no, certainly the episodes I've listened to, it brings a sense of hope, a sense of possibility. And you hearing somebody else's story, but it's very accessible to you to say, actually my life could be different and you can take inspiration from someone else's journey, which is great.

[00:05:45] Linda McLachlan: Mm. Thank you. That that's very much my, my hope so I'm sure.

[00:05:50] Delighted to hear that that in fact comes through.

[00:05:53] Steve Heatherington: Yeah. So where can we find you? Both you generally, but also the podcast in particular, where's the best place to link?

[00:06:00] Linda McLachlan: I think the best place really is on the website. So which is www dot the arena, hyphen podcast.com. And from there are my Instagram and Facebook, but ultimately at the website, you'll find all of the episodes from season one through three.

[00:06:20] Steve Heatherington: Hey, Linda. Thanks so much for being on Pod Buffet. It's been a pleasure and we will see you again.

[00:06:24] Linda McLachlan: Thank you.

[00:06:26] Thank you for listening until next time. My name is Linda McLaughlin in The Arena.

[00:06:44] Steve Heatherington: I hope you enjoyed this taster from the Pod Buffet. Check out the full podcast by following the links in the episode notes. See you again soon.