Canada’s Olympic Sweetheart, Tessa Virtue
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Well, hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jan Arden Podcast. We are well into season two. Hello, Sarah Burke. Hello, Adam Karsh. How are you, Sarah? Hello. I'm good. I'm noticing that you look very nice, Jan. Our text thread this morning is, guys, we got a shower today. We got a big guest. We do. Tessa Virtue, and I'm not going to lie. I

Yeah, I'm crushing on Tessa Virtue. I'm crushing on Tessa Virtue. What person alive wouldn't be crushing on Tessa Virtue? And I'll tell you what, Tessa Virtue from Olympic fame, her and Scott, they absolutely crushed it in the Winter Olympics in the pairs figure skating. I feel like I could launch into all these things about her, but everyone knows who she is. She's always on your television. She's always on the cover of magazines. She's making this seamless...

foray into so many different things in her life and she's going to talk about all those things with us. But yeah, she is so nice, you guys. She's so lovely. She's just cute. Beautiful. Do you find that? She's so beautiful and she's so cute. Yeah. And you know what? I'll tell you, maybe she remembers me. I'm not really sure, but I did meet her back when I did radio. We're going to find out. Yeah. Back when I did radio in London, Ontario, her and Scott, like they were local celebs, right? Yeah.

So they were always into the radio station. One of my girlfriends at the radio station did some like charity thing where she had to dance with Scott. And I remember the rumor swirling and all these things. But anyway, Tessa was always a sweetheart whenever I saw her. Oh, I'm sure she's been asked about that a million times. I'll try and ask her about that. So how has your week been so far?

A lot of snow here, not going to lie. And I didn't have heat in my house for four days. Oh, no, your vocal cords. I'm not worried about that. I'm like a battleship when it comes to vocal cords. I'm not precious about it at all. But it was 11 degrees in my bedroom. Thank God I have a gas fireplace in my bedroom. My geothermal went out and then some kind of fan went out on my boiler, which...

The geothermal in my house needs the, I don't understand anything. I said, hey, can you come, can you drop by and fix my boiler? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. And boy, they show up.

But, you know, they're the sweetest guys. And the guy that does the plumbing, geez, now I'm just going red because I feel like everything I'm saying is just making this worse. But they have been coming to this house for 10 years. And I still make the mistake, and girls follow along with me here, of asking them what the problem is. Why do I even say it?

Why do I say, so what's going on? Is it fixable? Can I do it myself next time? They go into this thing where I'm standing there and I'm clearly like floating out of my body because I don't know what they're saying. And then I finally say, I didn't really mean to ask you that. Like, I don't care what's wrong. Is it fixable? I think that was my question.

So yeah, I've been dealing with that. Last night it got fixed and I slowly felt the heat coming in through the floorboards. Oh my God. It's been so nice. What did the pioneers do? How did they live in the sod houses? My God. You think about that though. What in the hell did they endure? Did they just wake up dead? They woke up dead. They were frozen solid. Yeah.

why they had sex all the time. They had sex. That's why they had 14 kids because they covered themselves with children. They took their children and they laid children on top of each other because they had no blankets. Honey, pass me Arthur. Put him on my feet.

Hey, Adam, tell Jan the temperature in Toronto right now. So it's Thursday afternoon as we're recording. It's 18 degrees right now. 18 degrees. Minus 25 here. Minus 25. Oh, really? Yep. Minus 25. Yeah, I was thinking about going for a bike ride when we finish up. We'll see what happens. Oh, okay. Well, why don't you just go do that, Sarah? One thing I'll tell you about this kind of weather, no matter where you go, your breasts are like weapons. Yeah.

You could cut through your jacket. Am I allowed to say that? No, I do that too. I'm a 60-year-old woman, and the cold air, it's not so great for men and their equipment. They always say, oh, the water was cold. That's why my weenie looks so small. But women, it's just like your breasts, they come from way down close to your navel, and they just suddenly come boing up on top of your chest,

And they are there. They're like, oh my God, I'm like 25 years old again because of this cold weather. I'm always like, when my boyfriend's here and he likes the air conditioning really, really cold, I'm always like, no, I'm kind of cold. Like, honey, look. This is not good temperature for me. Yeah. I'm going through T-shirts like crazy here, sweetheart. But listen, this is the worst lead up to our beautiful guest today. Tessa is crazy.

Going out with a certain fellow from the Toronto Maple Leafs. I'm going to leave that to Sarah to kind of delve into that. But there's so many things we want to talk to her about with her. Like I was talking about all this business stuff she's been doing and, you know, how she manages that. She's got like a lot of partnerships and like she's basically become...

I hate to use the word influencer because I often associate the influencer people with something that's not authentic. She's an authentic influencer. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? No, she really is. And she's lovely. You're going to not want to leave. Make sure you stick around for this conversation. And we promise to be very respectful. But yeah, it's just lovely. So yeah, you're listening to the Jan Arden Podcast. I'm here with Adam and Sarah.

Here we go with our conversation with the lovely Tessa Virtue. Thank you so much for joining us today. We're going to make this as painful as we possibly can. We're going to ask those questions that are just like, I'm so sick of people. No, we're not going to do that. How are things in your life? You are on the move. Anyone looking at your social media, you

You have done so much stuff throughout the last, I mean, really ever since the Olympics, your branding partnerships, the television commercials, the fashion shoots, the covers of magazines. Tell me about what it was like launching from a lifelong career on the ice to suddenly being faced with a lot more work.

variety in Tessa Virtue's day-to-day life because it wasn't about skating. It wasn't about practicing. It wasn't about that constant grind. It was a whole new thing. So what the heck? Well, thanks for that intro and bring on the hard-hitting questions. I'm ready. Fire away. It's a pleasure. I'm so happy. I said earlier, I'm such a big fan. So this is delightful to join you. But that transition was...

An interesting one. In some ways, in most ways, it was really refreshing because it was so liberating to go from this singular focus into being able to say yes to multiple different projects and passions and whether that was school or work or diving into the corporate realm, all of it just felt like I was ready for that shift. And now, especially that I'm four and a half years out, I feel like things are changing.

sort of seamlessly integrating. Everything is starting to make sense. I'm starting to feel like I've really found my rhythm and that's also just lovely. But I mean, you, Jan, you would have experienced something similar, whether that's writing, music, writing and acting with the show and now the podcast. I mean, you're so multifaceted that you're probably in a constant state of transition. Is that fair? Yeah.

You know, I don't know. I just, I'm thinking about, I mean, I've never been athletic in my life. I think I played basketball in high school and a little bit of badminton, but I think the rigors of the physical part of a person's human life and then going, and maybe you've always been a business person and you have to have, I think people make assumptions about athletes and that is, that's their one trick pony and that's what they do. But we've seen now really over the last 15 years that, um,

You guys are moguls. You have multi, multi-million dollar companies. They're doing advertising. Advertisers seem to like the branding. They like your determination, your steadfastness, how people perceive you. You can do no wrong. I think you've somehow managed to navigate a really challenging world because there's no crap talk about you, Tessa. Oh, I'm sure there's plenty of crap talk.

But I mean, just the day-to-day of celebrity life of people that are making missteps constantly. And I don't know, and I'm sure you've got, you know, a few skeletons in the closet, but you are filled with joy. You are outwardly very positive. And I can see exactly why Nivea, for example, just these companies wanted, they want to show their best performance.

and put their best foot forward. Has it been surprising to you how many offers that you've had to field? You must have a team of people around you helping you. Is that a positive thing in your life to have a great team of people directing you?

I mean, I'm a one woman show at the moment. You are. I don't have any help at this moment. I've just separated from my management team and mostly along the way, I felt like it was important to me to, I mean, maybe this is because I'm a bit of a control freak and I'm used to being my own boss and I'm used to doing things in my own way that I've found it to be much more fulfilling when I'm directly in touch with these brands and every partnership I've built has been sort of

Um,

a genuine collaboration where it's not just sort of shilling a product, but it's actually understanding, okay, so who's our target audience and what's our strategy and how are we implementing this? And, you know, is this landing and how can we pivot and change things? And, you know, that business side of wanting to be savvy and wanting to learn and wanting to understand the different facets of that corporate landscape, that came pretty naturally. And I've tried to back it up with some academic pursuits as well, but yeah,

I think part of that's being Canadian. I don't know if you'd agree with that, but I mean, like we're so lucky to be here and everyone's kind and lovely and so supportive and especially of our athletes. And part of that is just trusting that if I can be my true self and if I have a set of values that, you know, really, you know,

I hold tightly, then decisions are made pretty easily. And I'm able to align myself with people who feel and work and act similarly. Did you ever find yourself in a position where like it didn't feel aligned, a partnership? Yes. I remember doing one interview and it was, I don't do many one-off things, but I think it was a one-off thing. And I was sitting there and they were trying to get me to say something like,

really stoked. Like I was really stoked to do something. And I said, like, I hear you. I'm just not a casual person. I'm not, I'm very formal in the way that I speak, even just with my friends. And so I was like, it just doesn't, just doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel right. And, and they were really pushing for things like that or for me to present in a different way. And I remember thinking, okay, yeah, this is a lesson learned. We're going to be right back. You're listening to the Jan Arden podcast. Don't go away.

Hello, we're back. Jan Arden here, Jan Arden Podcast and Show. Tessa Virtue is with us, Sarah Burke, Adam Karsh. Isn't it great that you have that instinct inside of you and the confidence to say, no, I'm not going to say that. Do you know how many people, women, men, that get into situations where they feel they really, like, I'm going to do it because I don't want to ruffle any feathers. I don't want people, I don't want to disappoint anybody. So,

Where do you find that confidence to do that? Well, I was encouraged to take assertiveness training classes when I was young because I'm such a people pleaser and I'm a perfectionist and I tend to manage other people's emotions. I'm really working on this right now because I just, I take it on and I feel responsible for those around me. And, you know, that was something that I struggled with in the 22 year partnership with Scott and

early on, someone had this intervention and said, I think they worked in, um, sport Canada maybe. And she advised that I, that I take some training. What does that entail? Part of that is just practice. And it's funny because I think I really then developed that in the business, um, capacity, maybe not so much personally, although, um,

That's evolved. But part of that's just practicing, you know, speaking up in the right way and learning how to communicate and learning to be self-aware enough to identify some of the feelings that I would have suppressed or wanted.

or when I sublimated my own needs for others, I think just being aware of that and acting on it. So that, that partnership with Scott was such a perfect playground within which to, to practice those kinds of strategies and techniques. And, um, you know, eventually we developed a really effective way of communicating, but when you ask about, you know, feeling comfortable and speaking up, I mean, I think early, early on, I wrote him a mission statement personally and professionally, like really, really young. And, um,

That gave me the sense of confidence in being able to walk into a room and say no to executives who wanted me to be a certain thing or to be a certain way. And maybe that's part of being in figure skating when it's that balance between the technical ability and the skill.

aesthetic component where there were, you know, so many opinions on how I should look and act and behave and, you know, how I should skate and what I should wear, what I should dye my hair. You know, there were just so many opinions that at some point I just needed to tune out a lot of that noise. I think that's probably the biggest hurdle.

when you go into these different parts of business, no matter what business that you're in, is to be able to stand up for yourself. I think a lot of people look at you and think, oh, I wish I could do that. You really have made it seem very easy and kind of seamless, but I doubt very much that is. How do you feel...

behind a camera. Obviously, you've done dozens of photo shoots. That has become a huge part, obviously, is the visual part of all these campaigns. And so I'm sure that you are able to go, not wearing that, not doing that, not comfortable in that. I don't want my hair in Princess Leia buns. Thank you very much. I'm sure it's a great idea for you, but I don't want to do that. Do you ever, in the back of your mind, worry about, I'm going to lose this job if I don't

do this? Like, do you meet people halfway or is it really the test of virtue? This is where my line is and I'm not moving it. Is there any way that you would move that line to keep those jobs and to keep the client happy? It's a very interesting question. Again, I think, um, I always preface any kind of shoot by saying I'm not a model. I'm not paid to just show up and, and

be kind of molded into what you need me to be. I come as my own brand and entity. And I think hopefully that's part of why I'm hired to do things. So I'm pretty firm on staying true to that. And I've never really been pushed over the line. I think sometimes creatively, you have to trust a vision if someone has it. But I've never worried about missing out on opportunities like that, because I'm happy to walk away. Like being relevant doesn't

that's not the most important thing in my life. And I think I'm very ready. I feel like I've already overextended my welcome in the Canadian landscape. And as far as like, I'm four and a half years out of the Olympics and I can't believe that I still get to work, get to do the work that I do and get to work with brands. And so I feel like everything's just sort of a bonus and I'm ready to step, you know, into the background when that time comes and when that feels right. So I'm not frightened by that. You don't give yourself enough credit. Come on. Yeah.

I think you're going to be ever evolving and it's going to be so interesting to watch you do the stuff that you're going to do. We're going to talk about a lot more with you. If you can stay with us for another few minutes, we'd love it. We're here with the wonderful Tessa Virtue.

When people found out that I was going to get a chance to talk to you, of course the relationship stuff comes up, but you're not exempt. I get asked about that stuff all the time. You know, I saw you with... It is like a deafening kind of a buzz around my life all the time. I'm just curious to know how you handle that.

Okay. How do I handle it? Do you know what? I'm usually quite transparent, but I always find in relationships, Tessa, I don't mind talking about my half of it, but the other person who does not want anything to do with entertainment, and I'm not in a relationship right now. I've been single for a while. The other person, I can't speak on their behalf. So that has kind of always been my out.

I'm just like, you're going to have to ask them if you can find out, A, who it is and if they'll ever talk to you. But I just, yeah, it's not an easy thing to speak to because, you know, a lot of times we see people falling in love. We watch sort of the progression of their relationship and there's some kind of an engagement and then, you know, they're married for three weeks and then it's all over. So I think when you're a public person, it's very difficult to,

having any kind of, you can't move either way, forward, backward, sideways, without somebody speculating on your emotional status. Well, it's an interesting place for you to be because

And I mean this in the best way. It would be threatening and intimidating, you know, for someone to approach or for someone to spark a conversation or ask for a date or something. Yes. So it kind of weeds out some people. It absolutely weeds people out because I think they would make assumptions like, oh, I could never go up and talk to her. And I'm sure you experienced that.

in your life is just like when you were single or available and when people weren't constantly speculating about you and Scott for, you know, 15 years of your relationship and sort of picking away at that, that I'm sure there were those moments where like, should I go talk to her? No, she'd never talk to me.

And it's missed opportunities. But now, I mean, you are in a relationship, are you not? I am, yes. And also when this other person is in also the spotlight to a certain degree, that now you're doubling down. Now you're sitting at the table, you know, pushing all your chips in. So he's getting it from his side. You're getting it from your side. And people never think about your family and your friends and how they're kind of

exposed to this just through osmosis of knowing you. How are those conversations like with your family, with your close friends of, do you direct them how they can talk about your relationships or do you just know them like they got me, they got my back? I think everyone in our circle knows that we're really private and we're

We just try and keep something that is maintained just for us. And we really protect that. And Morgan's, you know, actually much better at this than I am. It also doesn't change the way we live our lives. You know, we're not, we're not going to hide and we're not, you know, going to great lengths to avoid any, you know, that attention, but we,

But we really take great caution at the same time in preserving this little thing that exists just between us and our family and friends totally understand that and we're really lucky. They really support that. If there's anyone listening, we should maybe just give a little context, Morgan Riley of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Sarah. I quickly have to say though that like I'm also really interested to know, you know, at the beginning of your relationship, how you set the boundaries. Yeah.

with each other. It was interesting because I remember one weekend he was coming from Vancouver to Toronto. We were, it was early days and we were going to spend some time together in Toronto. And we had that conversation of, are we comfortable walking down the street, holding hands? Are we comfortable if someone stops us on the street and to take a picture and where do we draw the line? And, and to that end, you know, I think that's where we decided we wouldn't change the way we wanted to live our lives, but we also wanted,

have never been prepared to put that on blast ourselves. And I think we decided that if we came together for a purpose, it needed to be for causes that we really believed in. If we were going to leverage that relationship with any

any kind of way it needed to be to do some good. And, you know, we've been able to stay pretty true to that. And interestingly, especially early days, our demographics were so different that people might stop me on the street and have no idea who he was and vice versa. And I kind of marvel at that, the sport fandom in that they don't really want to dive deeply into information about his life. They just want to say like, oh, have a good game, bro. Like go get them. So yeah.

That's kind of a beautiful thing as well. We're going to be right back. You're listening to the Jan Arden Podcast. Don't go away. We are so excited to welcome another new sponsor, our friends at Cove Soda. Have I pestered Cove enough to come and join us here at the Jan Arden Podcast? I love them so much. They are Canadian, first of all. They are a natural, certified organic, zero sugar soda, which includes, get this, one big

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Do you guys have similar likes? Like, do you like the same movies? Are you into like similar foods? How easy was that to kind of delve into early days? I hate the part of getting to know people in a relationship. I want to skip to the middle. I don't like the falling in love. I don't like the, I can't eat, sleep, think. I'm just, I feel frustrated. I'm scared to eat a Caesar salad in front of this person in case it doesn't go right. Like, how...

Was it an easy kind of entrance into that life? And did he make it easy for you? And did you make it easy for him? It was incredibly easy. I mean, in some ways we had all of the butterflies and still do of, you know, a new relationship. And in a lot of ways it feels like we've already been married for 30 years. So it's... I heard my mom say the other day, I heard my mom sort of describing him to someone as...

That were very, very similar. So maybe that helped. There is, is there a form of paparazzi in Canada? Like, is there a paparazzi? Do you ever come out of a restaurant and there's fricking someone there with a long lens trying to capture you guys? Cause I know they've been trying to get the handholding shot and the, is there a ring shot and all that stuff, but it can't be as bad as the States, Tessa. Yeah. If there is, I mean, we're certainly not cool enough to warrant that kind of a thing. Yeah.

I think in Canada you have to phone them. Hi, Jan's going to be at the bowling alley. She'll be coming out at 10, 12. Yeah, Jan is at the A&W. She will be out. She's going there now. You might want to get a shot with her, with her Beyond Meat burger. Jan, we'll stage some paparazzi together. We'll go out, we'll have some girl time, and we'll stage something where it seems fair. Tessa Virtue, I'm going to hold you to that. Let's do it. And Morgan can just pretend to like be –

aghast that you're out with me at A&W or something. But we'll figure it out. There's been talk for a while that

um, of a bowling game between us and maybe Arlene was in the mix that there was, who was the fourth? There's been talk about this for a long time, so we need to make it happen. Yeah, we do need to make it happen. I I'm, I'm quite good though. I don't want to, uh, watch out. Yeah. I don't want to brag, but, uh, I'm, I do a mean, if I can find the right ball in 10 pin,

Is that still a thing now, even after COVID, sticking your fingers in mystery holes in a ball? Is that happening again? I think it's still happening. I've been bowling this summer. It is. Oh, wow. I mean, I think I hand sanitized after every single time I bowled, but yeah, it is a thing. Oh, yeah. Do you cook, Tessa? Does Morgan cook? Do you guys like to stay at home and just make meals and Netflix and chill, as they say?

We love staying in. He's a much better cook than I am. So if that's happening, it's on. Wow. Okay. Do you like to cook? I love to cook. I really do love to cook. And since becoming, I've been vegan for about seven years now. And so I've, I'm still on a learning curve, but there's so many great likes links out there to people making

They're copying everything. They're copying your favorite foods at Earl's or at, you know, thank God it's not Fridays or whatever. They're copying all these restaurant classics, Alfredo's and burgers. And, you know, someone, I was watching a link the other day, someone was making a, like a Big Mac, the veganized version of a Big Mac from the sauce to the, to the bun, to the whole thing. One of my favorite things to do though, is I love to go out for dinner and

And, you know, two or three, four friends, nothing big. But honest to God, when I started making money, Tessa, like when I first started making a little bit of money, I was like, oh my God, I can go to this restaurant and I can sit here and pretend that I'm actually someone and I can order stuff. It was a really big deal for me to go to nice restaurants and I still really am so happy

mind boggled when I, when I go to a nice place and when I don't think about how much something costs on the menu. And I think I'll be that kid. I, we didn't, I, my parents had no money. I mean, I didn't grow up with dirt floors or anything, but my dad was a construction guy. My mom worked the whole time we were growing up and doing things that thing, anything like that, that's special. I still have to pinch myself. Do you ever have to pinch yourself that you're

your career has been real, that the life that you've curated for yourself is real. There's got to be a lot of gratitude there. Absolutely. And I think it's great that you stop and savor those moments. It's so important. And, and I certainly try and do the same. And, and,

you know, not about material things at all, but it's just having the opportunity and the privilege of working towards something. I stopped taking money from my parents when I was 15 and worked really, really hard to buy properties and invest and kind of build a little nest egg. And it's never lost on me that I was...

privileged to be given the chance to hustle like that, you know, and, and, um, you know, you realize just how quickly that can also be taken from you too. So it's something that, um, I certainly cherish and, um,

Yeah, you're always worried that someone's going to take it away from you, right? Just that it's going to be taken away somehow. You get to a point, it's like, oh, the other shoe's going to drop and I'm going to wake up from this dream. Things are going too well? Yeah, Sarah, exactly. Yeah, that's a healthy perspective, though. How so? Well, I mean, I would think that's better than...

Jan Arden waltzing into a fancy restaurant and pretending like you own the joint or, you know, or getting lost. I want to buy that painting. Right. Bring me caviar. Yeah. No, there's nothing more kind of offensive than people that do make their way through lives with a sense of entitlement. It's not a good look. And it's not an attractive look. You can be

the best looking person in the world. And if you carry that around your neck, it's just, I think everyone, me, certainly I want to cut a wide swath, not somebody I want to walk up to at a party. Um, what kind of a kid were you growing up? Like I don't, uh, early days, I know skating was such a huge part of your childhood. Do you have any,

you know, memories of school where you weren't busting your ass all the time and that you could enjoy just being a kid and sitting behind a desk and having your lunch and having, you know, friends. You grew up in London, Ontario, right? Yeah, that's right. Yeah, where I used to do radio. That's the first time I met Tessa, yeah. And I remember that, by the way. You've always had such a, like you radiate positivity. Oh, thank you. Yes, she does. And just, you were so warm and welcoming and

just so genuine and lovely. And you still are, obviously. Well, same to you. And she gets shit done. What a combo. Sarah Berg, it's like, it's done. It's there. Here's this, this, and this. Back to the interview, guys. Tessa, growing up in London, how was it?

I grew up in London, yeah. I mean, I was such a little bruiser growing up, quite a tomboy. I'm the youngest of four kids, two older brothers and an older sister. And we were really, really athletic as a family, very busy and physically active. And it was always important to my mom that my sister and I, who are younger, were not just following my brothers around to hockey rinks, football stadiums and baseball tournaments, that we had our own activities and

And I was a bit of a ham. I liked being in front of the camera. I liked performing. I was always imitating people. So my family always laughs like I was always imitating

at home as a waitress, you know, for some reason I would have the Britney Spears mic. I'm not sure why I thought waiters. Well, yeah, the takeout window, you would have had the microphone. So you were a takeout window server. Yeah. Dream big. And, or I was a gymnastics coach and I had emulated my coach just so perfectly right down to the kind of gum she chewed. And so I had a big imagination and I was a big thinker and dreamer even then. But yeah,

skating up serious pretty quickly. So I think from the time I was in grade four, I was a part-time student basically, which probably explains why I'm still chasing academics in the way that I am. But Jan, don't you feel like you're seeing like somebody who's still so down to earth, even though it's crazy how connected to your roots you are? Absolutely. And that you can't fake that. And I think when people do try and fake that, it's very disingenuous and it's...

I think it's got something to do with being Canadian. And I think it's got something to do with dealing with very long winters and kind of having a lot of time to yourself to, to think, um, have you ever, ever dealt with anxiety in your career? Like standing there waiting for the door to open and going out and having a stadium full of people and more so with the Olympics, having a billion plus eyes on you as you perform, um,

I've heard so much about what athletes go through to manage those kinds of nerves. Did you have some tricks? Did you and Scott...

share in that? Was it great to have a partner that helped share that load? Absolutely. I could never have done it if I was a single skater. And I don't know, even though you're the one in front of the band, Jan, I imagine at least having the band and feeling like a crew would be an extraordinary help. And we were the same in a lot of ways, in the weird kind of sick way, those nerves and that anxiety was what fueled us. Yeah.

And that elation of kind of getting through to the other side. I remember just loving to perform for an audience and connecting with the audience in my junior days. But when we got into the higher ranks and when things got more and more serious, I connected less with that element of the sport and more with the mental preparation of the

gearing up for a competition and needing to be our best at one specific moment in time and, you know, building these resilience tactics of setting ourselves up for success to, you know, even when things were terrible, that we could still be competitive and we could still perform at a certain level. So that really, I mean, now I'm studying positive psychology, so it's not surprising that that ignited something in me, but I think that

It wasn't so much the anxiety about performing, it was the pressure of competing. And it was also one of my favorite things about it. Were you relieved when it was over? Yes. And I mean that in the most lovely way. I don't mean like eye roll, like, oh, I can finally get off this train, but just the relief of...

The training, the mental preparation. Yeah, the pressure, that constant pressure. Yeah, and I think it's like anything, right? I mean, at the end of this season of the podcast, there'll be some sort of letdown of, oh, okay, well, that goal has been achieved. Or, you know, you wrap up a season of your show or a tour. There's a letdown after anything you're building towards. And that's a very real thing. And so often when you get to that culmination, that pivotal moment, the peak, you're...

Just plain exhausted. And your body is. So it's like it's where you want to enjoy that that moment that you've been striving for. But I'm grateful that we figured out at least before the end of our career that it wasn't that moment of standing on the podium that was really important.

most gratifying part. It was the process of working hard and coming together and creating something and challenging ourselves and exploring potential. It was all of those things and not the medal or that moment. Is there something you have your sights on that you haven't done and you haven't tried? Like something, whether it's banal, whether it's zip lining, and I don't even mean bucket list, but something for you personally, for Tessa Virtue, like

I'd really like to accomplish that, whether it's acting or. I feel like acting, bring the little Britney Spears mic back. I could see it. Oh gosh, I would be such a terrible actress. I would be awful. Although maybe a holiday movie. I would love that. Is anyone listening? I'm going, I am Tessa's agent. Please contact me. No, honestly, I'm doing it right now. I'm 11 years ago or in 2020.

it was 2011 I think not long after the Vancouver Olympics I took a positive psychology class at university then in Windsor and I became a real little disciple and I took my positive psych textbook with me to every competition and I loved it and for you know from that time I promised myself one day I'll go to UPenn and do the master's of applied positive psychology and holy crap I'm doing it I

I'm doing it now and I'm so, I just feel like I'm right where I should be and I'm studying something that is so applicable in all domains and realms of life. But I've lived so many of the principles in practice of positive psychology and thriving and flourishing and flow and mindsets. And now to get the academia and the data and research and science behind it just feels like it's breathing new life into me.

Everything I am and it's so seamlessly kind of integrates into my work with Deloitte, which is around high performance and well-being. So I feel right now I have a lot of those pinch me moments of I can't believe I'm actually doing this and studying at such a prestigious school. And I feel so grateful.

It's fantastic to learn. Before we let you go, we asked some of our guests this about school lunches. I don't know if you ever took a lunch kit to school. I have a feeling you might have been sent with a kit or a paper bag. Can you remember what you had in those lunches? Was it Kellogg's in London, Ontario? No.

The first thing that comes to mind is on Fridays, my mom would pack like a junk lunch Friday. So it was just all. Oh, I love your mom. Fun. I know she used to make, and this is terrible now that I think of it, but she used to take

like white Wonder Bread slab on some butter and just put sugar and fold it over. And that would be like a real sandwich. Sorry, Kate. I'm really airing out the dirty laundry. Yeah. I mean, not on the regular, but that was a thing that we had as kids. I can't. That's the last thing I thought would come out of your mouth, Tessa.

Butter and sugar. And you know how many people are going to try that now? I can, you know what you've just caused? Adam's like, I'm doing it. I'm making white bread, butter and sugar. Do you fry it? That's it? That's it. It's squishy. It's so good. But I mean-

Otherwise, I was with my grandma. Both my parents worked all the time and I spent my childhood days mostly with my grandma. We were very, very close. She was an amazing cook and would make the best lunches and would cut off the crusts and everything would just be labeled and prepared so beautifully. That was always fun. What about Morgan's best meal? Sorry, I have to ask. Because you said he does the cooking. Morgan's best meal.

Well, I have a soft spot for the first thing he ever made me, which was a chicken parm. But he's really good. He's so good with the barbecue. He loves learning about new recipes and he dives into a passion like that. And then he's so good at kind of following along and executing and then playing around. He's much more adventurous than I am. That way I would be strictly following a recipe and cooking.

I joke that part of the reason I'm actually doing this master's is because I said after doing my MBA that I would go just as something different, I would take some cooking classes. And the joke is that I'm actually just doing another master's program to avoid that. Well, Tessa Virtue, I would love to have you here with Sarah and Adam and I for like the rest of the season on this podcast, but I hope you'll come back and talk to us sometime. And, you know, we're always here for any scoops that you want to give us with, with Morgan.

You know, you can always just call me up and say, Jan, I have an announcement to make. And I want your show to be, you know, where it's landing. But I just wish you all the happiness in the world and continued success. You inspire a lot of people.

Thank you so much. Well, yeah, you're amazing. What a lovely group of people. Thank you so much for having me. And to that point, Jen, I mean, this is the most I've ever spoken publicly about a relationship. So this is the place. This is the place to be. Well, we can we can relate to the difficulties of that. But we are going to I'm going to make sure that the cameraman that we've hired does not go through with what Sarah Burke wanted him to do.

He's waiting outside in the bushes at your house. No, no. Hey, Jane, we got to be real about one thing. Okay. The network associated with this podcast is

They were sending us emails with a long train of a Twitter thread of your biggest fans zooming in on your finger. So I feel like we have to ask that one question before you leave. And if you tell us to take it out, we absolutely will. I didn't ask this, Tessa. This came from Sarah Burke. And you can tell me to go away. Sorry, what's the question specifically? She wants to know if you're engaged. I don't want to say no. I don't want to say yes.

I love a good maybe. You know, relationships aren't what they used to be. It's not like you meet somebody and you're in a five-year engagement. My friends were engaged for 21 years. I am not kidding you. My friend Nigel got married after 21 years and I couldn't go to the wedding, which seemed kind of pointless at that time. Like, am I really going to go to it? But I couldn't because I was touring.

But, you know, I think... I don't even know if I would get married, Tessa. So I really don't know. I think even if I met this perfect person, I keep saying...

A, I don't want to live with anyone in my house. They have to have their own house and their own stuff. But I'm getting old now. I'm getting so set in my ways. Someone's going to have to talk me down off this ledge. I support you no matter what you do, Tessa. And I'm going to put this out there before we finally say goodbye. I will sing.

at any kind of ceremony that you have, I make this promise on national radio right now, I will sing for you and Morgan a song of your choice. I will get myself there. I'll have a little trio, whether it's at the reception or at a family gathering, or if it's in Morgan's parents' house, I will be there to sing for you if you guys decide to

Bolt the door, vegan chicken parm. Yeah, right. That is amazing. Thank you, Jen. And we didn't even get to talk about the fact that I saw you perform in London. One of my brother's ex-girlfriends took me when I was quite young. And it was one of the best concerts I've ever seen. And since then, your music has sort of provided this beautiful, calm, respite place for me to feel safe.

understood and to, you know, it's, it's just such beautiful quality music. And, and I am taken back to that time when I went with Jen in London and always just been a favorite of mine. So that means a lot. And I will take you up on that. Well, thank you. Consider it done. Ladies and gentlemen, Tessa Virtue has been our guest today. We're so grateful to you, continued success and happiness in everything that you do. And we can't wait to see what's next and,

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Thanks for being so inspiring. Yeah, honest. This was lovely. It's been great. Thank you, Tessa. We'll see you next time. Thanks for having me. Well, that was Tessa Virtue. And what can I tell you? She was fantastic. Sarah, what did you think of that conversation?

Like, she's amazing. And she's so down to earth. I can't get over how down to earth she is with all of, you know, the things that she, all her accomplishments. And she's so sweet. Do you need me longer? Like, I'll stay. Like, we kept her, obviously, for well over half an hour. And she's like, I'll stay. And I'm like, no, we...

We honestly didn't mean to keep you this long, but she was totally there for us. And anyway, I appreciate it so much. And let's try and get her back on the show. I think we should revisit that. I think, Sarah, you did pretty good on getting closer to the mystery of is Tessa Virtue going to be getting –

hitched and am I going to be singing at the wedding? Let's remind our radio listeners that there's an extra segment on the podcast that you can hit up in your iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. And you're going to want to know exactly what the conversation was. Thanks for coming along. Hit that subscribe button so that we show up in your inbox week after week after week.

Yeah. Thanks for being here today, guys. Sarah, Adam, enjoy your 18 degree weather. I'm just going to go out and cut glass with my breasts. Jan Arden Podcasts, wishing you a lovely afternoon, evening, morning, wherever you are. Totally do. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.