Olga Karpman: Welcome to Unmasked. I'm Olga Karpman and this is the show about what lies beneath. Welcome to the very first episode of a show that's been over six years in the making, and I'll tell you why in a moment before we begin, I just have to stop and thank you for finding this space. The space that you and me created, not randomly.

Olga Karpman: Maybe right now you're in transition. Maybe right now you're experiencing the shift in your career, in your life, in your health, in your relationship. Maybe nothing dramatic happened in your life. Maybe opposite everything did, and for the past year or two, you probably experienced a lifetime of a journey or maybe everything looks pretty, pretty good on the outside on paper.

Olga Karpman: By good standards, maybe you have an amazing career, great spouse. Awesome kids who achieved a lot or on the path to achieve a lot. Everything looks perfect on paper or opposite everything already falling apart, and you have no idea why. And when

Olga Karpman: maybe you kind of person who built things and you figured things out, you held a lot together over the years, you became stronger, more capable, someone to rely on. Still something feels very different now. Something that's like a tiny whisper that's not even obvious to other people and everything looks fine on surface, and you would say, yes, I'm fine.

Olga Karpman: I'm fine. But maybe you wake up at night and something in your soul is stirring that soul wrenching feeling that keeps you up many, many nights. As if the life that you've built does not fit anymore and you don't understand why.

Olga Karpman: If this is you, welcome home.

Olga Karpman: I'm Olga Karpman, and together we create the space where we just gonna be and listen. And take masks off and see what's beneath the surface, and listen to that tiny voice of your own spirit, of your own soul that wants to come through and want you to hear it. Welcome to Unmasked.

Olga Karpman: Welcome home. I'm really, really happy that we found each other and this space is becoming only ours.

Olga Karpman: You see, I'm just like you. I went through a lot, a lot in my 40 plus years, and I've experienced. The systems around me and the voices and the people, they were not the right match anymore, not the right match for what my soul was craving, and I felt it louder and louder every single day. I don't know if you can relate to that, but it was like a whisper in my soul.

Olga Karpman: Like a sound of a bee in the forest, like the crack of fire by the fireplace, like the snow in my hometown underneath my feet, like silence. That wasn't empty. It was alive. And that tiny voice, that's intuition. That was my spirit. Calling me for something way bigger than me, way scarier than I could ever imagine.

Olga Karpman: And that voice, it doesn't care about your titles, doesn't care about your achievements, the money, the roles that you play, something inside of you just doesn't sit the same way anymore. The way you've been living, the way you've been showing up, even the way you've been seeing yourself,

Olga Karpman: and the life that you built became way too small and you can't explain it. And sometimes you get those. Random thoughts and you think you're crazy for feeling this way, for experiencing the life this way. And the worst part you feel alone. You definitely feel that you are the only one going through all these changes, all these shifts, everything is perfect on paper.

Olga Karpman: We're opposite. Everything fell apart, right? And you feel lonely.

Olga Karpman: And no one understands you well, that's why we created this space, this podcast for people like me and you for this kind of moment. Where we can feel each other, we can hear conversations, we can see the mask fall.

Olga Karpman: And for that moment when you feel like no one understands you, when nothing is clear, when it's all in your head and you are over analyzing and thinking, and don't even see the way out of it. Not in your soul, not in your life, not on paper. That moment when you just exhale and you let it be, and this podcast is the space not for when you have all the answers in your life, but for that in between moment.

Olga Karpman: That next level you feel, and you know it's there, but you can't name it yet. You know, something is shifting. You know you are still growing. You know you are tired of doing it from the outside in. You are tired of authorities, gurus, teachers, and everyone else around you telling how to live your life.

Olga Karpman: What's the right thing to do? You feel it's time to reverse it. And start hearing your own voice that comes straight from your soul, straight from your spirit, and it's time to stop listening to authorities, gurus, and everyone telling you how to live your life better, more successful, more fulfilled. That era is gone and you know it.

Olga Karpman: You feel it in your core, but that's in between. There is nothing new yet. You don't know where to go, and the question comes, how do you trust your own voice? How do you know you are not crazy? Well, this podcast is exactly for that. I'm not here to teach you my guess who I interview are not here to teach you, even though they're the most amazing, smartest, coolest people in the world.

Olga Karpman: I was fortunate enough to interview in my past projects Kobe Bryant, Mel Robbins, Simon Sinek. Many, many other billionaires, astronauts, Olympians, and regular people just like me and you, but that's not the point. That's not the point for their titles. This podcast is for people, big souls, big spirits. Who know that they're here to be the vessel to deliver the message.

Olga Karpman: And when the masks fall, and you'll see it on the podcast, the conversation just becomes deeper, more real. You'll see it, you'll experience it, and you'll see. The creator's magic in it, and you'll hear exactly what you need to hear in this podcast just for your next step. And you always, always be guided to look back inside to what your own voice tells you.

Olga Karpman: No one knows better than you. What to do, how to do, and what's best for you. And this podcast is exactly for that to give you and me and people who will surround us space, space to be, space to feel, space to experience. I didn't create it because I had everything figured out. I created because I didn't, I did not have a space to go.

Olga Karpman: I did not have people to talk to when I was going through my own shift for the past six, seven years. And because I needed this space for myself, I needed people around me where I can share what I'm going through without having to explain it perfectly. And I needed support group. They're just gonna be there for me.

Olga Karpman: I created this podcast for the past six years. I've been in a process where the outside, nothing really changed. My life, looked amazing and better and better Every single year. I have an amazing husband, beautiful family, great kids. My husband Alex, we've been married for almost 14 years. I have a almost 17-year-old at this moment and almost 11-year-old.

Olga Karpman: Eva is my older one, and Sophia is younger. They both are co-creators of the Dream Big podcast. They are the ones who interviewed Kobe Bryant. Simon Sinek and our family is just a loving, beautiful, awesome family that we created from nothing. I would say. I came here to this country as an immigrant. At the age of 21, I had $300 in my pocket, barely spoken English.

Olga Karpman: No job. As a matter of fact, my first job, very first job was here selling, selling ice cream in Los Angeles at the Dodger Stadium. All I could say is $3 ice cream, and I was smiling, and then I became a single mom at the age of 28, then I got married. With my best friend Alex. I met him on the airplane actually when we were 23, but Divine has its own timing and everything happened for a reason.

Olga Karpman: I became single mom. I opened up. Great business and, uh, for the Russian speaking community. I led seminars, events, thousands of people's events. I communicated with the best speakers. I brought them to the new markets, created online products for them, podcasts, media communication, traveling, speaking on stages, everything, you name it.

Olga Karpman: My career was amazing, and yet I had a calling to close my business.

Olga Karpman: I closed it in 2022 and it was the best decision ever and the highlight of my career when everything was great, when I had thousands of people going through my courses and, but something inside of me was shifting, changing rapidly, layers after layers after layers so fast. I couldn't comprehend it. It was so strange.

Olga Karpman: At some point I stopped even trying to understand it. I stopped trying to control it. I stopped trying to name it, label it. I, I just exhaled, put my hands down and said, creator, if this is your plan, I'm up for it. Take me to the best place, you know, is for me. So many nights, so many days, and I tears were just streaming down my face.

Olga Karpman: I had no idea why something was shifting and changing. Again, on the outside, everything looked fine. My husband didn't even understand half of it. I was sharing partially because he, he was busy. Someone has to work right while someone else who going through such a huge shift and I just. Chose not to bother him because I thought he would not understand.

Olga Karpman: Only after I started opening up, and I knew it wasn't depression, but I could just lay in bed for hours and hours and days, and my husband's like, are you okay? I, I'm worried. Do we need to take you to the hospital? I was like, no, it's fine. But I felt like a huge. Energy just like pinned me down to bed in bed and I couldn't move.

Olga Karpman: I couldn't get up at night. I would wake up at 3:00 AM in the morning and I would cry, and my soul was just like, it was the weirdest, soul wrenching feeling as if I was, my breath was closing. Some people labeled the panic attacks. It wasn't it. Something was moving through me. I just allowed it. I just became observer, and that's when everything started changing.

Olga Karpman: Masks started falling away quietly, one after another. All of a sudden, I wasn't perfect wife anymore. I stayed in bed. I wasn't a such a shiny, bright person that I used to know myself and everyone around me. I was always light, I was always positive. I was always happy and great and everything else ev, everything looked great.

Olga Karpman: I wasn't that anymore. That mask came off. I wasn't good mom anymore. I was missing kids' pickup time at school. I was not showing up on time. I was not showing up for my friends anymore. I was snappy, I was mean, and I could not understand what was happening. Thank God for people around me who just stayed. My husband was one of them.

Olga Karpman: My friends later showed up and when I was trying to say, oh my God, you have no idea what's happening. They're like, yeah, we know, and. People who I didn't even expect to be there for me. Old friends started falling off, old friendships, betrayals coming in. It was so weird. It wasn't like a dramatic on the outside, but for me it was.

Olga Karpman: Thank God I didn't destroy my life because I know a lot of people did. They start, these energies are coming through and they start just really destroying their life, thinking that someone else is the reason for the way they feel.

Olga Karpman: Something higher than me gave me the wisdom. Thank all the energies around us. But my relationship actually became deeper through this. First of all, relationship with myself. I started listening myself. My connection with God became deeper, more clear, and I'm not even talking about religion right now. I'm not such a religious person.

Olga Karpman: I hear a lot of wisdom in every religion, but I believe in something greater and something bigger than us. My relationship with my kids became stronger, not through forcing. There's such a powerhouse, both of them, especially my older one, Eva. She didn't come for me. She came through me as a powerhouse. You listen to her interviews at the Dream Big podcast at the age of six and seven, you know what I mean?

Olga Karpman: There was a time of separation. She was like 14, 15. Now she's almost 17, and something inside of me was completely transforming and I couldn't understand what it was. It was so hard to explain because from the outside, again, everything looked fine and beautiful, and that made it even harder because no one understood.

Olga Karpman: What is she struggling with? What's wrong with her? Look at her. Is she crazy? Like she has a beautiful house, amazing family. Every career, everything. Traveling nonstop every single month. Somewhere in a new country. From Alaska to Siberia to Hawaii, everywhere in between,

Olga Karpman: but I kept showing up. Every single day, and I'm sure you, if you listening to this, you've experienced some, some of it or maybe some more to come and you're still functioning and you still live your life, but something is deeper happening. I personally couldn't hold it anymore. I started sharing with those friends who came along, one person and another, and unexpectedly, and very quietly I heard the voice.

Olga Karpman: It's time. It's time to launch something bigger, start sharing it wider. More people need to hear it. And I did. I recorded very first interview. It wasn't even under this name of the podcast, different podcast, almost, almost a year ago actually. But the name didn't sit right, the concept didn't sit right. I, I don't know, I just couldn't.

Olga Karpman: And the time passed and the summer came, and it was very, very transformative. Very like nothing that I've ever experienced before. I went to so many different places as, as if each place had some key for me, some, some code that I was experiencing. Tulum in Mexico, Siberia, my roots. That's where my family is from and where they still live.

Olga Karpman: I went to the mountains a lot, rivers, nature. Met amazing new people, UK, Italy, and my journey and this. Came from one very, very special place, not by accident, but in meant to be from Venice. That's where this original mask, that's the symbol of UNMASKED came from.

Olga Karpman: You see, sometimes things happen not to punish you. Not to steer you away from something more important, but to lead you step by step, guide you step by step. And I believe something bigger than me wants this podcast to be alive

Olga Karpman: quietly, unexpectedly. Even if this space is just for me and you, that's all what matters. I know that together we are gonna create the space, a space where we're gonna feel safe to speak, to be understood, to listen, and to be very, very real. As you know, nothing is by accident. We, me and you did not meet by accident.

Olga Karpman: You did not click on this podcast by accident. We didn't hear each other stories by accident. We're not gonna hear any stories on this podcast from any of our guests by accidents. It was already preplanned. We just needed to show up and I knew. At the time where this idea came through me, I didn't create it.

Olga Karpman: It came through me. I wasn't only one going through this. There's so many people right now who have done the work, build the life, reach certain level, and suddenly feel that it doesn't fully match anymore. Not because something's wrong or maybe opposite, everything fell apart. But because something is evolving, something is moving, something is shifting.

Olga Karpman: And I saw so many stories like that already through so many people that I communicated with and openly shared my real story, my truth, everything that I was going through. So many people opened up and finally said, wow, thank you for sharing. I was going through the same thing or similar thing, and I had no idea what it was.

Olga Karpman: I was alone.

Olga Karpman: I knew we needed a space. We're not gonna fix anyone. We are not gonna teach anyone. We're not gonna be guru for anyone. We can't even rush this process. It's so individual. But because this process cannot be manufactured, rushed, predicted, it's very, very personal. It's deeply personal. 'cause of that, you're gonna feel your own pace.

Olga Karpman: You're gonna feel your own frequency. You'll feel what resonates on this podcast for you from each guest

Olga Karpman: and through these conversations, through listening, through being present, you'll start hearing your own voice again.

Olga Karpman: This podcast has a story. How this came about. Uh, as I mentioned, I was in Venice and it was my last stop before I was returning to Los Angeles, where we live, to California, and I was supposed to be there only for a couple of days. I was traveling with Sophia. I took her to see my parents in Siberia. And I was supposed to be there for just two days exploring, seeing the touristy things and just go somewhere else.

Olga Karpman: But I had that extra time and plans changed, and I decided to stay in Venice and decided to slow it down. We moved from the hotel to Airbnb. We took it slow. We explored. I ran every morning and experienced Venice, um, in a very beautiful local way. And then there were couple days before we left, there was this mask making workshop.

Olga Karpman: Nothing serious, nothing crazy. I thought it would be fun for me and Sophia to go to, but because I was at the end of my very, very big, big, big shift, um, and so many things happened at the same time and so many levels. I thought, you know what? It would be great to just go and take my mind off everything that's happening, and that was the final point.

Olga Karpman: At that workshop, I created a mask that you see on the thumbnail of this podcast, black and white, but not in the way you would expect dark became light. Light became dark, and in the center you'll see consciousness. When I took the mask, I placed the objects and it was supposed to be the owl and the wing and the heart on one side, and was supposed to be white.

Olga Karpman: And on the other side, the dark was supposed to be the devil. The skull, everything that usually represents dark. But as soon as I took the paint, I could not do it. And the phrase came to me, one phrase. Not everything is as it seems. You see so many times in life we think that what we think is dark.

Olga Karpman: It's actually light. It brings us back to light. And when we think what's light has actually shadows, not accepted shadows, but shadows and might not be as light as we think. Hmm.

Olga Karpman: That's when everything clicked for me in my own life and in this podcast. 'cause we live through layers, through roles, through identities, through expectations, through versions of ourselves that were once true, but not fully true anymore. And that's where Unmask was born. Not as a concept, not as a pretty idea, but as a deep, deep knowing.

Olga Karpman: To see what's beneath the surface. What happens if all the mask fall? Who do we see? Who is that beautiful spirit, beautiful soul looking at us in the mirror?

Olga Karpman: This podcast is not about me. It's not about my guests, and I'm sure they're gonna be amazing. At the time of this recording. I already interviewed four people and you'll see them on a podcast and I can tell you nothing on the show happens without any reason. You'll see the flow of energy. None of these conversations were scripted.

Olga Karpman: None of these conversations were pre, um, pre-discussed. The guests come and chooses the mask, or the mask chooses the guest Before the interview, I should say each guest looks at 12 masks or less, depending who was there before the guest and chooses one. And we ask the question. What this mask wants to tell us, why did you choose this mask?

Olga Karpman: And our guests open up in very unexpected ways. From the very beginning, you'll see, and you'll see that we are mirrors for each other. Sometimes I sit at the interview and it just, the flow of energy going through me and, uh, I, I see a lot of reflection of myself in it, and I have to stay strong. You'll see me sometimes like getting out of the, uh, host mode right into the shift that mask is taking us on.

Olga Karpman: It's, it's, I, I don't know, I dunno how to explain it. It just, it just happens for people who are more grounded, like a lot of. Uh, leaders, entrepreneurs, they'll see just a great conversation with a symbol of mask. Nothing unusual. Someone who sees deeper will see deeper. It's, it's a very multi-layered, um, podcast and, um, I'm honored.

Olga Karpman: I'm really honored to be the vessel for it, to be the channel for it. And, um, I'm very honored and happy that you found us. And I hope you'll subscribe and I hope you'll share if you feel it resonates with you and other people who are, um, going through shifts right now. Because we together building a big, hopefully community support, support group that can hold the space for each other and for others who are still going through transition and through shift.

Olga Karpman: And there is nothing good or bad in this experience. No right or wrong. It just is. And the only way out of where you are is through your own voice, through that tiny whisper. When you choose to take off the mask, when you see people for who they are, not the roles they play, and you start seeing what's underneath.

Olga Karpman: You see it in myself. You see it in people around you. You see it in our guest. I see it in myself every single day. Everything that triggers me shows me something about myself. And it's not pleasant. Mm-hmm. Sometimes it's so ugly. I'm like, oh my gosh, how is this real? But if it's showing it to me, I have to look, I wanna look, I wanna look deeper.

Olga Karpman: Even if it's scary, if it, even if it's unpleasant. 'cause life is a reflection, all of it, good and bad, and whatever we label. But it just is light and dark and everything in between. Everything, absolutely everything is our reflection, and this is not the place where I tell you who to be. And don't let anyone, not my guests, doesn't matter if they're the biggest authorities, don't let them tell you who to be, why to be and what to do.

Olga Karpman: You only, you know better than anyone else who to be. It's not the place where people come to perform. Maybe at the beginning a little bit, you'll see when the ice breaks, right? Um, it's a place to be.

Olga Karpman: We have enough of performances around us already, through social media, through politics, through governments, through everything what happens in the world through family members. This is the space where we get more honest, more honest with ourselves, and conversations will go deeper where things can get messier.

Olga Karpman: Unclear, uncertain. Something will steer your soul, but it's gonna be all real. One thing. I promise you it's gonna be real because that's what your soul is craving for right now. To be real, very real. Feel life.

Olga Karpman: Raw fully. It's like you standing by the ocean or watching the sunset and feeling something move through you, and sometimes it will show up in tears and you don't even understand why. You wouldn't even know why, but let it happen. Something wants to come through you. Not because you are sad, not because you are broken, not because you are happy, because you are alive.

Olga Karpman: This space is for you to feel alive again. You're just allowing it to be you just remembering, allowing something to come through you. You're remembering who you really are. In the voice, in my voice, in guest voice. But it's so you. You hear yourself. You might hear it later after this podcast, in the wind and the moment, and a smile, and that's all real.

Olga Karpman: And even in the argument at the grocery store, this is all real and there is already enough. A fake around us and it's already enough of artificial around us,

Olga Karpman: but we want something very real. You, your soul, your spirit is craving something real.

Olga Karpman: Because very often the things we try to avoid, the things we call uncomfortable or dark, are exactly where something real begins. And I invite you not to be scared of that. Look into it. See you on shadows, and you'll see through our podcast, something will trigger you for sure. Stay with it if you feel you on transition, and if you can explain it, stay with it.

Olga Karpman: It will pass, but it's much easier to do it in a space. That's been created just for that.

Olga Karpman: And if you feel you're shifting and the version of you that worked for years suddenly feels too small, just know you are not alone. Me and you and many, many, many others around us going through the same thing. You are not alone. My best friend who actually you'll hear on this podcast says, you are not alone and you're not crazy.

Olga Karpman: Join, join our space

Olga Karpman: and maybe you don't need another answer right now. Maybe you just need a space where you can hear. Your own voice again, yourself, just, uh, like me and you sitting by the fireplace one day. Just exhale and we just don't even say anything. Maybe we should create a podcast where we don't even say anything.

Olga Karpman: We just sit there and we just be. Maybe I'll do that one episode. That's gonna be the space to hear each other. But for now, you'll hear me on this podcast. You'll hear my friends. You'll hear amazing people. My guests, some of them will be known. Some of them you'll hear from the very first time. But I know for sure if they're on this podcast, it meant to be.

Olga Karpman: They need to deliver the message or something needs to come through them, through the mask that they chose, or the mask chose them. It's a very exciting journey. I don't have specific plans for it. I just see it unfolding in a very beautiful way. Uh, and I know that me and you are co-creating this space, and I'm really, really, really grateful for that.

Olga Karpman: Thank you so much for being here, for being you. Welcome home. Welcome to Unmasked the Show about what lies beneath.