DNA professional evolution

Thirty-two months in a hunting camp, with no water and no electricity. Six rounds of therapy. Twenty-five properties rebuilt. Maxime Gagné, founder of EnDroit.ca, is neurodivergent. He explains how his brain lets him rebuild everything, and why he now helps Quebecers find their own way through the justice system.

Marie-Noël Côté built Canopée Bus Café in a former adapted transport vehicle, in Saguenay. The first mobile café in the region and a concept nobody understood for three years. Portrait of a woman whose brain never stops, except in the forest.

She spent fifteen years as a notary before betting everything on her horses. Véronique Fanard now practises equine coaching: sessions where the animal, unable to lie, goes straight to what we have been avoiding for years. Portrait of a woman who made freedom her work.

Street outreach worker, manager, dad, residence director in Alma, municipal candidate. David Boily's path looks like a puzzle, except it has one common thread: being useful, wherever he is. A portrait from the Offbeat conversations.

For The Offbeat Conversations, Audrey Lessard met with Elsie Côté: founder of Sirote-moi inc., single mother, former nurse, speaker. A woman living with three rare diseases and a neurodivergence diagnosed in adulthood. A conversation about inhabiting one's life, about the personas we invent for ourselves when life hits hard, about the weight of a voice that becomes necessary, and about the moment we finally allow ourselves to take our place under our own name.

Offbeat Conversations is the series that gives voice to professionals with unconventional paths. This month: Annie Comtois, conscious voice coach, who guides heart-centered leaders to release their voice of impact. A portrait on voice, presence and the art of fully owning who you are.

Through the Offbeat Conversations, Audrey Lessard meets the person behind the journey. In this article, Marc-Olivier Beaulieu shares a path shaped by academic perseverance, writing, and a master's degree in career counseling.

Offbeat conversations were born from a simple fascination: understanding what happens inside people’s minds at pivotal moment, when pressure rises and performance alone is no longer enough.