A Rhodes Wellness College graduate shares how a non-traditional path — hotels, landscaping, DJing — led him to a viral TEDx talk and a thriving counseling practice built around helping men show up fully in their lives.
What does it take to stand on a TEDx stage and speak to the world about the emotional lives of men? For Dustin Hogan — men’s mental health counselor, founder of Therapy for Dudes, and graduate of Rhodes Wellness College’s Professional Counseling Diploma program — the answer is almost a decade of persistence, a willingness to be vulnerable, and a set of tools forged in the counseling training room.
In the inaugural episode of the Rhodes Wellness Podcast, host Jameson Dean sits down with Dustin for an honest, wide-ranging conversation about his TEDx journey, the realities of building a counseling practice from scratch, and what he wishes more men knew about asking for help.
A TEDx Talk Nearly a Decade in the Making
Dustin’s connection to the TED stage goes back to 2015, when he was living in Vancouver and worked as support staff at a local TEDx event — coaching speakers and providing entertainment during intermissions. The dream of one day taking the red carpet himself quietly took root.
By 2018 or 2019 he had applied to speak at a TEDx event and didn’t get the spot. That redirection, as it turns out, was part of the journey.
“I have a sticky note in my office that says: you were not rejected, you were redirected. Those moments that feel like failure are actually pointing you toward something that’s a better fit.”
— Dustin Hogan
At the end of 2024, a TEDx Grandview Heights organizer reached out and asked Dustin to pitch his idea. He proposed a talk on men’s mental health — and was accepted. On January 10, 2025, with his parents and sister flown in from Calgary and the auditorium full, Dustin delivered The Silent Crisis of Men’s Mental Health as the event’s first speaker. The talk is now live on YouTube, where it has earned tens of thousands of views and continues to spark conversation.
Dustin describes using the same emotional reframing tools he teaches his clients to manage the fear and exhilaration of that day: pausing in the silence before his first word, allowing the nerves to sharpen his focus rather than derail him.
The Silent Crisis: Why Men’s Mental Health Still Matters in 2025
Dustin’s counseling practice, Therapy for Dudes, serves men across Alberta with a focus on anxiety, depression, confidence, communication, and relationships — all conducted online. The name is deliberate: approachable, direct, and designed to lower the barrier to entry for men who might otherwise dismiss therapy as “not for them.”
“If I wasn’t nervous, it wouldn’t mean anything to me. Those nerves allowed me to be focused, to perform at a super high level.”
— Dustin Hogan, on the TEDx experience
Stigma around men seeking help for mental health remains real in 2025. Dustin’s work — both the one-on-one counseling and the broader reach of his TEDx talk — is grounded in a simple conviction: that when a man does the inner work, the positive ripple spreads to his partner, his family, his friends, and his community. That ripple effect, he says, is what gets him out of bed in the morning.
Key Topics Covered in This Episode
- The 10-year journey to a TEDx stage — and what it felt like to finally take it
- How to reframe anxiety and fear into focus and performance
- Why men’s mental health stigma persists and what we can do about it
- Common questions aspiring counselors ask — and honest answers
- How a non-traditional background becomes your greatest asset as a helper
- The upcoming MindStrong online course for men’s personal development
- How Rhodes Wellness College prepared Dustin personally and professionally
From Hotels to Landscaping to DJing: Why Your Background Is Your Superpower
Dustin’s path to the counseling room is anything but straight. His career has included hotel management, running a landscaping company called The Grass Guy, moving to Vancouver to pursue audio engineering, teaching DJing and music production at Brain Boost Education, and building a speaking and coaching business.
He describes a pivotal moment: on the way to a business meeting to expand his landscaping company, he had to pull over in tears, realizing he wasn’t passionate about the work. That honest confrontation with himself set off a chain of career pivots that eventually led him to Rhodes Wellness College in January 2020.
Looking back, Dustin sees what Steve Jobs called “connecting the dots backward” — how customer service skills from hospitality, small business acumen from landscaping, and deep human connection from music and teaching all converged into the counselor he is today.
“All of the experiences we’ve had throughout our lives are very applicable when it comes to our work as a counselor. It allows us to empathize with our clients at a very deep level.”
— Dustin Hogan
What Aspiring Counselors Most Often Ask
Dustin has spoken at Rhodes Wellness College open houses and regularly hears from people considering a counseling or coaching program. The most common question, he says, is some version of: “Will my life experience actually apply to this work?”
His answer is an emphatic yes — with an important nuance. Counselors are not there to give advice or tell clients what to do. They are there to hold space, support, and help people navigate their own journey. And every struggle, failure, and hard-won success a counselor has lived through deepens their capacity to do exactly that.
He’s equally direct about self-doubt. He had it. He still has it. The critical voice that asks “Can I do this? Are people going to want to work with me?” doesn’t disappear — but the path forward is to lean in anyway. As he put it: the next step is shown to us by taking the step we’re on right now.
3 Things Dustin Wants Aspiring Counselors to Know
- There’s no perfect time. Dustin looked at Rhodes for two years before starting. The self-doubt is normal — it never fully goes away.
- Your past counts. Every job, relationship, and hard chapter has made you more capable of empathy. That life experience is an asset, not a liability.
- Stay open to where it leads. A counseling diploma is not a one-track path. It can open doors to private practice, group work, online programs, speaking, coaching, and more.
What’s Next: MindStrong and Reaching Men Globally
At the time of recording, Dustin was putting the finishing touches on MindStrong — his first online personal development course designed specifically for men. The course covers limiting beliefs, mindset, emotions, communication, relationships, habits, goals, vision, and purpose.
Although the program is informed by years of counseling and coaching work, Dustin is clear that it’s a personal development course — not therapy — which means it can be offered globally. It includes self-paced video content, exercises, tools, strategies, and a community component. A spring/summer 2025 launch was anticipated at the time of recording.
About the Guest
Dustin Hogan
Men’s Mental Health Counselor · Calgary, Alberta
Graduate, Professional Counseling Diploma, Rhodes Wellness College (2020)
TEDx Speaker — The Silent Crisis of Men’s Mental Health
Rhodes Counseling Centre is also available for those seeking counseling support in a pro bono capacity, online for anyone across Canada. Visit rhodescollege.ca
Full Episode Transcript
The complete transcript is provided below for accessibility and reference. Lightly edited for readability; timestamps from source retained.
Jameson Dean: All right, welcome everyone to Rhodes Wellness Podcast, where we have the opportunity of getting to know Dustin Hogan a little bit more — a graduate starting in 2020 in his professional counseling diploma program at Rhodes Wellness College. Dustin, take it away. Introduce yourself. Let everyone know who you are, what you’re up to, what you do.
Dustin Hogan: Yeah, well, thanks for having me here. Super excited to connect with you. My name is Dustin Hogan, based here in Calgary, Alberta. I run an online therapy practice as a men’s mental health counselor. The name of my practice is Therapy for Dudes. I have the opportunity and really the pleasure of getting to work with guys throughout Alberta on their mental health or emotional health, focusing on areas like anxiety and depression, confidence, communication, relationships. I’m a huge advocate for this work, especially from a men’s mental health standpoint. Loved my time attending Rhodes and very excited to be with you here today.
Jameson Dean: Absolutely. I really look forward to getting to know you a little bit more, and to ask you some pretty interesting questions — including about your TEDx speaking engagement, which is now live on YouTube. What was that like for you? What did it feel like leading up to it?
Dustin Hogan: It was an incredible experience and it’s something that was almost ten years in the making. I had the opportunity back in 2015, when I was living in Vancouver, to work at a TEDx event — supporting some of the speakers with coaching and providing entertainment during the intermission. So I’ve been thinking about the TEDx stage for quite some time. Around 2018 or 2019, I applied to speak at a TEDx event and didn’t get that opportunity. Fast forward to the end of 2024, I was contacted by one of the organizers for TEDx Grandview Heights in Vancouver and asked what my idea worth spreading was. I pitched my idea from a men’s mental health standpoint, and with a lot of gratitude, was accepted as one of the speakers.
The event was on January 10th of this year, 2025. The week before, I went to Vancouver to rehearse with the other speakers. January 10th, I got to take the stage with some amazing speakers. My parents flew in. My sister flew in from Calgary. Friends from Vancouver were there supporting. It was exhilarating — equal parts excitement, equal parts nerves and anxiety. I was the first speaker of the entire event, which was exciting and also terrifying.
I remember the hours, the minutes, the moments before my name was called — getting into that zone and flow state, using a lot of the tools I work on with my clients, reframing that anxiety or fear into exhilaration. If I wasn’t nervous, it wouldn’t mean anything to me. Those nerves allowed me to be really focused in the moment and to perform at a super high level. Before I started speaking, I paused for maybe five or ten seconds, just taking in the space and the audience and my energy. Then I started to talk. Super grateful for the whole experience.
Jameson Dean: How can people find it on YouTube?
Dustin Hogan: Just search my name, Dustin Hogan. The title of the talk is The Silent Crisis of Men’s Mental Health. It’s been cool to see the engagement — people commenting, liking, sharing, and really keeping the conversation going. That was my intention with it.
Jameson Dean: We’re going to transition slightly to a question a lot of viewers have: what common questions do you get from aspiring counselors, helpers, healers, and coaches? And what are your answers?
Dustin Hogan: One of the biggest questions that comes up is: “Will my life experience apply to this type of work in the counseling or coaching field?” As you know, we’re not there to tell people what to do or give advice. We’re there to support and help people navigate their journey. But with that said, all of the experiences we’ve had throughout our lives are very applicable. We’ve all overcome challenges, experienced failures and setbacks and success. All of that life experience sets us up to be better counselors, better coaches. It allows us to empathize with our clients at a very deep level. When I realized that my experience would apply to this work, it was a confidence booster.
Dustin Hogan: And 100% — I had looked at Rhodes for a couple of years before I decided to make the choice. I had all of the self-doubts that I’m sure many listeners are having right now: “Can I do this? At this stage in life, should I be making this choice? Am I going to find success? Are people even going to want to work with me?” Those critical stories were very present. I like what you said about just getting started and leaning in. The path will unfold as we’re willing to take those steps. As cliche as it is, the next step is shown to us by taking the step we’re taking right now.
Jameson Dean: Are there any things that really led to your success today in your practice — previous business or work experience, anything you’d highlight that brought you to where you are?
Dustin Hogan: I’ve had a very interesting career trajectory over the last 15 or 20 years. Originally I went to school for hotel restaurant management and worked in the hotel business here in the city for a couple of years — enjoyed it, had fun, but wasn’t super passionate about it. I transitioned out and decided to start a landscaping company called The Grass Guy. I did fairly well with it, but once again, I wasn’t passionate. I remember being on my way to a business meeting to potentially expand the landscaping business and having to pull over because I was actually in tears, realizing I’m not passionate about this — and wondering what my life could look like if I was actually pursuing something I was passionate about. At the time, it was music and DJing.
So I sold the landscaping business, packed up my life in Calgary, moved to Vancouver for audio engineering school — around 2011. That led me to teaching at a school in Vancouver called Brain Boost Education, where they had a DJing and electronic music production program. That was really my first step into coaching and counseling without even realizing it. Yes, I was teaching kids about music and DJing, but really it was about life skills — how to be organized, how to have goals, how to have a vision.
I then started a coaching and speaking business in Vancouver, and fast forward to 2018–2019, I realized I wanted to go even deeper and bring in the mental health side of things. That’s when I made the decision in January 2020 to start at Rhodes on the counseling side. All of these seemingly different career experiences — hotels, landscaping, music, teaching, coaching — now all tie together in my practice in such a beautiful way.
Dustin Hogan: And I’ll add: there’s a sticky note in my office that says, “You were not rejected, you were redirected.” To me, that’s the ultimate reframe. Those moments when there’s a failure or a rejection — it’s actually redirecting me toward something that’s a better fit. Having to remind myself of that on a daily basis has been so important.
Jameson Dean: Right now in your practice, what are you working on for the next six months or a year?
Dustin Hogan: I’m in the thick of building out my first online program for men, focusing on men’s mental health — called MindStrong. It’s something I’ve been working on behind the scenes for over a year. I’ve brought on some incredible consultants and team members to help. It’s going to be a real deep dive into everything men’s mental health and emotional health, based on all the work I’ve done with clients from both a counseling and coaching standpoint. It covers limiting beliefs, mindset, emotions, communication, relationships, habits, goals, vision, and purpose. I just finished recording the content, and the team is editing it now. We’re probably going to launch in the next two to three weeks. It’ll give me the opportunity to connect with men not just in Alberta and Canada, but globally.
Dustin Hogan: That ripple effect — I love working with clients, but thinking about them going out and being the best version of themselves, being better men for their partners, families, friends, and colleagues — that’s what really spreads that ripple of positivity. And something like the TEDx talk — never knowing who’s going to hear it or when they need to hear it — I’m so grateful for all of these things right now.
Jameson Dean: How can people reach out to you?
Dustin Hogan: The easiest way is on my website, therapyfordudes.com. There’s the opportunity to book on there and a really in-depth blog section as well. Or on Instagram — I Am Dustin Hogan or Therapy for Dudes. And LinkedIn as well. Always love hearing from people, talking to people, connecting and supporting in any way I can.
Jameson Dean: And I should mention — which is really important to us here at Rhodes Wellness College — Rhodes Counseling Centre. In the event you’re looking for counseling in a more pro bono oriented way, online for anyone across Canada, Rhodes Counseling Centre is available. Our intake specialists can meet with you; find it on our website at rhodescollege.ca under Resources → Counselling Centre. There’s also a graduate and alumni booking page under Resources where you can see all of our graduates, the services they offer, and how to contact them. Our programs are offered online through Zoom in a very interactive, hands-on, and practical way. And my email is jameson@rhodescollege.ca if you want to reach out directly.
Dustin Hogan: Thanks for having me. I’ve got such love and respect for Rhodes and everything it’s done for me — the people I’ve got to meet, the staff, the leadership, the instructors. It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, both personally and professionally. For those listening — we’d love to connect with you. Feel free to reach out.
Jameson Dean: Awesome stuff, Dustin. Thank you so much for sharing and being such a wonderful first official Rhodes Wellness Podcast guest. We do expect at least a monthly posting going forward. If you haven’t already, please subscribe to the podcast, and feel free to leave a review. You can find more at rhodescollege.ca. Thank you for listening — have a wonderful day, and be well.
