Business Innovators Radio - Jean-Sebatien Busque | Author | Translating Life for Men and Women

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

In this episode, we’re joined by Jean-Sebastien Busque—author, entrepreneur, and TEDx speaker from Quebec, Canada—for a candid, thought-provoking conversation about identity, resilience, and becoming fully yourself.Jean-Sebastien shares his powerful journey of transitioning from living as a woman to stepping into life as a man, offering honest reflections, unexpected lessons, and perspectives delivered with warmth and a touch of humor.Drawing from his books Worth the Shots and Gender Bilingual: Translating Life for Men and Women, he explores what it means to navigate the world across genders—and what we can all learn from that experience.In the guest segment, Jean-Sebastien opens up about entrepreneurship, storytelling, and using his voice on global stages like TEDx to spark understanding and connection. This conversation is insightful, human, and refreshingly real—inviting listeners to see life, and each other, through a broader lens.Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/jean-sebatien-busque-author-translating-life-for-men-and-women

Welcome to Business Innovators Radio, featuring industry influencers and trendsetters, sharing proven strategies to help you build a better life right now. Hello, hello, hello, everyone. How are you? Hope you having an incredible, incredible day and may peace be upon you. Welcome, welcome, welcome to the show. With me, your host, Dr. Is Dihar Jamil. And today I have our guest, Jean-Sebaston's book, who is,

He's an author, speaker, entrepreneur, and also a TEDx speaker. He's a French-Canadian guy, and today we're going to be touching this with two of his books. One is about the worth the shots, and the other is gender bilingual. I'm going to be unpacking the wisdom behind it, the lessons learned for you listeners today, and it's about his journey of transitioning from a woman to a man. so Jean Sebastian, I call him J.S. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Bonjour. Should we say start with that, right?

Bonjour. Okay, so let's go straight to the point. One of your book is called Worth the Shots, Worth the Shod. And Jean-Sabastin books are available on Amazon. So let's talk about what was your intention on writing Worth the Shots? Word the shot started as a funny project because I did a French-Canadian podcast, a podcast where I was explaining my transition journey in a really, with my usual talk, like Frank Way, with a lot of humor, a lot of intimacy I was kind of sharing that we don't really discuss about. And when I came to do the TED talk, you were discussing about, I was receiving a lot of questions. around my transition, but that was not the idea I wanted to bring to the stage. So I was like, yeah, I cannot tell you to go on my podcast, so let's do a book about it.

So Work the Shots is really about my transitioning journey. I call it a bit of my memoir slash intimate journey I went through. So everything from how the heck, around close to 40 years old, I'm finding out that that I couldn't see before, what had changed on my relationship. how did I approach my second coming out because I was with my wife for a while before so I had to do a second coming out

how I did all the legal stuff to change my name how was it for me to go in the restroom for the first time like all those part and pieces that are not kind of discussing the mainstream so my intention was that and the first

intention for the podcast was I've always told I'm in a privileged position in a sense where I don't have anyone that could throw me out of their house. I'm not depending on my parents. I have the freedom to be my own employer, so I don't have anyone that could, like, remove me from my job. So my calling was I can help someone else because I'm in a position to do so.

So that's how that whole journey kind of started and ended up in a book. Yes, I started with a French and a podcast that was in French, right? And then you had like people as you started to talk about the message, not for anything else, but for you to understand your own journey on going from A to B. So you started to like sharing it on a podcast in a way like leveraging your time so that when people have questions, you can refer them to your podcast or, you know, as an insight like, you know, over the years, that's something that people can look into. but then you come to the point of okay like I need not just the podcast because it's in French and we have yeah that was my main issue because and I didn't want to I could have redone it in English but it didn't feel like you know there's a vibe when you record yeah I was almost doing it's not a podcast like we hear usually your discussion as we're doing today it was like more an intimate kind

of journey and I was like I don't want to feel pressure to see the same thing and try to translate and so that's why it came and I said like why not do it in a book kind of feeling and it might reach more people because that was the why I did the podcast to begin with is because I was receiving question and I was receiving the feedback that I tend to explain it well and more universal no necessarily an agenda or to justify my choice more and hey you know once i decide to transition here's what's happening and oh i didn't thought of that um so that's how i got the request to do more a podcast and after that i was surprised that my actual main market ended up to be women more even more i think than people that transition because they were like whoa okay now i

understand my husband oh wow here's the way he's thinking here's the way i'm thinking um so it led me kind of in a complete different spectrum of reaction, I think, than what I expected to start with. Yeah, which is, you know, great because you never knew, right? You thought it's going to be this particular community because the way that you say it is relatable, it's simple. Like, you're not trying to be anyone else. You're not trying to be the premen proper mascot for this subject matter.

You're trying to just share your journey, share your story. perspective, what you went through, the challenges. I'm like, oh yeah, that didn't work. And one of the things that you mentioned, J.S., was that you're glad that in a way you do it later in life, just because you had an understanding or stability in a way. And obviously, this decision just doesn't happen like overnight in your... No, no, no, no, no, not at all. Not at all. It's just, you know, one thing lead to the other, and you're in a position where, you know, your employee is not going to kick you off unless you decide to fire yourself. That is a different thing. Or like, you know, you have, you're living on your own, not with your parents. So I wanted to touch,

because this is something that you touch in your book as well in terms of the journey that you went through for the decision that you made to along the way with the transitioning. And I feel like sometimes people nowadays, they just jump on the wagon too fast without properly reasoning or understanding things. I wanted to talk about that decision and what you've discovered and some tips that you can share to your readers from the book worth the shots as they go through this phase or thinking about going through it. Yeah, well, I think one of the major thing for me was I didn't want to do it to begin with. And that's a surprising fact for many people

because it was obvious. If you known me for years, it was an obvious answer. But I was an absolute, what was the expression? Chicken shit about that. I didn't want to go through this because what I was seeing was the whole journey.

And especially the ending of all the operations and all the thing I would have to get through And I just closed books. And I was like, nope, I'm too old. I'm past due next life. I'm not doing that stuff. Like, no way. I'm way too old for that.

Because in my mind, I was seeing like my whole life is built. I'm not going to go do that. I should have done that in my 20s, kind of fun. And then one of the best advice came from my wife was like, we're going to take it one step at the time. If you decide you go on this thing, just look at the next step. No further than that. And I think that's what I maintain all the way through those things, because you can get overwhelmed.

You can get all the fears in you pushing back and say, oh, no, I'm not doing that because of this and that, and then you start thinking about other people more than your own happiness at the end. So I'm just approaching that transition as, okay, here I am today. Am I ready to take the next step? Do I want to take it? And I can have the liberty to accept that gray zone also. So surprisingly, once I started to take it slow, it went really fast.

So it was like, okay, I'm going to just do the next step, but that next step went in a way that I did not expect. It unfolded really quick, and that's what I'm discussing in the book of first thing I know, oh, I got the vial of testosterone in my hands. And I'm like, wow, it didn't take more than the month. And in my mind, it was going to take six months to get that. And then old changes are really long to appear. But in my case, in like three months, it was really obvious. Like the voice has changed and many other things. So that's what I'm discussing of.

There were extended a surprise, but keeping that mindset of I'm doing that for my happiness. I'm taking it one step at the time. I'm going to take time to analyze to decide how I'm approaching things. that really serves me well. And I think that's what I'm displaying a little bit. And the hiccups in between, like, you know, calling the doctor's office and don't understand the male's voice asking for a women's file or for me to ask for operation that usually are women's operation.

And she's like, sir, are you sure it's not the zectomy? And I'm like, no, no, no, I'm like, okay, I'll have to explain. So all those little moments for me is where I found the gold pieces instead of finding like frustration and, oh, she should have known and that kind of approach. So that's really what I'm sharing. And I would say the major feedback I get when I'm telling my whole life story, at the end of word the shot, you don't have necessarily a tool for your life. but what I've shared is I got people like messaging me telling me

hey you were the whore that helped me going faster or oh I understood a different perspective that I never taught up like oh through you have to go through this like now I'm expected to open doors they don't get open for me anymore so oh nice little change so the more I discuss those daily things I think it just gives a refreshing perspective on that thing that we discuss a lot, that is trending these days, but people don't really quite get in the day-to-day life. And I think that's what people get the most about that book. Yeah, and it's really exciting. And you touch about the fact that, you know, like your wife said, just take it one thing at a time. Because even when you go up

the stairs to the top of the floor, you can only see, you know, a few steps at the time, right? you can never see like the top stairs from the fifth floor you can never see that so it's just like one step at the time as you climbing in and taking the time to analyze to processing i mean what i'm trying to say is that if you do make decisions whatever decisions in your life it cannot be because it's a trend or is an in thing like you got as you mentioned a few factors right that led you to to to making the decision it can never be about a peer pressure it can never be about a trend it can never be about oh this is the coolest thing like it can never be that because once you make the decisions you got to live with the consequences or everything that comes with it like as you mentioned

you call the doctor's office trying to ask for a woman's thing and they're like no but you're a man like what is this man calling about and you know about this xyz and the whole process of you mentioned in the book changing your name and the gender like legal process of it how many times you have to repeat the story so I wanted to kind of like the listeners here to think about his journey as well as also think in terms of jazz is an entrepreneur so he's thinking he has a podcast but he want you want to serve a larger audience right with your message with story with your insights. So then he leverage his message across multi-platform. So he has, you know, from the podcast to the book, which we work together on the worth the shots, and then on stages here

on the radio. So people need to understand that your message cannot be in just one-way platform thing that you want to leverage it across the multiple platforms. And what have you seen when you you know, from the podcast to the book, to the stage, to the interview, radio, podcast, media, what have you seen the effect of you having the courage and bravery to share your voices across those multiple platforms? Well, I think, well, there's two things. For me personally, my message kind of solidified because the more I speak about it, the more I'm more confident, the more I'm finding.

new things to talk about. New angle, new things to discuss. And on a wider level, I'm just amazed on how many new people I can reach in a new way. And as I say, I like to do the quiet wave. I'm just like sending that message out. I'm not expecting, you know, but a DMs. I'm not expecting anything. But I'm just getting from time to time a message that says, hey, you know, I listen to this. It's so close to what I'm living. Like, you make me laugh. You made me cry. And I still feel what you said. So just those messages from time to time, I'm just like, okay, it reached someone that needed it. So I think I'm on that kind of quest of some people are more familiar with a book. Some people are more like, I'm going to listen to you, do a couple things on social media.

I'm going to listen to you on your whole podcast. And I'm probably in the close future going to do second one in English. Of course. This is for me also different because I started with the little more smaller French market in Quebec. And then I'm opening. I didn't expect to open this fast or this big, as I said, as I tried to reach for TEDx and it worked. And it was in California. So I was the French guy flying from Quebec, Canada, trying to do my message on a huge platform, but I think every time also I'm just bringing something to the table also. Like, I'm spreading on multiple platform, but I'm also also bringing a different perspective. I'm not just repeating stuff or reheating stuff or just, and this is a crazy journey that I am on.

Yeah, I mean, that's so exciting, right? Like a French guy flying all the way to California to give a Tadax dog and remind everybody, or tell everybody what is the name of your TEDx talk so people can go to YouTube and then search for either search for Jean Sebastian Busk or the title of your TEDx talk yeah the title is public restroom the unexpected connector for men and women and I hope everyone's like to see it I had fun doing that talk it was a lot of challenge for me it was a challenging process for me to do a TED talk. But I think there's so much behind it that it's interesting to discuss.

And that's what bring me all the way to California to deliver that crazy idea. Yeah, and I had the pleasure of, you know, being at TEDx Fullerton, that's where JS gave his TEDx, assisting with the event production there. And speaking of that TEDx talk, it is actually the, so worth the shot has a twin sister, which is, you know, gender bilingual, and gender bilingual is actually a spin-off in a way or an extension of JS TEDx. As you know, TEDx stock, you can only fit like a so much, right, between 8 to 10 minutes. So this is like something tangible that people can hold on to in the extrapolation of the message. So touch base a couple of things, two or three things that people can learn

or that you highlight it from gender bilingual, which is the spin-off or an extension of your TEDx talk? Yeah, without giving too much of the punch of my TED talk. Basically, what I realize is instead of feeling like an outsider as a transgender, I realize I have a superpower, which is understanding men and women. It's like now in my brain there's both dialogues, and I can speak two languages. So like I speak French and English now, I can speak men and women.

And that talk was about it. And to introduce the subject, I started with the public restroom. But there's way more in life than public restrooms. It's just one setting. But to get a broader sense of a situation or moments in life where I'm starting to get a double dialogue in my mind, that's what I put in gender bilingual. Like now I go shopping. And I'm like, why all the color disappeared on the men's side? Like, you know, once my wardrobe now is navy, khaki, like white, gray, black, that's about it.

Like, you're a funky one if you get more colors, like, or why now do I get back pockets in my jeans, like compared to women's jeans? So this is one setting where there are so many questions going on in my mind. And that's what I put in gender bilingual. And that's one easy example, but I go also into how my emotion have changed. How now with hormones, I understand more men's behavior compared to women, how it changed in my life, how I was explaining one scene where I almost threw my laptop out of the window. I would never have done that as a woman. Then I stopped and I kind of said, like, whoa, what is that? Why is that?

But those are all small vignettes from the day-to-day life. I really get back to the down and practical stuff, and I think that's where people relate. So that's what is mostly in gender bilingual, because as you said, in that TED talk, I had 10 minutes. Already fitting that ID and 10 minutes was hard. And I got questioned on so many things, but I was like, no, I need to stick to my main idea.

I cannot tell you everything else that I observed. And that's where gender bilingual was born of, okay, there's more to tell about it. And that expression came in my talk saying gender bilingual. That's what I became. So that's how that twin sister kind of got born. Yeah, I mean, obviously, and if you see the cover with the shots and gender bilingual, one is dark, one is like, I was telling JS, it's like yin and yang. Because it's like the twin, you know, it's a comfort.

thing, it sticks together. It's an extension of it. And worth the shots as well as gender bilingual are both available on Amazon. So you can go and search out for it. Okay, JS, now that you've got the books, the TEDx stock, what is the next thing for you in your journey? That's a good question. That's a question I'm asking like the TEDx kind of took a big part of my year getting those books out in, as we said, worth the shot. I work with you and your team and I think I did it in a record time of 30 days. I did gender bilingual in like 40, 45 days kind of span. Now I'm in the period where I'm taking a break with my family. We're traveling around the United States right now. We're adjusting to a kind of nomad kind of life. Professionally,

I'll see where I'm going, but I'm definitely probably seeing an English podcast of some kind. I don't know the subject yet because there's my transition, but there's been so much more also that I want to share with the world. So I'll see where it leads. But that journey has already been incredible. Yeah. And like I said, time now with your family and just kind of take it again, just like your entire journey, like taking the time, pause, reset, reassess, and then being guided to the next step. And so that the English podcast is going to be exciting. I hope I'm getting invited to the podcast, even though it's a perspective that we can share. And then, you know, like we also talked about OGS helping other people to share their message and their voice through books and

through other platforms, because sometimes, you know, when you, one, you may not know how to share your voice and two, maybe not many people believed in you. So like, you know, you want to have someone who believed in you and going to hold your hand and take care of your voice, take care of you through the process, just like how I took care of JS with his book, just like how Hannah and Rubin and Carol and Jeremy took care of JS with his TEDx stock. You know, kind of like you want people who's going to believe in you and help you and demand the best from you. So I think that is the one thing that I feel that I've been blessed to be in your company as well, like having people that we trust, that we can work together, that play all out.

Because it's not when there are people who are like, you know, you see them, you see the potential, but they themselves are not willing to play the game. Yeah, and I think what I'm noticing also, because everything I'm telling happened in a span of one year for me. Like the podcast was born beginning of, I think I lost in February this year. And I think where everyone are amazed with what I've done in one year, it's because I didn't stop about the, I don't know how to launch a book. I was going to find how to launch a book. And I think that's where people get stuck most of the time of it's too complicated to do a book or it's too complicated to do a podcast.

I need the equipment. I need this. I need that. And when you bring it back to the simple form, sometimes it's not that complicated. or you can reach out to people that are used to do that. Like, I reach to you saying, hey, I want to do that book alongside Ted. I'm not going to have the time to write it. Do you have someone?

And you always have a way to find a simpler thing, simple way to do things. And I think that's where people get stuck and afraid to serve their message, because it's like, oh, I don't have the podcast equipment. Or I won't have anything to say. That's my favorite one. And I'm like, no, let me sit down with you. I'm sure you have things to say. so yeah there's definitely yeah there's definitely something to do there about more people sharing their

voice uh quieter voice needs to get out more i think yeah quite a voice like all those quirky voices the voices has always been you know in the background the things that you feel like in your body on your soul that needs to be to be shared even just like a tiny thing i think like you know You want to find, I call it the super who, the super who that is going to make it, like, happen. You don't need a lot. Like when JS and I were working with a book, we have a very small team. Obviously, JS only see me and a couple of other people, but we have a very small team. And the team just like, you didn't have to tell us, oh, I need this.

And like, no, JS, this is what's going to happen. This is a time. This is how are we going to do? This is the person. This is what you need to do. So we were on a role because you have a super who that takes care of everything. Like, Jay is a job. You only have one job, right, to, like, tell your story and, you know, with the feedback.

So that was your only number one job that you had to do. So, Jess, let's talk about and wrap this one up with where can people find you if they wanted, you know, to get in touch with you? The best place is my website, so www.j.jsb-U-S-Q-U-E-E-D-C-U-E-E-D-C-U-E-E-D-R-O. I'm on my social media. I'm on Instagram or Facebook, j-sb-U-S-Q-E-E-D-P-R-O. I'm on those two places right now for the moment. I'll say YouTube with the TEDx also for the TED Talk. But that's the major place for now. And all my future projects are put in there. Yeah, the future project or JSS community, which you can check out on his website.

Or, you know, drop him a message on Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn. Just drop him a message there. And, of course, like gender bilingual as well as worth the shots, the twin sister or twin brother, is available on Amazon.com. Just search for either gender bilingual or worth the shots. and grab a copy of this book. Okay, T.S., let's wrap it up with one of the biggest insights that can help people that you've discovered.

Stay true to yourself and, like, take the leap. I always say, like, go on, be brave them all, be yourself, unleash that power in you and be unique. and everything from there unfolds in a beautiful way. Beautiful. I mean, believe in yourself, trust in yourself. That's exactly what my ice hockey coach, my kids, not mine. I don't play ice hockey, but my kids, ice hockey coach told my son Abra,

like we were at Nashville in a tournament and he came to him and it's like, you know, you just got to believe in yourself. If you don't have someone who believes in, you've got to find someone who's going to believe in you. got a great mom, you've got this, you've just got to find it. And then you've got to find those, you know, all those frustration, everything else in your body and want to channel it on ice and believe in yourself. So, you know, like, I found it so ironic in a way like divinely connected that you mentioned the same thing. Like believe in yourself, stay true to

yourself, right? Because that's the only way that you can be and having the peace, the serenity, the calmness for you. So thank you so much, yes, for being here with me on this. show and remember everyone that it takes courage to be who you are and more importantly it takes courage, take action to share your message. Take care. May peace be upon you. Like Jess, let's say goodbye to everybody. Thank you, everyone. Have a nice day. Thanks for listening to Business Innovators Radio. To hear all episodes featuring leading industry influencers and trendsetters, visit us online at businessinnovators.com today. Thank you.