Author: Barbara Risto
If you’ve ever listened to the INSPIRED podcast—the companion online experience to INSPIRED 55+ Lifestyle Magazine—you’ve likely noticed the conversations don’t feel forced. They unfold naturally, with warmth, curiosity, and a deep respect for the person on the other end of the microphone. That ease isn’t accidental. It comes from decades spent learning how to listen.
Behind the microphone are Lisa Marshall and Michael Forbes—partners in life, partners in business, and trusted voices in our community. Long before they were helping people over 55 navigate one of life’s biggest transitions—finding or leaving a home—they were guiding listeners through their mornings on Victoria’s airwaves.
Today, as real estate professionals who specialise in serving older adults, they continue to do what they’ve always done best: connect, communicate, and care.
Their work producing the INSPIRED podcast is an extension of that lifelong calling.
Michael’s path into broadcasting began with an unexpected moment of clarity.
“As a young man, I didn’t know what I wanted to be,” he says. He had considered the army and even spent time as a reservist with the British Columbia Dragoons in the Okanagan. Later, while living in Montreal with his father, he found himself listening to CJAD radio. When the DJ introduced “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, something clicked.
“I had an epiphany,” he recalls. “I thought, I want to do what that DJ is doing.”
It made sense in retrospect. As a child, Michael had been obsessed with his cassette recorder, creating pretend radio shows and interviewing family members. He just hadn’t realised it could be a career.
Lisa, too, found her place in broadcasting—and, ultimately, alongside Michael. Together, they became a team, learning how to balance each other’s strengths.
“I’m a good listener,” Lisa says simply. “Michael is a great communicator. That combination works well.”
It worked so well that their partnership became the foundation of everything that followed.
Broadcasting offered more than a job. It offered a creative outlet and a sense of purpose.
Michael often reflects on something Johnny Carson once said—that he loved starting the day with nothing and, by airtime, having created an entertaining experience. That same creative spark fuelled their work.
“We loved the creativity of it,” Michael says. “It didn’t feel like a regular nine-to-five job. It was show business—and we got paid.”
For Lisa, the magic was in the process itself.
“Starting with nothing and allowing ideas to flow, and seeing them become something—it was amazing every time,” she says.
Throughout their careers, Lisa and Michael became deeply involved in their community. They anchored annual Radiothons that raised more than a million dollars for BC Children’s Hospital. They emceed countless fundraisers and events. They used their voices not simply to entertain, but to inspire generosity.
“A lot of times we were just the megaphone,” Michael says. “But we saw first-hand what a difference that could make.”
That instinct—to use their talents in service of others—would later shape their work in real estate and their contributions to INSPIRED.
Michael was born and raised in Victoria but left as a young man, assuming he’d build his life elsewhere. Yet opportunity—and perhaps something deeper—called him back.
While working in Vancouver, a program director encouraged Lisa and Michael to apply for a morning show at a new Victoria station. They got the job, expecting it would be a stepping stone to larger markets.
Instead, they discovered they were already where they wanted to be.
“With this being Michael’s hometown and how beautiful it is here, it was a no-brainer,” Lisa says. “How can you move from this gorgeous island to anywhere else?”
Victoria became not just their workplace, but their home in every sense of the word.
When their broadcasting careers eventually came to an end—a sudden and disorienting transition—they faced a familiar question: What comes next?
The answer, it turned out, was real estate. It allowed them to continue working together. It drew on the same skills they had spent decades refining: communication, listening, marketing, and trust.
“Marketing and people skills through our radio career made it a seamless transition,” Michael says.
Lisa agrees. “Working as a team was already second nature,” she says. “We rely on each other’s strengths.”
But their approach to real estate is guided by something deeper than professional skill. It is rooted in empathy.
They understand that buying or selling a home is rarely just a transaction. It is often a life transition—one that carries emotional weight, especially for older adults navigating change. It’s one of the biggest decisions of one’s life, say both Lisa and Michael. “We put our clients and their needs first. We listen. We’re conscientious and thorough.”
Their philosophy is simple: service over sales.
Their empathy is shaped, in part, by their own lived experience.
Lisa and Michael are parents to two adult sons. At the same time, they are full-time caregivers to Lisa’s elderly parents, who live in their home and require constant care.
They exist, as many in their generation do, in the space between raising children and caring for ageing parents.
This firsthand understanding of caregiving gives them unique insight into the realities faced by many INSPIRED readers. They know what it means to balance responsibility, love, and the practical challenges of changing life circumstances.
Working together so closely could strain many relationships. For Lisa and Michael, it has strengthened theirs. Years spent together in the close quarters of a radio studio taught them how to communicate, how to compromise, and how to trust.
“We started and continue to be best friends,” Michael says.
“We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses,” says Lisa. “There’s no power struggle. It’s seamless.”
Their shared foundation allows them to navigate both business and life with uncommon harmony.
If there is a single thread connecting everything Lisa and Michael do, it is community.
Their ongoing community involvement reflects a belief that giving back is not optional—it’s essential.
“Serving the community we call home is everything,” Lisa says.
Michael often reflects on a quote by Pablo Picasso: The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.
For them, that gift has always been communication.
They have coached youth sports, served on boards, and hosted hundreds of fundraisers. Collectively, those efforts have helped raise millions of dollars. But their impact isn’t measured only in numbers. It is measured in relationships.
Their work putting together the INSPIRED podcast brings their journey full circle.
Each episode features someone whose story appears in the magazine—individuals who have faced adversity, pursued purpose, or discovered new meaning later in life.
For Lisa and Michael, these conversations are not interviews. They are human connections.
“We meet the most fascinating and entertaining individuals,” says Michael.
Their approach reflects a rare skill in today’s fast-paced world: the ability to truly listen.
It is why their guests feel comfortable opening up. It is why listeners feel drawn in. And it is why the podcast is a meaningful extension of the INSPIRED experience.
In a world often defined by division and uncertainty, Lisa and Michael maintain their equilibrium through perspective and presence.
Michael finds grounding in meditation. “It brings me back to my centre,” he says.
Lisa finds peace in nature and in focusing on what she can control—her own outlook.“I like to concentrate on the here and now,” she says.
Both share a belief that life unfolds as it should, often in ways we cannot predict.
Some of Michael’s most meaningful experiences, he says, arrived without planning. Lisa echoes that sentiment. “Life happens while you’re busy making other plans.”
Their lives reflect a quiet but powerful truth: that kindness, curiosity, and service can shape not only a career, but a community.
Today, whether they are helping a client navigate a housing transition or sitting behind a microphone listening to someone’s life story, Lisa and Michael are doing what they’ve always done.
They are creating connection. They are helping people feel heard.
In many ways, they never left broadcasting. They simply found a new way to do it. And through their work with INSPIRED, they continue to remind us that every life holds a story worth telling—and that sometimes, the greatest gift we can offer is simply to listen.
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