What We Studied vs. What We Actually Do – Ep. 1

For the first episode, I sit down with a good friend in Manjeev Nanua and discuss all things from school to work and everything in-between. Cold truth of starting from scratch and that I'm actually 7 foot 😂

You can watch the full video episode on youtube - https://youtu.be/6DaWYswqatE?si=E8zYJqWsdxc8Jwo-

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Right when I started the business, first thing I told my dad, like, oh, dad, I quit. He said to me, if you're going to do something, do it wholeheartedly. Just don't look back. Go in wholeheartedly. Like, between me and my business partner, we were doing accounting, marketing, sales, dispatching, basically everything. So, like, whenever there's a dispute, like, what happens if there's a dispute? We just take it to the parking lot and just scrap it out. Like, it's going to be easy peasy. We're going to get a customer in line. We're going to be rolling in dough. These guys loaded it incorrectly, and the trailer basically snapped in the middle.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Wait. What? How long have we known each other for? Damn. Probably about 18 years. You're giving my age away. I'm actually 19, so... Oh, man. Oh, man. I'm trying to catch a chariot. No, it's crazy. We've known each other for 18 years, dude. Yeah, wild. That's shocking. That's more than half my life, actually. I don't think I have more than friends. I don't think I would have friends for more than half my life, let alone friends for 18. In two more years, it'll be two decades. It's 18 years too long. Yeah, I know. I hate this guy. Before we get into more of the nitty gritty of this podcast, why don't you introduce yourself about where you come from, what you currently do and who you are as a person?

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Right, so I have my own third-party logistics company. I've been doing that for over eight years. We've worked with huge companies such as Red Bull, BioSteel, Prime, Celsius, basically all the major energy drink products. We've expanded our revenue. basically doubled every year. And right now we're doing well for ourselves. I mean, between me and my business partner, we're doing well and we look forward to this year and hopefully double again.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

You know when your parents, we're South Asian, right? Your parents have the little thing that we do before you're born, right? They usually leave money, they leave either a toy or they leave a book. When you crawl towards the book, they believe, oh, he's going to be smart. And if you crawl towards the money, he's going to be rich. And if you crawl towards anything else, he's a failure, right? And that's usually what it means. Be honest here. Did someone leave a truck in any of those vials? Was that something in your language? It's funny

SPEAKER_00 2:14

that you say that. There probably was a dump truck or a toy truck there at one point, and I did gravitate towards that one. But I probably ended up walking backwards and missing all those toys anyways. So as

SPEAKER_02 2:28

a kid, did you... always have this fascination of owning your own business or was it something that came up afterwards?

SPEAKER_00 2:33

So it was something that I kind of grew up with because my dad was a business owner. He had his own logistics company. So it was kind of natural. Like I would see him do his business. I'd go out with him on his business with a bunch of trucks, right? The warehouse and everything. So it was kind of like a natural progression. It's something that's always been in my mind in my life. And it kind of just felt like a very easy transition when I made the move to start my own logistics company. It was kind of something that was already there. But I did, you know, I did move around from different schools, try different things. Like I have my BBA in global business management. I have my recognition of achievement in digital marketing management, sorry. And then I have my certification in project management as well. But all of it did lead to my entrepreneurship and becoming basically who I am today.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

So, to summarize, you fancy. You fancy. We try. We try. No, man. The list of accomplishments you just mentioned just makes me... Don't tell my parents that. They'll be very disappointed in me. So, big ups to you, man. And honestly, just having your own business. What are some things that, you know... you found challenging when, when starting to jump into that, you know, for obviously when you start up anything from the very, from the scratch, essentially there's challenges, there's hurdles, there's obstacles. What was something that you found very challenging going from school? You know, you've obviously worked somewhere in the industry and you obviously made that jump over to, to dispatching,

SPEAKER_00 3:57

you know, obviously. Yeah. So, uh, out of school for my co-op, I did, uh, work at a logistics company and then I got one of my close friends hired at the logistics company as well. And we would go every day. We would talk, during lunch, right? We'd just hang out. And we kind of realized, why are we lining somebody else's pockets? Let's just quit. Let's do it ourselves. So we both quit around the same time, probably about a week apart. And then we never looked back. So I remember right when I started the business, first thing I told my dad, like, oh, dad, I quit. He's like, okay, what are you going to do? Like, I told him my whole plan. I broke it down for him. And I said, or he said to me, if you're going to do something, do it wholeheartedly. Just don't look back. Go in wholeheartedly. And that's basically advice that I always live by when it comes to business, lifestyle, anything. Just do things wholeheartedly. But yeah, so the biggest transition coming out of school, going into the workforce and starting my own is probably the amount of effort it takes. So your success is directly correlated to the work you put in. If you want to put in zero work, you're going to get zero success. So if you want to be up 6 a.m. making phone calls, messaging, emails, that's directly tied to you and your success. So the trade-off is, yeah, you have to put in more hours and more work, and sometimes you don't have time for everything. But just by putting in that 110% work, you know it's going to come back to you at some point.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

Just to go back to your point earlier and just make that full circle moment, you obviously work for somebody, right? And I'm sure most people would say working for somebody sucks. And I'm just going to say that right now. It sucks. Yeah, it wasn't great. You're someone else's donkey, essentially, right? Now, obviously, you're your own donkey and you get to, I'm going to say, ride yourself to success, but you get to work yourself to... Until you see the end of the tunnel. The reason why I bring this up is that when you made that jump from being an employee to being your boss, there is tons of hours you went in. If you were to highlight one particular challenge that was something you wouldn't have guessed, being an employee, but now being your own boss, this is definitely the forefront of problems. And how did you overcome that? Or even if you haven't overcome it, maybe it's something you did to provide remedy to it.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

So very early on, Like I was saying earlier, the biggest transition is also like your success and how it relates to your work. But it's also just that you have to do everything yourself. Like between me and my business partner, we were doing accounting, marketing, sales, dispatching, basically everything. And we were like probably spreading ourselves thin at some points, right? We were just doing everything. We weren't really outsourcing a lot of things. We were trying to do everything ourselves, keep everything in-house. So the biggest challenge of that is just knowing that You have to do those things, but maybe you can ask for help too. Like, don't be afraid to ask for help when you're starting out because like we're all doing this for the first time as well. And going a little bit of help goes a long way. So that's one thing I wish I would have done earlier. Just ask for a little bit of help here and there. But overall, I mean, that's probably one of the biggest challenges. Just trying to like do everything, feeling that you have to do everything.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

No, I 100% agree. I think that there's, once you start outsourcing things and obviously those things you learn over time as you work on your own business, because I don't think, you know, even for myself, I absolutely hate editing. And that's something that I disregard. And I obviously have two lovely gentlemen here doing the editing for me. I'm not going to give them a shout out right now, but them guys are good. I think outsourcing definitely makes sense a lot. Because one, it takes away the time that you can focus on things that you need to do, right? I have a billion and one things that I could think about that I could do, rather than being like, I got to put together some marketing material for X, Y, and Z. Or I have to figure out what is, you know, how does our payroll work? Like, how do I, you know, it's just there's tons of things you probably have to figure out on your own. Rather than just being like, you know what? I'm just going to pay someone else to do it. How much do you need? Take this off my plate.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Yeah. It's not even just about the money. It's more just about freeing up a bit of your time. Yeah. Time is valuable. So you can focus on your core competencies and then try to figure out everything else later. Like accounting, hiring an accountant. We're lucky enough that we kind of know about everything because that's what we went both into school for. But overall, that's what I would say. Yeah. Don't be afraid to ask for help. It's not you versus everybody else. People are willing to help if you

SPEAKER_02 8:25

ask. There's a reason why I'm smiling. Just so you know, I'm smiling for a reason. You said it was just you and your friend, right?

SPEAKER_03 8:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

You and... I forgot his name. Andrew. Andrew. Andrew, if you're watching this video, don't beat me up. I know Andrew, actually. Do y'all have HR? We are HR.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

We are everything. So whenever there's a dispute, what happens if there's a dispute? We just take it to the parking lot and just scrap it out. No, it's actually been great. So we've been working together for over eight years now, and there's probably never been a major issue. Wow. He's just a very calm guy, chill guy, and we kind of just feed off of each other's energies, right? So he's like, oh, maybe we should try it this way. Okay, let's try it. Let's see how it goes. Or the parking lot. Yeah, or 3 o'clock parking lot.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

Did you have ever, like, you know, I'm sure most people when they show up, any business or anything that they do in life, even for myself, I'm on this podcast for the very first time. And, you know, obviously talking to you, Manj, I have imposter syndrome. Is that something that you had yourself when starting your own business, from making that jump from being an employee to being your own boss?

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Yeah, you kind of do feel like you're something that you're not. Like, because you don't know anything either. I only took whatever I learned from my previous job experience, a little bit from school. I learned more from the actual job itself, though. But you do feel like this is not me. This is not the path. But then things start to click. And then you realize that this is my path. This is what I was meant to do. And we've been doing it for, like I said, over a year. She's killing it. I guess everything's been great.

SPEAKER_02 9:55

It's been a blessing. For people who don't know, they're doing great. But that's besides the point. You guys have definitely achieved things that most people would dream about. And I think the hardest step for anybody starting their own business is making that first step. Making that jump. And sometimes that jump is into the abyss. And you have no idea what you're doing. And when people ask you, hey, do you know what you're doing? And you're just like, I don't

SPEAKER_00 10:18

know. We're all learning at the same time. Every time a new challenge comes up, we have to take a minute and figure out how are we going to approach this?

SPEAKER_02 10:24

What are some misconceptions that you have about owning your own distribution company?

SPEAKER_00 10:27

Misconceptions. I remember when we first started, we're like, we're going to get a customer a month. It's going to be easy peasy. We're going to get a customer a month. We're going to be rolling in dough. It's going to be easy. And then we get into it. We're like, damn, we probably got one customer in six months. It wasn't a month like we thought. And we thought, It was just going to be very easy. Everything was just going to be handed to us, but you have to put the work in. So that's one of the biggest misconceptions. You have to put the work in. It goes for any entrepreneur or just somebody that's looking to start their own business. If you're not willing to put the work in, it's not going to come back to you.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

No, 100%. I think that's the best piece of advice you can get to anybody that's starting out. Especially, you know, anyone from university. Maybe it's their first job. Maybe it's their first take on just the field itself. Just being able to make that sort of leap of, you know.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

I think a lot of people are scared. Like, I don't know when I'm ready to make that step. But you just have to feel it. Like, if it doesn't work out, maybe try something different. Try improvising your strategies, revising your marketing plan, your sales strategies. Figure it out somehow, but don't just quit because it's getting a little difficult.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

You're doing well in your business. You obviously know what you're doing. I know little about dispatch. I actually did dispatching for Ikea, ironically. Yeah, I've been telling you this. Good days, I would just make routes, and then they would always complain to me, be like, this is so much longer than his. I'm like, dude, you go to Toronto. He's like, I don't care. This is so much longer. I'm like, dude, it just makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

One of the big challenges initially was, It's just trying to understand how everything works. Some of these drivers are very rude. They don't care. They've been driving for 10, 11 hours, right? Sometimes they just want to go home, do nothing, come back next day, reset. And if they're having a bad day, you kind of just got to let them have a bad day, right? You can't talk them out of it. You can give them the worst day. Yeah. You got to drive to California right now. I don't

SPEAKER_02 12:16

know if I told you yet, but you don't have no job anymore. Just kidding.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

So one of the biggest challenges is just trying to feel everything out. Like the first couple months, you're trying to understand, everything. You want to be perfect, perfect, perfect. It's not going to be perfect. For sure. Nothing is like going to be super ideal, but you have to make it work. So we had a couple of challenges. Like we had trucks catch on fire. We've had like no theft or anything, but we did have, I think, two trailers catch on fire. Exploding trucks. Yeah, literally. The guy felt something hissing in his truck and he hopped out. He was at a gas station. He hopped out and he walked maybe 20 feet away and looked back and the car was exploding. Oh my God. Um, so we had to, they called us and like, oh, by the way, all your freight's damaged. And, uh, we're like, okay, like we had to take a minute. Yeah. Slow down. How are we going to approach it? First, like you had to tell the customer.

SPEAKER_03 13:05

Your, your, your

SPEAKER_00 13:06

inventory's gone. Yeah. A hundred thousand dollars of your freight is inflated. That's, that's nerve wracking. Yeah. So we had to tell the customer. Luckily they were understanding. Things happen. That's why you have insurance. Um, so that was one of the bigger challenges initially, just trying to figure out how to slow down a little bit. Don't freak out. Just try to make it work. Like if we start freaking out, the client will freak out. So we have to approach them very calm. Hey, this is what happened. This is how we're going to deal with it. We have everything in place. Our apologies has happened. We do regular safety checks on all the vehicles. You have to just, you know, bring them back down a little bit. Because obviously it's a big deal. I'm not going to lie. If I was the customer,

SPEAKER_01 13:43

I'd be like, yo.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

You'd be in flames too?

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Nah, I'd be like, yo, can I get 20% off on an extra minute?

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Yeah, we did actually think about it. So me and Andrew sat down and we're like, okay, so how are we going to rectify this situation? Should we give them a discount on the next one? Should we just say like...

SPEAKER_02 13:56

It's longevity, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Yeah, because you want to retain the customer. And that's also one of the biggest challenges too, retaining a customer. Because people don't realize how much work goes into keeping the customer. You can get the customer, sure. To keep the customer, keep them happy, to keep them coming back to you, you have to be better than the next guy.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

Would you say, I'm sure you've heard this in school because you obviously... My parents would be proud of you than me at this point. Would you say the statement that, you know, a new customer costs way more than retaining an old customer?

SPEAKER_00 14:28

It does cost a lot to get that new customer, but nobody wants to stay staying there, right? You want to get more and more business, more customers, more freight. So it does cost a lot, but it costs a lot in terms of time because it doesn't cost a lot of money to get a client. But it does cost you time, like schedule the meetings, make sure everything's okay. Like you're still trying to run the business at the same time, but now you have to do all these meetings in between and try to make it work for around their schedule. And you have to show them like they're the most important client, not the guys that you already

SPEAKER_02 14:57

have. Yeah. So it's always the pick me attitude.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Yeah. My baby is the most important baby in the world. I mean, if somebody is going to give you X amount of dollars, they need to know why should I choose you guys over somebody else?

SPEAKER_02 15:08

No, for sure. It's, Yeah, the reason I made that baby jug was that, you know, I've worked in sales as well, and it's always the same person saying, my baby is the most important baby in the world. You're like, dude, I have 15 people at my door saying the same story, that my baby is very important. I get it. Everyone's baby is very important. I have two hands.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

You have to cater to everybody's needs. Exactly. One person might need temperature control, and one person is probably just very basic freight. You have to cater to everything.

SPEAKER_02 15:34

And what are some challenges with being able to cater? Is it more so that you have to find solutions that fit all or is it one shoe that kind of provides that?

SPEAKER_00 15:42

It's more just caring to their needs. Yeah. So if they need a special requirement, let's say temperature controlled, that's something that they need for their shipments. Right. Correct. But it's like you have to show them I can do this. I can do it whenever you need me. Not just like once a week. What if they have two or three times a week? You have to show them that you're reliable and you have to find guys that are also reliable. So you can't just find a guy that's going to do it one time and then you can't find that guy. You need to make sure the guy, he can do X amount of shipments so you can maintain it. You can lock it in for the future. So he can't run away and stuff. Hopefully. He can't drag away.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

He can't set his truck on fire. Lock him in. You did one truck? You're locked.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

But that's what it's about. Just trying to separate yourself from the pack and know that you are in your own lane. It's kind of hard to ignore everybody else in the industry, but you know what you do and you know what you bring to the table and you just have to do your best every day.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

You know, I'm going to ask something very, very, a bit more off the dome here. You know, how much of it, I only say this because, you know, I, And I'm obviously doing something new with myself here, right? And this is the very first episode. A new venture. A new venture. And how much did you feel like you were winning it? You had an idea, but you definitely have a gut. Pretty much all of it.

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Pretty much 90% of it. Because like I said, we started, we're like, we're going to get a customer a month. Yeah. Didn't happen that way.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

We're like, okay, we're going to send out 500 LinkedIn messages. probably sent out maybe a hundred. We're like, we're going to cold call a hundred people a day, maybe call like three. And then, but then you kind of get serious about it. Yeah. Like first, like I said, you're feeling it out. Then you get a little serious. It's the momentum. Yeah. And then you're like, you know what? If I want this to work, I have to do it. So yeah, basically just wing it. Fake it till you make it. A little bit. Like, cause we did have experience from the previous job. Yeah. We basically learned how it works. But then when you start doing it yourself, it's a whole different ballgame.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

It's funny. We mentioned ballgame. The Raptors suck, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

We are going to get Cooper flying.

SPEAKER_02 17:40

Yeah, and I'm hoping so. Let's hope he comes through. Unless we... We'll just knock on wood. Knock on wood. Yeah. Um, what was the, you know, obviously there's business realities and you know, there's, there's tons of different stuff that goes into running your own business. What was, you know, you were client facing, right? So you have your own clients that you work with and I'm sure you have tons of lists of clients that you do work with. Um, what, just to make it very simple, who's your favorite client and who's the absolute nut job?

SPEAKER_00 18:07

One of my favorite clients is they do a lot of like beverages. Okay. So like BioSteel, Prime, like those kind of energy drinks. And it's fun. I feel like she's a Prime still coming through Canada because I feel like. It's slowing down late, but it is fun. Like, cause you get to, you know that your products are making a difference to somebody's lives somewhere. Sports facilities, athletes, like it's changing somebody's life or it's at least helping them in some way. So that's one of my favorite products. One of my least favorite customers is, uh they do uh like sauces like you know um like barbecue sauce yeah but they're just like very demanding yeah they'll call me like 10 p.m be like i need a truck for 7 a.m i'm like you got all day to tell me that but you waited till 10 p.m yeah um so they would call at weird times i'm up at weird times uh lose sleep sometimes over it and then over some sauce. And then you don't really get a thank you at the end either. It's not like, it's not like I'm doing all this work and it's, oh, thanks, man. I really appreciate you guys helped us out.

SPEAKER_02 19:06

It's

SPEAKER_00 19:06

funny because- Day moves on and then next day. I'm only laughing because it's the sauce guy. Yeah, it's like, you know, like those, like jerk seasonings, like things like that. It's like they do all those kinds of sauces. So that's probably my least favorite at the moment. Hopefully it changes. What's the craziest story you've had other than the truck blowing up? The truck blowing up was definitely up there. At that same moment with the sauces, we had a trailer there. And the trailer bent in half. These guys loaded it incorrectly and the trailer basically snapped in the middle. And they're like, oh, it wasn't our fault. And I'm like, it's on your property. It was your loading guys. Who else

SPEAKER_03 19:42

followed? I

SPEAKER_00 19:43

loaded it. I showed up. I wasn't even there. I didn't even see the truck. So that dispute went on for probably about half a year. We were going back and forth with them trying to figure out the value of the truck and they didn't want to pay it. They just kept saying, no, no, it wasn't our fault. We're not going to pay X amount of dollars. You guys should have maintained all your trucks first. And eventually they settled on whatever they settled on. But that whole process took about six months.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

Six months of just going back and forth

SPEAKER_00 20:10

on... It was just sitting in their yard, taking up a dock space. So they're just inheriting the incurring costs on there. Yeah. So for six months, it's sitting on their dock, tying up one dock. Can't use that dock for anything else. Can't use that dock now. So now they're down the dock and... They're losing shipments already. Not necessarily losing shipments, but every other shipment is going to take... Much longer because you're waiting on a dock. Yeah. So they created a backlog. Everyone was asking for waiting time. So it just kind of became like a little nightmare situation. Did you ever have a client

SPEAKER_02 20:35

just show up to your house and be like, hey

SPEAKER_00 20:37

man... No, I don't disclose.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

That's my guy. That's my guy.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

No. Could you imagine? We have, we do get the calls all like, where's my freight? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

Like, I don't know, man. It's in China, bro. I'm like,

SPEAKER_00 20:49

give me a minute. Let me track it and I'll call you back. Like, I try to be very calm at work. Like, unless it's a very serious situation. Like, I think if I yelled maybe once or twice at a driver in eight years. That's pretty good. Yeah. Like, I try to be very calm because like I said, when you're calm, everyone else like, Tries to maintain. You set the tone of how you want to be talked about. Exactly. At the end of the day, it's my business. It's Andrew's business. So it's like we want to present ourselves in a certain way. We want to make ourselves reliable, calm. Collective. Yeah. We don't want to be hot-headed. Everyone's like, oh, they have a wrap-up. Just being angry. That's not how we are, right? You owe me money right now, man. You owe me. So basically, it's just about being calm. Taking things as they come. Yeah. There's always a solution for everything. Like in the moment, it might not seem like there's a solution. Just give it like an hour or two hours. Let it calm down a little bit. We'll come back to it. There's always a solution.

SPEAKER_02 21:45

So obviously, you know, we went to school together. And, you know, I don't think we talk about this enough, right? And the reason we don't talk about this enough is I think most people disagree with this fact. But it is facts.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

I'm the tallest person you've met. You were definitely up there.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

Yeah, yeah. A

SPEAKER_00 22:01

lot of people don't think that. There was Anthony Bennett. Yeah. I'll start. Yeah,

SPEAKER_02 22:06

there we go, man. There we go. People just didn't give me enough credit back then. They just kept saying I was 5'7". Yeah, you could have

SPEAKER_00 22:12

made the NBA

SPEAKER_02 22:12

first. I could have been the NBA. They just didn't let me go, man. I was really disappointed back then. Anthony Bennett was actually in our classes, actually. Funny story. Anthony Bennett used to be in my, I think it was my law class, I believe, or one of my business classes. He was so big in grade nine. Huge. We gave him a separate desk to sit in, and he had to sit in front of the class. It's like the airplane

SPEAKER_00 22:31

that you buy two seats.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

It's like we're all sitting in the cubby and this dude sitting on this giant desk and he's in front of a class and i'm like in grade nine i'm like why does he get to sit over he looks like a dude he looks like a man that's the future first round first pick yeah you know he's a first rounder when you see that dude six six in grade nine was he six in grade nine or six three i'm not sure about grade nine but he was tall as hell when he was drafted i think he was around six seven he was tall like being tall is one part and then being like big

SPEAKER_00 22:59

big yeah he was like

SPEAKER_02 23:00

muscular yeah he looked like a man i was like i was still i was still six six five Yeah, so Anthony Bennett, fish. I'm going to keep going with that joke. Anyone disagrees with me, I'll find you where you live. While we were in school, for me, I never thought I wanted to be a CA. That was something that I was very passionate about. I wanted to follow accounting, and that was kind of like my acumen that I wanted to pursue. None of that stuff happened. That changes very quickly. Yeah. I actually finished degrees three times at university. And then I realized I, you know, one thing that my biggest takeaway and what I realized, and I don't know if this is applicable to yourself as well, is that I found that I'm good at things.

UNKNOWN 23:39

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

But I don't like those things. Right. I dislike most...

SPEAKER_00 23:43

You get bored very

SPEAKER_02 23:44

quick. I get bored so quick. I'm like, I'm good at numbers. Yeah, I'm good at numbers, but it doesn't mean that I'd like to do math every day. Yeah. I want to go into finance and be a Wall Street guy. I realize that's also numbers. You're a Toronto... A nest. Yeah. And I'm like, ah, damn. And now I'm in marketing. I minored in finance or like might as well because I was already like two, four courses in.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Yeah. That's the thing. Like it changes a lot, right? Through high school, you have... an expectation of who you want to be, what you want to be. I think very few people actually stick to what they want to be. Like I could probably name a handful of people that are probably on the same trajectory they were in high school.

SPEAKER_02 24:18

That's true. No, actually some people are actually the, you're right. There are a few people that I very recall that were like, I'm going to be a doctor. I'm going to be a nurse. And they follow through.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

Yeah. I mean, once you go to a college university, it does change your perception. Yeah. And you kind of realize maybe that's not what I want to do. And it's okay. It's not a bad thing. It's a terrible thing for your parents.

SPEAKER_02 24:37

Yeah, you're penetrated. Doctor, lawyer. No, bro, you're getting out. Engineer, doctor. You're getting disowned. What are you telling me? You want to open up a small business? Could you tell your parents you're studying biology at like University of Toronto and then like two years in, you're like, you know what? I want to open a bakery. I'm going to open up Osmos. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:57

I mean, shout out to

SPEAKER_02 24:59

Osmos. Osmos, if you're looking at this, this is a great time to sponsor me. I currently don't take sponsorships, but if you are willing to listen, you can holler at your boy. This is true. It's true. Actually, it's crazy. I used to be a big Osmos fan. I still am. Still am.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

They're sponsoring the ball runs. After every ball run, these guys go to Osmos and get chicken on the rocks.

SPEAKER_02 25:22

Our league?

SPEAKER_00 25:23

Yeah, they go and get chicken on the rocks at 10 p.m.

SPEAKER_02 25:26

You hear this? We have actual buyers who are willing to buy Osmos after a basketball game.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

Almost midnight. They should be sleeping, but Osmos is on their mind.

SPEAKER_02 25:36

I don't know if that speaks more about them or Osbo's. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. It goes both ways. The reason why I brought up the whole school thing and the reason why that's very important is that I feel like a lot of people who go to school for certain topics, like I went to school for three different topics and I obviously didn't realize what I liked until probably closer to the end of it, right? I think the challenge that I've noticed, and you can obviously, you know, you've lived on campus with the guys before. What was your experience from like being in that environment and going to school in that environment? And then obviously, Realizing, hey, you know what, I'm going to pursue certain other topics. Maybe it's global, blah, blah. English is always a hard language for me. Global business management, marketing, and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

Right. So living on campus, you're having fun with your friends. Like, every day kind of seems like a little party. It does make you a little lazy, too, though. So, like, you don't show up to classes. You miss a few things. It kind of just goes a little bit downhill. It's a slippery slope, right? Like you have to be very on top of yourself. If you're going to live on campus or like off campus, like student residence, you have to be very on top and discipline your mind because it's a challenge. It's different.

SPEAKER_02 26:42

It's crazy. This is because you're asking 17 year olds. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

I need you to be disciplined right now. That's what I was just about to say. You're a 17, 18 year old student. Yeah. The first time probably in the world by yourself. And you're expected to have like super high expectations. Like do this, do this, do this. And the reality is it's probably not going to happen that way. Because like I said, you do get a little lazy. You realize like I can probably do it online or I'll catch up later. But then, like I said, it leads into one thing and then you kind of just lose more motivation. And yeah, it's tough. How

SPEAKER_02 27:18

was your

SPEAKER_00 27:18

experience at Sheridan then? Sheridan was completely different. I love Sheridan. So like I went to Sheridan for almost probably 10 years. Like I said, global business management, digital marketing. You went

SPEAKER_02 27:28

to Sheridan for 10 years, my bad.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

Pretty much. Oh,

SPEAKER_02 27:31

Jesus, bro.

SPEAKER_00 27:32

All of them. Davis campus. Dude,

SPEAKER_02 27:34

they got to put your name

SPEAKER_00 27:34

up there. HMC. Yeah, I went to all of them. It's a sponsor too. I actually love Sheridan because it was more intimate. Like you weren't just a number. College or university. You're very much a number. But at Sheridan, you were actually like, in classes we only had about 20 to 30 people in our classes and we had the same class of 30 people for the entire four years oh wow so like you build bonds with basically everybody in their class yeah uh and so you're not just building friendships but you're building like real world connections where like this person's going that field and this person's on that field so you you kind of have like everything covered like you know somebody in like every field, accounting or marketing, all because of that one program.

SPEAKER_02 28:16

Did you ever link out to those or reach out to those people?

SPEAKER_00 28:19

Yeah, so I actually did get another one of my friends hired at the previous company as well. So it was me, Andrew, and then a third person. And basically, I think he's still at the previous company. He's like now. Yeah, well, he switched to sales, I think, and I think he's doing well now. But yeah, it was just cool seeing everyone just grow up together. It's not like, you know, like university, you switch class and you never get to see those people. You're banished. So in Sheridan, that's one of the great things was like that you were together. And you're all learning together. And if you guys need notes, everyone has the notes ready. It was more like a community versus, like I said, just a number.

SPEAKER_02 28:53

It's crazy you mention that because I think that was the biggest. When you were in high school, and correct me if I'm wrong, I think in high school, there was this misconception of college and university, right? You took college classes in high school. You were like a dumbass almost. Or you were just not. You couldn't do it. You weren't that guy. You weren't him. And there's kids that did the university program and still went to college. Just so they can be like, oh, I'm.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

But I actually did. my degree at college. Because Sheridan started offering bachelor's degrees, bachelor's applied sciences, business administration, everything. So you're getting the same degree you would get at university, but it's just a more intimate class.

SPEAKER_02 29:28

I really wish I had more of that experience because my university experience was very much a number. I had certain friends in certain grades. It was a good experience for sure. It taught me stress management, time management, being professional and whatnot. But of the also things they taught me was being a pothead, stress and um just more stress and i i think what for me the biggest thing when you say intimacy and the reason why i think this kind of speaks volumes about that particular topic is that i remember getting my first 60 40 exam i remember sitting there you're telling me that i just paid four thousand dollars and you're gonna say that 60 of my grade is all this piece of paper multiple choice mc and i'm like

SPEAKER_00 30:08

yeah imagine like all year just for that

SPEAKER_02 30:10

one right and what if you're a bad tester Yeah. I feel. It happens. Yeah. So just hearing the opposite side. I remember at one point I actually did want to switch to college. Yeah. But just even making that jump of like, is my course is going to transfer over? Credit's going to transfer? That was just, I was like, you know what?

SPEAKER_00 30:25

I'm

SPEAKER_02 30:25

already like. So

SPEAKER_00 30:26

I did manage to transfer a lot of my courses and credits for first year. And then obviously second, third, fourth year is different. Yeah. It doesn't matter. Yeah. It doesn't matter as much. Um, but yeah, so like everything was pretty much like a smooth transition. Uh, and then it led into my digital marketing one and that was just a certificate, but it was still very helpful. Yeah, for sure. Especially when you're going on your resume, everything just looks good. Uh, and then project management was, was huge. I'd recommend project management to everybody. Um, so project management, like they have courses at Sheridan. I think they have them at UTM. Um, and it's just like, it counts towards your project management hours as well. Cause I need, I think you need a certain number of hours, uh, for project management. Mm-hmm. So it's good that taking those classes, like just learning and just being back in class counts towards your work hours. So that's actually a great tool for everyone, especially if you're looking to advance your career. Project management is definitely one of the ways to go.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

It's great that you mentioned this. So I'm coming from the tech side of things, like tech sales, and we have product managers. We have product managers as well. And our always example of project managers is like, you're doing the right thing, right? I'm in. You're following through, right? And you're just like, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just about being on top. Is that what it is? You're just managing everyone. I've been in meetings where we have a project manager and we have a product manager. And then we have all the sales guys. And I can obviously do a status meeting or a quick sprint of what we accomplished for certain clients. And in these meetings, I hear the project manager being like, so is this done? This is done, right? And then all of us are just like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I'm like, who paid this guy? He's just there. He's just there. So I was just curious. And so what was the biggest, for people who want to pursue in project management, what are some jobs? Does it apply for all fields across the board?

SPEAKER_00 32:06

There's multiple types of fields. There's like IT project management, there's construction project management. You can go into any field you really like. So that's one of the beauties of it. It's so diverse. Like you'll find something that's fair for you.

SPEAKER_02 32:20

Can you be like a self-proclaimed project manager? You could. I'm trying to. It's

SPEAKER_00 32:25

just a couple

SPEAKER_02 32:26

of letters

SPEAKER_00 32:27

after

SPEAKER_02 32:27

your

SPEAKER_00 32:28

name. I'm like, you know, I've managed projects at home. That is one of the criteria is to take your final project management exam. You have to show them like you worked on X amount of projects, X amount of hours. What's the criteria for passing? I'm not sure about passing. I think they changed it recently because they added like a whole new section of the textbook. And so that's like the new focus for the future. It's called like agile methodology. But they do look at your hours and see like how you've managed projects in the past. Basically, are you ready to take that next step? Interesting. Yeah. Because I think I might start doing that myself. Yeah, it's definitely a great tool for anyone looking to advance their career. I was a project manager myself. Yeah. I've worked on myself for X

SPEAKER_02 33:11

amount of years. I've taken these obstacles that I faced myself in the mirror, and now I'm still here. So I'm making progress over here. I'm sorry? You've overcome. I've overcome those, yeah. What was

SPEAKER_00 33:22

your

SPEAKER_02 33:24

success rate? 2,000%. What do you mean? I killed it.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

You're here now,

SPEAKER_02 33:27

aren't you? I'm killing it. Just kidding. That'll be a really funny thing to ask. The reason I brought that up is because I've seen project managers in the workplace, and I never knew how they came to be. But they do own a good role. They do own a position where I felt like they kept people honest. They kept people on track. I felt more... I wouldn't say pressured, but I'm like, God, someone's going to put me on the spot tomorrow. I'd be on the call, and knowing that it's going to be brought up, and I'm going to be like, I don't have an answer yet, but I know that I have to have something for him. Yeah, it is a very

SPEAKER_00 33:53

important role. Yeah. It's something to keep everything flowing. And knowing, understand the lingo, the verbiage. It's like construction, because things go crazy all the time. It's important to be on top of all that. Oh, for sure. But yeah, like I said, there's something for everyone. There's different fields for

SPEAKER_02 34:08

everyone. As you mentioned construction, I did my basement recently. And having a project manager would have definitely helped for sure. It's off

SPEAKER_00 34:17

schedule.

SPEAKER_02 34:17

It's just off schedule. So much to be there. We're going to do this at this time.

SPEAKER_00 34:22

I think I'm going to be the project manager for my basement.

SPEAKER_02 34:24

Yeah, I think you have to be. I

SPEAKER_00 34:26

already got my Google Sheets.

SPEAKER_02 34:27

You need structure. We're laying this out today. This is going to be done. You see a guy

SPEAKER_00 34:32

taking a break? That's because you're putting

SPEAKER_02 34:32

up so much money.

SPEAKER_00 34:33

So much money. You want to be on top of it. Yeah, for sure. especially like Brampton, you want to be on top of it, right? You want to know that your dollar is being spent as well as it should

SPEAKER_02 34:42

be. 100%. I didn't realize how things got expensive post-COVID, but it was crazy. If I could pay a project manager on the side and shave off some of the costs that I inherited, I'll be okay with that. Yeah, I think they're charging like crazy for project managers. And for basements. So, you know, we have a circle of friends, right? Would you ever hire any of your circle of friends at work? Depends on the role. Yeah. Let's just say someone that's

SPEAKER_00 35:09

sales. Probably not.

SPEAKER_02 35:11

Why not?

SPEAKER_00 35:12

A little show up drunk in the meeting. What do you

SPEAKER_02 35:14

want me to do? Which one are you talking about? Who's the show up drunk?

SPEAKER_00 35:17

I'm not going to say the name. They know who they are. It depends on the skill. It depends on what you're looking for, right? Yeah. HR or sales, marketing. I feel like if I were to hire anybody, they would do well at it because they know it's a representation of me. For sure. Yeah, so they wouldn't want to let me down. They wouldn't want to let themselves down. For sure. They might suck at it. But they'll try their best.

SPEAKER_02 35:43

I don't know about that. I probably would hire a few people. Yeah, no, I would too. If I had my own business and if I needed support, for sure, I'd definitely lean on your circle of friends, for sure. People are good at their roles. I think the key part is that they're good at their roles.

SPEAKER_00 35:55

But it does become like a thin line when you start hiring friends and family. And then you get

SPEAKER_02 35:59

confused of like, do I tell them to shut

SPEAKER_00 36:01

up now? Yeah, because there's like a level of respect and then, you know, salary reason. Oh, that's why it gets like that. It becomes a little messy when you start working with friends and family.

SPEAKER_02 36:11

I'm a big believer. You don't mix family and business together. I know some people disagree with it. I just think it makes things super sticky. I think it slows things down. It slows things down. Then you have a second opinion.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

You can't

SPEAKER_02 36:24

voice your

SPEAKER_00 36:24

opinion. You risk getting into an argument, breaking apart the family. Little issues come up. The stress. The stress that your mom is questioning you at home. Then the They're always in your business, too, right? Like, they know, like, everything you're doing. Oh, my God. I can't even imagine. Because I like to have, like, a little bit of privacy. For sure. Like, I don't really, like, I'm not, like, a super flashy guy or anything, but, like, I do like to keep my privacy. And like you said, mixing family and business would, like, take that away.

SPEAKER_02 36:51

Yeah, no. That's something I'm definitely against and I probably won't do. I don't even have a business of my own yet, so I'll just

SPEAKER_00 36:56

take a... It also depends on the business, too.

SPEAKER_02 36:58

Yeah, I think it depends on the business as well. I'll take a rain check on that because I can't even imagine if I had my camera guys here as some of the guys in our group because... It would be like paranormal activity. Yeah. Shaky cam. I'd be shaking the camera. I guarantee five seconds in. Yo, want a good shot, guys? You guys down? So, thankfully, these guys don't take shots. Half of them are at the bar. Half of them are. Yeah, I know. Half of them would be like, wait. Osmo. What you speaking? Lizzie's. Lizzie's. Shout out to the homie on Lizzie's. Yeah,

SPEAKER_00 37:26

I don't know about that one.

SPEAKER_02 37:28

All right, man. As we're getting close to the end of the show, and I really do appreciate, man, you being here and being on the first episode. I appreciate being here. It was a blessing. I appreciate it, man. But I did want to sort of ask one question for you, and I'm going to ask all my guys the same question. What is one piece of advice that you would give to anybody that's trying to get into your industry? And two, what is one piece of advice you'd give to us?

SPEAKER_00 37:47

Something about getting into the industry. Like we said before, you got to just take the leap. If you feel like it's something for you, Go for it. And if you're going to do it, do it wholeheartedly. Do a bit of research first. Obviously know what you're getting into. But just be prepared that not everything is going to be perfect. You have to understand that you have to put the work in. It's not going to be perfect. Things are going to go wrong. And it's up to you to figure out how to deal with it. So don't expect everything to be so like 100% right away. And then, sorry, what was the second question? Advice for me. Do things wholeheartedly. Help where you can. Help other people where you can. We're all doing this for the first time. Just be nice to people. Take care of people. Take care of your family. Take care of your friends.

SPEAKER_02 38:30

So don't pursue my passions of being an NBA player. I think that shit is... No, I appreciate it, man. I think that's really good advice for anybody in general. I don't even think that matters whether it's business or not. I think that's just overall for life. I think that makes you

SPEAKER_00 38:44

just a good... We all get so caught up in our lives. You forget to check in on your friends or your family. Like I said, we're all doing this for the first time. Show a bit of grace to some people. Help them out where you can if they need a bit of help. Just be a good person.

SPEAKER_02 38:59

Yeah, I 100% agree. That touched my soul. I wish I had a respawn, but I don't. It got you stumped. Yeah, it got me stumped. I wish I had a respawn. It's not going to be like, psych, I can respawn. No, I can't. It's not Halo. Yeah, no, it's not Halo. Well, I appreciate you coming here this week and being on the very first episode. Appreciate you. I appreciate you. I appreciate you. I'll see you guys next week. Take care.