Latest / LET'S MAKE WAVES with Rana AlBasri Mouawad / Starting Over - How to Build Your Reputation, Your Network, and Your Business in a New Market with Moatassem Moatez

Transcript

Starting Over - How to Build Your Reputation, Your Network, and Your Business in a New Market with Moatassem Moatez · LET'S MAKE WAVES with Rana AlBasri Mouawad

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: The survival mode is really hard.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's really hard.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, uh, it it just brings every bit of emotion from you.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: And the moment you pass the survival and you go into like an operation more, an operator, and then eventually a builder, you reach to a level that you never want to go back to the survival mode.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: The pain of the survival mode is so much in your mind that I never want to go back.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: I never want to go back.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: And this is the fear of losing what you have built.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: I reached to a level that I'm always worried.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: What if I lose this?
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: What if I lose this?
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: Despite there is nothing that is showing that it could be lost.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: But it's because in your mind during three that I really went through a lot of pain, I don't want to go back in.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: So you're always thinking of the pain rather than the excitement.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: I started building as a reason to believe that if you did it one time, two times, three times, it's not a coincidence.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: Most probably it's a set of skills that you have that you can use and navigate forward.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: And what this had helped me is it shifted taught to me my mindset from being an anxious on the spot take a decision to being a bit more calm that I can breathe before taking a decision.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_03: Have you ever had to start completely from scratch?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_03: Not just a business, but everything around it.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_03: Your network, your credibility, the way people perceive you, the reputation that you've spent years building in one place, and then you had to rebuild it again in another.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_03: That is the question that is at the heart of today's episode.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_03: And honestly, it's something I experienced more than once.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_03: Whether you are an entrepreneur who is relocated or you're a founder breaking into a new industry, or even someone who is simply outgrown a version of yourself, and you're starting over something new that you've never done before.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: This is a question beyond business logistics.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_03: It's about what people think of you before you had the chance to prove yourself again.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_03: My guest today knows that firsthand.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_03: Mataz and Mataz left behind a strong corporate career at Unilever and Nestle in Dubai and moved to Canada in 2019 with his family.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_03: But within a year, he founded My Courier right in the middle of a pandemic.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_03: Today, MyCourier has over 160 employees.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_03: It serves major retailers like Amazon.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_03: And he has won national and local business awards.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_03: Martasim is also the chair of the board of the directors of the Oakville Chamber of Commerce.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_03: He's a speaker that has taken stages like TEDx and Dubai Chamber.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_03: But what I really want to dig in today with him is not the highlight reel, it's the process.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_03: How do you survive the gap between who you were and who you're becoming?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_03: How do you build trust in a new market when no one knows your name?
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_03: And what does it actually take to go from a founder to someone who builds value beyond their own company?
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_03: So, this is a conversation for anyone who is navigating a new chapter.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_03: And they need to be reminded that starting over is not a setback, it is actually a strategy.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_03: I hope you enjoy this conversation.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_03: Mata Sam, thank you so much for coming and uh talking to us today.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I've been really looking forward to this conversation.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_03: As I've been telling you before we start recording, my notes are ready.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_03: So I hope you are as well.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_03: And thank you so much for um giving us your time today to have this conversation.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: Super excited for our uh conversation, our talk.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, what can we say?
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: Sunshine out there, the weather is good today.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: Let's have a nice energetic talk today.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_03: It's a good start.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_03: It's a good start.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so let's start from the beginning.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um, because I really think that context matters, uh, especially in this case, you know, the conversation that we're having today.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_03: You are a person who had a real career behind you.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm talking about big names.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_03: We're talking Unilever, Nestle, you had your own startup, um, Angel Investing.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_03: There's a whole career behind you.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_03: So technically, you're not starting from zero when it comes to your experience.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_03: However, when you landed in Canada in 2019, on a market recognition level, you're basically unknown.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_03: So I want to start with that gap, you know, the gap of you knowing your worth, but at the same time, you having to prove it again to a brand new audience.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_03: Can you tell us more about that gap?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so um okay, let me uh let me give you a little bit of a bit of a context of it.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you you spoke about um working with with different multinationals.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: I spent 15 years of my career in Dubai.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: And um working in Dubai is uh is a is a different country with a different system, ecosystem, uh style of life.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: Everything is a bit different than in Canada.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: When I took the leap and I came to Canada, myself, my wife, and I had two boys.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: I came here, I was 37 years old.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a bit more on the uh mid-sized career, if I want to put it this way.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not still a freshman, I'm not new from university.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: My uh my experience was a bit high.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: When I came here, I didn't have a lot of expectations, I didn't know what I'm gonna be doing, I didn't know where to work.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: I thought, and I say I thought because this is where the theory is different than practical.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: I thought that what I had is of great value added, automatically plugged in in Canada.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: But when I came and I started applying for jobs, and I'll tell you why I started applying for jobs.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone told me this is the only way to get into the system, just apply.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: I started applying.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, I heard a lot of no's, you know, don't have Canadian experience, you're overqualified.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, all the different uh textbook type of uh excuse replies or excuses, exactly.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I felt this chapter doesn't really fit me, and I folded this chapter quite early, and I started getting more into okay, maybe I can add value in the entrepreneurship landscape.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: And this is where I started my first business.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: It was an online retail just a couple of months before COVID, and unfortunately, it went down the drain.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: The products were not fitting the COVID lifestyle, it was all outdoor, so the business just dropped, and I spent a lot of money on inventory, on fulfilling, and logistics, and all these parts, and I had to close this chapter.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm saying this for one reason is because your plan that is in your mind of your steps in Canada is 100% not the same as what will happen on reality.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: Your value added might not be exactly the same things that you think you have.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: There could be other value added that are already in your system.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: You already have, but it was not yet exposed to the real life, and Canada will expose it.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: Canada will get the best out of you and will get the worst out of you.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: But it's true.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: Can you take both together and then eventually come up with this sort of new character, new attitude for you to be able to move forward in your journey in Canada?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's you know, like I totally get what you're saying.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_03: It's like you go through, and you describe it a lot also in uh in in your content online.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you go through like different uh phases.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_03: There's the survival phase, then it's like uh the building phase, and then you move on to another phase.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_03: So there's I I really like that that kind of perspective because it's an honest perspective.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_03: There is, as you said, you cannot just parachute and think that everything is is going to be exactly the way you imagine it.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of people, when they share their story, they automatically go to the building phase.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_03: And this is what we did and everything.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_03: But you've you've start you started with the survival because that was a chapter that was, as I understood, necessary for the next for the next chapters.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_03: What did that going from one phase to another to my to the birth of my career?
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_03: What was this transition like?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_03: Like what did it cost you?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_03: Not not in terms of finance, but what did it cost you in terms of identity, if you want?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Rana, I'll tell you something.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I like when you're saying the phases.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: One phase before survivor is I I would say it's being lost, literally lost.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: You have no clue where to go, where to start.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: You're doubting every step that you took.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: You're always listening to people that are telling you, why?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: Why did you move?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: Why did you let go of everything you had and you just start starting to start again?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: And you're doubting, you're doubting your decisions.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm saying this because not everyone is in your shoes, not everyone understands you personally.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: So people will speak from their own point of view.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: So it's important in this lost phase, you keep pushing to the survival.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: And in the survival, and I think the the the survival mode that we all pass through is just we want to keep the lights on, just basic payments.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I think during my survival, I tried lots of things.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: I tried to be a delivery driver, I tried to uh do the online business, I tried multiple things.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: Some of them worked, some of them did not.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: But the part that is important during the survival, and I think this is what made me even push forward, is you always want to think of yes, the present moment, what are you doing right now, and do the job as much as you can, best of you can.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: But also don't sit back and say, that's gonna be my life.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: Always try to find something a bit further, some hope, some light at the end of the tunnel.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: I made a video that I called it hope.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: Hope is the only thing that makes us get out of bed in the morning energized for us to push through.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: So when you're doing this survival, know that this is a phase.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: This is not, this is not you, this is not gonna be the full part.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: This is a phase, it's just don't let go of thinking what can I do more for myself and my life, and how can I better myself and my family after the survival?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so you know, I hear like between those lines, as if you had to let go of something.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_03: Did you did you need to let go of certain things to move from one phase to another?
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll tell you one of the things that I had to let go is the ego.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: I had to let go of my ego back there.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we're trained that as you grow in your career position after the other, you get certain status, you got a certain uh uh level that you want to maintain.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: The challenge is when you not drop one level, but when you're in you drop back into level zero.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: This is uh it kills your ego, it kills yourself confident, it makes you feel that what am I doing?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: I had to let go this part.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: I had to, in my mind, I had to think, okay, if I'm letting go this ego, because eventually it's not gonna pay my bills.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: Eventually, I need to somehow survive.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: So letting go and being humble enough to say, I'm gonna learn whatever I'm doing from the start, even if I'm at 37, 38 years old, and most probably whoever is training me just graduated a year ago from university.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: Learn and start building it one step at a time from there.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, let's, you know, since you opened the door of the building, I wanna I wanna ask you something, which is from my my line of uh expertise, the the personal brand and reputation standpoint, if you want.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_03: You came in with real credentials.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_03: You had you had um real things that you have done, you were uh in real rooms, you were in real uh uh positions, and you've built a reputation in a region um that is in a certain type of a dynamic for that region, you know, the Middle East.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_03: But when you move to Canada, and that's a lot of things that uh a lot of people think, um, they think that your credentials kind of come with you, or at least they transfer with you the same way that you physically move.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_03: When in reality you you actually have certain skills that come with you, but you need to rebuild that reputation, rebuild that image, rebuild that uh name in this new market with new dynamics.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_03: In your um in your journey, did did that happen intentionally, or was it like an organic thing, part of the work that you you created and you built for yourself?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you know, Rana, I think what helped me was, and this also what sometimes differentiates people in Canada versus outside is I try to really lock in.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: And when I say lock in is put my focus in Canada.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of time what will happen is you would come to Canada physically, but mentally you are in another region.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: You're always thinking of your old sort of uh journey, you're always thinking of how I would have been now there, and all this eventually takes a lot of your energy, takes a lot of your resources and the the way you're you're living.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: So what helped, and and and I'll go back to your question, is that I came in, I said, I'm here, I'm locked in here, I'm focused here, and I would see what value added the market needs, and I would take these set of skills that I have and would bring it in.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll give you a more practical example.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: When I started a company, the company I started is called My Courier, it's a last mile delivery company.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: When I started, I never worked in logistics, never ever.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: I have no clue how the logistics industry goes.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: I have no clue how you can manage routings of trucks on the road, hiring people that are more on the level of dispatcher, driver, supervisors.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: I never worked in this before.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: But I had one skill which I was able to transfer.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a very, I'm a very commercial slash operation person.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: I can build systems, I know how to put structure to an unstructured organization.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: I can put the puzzle together.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: And this is what exactly I did.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: I said, okay, I don't know the logistics.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe I can take this set of skills and add value to really build a company around logistics and operation and learn it as we go.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: Add to it and where the logistics came, and maybe some of the audience will think and say, Okay, yeah, but how did you start?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: Where did you get the first client?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: What how did you get from there?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's having the chance to keep an eye on opportunities and not being scared to try.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: When I started the company, I started during COVID.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: So the company was registered in July 2020, literally three or four months after COVID.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I saw it in April with COVID that online orders are growing, but the delivery capacity is not picking up at the same level.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: True.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't see it because I went online and I researched it.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: No, I saw it because I picked up the phone.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: I was calling a grocery store next to my place and I asked them for orders to deliver, personal order.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: The gentleman told me I have zero delivery capacity.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: Come pick up your stuff.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: And when I went and I picked up my stuff, this is where a light bulb came.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, why did you ask me to come and pick?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have someone to deliver, you don't deliver yourself.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't that he said there are lots of orders coming in?
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: We have zero planning for these deliveries.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't see this coming.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, myself and a lot of other retailers next to me were struggling to be able to fulfill it.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: And at this particular moment, I asked him, Do you need someone to deliver your items?
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: He said, Yes.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: I told him, I have a car, I'll deliver for you.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I worked as a delivery driver.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: And by delivering this, in my mind, and what I was saying before is I did a good job as a delivery driver.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: I really had great deliveries to a level that my tips that I get on the day was more than the actual cost of these deliveries.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: Because I wanted to do a good job as a delivery.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: But in my mind, I was like, how can I study this?
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: What are this value added I can have in this industry?
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: Is there anything I can transfer from my own knowledge, experience, skills that I can build it?
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: Three, four months down the line, I said, I can really see this unique proposition I can have.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: Boom, started the company and started the last mile and literally just build it one step at a time from there.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_03: And and while you were building, if we go back to the to the you know, building your network and building your um your reputation, like when when you go to um certain vendors and you say, okay, I'm gonna do it, uh how do you how does that trust start?
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_03: Like, how do you build that trust?
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_03: How do you build like I am a person who is reputable, I can do this for you, you know, this is the background that I have.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_03: Like, how does the um the reputation part uh get structured?
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: So the toughest years you have in Canada building a business is your first two to three years.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll tell you why, because exactly what you're saying, a lot of clients, vendors, uh financial partners, uh whatever you want to call suppliers, all of them, they really don't know you.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: And the challenge is because we are an immigrant country, a lot of people expect that you might be coming as a transition.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: You might not be coming and staying for long.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: And in their mind, they're like, hmm, should I really invest in you?
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: Should I train you?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: Should I onboard you?
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, think of it.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: When you come to Canada and you go to the bank and they give you a credit card, barely they give you a limit,$2,000, because they don't know you.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: And you start building your credit from there.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: So so the first two to three, I want to say, is the time that you would be you need to be super creative on getting things done.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: Super creative.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's not gonna be straight line.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll give you a small, a small story.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I needed to get my first couple of vans to be able to do the operation.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: This was somewhere around maybe October 2020, a couple of months after I started the company.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I went to um dealers, van dealers, they didn't want to give me any van.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: They were like, you don't have any credit history, your company is a couple of months.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: How can we lease you or finance you?
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: We cannot.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it's COVID, and nobody trusts anybody.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: We don't know what's going on.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: 100%, 100%.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I went and I said, okay, let me rent it.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I went to all these rental companies, whatever you want to call it, uh, enterprise, herds, budget, all of these.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: They looked at me and they're like, you know what, we're not really trusting what you're saying as a vendor.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: Will you pay on time?
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have any invoicing cycles coming in.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: We don't know even if you have any training and processes in your company to even maintain these vans.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Are they gonna be like bumping cars and we're gonna pay a lot of damages?
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: Wasn't sure.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: So, to be fair, they said we can rent, but you need to pay three months in advance.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: Too much cash to put at this time everything I was paying for my own savings.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I needed to really be able to be conscious in every dollar I spent.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, it's gonna be hard for me to pay this.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: So in my mind, I was like, what can we do?
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: And as you said, it was COVID.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: I took myself and I went to the airport, and the airport was closed at that time.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I asked for a um limousine company, and I asked him, Do you have any passenger vans?
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: These white touristic vans.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: I remember that.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: And the gentleman came and said, Yes, come on, show you.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: He took me to the parking lot and I can see all white vans collecting dust.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: Airport was closed, there's no tourists, no visitors, so these vans were sitting ideal.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: I told him, I'm gonna have 10 vans from you confirmed for four months, but I have two conditions.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: One, I don't pay in advance, I pay after the month.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: He's like done.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: Two, we're gonna take all these seats at the back, the passenger seats.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: We'll remove them together and we'll take them off.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: He was like, What are you gonna do?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: I told him the whole story, and he was like, done, we do it.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: And the moment I started this, give it three, four months after this, I wanna say somewhere around maybe Feb 2021.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: This is where the same rental companies that didn't want to work with me at that time, they reached out and they were like, We heard about your operation, we heard about your thing, we wanna give you a facility, and it goes from there.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: So sometimes you need to be a bit creative out of the norm to just build a little bit of your credentials to say, yes, I'm here and my word is one word.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: I will do it for you.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, this the this experience, this honest, this is really an honest experience.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_03: This is something that is um not unique to Canada.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_03: Like I, if you're going into something, uh, a new place, if you're starting all over, or even starting something new.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_03: You were in a different industry and you decide that you want to change your industry.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_03: So it's a new experience.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it's a new industry, and starting over is always, as you said, slow in the beginning, but it's like very strategic um decisions that you do in this slow phase is the one that's going to create that foundation, if you want, of the trust building.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's like the tokens that you collect along the way.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_03: Some uh, you know, in your example, some of the suppliers needed uh financial backing trust.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_03: Some of them needed to know if there is like uh uh a skill trust.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_03: Like, do you know what you're doing?
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_03: Is the business moving?
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_03: Is it, you know?
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, 100%.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um if we if we, you know, if we go again, if we stay on the point of of the um local, let's say, experience, um, within either, as I said before, within a market, new market that you're going in, or if you're starting a new industry, there's always this local type of experience.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_03: In Canada, it's the Canadian experience.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm and this is not something that I see that is um very much um uh how can I say it's a dynamic unique to Canada.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_03: This is something that in any place around the world you'll have that same uh stepping, uh stepping stone.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_03: So regarding this local experience, you've mentioned a little bit about how did you navigate that?
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_03: But if today there is a new founder who is starting a new business, or if it's a new leader of a company, uh a leader who is now entering a new market, or as I've said before, someone who is starting in a new industry, what do you believe are the key things that can help them to create or to kind of step over that local proof?
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_03: Like what do what are the key things that they will need um uh to get over that hurdle?
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Ron, I think um Canadian experience at the beginning, just to put it so I I applied for a couple of companies and I got this rejection with Canadian experience.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: Now, retrospect when I'm thinking right now, fast forward a couple of years, I hired people that were new to Canada.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, you know what, put Canadian experience on the side, I don't need it.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not talking about drivers and and and entry level, I'm talking about managerial level.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, but I can tell you what I learned from this experience firsthand.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: The challenge you have is a lot of people would be coming, and in their mind they want any job to start, which is fair.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: Same thing I did, which is okay.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: But the challenge is when they're having this first job, in their mind they're not seeing that this job is really something worth it.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: You will find them there giving 50% of their energy, you will find them there on LinkedIn during the whole day searching for other jobs, you will find them working, feeling that they are much overqualified than the job itself.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: So eventually, what happens is you feel that this is a person that is not really excited to the job itself.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: And because you're new, you will always get some sort of an entry level versus a very senior.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: So when I say Canadian experience, or the way I saw it firsthand is are you mentally here?
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: Are you invested in the role you're in now, even if it is temporary?
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I know it would be temporary, but give it your best shot.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: Don't make this role be a way that um, how can I put it, disturb your reputation.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: Leave this role knowing that you gave 110% that really the company and the people working in it felt you really made a big leap in this role when you're there.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: And this is again across all countries, not only Canada.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: Any country you will go to, you will start most probably a couple of levels below your benchmark.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: Treat this role as not your survival role, as your career role.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: When I did the uh delivery, uh uh driver, literally, I was thinking as I'm just delivering from point A to B until I had one incident that changed my whole mind.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: And this incident was the first time I could I took cash tips.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: It was a lady I remember quite well, somewhere I think around maybe was maybe June, something like this, and she gave me cash tips during COVID.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: At that time, the interaction was a bit difficult to knock the door and leave things and space.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: So she gave me a cash tips.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: And at this particular moment, it was an eye-opener that whatever job you're doing, and you really do it with an extra mile, someone will acknowledge you.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: It could be cash tips, it could be a promotion, it could be a tap of the back, it could be a thank you, whatever the acknowledgement.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: Someone have noticed you.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: Trust me, Rana.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: The next day, the tips that I had been getting was enormous because I started understanding the role.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: I really understand it.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: What can I do extra as a delivery driver to make sure that the customer will appreciate and will give me this five, 10, 20 tips per order.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: Same exact thing if you're on a desk job.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: Do this extra, even if it's an entry level.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: This is where you will build your reputation.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: And in this country, and trust me, I see it a lot.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: They want a win-win, they want people that are really putting in the effort and the work.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a matter of prove for them that I'm here for long term and I do everything as it should be.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly, exactly.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, this goes across the board on different things.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_03: And I don't, I'm gonna ask you this, you know, if you agree with me on that.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I have a lot of discussions with um, you know, with clients who are mostly people who are moving from or want to move from corporate world to having their own business.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_03: And sometimes when, especially if you are new to that um to that industry, especially that, but it's it works across the board.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_03: Most of the time I say, please don't quit your job.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, go and train somewhere else.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, I know you are at this level, but you need to train at um at a company that is doing the same thing that you want to do, or within the same industry that you want to uh penetrate.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_03: So um starting at a point where you are able to see the business or to really understand the culture within the organization, but also within the market, your customers, your clients, whoever they are, it's really, really important.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_03: So it's a mindset whether you are moving uh to a new to a new country or whether you are moving to a new industry.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_03: Do you agree with that?
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_03: Or do you think people should leap and and you know they they need to leave their ego behind?
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: And that's uh I'll tell you how do I put it and I put it for you in an example of a sports.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: So a CEO for me is he's like an international professional football player.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_01: He's he really knows how his skills, he knows how to do it.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: But then he comes in a time and says, Man, I just want to go solo and go to the gym.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: Both are sports, they're under the same umbrella of sports, but this is a different sport.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: If you get a professional football player and told them just go to the gym on your own and maneuver it, he'll get bored.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: He'll get he's not used to being alone, he's not used to not having people around and and and support.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: He's been a CEO with teams and resources and managing PLs, and after and a while, he will be alone in the office.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: And just to be fair, at the beginning, any company, you're solo, you're solo, you're solo and everything in the acknowledgement, you're solo, in navigating problems, you're solo, and everything, you're solo.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: And knowing how to be able to move forward when things are not fully matching your expectation of timeline is important because it will not match your timeline.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's not like I I'm gonna pull the plug.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: And the best, best example when I speak with someone and he tells me I'm gonna leave, I'm gonna start my company.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, okay, I have my first three clients.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_01: Who are they?
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: So and so in this company, so and so in this company, and so and so in that company.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: All three of them, you don't answer the phone the moment he leaves.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: Because these people are friends that yes, wish you luck, wish you good best, but these are not clients.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: Clients are something, friends are something.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you need to keep in mind that you you will still hustle a lot on your own at the beginning.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: So, your your point of should I leave right away and jump into a leap or not, there are two schools in it.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: There is one school that says pull the plug and go.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because once you're in survival mode, you'll figure it out, which is okay.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_01: This is one school.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: But the other school, which again, I think it works well, and this is the way I started back in Dubai when I started moving from Nestle to own business, is I started with a small project, not knowing that this project will become a company.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: But as you're building it, you start your eye will look at things differently.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: When you're in a corporation, you don't see opportunities, unfortunately, because you're in a comfort zone.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_01: But when you're outside, even if it is on the side, your eyes start seeing things totally different.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: You will see at one word a friend of you will tell you, and it will light up, and you'll say, Man, I can see an opportunity here.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: How can I try it out?
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: So having this side hustle, side work, until you feel comfortable that can really work alone and I'm okay financially, resource, mentally, emotionally, then take a step back from there.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_03: And and when you're building or when you're creating something new, you're working as you the example of the friends who are clients but friends.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you're building across different things, like you're building a reputation not as an employee, but as a business owner, let's say, or not an employee in this industry, but in another industry.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_03: You're building a new network, you're building a new, it's like new trust threads that need to, you need to rebuild, or you need to reshape it in a different form because you were seeing in a different form, and then you're kind of pivoting to something else.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_03: One of the one of the um important things about about personal brand is is the leadership.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um because you're your your reputation is not only for the outside, but you're also you're you're building a team.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_03: The team could be full-time, the team could be suppliers.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, there is there it there is someone else other than yourself at one point um uh that that is building with you.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_03: And there was an article about you in TEC Canada.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_03: I I really liked it, and there's a line that stayed with me.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_03: I want to quote you on it.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_03: You said in that uh in that line, you said that you realized at some point that you were growing out of fear, fear of losing clients, fear of instability.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_03: And there was a mentor there that challenged you to grow from excitement instead of fear.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_03: And that's a huge mindset shift.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_03: So the first mindset shift we talked about was starting over.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_03: What does it really take to start over?
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_03: How do you build, um, how do you kind of transfer your credentials?
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_03: What do you keep between them and then starting, starting in a place where the audience don't know you, they don't know your story yet.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_03: Same thing when it comes to leadership.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_03: When I when I read that line, and that's why it stayed with me, because I would really like to know what does it mean that once that you start building, that you you're growing or you're moving, your movement is um is based on fear instead of based on excitement.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_03: So that's the mindset ship shift that I wanted to ask you about.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_03: And when what happened once you realized it and you you actually took intentional steps of leading from excitement versus fear?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: You brought a nice uh you really brought a nice uh quote there.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I I I yeah, yeah, so it brought some memories there.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: So the survival mode is really hard.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's really hard.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, uh, it it just brings every bit of emotion from you.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_01: And the moment you pass the survival and you go into like an operation more, an operator, and then eventually a builder, you reach to a level that you never want to go back to the survival mode.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: The pain of the survival mode is so much in your mind that I never want to go back, I never want to go back, I never want to go back.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_01: And this is the fear of losing what you have built.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: I reach to a level that I'm always worried.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_01: What if I lose this?
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_01: What if I lose this?
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_01: Despite there is nothing that is showing that it could be lost, but it's because in your mind during clique that I really went through a lot of pain, I don't want to go back in.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_01: So you're always thinking of the pain rather than the excitement.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: Until I spoke with he's my actual business coach, his name is uh Jeremy, and I told him, I'm worried.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_01: And he was like, from what?
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I'm not sure, but I'm worried, I'll lose it.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm worried, I'm worried that I lose a client, I lose a team, I lose this.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not worried.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, and this is where the mindset that he shifted.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: He started really bringing stories of things that I started building as reasons to believe that if you did it one time, two times, three times, it's not a coincidence.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_01: Most probably it's a set of skills that you have that you can use and navigate forward.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: And what this had helped me is it shifted tall to me my mindset from being an anxious, on the spot take a decision to being a bit more calm that I can breathe before taking a decision.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_01: I had been taking decisions on the go.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a very fast decision maker.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's it flops and it's a decision that should not have been taken, and sometimes it goes well.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_01: But I reach to a level now because I don't fear not taking a decision on the spot.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm able to tell people, let me think about it, let me sleep over it.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: I don't take, I don't make decisions on the spot anymore.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: And this made me a bit more calmer that I'm able to really think and eventually have a decision that supposedly is well thought of rather than emotionally triggered on the spot.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: This makes also people that work with you, whoever they are, feel more confident in you.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because they know that when they pass you something and you say, I'm gonna be taking my time to think about it, that you're consciously gonna think about it.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: So they trust your input, your value, your observations, your decision eventually, if it uh if it moves there.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I think the shift, if I can put it in one sentence, is from emotion decision making and action into more thoughtful, calm, and having time to have these talks like what we're having right now, without uh feeling what's happening outside, what's happening in the world, what's happening in the operation, you're more content, no way.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_03: You are and again, I I like Jeremy already, but but this uh this is really interesting because I mean, we're talking at a point where you have 160 employees, 160 plus maybe at that point, employees in your in your organization.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_03: Does that kind of um uh addition to the to your leadership skills, that that's that mindset shift, that kind of addition to your leadership, do you feel that it's um that that you're now um your relationship, uh the internal relationship and the culture that you are creating within the organization, is this something that now even more translates your as a leader, your core values, your personal uh beliefs, you know, like business beliefs and and your your vision and your mission?
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_03: Do you believe that with that shift, this also not only built more trust, but also got everybody to create um that kind of internal community in your organization to kind of understand where who is not just who is this leader that I'm trusting, but I agree with their beliefs and I'm okay and I want to move forward with with them.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_03: Do you do you believe these shifts?
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_01: So at this size of a company, just to also compare, if you're a CEO in a big corporation, multinational, most probably the culture is uh is not relying on you specifically.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh it's an overall culture that had been built.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_01: At the size of a medium-sized business, you are the culture.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever you would do when you say lead by example, it's true.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you don't lead by example, the whole system will not work.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_01: Because at this size, most of what you'd notice is people are doing also multiple things.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_01: So you don't have one job description.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's not like you have a very similar to the corporation, you have a very hiring HR-specific role.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, you'll have an HR that does the performance, the hiring, the uh whatever policies, the everything, everything there, the admin.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_01: So so at this particular time, they need to be able to pull from you because they speak with you on almost a daily basis.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_01: They see your reactions to things, they say they see the way you react to a message, to an email, to a phone call, to someone coming into your office, they see it.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_01: They're literally observing.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_01: So this observing part needs to be translated into the way you react.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_01: If you're anxious, everyone's gonna be anxious.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_01: If you're pressured, everyone's gonna be pressured.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_01: But if you're able to put, am I saying even to the team, I call them, there's a thin line between being pressured and having urgency.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_01: You need to have the urgency still at the end of the day, but it's not pressure, it's not to deleven that we feel we're gonna lose everything if we don't do the action right now.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's not this.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's we're gonna do it, it's urgent, it's on our list, but we need to give a good thought how to do it in the right way.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I see the team also changed with me changing this sort of being a bit more calmer on the decisions that we we do.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_03: I love that.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_03: And you've done even more than that because you you really look at if we are going to talk in marketing terms, you looked at your audience and you were building trust in different ways.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_03: So you have the external audience, your your clients.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_03: The uh, the we just talked about your internal audience who are your your team members and of course your suppliers as well, and you're building a more of a community, you know, that's part of the personal brands.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_03: And today you are the chair of the board of the Ogville Chamber of Commerce.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_03: And this is a really deliberate community investment.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm saying this because uh I'm looking at it from a personal brand dimension.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_03: What you're doing is that you are now also working on a personal brand on a trust level that is not just civic leadership because you are a good citizen, but it's because you are very um you are very intentional in giving a certain powerful reputation signal through that community as well.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_03: So from that community, the third community that you are building, or you're you're currently, you're effectively still still in it, of course, how did this role come about?
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_03: And how did this particular strong signal impact your leadership, your business, maybe directly, and of course, the way other leaders in the industry.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_01: Very good uh point, uh Rana.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I uh so how the chamber came, uh it started by me getting nominated for one of the business awards um in 2021.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I got nominated by one of the clients uh as entrepreneur of the year, and this is where I got to know about the chamber.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_01: I never knew them before.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_01: I won the award, and the day I won the award is the day I went to the chamber and said, you know what, I want to be a member.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_01: What does it take to be a member for the chamber?
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I became a member with them.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_01: But this is where things really changed.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's like anything.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_01: You get out of it the same level that you put into it.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're putting your time into anything, if you go to the gym, if you have a membership and you never go to the gym, you're not gonna get results.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_01: But if you show up every single day, eventually someone will see you in the gym and say, you know what?
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want me to coach you?
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want me to help you?
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want me to guide you?
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_01: Same exact thing with the chamber.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_01: Is I showed up.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_01: I showed up to the events.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_01: I picked up the phone when there was any need of a member that needs support.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_01: And from there I moved into uh part of the board of directors and also showed up.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_01: And from there I became the chair.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_01: And the whole idea of this is it's not one thing that I can give as a formula and say if you do this plus this plus this, you'll get it.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's the combination of all of them together.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_01: And the chamber, and a lot of people would ask me, tell me, do you get clients out of the chamber?
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_01: No, I didn't get one single client out of the chamber, and this was not the objective of the chamber for me.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_01: The chamber is a, and I would put it this way, it's a stamp of validation.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's a stamp that you are in this business community, you understand the value added, you are there to support, and eventually it will open doors for you.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because a lot of the vendors I work with, call it my accountant, banking relationships, are all coming through the chamber.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_01: Because they felt that this is someone that at least we can shake hands and have a talk with.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_01: Even the overall personal brand that I have online, if I send someone a DM and say, can we have a talk?
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_01: They will they will check first who's this person?
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_01: What does he do before?
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_01: What what does he engage with?
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_01: And the moment they see that he has a business, he's engaging with a reputable organization like the chamber, he had a couple of events that look decent with a couple of people that are well known in the society, it will open a conversation.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_01: Where does the conversation go?
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's up to you.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_01: This is the way you can showcase your business, showcase your thing, but at least it will open for you a conversation because someone would say, This person seems decent enough.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_01: Let me have a talk.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_03: You know, um, yeah, now let's let's get a bit tactical here.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, what I've seen from from from the story, when I was reading your story from our connection, we are connected on LinkedIn first and foremost, and we we had uh conversations before.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_03: You like to not only invest in yourself, but you kind of build those trust signals.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_03: I'll give you an example and then you tell me some, you give me some tactical advice.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, between the TEC, between the Chamber of Commerce, these are different um trust signals.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_03: It's you're you're trusting yourself as a leader, as a business uh uh an entrepreneur yourself, and you, of course, you're you're you're you have a North Star and you're kind of working towards that.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um but you're also investing in networking, you're investing in community, it's a support community as well because you're surrounding yourself with people maybe from different industries, but you all have the same kind of drive.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_03: So these are looking at that, I see that that as an amazing tactical advice.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_03: What other, if someone is starting something new now, they are either starting a new business or a new network or a new getting into a new market.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_03: What are two, three really honestly tactical advice as um uh as professionals as they are that they should do or lean towards, uh, in your opinion?
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, the first one I would say is know what is it costing you to do this.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_01: And when I say costing you, I mean time-wise.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, put aside the idea of you can balance everything together.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's very hard.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's very hard to balance everything.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_01: Every case, there is something that you will unfortunately consciously, and this is the best part, if you're able to do it consciously, you would say, I would have this my third priority.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll give you an example as the first survival two, three years, my health was on the back burner.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_01: Bad burner, bad burner.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't sleep well, I didn't eat well, I didn't exercise, my weight, my health, everything just went off.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_01: But in my mind, I knew I had to let go.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_01: I would not be able to eat well while I'm working an 18 hours a day uh on a station.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_01: So know the cost and be comfortable with yourself to say, am I willing to pay this cost or not?
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_01: It could be your health or your exercise, it could be your family time, it could be trips, it could be not able to see your friends.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_01: There will be a cost because you cannot be in an event for a chamber or a or a peer group, and at the same time be able to see your friends the same way.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_01: Most probably you will be bailing out a lot of these events with your friends, sleeping a bit more earlier because there are other things that you're doing.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_01: The second thing is um, and I think this is this is one of the things that um a quote I read and I I really, really believe in is a client will be a friend faster than a friend being a client.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm saying this for one reason is a lot of people will always build their whole business and their emotions will be built based on my friend will give me my first order.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_01: So again, if they give you it's a cherry over the cake, it's not the cake.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_01: You need to be able to have a business that stands alone without having a friend giving you this promise that is a verbal that you don't know if it will happen or not.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_01: So your business, whatever hustle, needs to be something that if you go to someone and say, I have this today, would you pay me a dollar for it?
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_01: If someone you don't know pay you a dollar, pay you a dollar.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_01: Don't take it for free.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_01: You have a business to go on with.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then the third, I would say something around the social media is we think a lot that people are spotlight about you, they're thinking about you, they're focusing about what you're saying, and it's not true.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone is busy with themselves, no one is busy with someone else.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone wants to be on stage, everyone wants to be the one in the front.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_01: Your role as a person that is running an organization is to support all your parties to be on stage, and you are the sound and light backstage.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_01: You're not on stage with them, you're supporting them, be it a team member, be it a client, be it a vendor, be it the community.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_01: The moment you are able to think in your mind, how can I service them automatically?
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_01: You won the game with them because they want to be the main hero of the of the of the play, not you.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_01: So when you're even online and you're putting something out, put things that can, as you said, practically help people to be the main character of their own story, the heroes of the story, the heroes of their story.
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_03: This is, by the way, the best advice when it comes to, you know, a lot of people are they have like body fear, not only mind fear, but body fear of networking.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_03: This is the answer to the networking, investing in other people, and there is a return to it.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_03: It's you just have to like play the long game.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_03: This is like the perfect example within 100%.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'll I'll give you a tip on networking.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, where when someone asks me, I'm going into a room, I don't know people, what can I, how can I start?
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_01: But I told them, give them the mic, as not the visually mic, the physical mic, but let them talk.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_01: People love to talk about their own stories, about their own things, very similar to what I'm doing right now.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_01: So give them the chance to talk.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_01: Intrigue them with what's your story?
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_01: What brought you here?
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_01: What are you expecting from this event?
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_01: Who are you looking forward to meeting?
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_01: Give them an open question, let them talk, let them talk.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_01: And eventually, the more they talk, the more they will feel comfortable being around you, and then you will start building a more meaningful uh relationship.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_03: Relationship, absolutely.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my god, this conversation is gold.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I I I honestly thank you so much for for your honesty about about everything, because in the end, this is the real thing.
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_03: I know there's a lot of um, there's a lot of material out there about these are the 10 steps to do that, you know, this is what you need to do.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my god, it is actually a roller coaster.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_03: There's no linear, there's nothing linear about it.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I I wanna, I would sadly, I want to end this um really, really great conversation with you, Matasam, with uh something a bit personal.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um it's so funny, Yani, the the world, how the world moves.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_03: But you and I, we we um we have a lot of things in common.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we both come from the Arab world.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, we both lived in Dubai at one point, and somehow, you know, as the way life goes, we're we we had to restart uh our lives, uh not just in Canada, but like specifically Oakville.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's such a it's such a beautiful coincidence, and I'm so honored for it.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_03: And um, and I really think that there's something powerful about that, powerful about restarting.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_03: There is some as painful and as hard and as um um you know and as challenging as restarting is, but it's also it's it also shows the great capability of a person, the restart, the reshift, re-everything.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_03: If you look back at that that uh that guy with his family and the two kids who came to Canada in 2019, knowing what you know today and where you are today, what would you tell that person?
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_03: About the journey.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_03: What would you say about the journey?
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'll tell him one, I'll tell him I'm proud of you.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm proud that you didn't throw the towel early on, which was a lot of options in my mind.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_01: That that's enough.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm throwing the towel, I'm out of this game.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm proud that you didn't throw the towel.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the second is um I'm proud that you're able to add value in a society that you're new, but also built with the same skills, values, and culture that you had.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_01: You didn't change your personality to be able to fit in.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_01: You actually adapted it to be able to still show the same uh personality and character you you have.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and values, yeah.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_01: And values.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then the last part I would uh I would say is um have full trust that life works really for you.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, if I would think backwards into 1919, uh I would have never imagined coming to Canada that I would have Amazon as one of my clients.
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_01: What what will I sell them?
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_01: What will I sell them?
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, no your your mind does not comprehend, unfortunately, big plans.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_01: The mind is a survival mode, it doesn't really comprehend.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I would say good that you trusted that good things will fall in.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's a matter of I didn't know when.
• 57:19
  SPEAKER_01: I knew something will happen, but when I didn't know, so it was all one step after the other.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I always say in the end of my videos is that progress matters, it's all taking one step forward every day.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I would say this is what I lived with for the past couple of years, and hopefully I can live with it for the next couple of years.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's amazing.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's it's so true.
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_03: I think one of I would add to that if you if you'd allow me, one of the things that taught me from my experience, and it was not the first restart.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_03: Like I had to also, when you know, when you shift from corporate to building something, there's a lot of restarts.
• 57:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's somehow you just gotta believe in yourself.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you have skills, you just need the creativity to look at your skills from different perspectives.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um definitely have the big dreams, but sometimes what really happens, like the Amazon example, was beyond the wildest dreams at the at the you know, the level of dreams that you were dreaming.
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_03: So it is possible as long as that you have to trust that you you do have the skills, you just need to be creative about it.
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um also run an aggressive, it's the long game 100%.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, just to put it in perspective, Amazon would not have not been able to get it if it was not for uh COVID time.
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_01: So sometimes it's also yes, you prepared and you're working and you're working, but you would need the right time.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_01: Call it whatever you want, call it uh luck, call it blessing, call it there has to be sometimes the right time.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_01: I can promise you this the right time always comes.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's a matter of is it gonna come in a month, in a year, in two years, in three years?
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna come if you keep course, it's gonna come.
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a matter of when.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_01: So the thing is, in our mind, we're always thinking that in six months it should happen.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe the right time is not in six months.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe the universe is not yet aligned for you now.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe this phone call is not gonna come now, but in a year it will come.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_01: Are you ready for it or not?
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly, exactly.
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_03: Luck, luck comes to those who are prepared.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I love that, I love that.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um, Mata Sam, this is such a rich, rich, rich, rich conversation.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_03: So I just don't know how to thank you enough.
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm um and I particularly want to thank you for your honesty about this process, uh, about building a building for a new audience, building for a new environment, building for something new, even even for you in a new industry, in a new everything.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_03: Just being honest about what it really takes and the effort that it really takes, both mentally as well as physically.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_03: And what does it take from you to kind of build a name and a reputation uh to an audience who really don't know your story yet, but you do have a story, and it started coming to the surface as as you were, you know, as you said, one step at a time.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I I honestly cannot thank you enough for your time.
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_03: I really appreciate it.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I am sure that the people who are watching us or listening us, they're definitely going to take a lot from this conversation.
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_03: So thank you so much.
• 1:00:39
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for your time and thank you for putting it on.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_01: I really enjoyed it also.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_01: Great discussion.
• 1:00:43
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much.