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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_01: It's Toronto's podcast on the Canada's podcast network.
[00:04] Speaker UNKNOWN: [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪
[00:19] SPEAKER_01: Hi everyone, I'm Phil Bliss, a business visionary,
[00:22] SPEAKER_01: and welcome to Toronto's Podcasts.
[00:24] SPEAKER_01: Part of the Canada's podcast network,
[00:26] SPEAKER_01: your source of the great insights
[00:28] SPEAKER_01: from entrepreneurs across Canada.
[00:31] SPEAKER_02: Today, I'd like to introduce you to Galen and Nathok.
[00:35] SPEAKER_02: Galen describes himself as a father, a husband,
[00:38] SPEAKER_02: a triathlete, a photographer, volunteer,
[00:41] SPEAKER_02: and of course, an entrepreneur.
[00:45] SPEAKER_02: Originally set for a career in teaching with a master's degree
[00:48] SPEAKER_02: in education, he has become a citizen of three countries
[00:52] SPEAKER_02: and came to Canada about nine years ago.
[00:55] SPEAKER_02: Based in Melbourne, he's building a business
[00:58] SPEAKER_02: and financial services across Canada.
[01:01] SPEAKER_02: Galen is also a podcaster, a writer,
[01:05] SPEAKER_02: and a really interesting life of Zerl.
[01:08] SPEAKER_02: Galen, welcome to Canada's podcast.
[01:11] SPEAKER_02: I guess this is the Ontario edition,
[01:14] SPEAKER_02: in a sense that you're in Melbourne today.
[01:17] SPEAKER_02: Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself
[01:20] SPEAKER_02: and where you've come from
[01:22] SPEAKER_02: and how you've grown to be an entrepreneur in Belleville, Ontario?
[01:28] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, perfect.
[01:29] SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks for having me on, Philip.
[01:31] SPEAKER_00: Very, very interesting approach to podcasting.
[01:34] SPEAKER_00: I'm very interested in seeing a regionally-based
[01:36] SPEAKER_00: entrepreneur podcast for Canadians.
[01:39] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so as far as my background,
[01:42] SPEAKER_00: when I go give, I give a lot of talks
[01:44] SPEAKER_00: and when I hand people my bio,
[01:45] SPEAKER_00: I'll just read basically what I hand to people.
[01:47] SPEAKER_00: And that is that I'm probably one of the most interesting
[01:49] SPEAKER_00: financial advisors you'll ever meet.
[01:52] SPEAKER_00: I speak three languages.
[01:53] SPEAKER_00: I've lived in four different countries
[01:55] SPEAKER_00: on three different continents.
[01:56] SPEAKER_00: I have three passports.
[01:57] SPEAKER_00: So I'm a citizen of three different countries.
[01:59] SPEAKER_00: And in my travels, I've been bit by a rat,
[02:03] SPEAKER_00: almost trapped in a rumbinoline rock slide
[02:05] SPEAKER_00: and almost kidnapped by paramilitary.
[02:08] SPEAKER_00: So that's a little bit of my former life
[02:11] SPEAKER_00: of living in South America for 10 years
[02:13] SPEAKER_00: and traveling all over the place.
[02:15] SPEAKER_00: But moved to Canada nine years ago,
[02:18] SPEAKER_00: originally from the States,
[02:19] SPEAKER_00: lived in Venezuela for 10 years,
[02:20] SPEAKER_00: met my wife down there, we got married,
[02:22] SPEAKER_00: and then we left nine years ago
[02:24] SPEAKER_00: when it started to get just too dangerous for us and our son.
[02:27] SPEAKER_00: And moved to Belvolentario nine years ago.
[02:30] SPEAKER_00: And that shift kind of through a couple of events
[02:35] SPEAKER_00: made me go from teaching.
[02:36] SPEAKER_00: I have a master's in education.
[02:38] SPEAKER_00: I taught internationally for 10 years.
[02:40] SPEAKER_00: Moving to Belvol, I made the switch to a business owner
[02:44] SPEAKER_00: and entrepreneur.
[02:46] SPEAKER_02: You've done a lot of sort of geographical experience,
[02:49] SPEAKER_02: the societal experience.
[02:52] SPEAKER_02: But why aren't you bringing this?
[02:53] SPEAKER_02: I mean, we wired differently.
[02:56] SPEAKER_02: I mean, you've taught in,
[02:58] SPEAKER_02: and I don't know what kind of family came from.
[03:02] SPEAKER_02: I was like to ask that because I can really understand it.
[03:06] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, it's an interesting question
[03:08] SPEAKER_00: where we wired differently.
[03:08] SPEAKER_00: I mean, definitely that's something to consider.
[03:10] SPEAKER_00: So my family, I mean, my dad is a physician.
[03:13] SPEAKER_00: He was a ritual.
[03:13] SPEAKER_00: My dad's, he's a very interesting guy as well.
[03:16] SPEAKER_00: He is a retired nephrologist,
[03:19] SPEAKER_00: but now he's a professional Santa in New York City.
[03:22] SPEAKER_00: And he's been on the cover of The New York Times
[03:24] SPEAKER_00: as Santa, which is pretty interesting.
[03:27] SPEAKER_00: My mom's a nurse practitioner.
[03:28] SPEAKER_00: She's also retired.
[03:30] SPEAKER_00: So, but they had a bit of a, you know,
[03:32] SPEAKER_00: they did have, we moved around a lot as a kid.
[03:35] SPEAKER_00: I think I went to a different school every year
[03:36] SPEAKER_00: for like nine years or something like that.
[03:39] SPEAKER_00: My parents just had a bit of a travel bug and moving bug.
[03:42] SPEAKER_00: As far as entrepreneurs being wired differently,
[03:44] SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think that a lot of people
[03:45] SPEAKER_00: who are not entrepreneurs are wired to be an entrepreneur,
[03:48] SPEAKER_00: but the leap of faith is so scary.
[03:50] SPEAKER_00: It's a lot, it's hard, you know,
[03:51] SPEAKER_00: it's hard for a lot of people to take that leap.
[03:53] SPEAKER_00: So, you know, that joke of, or that saying of some people,
[03:57] SPEAKER_00: what is it?
[03:58] SPEAKER_00: Some people are great and others have greatness forced upon them.
[04:01] SPEAKER_00: I think the same thing happens with entrepreneurship.
[04:03] SPEAKER_00: Some people strive to become entrepreneurs
[04:05] SPEAKER_00: and for other people that's thrust upon them.
[04:07] SPEAKER_00: And I am of the ladder in that it was thrust upon me.
[04:10] SPEAKER_00: I planned on being a teacher for a long career,
[04:14] SPEAKER_00: but, you know, a combination of factors,
[04:16] SPEAKER_00: one being, you know, I had a bunch of job offers internationally,
[04:20] SPEAKER_00: but we wanted to move to Canada.
[04:22] SPEAKER_00: So, we moved to Canada thinking that I'd be able to teach
[04:24] SPEAKER_00: wherever we ended up and turns out that Eastern Ontario
[04:26] SPEAKER_00: is not a great place to find a job as a teacher.
[04:30] SPEAKER_00: And I was going to have to start over
[04:31] SPEAKER_00: and my 10 years of international experience
[04:33] SPEAKER_00: weren't really going to count for much.
[04:34] SPEAKER_00: And I found that kind of tough to deal with as well.
[04:36] SPEAKER_02: You know, from teaching to financial planning,
[04:40] SPEAKER_02: that's a bit of a swerve.
[04:42] SPEAKER_02: Why choose financial planning?
[04:43] SPEAKER_02: It's cool, but it's not what I would have seen.
[04:47] SPEAKER_02: You know, an academic, a master's education track.
[04:51] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, definitely.
[04:52] SPEAKER_00: So it's been an interesting journey.
[04:54] SPEAKER_00: So, as I mentioned, so we moved to Belville with my wife's job
[04:57] SPEAKER_00: and I thought I'd be able to teach and it turns out
[04:59] SPEAKER_00: there weren't a lot of teaching opportunities.
[05:01] SPEAKER_00: And so my financial planner said,
[05:02] SPEAKER_00: Gail, and I think you'd make a good one.
[05:04] SPEAKER_00: And I initially said,
[05:05] SPEAKER_00: no way on earth am I doing that.
[05:09] SPEAKER_00: Because I thought, am I going to be successful?
[05:11] SPEAKER_00: Am I going to be able to pull this off?
[05:12] SPEAKER_00: I don't know a lot of people.
[05:14] SPEAKER_00: I'm not from here.
[05:14] SPEAKER_00: Like all these things that will not set me up for success
[05:17] SPEAKER_00: that people tend to be able to start their own business
[05:20] SPEAKER_00: as a financial planner.
[05:22] SPEAKER_00: You know, they always say start with their family.
[05:23] SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't have any, I don't have any blood relatives
[05:25] SPEAKER_00: and Canada besides my children.
[05:27] SPEAKER_00: And at 8 and 11, they make terrible clients.
[05:30] SPEAKER_00: And so I didn't go to school here.
[05:32] SPEAKER_00: I didn't, you know, so.
[05:34] SPEAKER_00: But, you know, it's interesting.
[05:35] SPEAKER_00: A lot of people see that because my business card shows
[05:37] SPEAKER_00: master's an education.
[05:38] SPEAKER_00: I'm an MED and a CFP.
[05:40] SPEAKER_00: I just got my certified financial planner designation
[05:42] SPEAKER_00: not too long ago.
[05:44] SPEAKER_00: And the beauty of having made that transition
[05:46] SPEAKER_00: is something that I've embraced more and more
[05:49] SPEAKER_00: over the years.
[05:49] SPEAKER_00: And that is that I believe everyone has a superpower.
[05:52] SPEAKER_00: At least, you know, everyone has,
[05:54] SPEAKER_00: I say a bunch of superpowers,
[05:54] SPEAKER_00: but a one or two that arise to the top over and over again.
[05:58] SPEAKER_00: And my main superpower is making complex ideas simple.
[06:02] SPEAKER_00: And that has been a incredible asset in my job.
[06:06] SPEAKER_00: I used to work in an office and we had all these
[06:08] SPEAKER_00: different meeting rooms and each meeting room had a whiteboard.
[06:10] SPEAKER_00: And I was the only person that used the whiteboards
[06:12] SPEAKER_00: that I know of because I said,
[06:15] SPEAKER_00: I'm a very visual learner.
[06:17] SPEAKER_00: Most people take things and visually, you know,
[06:19] SPEAKER_00: it helps people understand concepts.
[06:21] SPEAKER_00: So I take the most complex things I can think of
[06:23] SPEAKER_00: that people need to understand enough to be able to make
[06:25] SPEAKER_00: a decision.
[06:26] SPEAKER_00: And I turn it into the simplest drawing possible
[06:29] SPEAKER_00: that people can understand enough to make, to take action.
[06:33] SPEAKER_02: You've lived in the US, you lived in South America.
[06:36] SPEAKER_02: What are the benefits of doing business in Canada in Dalville, if you like?
[06:43] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
[06:43] SPEAKER_00: And I mean, I grew up in the Southern United States.
[06:45] SPEAKER_00: I grew up in Georgia and North Carolina mostly,
[06:47] SPEAKER_00: but I lived in Bouton for a year when I was a kid.
[06:50] SPEAKER_00: So that's the fourth country.
[06:51] SPEAKER_00: It's Venezuela, Canada, America and Bouton.
[06:55] SPEAKER_00: What I would say is I find that no matter, you know,
[06:58] SPEAKER_00: one of the most interesting things about moving to Venezuela.
[07:01] SPEAKER_00: So I moved to Venezuela when I was 21.
[07:02] SPEAKER_00: I didn't speak the language.
[07:04] SPEAKER_00: I went thinking I would stay for one year and I ended up staying 10.
[07:07] SPEAKER_00: One of the things that I found most remarkable was how similar
[07:11] SPEAKER_00: everyone is when it comes to when you look at humans as humans,
[07:14] SPEAKER_00: everyone's really similar.
[07:15] SPEAKER_00: Now from a cultural experience, obviously,
[07:18] SPEAKER_00: there's vast differences between a place like Venezuela and Canada.
[07:22] SPEAKER_00: But what I find is that, you know,
[07:26] SPEAKER_00: so Venezuela, like I'd go to the store to get bread
[07:30] SPEAKER_00: and I'd be gone for an hour because I'd invariably bump into someone
[07:34] SPEAKER_00: who would talk to me in line and we get talking
[07:37] SPEAKER_00: and then we'd go buy each other a coffee
[07:39] SPEAKER_00: and then we'd talk to somewhere like a very social culture.
[07:42] SPEAKER_00: And when I first moved to Canada, I lived in Toronto for a couple months
[07:45] SPEAKER_00: while we lived in my sister-in-law's basement while we were looking for work.
[07:48] SPEAKER_00: And I remember being in Toronto and thinking,
[07:50] SPEAKER_00: wow, this is really different than what I'm used to.
[07:52] SPEAKER_00: Granted, the big cities in Venezuela were similar to Toronto in the sense that,
[07:56] SPEAKER_00: you know, not a lot of people making eye contact on the street
[07:58] SPEAKER_00: if you strike up a conversation with a stranger,
[08:00] SPEAKER_00: the first response is more of what you want from me.
[08:04] SPEAKER_00: But what I decided to do eventually was I said,
[08:06] SPEAKER_00: you know what, I'm just going to embrace the part of me
[08:08] SPEAKER_00: that really just likes, you know,
[08:10] SPEAKER_00: being friendly and talking to people.
[08:11] SPEAKER_00: And I find that Belleville is a fairly easy place to do that.
[08:15] SPEAKER_00: As far as business goes, what I have found is that,
[08:19] SPEAKER_00: so part of what I'm doing as an entrepreneur in my industry
[08:23] SPEAKER_00: is that I do most of my meetings remotely.
[08:26] SPEAKER_00: So the last, I don't know how many clients I brought on,
[08:28] SPEAKER_00: I'd say, of the last five clients I've brought in,
[08:31] SPEAKER_00: probably four of them did not live anywhere near me.
[08:34] SPEAKER_00: I'm licensed in British Columbia.
[08:37] SPEAKER_00: I'm licensed in Ontario and I'm licensed in Nova Scotia.
[08:39] SPEAKER_00: And I'm likely going to have to get licensed in a few other provinces
[08:42] SPEAKER_00: by the middle of next year because I have clients that live in those provinces.
[08:46] SPEAKER_00: And I do most of my meetings via webcam.
[08:49] SPEAKER_00: Zoom calls.
[08:51] SPEAKER_00: The way that we're doing it now.
[08:52] SPEAKER_00: And I have a, you know, zoom has a great built-in whiteboard application
[08:56] SPEAKER_00: and zoom's not paying me to endorse them, but I love zoom.
[08:59] SPEAKER_00: And so if recently when clients,
[09:03] SPEAKER_00: so I have a client, I just got licensed in Nova Scotia.
[09:06] SPEAKER_00: And one of the clients I took on there was asking me questions.
[09:08] SPEAKER_00: And I was answering via email, but I also answered via video.
[09:11] SPEAKER_00: Like I recorded a video, I posted it privately and I shared the link.
[09:15] SPEAKER_00: And I can, you know, all of the information was, you know,
[09:17] SPEAKER_00: I didn't use any personal information because I have to be careful about that.
[09:20] SPEAKER_00: But and they said, well, I really like your style.
[09:22] SPEAKER_00: I'm going to work with you because I'm at my best in front of a whiteboard.
[09:26] SPEAKER_00: That's where I can do my best work.
[09:28] SPEAKER_00: So that's, that's what I would say about for my experience working in Belleville.
[09:32] SPEAKER_00: Working in Belleville has been fantastic.
[09:34] SPEAKER_00: But I'm also nowhere in no way in shape or form of my limited to just working in my geographical region.
[09:40] SPEAKER_00: And people, last thing I'll say about that is I have a client Vancouver who said to me,
[09:45] SPEAKER_00: you are far more accessible online across the country than you would be if you had an office in downtown Vancouver.
[09:52] SPEAKER_00: Because if you had an office in downtown Vancouver, I'd have to go forgot where to park.
[09:56] SPEAKER_00: I'd have to take time off work. I'd have to take time out of my business.
[09:58] SPEAKER_00: Just like with this, I click on a link or face to face in a minute.
[10:02] SPEAKER_00: I save the whiteboard drawings. I do.
[10:04] SPEAKER_00: I email them to them afterwards. Like it makes life.
[10:07] SPEAKER_00: I find that it makes business very easy to do it this way.
[10:10] SPEAKER_02: What's the best thing about being an entrepreneur for that?
[10:13] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[10:14] SPEAKER_00: So I would say the best thing for me about being an entrepreneur is time freedom in the sense that
[10:21] SPEAKER_00: so I still have two small kids in school and they're in a special program that require that there's a lot of opportunity for family involvement.
[10:30] SPEAKER_00: And so I go on almost every field trip under the sun with them.
[10:34] SPEAKER_00: What people may not see behind the scenes is for every field trip I go on.
[10:37] SPEAKER_00: That means I'm probably going to stay up until midnight finishing something or getting up at 5 a.m.
[10:41] SPEAKER_00: Which is what I prefer to do is get up early and do stuff.
[10:45] SPEAKER_00: But you know, some way making up or some way, you know, keeping things going while I am taking those days off.
[10:51] SPEAKER_00: And so actually I can only assume that people look at me and say,
[10:54] SPEAKER_00: when does this guy work because he goes to all these field trips all the time.
[10:57] SPEAKER_00: But you know, it's not uncommon for me to be up at then up until midnight or up at 5 30 catching up on things.
[11:04] SPEAKER_02: So, you know, what you're a team, I meet a lot of the entrepreneurs and it's interesting to hear.
[11:11] Speaker UNKNOWN: What are the routines?
[11:13] SPEAKER_02: When are they most productive?
[11:16] SPEAKER_02: When do they get up? What are the, that kind of thing?
[11:18] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think a big part of being an entrepreneur is know thyself, right?
[11:22] SPEAKER_00: And I figure out what works for everyone and I'll tell you what works for me.
[11:25] SPEAKER_00: You know, the second next thing I'll say that's best about being an entrepreneur is being able to channel my creativity consistently.
[11:31] SPEAKER_00: Something that's very hard to do in a job.
[11:33] SPEAKER_00: So my routine is first and foremost, actually it's kind of funny.
[11:38] SPEAKER_00: My journey as an entrepreneur has led me to study a lot about productivity, a lot about time management, a lot about self-control and things like that.
[11:45] SPEAKER_00: So, so much so that I actually wrote my own productivity journal and sell it.
[11:49] SPEAKER_00: It's called the squirrel journal and it's one I created specifically for the squirrel brain entrepreneur because I can be a squirrel brain entrepreneur.
[11:58] SPEAKER_00: You know, like who, you know, at the slightest distraction is off to the next big thing.
[12:02] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
[12:03] SPEAKER_00: Looking often, you know, really focused on all of a sudden squirrel, you know, looking off into the distance.
[12:09] SPEAKER_00: The way that the well, the way that I do it is, I have big goals that I, I set out to achieve every 91 days.
[12:16] SPEAKER_00: So I split the year into 491 day trips.
[12:18] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I do exactly the same.
[12:20] SPEAKER_02: Okay, very cool.
[12:21] SPEAKER_00: So I pick my yearly goals, but yours too much, you know, so I, so I break it down into 91 day goals.
[12:26] SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, for example, this year I had a goal of starting a podcast, which I did.
[12:30] SPEAKER_00: I had a goal of printing and selling my journal, which I did.
[12:34] SPEAKER_00: I had certain numbers of goals around getting new clients.
[12:36] SPEAKER_00: So I did that.
[12:37] SPEAKER_00: So I break it up into 91 days.
[12:39] SPEAKER_00: I pick those big goals and I track it by week.
[12:41] SPEAKER_00: And then it comes down to the daily activity, which is the biggest thing for me is in the evening.
[12:46] SPEAKER_00: So what I do is I put on my boss hat in the evening and I say, okay, I'm the boss.
[12:51] SPEAKER_00: What needs to happen tomorrow to move my business forward?
[12:53] SPEAKER_00: And I schedule out at least four focused sessions of work that's going to move my business forward, whether it's, you know, dealing with client emails, doing some planning, meetings, whatever it takes to move the business forward.
[13:07] SPEAKER_00: I pick those four the night before I put them in the calendar.
[13:10] SPEAKER_00: And then I, you know, and then I end the day with a reflection on the day.
[13:16] SPEAKER_00: Well, well, what didn't, well, what didn't go well.
[13:18] SPEAKER_00: I visualize the next day, you know, kind of like an athlete would visualize a game.
[13:22] SPEAKER_00: I visualize what tomorrow is going to look like.
[13:24] SPEAKER_00: And then I wake up and I get at it.
[13:26] SPEAKER_00: And me, I'm more of a morning.
[13:28] SPEAKER_00: I'm a bit of a, I'm a bit of both the morning person in an evening person, but really at the end of the day, my deal day is getting up at around five, 30 or six, getting my workout in.
[13:36] SPEAKER_00: And then hitting the ground running as soon as my kids are at school.
[13:39] SPEAKER_00: And my to do list everything is already in my calendar.
[13:41] SPEAKER_00: And so kicking the day off with meditation, journaling and gratitude are the three big things that, that kicking the day off right for me.
[13:49] SPEAKER_00: And the days that I don't do that, there's a stark difference in my day.
[13:53] SPEAKER_00: I think gratitude is one of the most important things I were to focus on what's going well because any given day, things are going to go wrong.
[14:00] SPEAKER_00: And if that takes up my brain space, it's going to take me out of the game.
[14:03] SPEAKER_02: What's your biggest, what's the biggest challenge you've faced as an entrepreneur?
[14:07] SPEAKER_02: What do you see as your biggest challenge in the future?
[14:12] SPEAKER_00: I'd say my biggest challenge is definitely my willingness to let myself be the best I can be.
[14:18] SPEAKER_00: I'd say that mindset is one of the biggest battles I have and I certainly have a lot of friends who would probably say the same thing.
[14:25] SPEAKER_00: You know, it's very easy for me to, or I should say it gets scary when I get complacent in the work I'm doing or the approaches I'm doing.
[14:32] SPEAKER_00: When I think, well, you know, I'm in the status quo.
[14:36] SPEAKER_00: And when I notice that I'm settling for the status quo, I push myself to do something innovative or I push myself to work harder or do an extra level of planning.
[14:47] SPEAKER_00: And so I'd say that's the biggest thing is, you know, I see for the longest time I would see people who had done things like published books or people who had created large businesses and thought that they had some sort of special DNA that I didn't have.
[15:00] SPEAKER_00: But in fact, the longer I spend interviewing people like that or the longer I spend reading their books, I realize that they don't have any special DNA.
[15:09] SPEAKER_00: They've usually just been working harder or working longer and more consistently than most people are willing to do and failing more often harder than most people are willing to do in some days.
[15:19] SPEAKER_02: It's a great observation. You've started a business, you're being successful. You know, imagine someone just starting, what advice would you give that future entrepreneur about to start a business?
[15:33] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so if I were sitting in front of an entrepreneur about to start a business, wow. I'd say one of the biggest things I would say is get a mentor or a coach as soon as humanly possible.
[15:43] SPEAKER_00: And if you think you can't or you can't afford a mentor coach, what I would say is spend time and I'm using air quotes for people who can't see me.
[15:50] SPEAKER_00: They say, you know, there's a saying that's to your the average or the four people you spend the most time with or the five people you spend the most time with.
[15:56] SPEAKER_00: One of the things is if someone's out to do something big. So for example, when I was decided to write my journal and publish it, I spent time with people who had already done that.
[16:06] SPEAKER_00: So I had conversations with people who had already written books and they said, wait, I wrote a book and like it's no big deal.
[16:12] SPEAKER_00: So I'd say find those people who have already done the thing you want to do and act like it's no big deal because that's totally going to change the mindset.
[16:19] SPEAKER_00: Like when I spend time with people who have written books, who have launched podcasts, who have done anything that I want to do and they act like it's no big deal. It raises immediately. It raises my thought process.
[16:29] SPEAKER_00: But if I spend time with people who say, wow, that sounds like a lot of work or I don't know if you can do it.
[16:35] SPEAKER_00: You know, that's not going to help. And so I'd say if you can get a coach who's already done what you've done or helped other people do what you want to do, that will accelerate things immensely.
[16:45] SPEAKER_00: The coaches I've had my life over the last couple years have been some of the best influences on me getting moving forward, seeing things from a new point of view.
[16:53] SPEAKER_00: And the other thing I'll say is just there's a lot of research that shows that groups solve problems far better than individuals do.
[16:59] SPEAKER_00: And part of it's certainly my life as an entrepreneur is the way that I'm doing it is a bit of a lone wolf.
[17:07] SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm kind of on my own a bit. I've automated a lot of systems and so I do have a team, but it is really me at the end of the day.
[17:13] SPEAKER_00: And so I am very specifically seeking ways to collaborate with more people right now because I'm learning that I am able to move faster with more people.
[17:24] SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to be able to move farther if I find the right people and especially if they have strengths that I don't have.
[17:29] SPEAKER_00: So I can focus on what I'm really good at.
[17:31] SPEAKER_02: I have to tell you, I mean, you know, when I've had the right people, my business has grown so much more rapidly.
[17:38] SPEAKER_02: They've been filled back the three or four instances when it was booming was not me so much as the people around me.
[17:46] SPEAKER_02: What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
[17:50] SPEAKER_00: So the best piece of advice I've ever received, what pops to the top of my head is not too long ago.
[17:56] SPEAKER_00: One of my coaches said to me, Gaelin, you can't outsource your pain.
[18:01] SPEAKER_00: And what I was doing at that moment in time was I was in a trap, a bit of a trap of information gathering.
[18:07] SPEAKER_00: So I was really proud of how much I was reading. I was really proud of how much how many webinars I was watching and how many guides I was downloading.
[18:15] SPEAKER_00: And right now there's a lot of that going on for any industry imaginable every day.
[18:20] SPEAKER_00: I'm going to get my newsfeed on Facebook. It's cluttered with ads of people telling me how to do my job better or like saying that they've got the next best.
[18:26] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it's really easy to fall into an information loop, which is information without implementation.
[18:35] SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's, I mean, I certainly feel it when I pick up a new book, like the endorphins go up.
[18:42] SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'm in action because I'm learning. But if I don't take action, it's not worth much.
[18:48] SPEAKER_00: Like inform, like the saying knowledge is power. I believe that knowledge is power, but action is an element of knowledge that has to occur to actually learn what I'm supposed to put.
[18:58] SPEAKER_00: What I think I'm learning, I'm not going to actually learn it until I implement it or until I teach it to someone else.
[19:03] SPEAKER_00: So at the time this person said to me, because I was kind of like buying all these courses and saying, oh, this is the next big thing that's going to help me.
[19:09] SPEAKER_00: And he said to me, say, Gaelin, you can't outsource your pain. Like I was trying to outsource the things I didn't want to do.
[19:14] SPEAKER_00: Or the things that the growth that I that was going to be painful. And I simply just had to say, you know what, I have to force myself to just face this rather than hope to find someone else that's going to do it for me.
[19:25] SPEAKER_02: So some rapid-fire questions. If you're wondering for what you're doing now for what would be doing.
[19:32] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what I'd be doing is I would be helping other people grow their businesses using innovative technology innovative approaches to sales.
[19:42] SPEAKER_00: I would be probably also a full-time journal creator. I feel like there's a lot of market out there when people are trying to when people are selling books that are trying to get people to implement things.
[19:52] SPEAKER_00: They're usually lacking something on the implementation side or the challenge side. So I'd probably be creating journals and challenges for existing businesses to increase their customer base.
[20:02] SPEAKER_00: Well, bookie, you can be reading.
[20:04] SPEAKER_00: Okay. So I am reading a book. I'm always referring back to, well, a book called Draw to Win.
[20:11] SPEAKER_00: It's an amazing book by Dan Rome. And it's all about how to draw better to engage people's subconscious and to get them to understand things faster.
[20:20] SPEAKER_00: So it's a book that I'm always referring back to as I go.
[20:25] SPEAKER_02: Are you a morning or a night person?
[20:27] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm a bit of a mix. I definitely do better in the morning. So I'm more of the kind of guy who if I can get up by 6 a.m.
[20:35] SPEAKER_00: Get my workout in, get the day started.
[20:37] SPEAKER_02: We went back over a podcast that would be quite a dominant thing. Something like entrepreneurship and those first six hours of the day.
[20:46] SPEAKER_02: If you had to pick one word to describe yourself, what would you pick?
[20:52] SPEAKER_00: Driven. And I picked that. I didn't used to say that, but a while ago, and I actually recommend everyone do this. I surveyed my friends and I said, what's the word you would use to describe me?
[21:01] SPEAKER_00: And they gave me lists of words, you know, and the one.
[21:04] SPEAKER_00: I didn't go to be scared of that.
[21:07] SPEAKER_00: It was scary.
[21:08] SPEAKER_00: It was really funny. It was the one thing that everyone had in common.
[21:14] SPEAKER_00: Carrying was very high. So caring is right up there.
[21:17] SPEAKER_00: But driven was the one that everyone had in common. And I really, and there was really funny because I jokingly said at the end of this sort of survey.
[21:24] SPEAKER_00: I said, are you sure you guys are talking about the right guy?
[21:26] SPEAKER_00: Because I don't think of myself as necessarily all that driven because I compare myself to people that I feel are more driven than I am.
[21:32] SPEAKER_00: But that was the one. So driven was the one that came to the top and caring was a close second.
[21:36] SPEAKER_00: I was keeping you up at night.
[21:38] SPEAKER_00: Well, apparently my sleep apnea does because I did a sleep test the other day.
[21:43] SPEAKER_00: I needed to get a CPAP.
[21:45] SPEAKER_00: Actually, I really sleep incredibly well.
[21:48] SPEAKER_00: Last night, I was up a little bit kind of, I wasn't up necessarily, but it was kind of in a half dream state just thinking about different things I wanted to create.
[21:57] SPEAKER_00: So those things will kind of trickle in and out of my brain.
[21:59] SPEAKER_00: If I've got a big project I'm working on, I'll kind of come in and out of dreaming with visions of what I need to do for that.
[22:05] SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't really keep me up. I actually sleep like a log.
[22:09] SPEAKER_02: What you're in any travel a lot, what's your most favorite place in the world?
[22:13] SPEAKER_00: My favorite place in the world is the north end of Central Park in New York City.
[22:17] SPEAKER_00: If you've never been anyone who goes to Central Park, you've got to find a way to get to the north end of Central Park,
[22:22] SPEAKER_00: which is the north end of a loop that not many people see.
[22:25] SPEAKER_00: And it is just a fantastic piece of the world.
[22:28] SPEAKER_00: And I've seen a big chunk of the world.
[22:30] SPEAKER_00: And every time I go there, it's like magic.
[22:32] SPEAKER_00: Like it's just a magical place.
[22:34] SPEAKER_02: What are the three non-negotiables you have to have in your case in your morning process?
[22:41] SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow. Non-negotiables in my morning process.
[22:44] SPEAKER_00: Well, non-negotiables are, you know, I have to brush my teeth first thing in the morning.
[22:49] SPEAKER_00: It just drives me nuts to not, like, my kids will wake me up and be like,
[22:52] SPEAKER_00: daddy, like, you know, let's play or whatever.
[22:53] SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I got to brush my teeth.
[22:54] SPEAKER_00: Like, I can't even think straight until I do that.
[22:57] SPEAKER_00: After that, the non-negotiables, things that have to happen in the morning for me are,
[23:02] SPEAKER_00: if it's even just a minute, but I prefer it to be at least 10 of meditation and gratitude.
[23:08] SPEAKER_00: So I'd say meditation and gratitude are the two that just have to happen for me to have a really good day.
[23:14] SPEAKER_02: So you're onto a fun, final question.
[23:16] SPEAKER_02: All right.
[23:17] SPEAKER_02: The small chocolate wine, I don't remember what the ocean were, we take it in,
[23:21] SPEAKER_02: and we drop you off.
[23:23] SPEAKER_02: There's no internet.
[23:24] SPEAKER_02: There's a phone booth, and you can phone us whenever you want to get off,
[23:28] SPEAKER_02: otherwise, you're on your own.
[23:31] SPEAKER_02: How long do you last?
[23:34] SPEAKER_02: And what would you do?
[23:35] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[23:36] SPEAKER_00: So do I have any books or anything?
[23:38] SPEAKER_00: Or it's just me?
[23:39] SPEAKER_00: Just you.
[23:39] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[23:40] SPEAKER_00: I'd say I'd probably last two weeks.
[23:43] SPEAKER_00: I used to do survival training in Alaska, and I really enjoy being out in the wild.
[23:49] SPEAKER_00: I really enjoy being outside.
[23:52] SPEAKER_00: And so I'd definitely start missing my wife and kids way too much come week two.
[23:57] SPEAKER_00: But I think two weeks would be a really nice reset to be out in the wild.
[24:02] SPEAKER_00: And what would I do?
[24:03] SPEAKER_00: I think I would just, I think I'd probably be drawing in the sand a lot,
[24:07] SPEAKER_00: and trying to, trying to think of a lot of things I could be working on.
[24:11] SPEAKER_00: But I think more than anything, I'd give myself a chance to relax eventually.
[24:16] SPEAKER_00: Maybe after a couple of days, I'd finally let myself take it easy.
[24:20] SPEAKER_02: How can people get connected with you online?
[24:22] SPEAKER_02: Because you know, we get lots of listeners, and I am viewers.
[24:26] SPEAKER_02: And I, you know, I always like them to be able to contact people because, you know,
[24:32] SPEAKER_02: you hear something and you're talking about mentoring, whatever.
[24:35] SPEAKER_02: Same kind of thing.
[24:37] SPEAKER_02: So how can people get it over here?
[24:38] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I'll give the two best ways.
[24:40] SPEAKER_00: The best way is to go to my website, which is gnautall.com.
[24:46] SPEAKER_00: So that's g in you TTAL.com.
[24:51] SPEAKER_00: And people can actually download a free quick start guide to finance,
[24:56] SPEAKER_00: like understanding your finances.
[24:58] SPEAKER_00: So I've taken everything I've learned and I've put it into a very easily readable guide.
[25:02] SPEAKER_00: And the second best place would probably be my Facebook page,
[25:05] SPEAKER_00: which is called Galen, which is GALN, Canadian Whiteboard Finance.
[25:10] SPEAKER_00: That's where I go live with videos and answer questions and teach people everything I know about.
[25:17] SPEAKER_00: Some of the myths that are out there around what matters when it comes to financial planning.
[25:21] SPEAKER_02: Hey, Galen.
[25:22] SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much for the interview coming on the Canada's podcast.
[25:25] SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
[25:27] SPEAKER_01: Thanks everyone for taking the time today to listen to Toronto's podcast on the Canada's podcast Network.
[25:33] SPEAKER_01: I hope you enjoyed the podcast today.
[25:36] SPEAKER_01: Make sure you sign up for a news checklist or write a review for us on iTunes.
[25:41] SPEAKER_01: You can connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or at Canada's podcast.com,
[25:47] SPEAKER_01: where you can listen, discover and engage.
[25:50] SPEAKER_01: You can also check out what other entrepreneurs are doing across the country.
[25:54] SPEAKER_01: I'll see you next time.
