Juggling acting and a homebuilding business

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[00:00] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Canada's Entrepreneur. Where we talk to the entrepreneurs who are making it happen
[00:05] SPEAKER_00: across Canada and deliver the news, trends, knowledge and opinions from entrepreneurs and business
[00:13] SPEAKER_00: influences across the country. Hello, I'm Mario Tonigusi, managing editor of Canada's Entrepreneur.
[00:21] SPEAKER_03: Joining me today is Robert De Procheda, in Calgary, who is an owner of Encore of Homes of
[00:29] SPEAKER_03: Home Building Company and also an actor, singer, pianist and we'll get into all that and
[00:36] SPEAKER_03: just prefacing this. I was at Morning Mass for Ash Wednesday. That's why you see
[00:42] SPEAKER_03: the the ashes on my forehead and I know that this episode won't be running until a little while,
[00:51] SPEAKER_03: but today is Ash Wednesday while we're doing the taping. Thanks for joining us today, Robert.
[00:55] SPEAKER_03: Absolutely, Mario. How are you? Oh, I'm good. I'm good. So tell me just first of all,
[01:00] SPEAKER_03: let's talk about there's too many aspects of you here, right? So many careers.
[01:07] SPEAKER_03: Let's talk about Encore of Homes. Tell me what you guys do there.
[01:12] SPEAKER_01: Encore of Homes is one of my building companies. I actually have two,
[01:16] SPEAKER_01: had one in Fort McMurray, up north called Birchwood Homes. We started back in 2000 and we built
[01:22] SPEAKER_01: many, many homes out there, probably close to 400. We did just regular home building out there.
[01:28] SPEAKER_01: We were also involved in the fire rebuilds and after when the floods happened, so did a lot of work
[01:35] SPEAKER_01: up there for quite a while. Encore of Homes, I started back in 2015. That was so I could start
[01:43] SPEAKER_01: building here locally because we actually moved from Formic Murray back down to Calgary in 2011
[01:49] SPEAKER_01: and I did a few years back and forth and wanted to kind of start up down here.
[01:54] SPEAKER_01: And shortly after starting here, the fires happened, so I did a lot of back and forth running
[01:59] SPEAKER_01: my company here, running the one up there. And now I pretty much wind down in Formic
[02:04] SPEAKER_01: Marine and concentrating more here. Okay, interesting. Interesting. What's really interesting
[02:09] SPEAKER_03: is the other side, you know, the left side and the right side of the brains of people talk about.
[02:15] SPEAKER_03: So, one side and I don't know what side that is, that's the business side, right?
[02:19] SPEAKER_03: Yeah. The other side is the creative side. So, you know, I'm looking at your bio and you are
[02:27] SPEAKER_03: training or training in classical piano at the age of four? That's right. That's actually
[02:34] SPEAKER_01: started piano just before I started school. So I've been was in piano for like I said, right from
[02:41] SPEAKER_01: four years old, I completed my Royal Conservatory at a very young age at 13 and then there in that time,
[02:48] SPEAKER_01: I also started doing singing as well. And after 13, I started teaching for quite a while. So that
[02:53] SPEAKER_01: was my part time job while I was at school. So let's talk about the piano stuff. First of all,
[02:58] SPEAKER_03: how did you get into piano? Was there family members that played the piano? Well, my dad's side is
[03:05] SPEAKER_01: kind of musical, but none of them really spoke music or took music lessons. Like he has brothers
[03:10] SPEAKER_01: and stuff that just picked up instruments and just learned them and they're just quite naturally
[03:14] SPEAKER_01: musical. But with me, it was my mom just kind of discovered me playing on a little toy piano
[03:20] SPEAKER_01: pairs that I had and do recognize that I was actually playing some tunes. I was playing some
[03:26] SPEAKER_01: songs just learning them by ear on the piano and I guess right away ding ding ding. She said, okay,
[03:31] SPEAKER_01: let's go to piano lessons. So that's September. She sent me off the piano and that was it.
[03:36] SPEAKER_01: And wow. And do you still play? Oh, yeah. I still play all the time plays thing.
[03:44] SPEAKER_01: Now I have my daughters is singing and so sometimes we'll do a little thing here together,
[03:50] SPEAKER_01: we'll sing in a wedding or funeral or something like that. My wife sings as well. She's a fantastic
[03:55] SPEAKER_03: singer. And so we're always doing something. Okay, now tell me about the singing part. What kind of
[04:01] SPEAKER_03: things were you involved in with singing over the years? Well, singing is what kind of brought me
[04:09] SPEAKER_01: into like I did in the music and then you know, I was still singing and then I started doing a little
[04:14] SPEAKER_01: bit of theater at school. So I kind of led into some musical theater and I once I kind of started
[04:19] SPEAKER_01: doing that. I really like loved that. The acting part of it as well. So that kind of led from musical
[04:25] SPEAKER_01: theater into theater and then by time I graduated high school, I made a decision I wanted to get into
[04:30] SPEAKER_01: the film. So when it happened, he is like graduated, because I grew up in a small town called
[04:35] SPEAKER_01: Cramberk for Columbia. Yeah. So after graduation, I headed down to the coast of Vancouver and the next
[04:44] SPEAKER_01: probably seven, eight years, just acting full time out there. And I was doing film stuff out there
[04:48] SPEAKER_01: and building my career. And we had a big strike in 1998. Similar to what SEGA had a few years back,
[04:57] SPEAKER_01: we had a big actress strike out there. So kind of productions kind of stopped in 1998. So there
[05:02] SPEAKER_01: wasn't much going on. So I kind of came to Calgary to visit some family, hang out, started doing a show
[05:08] SPEAKER_01: while I was here and that's where I met my wife and I never left. Oh, interesting. So tell us a
[05:14] SPEAKER_03: little bit about your acting career, some of the shows or films that you've been involved in and
[05:22] SPEAKER_01: that some people would recognize. So back in the 90s, I was in Vancouver and I was in the show
[05:30] SPEAKER_01: such as the X-Files, the Outer Limits, the sort of poltergeist. There did a few films out there,
[05:38] SPEAKER_01: one with Big Teen Nelson, Giancarlo Esposito was in that film. I did want to throw a blow,
[05:46] SPEAKER_01: one with the Arab McCormick, Sean Young. So it did quite a bit of film and film and TV out there.
[05:52] SPEAKER_01: And then when I came here after what happened with the acting stuff, once I moved to Calgary,
[05:58] SPEAKER_01: there wasn't really a film industry here, not enough to make a living out of and made the decision
[06:03] SPEAKER_01: I was going to be with my wife getting married. So I actually kind of put everything on hold. They
[06:08] SPEAKER_01: said, okay, well, I'm going to change gears here and that's what kind of led into, I went to
[06:13] SPEAKER_01: SAIT first. I got a computer diploma and computer technology. So I did that first computer programming
[06:21] SPEAKER_01: and that kind of landed me a job up north of the Cormick Murray, literally right after we got married.
[06:27] SPEAKER_01: So I went up there for a while and brought my wife up of course and did that for about a year
[06:33] SPEAKER_01: and a half working at ThinkRude and then I just had an opportunity to do the building company there.
[06:37] SPEAKER_01: So I decided, hey, office work really wasn't for me. So I kind of got out of that and started
[06:44] SPEAKER_01: the building company with my dad and we did that for quite a few years and acting just went
[06:50] SPEAKER_01: completely on hold. And then once we came back here after 2011, it was probably but the
[06:56] SPEAKER_01: made 2010s, I kind of thought, okay, well, what am I doing a few things, right? So I kind of
[07:03] SPEAKER_01: rekindled with my agent. I was here and I did a couple little things in the mid 2010s, but then
[07:10] SPEAKER_01: the fire happened before make Murray. So I started going back up there and so I put it on hold again.
[07:16] SPEAKER_01: And so I did four or five years past and I think it was about 2022, 2021-22. I kind of,
[07:25] SPEAKER_01: I was pretty much done up there. I was here. COVID was just kind of finished happening.
[07:31] SPEAKER_01: The whole industry kind of had a shift to change, which was kind of basically everything was online now.
[07:38] SPEAKER_01: I wish everything. So I was kind of like, well, that done me thinking because it's like, well,
[07:42] SPEAKER_01: this opens up a whole bunch of opportunity now, which wasn't there prior, right? So
[07:49] SPEAKER_01: started looking back into things again and rekindled my agents again and I'm going to give
[07:56] SPEAKER_01: you see how this works out and it actually worked out for me pretty great because now I can access
[08:02] SPEAKER_01: all these markets, which I couldn't access before. So I started working on that.
[08:08] SPEAKER_01: Little by little, Rekindle Mage in here, Rekindle Mage in some of the coast.
[08:13] SPEAKER_01: And the other big, big goal for mine was to be able to work in the US.
[08:18] SPEAKER_01: Now I didn't have a visa, I'm not a US citizen, so it was a challenge. I started that challenge
[08:22] SPEAKER_01: two years ago. Oh, cool. Working everything, kind of figuring out what I needed, trying to get the
[08:28] SPEAKER_01: right experience, the right backing, the right support letters, and finally, this past June, I was
[08:34] SPEAKER_01: able to finally acquire a visa for. Oh, excellent. Yeah, that was a big step.
[08:40] SPEAKER_03: So in terms of acting, are you in any particular type of character that you tend to be
[08:51] SPEAKER_01: brought into films for? Yeah, you get called in lots for the authority, kind of guys,
[08:57] SPEAKER_01: either the bad guys or like, you know, the, the, you know, the intense business owner, a lot of
[09:03] SPEAKER_01: power, kind of characters, right? Usually what I do mostly, right? I did do a role where I was a little
[09:09] SPEAKER_01: more of a happy dad, um, I'm Toronto, but the most of them are tend to be that heavy authority kind of
[09:17] SPEAKER_03: guy. Yeah. You kind of look like you, you, you, you, you, you, you could play a role in it in a godfather
[09:26] SPEAKER_01: movie, right? Yeah, yeah, I've done a few of those. Yeah, I did my boss for sure. I did a biker,
[09:33] SPEAKER_01: down doing a film this past summer, I played a biker, you know, you know, always a nice guy.
[09:41] SPEAKER_03: And so I'm curious, how do you manage, uh, yeah, to run a business still and, and, and do the
[09:48] SPEAKER_01: acting? How do you juggle that? Just kind of fit everything in. I don't know. It's kind of, I'm not
[09:55] SPEAKER_01: wondering, think about how I'm going to do it. I just kind of have all these things to do. So just
[10:00] SPEAKER_01: get to him and do it, right? Uh, when it comes to the home building, I mean, for me, most of the stuff,
[10:06] SPEAKER_01: because I also do all my own CAD drawings and stuff. So, well, when I'm building a home, like, I know
[10:11] SPEAKER_01: every inch of that house from top to bottom, because I designed the whole thing, right? So,
[10:16] SPEAKER_01: so most of the stuff, like, I'm, I still go on site whenever I'm here, month side, like,
[10:21] SPEAKER_01: pretty much all the time to the construction. And if I ever am away out of town or something like that,
[10:26] SPEAKER_01: I know them well, right? So, like, pretty much somebody explaining me what they're looking at,
[10:32] SPEAKER_01: and I know what they're talking about, work through our solutions and our issues, and get things done.
[10:37] SPEAKER_01: Don't far have been able to make it work. I did the same when we were doing the
[10:41] SPEAKER_01: Formic Murray Fire, as I was going out there a week, coming home a week, and then I was still,
[10:45] SPEAKER_01: you know, I still managed my site. Yeah, it's mostly just about having a good
[10:51] SPEAKER_01: grasp of what you're doing. So, when your people are there working, they have, you know,
[10:57] SPEAKER_01: their communication of what's going on, and these don't have issues. Yeah. Now, and curious,
[11:03] SPEAKER_03: you know, with your creative background, especially in the acting part of it,
[11:10] SPEAKER_03: has that helped you in any way, like, for being a business band?
[11:15] SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah. Like, I mean, one, it definitely taught me how to be like a self-motivated person.
[11:24] SPEAKER_01: First of all, so like, I've just been doing this kind of stuff my entire life where you have to kind
[11:30] SPEAKER_01: of pain yourself to get out and get things done, because there's all that stuff you do that doesn't
[11:35] SPEAKER_01: make you money, but it's still a requirement to do it, right? It's like, you know, you've got to
[11:39] SPEAKER_01: spend the time with your planning, spend the time doing your estimate, spend the time
[11:44] SPEAKER_01: doing all that. So that requires quite a bit of motivation to want to do that, right?
[11:48] SPEAKER_01: And because I do a good portion of it myself, like, I don't hire people for all that kind of stuff,
[11:54] SPEAKER_01: I do all that. It's just, you know, there's nobody there to kick you out of bed, so you just
[11:58] SPEAKER_01: got to get up and do your thing, right? Every single day. And I'm kind of just always kind of
[12:05] SPEAKER_01: been that way. I always think of my long-term goal, and then it's like, okay, so I want to be
[12:09] SPEAKER_01: there. So I got, you know, all these steps to get to you from here to there. And I start,
[12:14] SPEAKER_01: you know, just road mapping and one thing at a time, a little bit here, a little bit there, and,
[12:19] SPEAKER_01: you know, eventually get to where you're trying to get.
[12:22] SPEAKER_03: And in the acting side of things, there's something that you want to do that you haven't done.
[12:28] SPEAKER_01: I'd like to start getting into some producing. I'd like to start maybe bringing some more projects
[12:34] SPEAKER_01: here to Alberta, because we're still in the scheme of it. Like, we don't, it's improving all the time,
[12:41] SPEAKER_01: but we don't do a lot of stuff here and the stuff that's usually done here, a lot of it's brought in
[12:47] SPEAKER_01: from other places, so they kind of come in to do the thing, and, right?
[12:51] Speaker UNKNOWN: 
[12:51] SPEAKER_01: So I'd really like to, at some point, and I'm starting to look a little bit at that. I, you know,
[12:56] SPEAKER_01: I've made some great connections with writers, directors, and that kind of stuff.
[13:00] SPEAKER_01: Just a matter of finding the right project here. And of course, you need, you know,
[13:04] SPEAKER_01: funding and investing for that kind of thing. Yeah.
[13:07] Speaker UNKNOWN: 
[13:07] SPEAKER_01: Get involved in it. I'd like to start doing some more projects here. Start getting
[13:12] SPEAKER_01: Calgary building up and making its kind of, you know, it's a place in the world of film, right?
[13:18] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[13:18] SPEAKER_01: Because Vancouver and, you know, on Toronto, they're quite established now. Like, when I first moved out
[13:23] SPEAKER_01: to Vancouver, it was still a younger industry, right? A little further than the head than we are now,
[13:29] SPEAKER_01: but it was at that time, it was still fairly young, and it was kind of going through the same thing,
[13:33] SPEAKER_01: where, you know, all the other towners were coming in, but then it started to establish itself,
[13:37] SPEAKER_01: and it put out some great, great productions and that kind of thing. So Toronto and Vancouver now are
[13:43] SPEAKER_01: are well recognized in the film industry in general. Yeah. But I think to see the same kind of
[13:49] SPEAKER_01: happening, Calgary, lots of talented people, and crews, you know, good tax incentives here for that kind
[13:55] SPEAKER_03: of thing. So it's great. But the film industry here in Calgary is much bigger than it used to be,
[14:03] SPEAKER_01: right? Oh, yes, it is growing. Every year it grows a little bit more, which is nice to be
[14:08] SPEAKER_01: and stuff. It's just, you know, I just think we have a lot more to offer, and we could take on a
[14:13] SPEAKER_01: whole lot more and just really, really grow that. Yeah. Okay, then. Tell me just a little bit about
[14:22] SPEAKER_03: your Italian background. Where points are you from? All from Calabria. My mom was born in a little town
[14:31] SPEAKER_01: called Palizzi in Reggio Calabria, and my dad's town was kind of a stone through a way,
[14:37] SPEAKER_01: right? Just post-bicolpietra Granada. Okay. The little mountain town, Granada, really.
[14:43] SPEAKER_03: Hey, what do you think you learned growing up from your parents that stick with you today?
[14:50] SPEAKER_01: Well, definitely the work ethic you learn, right? I think most Italian kids do go through that,
[14:56] SPEAKER_01: right? We had lots of stores growing up. Yeah, things are supposed to get done, and learn how to
[15:02] SPEAKER_01: be very self-sufficient too. Like, my case, he just kind of, I don't know, I feel like just
[15:09] SPEAKER_01: known from like my other friends, you kind of grow up a little quicker, right? And, you know,
[15:14] SPEAKER_01: you don't have the expectations, maybe the kids have now. You know, our parents were just,
[15:21] SPEAKER_01: it wasn't even a thought, right? Like, when you were young, I wanted something. It's like 12
[15:25] SPEAKER_01: years old, I wouldn't have got my first job. I was making money when I was younger just through
[15:30] SPEAKER_01: like, you know, festivals playing piano and stuff. So I always had a little bit of savings and
[15:34] SPEAKER_01: stuff that I could go, if I want something, I could go get it, right? But then you know, 12 years old,
[15:39] SPEAKER_01: I was like, well, I think I want to, you know, we'll get a job. So I never thought at that age,
[15:43] SPEAKER_01: you know, you think at 12 years old, you need to go ask your parents, I just went and found a job,
[15:47] SPEAKER_01: didn't even ask. You're like, okay, I want to get stuff, I'm going to go get a job. And so you
[15:53] SPEAKER_01: just start doing stuff, right? And my parents, you know, we grew up in a smaller town. Lots of
[15:58] SPEAKER_01: the times are still, and everybody knew each other, literally right next to my uncle, and it was just
[16:05] SPEAKER_01: kind of, got up every day, you went outside, you left, you know, as long as you made a home by
[16:10] SPEAKER_01: dinner, nobody worried about you came home for supper and that was it. But we are, you know,
[16:14] SPEAKER_01: pretty traditional involved in the Italian center that was in Cranburg and either community and
[16:20] SPEAKER_01: grew up the old way, right? So everybody else making sausage, making wine, doing our stuff all the
[16:26] SPEAKER_03: times. Right? So yeah. Yeah, exactly. When you look at your, the whole growing up as an Italian,
[16:36] SPEAKER_03: you know, what was your favorite thing about growing up as an Italian?
[16:43] SPEAKER_01: Ah, I just, just like the aura of everybody, I don't know, just the wind, wait, when Italians get
[16:50] SPEAKER_01: together, there's just, there's so much about just the people, just, it's, it's almost a difficult
[16:57] SPEAKER_01: thing to put into words unless you experience it, and I mean, you, you obviously experienced it,
[17:02] SPEAKER_01: sure other big families experienced it as well, but it's just just such a part of life, and when
[17:08] SPEAKER_01: I moved like away Vancouver, like I had moved there by myself, I didn't know a soul out there,
[17:15] SPEAKER_01: you know, you start to meet people for a while, but you do, you notice that boy gone, right? It's like,
[17:20] SPEAKER_01: you know, I don't have somewhere to go, the weekends, we're not together with aunts and uncles,
[17:25] SPEAKER_01: cousins, you know, that kind of stuff. So it's, it really becomes more apparent when you kind of leave
[17:32] SPEAKER_01: it. So I know a lot of people like friends of mine, aiming cousins, they've never really left,
[17:38] SPEAKER_01: you know, the nest date really, right? They were still there, we're living the same cities
[17:42] SPEAKER_01: or parents and that kind of stuff. So they didn't experience what it's like not having. So sometimes
[17:47] SPEAKER_01: maybe it gets taken for granted. Yeah, but when you move away, you feel it. So when I
[17:55] SPEAKER_01: came back here, I went and met my wife, my wife's also a tying color bracelet like me. I'm a
[18:00] SPEAKER_01: dad side, both sides, it was just, you know, it's just then the mesh was just there, right? So we're very
[18:07] SPEAKER_01: involved, like we have our kids involved in, you know, the tying culture center here in Calgary,
[18:13] SPEAKER_01: our girls dance with the dancers, my wife's president of the dancers, we, we're down there all the
[18:18] SPEAKER_01: time for the different events and we're very involved. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Now, as an entrepreneur,
[18:26] SPEAKER_03: Robert, if a young person came to you, or your children came to you and said, Dad, you know,
[18:34] SPEAKER_03: want to be an entrepreneur, what would you tell them? What advice would you give them?
[18:40] SPEAKER_01: Well, when it comes to entrepreneurship, it really boils down to your personality,
[18:46] SPEAKER_01: because it's not everybody can get out there and deal with the days and days out because it is,
[18:54] SPEAKER_01: it's, it's basically on call all the time. Yeah. When it comes to your business, your business,
[19:01] SPEAKER_01: like another child of yours, you have to be on it all the time. It has to be almost number one. So
[19:06] SPEAKER_01: a lot of times you have to sacrifice many things in your life just to make for the well-being of
[19:12] SPEAKER_01: the business. And, you know, and it's not because work is everything. It's because the business
[19:16] SPEAKER_01: is what's taking care of you. Bam, right? So you can't let that just, ah, just go out,
[19:22] SPEAKER_01: let us say and let us like tomorrow, right? You know, because it does, it catches up. You have to be
[19:28] SPEAKER_01: a real hungry kind of person. You have to really be willing to say, I'm going to just, you know,
[19:35] SPEAKER_01: give it my all and you've got to be willing to do whatever because there is a lot of those days where,
[19:41] SPEAKER_01: you know, you're out and you could work for two, three weeks straight and not make a dime.
[19:45] SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, you're out, you still have to make your payments to your people, you have to pay
[19:50] SPEAKER_01: them, you have to pay your suppliers, pay your employees, who everybody kind of gets paid first
[19:55] SPEAKER_01: and you're hoping there's something there at the end for you. So you have to be prepared for that
[20:00] SPEAKER_01: kind of life, right? And then there's no, you know, if you want benefits and stuff while you have to
[20:05] SPEAKER_01: go and pay an arm to the leg for them or you just don't get them. It's so, you don't have all the
[20:10] SPEAKER_01: comforts and security working for somebody else, but you do have unlimited potential and limit
[20:15] SPEAKER_01: potential than what you're feeling. But yeah, exactly. Perfect. All right. Well, thanks so much,
[20:23] SPEAKER_03: Robert, for joining us today. Yeah, thanks, Mario. All right. That was wonderful. That was Robert
[20:29] SPEAKER_03: DeProtje, who is owner of Ankara Homes in Calgary, a zolcemonacter. And I'm Mario Tonigusi
[20:36] SPEAKER_03: managing editor of Canada's entrepreneur. Thanks for joining us today.