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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Canada's Entrepreneur, where we talk to the entrepreneurs who are making it happen
[00:05] SPEAKER_02: across Canada and deliver the news, trends, knowledge and opinions from entrepreneurs and business
[00:13] SPEAKER_02: influences across the country. Hi everyone, I'm Phil Bliss, founder and CEO of Canada's Entrepreneur
[00:21] SPEAKER_02: coming to you today from Toronto. Not today, higher education is facing financial crisis,
[00:26] SPEAKER_02: this running job losses, program cuts and projected deficits that constring the sector
[00:33] SPEAKER_02: considerably and leave many institutions teetering on closer. And this is coming at a time when
[00:39] SPEAKER_02: we also have tariff-based layoffs and technological advances that are making, you know,
[00:46] SPEAKER_02: rescaling and upscaling more important than ever. According to the World Economic Forum's future
[00:52] SPEAKER_02: job report in 2025, employers anticipate that 39% of workers' core skills will need to be changed
[01:01] SPEAKER_02: by 2030. Toronto-based Nomeq Founder and CEO Matt Foreign will discuss not only his entrepreneurial
[01:10] SPEAKER_02: journey, but how AI can address some of these issues just when higher education is threatened
[01:16] SPEAKER_02: and when Canada needs to retain an upscale its workforce. Matt holds a Master of Education
[01:23] SPEAKER_02: from the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute of Studies in Education and Adult Education,
[01:29] SPEAKER_02: and he's a published research on in 2010, founded the World's Fully Online Adult Literacy Program
[01:35] SPEAKER_02: for Deaf and Hard of Hearing adults. There's a lot he can speak to, including what prompted him to
[01:42] SPEAKER_02: start this business, and the many challenges he's taken on to see it through. Matt, welcome to
[01:50] SPEAKER_02: Canada's entrepreneur. Great to see you. Our little chap before, and it's kind of fun,
[01:54] SPEAKER_02: seeing as we both know higher ed pretty well. But before you get too deep into the conversation
[02:01] SPEAKER_02: with me, why don't you tell everyone a little bit about yourself what you do, and why you hear
[02:07] SPEAKER_00: basically? Well, first of all, just a great pleasure to be with you today Phil, and thank you
[02:15] SPEAKER_00: to your audience for also taking time for our chat. So my name is Matt Foreign. I'm the CEO of Nomeq
[02:23] SPEAKER_00: where an ed tech and workforce development technology company were based out of Ontario. I would
[02:30] SPEAKER_00: say that's a lot of our people are spread throughout southern Ontario. And by means of getting here,
[02:39] SPEAKER_00: I was in terms of working with my companies, Nomeq. I was working in education for many, many years
[02:46] SPEAKER_00: as working in community literacy. I was working in employment services in Ontario. I've co-founded
[02:54] SPEAKER_00: an e-learning company 10 years ago as well. And I worked from two decades as an administrator
[03:02] SPEAKER_00: at a community college in Toronto, in particular working in spaces of adult literacy,
[03:09] SPEAKER_00: working with lots of persons who have marginalized experiences who are looking to get into the
[03:17] SPEAKER_00: college or into better opportunities for jobs, skilled trades, so on. And so trying to create
[03:24] SPEAKER_00: opportunities through programming, curriculum programming, and experience a long-term programming
[03:31] SPEAKER_00: to get individuals into better spots. And so, yeah, so that's what brought me into this space.
[03:39] SPEAKER_00: I'll get the audience a little bit of a tip right now. Nomeq is, I like to joke that it's not a
[03:47] SPEAKER_00: fancy Japanese word. It's KNOW, capital KNOW, capital M, capital E, or it's not capital E.
[03:57] SPEAKER_00: Nobody, Nomeq. So, and it's based on the Delphic Maxim of No Thyself. And another way of saying it
[04:05] SPEAKER_00: about the name Nomeq is really, the work that we do is through our solutions is grounded in the
[04:14] SPEAKER_00: person knowing who they are, which is really important for them. So, you know, there's IQ and EQ
[04:21] SPEAKER_00: and our company in fact had the provisional patent for ACU adaptability quotient. But the best
[04:27] SPEAKER_00: Q to have is about knowing them oneself. So that was a long answer, but I think it gives you a little bit of
[04:44] SPEAKER_02: but you're now got this entrepreneurial journey. One of the like the top three things that you've
[04:50] SPEAKER_02: learned in this, you know, fairly recent entrepreneurial journey. Well, I would say that I've
[04:58] SPEAKER_00: always had an entrepreneurial spirit. And in fact, I was probably one of the things that
[05:05] SPEAKER_00: that I was given a lot of latitude at the college I was at and even in the community literacy
[05:12] SPEAKER_00: organization to be able, people saw something in me to be able to to sort of put some of my ideas
[05:19] SPEAKER_00: in motion. I've got it, you know, I guess my brother and I started off having paper roots when we
[05:23] SPEAKER_00: were quite young. And then I was a guy littering the neighborhood with my little Kermit the Frog
[05:29] SPEAKER_00: printout saying, I'll put your grass on, mow your lawn, I'll trim your hedges, whatever for money.
[05:37] SPEAKER_00: And so I kind of got away from doing that by following the more standard path of getting a job.
[05:44] SPEAKER_00: But there was always something that I needed to do. I always had sort of an idea
[05:49] SPEAKER_00: or 50 ideas or 65 ideas or whatever going to try to do something. And based of those things,
[05:56] SPEAKER_00: I was always a curious person. So whether I was working in the college or elsewhere,
[06:02] SPEAKER_00: I always had an idea for doing something and seeing sort of friction points and how those things
[06:08] SPEAKER_00: can be alleviated by just reframing things. And so I guess I took that, you know, through my experiences
[06:17] SPEAKER_00: in particular at the college, I was able to really have some make an impact by creating some novel
[06:22] SPEAKER_00: programming and so on and to get into it. And I wouldn't say that I didn't fit in the college,
[06:29] SPEAKER_00: I did fit in the college, but I really saw some opportunities to be able to see some of the really
[06:35] SPEAKER_00: systemic challenges, the opportunities to address those things. And I guess to your question about
[06:42] SPEAKER_00: what I've learned as an entrepreneur is that you need to be focused, you know, number one,
[06:50] SPEAKER_00: you have to, there's only so much time in the day. And you know, when you enlist the
[06:58] SPEAKER_00: the help of others, you need to be focused, you can't boil the ocean, you do need to
[07:03] SPEAKER_00: to be able to to more have a singular focus, get those things and ideas off the ground,
[07:11] SPEAKER_00: get some feedback because you may have an idea for something. And it may be the greatest idea ever,
[07:18] SPEAKER_00: but if it doesn't get feedback from others, whether you'll never know really if it's the right
[07:25] SPEAKER_00: thing or not. And so getting, you know, you could use their feedback and then to be able to iterate.
[07:32] SPEAKER_00: I think what I learned by means of an expensive lesson was going out trying to build something
[07:41] SPEAKER_00: in listing lots of great people as an initial pass on things and not getting it built,
[07:51] SPEAKER_00: spending a ton of money and time and not having it built when I should have done something a little,
[07:56] SPEAKER_00: you know, much more low fidelity, get it into the hands of people first and then get feedback.
[08:03] SPEAKER_00: So those are expensive lessons. And I guess the other thing is that in terms of a third lesson to
[08:09] SPEAKER_00: learn is being capital efficient, you know, try to be really, really capital efficient. This is,
[08:16] SPEAKER_00: you know, for for for for me and for our companies, this is bootstrapped. We haven't raised
[08:22] SPEAKER_00: dollars. It's been bootstrapped money and we've been successful. But you know, dollars are real,
[08:28] SPEAKER_01: dollars are oxygen. Yeah. So, you know, we both worked in the higher education space.
[08:39] SPEAKER_02: Various times. I'm not there, particularly at the moment, but I do know that and I think the world
[08:47] SPEAKER_02: knows that that's certainly within the Canadian perspective, but I think pretty, pretty globally as well.
[08:56] SPEAKER_02: Our education is going through a ton of change at the moment. Tell us a bit about your perspectives
[09:04] SPEAKER_02: on that. I mean, what does it mean for us all? What is, you know, that kind of thing because,
[09:11] SPEAKER_02: you know, most of our listeners, our viewers, you know, have been through higher education,
[09:18] SPEAKER_02: are going through higher education. Got kids going into it. Tell us a bit more about it. And
[09:24] SPEAKER_02: and maybe we've got more about your solution that might be interesting. Just without pitching it,
[09:30] SPEAKER_02: just just kind of, you know, it's an interesting thing.
[09:34] SPEAKER_00: For sure. You're absolutely right. It's a, it's a very,
[09:41] SPEAKER_00: it's a very different, I should say, it's a very interesting time. And I always, I was almost
[09:48] SPEAKER_00: about to say it's a very difficult time, but I think it's a very interesting time because I think
[09:52] SPEAKER_00: that the conventional models for post-secondary higher education are being challenged. And I think
[10:00] SPEAKER_00: that there's a number of reasons for it. Of course, as you and I discussed, there's a,
[10:05] SPEAKER_00: a significant demographic challenge that's been long predicted. And as we spoke about the
[10:11] SPEAKER_00: Boombast Deco, it's, you know, that book was written three decades ago, but certainly,
[10:17] SPEAKER_00: it's not a surprise for anyone who read that book three decades ago as we did, and that we're
[10:23] SPEAKER_00: experiencing this right now. So, those for readers or listeners who haven't read that book,
[10:27] SPEAKER_00: basically, we're in the echo right now. And so, this is where there are fewer people going to
[10:33] SPEAKER_00: post-secondary. And so, we, as a company, have adapted some solutions to address that.
[10:42] SPEAKER_00: And I'll just say that this is the time also when there's a, there are also different tensions.
[10:48] SPEAKER_00: We as a, we've welcomed AI into our hearts and minds. It's a society not so, not so long ago.
[11:01] SPEAKER_00: And it's displacing a lot of jobs. And they're not the typical jobs that people are seeing.
[11:08] SPEAKER_00: You know, and it's, I think that I hope that there's going to be a shift in terms of
[11:13] SPEAKER_00: government processing for the priorities. And, but it's a lot of white-collar jobs are being
[11:20] SPEAKER_00: left behind. You know, it's not the, the millwright in the company who's losing his job to AI,
[11:26] SPEAKER_00: necessarily. It is the person who's processing, you know, the paralegals or people who are in
[11:32] SPEAKER_00: administrative roles, who are having their roles being, you know, replaced by a smart algorithm.
[11:41] SPEAKER_00: And that's attention. That's, that's, that's affecting things. And of course, there are,
[11:47] SPEAKER_00: there are questions. In particular, in the United States, there's a lot of, a lot, a greater
[11:52] SPEAKER_00: amount of scrutiny for higher ed. And we work in the United States. So it's, I can say this with
[11:58] SPEAKER_00: some, a bit of experience. And where there's a lot of, a, a, a, a,
[12:05] SPEAKER_00: critiquing on the, the, the, the dollars, the return on the investment for individuals going to
[12:12] SPEAKER_00: do roles, going for me to, to higher ed. And, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars for an
[12:20] SPEAKER_00: undergraduate degree is difficult for a lot of people to, to, to, to pay for. And so there's been,
[12:27] SPEAKER_00: of course, now, some other tensions, which I don't need to go into with respect to the,
[12:31] SPEAKER_00: the federal government in the United States, challenging higher ed. So these are creating a lot of
[12:38] SPEAKER_00: different tensions, some of which are really, I think, fundamentally questioning individuals,
[12:50] SPEAKER_00: ambitions for post-secondary or higher ed and their role. When I was doing graduate school,
[12:55] SPEAKER_00: it was often the discussion, the tension point of higher education was, what's the role of higher
[13:00] SPEAKER_00: education? Is it for, you know, for getting jobs? Or is it for, you know, enlightenment? And, you know,
[13:08] SPEAKER_00: of course, the historical account, you know, going way way back was it was for enlightenment. And
[13:13] SPEAKER_00: that they, you would have technical institutions with vocational institutions would be taking up the
[13:18] SPEAKER_00: roles of the career preparation, but the university's here in the United States and probably in Europe
[13:27] SPEAKER_00: to some extent, extent as well. And sort of university and college, just community colleges,
[13:33] SPEAKER_00: sort of blending, we started blending, who was doing job preparation and there was fewer and fewer
[13:38] SPEAKER_00: focuses on humanities. So now, I think that when individuals are questioning the, the ROI of a higher
[13:49] SPEAKER_00: degree, they're looking at, am I going to get a great job. So very clearly, the institutions,
[13:56] SPEAKER_00: the marketing positions have been about getting jobs. I'm fast forwarding to get to the answer to
[14:02] SPEAKER_00: land the plane as my wife reminds me, but so the tensions that we have seen, of course, is that
[14:09] SPEAKER_00: throughout these different things, different pieces that are pulling on the strings of higher ed
[14:17] SPEAKER_00: now, the very common pieces that higher education needs learners. This is also at a time when there's
[14:25] SPEAKER_00: a significant change in the workforce as well, where workforce, we've been experiencing a period
[14:34] SPEAKER_00: of maximum employment for many years and it's sort of changing here, but in the United States,
[14:39] SPEAKER_00: the other employment rates quite low, but that's shifting. The people are getting pushed out of
[14:46] SPEAKER_00: the roles. And then back to the demographic issue, where there's about 60% of our population in
[14:53] SPEAKER_00: Canada and the United States, which are not traditional post-secondary age. That's people who are
[14:58] SPEAKER_00: 25 to 65 years of age, the working age people, and many people need to go back to upskill to
[15:07] SPEAKER_00: keep relevant. I would say everybody will at some point in their career. And so our suggestion
[15:13] SPEAKER_00: and a suggested solution is based on breaking down the role of higher education to be something
[15:25] SPEAKER_00: that if it conduit for the economy. And so we've looked at very intently over the last number of
[15:33] SPEAKER_00: years and built out a great solution for an AI credit for prior learning tool that identifies
[15:40] SPEAKER_00: the individual skills that they've experienced, that they have from work and education over the years
[15:47] SPEAKER_00: and help to articulate those skills to course and program learning outcomes, to abbreviate and
[15:54] SPEAKER_00: accelerate the opportunities for everybody to go back to work. And so the process in Canada is
[16:02] SPEAKER_00: typically called prior learning assessment and recognition FAR in the United States is more widely
[16:07] SPEAKER_00: known as credit for prior learning. It's a bit of a nightmare for to do manually, but with some AI,
[16:15] SPEAKER_00: this is what is a perfect solution for AI, helping to do a many to many matching,
[16:21] SPEAKER_00: and it helps to get people in the door institutions for employers who are looking to
[16:28] SPEAKER_00: foster greater lifelong learning opportunities as well, because that's one of the ways that they
[16:35] SPEAKER_00: can retain workers is by giving more professional development opportunities so that people can
[16:42] SPEAKER_00: get unglued from roles. This is a win-win for them so they can help them to gain new skills and
[16:50] SPEAKER_00: then pivot to new roles. That's an important opportunity. And it really starts to break down that
[16:57] SPEAKER_00: hegemony of the institutions to get people into, you know, to get more people into lifelong learning.
[17:05] SPEAKER_00: So I think that off the top that the question was, what is the role of higher education?
[17:12] SPEAKER_00: And I think that the successful higher education institutions are going to be those
[17:19] SPEAKER_00: who criticize conventional processes for intakes and schedules and help to meet people where they are
[17:29] SPEAKER_00: and to get them in the door and to do stackable credentials so that they can build up skills over time
[17:37] SPEAKER_00: and keep and promote this whole notion of lifelong learning to everybody and not just a select
[17:42] SPEAKER_00: number of people. And to the credit of private career colleges in Canada, they are doing this quite
[17:48] SPEAKER_00: well and I think that the public institutions really need to follow suit because the bottom line is
[17:53] SPEAKER_00: our country and the United States everywhere needs workers to be working for a variety of reasons,
[18:01] SPEAKER_00: purpose in being number one, but we need to have paved roads, hospitals, and education and we need
[18:06] SPEAKER_00: everybody as many people in the system and I think that our institutions need to be conduits of that.
[18:13] SPEAKER_01: Otherwise they're going to be left at the side. Let's sort of look at a couple of things here.
[18:23] SPEAKER_02: The challenges you faced, you know, we all hit unexpected challenges, you know, how do you handle it?
[18:33] SPEAKER_01: How have you been able to keep it going?
[18:39] SPEAKER_00: It's a great question. I think that, you know, I was late joining into this technology world. I've been,
[18:48] SPEAKER_00: you know, I guess relatively late with this company. We've been going since 2022
[18:56] SPEAKER_00: and we were very fortunate to have been successful early, but the idea was
[19:06] SPEAKER_00: expensive and so trying to get into the place of raising dollars through venture
[19:13] SPEAKER_00: has been increasingly difficult. We have remained bootstrapped at this point. I think the venture
[19:19] SPEAKER_00: and the venture spaces, those days of raising money early as a technology company,
[19:27] SPEAKER_00: I think you're just not there right now. I think we need to be in a better position to
[19:32] SPEAKER_00: raise later on when we have.
[19:34] SPEAKER_02: I don't actually don't just think technology companies, I think, you know, 90% of companies,
[19:40] SPEAKER_02: people don't want to risk the capital until they can see a result.
[19:46] SPEAKER_00: And I don't, I mean, I think that just it makes sense from a pure financial perspective.
[19:52] SPEAKER_00: I understand that very, very well. I think that some of the challenges that we've also had is
[19:59] SPEAKER_00: that in some ways I feel like we've been the, you know, sort of whistling in the wind,
[20:06] SPEAKER_00: that this is the challenge that what we're seeing about worker challenges here,
[20:12] SPEAKER_00: this has been long documented in academia. So among the things that we've been talking about is
[20:18] SPEAKER_00: the productivity challenge. The productivity challenge, I think in my experience, has been
[20:24] SPEAKER_00: mislabeled here. Why we're Canada's lagging behind and why, I think there's many reasons,
[20:32] SPEAKER_00: but among them is that one out of two workers in our country lacks the functional
[20:37] SPEAKER_00: literacy skills to meet the core demands of their jobs. And that is a really, that's a big number.
[20:45] SPEAKER_00: And that's been since 1994, but it's been consistent. It's through the OECD that they've been
[20:51] SPEAKER_00: tracking this. And so in some ways, I think that we've been sort of pushing on this notion of
[20:57] SPEAKER_00: workforce upscaling that, you know, that this is an important thing because when you do make an
[21:03] SPEAKER_00: impact for those boards, those measures, it does have a significant impact on the individual
[21:09] SPEAKER_00: and on their company and their economy. And so, but it's not a sexy message. This isn't, you know,
[21:16] SPEAKER_00: flying car message or some sort of large language model that's really, really capturing the attention.
[21:23] SPEAKER_00: You know, this is a workforce. It's ugly workforce upscaling is not particularly sexy,
[21:28] SPEAKER_00: but it's critical to our success as a nation. And we've also had some challenges quite frankly,
[21:37] SPEAKER_00: getting the support of some of the innovation areas here in this country. And I think that that's
[21:42] SPEAKER_00: something that, you know, that really needs to change. I think that when we're facing the,
[21:50] SPEAKER_00: the opportunity challenges right now, innovators in this space need to be rewarded for risk taking.
[22:01] SPEAKER_00: And I think that there's some a lot of challenges where companies, in particular of our size and
[22:07] SPEAKER_00: and even larger, having red tape that we have to unglue ourselves from and not having the,
[22:14] SPEAKER_00: the government programs really be brain boards, but their labyrinths to jump through,
[22:25] SPEAKER_00: they you're spending 10s of hours every month trying to put together grant proposals for,
[22:32] SPEAKER_00: for small sums of money for innovation, that just can't happen. Innovation means taking risk.
[22:39] SPEAKER_00: And it can't just be my family taking risks financially. There needs to be that, because there are
[22:44] SPEAKER_00: those that are going to pay off. And when we start to redo that, it is a absolute benefit.
[22:52] SPEAKER_00: So that is something that we can, we continue to see. I'm hopeful that there's a, when, when
[22:59] SPEAKER_00: Canada is looking at how to reduce some of the friction points east to west, north south. And for
[23:08] SPEAKER_00: standing up on our own, that, that some of those innovation agendas really do have 80 or 90 percent
[23:16] SPEAKER_02: of the, the strings attached, cut. Yeah, things okay. Let's say nothing serious stuff. Let's
[23:23] SPEAKER_01: get some fun. I like fun. If you're doing what you're doing now, what do you think you'd be doing
[23:38] SPEAKER_00: instead? You know, I've been fortunate to have had music in my life for many, many years since I
[23:44] SPEAKER_00: have been, you know, in early years of high school and still continue to do it with, with my,
[23:50] SPEAKER_00: my, my bandmates and my, even at the house, I would probably do music. You know, my, over the
[23:57] SPEAKER_00: pandemic, I, my brother and I started doing sets for work from home to be able to keep people
[24:04] SPEAKER_00: together. So I'd probably do DJing and making your own electronic music. And that would be something
[24:11] SPEAKER_00: I'd be doing. I mean, I also have a, have a, some sort of weird idea of like, I wanted to set up
[24:19] SPEAKER_00: like a little, you know, a store that sells healthy food products as a marketplace sandwiches and
[24:27] SPEAKER_00: soups, maybe a little butcher shop, something, something where I'm, you know, involved with people.
[24:33] SPEAKER_01: I love being around people. Yeah. What book are you currently reading? That's that, you know what?
[24:45] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, reading and what book would you recommend to our audience? Our audience being kind of
[24:53] SPEAKER_00: business-y audience, basically, innovation audience as well. I love, I love to read them. I, I just
[25:02] SPEAKER_00: make money easy. It's a book that I'm reading right now. And it's, I think it's,
[25:11] SPEAKER_00: in as much as it's, it's kind of a practical sort of book. It's, it's also sort of a,
[25:18] SPEAKER_00: something of a philosophy that I really started to embrace more and more and more.
[25:22] SPEAKER_00: Because I think that embracing big ideas and embracing that we all have a purpose and a,
[25:30] SPEAKER_00: and a, and a light to shine and to be, essentially, to be vassal, to be able to attract the people,
[25:38] SPEAKER_00: the right people around us and the right ideas and, and to, by focusing on things with the right
[25:45] SPEAKER_00: intentions, you can start to manifest those things and be magnets towards it. And, and so that,
[25:53] SPEAKER_00: that's a great book. I think it's kind of, kind of awesome. There's, I, you know, I, I, I,
[25:59] SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure why I've got into those, but I think there's, it's, it's, it's a simple book.
[26:04] SPEAKER_01: Very, very, very easy to read. Even more than a night person.
[26:12] SPEAKER_00: And morning, yeah, it's been a shift, but I, I find that I need to, I, I, I want to make the
[26:20] SPEAKER_00: most of my time. I want to be alert. I want to get up. I generally, it's probably the last seven
[26:27] SPEAKER_00: or eight months of getting up and doing a little bit of exercise, meditations every day,
[26:33] SPEAKER_00: and prioritizing the days ahead, you know, what are my absolute three essential things that I
[26:39] SPEAKER_00: need to get done? Try to start with doing the hard things first, if I can, just get those bigger
[26:45] SPEAKER_00: things done. And if I can get, and if I can get things done before people start responding to emails,
[26:52] SPEAKER_00: that's an ideal thing. And then I can really step the day with, with some clearer focus. And,
[26:57] SPEAKER_00: um, I read the organized mind many years ago, um, which basically sort of talks about having
[27:06] SPEAKER_00: the ability to be present with people means that you're clearing your deck to be able to give
[27:12] SPEAKER_00: the right time. And, and you're not carrying through things, but that takes discipline. And,
[27:18] SPEAKER_00: often for me, it takes getting up earlier to be able to, to, to not have a, a, a really
[27:25] SPEAKER_01: hairy brain. You have to pick one word to describe yourself. What would it be and why would you choose it?
[27:36] SPEAKER_01: Um, I would say curious.
[27:43] SPEAKER_00: Oh, and why? I guess, and why I would say it's because I like to ask questions and, and, um,
[27:51] SPEAKER_00: and to dig deeper and understanding why things are happening. And, you know, I guess what, uh,
[28:02] SPEAKER_01: what the, what the purpose is and how it could do, did be done differently.
[28:07] SPEAKER_01: Final question. What could be you up at night these days?
[28:19] SPEAKER_00: Um, I, I, I, studying the right intentions for the days ahead and really, and really focusing
[28:28] SPEAKER_00: on what I can control and being able to detox my head in my heart. I think, uh, that's in that
[28:36] SPEAKER_00: comes with a lot of work that takes a lot of work. Um, but it's a regular practice that I'm
[28:42] SPEAKER_00: trying to be in, you know, starting with gratitude, starting with, with, with, with focusing on
[28:48] SPEAKER_00: the abundance that is around us and to be able to, to manifest this positive spirit because
[28:56] SPEAKER_00: there's no shortage of payoffs, but it's all distractions. And, uh, what I can control is who I am as a
[29:07] SPEAKER_00: dad and as a husband and as a, as a business, uh, as a business leader and as a, as a client, as a
[29:14] SPEAKER_00: vendor and as a, as a person who I want to go out into the world to be someone that, that,
[29:21] SPEAKER_00: through what I bring to the conversation is hope and opportunity and some clarity and to say that
[29:31] SPEAKER_00: there's, there's, there's agency that we all have the ability to embrace and it's not, it's not
[29:38] SPEAKER_00: all doom and gloom. We live in a pretty spectacular place where there's some brilliant people all
[29:43] SPEAKER_00: around us. There's, it's wonderful. Just conditions for amazingness. But if we're all focused on
[29:51] SPEAKER_00: the doom and gloom, we're missing the greater opportunity to really create the world that we,
[29:58] SPEAKER_00: that we are, are, are entitled to and to deserve and to, to make even better for those around us.
[30:07] SPEAKER_02: Yes, for me, it's like, you know, what's keeping people up in that misinformation.
[30:13] SPEAKER_02: So, so, you know, don't listen to it. Don't look at it. Don't listen to it. Yeah.
[30:19] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's not, it's not serving you. It's all just, yeah, we need something that, that, you know,
[30:25] SPEAKER_02: you know, you can get value from. Absolutely. It's just a little,
[30:30] SPEAKER_00: a very wise words, very, very wise words, Bill.
[30:36] SPEAKER_02: Hopefully someone will listen to those. Yours is pretty good too. Listen to the end of this.
[30:41] SPEAKER_02: Thank you for coming on, Matt. It's been great seeing you. Likewise. Really, really,
[30:46] SPEAKER_00: really good session. Thank you. Thanks. And continue grace and, and, and growth for everybody listening here.
[30:54] SPEAKER_00: This is an amazing opportunity for, for Canada and for each, for all of us to make a difference
[31:01] SPEAKER_00: positively. This is a tremendous time of change, but we're ready for it. Thanks for making time for
[31:09] SPEAKER_02: me, Bill. Thank you. Gosh, Matt knows a heck of a lot about higher education. And in love,
[31:16] SPEAKER_02: his new AI driven technology to advance career pathways for higher education.
[31:23] SPEAKER_02: I'm Phil Bliss. Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter on the website and subscribe to
[31:28] SPEAKER_02: our YouTube channel. Thanks for listening to Canada's Onsenair, where you meet the entrepreneurs
[31:34] SPEAKER_02: that drive Canada's economy. See you soon.
