Blaze Your Own Trail - S3:E2- From Argentina to Canada with Brian Golod

Episode Date: January 11, 2021

Brian helps people immigrate to Canada SAFELY and avoid making unnecessary mistakes that can cost them money, time and even shutter their dream. He offers FREE daily webinars here: https://canadadreamlife.com He also teaches people how to attract career opportunities with my proprietary data-driven method and ATS resume template that has been used by more than 100,000 candidates worldwide. To learn more go here: https://www.briangolod.com/resume-brian-golod Connect with Brian: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briangolod/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/briangolod/ Connect with Jordan: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanjmendoza/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jordanjmendoza/ Do you need help with your Marketing & Sales Strategies? Let's talk! https://linktr.ee/impulseconsulting Installing strategic sales systems & processes will stop the constant revenue rollercoaster you might be facing which is attainable through our 6 Week Blazing Business Revenue Coaching ProgramBook a discovery call with Jordan now to learn more! Are you an entrepreneur?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop to take action!Use code: FOUNDING100 for 12 months access FREE and Founding pricing for life! (While Supplies Last)Join now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Are you ready to find out how to blaze your own trail? Welcome to the Blaze Her Own Trail podcast with your host, Jordan Mendoza. In this podcast, Jordan interviews people from around the world to find out about their journey to success. If you're looking for valuable content with actionable advice, you've come to the right place. And now your host, Jordan Mendoza. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. I'm your host, Jordan Mendoza. and I've got a very special guest with me today.

His name is Brian Golod. And I'm going to give him just a second to tell us who he is and what he does. Thank you so much, Jordan. I appreciate the invitation. Pretty sure that everybody can tell already that they have an accent. So I was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I lived there for almost 20 years. And I've been here in Canada for about 16 years, a little bit longer than that.

I've been in the technology industry since I was 13 years old. That's when I discovered that they had a passion for computer science. I've been a software developer for a very long time, business analysts, product owners, scrum master, I've done a whole bunch of different roles in the technology industry. And as of late, as of maybe two years and four months ago, I discovered my passion here on LinkedIn. I mean, on LinkedIn, it was a fluke, really, the way that it happened. But they discovered that they had some skills that could empower other professionals across the world, could help them get back on their feet and advancing their careers.

So I really leverage my LinkedIn presence, my account, to be able to connect with other professionals and help them move forward in their professional lives and in their personal lives as well. Awesome. I love that. And we'll definitely get into some of that journey here in a bit. But I would love to find out how was it growing up in Buenos Aires, Argentina? What was the environment like? Did you grow up in a big family? And what kind of kid were you? Were you a kid that was into sports or were you more focused on academics? I was very much into sports. I think that I've tried every single sport out there. My parents encouraged me to try all different sports. So I've done fink pong, basketball, swimming, soccer, go-karting, you name it. I was doing go-karting, racing go-carts when I was five years old or four years old. I've tried a whole bunch of sports. My childhood was actually quite amazing. It was so happy. I am from a middle-class family, very hard-working parents, owners of stores, regular stores, retail stores. had such an amazing childhood, very, very happy. And that is actually one of the questions that I used to ask when I was dating. I used to ask, you know, women, like, what was your childhood like?

Because I think that depending on the childhood that you have, maybe you have impact on how you grow up and the rest of your life. So with my wife now, I'm married and I have two kids. My wife also had an amazing childhood. She was blessed to have one. And so for me, I grew up. I wasn't a good student, I don't think, during my middle school and high school. elementary school, I had very high scores or marks. You guys know that in North America,

it's A through F, right? But in South America, it is 1 through 10. Interestingly enough, in the country next door, which is where my wife comes from, it is 1 through 12. You know, the marks, it goes 1 through 12. So anyway, I had 9s and 10, so that was pretty good. But then during middle school and high school, I relaxed and I had a lot more fun. It was like a club for me. It was like just going in to have fun. So I developed my social skills a lot more than my intellectual skills, I would say, during school. Sound very similar to me. I was definitely more about breakdancing in the hallways, you know, just trying to have a lot

of fun and enjoy it versus focusing on the academics. I think for me, that was more of a focus issue. I was so hyper. I couldn't really focus on things. And so I'd be daydreaming about what I was going to do after school, you know? Thinking about where you grew up, what was the culture like? Because I know from what I've heard and friends that I've had from Argentina, they spoke very highly of the culture. So I would love for you to share some of that context with the audience.

Absolutely. It's very family oriented and very friend oriented. Argentinians put a lot of passion and weight on developing friendships and really spending time together. You take friendships very, very seriously. It's not who am I going to hang out with this weekend. It's just where. We know that we're going to be hanging out with the same friends, the same circle of friends. It's amazing. There's something different about South America and North America at least, which is in South America, you don't have to give notice when you're going to go visit somewhere. You just knock on the door and say, hey, I'm here, coming to visit here. Whereas in North America, you have to make plans for the next month. Say, hey, do you have any

availability? People have like 300 friends. Over there, it's like that circle of friends that you have is your life. They're like your extended family and they should just show up whenever they want. And it's accepted and welcomed and that's the way that it is. Many people don't want to lead Argentina or South American countries. don't want to immigrate because friendships are so important to them and family is so important to them. But for me, I don't know, I didn't find myself comfortable there. My parents didn't find themselves comfortable either. There are a lot of other things with the South American cultures as well, a lot of corruption from the countries, the government feeling unsafe. I always joke about

here in Canada, the biggest worry that I have is that I go out, I open the door, I'm in the street and it starts to rain and I don't have an umbrella. That's like the biggest fear that I have. Whereas in Argentina, my biggest fear is, am I going to make it home tonight or not after I go clubbing or hanging out with friends or not? So completely different culture in that regard as well. And also career opportunities. I came to Canada and within two years, I owned my brand new car and a home and I had come here with zero dollars. Pushed myself, worked a lot of jobs just like you do now. You have three. I used to have five at the same time. Save that. And when my friends were drinking and parting, I was still partying with them, but I wasn't.

drinking, of saving up every dollar, and within two years, I own my home. So this country has given me amazing opportunities. But I have to say that I appreciate where I came from. The values that I got, Argentina has amazing things. And there are some things that are not as amazing. Those things that are not as amazing, I left them behind. And the things that are really good, I brought them with me to try to add them to this new culture that I joined. But I definitely didn't come to Canada to be an Argentinian in Canada. I came to Canada to integrate this society. and learn what values and what makes Canada so amazing. I love that.

Awesome. Very much a family culture. And that's, you know, my father's from the Philippines. In Philippines, it's very similar. It's families. There's a lot of people will grow up and they'll still live with each other, aunts and uncles and cousins. And it's just very big on that family environment.

So I have a coworker who's from Argentina. When he first met me, he said, oh, your last name, Mendoza. Why is that significant in Argentina? I would love for you to share that with the audience. Well, first of all, we have a province called Mendoza, right? And that's where wines come from. There are other provinces as well, that the well-known region for good wines. It's a really popular last name. There are other ones that are a little bit more popular in terms of how many people have that

last name. But typically these last names that have a Zet somewhere near the end, like Gonzales, Mendoza, there are a lot of you guys over there. We have similar roots, right? I don't think that many people came from the Philippines, but we have Spanish Inquisition, I guess. as in the Philippines and Spanish in South America as well. Absolutely. You know, my last name when I researched it, it means cold mountain. That's the definition of Mendoza.

And that's what I heard is the province, the wine there is really, really good. And it's funny because you can go to wine stores all over the world and you'll find the Mendoza province wine, which is pretty interesting. So what happened after high school? What were your thoughts? Did you have aspirations to go to school and study?

Did you want to work after that? What were kind of your next steps? So something interesting. happened. On my last year of high school, my parents, I tell you in just a little bit how we got there, what I'm going to share with you, but my parents asked me, I was 17 years old, he said, Brian, do you want to immigrate somewhere? I said, to the States, I was so happy, right? To the States? And they were like, no, to Canada. I was like, even better. I was like, yes. I didn't know anything about Canada, but for some reason, people who don't even know Canada, just like myself, when I was 17 years

all, we have that high regard for this amazing country. Now I know it. Now I know why. This country has such an amazing reputation throughout the world. So when they said Canada, it was like, even better. So we have Canadian relatives here, born and raised here in Canada. Although they couldn't help us with immigration process per se, like the actual legal process, when my parents called them to say, hey, we are thinking of the idea of going to Canada to immigrate there. They welcomed us with open arms. We have not talked to them for like, let's say, 15. 20 years, or maybe longer. They welcomed my parents into their home. They stopped working for 18 days to show them around, tour them around, and tell them what an amazing hospitable country this one is.

And so my parents fell in love with Toronto. So I was 17 years old. They left me at home. I was spending my nights there with my best friend. We were having a great time. And my mom left me with all the food already cooked and frozen for 18 days. I have no idea how to even do anything. Like nothing at all. I was so spoiled, you know, sheltered, I guess. So at that moment, when we were starting to think about Canada, I wasn't thinking about studying in Argentina anymore, at least not through university. First of all, as I mentioned earlier, I was not a good student. I didn't care to study.

I only cared to study what I really wanted to study, but I wouldn't want to take 40 courses of things that I was not interested in to get these done that actually mattered to my career. So what did I do? I studied English instead because I thought, if I come to Canada and I cannot communicate with people, then I would have a really hard time adapting. So I spent two and a half years studying privately English in an academy, improving my English. So if you can hear that my English is really bad now, imagine this was 16 times worse back when I first started.

And I was in computer science, so I was doing some work. It was really underpaid. I was doing a project that took me a whole year or two, actually two years. I was paid $600 for those two years. But I was getting good experience. You know, I wanted to be in technology. I had a 23-year career in technology. Since I was 13 years old, up until now, and now I'm actually living my corporate job.

I am finding that LinkedIn is really what when I wake up, what I want to do is empower other people. I want to help other people. I'm really motivated. I'm not doing it for anybody else other than for myself and for the world to make a difference. So I think that my career in IT has come to an end. It has brought me to a really good place, but I think that this is potentially my second career. where it's a major shift. I've had careers within IT,

but now it's a major difference where I can really pursue something of my own for the betterment of the world. Awesome. And so I would love to find out, what was your, besides the two-year project where you earned $600, right? What was your first full-time role in IT?

And what would you say you learn, you know, having that first experience in the field? My first one must have been here in Canada. As soon as I arrived to Canada, I joined a call center. I spoke Spanish. I never thought that Spanish would be an asset as a skill, but they were looking for Spanish speakers at this call center.

Within a month, I was hired. I went to school. I went to university here in Canada. I didn't find it my thing. It was too slow. I came with a lot of technical background from Argentina. It was too slow. It was too much theory.

I wanted more practice. They switched over to a college to get more hands-run experience. And within a week, I was actually hired by the college itself. to teach what I was actually learning. And they were paying me a fortune to teach that. And at the same time, I was hired by the government of Canada to look after their Department of Veterans Affairs, basically the military.

They gave me their website. I was in charge of their website. I could publish content on their website. And besides that, I was doing gigs for other people. And then I joined an organization called CGI. CGI is a consulting organization. Right now, they have, I think, 80,000 employees, or maybe more.

Back then they had 30,000. And I was one of the first employees in this new region. This at the time, there was a lot of conflict with organizations that were trying to move some of their resources to India,

but there was a lot of backlash because in North America they didn't want to be speaking to Indians for some reason. So these organizations, CGI, they kept their, they called it near-shore talent, I guess, and they kept them in provinces

here within Canada that were much less expensive to employ people. So I was a little, on the East Coast, which is much less expensive, I was consulting for CGI. That was my first role in AAT. And would you say that was foundational for the rest of your 13 career in IT? That what you learned doing that job, do you think it really helped pave the way for the rest of it? No. I don't know. Honestly, I don't know. Within IT, I've taken so many different paths.

What I have to say is I've had some software development roles and they were great. But here's something that I learned about myself, which really was also another fork in my career. About 11 years ago, once I moved from the East Coast to Toronto, to the big city, I was working for this organization called Jonas Software, large organization. One of the things that I learned about myself happened through a town hall. You know, when you go to a town hall and the CEO and DPs, they are talking, presenting numbers, and so on, I was at this town hall, and they were revealing how many clients they had lost, the last quarter and how many they had earned. And the numbers were even. Basically, they were saying

we have lost 15 clients and we have acquired 15 clients. And I thought to myself, I was just a software developer. And I thought to myself, that's not a recipe for growth. If you lose as many as you acquire, then where are we going? So potentially, we're going to start to lose our positions, our jobs. So I thought to myself, there must be something that we can do about it. So once the downhold ended, I went to my manager and I said, have you heard what? He was like, what? I was like, well, we are not growing. Okay, so what? So a lot of people are very limited. They only look at things, okay, this is my role. These are my responsibilities and nothing outside of that catches my attention. But for me, I'm always curious. What else can I do to add value? So I said, well, I'd like to do something

about it. And he's like, it's not your role. He said, well, but maybe there's something that I can do to add value. So he said, do you have an idea? And I said, yes. What if we start reaching out to these clients who are leaving us to try to understand what pain points they have before they leave us, before they hit the point of no return. He said, well, we have a department for that, a retention department. I said, well, but clearly they're not returning anybody because they're leaving us. Can we try to do something so that we prevent them from even getting to the retention's department? He said, well, we'll need to ask for permission from a director or a VP or whatever. I said, okay, let's go try to find that permission. And I got permission to start calling these customers,

clients who we knew were upset to make a difference. To make it short, I would call them and I would say, hi, Jordan, how are you? This is Brian. I'm joining a software. I'm calling you because I understand that you are having some difficulties. I would like to understand more about that and try to make a difference and try to make a positive impact, help you remove the problem. So the first thing that they would say is, wow, I love your organization. I was like, you love my organization. Like five minutes before, I knew that you were bad-mouthing us, like you were trying to leave, you were trying to take out of clients of ours with you, I was thinking all that. I was like, you love our organization? And they were like, yes, because up until five minutes ago, no one had called me and actually

cared to do this. But the moment that you called me and you show me that I actually matter beyond or after the sale was made, it actually shows me that you guys are a different breeder, different quality. So I never made any false promises. I said, if I can fix it right away with you on the phone, I will. If not, I would take it away and I will investigate with the team and come back and bring your solution or tell you when you can expect it fixed. After every single one of these clients, after a few clients, I thought to myself, wait a second, I'm a software developer. But fixing or removing obstacles from people, I find it a lot more fulfilling than actually

watching code, compile, and having a software work nicely. I still found it amazing to be able to do that, to have those skills. But one side of me was I really enjoyed the human connection with someone else and being able to solve their problems. So that's when I went into business analysis and then I became a Scrammaster, a product owner, these different roles that liaise between people and the software development team. That I think was a major point in my career where I discovered myself as well. That's awesome. Yeah, it definitely sounds like a pivotal moment where you just said, you know what? Like I can add way more value helping people figure out how to retain people, right?

And that's actually customer experience is all about because no matter what business, you're in, there's going to be things that come up, but it's up to you to figure out how can I recover this? How can I implement service recovery and take a customer that might be a detractor and turn them into either a passive or turn them into a promoter, right? Because essentially, I don't care what business you're in. You have detractors. You have passives and you have promoters. And if they're a detractor, you got to figure out, how do I get them back to promoting us? And what you did is you actually called. You did something that nobody else did, right? And people just like you found out, respect that a lot more when you actually try to have a conversation with them.

Because what you found out was they actually didn't really have a whole lot of issues except for the fact that no one called them. Like no one had the wherewithalder to reach out. And so I love that you've done that because that is exactly, you know, what you've been doing on the LinkedIn platform, right? As you're helping people solve problems that maybe they didn't think about in a certain way. Let's talk about this LinkedIn journey. You know, I know that we kind of started very similar. You know, I had been on the platform for a while. I didn't really use it as the tool that we now use it for now.

When did you really find out that the platform had either shifted or there was just so much opportunity that you saw? What do you mean shifted? I stumbled upon this social network. I was like, it's not just for a resume. Like, there is an actual social network here. And that's what I mean by the shift because I used to only use it to go update, like if I got a promotion.

You know what I'm saying? That's what I used it for. But when I logged in last April, it was weird because people were on video. There was article. It turned into that social media platform. The shift was so big that I don't even see it as a shift. I'm like, this is a major 180 degree change where I'm like, what did I miss? Why did I not know about this before? So I'll tell you this. I went through a whole evolution of how I became active or engaged on LinkedIn. So it's been two years and four months. So almost a thousand posts. in this period of time. I started consuming, just like anybody else,

like lurking, just looking at staff but not feeling comfortable, I guess, or confident, even liking anything? Because I thought, what if my manager or my colleagues see me engaging with anybody else's content and they think that I am looking for new career opportunities? So I was very hesitant. I was like, no, I'm not even going to like,

I'm not going to comment, I'm just going to look and consume all that content. When I see that a lot of people do that same thing, I realized not everybody has the same comfort where I am at now, and I didn't have it back then, so I understand. I try to remember where I first started from. Then, once I felt comfortable putting a like, leaving a comment, actually, even leaving a comment, it took me a while to be okay with that, because I always question myself, what value do I have to add? What can I add to this conversation where everybody seems or looks like they know each other? And I am a stranger. How am I just going

to hijack this conversation or intervene here and add some value when everybody else is having a discussion already. It's already ongoing. Or if I think similarly to someone else, what's the point of me saying it if someone else has already said it? Like all these things went through my head. And believe it or not, I speak to people every single day and they say, well, what I want to say someone already said it. So what's the point of me saying? Well, if you don't say it, then I don't get to know you what you stand for. And we cannot build a relationship. Don't worry if it is redundant. if it is the same, that's totally fine. So after that, I started writing articles.

I said to myself, I want to showcase my skills, knowledge, experience, and expertise, and I want to become an authority of some sort, quote-in-quote, an authority in my domain. I wanted to show my role was a product owner. I wanted to showcase that I know how to be a product owner. But for some reason, I started to showcase other skills as well. I started to showcase my career development skills. like, hey, if you are going for an interview, think about these questions. If you're going for an interview, think of how to introduce yourself in this way.

On your resume, you should be following the ATS resume templates, for example, or you name it. Somehow, I don't know how it happened, but I steered more towards career development rather than my product owner role. And what happened, which was really interesting, is that this gentleman from South Africa, he reached out to me and he said, Brian, can you help me with my next interview? And I said, yeah, absolutely. one is it? And he said, oh, I don't have one yet. I said, oh my God, what kind of conversation are we having, right? Like, why will you reach out to me if you have an interview? I thought about that. I didn't say it to him. I said, okay, whenever you have one, let me know. I thought

he would leave and never come back again. He came back two days later and he said, Brian, I have an interview tomorrow. And I said, oh, congratulations, that's amazing. Can I help you? So his answer was, do you have any knowledge around logistics or fright forwarding? Whatever that is. I don't even know what that is. still until today. She said, I don't know anything about that. However, I know how to interview really well. At the time, I was not monetizing LinkedIn like I am now. I am providing services to people and people are paying for my services. At the time, I was not. I was just in discovery mode. I was trying to figure out who I am, what I can do for others. So we hopped on a call for 35 minutes. I found out that he was unemployed. He said to me that he had been unemployed for two months.

The truth is that he had actually been unemployed for two years. But he didn't tell me that on the call. I found out later. I managed to somehow understand what was blocking him. What was preventing him from getting the career opportunities that he was looking for? I helped him for those 35 minutes. The next day, before he left to his interview, I sent him a message and I said, I believe in you. I know that you're going to do really well.

I now boosted his confidence. And then he came out of that interview and he said, I think that the role is mine. I think that I got it. I was like, wow, that's amazing. I thought to myself, maybe you thought the same thing for the last. two months, but let's hope that you actually got it this time, right? I thought that to myself. Anyway, two weeks went by and it was the day that my dad had passed away, the anniversary of the passing of my dad, may he rest in peace. It was five-year anniversary of his passing.

And that day, I am not kidding you, I felt that something was going to change in my life. And so I reached out to this guy, this gentleman, I love this guy, reached out to him and I said, no news, good news. I mean, we had been following up every single day for those two weeks. And he said, I got the offer. I am the right hand of the CEO of a multinational. I called him right away on WhatsApp. We started chatting. We cried on the phone. He was driving. He had to pull over because he was too emotional. I was happy for him. He was happy for his new future. He's father of two. He's married. Now he can provide again to his family. And once we hang up, I thought to myself, is this a coincidence?

or do I actually have a skill? Can I actually empower other people? Can I actually make a real positive difference in other people's lives? So then I went on a quest to try to find more people who were struggling. And then I found seven more people. Immigrants, newcomers, people across the world. And every single one of them that I mentor at their very next interview, they got the offer. One interview.

That's all they would take. And then something interesting happened. My wife, and blessed to be married to her, she said, Brian, it's amazing what you're doing. I love it, very commendable, you're making a difference. She said, you're married. You have a full-time career in corporate. I was working for the government of Canada. And you have a young daughter.

You're spending all these extra time outside the office, helping these people. But these people, when you help them, they drop you and they never remember you again. What are you doing with your time? You're not mitigating it to your family, which is your most precious asset or thing. I said, yes, but I love it. I love empowering these people. And she could tell that I was really into helping them.

She said, okay, I let you keep doing it. but at least charge them for your time. And that's when I started charging for my time. And I was being respected for my time and appreciated for my time. And that took off as a business as well because now I got really good at it. The people respected and appreciated my time and they treated me like a service provider. It's a long story, but that happened as a fluke. Yeah.

People are reaching out to me. And then I ended up providing a lot of services to a lot of other people. Listen, I don't believe in fluk. So I think it happened for a reason. You know, I think it was the right place at the right time. But like you said, purpose, like you found your purpose, your calling to help people. And that's a gift, right? So don't discredit yourself because, listen, you had to put in the work in order to get,

to have them get the results. Because you didn't just provide a service. You provided a belief. And that means a lot to people, right? There are plenty of people that are going to listen to this episode that may not believe in themselves or they may be in an environment where their family or their friends don't believe in them. And you know very well that that can bring people really, really down.

And so when they get a positive influence in their life, someone that actually takes the time to listen, to understand, not just to hear them, man, does that open big doors? I will give you one example that comes to mind from one of my very first few people that I was mentoring, just exactly to this point that you're saying. There's this product owner who came from Chicago. She came from Chicago, she could not find an offer, a career opportunity. She could not get an offer for the life of her. I mentored her. And one of the questions that she was saying is, I am a non-technical product owner.

And I am a technical product owner. She is non-technical. She knows more on the business side, but not so much on the technical side. She cannot speak development, right? She was starting to doubt herself. She was like, well, what if I am not cut for this? I was like, how long have you been doing this before you came to Canada?

Oh, like 15 years. I was like, why all of a sudden, because you don't have technical skills, I guess? Why all of a sudden it matters? It's not like the world has changed all of a lot. why are you bringing yourself down or doubting yourself? And when you're at an interview and they point out that you don't have any technical skills, why don't you say and justified by saying, I actually don't need the technical skills?

I can actually perform and excel here without having technical skills because my business savvyness or my business skills are that strong. And that enables me to be able to liaise with the team or understanding the team or communicate, collaborate, so on and so forth. I remember as if it was yesterday, but this was like two and a half years ago. For her was like, oh my God, I never thought about it this way. All of a sudden I show her like, hey, you're worth it. You have something.

You've managed to get all the way to this point. Why bring yourself down and start to doubt yourself when you never did it before? Just because you change countries, it doesn't mean that you're worthless or because you don't have that skill. It doesn't mean that you're worthless. Sometimes you need someone from outside to give you a different perspective, but it really has to be someone who has your best interest at heart, someone who really can. to empower you and help you get through that burden or that hurdle or that obstacle.

100%. I really believe in that. And, you know, I think that having a coach, right? Coaches need coaches, right? I think it's super important to surround yourself with people that are going to go to bat for you and that are going to be there to pick you up maybe and really be that accountability partner. That's something that I think a lot of people in business are missing is that person that's there that can say, hey, listen, you didn't work as hard as you of and they're okay to hear that, right? Because you're not always going to be comfortable with anybody telling you that. So when you can find those mentors, I think it makes a world of difference. And so, you know, I would love to find out who would you say has been a big influence in your life?

And I know your dad was one of them. I know we've had many conversations prior to you being on the show. If it is dad, I would love to just have you share with the audience what he meant to you and some of the things that he taught you that you will hold near and dear for the rest of your life. So it's a very special time now because Father's Day is coming up, at least in North America, this coming Sunday. And I am a dad myself of two young, beautiful kids. My dad and my mom, both of them, just amazing. I had such an amazing childhood. I attributed to my parents and to my grandparents for raising me with amazing values, what I consider amazing values.

Just the fact that my dad always told me in this stack with me. He used to say to me, you're proud of your journey. And when you look back, don't take shortcuts. Be proud of your journey. When you look back, make sure that you're proud of every single step that you do. For me, that stayed with me, that guides me. It's like my guiding principle. Anything that I do cannot be to take advantage of other people.

It cannot be hiding anything. I have to be transparent. I have to have integrity. And that's why on LinkedIn, I am so transparent about anything that I do because the last thing that I want is people to say, ah, this guy is actually helping, but really behind the scenes, he's making a lot of money. No, wait a second.

let me tell you, I am making a lot of money. I'm telling you that I'm making a lot of money. But that doesn't mean that the things that I do, I don't do them from my heart. I put my heart and soul into every single thing that I do. But I want you guys that I'm making money. Why? For two reasons.

The first one is for the reason that I just described, I wanted to know that I'm transparent, I have integrity, I wanted to know that the trust that you deposit in me, I wanted to know what I'm doing, right? And the second one is, I want to inspire you. I wanted to know that if I can do it, and I'm a regular guy, have anything special. I'm not like an astronaut, you know, like there are only five astronauts

managed to make it to the moon. I am a regular guy like anybody else, just with really a lot of integrity and high values. And I am a hard work and I love working and I love helping others. But if I can do it, if I can live better, because I'm pushing myself, I want you to know that you can do it too. So in one way, I try to empower, but I also try to inspire people by sharing how well I am doing. It never comes from a place of bragging. It's really like appreciate things however they want. From my side, it's about, I want to show you what you can achieve it as well. If I manage to achieve it, just by putting in the time and the effort and being consistent

and showing up every single day and empowering others and building relationships, and pushing myself to post even when I don't feel like it or when I have nothing to say and I try to add value, all these different things add to my family living a better present and me not feeling so anxious about this whole pandemic. And I had been saying for a long time, hey, everyone, start to have a side gig, start to have some side income. Because if anything were to happen, you know, you can have something to fall back on. But a lot of people just say, oh, great for you, good for you. Most people didn't do anything.

Only a handful did something about it. And those people feel good now. And everybody else is like, can you please teach me how to monetize? Well, now that you are desperate about it, nobody would want to do business with you. So one of the reasons why LinkedIn has worked really well for me is because, I started doing this when I didn't need to make this money because I wasn't chasing people. So if I saw that there was someone that could benefit from my service, from my skills, knowledge, experience, or expertise, I would present what I thought I could do to add value to their professional career or personal life.

But if they chose not to go with me, no problem. The last thing I will be doing is chasing someone for money, especially when I don't need it. So I would give them time and I have an interesting example about this, which is two, people a couple of weeks ago came to me for resume services. I think I believe wholeheartedly that I am the most expensive resume writer on the entire platform. So it charged $3,500 U.S. for a resume to mentor someone how to write their own resumes. Two people came to me on the exact same day. The interesting thing about this is one of them I had met 13 months before that day and the other one I had met 13 days prior to that day. And both of them became ready on the same

day and said, we are ready, we want to do this with you, separately. I mean, they didn't know each other, but they came on the exact same day. So the one who had been around for 13 months, I never chased her, I never looked for her, I never pressured her, I never intimidated her because she didn't want my services. I let people take their sweet time, however long you need, if you don't need me, great, amazing, because you will end up saving money. But if you do end up meeting me, I am here for you anytime. Don't worry. I think that really helped me. And I didn't just, just fall asleep on my laurels when I was doing well corporate-wise. I pushed myself to build something up, a stack gig, to develop some new skills,

and to make sure that I could fall back on something of my own, should there be a pandemic. Well, I can tell you why she came back. It's because you're consistent. You show up the exact same yesterday as you're going to show up tomorrow, right? And when people can see that, that 13-month journey, guess what? She was watching. She was watching and paying attention to see if you're the person 13 months ago that you were today. And like you said, everybody has their own pace.

Sometimes they may not be able to make that investment in themselves at that time. But now she was ready. You proved it to her over and over again through your content. And then she was ready to do business. The other person, it just took them a little bit shorter because maybe they already had the money, but they wanted to see who you are and make sure you're showing up consistently. It's so interesting because I actually have people do that all the time. They're like, hey, I've been phoned you for six.

months and I want to find out if you can help me with this. And I'm like, really, you never liked, you never engaged, you never did anything. And all of a sudden, you're coming out and you're ready to do business, right? Because people do business with people that they like, they know, and they trust. And that's exactly what you did. Absolutely. I have the exact same experience all the time. I've been following you for a year. I've never seen you even like anything that I post. What do you mean for a year? Like, I've been calling people out like all the time. Like, engage. let your personalities shine so that people get to know you. There's some gold here, but I'm not talking just about financial gold.

You can grow both professionally and personally. I mean, I've grown the most since my days on LinkedIn. Since two years and four months ago, I've rediscovered myself to the point that I am ready to live corporate. This is how major growth this has happened for me. And on top of that, there's financial freedom or financial success or whatever you want to call it, which is, for me. me that's a bonus. But what happens internally as a person, growth, oh my God, I cannot even

put a price on that. And whatever success, if you will, I have financially, I personally believe that I'm not even scratching off the surface. I didn't treat this as a business. I treated it as a means to help other people. But of course, I want to be appreciated and I want to be compensated for my skills, knowledge, experience, and expertise fairly. So that's why I am expensive. But I don't believe that I am scratching off the surface yet. So, in the meantime, I am empowering a lot more people, bringing them closer to me, sharing all my skills, so that they can start developing businesses of their own. So it's really interesting. Today I got actually a message from one of my clients. She started working with me a few months ago. When she invested in

herself, she paid me, but she invested in herself. I gave her all my videos. And today she sent me a message saying, I got my first client and I could not be happier for her. And she needed time. She needed flexibility to be able to pay me and I because I don't do this as a business. I do it because I truly care to help. I can give you all the flexibility in the world. I don't care. Some people say to me, I pay you when I get employed. Other people say, can I pay you over 12 months? Other people say, can I pay you over 24 months? Whatever, we'll figure it out. I build all these relationships based on trust every single time. Love that. Well, listen, this has been a fantastic conversation. It's been nice getting to know a little bit more about you. I know we've been connected for quite a while.

So I would love it if we can just end on some value. And then I want to give you the opportunity to tell people the best place to reach out. Give me your website. Listen, there's going to be a lot of people that hear this. They can go follow you. They can check out your character. And then if they choose to do business, they'll do business with you. So let's first start off with this.

Anybody that's listening that may be as new on LinkedIn, what would you say the top three things that they need to do to get started on the journey of, you know, building a network, creating a brand for themselves. and then potentially even monetizing the platform. Thank you for asking that. So the first thing that I will ask you to do, my advice to you is be the exact same person that you are offline, online.

Like you should not have a mask or a facade where you put on this mask to try to be liked online. Be the exact same person, stand for the exact same values. Just be truthful to yourself. Be genuine with every single thing that you do, online and offline. One of the things that I hear all the time is, Brian, you're the exact same person online and offline. I was like, yeah, why am I going to have two different personalities?

So when I go out for coffee with someone or lunch, you're the exact same person. Generous, caring, kind, you share all your knowledge. Yeah, I'm the exact same person. I've been like that since I was five years old. It's not like I just activated something for LinkedIn. That's the first one. The second one is build relationships. Build relationships with people who truly care for your well-being,

for people who have your best interest at heart. There will be times where you will find people that you thought you knew and you actually will be disappointed. It happens. It happens in real life and LinkedIn is real life as well. And be okay with that. It happens. And keep on exploring, keep on meeting new people. And only stay with those close to you that, or allow them to stay close to you

if they truly have your best interest at heart. If you're growing, personally especially and professionally, if you're growing, then it means that that person, It's healthy. It's a healthy relationship for you. The third one that I will say is build trust, build trust with anybody and give. And so here's one phrase that I say all the time, which is give, give, give. And when you think that you're done giving, give again. Every single time that you have the opportunity to give, give.

If you're organizing a webinar and there are people who cannot afford you, like bring them in anyway. If you have knowledge that you can share with others, don't hold people back. I will tell briefly that the moment that I gave the most generous thing on LinkedIn was when I gave away my ATS resume template that I used to charge $3,000 for. People still pay me now, $3,500 for it. But when I gave it away, because I realized, oh, my God, people cannot even make it to the interviews. And I have this gold in my hands.

And I'm holding on to it because I've made so much money from it. Now, when I put it away and I gave it away, I grew my account from 55,000 followers to 93,000 in one week and my post got 4.7 million views. That was a small account, 55,000 followers only. And this was just because I gave from my heart. If you have something that can bring the world to a better place and help people get back on their feet, just give their way. God will provide in some other way. Don't worry about that. And just be consistent, just like you were saying, Jordan. Be consistent. Like, seriously, post twice a day. My advice, at least post twice a day. not post 10 times a day, but two, three, four times a day maximum.

Two for sure. Be consistent. Show up every single day. And even when you don't feel like it, show up again every single day and keep on building your account. And I will tell you that numbers speak. And I used to be one of those people who said, oh, why do you need so many followers? What for?

Or why so many connections or why do you talk about views or these or that? The truth is, people are looking at this and they will do business with you if you're a big deal. If you have that many followers, people will want to do it. business with you and they will want to be associated with you and they will want to do partnerships with you. So build yourselves up, but don't hack your way through. All these things about like and comment and follow and say that you're open for connections or whatever, those are just hacks, but they don't really show who you are, what you stand for, what you have to offer. If you really want to grow, grow organically. Don't join a pod. Just grow by delivering value,

not by hacking your way through to make a big account. It doesn't really add any value to anyone, not even to yourself. Love it, my friend. Well, those are some awesome tips, and I know people that are listening are going to get a lot of value from that. So let's give people some context on the best places to find you. I know, of course, LinkedIn is one of those places. Where else can they find you, maybe share your website and anything else you want to share? So on LinkedIn for sure, and for everybody to know, my profile is an open profile.

So anyone can message me. If you send me a connection request, I might not see it. I am maxed out. I have 30,000 connections. already so I cannot accept any new ones unless someone disconnects for me or I disconnect from someone. So you can send me a private message on LinkedIn without connecting with me. Then I have three websites. One of them is interview sniper. So interview sniper. There it is all about career related stuff. I can help with your resumes and I can help

you crack those interviews if you're having a really hard time. And my second one is immigration sniper. If you are thinking or interested in exploring your opportunities to immigrate to Canada, like my family has. And just so you know, my parents were 45 years old when they immigrated to Canada. So it's never too late to immigrate to an amazing country. My website is ImmigrationSniper.com. So interview sniper, immigration sniper. And then the last one, monetize.com.

So it's like monetize, but with a D, M-O-N-D-E-T-I-Z-E.com. And on that one, I share, I teach how to monetize LinkedIn. I give my recipe step by step on how to monetize LinkedIn. There is a 90-minute video that you can watch on the homepage, and there are other videos that you can watch throughout. There's probably two and a half or three-hour videos that you can watch and learn how I've been able to make the most out of LinkedIn and build this as a business, as a side business.

So those are the three websites I would say you should check out. Awesome. Well, hey, listen, I really appreciate your time coming on the show. Good luck with everything when it comes to LinkedIn. Congrats on being able to leave your corporate role. to do what you're passionate about full-time because I think in life, that's what it's all about, right? Find your passion and put all your eggs in that basket because for one, you're going to be the happiest, right? And for two, you're going to be happy while you're making an income and a life for your family. So I appreciate you taking the time. I know we'll be staying in contact here.

Thank you so much. I appreciate it, Gerald.