Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Sydney Wong On The Keys to Becoming a Lean Startup EP 42

Episode Date: July 6, 2021

Have you ever wondered what the keys to becoming a lean startup are? Entrepreneur Sydney Wong discovered that while on a one-way ticket to San Francisco. From that experience, she decided to launch VenturX in Montreal to help startups achieve funding and overall success. Like this? Please subscribe and join me on my new platform for personal development: https://passionstruck.com/ Thank you for listening to the Passion Struck podcast. Sydney Wong's Journey to Creating VenturX In this powerful Passion Struck Podcast Episode, John R. Miles and Sydney Wong discuss her journey from McGill University to becoming a financial analyst to now leading a startup accelerator in Montreal, CA. We go into why balance, your self-narrative, and routine is so vital in becoming a lean startup. Sydney met startups at Montreal events that needed help with funding and grants; she offered to write business plans. In 2016, she launched a gamified business plan writing application. Most people didn't complete "Product Validation" Level 3 (out of 8 levels) during the beta. That was the biggest failure for startups, so she grouped and built out this application. She broadened the research to understand the success metrics that investors, government grantors, and banks are looking for when funding startups. The VenturX metrics were reverse-engineered to provide quality startups the best chances for funding and success. The rest is history!!! New Interviews with the World's GREATEST high achievers will be posted every Tuesday with a Momentum Friday inspirational message! Keys to Becoming a Lean Startup Show Notes Attending McGill University How she found her passion One way ticket to San Francisco that changed Sydney's life Understanding appetite for risk Creating the startup hub in Montreal How to work on your inner self The importance of learning from failure The Concept of balance How you pace yourself Her morning routine What she removed from her life Lightning round of questions Sydney Wong Quotes "You are always a product of your environment." "If you want a happy life, you need to have a series of happy days." "Your journey as an Entrepreneur is as if writing a storybook." ENGAGE SYDNEY WONG Sydney Wong founded VenturX to tackle the problem that 90% of startups fail in their first year. We provide an innovative solution to guide startups to launch and connect to funding. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydneywong1/ Website: https://venturx.ca/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/venturx.ca/   ENGAGE WITH JOHN R. MILES * Subscribe to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnRMiles * Leave a comment, 5-star rating (please!) * Support me: https://johnrmiles.com * Twitter: https://twitter.com/Milesjohnr * Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Johnrmiles.c0m​. * Medium: https://medium.com/@JohnRMiles​ * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/john_r_miles JOHN R. MILES * https://johnrmiles.com/my-story/ * Guides: https://johnrmiles.com/blog/ * Coaching: https://passionstruck.com/coaching/ * Speaking: https://johnrmiles.com/speaking-business-transformation/ * Gear: https://www.zazzle.com/store/passion_struck   PASSION STRUCK *Subscribe to Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-passion-struck-podcast/id1553279283 *Website: https://passionstruck.com/ *About: https://passionstruck.com/about-passionstruck-johnrmiles/ *Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passion_struck_podcast *LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/passionstruck *Blog: https://passionstruck.com/blog/  

I've been to a thousand and one different startup networking events, but there was this one where I went to, and it was just a regular Chamber of Commerce event that everyone has in different cities. So, is that the Chamber of Commerce here in Montreal? And when I was telling them about what I was doing, because they always asked, like, what are you doing? Because I'm telling them what my product does, what Venturex does, how I started my angel fund, Venturex Capital, what we invest in, and all of these things. They were very polite, they were very interested.

You can tell that they were polite to each other all the time, but they were surprised by my answer, because everyone else was in corporate and had like very specific title in their business card and everything, and I used to have those things too, but they didn't really ask the same kinds of follow-up questions as they did to me because I stood out because I was different from everyone else in the whole building. And they didn't know why. They still don't know why I chose this path,

even though I told them the story, because it was something that was so far away from their usual environment, you know? And that was great for me, because then I got to see something different, too. I got to see people who were different from me on a day-to-day basis and I think that's great. Welcome visionaries, creators, innovators, entrepreneurs, leaders and growth seekers of all types, two of the Passion Struck podcast. Hi, I'm John Miles, a peak performance coach,

multi industry CEO, Navy veteran and entrepreneur on a mission to make passion go viral for millions worldwide. In each week I do so by sharing with you an inspirational message and interviewing eye achievers from all walks of life who unlock their secrets and lessons to become an action-struck. The purpose of our show is to serve you the listener by giving you tips, tasks, and activities. You can use to achieve peak performance and for two, a passion-driven life, you have always wanted to have. Now, let's become PassionStruck.

Welcome to episode 42 of the PassionStruck Podcast, and today I am so excited to have Sydney Wong on the show. But before I get into that, I wanted to start the show off with a quote by Peter Drucker, who said, the entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it and exploits it as an opportunity. And just like Aaron said,

you have to see failure as a beginning and the middle. But you can never entertain it as the end. Both of those quotes are so fitting for today's episode because Sydney and I are gonna talk about her path from going to McGill University to giving her masters degree in Paris to then taking a one-way trip to San Francisco and what that adventure meant to her

and how it completely changed her life. We're gonna bring you into what she is doing in Canada to create an entrepreneur ecosystem so that she can cultivate startups using the tricks and trades that she learned during her time in San Francisco. So much information here today to unpack, but let me tell you a little bit more about our guests. Sydney Wong is an author and entrepreneur who enjoys helping others by giving life advice and self-agreement tips. Sydney also enjoys learning as much as she can about how to be productive and have a balance life. As she believes that this is the key to being successful.

Brittany has come out with how to have a good day where she writes under the pen name, David Adams, to give her best tips and tricks on how to increase individual well-being whilst we work in the lockdown and beyond. I am so excited for you to hear this episode today. Now, let's become PassionStruck. Hi, thank you so much for joining today's episode of the PassionStruck Podcast. I am just excited to have Sydney Wong,

the founder and CEO of Venturex with me here today. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Well, Sydney, as we were talking beforehand, I always like to give the listeners and viewers kind of some background of what led you into what you're doing today. And I thought maybe a good starting point would be,

many people might not be familiar with McGill University in Montreal and it's actually has a fantastic global reputation. What led you there and of all the universities you could pick, what made you want to go to McGill? Yeah, so that's a great question. It was actually the only Canadian university I applied to, even though I am Canadian, that is my only citizenship.

So when I was 17 and applying to different universities, I'm originally born in Victoria, BC, and I'm the first person in my family that is actually born here. So that meant a lot to any immigrant family, of course, but when you have their first child being born in a new country, and it makes kind of that builds that seed for everyone else to either immigrate over or

inspires them to raise their families here and everything. So Miguel meant a lot to us and the other universities which were in the U.S. so all the different Ivy League schools I have also applied to. I was the first one in my high school to get a scout to come all the way to my small town in Victoria, BC and got interviewed at Harvard. So they sent a scout to me, and it was my first interview because I was a teenager, and I was in my principal's office. I was so nervous because he asked me only questions I didn't know had nothing to do with academics. He only asked me about my family's financial history, and all these things that

teenagers normally wouldn't know because he was concerned that there were a lot of students he said that came from other countries and they couldn't afford the international student rate and then they would drop out and so and so they had all of these different kinds of concerns that really had nothing to do with the application itself. It was very unprepared for this. And then eventually I got a scholarship to go to McGill. I actually ended up with four scholarships to go to McGill. So that was a great sign that that's where I should be and I loved it. I absolutely loved it. It was so different than the rest of Canada because McGill is one of the English universities in a French province because it is in Quebec but it is a

Scottish heritage university. So we have like people playing bagpipes that are ceremonies and everything. And yeah, it's one of the oldest universities. And what's very unique about it too, it's right in downtown. So wherever your biggest mall is in your cities, our school is two blocks away. So if you can imagine what that's like in your city, it means a lot that you don't have to go all around in order to go to school and things are really catered for students there. There's about like 30,000 students that attend McGill, mostly in undergrad. And then when I did my masters in France, it was at a school called

ESEC. They knew I came from McGill and they said that if I came from McGill, then you're going to find our school in France very easy. Well, that tells you something right there. And had you spoken French before, you went to a girl and then traveled to France for your masters or is that something you had to pick up? Yeah, so in Canada, we all have to take a French, it's different in every province. So in my province, we have to take French

for at least one year, which is not enough. So you don't really learn very much in one year, but I think I took it for three years. Yeah, I took it for three years in high school. And then I went to French camp. So French camp is this thing that that's not really what it's called, but we all called it French camp. It's called the Explore program. So this thing that is paid for by the government. So if you are from an angle from background, you can go to French camp in Quebec and you're there for like a whole summer and you like live at the school

and you don't speak English for the entire summer regardless of your level. It's very intensive. And then you get to go and field trips too. It's really fun. So the same thing happens with the other way around in order to make students more bilingual and allow them to have these kinds

of prepared skills for life, like entrepreneurship, for example. Right. And then I went to France. So when I went to France, every international student had to be in a French as a second language course, and they're graded, sorry, they're assessed, and then they're put into a certain level, and then they're graded within the level for the year. So they will always kind of support and adjust you kind of throughout the system. But all of my classes at McGill are English because McGill is an English University. Well, before the show, we were talking, and I mentioned to you that one of my son's good friends is graduating from McGill this year, and one of the things she mentioned about

it was that it had such a global feel like you're talking about that she really loved it because she got to have all these cultural differences or aspects that you probably would not have gotten at another university. That's very true. It's the only time in your life you get to live in residence, you get to live six seconds away from somebody from another country immediately and have these experiences together too and be able to kind of navigate through your student life and your experiences in all the same way, regardless of where you're from. So I think something like over 50% of all the international student bodies

were from the US because to them it was actually cheaper to pay international fees at our universities than to go to their state universities, which I found very surprising. Well, it's interesting for me because I have a son who's 23 and has come out of getting a business degree with a specialization in marketing. And I've just been observing, especially his time, right now, post-COVID, of what the job market is like and also observing for these young teacher leaders,

how different the world is once they get out of school, then maybe they thought it was going to be. And I think for you, what you're doing today wasn't what you necessarily were planning to do when you went to McGill. Can you talk about your earlier career and what you thought your aspirations were? Because I think so many people are finding,

maybe they've thought they're gonna be one thing and then they end up reinventing or finding their passion in a different area So I think that would be good background. Yeah, I think it's the kind of saying that is like if you want to make God laugh tell him your plan, right? So when when we were at when we were in university there weren't entrepreneurship classes at the time just just because like, and even now, it's actually very difficult, because I'm one of the few people who, as an entrepreneur, went back to teach in universities, because there actually aren't a lot of people who came from entrepreneurship who would want to teach it, and then could, and all of these things I can't kind of come with, you know,

it's hard to create that, to go back into that kind of structured system in that way. It's not accommodated for that. And so students didn't have the benefit of learning entrepreneurship and all of the possibilities that came with it when we were studying. So we were trained to be incorporate. So then of course we naturally went those routes. I interestingly enough, this is like because we're in it right now. I also graduated around the time of the recession.

So it was a bad time to graduate. And then there was, you know, just during the crisis time, the housing market crisis and all of those things that affected all new grads at that time too, because there were only certain industries that were thriving. So if you were in marketing and sales

and that, you were usually put into those two year programs. This is in Canada. So you usually put into those two-year programs, this is in Canada. So you usually put into these two-year programs in either oil or tech, because those are the industries that were hiring us. And so eventually I did go into marketing and tech, and instead, I didn't want to move all the way to where the oil rigs are because that is where the companies were. You had to move to those parts of the country for those kinds of jobs at the time, because that's what was there if you wanted to stay in your industry, if you wanted to practice what you've been learning for the past four years. And then also the other thing was that I was the only chosen intern at my old

firm, which was Ogobian Mathers. So that was the biggest advertising firm in the world, worth some something like $60 billion at the time, and they were the only ones hiring. So they told me this on my first week that I was chosen out of 500 candidates in Canada. It could, it didn't really have a lot of positions opening during those times during the times that I was studying, but what is really important and I do try to be very mindful of this when I have students that are working at my company to understand, you know, the experiences that they're getting now really does affect so much of what they're going to go into and the different opportunities that are going to open up for them later on. So we're so happy that we've had two of our

developers that were students at the time go all the way to Silicon Valley for their future jobs and we wrote them recommendation letters and, you know, we also, my CTO and I both lived lived there too so we do follow those kinds of structures and want to help them along with their you know student career as well because we didn't get the same kinds of opportunities so we want to be those creators of those opportunities for other people. to create lead-in to this next chapter of your life. So is I have read and researched your background. You decided to do something pretty amazing. You decided to buy a one-way ticket to San Francisco, and I want you to tell the audience about that experience and why you ended up taking it because, wow, what a, not something that everyone does every day of the week

completely changed their life like that. Yeah, absolutely. I feel like at the end of your life, you regret the risks that you didn't take, not the ones that you did take. And so, a head of friend who I met in Silicon Valley a while ago, and I met him through an app called Coach Surfing. And so, he was taking me around to different places and it was really cool. And then, yeah, we were talking later on that I was just finishing my consulting position

because I was working on a project for marketing automation and yeah, and so I really wanted to kind of see what the next steps were. He said if I was very interested in learning more about tech and startup than I needed to move down to the valley. So I did, I actually bought a one-way ticket and I moved in with him. And then I got to learn a lot about different startups and investors and how things worked in a very different world. It was like a whole new world.

Everything seemed possible and everything seemed available and accessible. It was so interesting to kind of see that energy and see that innovation and see that creativity happening in front of you all the time. And the problem that I ended up wanting to solve so much was how can I help these startups get funding? Because I wanted to be able to help things become easier, more transparent, more meritocracy-based, and analytical, and all of these things that were not

currently there. A lot of the industry was still very much a know-how or very informal, or those kinds of things where you went to Stanford with the future investor kind of a thing. And it's not bringing in enough innovation and diversity and opportunities for all of these really hardworking startups. So that was the problem that I wanted to solve and that is actually how I built Venturex, which is a platform that connects startups

and investors at the seed stage and through their analytics, so through their key performance indicators. Well, that's great. And one of the reasons I actually founded PassionStruck is because I find fewer and fewer people are willing to take the risk to become an entrepreneur or to really go after what they aspire to do. And as I've done my research, the rate of entrepreneurship in almost all Western countries has been on a steep decline for the past few plus decades.

And I call it that it's three contagions that are happening here combined. One is the contagion of showmanship. I say it's the contagion of comfort and the last one is apathy or indifference, which is the exact opposite of following your passion. And I'm based on what you're seeing haven't been in Silicon Valley and now, and on other parts of the world, have you seen a similar pattern? Yeah, I think that you know, you are always a product of your environment. So I feel like

that's not, maybe that's not always true, but it is a big part of it to be true. So why do children of entrepreneurs tend to have more appetite for risk? Why do they tend to be more in line with the kind of entrepreneurial spirit and you know why are they good at calculating risk in a certain way, or factors or cost benefits, or those kinds of things, is because they were used to it growing up. You are a factor, you are a product of your environment. And then, in the same way, if you are in a very conservative place and in a place where conservatism is highly praised

and risk is highly thought of as a very bad thing, then you're less likely to go through entrepreneurial paths, right? So when we were in school and there was no entrepreneurship program or class at that particular time, nobody really went through that path. I think I knew one person in all of business school who did. But not having the foundation to calculate your break even,

not having the foundation to understand your different startup-up costs and your milestones and these kinds of things, because you learn things differently in school when you're being trained to be another corporate future titan of some kind. And so they don't have the same mindset and who your round does really dictate

what kind of a mindset you have. So those calls that you were talking about, you know, are the people around you, people who have those certain things, and if so, can you prove it? Is there any evidence that's true? Or they just things that sound super nice and awesome. So that's that's great too. But it's very it's very evident based, you know, who has had done some entrepreneurial tendency activities in the past and who hasn't and how you associate with them and your immediate reactions to them. An example that I can give you is it was I've been to, you know, a thousand and one different

start-up networking events, but there was this one where I went to and it was just a regular a chamber of commerce event that everyone has in different cities. So it was at the Chamber of commerce here in Montreal? And when I was telling them about, you know, what I was doing, because they always asked, like, what are you doing? So, I'm telling them what my product does, what Venturex does, how I started my angel fund,

Venturex capital, you know, what we invest in, and all of these things. They were very polite, they were very interested. You can tell that they were polite to each other all the time. But they were surprised by my answer, because everyone else was in corporate and had like very specific title in their on their business card and everything. And I used to have those things too. But they didn't really ask the same kinds of follow-up questions as they did to me because I stood out because I was different from everyone else in the whole building and they didn't know why.

They still don't know why I chose this path even though I told them the story because it was something that was so far away from their usual environment, you know, and that was great for me because then I got to see something different too. I got to see people who were different from me on a day-to-day basis and I think that's great. That is great. Well, I live as we talked in the Tampa Bay area, and probably not someplace still you would think of a lot of startups happening. I can tell you a decade ago, it was pretty nascent, but a couple things have happened about one we have, the McDill Air Force Base, and so we have special operations command and SENTCOM there. And they have started a program for so com called softworks where instead of building products which may be classified

in their hole, they're able to bid out parts of it, the different vendors in an unclassified way. And this way they can get around the whole procurement method that you typically have to take in the military, which can take a very long time. And so as a result of that, one thing, more and more companies started coming to the area so that they could support those two major military commands. But then, similar, I think, to your concept, a number of years ago, funding source was launched called Florida Funders. And what they were trying to do was be the funding mechanism that helped start up get their initial funding. And they do it in a way where some of it comes from floor to funders and they're part of

money that they have and they fund out of there, but they also allow, I think it's registered or authenticated investors to come in and they can bring their money into any of the deals that they do as well. And they do it not only in Tampa, but throughout the entire state. And then we had another organization that was formed, and a poet existing with floor funders, and they're now separate called Synapse. And what Synapse was trying to do was be that connector for an entrepreneur to have all its different ecosystems around it.

And so what we have seen over the past five years, and especially with the migration of people coming from the Midwest and Northeast, coming down to Tampa now, is just a booming now of our startup culture here, which is great to see. And I'm wondering if that's kind of the same methodology you use with venture apps.

Yeah, so definitely most startups that I have seen have grown in places like hubs. So like what you're talking about, like a hub, like a support, right? And we have a lot of partnerships with different kinds of hubs for sure, including a startup bride in Silicon Valley, and a lot of the ones here as well as internationally. So having that kind of attraction to these hubs would provide a lot of support. What is important is the quality of the support that you are receiving.

So for example, if I were doing a startup that is using both technology and AI in space, then probably being close to one of those space stations would be something that is highly, highly favorable, right? And then you've got to weigh the pros and cons of, okay, well, what if there is another partner that is further away that I also need to be in contact with and need, you know, constant support going to their physical centers or whichever it is that I need to be in

touch with or be there and how often. And so things will always be evolving and changing. And you could be going from hub to hub just depending on what your current needs are. But I would just always say that when it comes to knowing what's the right place for you and it has to do with what your needs are right now, but also in the next 12 months, the next 18 months. Okay.

And I want to go back to our discussion before we got here. You brought up something that I think is very common. And that is people see themselves from, I always say, it's who their parents were, what zip code they came from, what the social economic environment was around them that influences what they feel inside, they're capable of achieving. And that's where, you know, a lot of our belief system comes from. What do you think is the problem that people have with self-narrative? And what is some advice that you could give the listeners if they're struggling with this on how

they can kind of work on their inner inner self and maybe some steps that they could take to do so? Yeah, that's a great question. So of course, thinking a lot of what happened in the past year, we've all been really inside of our heads because we've been all really inside of our homes, right? And so all of that self-narrative is usually more negative than it is positive, especially when you're trying to find motivation to do your project, whether it's your side gig or your remote work, or work as an entrepreneur every single day.

It's getting harder and harder for sure to find that because your foundation, usually it is either your peer group, your community, which part of the city you were raised in or the parents that you had or the guardians that you had, it seeps in whether it's going to be positive or negative and it highly influences how you are now, whether or not it's a conscious thing. It can come into your dreams or you're subconscious,

but it triggers your energy level. It triggers your mental mindset, and it triggers how high you're really raising your potential, whether it's gonna be low potential, or whether it's gonna be aspiring, and you think that one day you're gonna be, like Elon Musk's personal close friend, you know? Whichever level you think that you're going to be like Elon Musk's personal close friend, you know? Whichever level you think that you're going to be is already something that is conditioned

in you. It is something, of course, you can definitely work on. In my theory, I always think that if you want to have a happy life, you have a series of happy days. And so what I did during the first quarantine, and this is my advice, is that I wrote a book called How to Have a Good Day. It is under a pen name so it is not under my real name. So how to have a good day, I'm going to send the link over to you. And it's a really short, quick read. It's written in the kind of like a Tim Ferrist style where you can go back and forth to the book when you are looking

for inspiration or advice or motivation or just productivity tips for whatever it is you need that day. And it really does help people who are remote working, looking for a bit more inspiration or boost or people that are entrepreneurs. Because of course, being an entrepreneur for so long myself, I did write it with thinking about those people in mind because I talk to them every day. Okay, well for you, you take this big step of going to San Francisco. What

do you think was that the step or was it something that happened in San Francisco that really made your career take off and switched your direction? Yeah. So definitely it was something that happened in San Francisco. So when I went to San Francisco, I was working for a wealth management firm. So I was a, it was in Toronto, so that I was working remotely. So I was working for a wealth management firm. The IRS didn't really believe me. They're like, why are you coming here? Take it all these American jobs that I'm like, I'm not, don't have any papers to do that. So, but when I got there, I got to actually meet all of the people that were doing startups, all the people that were starting new projects. Even people that were in companies and they had the flexibility and the opportunity to

work on a big project that then became a startup that was acquired by that company or partner with that company. So everyone had these flexibility kinds of opportunities to be creative and to be innovative and to really challenge what is happening in front of them, you know. And so those were the kinds of things that really inspired me. I wanted to see more of this in all the different places that I've ever lived and all the places that anyone is struggling at right now just to be like, there is a solution to what you're going through and somebody's going to find it or you're going to be able to find it and here are different ways that we can help you do so. Yeah and during that time was there

a relationship you developed or potentially a mentor you met that helped you on this experience or was it really you doing it by yourself? A lot of it I felt like I was doing it by myself I think that if I was there longer and the US visa didn't ask me to leave then I would have probably have found someone specific. Well, one of the examples that I have is just kind of drawing inspiration from all the different people that you met. So one of the first people that I met when I was there was

a CEO and founder of couch surfing. So it's a 10 million person platform at the time where people kind of do Airbnb, but it's free. And they are also there. So you get to do in all these different countries, I've done it myself, but as a surfer and as a host, I thought it was really fun. So one of the first things that he taught me was

you can always learn something from someone when you're here. And that was really interesting because it was teaching you to always stay open-minded, even if you disagree with the person in front of you, right? Find out why, find out what's their trigger, learn from what their experience is or knowledge or anything like that. And the more kinds of questions that you ask,

people are very willing to stop everything they're doing, to help you and answer you and do that. Like people, we're very late for work when they're trying to help me figure out how to use the subway system. I didn't know you had to use exact coins. That seems like the most backwards 80s thing possible. Why should I be bringing exact coins all the time? And then you had to use all these different machines. They were like, it really far away from each other. So it was these kind of things that

really got me to understand, okay, these people are not really just saying that they're open and helpful and friendly. They're showing me by doing all of these people are not really just saying that they're open and helpful and friendly. They're showing me by doing all of these things, and there's more that I can learn from asking more questions, from meeting more people, and they're not holding me accountable for anything in return or anything specific. It was just something that was part of the culture,

was part of the environment. What's interesting you bring that up because most entrepreneurs I've been around are happy to share their lessons, because I think all of us who have been one have been through the mud a few times along the way. You're not failing, to me, you're not pushing forward, as one of the quotes that I started this episode with says,

failure is gonna be something that you have at the beginning at the middle, but you can't let it define your end. I thought that was a great quote because we learn so much by the failures along the way. Is there a failure you had that you learned from and then it's allowed you to grow? Oh, there's so many. So I am one of the one of the things that happened that really surprised people and I talked about this on a couple of other podcasts too was that so for for my company, it's very rare in general, actually, in startup to publicly say I turned down funding because that seems backwards and strange. And it seems like, oh, it wasn't this the goal the whole time.

So I did. I turned down my series of funding. I actually didn't open around a funding. They just happened to be offered at the same time. So I turned down over $4 dollars of funding at Seed Round. And these were from investors that I knew here in Canada. And then also what happened was that if I had taken the money and at the time I was heavily criticized by everyone to not take any of their money, right? Because it seems crazy to be turning down that kind of money and to be turning down anything, to be turning

down opportunities in general when you're in such an early stage, sounds absolutely absurd. But at the end of the day, I've got to see that these were not the right investors as a fit for me. Your journey as an entrepreneur is like writing a storybook where different characters come into your book or into your life at a very specific time and they have certain reasons to be there, right? There's reasons why people come into your life and there's reasons why they're not in your life anymore. And investors are the same way. You do want to make sure that the timing is right. You want to make sure that your product is what they're expecting. You want to make sure that your vision is same as their vision as well. You know, what happens

when you do take this and what will the stakes be, what will the results be, what will the vision be, and will it be different than what you've initiated before? So these were the kinds of things that I got to learn and I was glad that I didn't end up taking the money. I feel like I would have been in a much more different kind of whirlwind if I did, but at the time definitely there wasn't anybody that didn't heavily criticize me for not taking taking their funding. Did you know that Forbes magazine recently cited that 70% of individuals who do personal development mastermind, and one-on-one coaching, benefited from better work performance, increased communication skills, and overall better relationships.

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I understand exactly where you're coming from because I've seen and been a part of a number of startups where they have taken money, but their vision and those people who invested in them were completely different. And so then they get into these situations where they're almost fighting their board, so to speak, on vision of where the company is going. And that can be very painful, as you've said. And I really believe in the concept of the law of attraction. I recently did a podcast on it.

And I think we put out in the universe what we need. And if you listen to that, then the timing will allow those things that you need to come into your life, actually come into your life. And we both believe in this concept of balance. And for me, the law of attraction and kind of my balance system of interacting with it revolves around things such as yoga, daily mindfulness practice, just doing exercise, things like that. But I know it's very important for you as well. Can you tell me about the importance of balance

in your life? Yeah, absolutely. So I have changed quite a few things since the quarantine has happened, of course, just like everyone else. I have found that one of the things that I was noticeably bad at every time that things got overwhelming was losing my sleep. So I have invested a crazy amount of just resources

into getting better sleep all of the time. And I have found that that was one of the ways that was so energizing. So I now have a weighted blanket. I have one of those happy sad light things. I have lots of melatonin, if I need it. I have caffeine, of course. The only thing I don't do is I really don't take

prescription medication because I find that to be scary in my eyes. And what else? Yeah, sleeping masks and ear plugs, even though I just like live by myself, I still look insane when I go to sleep because those are all the things that I like happen to need. And I have a whole routine too, follow the tompares thing of drinking a hot cup of honey and apple cider vinegar. You haven't tried it, it tastes really weird at the beginning. You get used to it after like a long time. And then following, I think.

Is it kind of like drinking a sour beer where it takes you that third sip before you appreciate it? It's really, yeah. Yeah, it kind of hits you in the face. And then because I don't believe in really measuring things, it hits you in the face differently every night too. Because I'm always surprised. I get to surprise myself.

And then I take a bubble bath and try to do meditation as well. But because I'm so impatient, I try to do all as many things as I can, like, batching them together. But yeah, so I find that that definitely is one of the things that leave me first whenever I'm stressed or anxious about anything that's happening. This week will be the first thing that leaves. But one thing that I'm really great at in terms of balance is exercise and diet. So I cook for myself. I actually learn a new recipe every week. That has been my thing for 10 years. And I love doing that because it's the

only creative thing that I do. I don't do anything that's creative at all. And then I also do online workouts now and, well, now, because we used to do a lot of in-person. So I do circuit training, hit training, yoga, Pilates, anything really that is walkable distance to me. Proximity is weirdly important to me. I was like, if it's close enough, I will go. And then when we did this online, I was in great shape because we met for some reason 11 times a week to do workout and yoga with each other.

We met a crazy amount of times. I think everyone else is pretty forward to but they were really good about participating and bringing that kind of energy over. So right now I would still say that in terms of balance, you can always have pillars that you can check off. Like, I'm good at this, this, and this. And I need to work on this, this, and this.

And then ask yourself, what is the first fastest, quickest way I can resolve one piece of the thing that I'm missing? So if I know that my sleep isn't doing so well, what is one piece of something that I can improve on? I mean, I know that making my night drink, that apple cider vinegar and honey thing, you got to try it, John, you're going to like it. It's something that is easy for me.

But I also know that I find like, you know, doing the nightly bath or the meditation is a bit of a hassle. So, you know, what can I do to make it easier? Well, I can set things aside, you know, I can actually set it up before the night comes or whatever, right? I can set up aside. You know, I can actually set it up before the night comes or whatever, right? I can set up my clothes to sleep, set up my bed. So what are the little things that you can do to make these kinds of routines easier? Because your balance is your routine, but the secret of your success is usually in your routines. It's not in most other things.

It's what you do when you're not thinking about it. It's what you do that gives you that energy and motivation to really keep pushing forward. So you and I, I'm going to unpack this for just a little bit. You and I share a number of the same thoughts. One, I don't take any. You're also doing that drink. I don't take any prescription drugs. Exercise is some form is part of my daily routine. I love hip type of classes. It used to be a huge orange 30 person. Not so much anymore, but I'll do a spin class or always in the gym a few days a week, lifting as well. But I have also

tried to get into a much better sleep pattern because it's something one I struggle with, but to find has such a dramatic impact on our cognitive abilities and the energy level that you bring each day. So for me, I've gotten used to taking magnesium, D3, and as you said, melatonin, about an hour before I go to bed, I try to do the hot cup of tea, and it does help, and I wear this, I guess I'm advertising for Woopier, this Woop device, so I can manage my sleep patterns and really get into what's causing a red night of sleep, which is a bad one or a green night, and try to adjust accordingly. And I think sleep, as you're saying, plus diet, that whole wellness aspect, in addition to your relationship and career, the three really need to work and tandem together.

And if you don't have that wellness side of it working, the other two are not going to be as strong as they could be. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, how can you possibly keep going on a sustainable rate, you know, when you don't have all of these things in balance? Yes, you have a morning routine. You have an evening routine. Is there a one that you use in the morning as well? Yeah, I'm actually excited for my morning routine all the time.

So I wake up at about six in the morning and then I go outside if I can, like if it's sunny and not snowy because I live in Montreal, so it snowes a lot. So if it's sunny outside, I can go outside and there is an area, that's like a seated area right behind my building, and they have a bunch of picnic tables and a bunch of benches and everything. And so I go out there to journal and read every morning. So I just journal anything, and then I write my two biggest tasks of the day. So I always believe in keeping your goals small and doable. Sometimes you may not even do it just because, like, for example, this morning, I did not actually get to get something approved because my camp wasn't working. So

sometimes your goal is just to contact tech support. And that's like your day. And that's fine. And so, um, yeah, so I do journaling, I do reading right now on reading a lot of Malcolm Gladwell. So he is an author who is Canadian actually so that's awesome and Finished Tim Ferris. I did a Tony Robbins books during the quarantine as well I am Huffington, but but yeah, so finishing these kinds of books that I've always put on the list and you can only Really do it if it's part of your routine in some way. I also have my morning tea as well. I'm a tea drinker Not a coffee drinker. So I have this outside every morning.

There was this girl, it was so funny. Because I showed so early and sometimes the sun isn't even up yet, like I'm there and it's dark and it's me and it looks like it looks really creepy from afar. But because it's like one single lamp, that's just like at my table. I have now become friends with the inventory people that bring inventory and produce to the local stores

because they say hi to me every morning. And this is girl who I did not notice was like looking at me before. So she came over to me one day and she said, every morning I see you here reading and it is so nice because it makes me feel that the world is getting nicer. It was such a lovely thing to say.

That is such a nice thing, isn't it? And I was, I just loved it. I thought it was, I thought it was beautiful. And so then I posted that online too, that that was like such a, a great thing that someone gets to be a part of your morning routine or that it gets to be a part of their day and you don't even realize it. Yeah, it's well, we also share going outside first thing in the morning. I before that, I make my bed, I haven't been a military guy. It's just something I can't get out of.

Yeah. But then the next thing I do is I drink a full glass of water and I take a digestive enzyme and I like to get that water in me and make sure I'm hydrating first thing in the morning. And then for me, I've got a black lab. So I take him out into the alley and hang out with him for a few minutes every morning. And I love just hearing nature at that time early in the morning and just kind of wakes you up

and gives you positive energy for the day. Yeah, I love it. I think that I couldn't believe I wasn't a morning person during most of my adult life. I can't believe that I was just a morning person the past like few years. I wish I did it earlier, I wish I did it more, and it does feel so energizing to be able to wake up

and get so much accomplished. And sometimes you realize that all of your big tasks were really just things that you could have done so quickly, but you really only have that alone time and that reflection time in the morning. Because at the end of the day, you're you're usually really frazzled and you have a lot of decision fatigue by that, you know, by the end of the day. And then it's getting to be so hard to, you know, find your motivation to do all of your big tasks and to go really dig deep into your long-term goals, which is also something

that a lot of people put off because of their day to day. Well, we've talked a lot about habits, which is great, because I think that they're one of the most important thing an entrepreneur or an aspiring growth and sootheaist can do in their life. But what is one thing that you have removed from your life that has made you more productive?

Ooh, so that's a good one. So this is going to sound so silly though. So one thing that I've removed from my life is putting my phone charger elsewhere. So all I did was literally just move it, removed it from my bedroom. So this was a teaching from Ariana Huffington's sleep revolution.

She has 12 tactics. This is tactic number one. This is the hardest one on her list. She really should have made it number 12. She should have made us feel like we're accomplishing more things easier. This was the hardest one, which was charge your phone somewhere else.

So removing my actual physical cell phone and she calls it escorting it out of the room. That's how she says it. Yes, I heard her on a recent podcast talking about it. That's so nice when she says it, right? So she calls it escorting it out of the room. I think she actually sells like a pillow for your phone and which is really funny.

And so yeah, so I moved it to put it somewhere else. So then I'm not reaching for it when I can't sleep, which is often. And then I'm also not reaching for it early in the morning, right when I wake up, unless I have to turn off an alarm. But sometimes I just use my Google Home, so then I can just talk to it. And I'm not reaching for it late at night

to check some last minute emails or do those kinds of things. Because if you have people that work from everywhere, they can message you from anytime. And, uh, and then, you know, you, your anxiety really does go down because you get to tell yourself, okay, I don't have to reply right now. Do I? And, um, and, and, and so on and so forth just being like, hey, this is time for sleep. This is time for productive sleep. And that is the most productive thing I can do right now. And I would say that's the habit that I have removed. And it's helped tremendously.

And if you don't have a separate room, like there were some people, I think it was a try guys. If you haven't seen this one yet, you gotta see it. Try guys on YouTube, they did a video where they did all of the top habits from CEOs. So they did one from Bill Gates. They did one from Richard Branson, Ariana Huffington, Mark Zuckerberg. They did all of these different CEO habits and they just killed themselves.

Because like it was real because they were like average guys. It was super funny to watch NC. So one guy couldn't charge his phone in his room, right? So because he only had one room. So to charge it in the bathroom every single time, and it was really funny, he's like, this is my only other room. So he did that and he still found a way.

So for everyone listening, there's always a way. There's always a way. Okay, well, I'd like to give you an opportunity for the listeners out there. If they want to learn more about you, contact you. What are some ways that they can do it? And of course, I'll put these in the show notes as well. Yeah, absolutely.

So you can go on our website, www.vnturx.ca. There is a contact us form. So I do read these contact us emails. So you can contact me that way. Also, you can follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Medium and YouTube. We're especially active on LinkedIn and Medium and YouTube. We're especially active on LinkedIn and Medium and YouTube as well. So you can leave comments, you can follow us. We have lots of great content as well to put up every week. So we hope to see you there. Okay, great. Well, we're going to

get into my favorite part of the episode. Most guests love it as well. It's going to be a rapid round of just a few questions where I just want you to give, you know, something quick off the top of your mind. So I'm gonna start off with, you mentioned Tim Ferriss a couple times. Love his podcast, huge fan of him overall. If you met Tim Ferriss tomorrow, what question would you ask him?

Oh, will you do Acre Yoga with me? Have you ever done Acre Yoga? No, that's why I wanna do it. Funny enough, I actually did it for a few years. So, oh, that's awesome. I did not know Tim Ferris did it. Wow. Yeah, he went on the Jimmy Kimmel show to do it with

him. And I'm like, I want to do that too now. Well, it is definitely a confidence boost especially if you were flyer. The next question would be similar question if you were to meet Ariana Huffington tomorrow. What would you ask her?

Why did you put putting your cell phone away as number one? That was so hard. Seriously, took me months after reading her book to do this. It was like, heart, those hardest practice. It's not, it's not easy, but the other advantage you get is not having that blue light right in your face right before you go to bed, which also can kill your sleep happens as well. Yeah, very true, very true. What is your favorite episode? You've been watching on Netflix. I favorite episodes.

So I finished Superstore, and I really did like it. So I thought that was great. It was a, so if you guys don't know, it's America for Era. And she works at basically what is like a Walmart, and all of the different uh casting characters and everything were actually very representative of what an American Walmart would look like and I thought it was really great because like you know they they had very real people it was really funny and yeah I think I think that it was something that I was looking forward to

every day and I'm sad that it's over. If there was one habit, you could tell an entrepreneur to change first. What would it be? What would it be? Oh, that's a good one. I would say try to, I don't know how to say it in a different way. Try to be as reflective of your business as possible. So that whole, as somebody who does a lot of judging on panels and such, we tend to ask the exact same questions over and over and over again because we're trying to find the exact

answer out of the question. So we get a lot of entrepreneurs that answer any question, right? It doesn't matter what the question is. They'll have an answer, but it's the answer that they wanted to tell you, not the answer they're supposed to tell you? So I would say, try and be more reflective of what the actual situation is. That would make things go so much more smooth. Okay, last one, I happen to have an episode that released today with astronaut Chris Cassidy. So my question's going to be, if you got selected to go on the mission to Mars and they allowed you to pick one law you can put in place

What would it be one law one law? Can it be like real? Anything you want okay, I want everyone to have the ability to fly I think that would be an amazing thing to do on Mars Well, I don't know what their gravity is like, but you never know. That's true. Probably physically not possible Well, thank you so much for being on the show. I really enjoyed it. And I think our listeners are going to learn so much from all your words, mindsets, and beliefs that you shared. Thank you so much for having me. This was great. I really enjoyed that episode with Sivy

and getting to learn a lot more about her passion and her belief. And I'm so excited to see what VentureX will do in the coming years and the success it will have in building entrepreneur ecosystems, Montcriol and beyond. And I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight a couple of the different episodes that I brought up today during our conversation. A couple of those were solo episodes, one in which I talked about my own and peniturable morning routine, which you could go back and listen to. I also discussed the law of attraction, which I did a whole episode on, and one on time management, and how many of us fall into the, I don't have time syndrome. We also discussed a number of interviews that I did as well. Cindy expressed how much cooking means to her and how she tries to do a recipe each week. And earlier on the show, I had on Chef Sharon

Garen, culinary queen who has become an entrepreneur and is cooking healthy meals for so many people in the Tampa Bay area. We also talked about astronaut Chris Cassidy and the episode that I did with him on the importance of being present. And we also talked about Victoria, British Columbia, which is where I interviewed Sid Tobias, who's within the government in British Columbia on what it means to be a new age digital leader. As always, thank you so much for watching or listening to the show.

And I hope that these episodes and my solo messages in between are bringing value to your life and helping you unlock your passion. Now go out there and get igniting your own. Thank you so much for joining us. The purpose of our show is to make passion go viral. And we do that by sharing with you the knowledge and skills that you need to unlock your hidden potential. If you want to hear more please subscribe to the Passion Start podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to your podcast ad. And if you absolutely love this episode, we'd appreciate a five-star rating on iTunes,

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