The Ben Mulroney Show - How much damage did Covid restrictions do to our kids?

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

Guests and Topics on Today's Show -Donald Trump is a few days into his presidency and we still don’t know the full extent of the Border Plan with Guest: Mark Weber, National President of the Customs and Immigration Union -How much damage did Covid restrictions do to our kids? with Guest: Dr. Oren Amitay, Psychologist -Donald Trump upsets the Global Order with Guest: Lananh Nguyen, U.S. Finance editor at Reuters in New York, Covering the WEF in Davos -Making Positive changes in your life actually stick with Guest: Mandy Gill, Author of Reset with Resilience: A Guide to Greatness When Your Goals Go Sideways If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! https://globalnews.ca/national/program/the-ben-mulroney-show Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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unless there was something done about our poorest border, as it related to human migration, drug smuggling, and so many other things, as well as the military. If we didn't take our border security seriously, he was going to tariff the heck out of our economy. It does seem like he's pulled a bait and switch and now he's talking about other things. The trade deficit. But that doesn't mean that the border has escaped the attention of Canadians. I think I think a lot of us want to get a sense of what's going on at the border. How safe is it? How secure is it? And so to discuss these things, we're joined now by

Mark Weber, national president of the Customs and Immigration Union. Mark, great to talk to you today. Thank you for having me. So in your estimation, when you heard that Donald Trump took issue with how seriously we took border security, what did you think? You know, I think a lot of it was hyperbole. I think the numbers that he's given in terms of the people and Sentinel and such that cross the border into the US from Canada are wildly exaggerated.

You know, but we do have some challenges at the border that we do need to address as does the US. And I think there's also a general misunderstanding of how borders work. Canada is not responsible for keeping things out of the US or responsible for keeping things out of Canada. Yeah, yeah. It's tough sometimes you got to you got to remind yourself of that every now and then. When I have conversations about the border, one of the things that comes up is we simply don't have the manpower to do the job that we need to do.

Is that a fair assessment? I think at a lot of our ports of entry, yeah, we are short. We've seen the agencies start relying more and more on technologies that replace people. And obviously technologies aren't finding the handguns, they're not finding the drugs, they're not finding the smuggler. It takes a person to do that still, right? So we do have staffing challenges for sure, yeah.

And I won't ask you to make a political statement here, that's my job. But Pierre Poliev has talked about the fact that all of our premiers seem to be pitching themselves to communicate directly with Donald Trump means that we essentially have 11 foreign affairs ministers, each one with their own priorities and each one trying to take care of their own piece of the border. We've seen plans from Ontario, we've seen plans from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba

and British Columbia. Those are the ones that really pop up in my mind. What do you make of the fact that our premiers are sort of stepping out of their lane in order to put together border plans that really isn't of their purview? You know, the will to help is never negative. I don't understand why provinces are pouring money and resources at something that is a federal responsibility. Right now, provincial police forces,

and it's a different plan in every province, that they are gonna have work between ports of entry, do not have the legal authority under the Immigration Refugee Protection Act, don't have the legal authority under the Customs Act. So what's being created is essentially, I mean, history's most expensive taxi service where they are going to interdict people trying to cross illegally, and then just drive

them to us at a port of entry. That's our mandate to do that work between ports of entry. I don't know why the federal government is not being pointed to and saying do your job, we should be doing that. Well, that yeah, I guess you're saying in a far more diplomatic way than I, that this to me feels like an absence of leadership from the federal level,

because nature and politics and border security abhor a vacuum. And if you don't have the leadership coming from Ottawa, somebody is gonna step in to fill it. You know, it's that, I mean, technically there's a 1932 ordering council that gave work between ports of entry to the RCMP that we met with the minister last week. We're hopeful that that will be

repealed so our CBSA officers can start helping to do that work. You know, on the other hand, though, we do hear the Conservative government coming out and talking about cutting federal public service jobs. That's us. So I don't know how you're cutting border officers, you know, at the same time saying that the border is understaffed and we need more people there and the border is important to us. So it's concerning. I think it's going to take a real concerted effort and it's going to need the CBSA getting

to the point where they accept our mandate as the whole border at ports of entry in between and we will fulfill our mandate. I don't think provinces should be responsible for throwing their funds and resources at this problem. It's our job to do. Mark, have you and your membership been bracing for a possible influx of asylum claimants in the face of Donald Trump saying, get ready, America, mass deportations are coming your way? Yeah, I talked to our members across the country. They're worried. I know the CBSA is making contingency plans. Again,

we don't know how big the problem will be. We're guessing we don't know where most people will be crossing if there is that influx with the numbers will be. So it's really it's wait and see. And of course, you know, not knowing makes you even extra anxious. We're not sure exactly what's happening. So so but nothing has happened just yet. You haven't noticed an uptick of, of, of, of claimants yet? No, there has not been yet.

I, you know, I think people in the U.S. are kind of waiting to see how, how bad this gets to. Everyone is, is anxious for sure. And meanwhile, that, that I was reading an article in the Financial Post about Canada wants to say to Donald Trump, we have border complaints as well. For all of your issues, between 2000 and almost 8,000 prohibitive weapons and firearms are

seized at ports of entry between January and October of last year. And they came from the United States, not to mention tens of thousands of kilos of illegal drugs that are inbound as well. What would you like to say to him to in order to level set about what exactly is going on at the border? Well, I mean, not really my role. I can tell you what our members find concerning is again that we as the CBSA are focusing

more and more on technology over the person. We need the people in place to find those illegal handguns. We have cities in Canada that are going to set another record this year for gun violence that goes up every year. We know they're almost all coming in through the US. We need the people in place and we need our mandate to include working between ports of entry again. It's our legal authority to do it. We need to start doing it. I'm speaking with Mark Weber, the National President of the Customs and Immigration Union. Mark, when somebody gets hired,

how long until they are properly trained and put onto the front lines? Yeah, our college is an 18 week program. Then you do essentially a one year apprenticeship before you're working independently as an officer. And then of course, you know, like all jobs jobs until you get really good at it it's a few years after that it's a lot to learn. Another concern when we see you know provincial authorities with no training in IRPA, Customs Act, no real knowledge

being thrown into these positions working between ports of entry that that is not a straightforward job we even see in the for example Prairie Region, CBSA has created a cheat sheet for provincial authorities. You know, with a brief outline, this is what ERPA is. And here's the closest port of entry where you can drop someone off if you interdict them. Again, why are the provinces paying for a taxi service? Yeah, that should be asked they're doing that, right? Well, I just I just think when people hear that we're going to

beef up security, and we're going to have more people boots on the ground, more frontline workers, I just think that when people hear that we're going to beef up security and we're going to have more people, boots on the ground, more frontline workers, I think people need to appreciate that you don't just manifest border security. It takes time to train, find those people, train them and deploy them properly. It's long term and this problem won't go away. I mean, you know, handguns are not going to be made illegal in the United States anytime soon. They're going to continue coming up through there. Drugs are always a problem.

We see the opioid crisis. We know a lot of that is coming up through the United States, right? So we need the resources in place and it is, it's a tough job our members do. It takes a lot of training, a lot of knowledge of the ins and outs and how smuggling works to really get good at what you do, right? Now, when you see that the RCMP are going to have It takes a lot of training, a lot of knowledge of the ins and outs and how smuggling works

to really get good at what you do, right? Now, when you see that the RCMP are going to have a Black Hawk helicopter patrolling the Manitoba US border, what do you think? Again, the will to help is great. I think resources are really good. A helicopter could help in some spots, but I mean, the RCMP are not over staff either. So when they're being given almost sole responsibility for patrolling, I mean, the hundreds and hundreds of kilometers between each port of entry,

you need the people on the ground, I mean, unless the helicopters are just there to film people crossing, you still need to do that intervention, right? Hey, Mark, listen, if there's one, the silver lining in all of this is Donald Trump has highlighted the need that we have to protect our border and staff it with a properly funded border security team. So I take that as good news. You know, glass half-fold is a lovely accident.

I don't think that was the intent. But yeah, it's good to see people, you know, talk about it and realize in some cases, how much help we do need at the border. Yeah. Mark, thank you very much. You take care. All right, you too. Thanks. Welcome back to the Ben Mulrooney show. And look, I know on this show, I am the old guy screaming at clouds. I complain about young people in their music and their clothes.

But the fact is, I'm a dad to three young Canadians. And when I read that according to Mental Health Research Canada, 1.25 million youth in Canada need mental health supports every year, yet more than half of them aren't receiving it, that concerns me as a father and as a Canadian. So to drill down on this, we're joined by psychologist Dr. Orin Amate. Dr, welcome to the show. Thank you, Ben.

Dr, never in the history of our country have we been more eager and willing to have conversations around mental health. So why are we in this situation? Well, funding is a big part. I've been pushing for over 20 years through the media and through teaching that we need more money out there.

And most of the money through Bell Let's Talk Day actually goes to research, it goes to infrastructure. It's not going to the frontline workers, it's not going to the people who can actually make a dent in some of these issues. That's one of the problems. Does it also have to do with the fact because we're so willing to talk about these things, we recognize the pain and the struggle in people more easily today. So what would have passed as a bad mood 15 years ago is now seen as a real mental health struggle. Yes, and it's a double-edged sword because on the one hand, the fact is since let's say the 1970s and 80s where we realized, okay, there's a crisis, not just for young people, but for all Canadians, you know, that

we're not really talking about. So on the one hand, it's good to recognize this. It's good to say, hey, let's normalize this. Let's let let's encourage people to get help with these kinds of issues. But on the other hand, far too many people are taking what might be, let's say, a sad day or a bit of confusion here or there, or a bit of stress and saying, okay, you have a disorder and that's becoming the common language.

And so people are automatically, they're going on to TikTok and they're seeing all these people talking about these disorders and now they're self-diagnosing and it's a self-fulfilling prophecy in some instances. Yeah, and I think the elephant in the room is the pandemic that really sent a lot of kids into a bad place.

I mean, my kids are quite resilient, but even I remember when summer camp was canceled for I think the second or third year in a row, that was the first time I really saw it hit my kids' mental health and it really concerned me. Yeah, well, isolation, whether it's physical isolation or a feeling of being separate, different, other than, you know, the group, the norms, your peers, that's one of the, you know, most powerful predictors of a beginning of or exacerbation of mental health issues. And so children, whether they were in JK or in grade 12,

they all experienced that sense of being disconnected from others. And the internet's not the same, not having that physical contact, not having that being able to look into somebody's eyes and getting that, you know, the oxytocin surge or the other interpersonal benefits that has done such damage to the children. Well, what I noticed just as myself during the pandemic

is, you know, we always talk about microaggressions in the workplace, but when we don't have a workplace to go to, I noticed a lack of what I was calling microaffirmations, you know, those little moments during the day where somebody might tell you, oh, you got a new shirt or, oh, you got a new shirt or oh, you got a haircut Or they would tell you a joke those things. I know I was lacking those in my life I can only imagine what was happening to young developing minds

Well, we're social animals and we do need that kind of feedback and research on adults showed that in fact Compared with being at home, the majority of adults a few years ago reported feeling a better sense of well-being while at work because they were getting that kind of feedback and those positive affirmations you're saying, yeah, you get it at home as well, but getting from the same people over and over, it habituates, you don't get the same effect. But when you're getting it from a variety of different people for different things that you're doing, it does impact you differently.

So, Doctor, the crisis is deepening and we don't have funding for the frontline work that needs to be done. So is this a crisis that, at least in the near term, needs to be solved in the home? Well, the home is part of it. And when we talk about frontline workers, I mean, what I'm saying is that we don't have,

more businesses are offering private health insurance for people who are working and sometimes their families, but so many people don't have the funding for that. As far as in the home, it's in the homes and in the schools where the children are learning the wrong kind of mentality. So in addition to that isolation, that feeling, you know, kind of, again, not really connected to people on a deep level, a lot of young people are having a lack of meaning, purpose, fulfillment. They're not being taught hardiness.

They're not being taught to be resilient. And most importantly, or equally importantly, is that a lot of kids are losing a sense of hope. There's this doom and gloom. When you're part of a quote unquote group and you're told that everybody's against you. No matter what you do, you're doomed to failure because of these attributes. How do you have hope?

And that's a message that has, you know, steeped its way into the system, into the education system, into influencers, it's at home, and that's a huge factor. Well, what I'm hearing, Doctor, is maybe what we as parents should be doing is limiting the screen time of our kids. I mean, that seems like a driving indicator. If we could limit their interaction with the TikToks of the world, with the Instagrams, with those social media channels

that are reinforcing these negative images, that could certainly benefit them. Well, it will benefit them, but you know, A, good luck on that as a parent. You're well aware of the challenges with that. Again, that needing to belong. If you're the only kid in the school, or it feels like you're the only kid in the school who has parents who put those restrictions on you,

that makes you feel different and othered. So that is a huge problem. And also, you know, you and I have talked about this, but the fact is the schools themselves, they are promoting this kind of messaging. Okay, again, climate change. Yes, there's certainly an issue with climate change. There's certainly an issue with war

and all these other factors, but children, whether in school or on social media, are being exposed to these things in ways that they can't filter out, they can't process properly, and it just feels overwhelming. So you're saying that there might be an underlying narrative within the school system that is reinforcing these negative feelings in kids.

Yes, exactly, and then they feel distressed, they feel helpless, and helpless eventually leads to hopeless. And that lack of hope, you know, it just, it fuels all these other problems. And stress itself, stress is the number one cause or exacerbator of all mental and physical problems that we experience. Well, doctor, I always like having positive conversations, but sometimes you have to have a conversation like this in order to identify the problem so that you can then attack it. So thank you very much for being here

and thank you for sharing your perspective. Well, thank you, Ben. And do you want one positive note? Yes, please. I would love one. All right. Well, the article that you were referring to with me, and it's been shown that they're saying that suicide is,

they're saying it's the second leading cause of death among young people. And if you actually look at the stats, here's where there's some hope, okay? The rates of suicide among young people, and stats mean nothing if your family has gone through it, okay? Because it's a tragedy, of course, if anyone's thinking about it or actually does it. But the fact is, the rates of suicide among young people are considerably lower today than they were in the 90s and 80s. Okay? So it's gotten better. And after COVID, there was a surge or during COVID. And in the last couple of years, they're estimating that the rates have dropped considerably. So that's some hope.

And we're going to leave it right there. Thank you very much, Dr. Orin Amate. Thank you. And yesterday on the show, I was privileged enough to speak with opposition leader, federal opposition leader, Pierre Poliev. And I sort of made a point, I said, how can you have a carbon tax election if every one of your opponents is now against the carbon tax? And he said, well, that's assuming you believe them. This change of heart doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to follow through.

They're just trying to get themselves elected. And one of the people who did an about face despite voting in favour of the carbon tax 40 or 50 times is Christy Freeland. And it was put to her, why did you do this? And this is how she defended her flip flop. Canadians have said really clearly, we do not like the consumer price on pollution. Did you bring that to the Prime Minister? You know what, I was talking about this in Winnipeg yesterday.

For me, the turning point was talking to Premier Wab Kinew in Manitoba. He is a great progressive leader and I met with him right after he was elected. And the first thing he said to me is, could we do a deal on a climate plan for Manitoba that doesn't include a consumer price? And that was the moment when I said, yeah, I went back to Ottawa and I said, Manitoba, with a great new progressive premier, wants a new plan where consumers are not directly touched. That's the system we have for Quebec, right? Quebec has cap and trade, no direct price on consumers. That's what Canadians are telling us they want. And I think it's actually a very arrogant position for a political

leader to think they know everything. If people are telling you something, you really have to listen. Yeah, but the math doesn't math. Wab Kanu has been premier for a hot minute. And so you had this spiritual change, spiritual awakening when you met Wab Kanu, and yet you went back to Ottawa and kept voting in favor of the carbon tax. If you don't have the courage of your convictions, then what convictions do you have? If you didn't believe in it and you knew that people were telling you that they were unhappy with it, if the opposition leaders were constantly telling you that the Canadians didn't want it, and the polls were telling you that Canadians didn't want it, and you were voting for it but you didn't believe in it,

how is that leadership? And honestly, good faith question, good faith question. So I think I think Christian still has some explaining to do on that front. People can change their minds. Smart people can change their minds. I believe it was Pierre Trudeau said only an idiot is incapable of not changing their mind. So I'm more than willing to entertain the argument, but that's not enough for me. And I say that with respect. So we keep talking about the Team Canada approach to Donald Trump, and everybody needs to line up,

and we all have to be singing from the same hymn book. Danielle Smith was targeted for being the outlier. And she was putting Alberta first and she wasn't thinking about Canada. Well, now it does seem like there are two camps. You've got the Doug Fords of the world who want to go dollar for dollar, at least be willing to go dollar for dollar

in terms of tariffs on the Americans. If they tariff us at 25%, we will tariff them right back. But the other side of the coin is Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe who says he supports something slightly different. Export tariffs put on by our own national government on products that we might

produce here in Saskatchewan or anywhere else in Canada. But the other side of the coin is the export tariffs put on by our own national government on products that we might produce here in Saskatchewan or anywhere else in Canada. Saskatchewan most certainly is not supportive of and would be working

actively to ensure that an export tariff couldn't be applied on Saskatchewan products and we're looking at what opportunities provinces have exercising the provincial jurisdiction as we speak when it comes to the potential of export tariffs down the way. And so the very targeted tariffs, small targeted tariffs that don't have an impact on our economy, we have had discussions with the federal government about our support for those broad-based tariffs. Dollar-for-dollar tariffs with the U.S. is not in Canadians' best interests,

nor should export tariffs ever be considered by our government. Yeah, so we are not singing from the same hymn book. We definitely have competing visions on how to deal with these tariffs. Which one is going to win the day? I think it depends entirely on what type of tariffs Donald Trump lays on the Canadian economy. If he comes out with a big blanket 25% tariff on everything, I think the argument for the dollar for dollar, we got to hit them back as hard as they hit us. I think that,

I mean, listen, I understand that emotionally, I'm not an economist, I can't speak to the impact that that would have on us. But I can appreciate the emotional desire to go toe to toe and dollar for dollar. But I'm going to leave that to smarter people than I. So a couple of days ago, Peter Doocy of Fox News asked Donald Trump when they were in the Oval Office about the letter, that traditional letter that the outgoing president leaves for the incoming president inside the resolute desk. And Donald Trump's said, in that exchange, he said, I didn't even I didn't even think about it. And then he found it. And he said, Let me read it first. And if I like

what it says, then I'll share it with you. Well, it got shared with Peter Doocy. And here's what Joe Biden wrote to President Trump. He said, Dear President Trump, as I take leave of this sacred office, I wish you and your family all the best in the next four years. The American people, the people around the world, look to this house for steadiness in the inevitable storms of history. And my prayer is that in the coming years will be a time of prosperity, peace, and grace for our nation. May God bless you and guide you as he has blessed and guided our beloved country since our founding,

Joe Biden. I think that is a lovely note to strike. I have no idea if Donald Trump's animosity towards Joe Biden was all bluster. I don't know if it was all performance, but in that moment, I hope he accepted the kindness that was offered to him in this letter because I think it's a lovely, lovely sentiment. You know, we're coming up on the one year anniversary of my dad passing away. He passed away on February 29th of last year,

which means we're going to commemorate it on March 1st of this year. And I know I'm not alone. Everyone goes through loss. It's nothing, it's not special to me. And, but I feel that I feel his absence every day. There's a hole inside of me that will never be filled because he was the only guy who could fill it. And that makes me sad, but I feel privileged to feel that loss.

Because I feel bad for people who, when someone in their life passes, they feel nothing. That makes me sad for them. But we found some audio of a 27-year-old man who came to the most devastatingly sad revelation. Actually redone this a couple of times but my name is Jeremy Hopper and it's nice to meet y'all to anyone who sees this. But I'm the last member of my family left.

There ain't nobody else They passed away I'm 27 and my mama died before she was even 40 My baby brother and baby sister both passed away as infants Today I realized that if anything were to happen to me today, not a single person on this earth would know I was gone. And I truly doubt anyone would care. And I walked so record that I existed that I was here. I mean, Jeremy, I'm sure you're not listening to this.

I'm sure that you're out there living your life. I hope that the response that you got in putting that video out was full of all the love and respect that you deserve. No one should feel that way. I'm very sorry for you. The World Economic Forum. Love it or hate it. It's been around four years and newsmakers from around the world descend on Davos, Switzerland to have discussions, wide reaching discussions on government and society and business. And yesterday, I believe it was yesterday, the World Economic Forum panel was discussing Donald Trump. A dead politician has risen.

Somebody who a year, if we were four years ago at Davos, he's buried, dead politically, known to me. He's now returned. This is the greatest comeback in political history of a politician. And then, therefore, he thinks he can do anything. We need to also factor in not only who's won, which is Trump, but who's lost, which is to say us. The European Union and, by and large, its member states have misread the direction where events were going. The causes that it is interested in,

climate, human rights, some others, are simply being gradually kind of marginalized. Joining us now to discuss covering the World Economic Forum in Davos is the US Finance Editor at Reuters in New York, Lenan Nguyen. How are you today? Thank you so much for joining us. Hi, Ben. I'm great Nguyen. How are you today? Thank you so much for joining us.

Hi, Ben, I'm great, thank you. How are you? I'm well. What is the mood at the World Economic Forum this year? Because in that clip that we just played, it seemed to me that there are probably two camps at the World Economic Forum. You've got those people whose priorities

are run counter to the MAGA movement, and you have those who are probably very excited. Well, actually, Ben, I cover Wall Street Street and so many of the people that I speak to are pretty pragmatic and they're all very bullish about what's happening here. Donald Trump has made a lot of noises about deregulation, about a pro-growth agenda. And so whatever people's personal politics are, I think the business people really feel that this new administration is going to unleash economic growth and be good for their businesses. Has there been a main topic of discussion, a main theme at the forum this year?

Well, I think it's interesting. I'm actually right now just heading into the Trump session. He'll be speaking virtually to delegates here and he'll be questioned by some of the business leaders and I think the questions are going to be probably around tariffs because that's one of the biggest uncertainties with regard to how the new economic policies are going to affect the real economy. Tariffs are kind of the big wild card here at this point. There's been a lot of talk coming out of not just him but out of his sons about the mass adoption of crypto. What do you make of that?

about the mass adoption of crypto. What do you make of that? Well, I spoke to a few crypto executives here, including some CEOs, and they're all very excited about the direction of travel, but they do say the devil is kind of in the details. Trump has said that he wants to be the crypto president, but so far we haven't seen any new policies or executive orders that really radically change

the legislative or regulatory framework for crypto. So they're cautiously optimistic, but they do want to see some more details. As someone who follows Wall Street, what was your take on seeing the most powerful tech CEOs in the world lining up behind Donald Trump? They actually had better seats at the inauguration than his cabinet.

Yeah, I think it's interesting. I mean, it obviously shows directionally that both the tech CEOs and also Donald Trump are kind of setting a tone that this new administration wants to be close to that industry. At the same time, I don't think that necessarily means that Wall Street is on the outs. I think Trump's administration has been very clear to stay close to Wall Street. He obviously selected a Treasury secretary that is a Wall Street fixture as well as a Commerce secretary. So I do think that Wall Street has plenty of, you know, foreknowledge and relationships with the Trump administration. Well, Lanana, I have no doubt that your job is going to be very exciting over the next few years, especially with Donald Trump in the White House. So I thank you for your time and I'll let you get back to covering the World

Economic Forum. Thank you so much. I love this show because I get to introduce you to different aspects of myself. And here's something you didn't know about me. I'm a procrastinator. I get stuff done, but eventually. And in my phone, if you were to see my phone, I give myself tasks that I know I'm just going to press down on and move to the next day almost every day. As a matter of fact, hold on, let me read to you what I wrote yesterday in my phone. I was supposed to do this today. I changed my mind. It said, do all your goddamn busy work, Ben.

You've been putting this off for days. That's actually a task I gave myself. So my next guest is going to teach me how to not do that. I'm joined now by Mandy Gill, author of Reset with Resilience, a Guide to Greatness When Your Goals Go Sideways. Sounds exactly like me. Mandy, welcome to the show.

Oh my goodness. So did you move that one over to today as well? To tell yourself to do the tasks? So I had some actual tasks written there and I kept moving it. So finally I just erased it and replaced it with that in the hopes of spurring in me some sort of desire to actually get the work done. Well, I'm glad I'm here.

We'll talk about that in a minute, but first I want to talk about you because I'm in awe of all the hats you've worn and that you wear. And so talk to me about your professional and personal growth and how you got to a point in your life where you said, you know, the path that I've been on has led me to a place where I have a story to tell. Wow. Okay. Yeah. It's like, how far back can we go really? And thanks so much for saying that.

And I look the same at you, so I have to share that as well. You know, I came out of broadcast, or pardon me, I came out of high school and I graduated. And I remember I was in my Bachelor of Science and I sat down and I looked at my grades and I was like, I am miserably failing and it was no lie. Like my parents could see my transcripts, everything, and they were like, well, what did

you love doing as a kid? And I remember my mom pointing out that whenever I had a book report that was due, she would go to 7-Eleven and rent one of those like video recording machines. Yeah. I guess you could rent them at 7-Eleven back then. I'm like, thanks for remembering this mom.

Anyways, she said to me me I would do my book report and she would literally just like film me doing it. And I was the only kid that did that. Long story short, got into broadcasting school, graduated 2006 from broadcasting school out in Vancouver, British Columbia. And yeah, anyways, the rest is kind of history from there. I got involved in broadcasting, top 40 morning show co-hosting radio and television. And then all of a sudden this huge transition began and I created an app and started working with people

through habit development and started noticing this incredible, consistent message in resiliency and goal setting. And that was about 2018. And I was like, I gotta do something with this. Yeah, yeah. And now you're a corporate speaker and you do workshops, you've got your app as well, you're a podcaster as well. I love that the word resilience is in the title because my

wife and I pride ourselves on building resilient kids. Our kids are nothing if not resilient. What does resilience mean to you? How does it look? Yeah, thank you actually for pointing out the mention of kids because there is a fact in the book that I talk about and it is saying the word fail, right? Fail oftentimes people like retreat right back from. And I give this example because fail actually stands for first attempt in living. And that is something I dive heavily into.

And the reason I mentioned kids is because it was actually a principal who is an app and our client in our app who had mentioned to me that she was noticing kids were terrified of failure. Yeah. Coming in and just in tears and it's okay to show emotion and everything but at the end of the day we're teaching our younger generations that it's scary to fail. Well we spent years giving them participation medals there was no no there were no stakes they weren't playing for stakes and so we didn't teach them that failure is part of the game. It is.

And we have to fail. I mean, you look at the creator of Spanx, Sarah, oh gosh, I'm gonna stump on her last name. Anyway, she used to sit down with her dad at the dinner table. She was sharing this conversation and she said, my dad would sit there and say, what did you do to fail today?

At least once a week. And I'm like, we can have way more of those conversations and make this a common conversation. Yeah. Yeah. And really retract from the fact that failure needs to be scary. Failure needs to be scary. There's no risk, no reward. Right. Yeah. And so yeah, I think we've been doing that with our kids. And I remember when they come home with bad grades and I'd say, I hope you're not expecting me to tell you, you did a great job. If you're looking for validation from me for what you just handed me, absolutely not.

Wait, did you talk about this? Yeah, do better and I'll help you. I'll help you, but you're not getting a pat on the back for coming home with this grade. No participation marks there. No, no, I was never for the participation medals. Okay, so let's talk about the 82% of people describe themselves as experts at creating distraction

and 74% say that they've caught themselves at least once daily over 30 consecutive days creating an excuse. I do that all the time. I just gave you an example of it. So where does that come from? I know I should do it. I've got the time in my schedule. I just I'm gonna punt the ball till tomorrow. I'm gonna say something that most people don't like to hear but it's the fact that distractions are a great excuse to stay in your own way. Yeah, I see that. Right?

Yeah. Like it's comfortable. It is, it is. It's like, oh, well, I don't wanna go towards doing this because this feels easier. Yeah. And if you look at the other side of that, I mean, we kind of have, and there's a drawing in the book

that has fear right in the middle and it goes towards courage or it goes towards comfort. Yeah. So essentially you have the option to teeter-totter that fear on either side and lean more towards courage or comfort. Well, yeah, because I mean, creating a distraction or an excuse, that's the definition of the path of least resistance, right? Like staying in my status quo, even though I know that it's going to yield the results I want, I'm going to feel better when the work is done. I'm going to feel lighter when the work is done.

Yeah, but I'm comfortable here. I'm comfortable in this moment. Yeah. So it's about breaking that mindset. So my question is, do you want to grow? Yes, of course I do. If I didn't want to grow, I wouldn't have taken a job and I wouldn't have come back to broadcasting

in a completely different field. A lot of people just assume that if you do TV, you can do radio, and that's not the case. It's a completely different muscle. It is. And so, yes, I definitely want to grow. I want to improve every day. My dad used to tell me all the time, he's like, you should learn one new thing every day. And fortunately, in radio, I can learn that by 6 a.m.

Yes. And then I'm done growing for the day. But it's, I mean, we talked about the word resilience in the title. There's also the word reset. I mean, you're taking it down to the studs. Because we need to, right? We have to figure out at the bottom and the core reason as to why you're creating distractions for yourself. We need to reset and we need to reset from that foundation. So we need to stop avoiding all the distractions and the excuses. And the word that I use is clear out the noise. Yeah, yeah.

What, I mean, why do we get in our own way? Oh, I think that we have so many opportunities around us to literally be able to say, I'm gonna go this way or I'm gonna go that way. And one again is comfortable. And so it's just, and I actually would never have known this. I had tattooed on the inside of my wrist, life begins at the end of my comfort zone.

And it's gonna sound cliche, it was like 15 years ago, it's very much like I don't even recognize it now, but it's so true, right? If we stay in that comfort zone, there's no room for growth. And when you pick up this book, I ask you to pick it up with like even a 1% interest in experiencing growth, because you will find it in those pages

And so what what if somebody doesn't have time for the book and they have you in an elevator for two minutes? What are you telling them? Okay So a guide to greatness when your goals go sideways comes down to a couple different pillars setting up that goal Specifically for what you want to achieve second of all recognizing there's gonna be hard times. Every one of us go through it, but don't look at that as a setback, look at that as a comeback. And lastly, what are the steps to achieve that comeback?

And in that book is four different stages. As somebody who's focused and has made so much of a focus of her life, becoming the fullest expression of themselves, what do you do when you have a bad day? Oh, I let myself have it. Yeah, I think if you ever dishonor that, we experience burnout,

we experience friction in our own lives. And just to express that, and I will say, I call up a great friend or a family member or a mentor, and I express that because again, we can go back to being honest with the people that are around us. People want to see you succeed. Ben, I wanna see you succeed. Ben, I want to see you succeed.

We forget that people do care. Lean on them. Yeah, you're right. It's not about doing this alone. We do have people we can lean on. There's a day a few days ago that I was feeling very, very lonely. I had to go through my head. I was like, who am I going to reach out to right now? So I called my best friend Glenn, and it made everything better. Made everything better. Yeah, absolutely. I can even see it in your face. You just like glue, like you glowed in here. Yes, I love that. We are here for each other. So what's what's what's next for Mandy Gill? I mean, you've got so many

balls in the air. Do you have room for another? Do you have another mountain you want to climb? Oh, absolutely. I actually was just doing a couple different interviews this morning and all I could think to myself was texting my husband and saying, which mountain do we want to climb in Nepal this time? Oh my god. I was talking about a figurative mountain, but you're talking about literal mountains. I'm getting out of the stilettos. Mandy Gill, author of Reset with Resilience, a Guide to Greatness When Your Goals Go Sideways. Thank you so much for coming in. It's so great to spend time with such a positive person. And it's a book that everybody should read. And if they can't, then they should find you

anywhere they can and listen to your words. So thank you so much. Thank you, Ben. She has partial retrograde amnesia. She can't remember the last eight years. Tuesdays. What are the odds I get my memories back? It's the brain. Nobody knows.

I don't know who I am now. But I will be a doctor again. I will do everything I can to get my life back.