0:00

In present day business culture.

0:02

There's a lot of discussion around.

0:05

How do you empower your employees

0:05

to get the most out of them to grow

0:08

the business, to make more money? Also, you can think about how do you

0:11

run a building an apartment in a real

0:15

estate point of view and get the most

0:15

out of your tenants, where they feel

0:18

empowered, they're paying their rent. Things are going well.

0:21

There's a great upkeep of the building. And a lot of these discussions

0:23

come down to community and,

0:26

. We talk about community a lot

0:27

we're centered in community.

0:30

So today's guest is an

0:30

expert on community thinking.

0:35

In the business world or

0:35

how do we scale culture?

0:39

So today we welcome, Ron Lovett.

1:08

Welcome back to Empathize.

1:10

The Podcast. Uh, you know, I love to bring on

1:12

guests that have this connection

1:15

to community and we, we take a look

1:15

at their lives from that angle.

1:20

What's community. So when I think about people that I look

1:20

up to around, um, innovative business,

1:26

um, linking community from a business

1:26

point of view, uh, thinking outside

1:31

the box, someone that I've really

1:31

been following over the last couple of

1:34

years, um, is, are, is our guest today.

1:37

And that is entrepreneur speaker,

1:37

um, industry, coach, uh, Ron Lovett.

1:43

Welcome to the podcast Ron.

1:48

Uh, really excited to have you on today.

1:50

And, uh, you know, I, I, you have such

1:50

a diverse, I think about diversity

1:55

when I think about your experiences. And it's great for, especially some

1:57

of the young people that listen to

2:00

the podcasts because you know, when

2:00

we go through and we, and we get, you

2:04

know, have this conversation, your

2:04

life really speaks to, you can do a

2:08

lot of different things in your life. Right.

2:11

And, and, and it still

2:11

comes back to one point.

2:14

So, um, we'll start out. We usually start.

2:17

Kind of with your early life. And I know that we have a lot

2:19

of similarities too, and we'll

2:22

bring those up as we come along,

2:22

but you grew up in Halifax.

2:25

So I always start off

2:25

with the question around.

2:29

Um, what do you think, what would you

2:29

say was your community quote, unquote, as

2:35

you were growing up in your early life.

2:37

Yeah. That's, uh, I, I think about that,

2:38

you know, um, so when I was early,

2:43

like for me was West End by Halifax

2:43

Shopping Center we lived with my

2:46

grandmother on Ralston Avenue. Uh, off of Mumford Road and, and that

2:49

was a great community, you know, and,

2:52

and to me, the word community was really

2:52

the friends and, and, uh, neighbors

2:56

and people in that neighborhood. Like that was my first sense of

2:58

community outside of I'll call..

3:02

You know, I also look at family

3:02

is somewhat, you know, when I used

3:05

to think of the word community. So that was my. Yeah that and in school, I think

3:08

those were two communities for me,

3:12

you know, I went to St Catherine's

3:12

and that had a different community

3:17

than my, than my neighborhood, but

3:17

those were my first two memories

3:21

of communities, you know, my school

3:21

community and my, and my neighborhood.

3:25

Yeah. And it's my, um, my dad's house

3:26

is on Roman's Avenue, so I'm

3:29

right there by Ralston, you know,

3:29

still in that area, which is what

3:33

we in Halifax called The Pubs. But it's, it's public housing

3:35

just off of Bayer's road.

3:38

And then St. Catherine's. I know that we have a similarity

3:39

because I went to Bloomfield school

3:42

and my principal was Dick MacLean. And your principal.

3:48

Yeah. And, and I don't want to, you know, go

3:51

ahead. No,

3:56

no, I just, I know that there's

3:56

a, you know, I have, uh, uh, stories

4:01

of Dick being at Bloomfield and he

4:01

was that community type principal.

4:04

He was like, he was approachable.

4:07

He made you feel comfortable. And then you have a story of how

4:08

Dick affected you and, and some

4:13

of the errands he sent you on.

4:15

So talk a little bit about

4:15

Dick and the community at St.

4:18

Catherine's.

4:19

Yeah. So, so, you know, St. Catherine's in, in, I wouldn't known him

4:21

at the time, but looking back was a bit

4:24

of rough school, you know, like there was

4:24

some, there was some challenges at St.

4:27

Catherine's and there was division

4:27

because I was in French immersion.

4:30

And then you had the, you know, you had

4:30

the, the kids in the English, uh, school.

4:34

And so there was, there was, there

4:34

was kind of division earlier on in

4:37

that school, uh, funny enough and

4:37

so Dick, but I felt like Dick had

4:41

this just larger than life energy.

4:44

I mean, he used to really. You know, command, respect

4:46

from people, but what he was so

4:48

humble and respectful himself. And so it was a two-way street with Dick.

4:51

And so my, my family name is

4:51

Connolly, um, my, my, um, my

4:56

mom's maiden name is Connolly. And so Dick knew my uncle Sean

4:57

Connolly, and they had fought years ago.

5:02

Actually, the story, I don't know

5:02

if I had shared this with you

5:04

Augy, but my uncle went to St.

5:06

Pat's and heard about this huge

5:06

guy named Dick MacLean, who was.

5:10

Massive. And people said like,

5:11

he's a tough guy in HRM.

5:13

And my uncle Sean said, well, let's go figure that out. They'd get in the truck.

5:16

They went up to Halifax where. As the story goes, my uncle Shawn kind

5:20

of opened a classroom door and he was

5:23

looking around and then he saw this giant

5:23

in the back and it was Dick MacLean.

5:27

And he said, Hey, me and you

5:27

were outside at lunchtime.

5:30

So they went outside and look as, as kind

5:30

of, you know, good clean fights, go back.

5:35

Then they had a good fight. It was over very quickly, uncle Sean.

5:38

He w he was quite the scrapper

5:38

and, and, uh, they became

5:41

very good friends afterwards. Right. And, and lifelong friends.

5:44

So when Dick, um, found out I was Sean

5:44

Connolly's nephew, he would come up

5:48

and you say, Hey, you know, you're,

5:48

uh, you're going to be a tough kid.

5:51

You're going to be a tough kid. And so from there, you know, um,

5:52

two, two stories come to mind.

5:57

Um, one is Dick used to

5:57

take me to Bloomfield.

6:00

Like when I was in trouble, he would take

6:00

me after school and take me to boxing.

6:03

Like that was, I remember a few

6:03

detentions were with Dick at

6:06

Bloomfield and that was an intimidating

6:06

place to go as a young kid.

6:10

And luckily someone would like Dick

6:10

would bring in there and, you know,

6:12

the smells and just the energy. It was, it was intimidating.

6:15

Because that would have been young at that time. And then

6:18

Citadel Boxing in the basement.

6:22

That's right. Cause Dick, I don't know if he was

6:23

then, but I know at some point he was

6:27

the head of the boxing association. Right. And so he obviously had large connections

6:29

to boxing and so he brought me there and

6:34

introduced me to, uh, who was a trainer

6:34

back there, the two brothers, right.

6:38

Taylor Gordon, right? Yeah. That's right. That's right.

6:42

That's right. So those guys were trainers back then,

6:43

and Dick would say, Hey, this guy's

6:46

going to be tough and get them trained. And, and it was really interesting.

6:49

And then, you know, not too long

6:49

after that, there was a, there was a

6:53

kid that was kicked out of our school and he's kicked out of every school. Every school has good from the Pubs

6:55

and, and there was a young girl.

6:59

In the office and Dick called

6:59

me to the office and he said,

7:02

Hey, there's this young girl. I want you to walk her home.

7:04

And if, if this kid gives her a hard

7:04

time, I want you to maybe look after

7:10

that kid, sort him out and bring them

7:10

back to me, do the office if he can.

7:12

And I was like, wow. Okay. And he said, get two of your

7:13

toughest friends and walk her home.

7:16

And sure enough, just like

7:16

Dick said, we walked her home.

7:19

We're walking through the Pubs jumps

7:19

out, you know, with two poles swinging

7:22

around and we threw rocks and I

7:22

mean, ran and we got her home safe.

7:27

The beginning of your security. Uh, professional life, you know, so that's

7:29

a great start though, to Ron because.

7:36

I love the connections of community,

7:36

because Dick did the same thing

7:39

when he was at Bloomfield. I think he was at Bloomfield

7:40

as a principal before St.

7:43

Catherine's, cause I'm a little bit older than you are. And, and it, he brought that same

7:45

feeling to Bloomfield, like being

7:49

able to relate to a wide range. Um, students and he, my brother was in

7:51

Citadel boxing, you know, with Raymond

7:56

Downey and, and, and, you know, there were

7:56

many guys that, that Billy Downey, um,

8:02

you know, that were in the boxing club.

8:04

So I didn't know we had that in

8:04

common, but I can see Citadel

8:09

boxing in my head right now. Like I can visualize that.

8:12

So St Catherine's for a bit.

8:15

And then we swing to. High school, which is, you know, for

8:18

us in Halifax, we know that we had

8:22

Queen Elizabeth High School, which

8:22

was supposedly the Protestant school.

8:26

And you had St Pat's

8:26

and you, you went to St.

8:28

Pat's, um, in, in your journey of, of

8:28

having a lot of places that you call

8:33

home and community, how was it at St.

8:36

Pats as.

8:39

Well, so, so even before that,

8:39

so Mike cause my junior highs,

8:42

I think a little interesting. Um, I went to Fairview for,

8:44

for two years and I failed like

8:48

three courses in grade eight. And Mr.

8:51

Clark, I don't know if you know Mr. Clark.

8:53

He was the principal there, Jerry.

8:56

Yeah. Jerry Clark. Great guy. Really great guy.

8:59

Actually. I don't know if he's still

8:59

around today, but uh, oh, he is.

9:03

He is. Yeah. So if you ever talk to him, tell him,

9:03

I said, hi, he probably remembers me.

9:07

So he brought me into the office, uh, in

9:07

grade eight I had failed three courses.

9:11

And he brought me in with my

9:11

mother and said, look, I'm just

9:14

going to give it to you straight. He said, all your son does here is ensure

9:14

that nobody else can do their work.

9:19

And he said, so we're

9:19

going to give you a deal.

9:21

We'll give you one free pass. You have to take summer

9:22

school, but you have to go.

9:25

If you're, if you're not going to repeat the grade, you have to go to a different school.

9:28

So I went to Corwallis, which was like,

9:28

Uh, fish, you know, out at sea, right.

9:33

For me when Cornwallis was just, I

9:33

didn't know anybody there, um, you

9:37

know, I played basketball, the Steelers. So there was, I guess, some kids from the

9:39

Norwood Knights team or whatever, that,

9:42

that a few kids that I knew, but I just,

9:42

I was just, it was an odd school for me to

9:47

go to, but it was, it was probably good,

9:47

you know, it, it, it hit the reset button.

9:52

I certainly, I think I did better. Yeah.

9:55

From an education perspective. In grade nine then St.

9:57

Pat's in grade 10 and St. Pat's was really rough for me.

10:00

I had a really, um, I had a rough go St.

10:03

Pat's was, was really.

10:06

Yeah. And there was, you know, as we know

10:07

for those people that are familiar

10:11

with Halifax, the range of St.

10:13

Pat's was all the way from Mulgrave

10:13

Park, um, to the north end to

10:18

some of the kids in Fairview. Cause you could go to Halifax West,

10:20

but you could also go to St Pat's.

10:24

Um, and then you had the south end. So the kids at Cornwallis, the school

10:25

that you're talking about just off

10:29

of Quinpool, they all went to St.

10:31

Pat. So there was a, there was a mix

10:31

and the same mix happened at

10:35

QEH, but, um, getting along.

10:38

So as you were in St.

10:40

Pat's as a youth, um, and at that

10:40

point, it seems as though you had

10:45

different stopping points, so it was

10:45

St Catherine's and then Timberly,

10:49

and then, you know, Fairview. So once you get to St Pat's...

10:54

I'm living in Armdale now, when I go to St. Pat's I'm in Armdale by Cowie Hill

10:59

okay. So what are you thinking about you

11:00

get your feet under you a little bit

11:04

about Cornwallis academically in St.

11:06

Patrick's, even though it wasn't

11:06

a great experience what's on your

11:09

mind, like, what are you going to do? Like what's,

11:12

I mean, that's a really good

11:12

and broad question, I think, because,

11:17

and it's funny when I think back. Today I hated school.

11:22

I just didn't enjoy it. And outlook, it took me into a mid to

11:23

late thirties to, to find out that I had

11:28

ADHD and D and M and M dyslexic in school.

11:31

That's like horrible. You're just a class clown

11:32

pain in the ass, you know?

11:35

And so my. Did not enjoy school.

11:39

And I, and it's funny,

11:39

cause today I love to learn.

11:41

I love to learn, but no one was

11:41

able to tap into that back then.

11:45

Very few and far between could

11:45

teachers tap into what I, you know,

11:49

to, to the ability that I have today. And, you know, maybe that maybe

11:52

that's changed in public schools, but

11:55

St Pat's was, was tough, you know? Cause cause um, I hung

11:57

out in every neighborhood.

12:00

I spent time in Uniacke Square and

12:00

Mulgrave Park and Spryfield, north end.

12:04

I was just like this nomad of, I probably

12:04

had friends in all neighborhoods,

12:08

but then that, that came sometimes

12:08

that was a problem because if there

12:12

was clashes between neighborhoods,

12:12

I kinda got caught in the middle.

12:15

Right. And that's. That's where my trouble started was in St.

12:19

Pat's. It was, you know, a few weeks in, I

12:20

got caught in the middle of a big, big

12:23

fight between a guy from my neighborhood

12:23

and a guy from Mulgrave Park, um,

12:27

actually Uniacke Square and it was bad. It was just, and from there it

12:29

was trouble for me for a little.

12:33

Yeah. And what a great, let me look

12:34

back off and see what I have these

12:38

conversations Ron to seeds of somebody.

12:41

So we've had Jordon Croucher on,

12:41

and we're going to talk about

12:44

Jordan's connection with you. We had DeRico Symondss on, you know,

12:45

there were people that talked about,

12:48

here's why it was when I was young. And then when we reflect.

12:51

That seed of St. Pats and you having the versatility to

12:52

be in different spaces, um, actually

12:58

becomes part of what you do as an adult. You know, like to be able to kind of

13:00

think outside the box and be versatile.

13:04

The other thing I w I

13:04

would think about is.

13:08

You know, mediating things. So your first, you know, business

13:09

is security like, and so from

13:16

Dick MacLean sending you out on

13:16

a security detail to navigating

13:22

and mediating these things at St.

13:24

Pat's because I remember St. Pat's dances were the powder keg

13:25

of these community clashes, right?

13:30

So from Uniacke Square, Mulgrave Park,

13:30

to Spryfield, to Fairview and the Pubs,

13:37

you were allowed to invite anyone to St. Pat's dances at the time.

13:41

And so, you know, post dance

13:41

used to be, you know, it's,

13:46

it's midnight, that's where my trouble was

13:49

it's midnight. And so I can, again, I can visualize

13:50

where you're at at that point.

13:53

So now I do know that you finish up at St.

13:56

Pat's. Um, you kinda get the travel bug then,

13:57

um, explain a little bit about you.

14:04

19.

14:06

Yeah, I guess I'll go 18. So my, um, my father was from

14:08

Florida and I never met him.

14:13

I, I, so I was born those who

14:13

know me from way back from St.

14:17

Catherine's days. Know me as Ronald Francis Poe III.

14:20

That was my born name. And then my mum remarried this guy

14:21

when I was, I guess, I don't know,

14:25

eight or nine, something like that. When we lived in Timberly it was her

14:26

first home, uh, post my grandmother's.

14:32

And so anyway, um, it was, um, at 18,

14:32

I was, I was still searching for a

14:40

potential relationship that I didn't

14:40

have, you know, I didn't have a father

14:43

relationship cause my stepfather

14:43

and my relationship was awful.

14:46

We just didn't, we didn't communicate. Didn't even talk, actually it just

14:47

was, wasn't a healthy relationship.

14:51

And so I got a letter from an uncle.

14:54

And I was 18 living on the corner

14:54

of Preston and Jenning street

14:57

in the, just off Jubilee it

14:57

was my first apartment at 18.

15:01

And I remember getting a letter from a guy

15:01

who's he's, he's now passed away, but he

15:04

was an uncle of mine and his name was Bob.

15:06

And he said, Hey, look, I know you don't

15:06

know your father, but I don't see why.

15:10

You know, there's still an opportunity to get to know your family down here in North Carolina

15:12

and, and, um, in different places.

15:15

And if you'd like, you know,

15:15

I'd like you to meet them.

15:18

And if you want, I can

15:18

connect you with your father.

15:21

And so. That pushes me to like 19, I, I wrote

15:22

back and said, yeah, here's my phone

15:27

number and loved to talk to my father. Cause I didn't.

15:29

I think, you know, as I look at

15:29

other people's relationships with

15:33

step parents, they're like, all

15:33

right, they're like love or hate.

15:35

And I just, unfortunately it was

15:35

on the not enjoying side of that.

15:38

And so I was, I was really open

15:38

to it and really longing for

15:42

this father figure relationship. And so I.

15:47

I get a call one day. And, uh, it's from one of my roommates,

15:48

Doug Townsend, who owns a canteen today.

15:53

And Doug, I remember I'm driving my car

15:53

and he said, you will not believe who,

15:56

just who I just talked to on the phone. I was like, who, who, who, there was a

15:58

girl I met on the weekend or something.

16:01

He said, no, it was your

16:01

father, your father called.

16:03

And I was like, I almost crashed the car. And so from there, this is kind

16:06

of interesting, but I, I go to.

16:10

I go to Florida and meet

16:10

him for the first time.

16:13

I'm like 20 now. And, um, you know, I knew through

16:14

conversations that the guy had, you

16:18

know, was bit of a bullshitter, you

16:18

know, I'd lived a bit of a wildlife

16:24

just through the things he would

16:24

say and comments he would make.

16:27

And I was able to call BS at a young age.

16:29

I met a lot. Interesting people from a lot

16:31

of different neighborhoods.

16:33

And so I had learned street smarts

16:33

and be able to read people as a

16:36

young age is from my environment. And so I knew my dad was just

16:37

full of it a lot of time.

16:39

And so I got to meet him. I stayed for a month in Orlando, Florida,

16:42

and he's like a superintendent building

16:46

what's called Lowe's home improvement

16:46

stores, kind of like a Walmart.

16:50

And it's just a bad experience. You know, I, I talk about actually

16:51

open my book, outrageous empowerment

16:54

with my experience of my father.

16:56

Like, you know, sitting down. In a, in a trailer watching a movie,

16:59

which to me, I was like, oh my God, I'm

17:03

finally watching a movie with my father. This is huge.

17:06

This is what I saw my friends do. And you know, things that people

17:08

take for granted, you know,

17:10

your dad, you think that for

17:10

granted, but you don't have a dad.

17:12

You don't take that. You're like, this is a big moment. Boom.

17:15

He falls asleep, you know? So these were crushing moments for me as

17:16

a, as an early, um, in my early twenties.

17:22

And so that relationship didn't work out.

17:25

I came back and, but I met a girl.

17:29

And, um, in, in, I dunno, one of the

17:29

nightclubs there, I guess I was 20 ish

17:34

and, and, and I stayed in touch with her. And then I, my first trip was England,

17:36

South Africa for two months to spend

17:41

time with her and her family and

17:41

travel South Africa and Australia.

17:44

So that's where I started with

17:44

travel and sorry for the long-winded

17:48

story, but it actually went from

17:48

my father to meeting this, this

17:51

girl from Pretoria, South Africa.

17:53

And then went there to visit her.

17:56

Nah, I'd like to energy can never

17:56

long-winded because the podcast is about

18:00

that, Ron and I love cause there's often

18:00

things that people say on the podcast.

18:04

Well, I didn't know that about Ron Lovett. I didn't know that about Steve Konchalski.

18:07

I didn't know that about Jordon Croucher. And so that, that does make a,

18:09

a really nice connection to,

18:15

um, you know, you come back.

18:17

How did you, how did you get to

18:17

the beginnings of Source Security?

18:24

Yeah. So when I came back, my sister was

18:24

playing soccer at the Mount St.

18:29

Vincent. And I just thought, you know, maybe

18:29

I should try that, you know, I mean,

18:33

look at quick, funny side story.

18:35

Here's how horrible I was at school. I was telling the story.

18:37

I had a 57 in math, right

18:37

when I graduated St.

18:40

Pat's and I was trying to get it to like 65. So I was going to night school to upgrade.

18:44

Now, of course I just cut school.

18:46

I was the only person with a car. I cut school halfway, and we go to the

18:48

Grawood, you know, and drink all the time.

18:53

And so I used to, usually when

18:53

I was having a few drinks,

18:56

I would call my teacher, Mr. Weston usually just torture

18:57

him at around two or 3:00 AM.

19:00

And he, I think he, he

19:00

didn't enjoy it, but he kinda

19:03

enjoyed that a little bit too. And so anyway, I'll never forget.

19:07

Night school is over. And, uh, I call him up,

19:09

I'm having some drinks.

19:11

00 AM the poor guy. Right.

19:14

And, uh, and he says,

19:14

Ron, geez, it's 2:00 AM.

19:16

And I said, yeah, yeah, sorry, Mr. West. Just want to see what

19:18

you're up to, you know? And he goes, look, I gotta

19:19

get, I got, I got to get to it.

19:24

I got good news and bad news. And I'm like, well, what is it?

19:26

He goes, well, good news is you passed. And I'm like, I pass.

19:29

I'm like, that's, that's great news. I'm like, I pass, night school.

19:32

This is big. He goes, well, bad news is, he goes, I've

19:33

been teaching night school for 25 years

19:38

and you're the first person to ever pay

19:38

$140 to downgrade from a 57 to a 50.

19:48

You said, I like you, Ron, he

19:48

said, if you want to give you, I'll

19:51

just let you keep your old mark. Thanks, Mr. West. I'll keep the old one.

19:53

So, so you know, so, so over there I

19:53

traveled and then I started trying to

19:58

Mount, because it was half price for

19:58

second sibling and I paid myself, you

20:01

know, my mum wasn't going to pay for it. Didn't have the money, but it

20:03

was like 200 bucks a course.

20:05

So I paid for. Went there.

20:08

And then I did my second trip. I did a semester, I took two half

20:10

credits and then I went traveling

20:14

again and I went this time. I went to, um, I went to Spain, Italy,

20:16

France, Morocco, Northern Africa.

20:22

And I just, I just was

20:22

learning so much at that time.

20:25

Right, those two trips. I wasn't a tourist.

20:28

That was a. And I was learning about culture

20:29

and food and different things.

20:33

And, you know, and I had learned

20:33

so much and I thought, geez,

20:36

this is the type of learning. Like I, I had found the learning

20:37

that I wanted and that I was able

20:41

to tap into the learning I needed.

20:44

And, and that, that works for me. And it is through traveling and

20:45

meeting people and asking questions.

20:48

And my use my senses more than just taking

20:48

information off a page in some cases.

20:53

And, and, and look, I'm a selfish learner.

20:55

I, if I enjoy it, I'd like it. If I don't, I, I, my ADHD kind of.

21:04

Yeah.

21:06

Yeah. And it's, um, it's again,

21:06

I'm an intent listener.

21:11

And so when you're talking,

21:11

I'm seeing often see curriculum

21:15

and learning is way beyond. So as you're traveling, there's

21:17

something about, and not being

21:20

a tourist, but being a traveler. And I experienced that to Ron when I went

21:22

to teach in the Caribbean and I really

21:27

enjoyed not knowing stuff like, because

21:27

when you travel, you're vulnerable,

21:32

you don't really know the language. Usually you don't know the customs,

21:33

but there's a learning that goes on.

21:38

And so I really, that resonates

21:38

with me that it really triggered.

21:42

Inside of you. Yes, I am a learner and I

21:43

like to learn certain things.

21:46

And, and so this really kind of, um,

21:46

it goes and starts to go into your

21:53

personal life, your professional

21:53

life, that as you're now in your

21:57

twenties, and you're figuring it out. I just love how your story is building

21:59

the foundation for understanding

22:04

people from a different perspective. Um, yeah, you, you, you do that.

22:10

So as you're like, so now the security

22:10

business, because Jordon Croucher in

22:15

his podcast, the episode with us said

22:15

that you hired him, you know, to do

22:19

some static security, which led to him

22:19

getting a student, a support worker job.

22:25

Right at QEH at the time.

22:27

So, um, I know there's, I've heard

22:27

the story of how you got into jujitsu.

22:33

Gracie's security, give a little bit

22:33

of that leading up to Source Security.

22:38

Sure. So it, it actually. On the traveling front.

22:41

So I, um, I came back and I was doing a

22:41

sales job, uh, for Telus do doing kind

22:47

of outside sales commission based sales. And then I did another trip.

22:50

I did Costa Rica, Panama,

22:50

Colombia three months.

22:54

And, you know, and I, I like kind of

22:54

living on the edge a little bit and

22:57

I was in trouble at back here, you

22:57

know, marijuana business and stuff.

23:01

And, and, and so I kind like

23:01

living on the edge and so.

23:05

You know, Costa Rica was fun. I enjoyed it. Panama was interesting.

23:08

You know, I was involved my first

23:08

earthquake in Bocas Del Toro on an island.

23:12

And then I wanted, I was curious

23:12

about Colombia and everyone

23:15

said, don't go to Columbia. There's 350 Americans kidnapped today.

23:18

And I was like, I'm going to Columbia. Like I'm also grew up, like,

23:20

don't tell me not what not to do.

23:22

I do it right away. That was a really dumb

23:23

thing for me to hear. Right. Cause I'm, I'm going to do it.

23:26

So I went to. And, um, it was in Northern Columbia.

23:31

There's a place called, Santa Marta. And there's a park called park Tyrona,

23:33

which I heard today is quite built out.

23:36

But back then, there was nobody there

23:36

and there was no travelers in Columbia.

23:39

There was a couple, you know, one

23:39

guy from the UK, like literally there

23:43

was a dozen of us, most were from

23:43

Israel, like guys and girls from

23:46

Israel, few Australians, no Americans.

23:50

And so there was the same group. You'd see, going place to place an in.

23:53

Uh, and then you, you know, we

23:53

stayed in hammocks, in open huts.

23:57

That's where you slept, like I'm talking

23:57

in the middle of nowhere and you know,

24:01

I was lost in the jungle up there. I mean, just stuff that was

24:03

crazy when I think of even my

24:06

friends that I thought were crazy. So talk to me today and they're

24:08

like, you weren't right. Like you would go to these crazy

24:10

places and you would call us and

24:15

say, Hey, do you want to come? I'm going to Columbia.

24:17

And they say, well, who's going. And I'd say, well, we'll just me.

24:19

And they'd say, no, no, I'm not going. That's the stupidest

24:21

thing I've ever heard. And now, you know, I, it

24:22

makes me laugh now, but yeah.

24:27

I was training Brazilian

24:27

jujitsu, um, at the time.

24:30

And I had trained him in, you know, I was

24:30

training under Renzo Gracie, and in New

24:33

York, that's where I was getting my belts. You go fight his students, you beat them.

24:36

He gives you a belt. And I thought I could be

24:37

a bodyguard at the time.

24:40

I thought, you know, I've got

24:40

this kind of unique ability.

24:43

I can look after myself. I can read people, read energy.

24:46

Not in, but, but you know, you

24:46

don't know what you don't know.

24:48

And what I didn't know is there

24:48

was no work to be a bodyguard

24:51

or no full-time at Halifax. Like it wasn't gonna happen.

24:54

And so I'm reading a book on the beach of,

24:54

in Park Tayrona and Columbia about this.

24:58

I think it was called One Hell of a Ride. And it was about an English

25:00

gangster named David Courtney,

25:03

who used to rent his friends out

25:03

to nightclubs security companies.

25:07

He wasn't the company, but they would

25:07

like, Hey, I need some tough guys.

25:10

He would give him his friends

25:10

and he'd make two bucks an hour.

25:14

Before I left for Columbia, I was

25:14

working at a few bars and I, I was, I

25:17

mean, you know, I had a horrible name

25:17

Augy in Halifax as a, as a shithead,

25:22

you know, someone to cause trouble. I was kicked in every bar when

25:24

I was 18 and a few restaurants.

25:26

I mean, it was just, you know, I was

25:26

kicked out of the Palace three times Bard

25:29

before I was 19 to, so, so before I left

25:29

a few bars were using me to kind of keep

25:35

the places cleaned up, like Planet Pool. I would show up with

25:37

my own metal detector. And, you know, I was respected.

25:40

And so I could, you know, had no problem.

25:43

Everybody would behave when I was there at kicked them out. And, and so I was doing that a

25:45

few bars went to Columbia and read

25:48

this book, had this idea to start

25:48

a nightclub security company.

25:52

And when I came back, you know, Remo

25:52

who's passed now from, from Copacabana on.

25:57

Um, and, and a few other bar owners

25:57

who say, Hey, could you come back?

26:00

You know, these places get a little messy where you're gone. I said, I will, but I had some leverage.

26:04

I said, not as Ron Lovett, but

26:04

it's as a company, I need to

26:07

run the security at the bar. And that's how we started

26:09

in 2001 was Source Security.

26:13

Nice. No, that's, that's a great,

26:14

and everything links together.

26:17

Again, as you, as you tell this growth

26:17

story, it really links together.

26:21

And as I said, you were also

26:21

because you had your connections

26:26

with so many communities. I know, even in our African Nova

26:27

Scotia community, a lot of people

26:30

know you and a lot of young guys or

26:30

guys your age would say, Hey, hire me.

26:34

And they trusted you. You trusted them because these

26:36

are guys that might not have been

26:39

hired by other security companies. But you were like, so it blows up, right?

26:45

Like that one idea, because

26:45

you were getting the right

26:48

people who had the same skills.

26:50

You talk about Ron. Like when you show up to the club and

26:51

you're, uh, you're drinking and you're

26:55

a young person and one of the tougher

26:55

guys around is kind of out the door.

27:00

You behave yourself. And when there's, when these

27:01

tougher guys became multiple.

27:05

Now your, your, your company's growing. So it grows to a point where you end

27:07

up doing more than just nightclub.

27:11

Right? You get into a Static.

27:13

Yeah, Static. And, and, and, you know, my first

27:14

personal security gig was Ringo Starr.

27:18

2006. I went to hire by a

27:18

company out of Ontario.

27:20

I went to the Casinorama in Orillia and I

27:20

was Ringo Starr's bodyguard for a month.

27:25

And that was, you know, think about that.

27:28

It was wild. You know, I had no biz,

27:28

I didn't know who he was. I N nothing with the Beatles

27:30

I had to get a picture I was

27:33

freaked out at the airport. Wasn't even know what

27:34

this guy looked like. Um, and you know, it was a

27:36

good experience, but I had no

27:39

training, no training at all. It was just a guy that

27:40

ran doors in Halifax.

27:42

You know, that I thought that was wild.

27:45

As I, as I looked back and I was

27:45

there for one month trying to run.

27:48

I remember we were doing security for the

27:48

Trailer Park Boys, people weren't showing

27:52

up, and this is the Static Security. It was disaster Michael Clattenburg

27:53

calling me yelling at me.

27:57

And there was no the phone, you know,

27:57

there was no good phone plans at

28:00

the time and I'm not joking, Augy. My phone bill was more than I was

28:02

getting paid to be Ringo's body guard.

28:06

Like

28:08

it was so bad. So, so then, like these are the, um,

28:11

the foundations for your first book

28:16

to so, uh, Outrageous Empowerment.

28:20

Uh, you're starting to, because now

28:20

you're an expert in business thinking.

28:25

So at that point, what

28:25

are you realizing about.

28:29

Um, the running a business and

28:29

connecting with your employees.

28:34

Cause, cause I think that's something

28:34

that you started to get an expertise in.

28:38

Yeah. You know, I mean, it's interesting. Um, I think of this in phases,

28:41

I think I always was able to

28:44

make people feel comfortable. You went back to this earlier and, and,

28:45

and, you know, everybody from Jordon

28:49

to a lot of guys that I grew up with

28:49

or knew from different neighborhoods,

28:52

and I was able to kind of bring

28:52

people together back to kind of

28:55

facilitating and finding common ground.

28:58

And I always, I feel like I had

28:58

maybe just a natural ability at

29:01

that because I was, my eyes were

29:01

open to so many different things.

29:05

So my, I didn't have some of the

29:05

biases that maybe other people

29:07

had because I spent so much time. And I mean, look at Jordan.

29:10

Jordan was like my best buddy growing up.

29:13

I mean, I lived at his

29:13

house, you know what I mean?

29:16

I, you know, Debbie and I remember

29:16

just a quick side story, but I

29:20

remember one time I was sleeping

29:20

over in Jordan is, ah, it's not good.

29:23

Your mom's on the phone. It's not looking so good. I said, what do you mean?

29:26

So I get the phone. And my mom says, where are you?

29:29

You know, what are you doing? I said, nothing. I'm just hanging out Jordan's house.

29:32

I've been there for two days at this point or something. She goes, well, we get, you

29:34

know, there's a problem.

29:37

And I said, what's the problem. She goes, well, our power bill has

29:38

been through the roof for the last

29:42

three months and it's not good.

29:44

And I said, well, why do I care? I don't care about the power bill.

29:47

Geez. Well, you don't care until we open

29:47

your closet door and found all the

29:50

marijuana plants and get your ass home. And I was like, Yeah, it was wild, but yeah.

29:59

And so it got back to just tapping

29:59

into people and, and Jordon.

30:04

Yeah, he, he, he worked as a

30:04

student resource officer and we

30:07

started that position as, uh,

30:07

we had various high schools.

30:12

We call the SRO student resource

30:12

officer program was a plain clothes,

30:16

student security and Jordan, I mean,

30:16

Jordon, just such a humble guy.

30:20

This was, we weren't looking for tough guys. Jordan was never a tough guy.

30:23

We were looking for people with the

30:23

ability to make people feel welcome.

30:27

And to, um, to make, you know, D that

30:27

wasn't confrontational, didn't have an ego

30:32

and Jordan just checked all those boxes. He was perfect.

30:35

You know, Jordan, wasn't a troublemaker. He didn't, he didn't even

30:36

make divisive comments.

30:39

He was more silly and, and, and,

30:39

and a warm, um, warm personality.

30:44

So that's why Jordon was chosen. Not because he could look

30:45

after himself, you know?

30:48

And, um, so, so. The the, the, the security company

30:51

gave me the ability to tic-tac-toe.

30:54

What is, what does a

30:54

situation really require?

30:57

Not just what the customer is asking

30:57

for, but what am I seeing based on my

31:01

own experience or knowledge, and then

31:01

how do I fit a good individual or someone

31:05

that I think fits the bill in there? And look, it didn't work

31:07

out every time either. Sometimes that was the challenge.

31:11

Of course, of course. So, and so I did, you know, I've been, as

31:12

I said, I've been following and listening

31:18

to your podcasts and, and interviews

31:18

and, and, um, you know, you and I both

31:23

were interviewed by John DeMont at

31:23

Saltwire and I, so I listened to your

31:27

whole interview and, um, there's a.

31:31

I now see there's something going

31:31

on, where you're starting to realize

31:35

about empowerment of employees. And I know that there were, there

31:38

were ways that you started to.

31:42

Um, think outside the box,

31:42

as far as what you can offer

31:45

someone that's working for you. And, and we often think about

31:46

security guards as well, lower level.

31:49

They're not the smartest guys. Like there's these misconceptions and

31:51

those misconceptions can lead to us.

31:56

Treating people badly,

31:56

low wage, fire, fire.

32:00

Like we think they're expendable. What started to come to your mind too, as

32:02

you're going, and you're kind of Source

32:06

Security is growing up, blow it up. You sell the company.

32:11

Now your entrepreneurial

32:11

spirit is bubbling.

32:16

What, what, what, what are you

32:16

starting to see now is what you want

32:18

to do going forward with businesses

32:18

and people who work for you?

32:24

Well, can I rewind? So I think there's a part that's important

32:25

about the security company that, that

32:29

I'll call it an aha moment on tapping

32:29

into what I call untapped potential.

32:33

Right. Okay. And it's interesting because.

32:37

It probably as I think, as we're talking

32:37

a lot about this and you think about

32:41

this Jordon Croucher situation, right? And so to me, as we're talking

32:43

through this that is tapping into

32:48

Jordan's maybe untapped potential me

32:48

saying that that's his own genius.

32:51

He's a charismatic guy, blah, blah, blah. And so, but as the company grew and

32:53

scaled, the one thing that always had.

33:01

Dig into these strategies

33:01

was relationships.

33:03

And what I mean by that is Augy

33:03

at this point, you know, we had

33:06

security guards in Vancouver and so

33:06

I would meet, I would get on a plane.

33:10

I'd go to the site, bring a security

33:10

guard at coffee, and there'd be

33:13

someone from India and I've talked to

33:13

them about like, so tell me about you

33:18

and your family and why did you come

33:18

here and what did you do before you

33:21

came here and then boom, you find. This person was the CFO of a large

33:23

company in India, and now he's here and

33:30

I would be like, oh my God, you were,

33:30

you were like the lead accountant.

33:33

He was CFO for a large Corp and you

33:33

did this for your family and you have

33:37

all those incredible skills and I'm not

33:37

knocking what you're doing today, but

33:41

you're sitting here for 12 bucks an hour. Writing security reports about trucks

33:43

that come in and out what a horrible

33:47

use of your brain or some of your brain.

33:50

And so my, my, the wheels

33:50

started to turn, uh, how do you

33:54

tap into untapped potential? Because we all can do a few things,

33:56

but we have so much potential.

33:59

We can do so much else and. And even though we had hired

34:02

individuals for certain jobs, when I

34:06

started to get to know them and look

34:06

at the entire individual and their

34:10

skills as a human being, and then

34:10

say, well, how do we tap into that?

34:12

That was really interesting. That's when things started to change.

34:16

Right. And that's what turned

34:16

the company around that.

34:19

That was, that was a big aha moment

34:19

is tapping into untapped potential.

34:23

And that's why the subtitle of the book

34:23

is Giving Employees their Brains Back.

34:27

Not that they didn't have brains. I just wanted to get the usage of it.

34:31

Their brains would I, I

34:31

found the industry, took it.

34:34

I

34:34

love that. I love that. And I, and coming from a marginalized

34:36

community, Ron, it even, you know,

34:41

resonates with me on a cultural

34:41

equity level because there's so much

34:45

untapped potential in our community. Um, but it was often not seen

34:47

because of, you know, whatever

34:51

prejudices and misconceptions.

34:54

And so, um, so, uh, as we're

34:54

moving forward and I know.

34:59

There are sense like that vision that

34:59

you had about untapped potential.

35:04

Now you're talking to other business

35:04

people, industry partners, companies

35:09

about this, are you really valuing

35:09

the people that, that work for you

35:13

and how that benefits like didn't you,

35:13

did you come up with a sense of when

35:17

I do this, it's benefiting the company

35:21

a hundred percent and look most. You know, that's why the title of the

35:23

book is Outrageous Empowerment, right?

35:28

Because that, that same, um,

35:28

security guard would be involved

35:32

in reconciling my bank accounts. And most company owners can't

35:33

even fathom having, you know, a

35:37

part-time individual that they don't

35:37

know that might have this skill.

35:41

Giving them access to log into

35:41

the bank account, wrecking things.

35:44

I mean, am I say Rec reconciliation,

35:44

um, that they just can't

35:49

fathom it and most can't today. And so, you know, sometimes when I talk

35:50

about that or, you know, I see a lot

35:56

of leaders and owners say that would

35:56

never work in our industry, never work.

35:59

I mean, they're just so sure that

35:59

the way it is is the way it is.

36:02

And, and there's one thing that I'm sure

36:02

of, which is I love to challenge the

36:06

status quo and flip things on their head. That's what I was doing.

36:10

And you know, you talk

36:10

about the next gig for me.

36:14

I guess for me, the, the outcome of

36:14

that was, I mean, I almost lost a

36:17

million dollars in 2014, 15 a lot.

36:19

Like I was sole shareholder

36:19

almost went bankrupt.

36:22

And through that process and building

36:22

company culture, turn the company around.

36:26

We grew 60% year over year. Sold for 24 times multiple, I was going to

36:28

give the company away a few years before.

36:32

And so it was look, I

36:32

didn't have to be sold.

36:36

It literally worked for me. You know, it changed my

36:38

family, turn it around. I could see people, you know,

36:40

really engaged in the business

36:44

and, and, you know, turning. Disgruntled employees into

36:46

passionate stakeholders.

36:49

Right? That was always my, my, my BHAG

36:50

was wasn't a revenue numbers.

36:54

Could I get people to care? And it was through processes like

36:55

that and systemizing things like

36:59

that, that people started to care

36:59

and, and that, you know, and we use

37:02

that same philosophy at Vita today. It's different, they're not employees

37:04

or community members and, and residents,

37:08

but we're following the same playbook.

37:11

Yeah, that's a great segue because

37:11

as we come to, you know, the last few

37:16

minutes of this, this great conversation,

37:16

I really do thank you again, Ron.

37:19

Uh, I had to go back and listen to

37:19

the podcast afterwards and there's

37:23

so much learning in it, right? Like it's, it's, it's true.

37:26

Analogies and metaphors. Following the story, but there's

37:27

so much to learn from it.

37:31

So get to Vida. And I'm excited about Vida Living

37:32

because the concept around empowering

37:37

tenants is the opposite of slumlords.

37:40

And so which, which is really exploiting

37:40

people who really are living in low rent

37:46

place. Cause that's all they can afford,

37:46

but that doesn't mean that the

37:51

elevator has to smell like urine. It doesn't mean that the

37:52

carpets have to look terrible.

37:55

It doesn't mean that there's no,

37:55

the security buttons not working.

37:59

And so can you talk a little bit

37:59

about the beginning of Vita and,

38:04

and how you use that same outrageous

38:04

empowerment, um, kind of concept

38:11

to, um, owning apartment buildings.

38:15

Yeah. So, so, you know, so I, I had owned

38:15

apartments, you know, my, my first

38:19

apartment building was on Linette

38:19

road or drive in Springfield.

38:22

It was a six unit. I was 26. I paid 89,000 for six units, right?

38:28

Like it's 12 grand, a unit or

38:28

something, whatever the math

38:30

is on that and went there.

38:32

And, you know, I think the, my mortgage

38:32

was $373, but it brought in 3,600 each

38:38

everybody's paying 600 for a two bedroom,

38:38

including heat, hot water back then.

38:41

But back then I had to meet with everybody. And some people knew me.

38:44

I'd meet out. And I bought everybody a case of

38:45

beer and laid the law and I said,

38:48

pay your rent and be a good person. Or I'm going to come in

38:50

here and throw you out. Like, that's how I fell into

38:51

the category of I'm going to

38:56

be a rough and tough landlord. That's going to be no BS.

38:59

Um, you know, you pay your

38:59

rent and be a good person.

39:01

Don't don't damage the place. And that's, that's what

39:02

this relationship becomes.

39:05

And so what happened, Augy is

39:05

in 2015, something like that.

39:09

16, I had bought a 12 unit on Linette.

39:13

Uh, sorry, not Linette on

39:13

Evans avenue in Fairview.

39:15

And it was a very tough building. Very tough at the time.

39:19

Right, man, it was rough 50% vacancy

39:19

smashed holes in the, there was a guy

39:26

from a really nice guy, but he was from

39:26

Egypt and he was just in over his head.

39:30

Right. He was just getting eaten alive by, you

39:31

know, butting heads with the customers.

39:34

It was, it was not working. And, um, and so anyway, um, I

39:37

bought that with Shaun Majumder,

39:42

who's a comedian, right? You probably know of Shaun.

39:44

He used to be in This Hour Has 22 Minutes. So Shaun put some money in and

39:46

put some money up and we bought

39:48

this thing and I was going in with

39:48

like, okay, roll up my sleeves.

39:51

I'm going to sort this place out. And then I thought.

39:55

There's gotta be an opportunity to follow

39:55

the same play from the security company.

39:58

What if we went back to the drawing board

39:58

and asked the same question, which helped

40:02

me in the security business, which was

40:02

what if he had to restart this industry?

40:07

And so to me, what if he had to restart

40:07

that kind of, I'm going to back then

40:11

I called affordable housing today. I call it workforce housing.

40:14

Um, but what if he had to

40:14

restart that from scratch?

40:16

What would that look like? And. Very quickly through talking to people

40:18

in the building around community members.

40:22

There was four things lacking

40:22

in that section of the market.

40:25

It was safety and security. You know, you had crap security systems,

40:27

no security systems, too, like crap, you

40:31

know, locks on the door where tenants

40:31

from five years ago could still get in.

40:36

Um, you know, they never

40:36

changed the front door lock.

40:38

Right. And so that was a disaster. It was not clean, no sense of

40:40

community and the unorthodox pieces,

40:45

no opportunity for, for people. So long story short.

40:49

Put a fob entry system in

40:49

gave people and cameras.

40:52

So people had more confidence that they

40:52

could go in to, from, from, from an,

40:56

and, uh, do an in and out of their units.

40:59

Made sure the, the building

40:59

was clean inside and out that

41:02

gave people a sense of pride. So now they had pride confidence, and

41:03

then we start to get creative, you

41:06

know, these buildings, these old stick

41:06

walk-up, um, wood-frame buildings with,

41:11

without elevators that were made in the

41:11

seventies, eighties, nineties, there's.

41:14

There's no amenity rooms. You know, now buildings gets built.

41:17

It's like you get this and this and this and this. Right.

41:20

These old buildings weren't built like that. There was, there was not even an

41:21

office unless it was 40, 50, 60 units.

41:26

So we had to be creative. We gutted the storage area that

41:28

was just mice and rat infested.

41:31

Put a gym down there. I donated most of my old gear

41:32

and bought stuff off Kijiji.

41:35

We put a library up on the third floor. All of a sudden we knew

41:38

something was going on.

41:40

There was the temperature

41:40

had changed, right?

41:42

People were now interested

41:42

in what was going on.

41:45

We started had barbecue

41:45

events and doing things.

41:47

Then the last part of opportunity was

41:47

back to the security days of getting to

41:51

know customers getting to know tenants. And Hey, what do you do outside of.

41:55

Raising children. Well, you know, I used to paint.

41:57

Wow. Would you be interested in painting? Yes, I would. What did you do?

42:00

You know, you know, getting to know

42:00

people, um, allowed me to tap into the

42:05

untapped potential and start to get them

42:05

to participate in what I'll call building

42:10

the community, fixing the building,

42:10

cleaning the building, doing all these

42:12

different things, um, meeting each other.

42:15

And so that I knew we

42:15

were on to something.

42:18

And then I, once I knew we were onto

42:18

something, we just wanted to put, um,

42:21

a brand on it and the brand was Vida

42:21

and that was also very strategic to.

42:25

You know, as my time in

42:25

Colombia, I speak Spanish.

42:28

I love the Spanish culture and the word

42:28

Vida is the word for lifetime and Vida

42:33

to me, if you look at it, you know, if

42:33

you go to Vidaliving.ca or check us out

42:37

online, you'll see that the, the, the

42:37

logo visually is made to look like you're

42:42

going to a spa, not to a property, right.

42:44

It's supposed to be very welcoming. So it's very intentional, the look and

42:46

the color and the words, very intentional.

42:52

Well, the green

42:52

is, is put like that.

42:55

That is a goal. We know that as human, that

42:56

means go and it means life and

42:59

it means plants and all that. Now it's fantastic work, Ron.

43:03

I mean, I think about, you know,

43:03

we try to talk about change and a

43:07

lot of times change for people as. And so what you're talking about

43:10

is this a sustainable rethinking of

43:15

housing and affordable housing and how

43:15

that affects a community is tremendous

43:22

because we both know the people that

43:22

are living at the area, you know,

43:26

we've now the other end of it is. Um, squeezing them out by upping the

43:29

rent and that, that, that renovation,

43:33

eviction piece, like, and so where

43:33

are those people supposed to go?

43:36

So instead of kicking them out

43:36

or exploiting them, why not?

43:41

Build a gym, why not get a library?

43:43

And I know that you had a door

43:43

painting contest, um, uh, that, that

43:47

again, got people to have pride. And this is a nice way to kind

43:50

of wrap up Ron, because you

43:53

circled it back to community. So if I come in the building and I

43:55

lived on Evans avenue, this is what

43:58

I first got back from the Caribbean. I was teaching at Halifax West that

43:59

used to be on Dutch Village Road.

44:03

And that's what I could

44:03

afford at the time.

44:06

And there was actually not community.

44:09

It was fear like you got,

44:09

and you got in your house and

44:13

your unit and you locked up. And even when you left the unit,

44:15

you weren't sure if your stuff was

44:18

going to be there when you got back. Um, and so the approach you took and

44:20

now I want to just get to how you

44:25

expanded that as a wrap up, because

44:25

I know that vena, you now look for

44:28

the kind of like medium-sized cities

44:28

with that same type of housing.

44:34

So that you don't get into the

44:34

Toronto Montreal thing, but that's

44:38

happening in more than just Halifax,

44:38

right around these type of buildings.

44:42

Yeah. You know, I mean the, the main

44:42

pockets where an HRM obviously, and

44:47

we look, you know, the one that's

44:47

been been in the media is a 500 block.

44:50

We essentially acquired the 500 block. We've got to roll up our sleeves.

44:53

That's our big project now that we want

44:53

to really finally, that's been a community

44:58

that's been in the media as of late.

45:00

We want it to be in the media for the

45:00

right reasons, not the wrong reason.

45:03

And yes. And so now know we've got work to

45:03

do, and we're going to get it done.

45:06

And, and I think, you know, you think

45:06

about what you talked about, um, as

45:11

far as the door colors, you know, and,

45:11

and actually that came from this book

45:15

Joyful, which I know that's going on here.

45:19

Excellent book. It just talks about, I bought

45:21

this at the Discovery Center when

45:23

I was down there with the kids. Actually, I just noticed it and,

45:24

and it, and the subtitles, the

45:27

surprising power of ordinary things

45:27

to create extraordinary happiness

45:32

and this challenges, the status quo.

45:35

It doesn't disagree with, um, depression,

45:35

mental health, but it, but it does

45:39

say that what you see here and feel on

45:39

the exterior can give you happiness.

45:44

And so it kinda to, to bring this into

45:44

a nutshell, if you were having a really

45:48

crappy day Augy and you saw a rainbow,

45:48

it might give you a moment of joy and

45:52

it's talks about things like that. Um, or a baby was to come in your arms.

45:57

You probably have a moment of happiness. And so, you know, we, we started paint

45:59

the door colors to say like, like if you

46:03

walk down these hallways and you, you

46:03

were there and Evans, I mean that that's,

46:07

I don't know where you go to be more

46:07

depressed than one of these hallways.

46:10

There's no, they're not lit. Well, it's horrible.

46:14

So you have to push the status quo

46:14

and not everybody's going to like it.

46:18

I'll tell you some, some, some of our

46:18

customers we'll acquire a building.

46:21

And so they didn't come in through our platform. We bought the building and they're

46:23

like, this is the stupidest

46:26

thing I've ever heard of. And it's okay.

46:28

I'm not saying I'm right. But there's a misalignment.

46:30

And I'll say, if you don't like it,

46:30

maybe you should live somewhere where

46:32

you can go back to the hall that it was. But there's some people that really like

46:34

this it's these types of things that we do

46:38

that make people say, I really like this.

46:41

This is really for me. And that's our customer versus

46:42

those who say it's not for me.

46:45

And that's okay too. And not. And so what we do is we try

46:47

to get everybody on board.

46:49

So what you were referring to is

46:49

we run these community contests.

46:52

So our door colors were 12 colors. And each week we had people name the

46:54

suites because we're going to name

46:58

them like they do at cottages, right. Robin's red for red.

47:02

And so we will do these community goals. We had a goal of 350 entries.

47:06

If we did that, we would

47:06

draw half a month's free.

47:08

Um, And we got to 450.

47:12

So not only would we draw in 25 gift

47:12

cards for people that, that sent names

47:16

in, but we drew for a half months,

47:16

free rent and a full month free rent.

47:19

So we want people to be encouraged

47:19

like, wow, this is kind of cool.

47:22

Like I get to participate in the future

47:22

of this community and it's kind of fun.

47:27

It's gamified and hey one. Uh, I got a gift card

47:28

or one, some free rent. This, I should really pay attention to

47:30

tell people that there's some value here.

47:35

Yeah. And that, that leads us to a as

47:35

you and you should, what strikes me

47:39

is for someone to tell you didn't

47:39

like school, you read a lot, right?

47:43

And it goes to show you right. It's it's what fits.

47:46

You have to individualize the experience.

47:49

So you love learning around traveling. You read a lot, you reference

47:51

books, you just showed a book.

47:54

So I want to end off talking about your

47:54

recent book, Scaling Culture, uh, and you

48:00

have a podcast Scaling Culture as well. Um, so as it kind of like a nice

48:02

boat or wrap this up, you build a

48:07

culture around Source Security, you

48:07

build a culture around Vida Living.

48:13

What are you saying to other business

48:13

leaders around scaling culture?

48:17

So I think a few things, right. Um, I think as business leaders, the, the,

48:19

the pandemic has changed the narrative

48:26

and, and the way we need to be thinking

48:26

about employees at work, because for the

48:31

most part, you know, and I, I would've

48:31

fell into this category for the most

48:36

part, but you, and what I mean is. Pre pandemic.

48:40

A lot of companies would say,

48:40

look, Augy, you work here and

48:43

I pay you a wage for that wage.

48:45

You need to show up and do your, the, you

48:45

know, you need to do a great job here.

48:49

And I don't care about what

48:49

happens with you and your family.

48:51

That's that's drama. That's none of my business.

48:54

That was the old way. Now it's look Augy.

48:57

I, as you work in here, I feel like,

48:57

um, What I'd like to provide you is,

49:03

is enough benefits and experiences in

49:03

safety, security, et cetera, to make

49:08

you the best version of yourself. And for that, I would like the best

49:09

version of you here, but I feel,

49:14

um, a strong sense of, um, what's

49:14

the word, accountability to do that.

49:18

It's it's our job as leaders. To make an and allow people and

49:20

bring up the best in them through,

49:25

through our work environments. And if you do that, then you'll

49:26

get the best of them at work.

49:30

If that makes sense. And then I come back to the simplicity of,

49:31

you know, I look at business like sports.

49:35

If you want to win the game,

49:35

you have the best team and the

49:37

best team treat the players. The best they work, the best

49:38

they have the training, the

49:41

best, you know, mental health. They, they, they, they really

49:43

look at the athlete as a whole.

49:45

They help their family. I just use the same strategy in business,

49:46

you know, and, and if you, you have

49:50

the right players, you win the game. And so we've, you know, I'm

49:52

saying we're winning this game.

49:55

We've scaled so quickly. I, I couldn't even imagine, you know,

49:56

three years ago, three and a half,

49:59

we started with a hundred units. We have over 2000 units today here,

50:00

Winnipeg and Winnipeg in Nova Scotia.

50:06

So it's because of that team.

50:08

And so, so then the question

50:08

is, how do you do that?

50:11

Right? How do you do that? Because.

50:14

The belief in some people's

50:14

minds is that is fluffy and

50:18

it's, you know, it's just floppy. And I, and again, I probably

50:19

used to think that as well until

50:23

I saw the, the outcomes of it. And, but those who believe in

50:25

culture, treating people really

50:29

well and getting the best, um, of

50:29

them don't know how to execute.

50:33

It's hard to say, well, okay, thanks, Augy. I believe you.

50:36

But how do I do that? Where do I start? And how do I sustain it?

50:39

And so scaling culture is the

50:39

playbook that I never had.

50:43

And it's, it's everything that I've

50:43

learned, not just from me and my own

50:46

experiences, but from podcast guests,

50:46

from Jeff Immelt, from GE to Francis

50:51

fray, from Harvard that, you know, to,

50:51

to some of the best thought leaders and

50:55

best companies and what they do from, um,

50:55

from different strategies, because you

51:00

have to be strategic about your culture.

51:02

You know, that old saying culture

51:02

eats strategy for breakfast is

51:05

great because you need to be

51:05

strategic about your culture.

51:08

You lose.

51:10

Yeah, you're exactly right in

51:10

community and culture and, um, personal

51:16

relationships, uh, making emotional

51:16

connections with people being vulnerable.

51:21

Those were all seen as

51:21

wishy-washy abstract things.

51:24

But I agree with you because Empathize

51:24

Others: is very much about that too

51:27

is no there's real concrete, um, um,

51:27

things, you tangible things that you

51:34

can do, strategies that will help.

51:37

Yeah. And, and so I, I want to thank you, Ron,

51:38

for what you're doing for, for, for, you

51:45

know, having that Halifax foundation. Um, and, and now, uh, making space

51:47

because what you talk about Ron, which the

51:53

beautiful part it's universally designed. So by business leaders, having that

51:55

scaling culture, Idea that equity

52:00

diversity inclusion is built into that. You don't need to talk about it.

52:04

We get to know people, whether they're

52:04

from south Asia, whether they're from

52:06

Mulgrave park, whether they're from

52:06

the south end, it doesn't matter.

52:11

You're just going to make

52:11

those connections with them.

52:14

Tap into their untapped potential. Um, build relationships and care for them.

52:19

So I love what you do.

52:21

Um, I'm going out to get Scaling

52:21

Culture as my, my read, uh, definitely

52:28

over the spring summer and, uh,

52:28

hopefully you and I can keep in touch

52:32

and, uh, I love what you're doing.

52:35

Thank you so much for, for,

52:35

for being on the podcast.

52:38

Thanks

52:39

Augy, that's been

52:39

a great conversation.

52:41

Thanks. I think the message and conversations that

52:41

you're having are important for everybody.

52:45

So keep doing what you're doing.

52:47

Thank you so much.