Social Media expert and one of the top 10 Business Journalist in the world Mario Toneguzzi shows us why he loves Calgary and his experience on what it takes to kill it in social media and journalism. Connect with Mario through the following: Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/mariotoneguzziFacebookhttps://www.facebook.com/mariotoneguzzicommunicationsTwitter:https://twitter.com/MTone123Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariotoneguzzi/
Social Media expert and one of the top 10 Business Journalist in the world Mario Toneguzzi shows us why he loves Calgary and his experience on what it takes to kill it in social media and journalism.
Connect with Mario through the following:
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/mariotoneguzzi
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/mariotoneguzzicommunications
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/MTone123
Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariotoneguzzi/
Well folks, it's Brian Howard here and I have on my show living in Calgary, real estate and lifestyle a long time. I'm a fan, a long time fan of Mario goosy. Am I saying your last name? Pretty good. And Mario, I moved to Calgary. 2003 I'm from the east coast of Canada. I moved here primarily for the schools and the Alberta advantage the economy.
I sorta fell into real estate as opposed to wanting to be a realtor. But it's been a great career. The last 20 ish years. And I've been a long time follower, a few. And fan of you, Mario is a guess probably started his career 30, 70 ish, 37 years ago with Calgary, Harold longtime reporter. Just being in that capacity over the last 37 years mirror.
Awful on changes and you have repositioned yourself these days to be a freelancer. [00:01:00] You're doing lots of digital marketing and podcasting and journalists type behavior, and was recently recognized as one of the. Top 10 influential business reporters in the world. Marianne green. Thank you very much. And, and just that, you know, it's actually, I shouldn't say this, but it's actually 40 plus years now.
I assume. So. There was 35 years that the Herald and I started I started my career May, 1979 and in the little town of Nelson, BC, and and then moved to Calgary in October of 1980 and a time to move to Calgary. It was so it was exciting, exciting, exciting. This just the market was like really heating up about.
Jean and then sort of crashing, was it late 81 or early 82 that the first crash happened in your life around then, but you know, what's interesting. I'm actually from the east to I'm from not far [00:02:00] east, but I am from Ontario. I was born and raised in Ottawa and I moved out as I said to Nelson, but I remember the day that I came to Calgary it was October 28th, 1980.
And And I remember I was you know, I worked down the Herald, had a building downtown, right? At that time it was right across from the from the bay there on seventh avenue. And for the first week, the Herald put me up in a hotel behind the, the Herald was called the Empress hotel. All those buildings are gone now.
But the first morning I remember walking downstairs for breakfast and everybody was wearing a ball cap and everybody was cursing and swearing about Trudeau and the liberals and the federal government. And I'm going. I better be quiet. I, you know, I'm from Ottawa originally. I had no idea what was going on years later, I'm in the business.
I I'm working as a business writer at the Herald and I'm reading a story about the [00:03:00] anniversary of the introduction of the national energy program, October 8th or October 28th, 1980. And I went, oh my gosh. He explains everything. Why that is a great story. How come you move to Nelson? Was it just like you know, the job offer in the reporting business, frustrating university or something?
Yeah. Well, I got out of university, it's kind of weird and I had a degree in journalism. Carlton university in Ottawa. And I started looking for jobs and ironically, the first job that I got the offer was in grand Prairie of all places. And, and, and at that time I was covering sports, right. I was a sports writer and so I talked to the.
The editor of the grand Prairie paper and as asking, oh, what would I cover yet? He said, oh, you know, the difficult sports that we have is hockey and, you know, and baseball and all that stuff. And then the, and then he said, and chuckwagon racing. I said, what? I remember, I just lived all my life. [00:04:00] In Ottawa.
I had no idea what chuckwagon racing was. And so he kind of explained it to me. And then the irony of ironies was that years later, when I joined the Calgary Herald, guess what I'm covering for the Herald 10 solid days at the chuckwagon races, right. At the stampede park. But, you know, I looked at that job and I told them, I gave me a data think, and then I looked at the map and I saw word grand Prairie was up here on the map.
And Alberta, I said, nah, I don't think I I'll make the move. And and then Nelson came about and I have family and and relatives in trail BC, which is not far away. And I just thought, what the heck? Right. And moved there and just absolutely loved it. Absolutely adore dot. Where you at skier skiing?
I wasn't a skier. Right. It's funny because I learned to ski there, a whitewater, I think the ski hill there. And then I remember the manager of the hill calling me and saying, oh, you're [00:05:00] the new sports center for the paper. He says, why don't you come out skiing? I said, I don't know how to ski. Right.
I'd never skied in my life. And he said, well, we'll give you lessons. Okay. Sure. So I learned how to ski there. It was great. And you mentioned that. There with a family in trail. And of course, all these years, I looked at your name and I thought, Hmm, it didn't really ring any bells. But most recently I sort of said, oh, I got to reach out to Mariel.
When I seen the LinkedIn post, when you had just been fired and all agreed or something on the. Okay. Is it the Calgary, Italian board of directors or something tells you about your family, your name and this most recent post? Yeah. It's C a Calgary Italian cultural center, basically. It's the Calgary Italian book.
Right. And ya know, the they asked me to, to join the board there and I don't look forward to it. I spent a lot of time there. All of your listeners, if you want really good food you know, downstairs in the basement is a little restaurant called Lacan Tina and it's operated by Roma catering fantastic, [00:06:00] absolutely fantastic food.
And this, the whole cultural experience, because right beside the dining area are, are five at five budget lanes. So so depending on. You know, when you go in for, to dine, you might see some some of the older guys and women playing Boccia in leagues. There I'm one of, I'm actually a part of the league there.
So I play every week. So, cool. Well, I mean, having this connection, you assume that all Calgarians know where the Italian club is, but where is it actually I'm thinking it might be up in Crescent Heights. Nope. Well, I guess technically what, I don't know if it's technically Crescent Heights or technically Bridgeline, but it's just off of Edmonton trail.
They're a Northeast side of Edmonton trail just before Memorial on the right-hand side. It's right there. Yeah. And you have a watch with Italian flag on it. I just saw in our zoom. So Mario, tell us about [00:07:00] your Italian roots. Are you a first generation Canadian or what, tell us about your telling about, okay.
So I was born in Ottawa and I have an older brother. He was born in Italy. But my, my father came I think it was 1952 came to Canada. We're from the Northern part of Italy, north Eastern part of Italy better known as like for ULI basically straight north of Venice about an hour's drive straight north of Venice.
Just for some context. So yeah, my dad came, he it was in Windsor, Ontario for for a little while doing construction. Then he moved to Ottawa. And then he brought my mom who was in Italy at the time. He brought her over once he was established here and my older brother. And yeah.
So yeah, it's, it's always, and, and you know what, the funny thing is, I never knew this, but my wife always talked to my, my father for for years about the history of things, et cetera. But apparently I, I had [00:08:00] no. English when I first went to kindergarten because I was at home with my mom all day.
And my mom's young was at home all the time and she didn't speak much English either. And the community in Ottawa she was surrounded with and all friends were all Italian. So, so yeah, so I learned English in kindergarten. Wow. And how your daily activities currently? Are you speaking Italian daily, like now weekly, like, I guess weekly when you're bace calm, you know, if it's tough, right.
I think it's like that for anybody. Right. If you're separated from the language on a daily basis, you lose it. Right. And you know, my, my mom passed away like many, many, many years ago. My dad passed away. I think it's a. Going on what? 13 years soon. So that daily exposure of talking to them, you lose it right?
I understand it. I, [00:09:00] you know, I can hear, you know, when I played botch air or whatever, I understand what people are saying. Sometimes they're surprised by that. And but, but but the speaking part is tough because you have to start formulating the words and in your head, et cetera. So, so I I'd have to be, you know, years ago we went to Italy as a family, on a holiday and for a month, And after a week of being just immersed in the language, like on a daily basis constantly, it started all coming back to me.
So I could, you know, the longer that trip was on the more I was able to converse in Italian. That's great. Marianne, what strikes you most about living in Calgary? Well, good question. You know what I. What I like the most is almost everywhere you go that the nature of things, right. [00:10:00] Not to be David Suzuki, the nature of things, but but you know, right.
I, you know I live in the Northwest and I can see the Rockies and the snow cap Rockies every day. Right. I have access. To so many different places that I can go to spend time outdoors, even just within your own neighborhood. Right. There's, there's so much, I'm, I'm close to the bull river and all that.
I just think that Calgary, you know, with all its landscape and parks, you know, a no-sale part fish Creek park, you, you name it, right? Yeah. It's incredible. I'll tell you. Quick story. Years ago, I was living diff a different place. I was living sorta Northeast Calgary just off the river there and off of deer foot.
And I would often walk downtown about a 40 minute walks from there. Right. Get on the bike path and walk along the river to get, get there. But I'd often grab a bagel and a [00:11:00] coffee and. There where the Eau Claire Y is right. Sit there with the newspaper and read or read a book. And I remember one day, a guy in a suit business suit with a little briefcase walking by me, and then he looked at me kind of smiled.
And then he kept walking and then a few paces later, he stopped, he turned around and he said, You know, he says I'm from, I think he said, I'm from Chicago. He says, what you guys have here. You know what a park like this, you know, princess island, the heart of downtown is, is absolutely amazing. You said, and he turned around and walked away.
Right? That's great. That's that's to me, that's one of the biggest attractions at Calgary has its connection to nature. Hmm, very nice. And these days, this is a kind of a funny question. What's easy for you these days and maybe can relate it in the same conversation what's heard. Well, I'll tell you what's easy.
And it's funny because a lot of people [00:12:00] who know me and I know the work I do is I do a ton of work, like, like a lot. And I, I I kind of pound out things like crazy and, and, and everybody always asks me, well, how do you, how do you do this? How do you do this and that? And I, and I keep saying that. You know, it's 40 years of doing it, right?
It's it's like Gretzky, you know, like how many times that, that, you know, sat in his you know on his rank, in his backyard or whatever, and just take, took shots and shots and shots, and it just becomes routine. Right. I remember there used to be one of the basketball players that I covered in my sports writing days at the university of Calgary.
Carl Tillman. He was he was on the Olympic team. I was a member of the university of Calgary dinos. I remember him telling me that that's all he did, you know, sat in his driveway, shooting baskets, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And it's kind of like the same thing here. Like it, it, you know, I I've written so many stories.
You know, I, I, [00:13:00] you know, I, I, I know so many people, I know where to go for the story. So that's what becomes easy. Doesn't mean it's not busy or, and challenging because of that, but it's, it's a routine that you developed over the years that that is beneficial. What's challenging or difficult is kind of sometimes juggling a lot of stuff.
Right. Because I do a lot of work for a lot of different places and people, so. That is, I have to make sure I'm on top of organizing things and, you know, I'm a kind of a stickler for organization. So, you know, I, I draw up lists, you know, like Ben and stuff like that, and just reminders that, okay, this story is due this day.
This story is due that day. You know, all that stuff just to keep me on track and keep me focused. And it all gets done, you know, every once in a while, I'll sit there and go, oh my God. All this work, how am I going to get this done any right? And then I, can I [00:14:00] sit back? And then I think, you know what, I've been through this a hundred, whatever times, a hundred hundreds of times, and it always gets done.
So you have relaxed, curious, are you an early morning person? You are like what time? 5:00 AM five, but today, this morning was 4, 4 20. So just it's. So it was so weird. I woke up this morning and it was four 20 and, and I mostly, I had a good sleep because I thought, oh, okay. Time to get up.
You're writing at that time early in the morning, I started doing stuff at that time. But I'll always find. It's such a, it's such a great time, you know, I think there's a, there's a book out there, right? Like 5:00 AM club or something like that. I'm a member. Oh, okay. Super. But I told me understand and get it right.
Because I even way back in my Harold days as well, I [00:15:00] used to always, I've always gotten up early and you know, at that time I was walking, I was doing a lot of walking, so I would go at 5:00 AM and go for a long walk, say an hour's walk in the dead of winter, like 30 below with the wind howling I'd still go and everything.
I always found that such a peaceful time because nobody in the family has. Right. They're all sleeping. You know, there's minimal traffic out there, minimal people out and about it was, it's always been a good time in the morning for me to, to think and, and, and and be peaceful and tranquil before the, the whirlwind of activity begins.
I understand completely. Mario, tell me a little bit about some of your real estate decisions in Calgary. You mentioned that you lived in the Northwest. You mentioned that you lived kind of in walking distance, 40 minutes from downtown, kinda on the Northeast. Maybe I'm just guessing that could have been mailing.
And so, and, [00:16:00] and like for the Mulford Calgarians and for maybe non Calgarians listening to this, you know, once you move to the north, you're not allowed to come to the south again, or actually it doesn't happen a lot. Hey, can you share a little bit about your real estate decisions? Like how many homes have you owned in Calgary or that sort of thing?
So this one would be, what's the number? 300 home, third home, but you know what, it's funny. I was thinking a fairly recent recently at how many places I've lived in Calgary. Right. And how many different apartments, but I, I, you know, I started you know, when, when I first came 1980, They can see with zero, like I had a tough time finding a place, found a place.
I found a place in the Inglewood along ninth avenue. They're alive Atlantic avenue now, right near where the iron, what is right. And I read, and it was the only thing I could find. And I was enough. I think it was about third floor or whatever. And I remember. One morning waking up and listening on the [00:17:00] radio about a, a biker shot in the middle of the street dead.
Right. And I remember going to them, going to my colleagues at work saying, Jesus, then, you know, hear what happened. And, and and I told them that they, they all laughed and they said, well, of course you're living in Inglewood. Right. How the hell did I know? Right. I just moved to the city. Right.
Obviously, it's going to get mad at me for saying that angle, what is completely different? It's one of my favorite places in the city to visit and spend time with now. But so yeah, it went from there. Then I ended, I ended up kitty corner to the old site, downtown science center you know, I don't think it was fifth avenue or sixth avenue round there.
And then from there ended up I went to the university across from the McMahon stadium. These were all apartments and I went deer run. You know, and then I was both. For a while. And then I was in Mount pleasant, [00:18:00] then Malin Heights and then out here in silver Springs down. So, so I've been around different neighborhoods for awhile.
Oh no. You said that's great. And you know, it's funny, you mentioned the, the south thing because isn't that the case though in Calgary, you get into a certain quadrant of the city and your whole life is. Right. And you, you don't experience different areas, like, like like the deep self Eastern itself west, like for me, like, boy, I don't know.
I was in mahogany recently had no idea and going to mahogany for whatever the reason it was. You were going there, like whether to visit a friend or something, it's kind of like, I'm going to this place that has nothing to do with me or my life. Why the hell would anyone live here? I'm sure. Is what you were thinking as most Calgarians do about their particular, you know, wherever they land, they kind of stay.
Yeah, I know. It's funny. Yeah, because yeah, and, and in many ways the Northwest was always in my DNA, so to speak. [00:19:00] I just I, I, I just loved the Northwest and and I've always wanted to get back after I had been in Mayland Heights. So. Interesting. I moved when I moved here, actually I lived in Crescent Heights of our first year and an apartment.
And then we moved to Myrtle loop area all throughout south west. And I've been here ever since. And I cannot imagine ever living in any other quadrants in the Southwest. I could imagine moving out of my community, but I probably wouldn't. But they would only be the Southwest and that's just something that Calgary and Calgarians, I don't know the answer.
Why? Yeah, I don't. Yeah, it's interesting. I don't know. I don't recall that being the case when you know you know, I was living in Ottawa, but you know in Calgary it's really a defined thing that, you know you know, Yeah. Majority of your time, obviously you do because of where you live, but, but it's also the choice.
Like, do you want to spend the majority of the time in the quadrant that you live in? [00:20:00] Yeah. Mary moved to Inglewood and you know, there was a death there shortly after you, you know, motorcycle kind of violence or something. It sounds like you've lived in Bonita. I just want to have, maybe you could share with Calgarians and non Calgarians a story about the promise of Inglewood that came in Inglewood today is amazing.
And then bonus let's look at the transition of bone essence. I've moved to the city, but in the last 20 years, it's really come a long way. Has the promise of what we were thinking would happen in bonus? Has it already occurred and then relate it to forest? International avenue. You know, the thing is though, each of those areas are so unique, right.
And they give you know, in terms of amenities and stuff like that, that they give you so much. Right. And and so much to experience. What I find unique. I won't talk about first-line for a second, but it's just Inglewood in Bo. NASC. What I find unique about those is, is the [00:21:00] diversity of people that.
And of course, when you're talking real estate, the diversity of property there, right. You've got that. You'd take bonus. For example, you've got, you know you know, obviously some older homes, smaller homes, a little rundown in certain parts of Bo Nass. But then. Right around the corner. You've got these mil multi-million dollar homes, right.
And, and Inglewood's the same way. And in many ways, you know, and then you see the transformation of some of these neighborhoods, Mount pleasant, where I used to live is an example Renfrew as another example you know, west Hilgers and those were a lot of these older homes are. You know, people buy the property because it's, there's a lot of land on, on those properties and and basically demolishing the home and putting something new up.
Right. So a there's really a transformation in a lot of these neighborhoods. You know what I like to see? And you [00:22:00] mentioned like forest lawn and international avenue is, is I like to see more of those. Areas in Calgary, you know where, where you've got that walkability in the middle of the walkability, like the main street idea, whether it's a 17,000 new Southwest or it's a fourth street along mission.
That you can walk in Kensington, you could walk and spend time. You know, he was just doing an interview the other day with on the university district. Right. And you know, it's a creation of a community where, you know, you know, it's, it's an overworked phrase, but where people really can live, work and play right.
And everything there. Right. For them. Right. And and it's a, those neighborhoods. I think that, that Developing that way or there are the. You know, the kind of attractive neighborhoods for people, right? We'll for as long come to like an Inglewood or a bonus or a murmur and a loop, like I find I moved in [00:23:00] 2004 to Marta loop, altered our area and I think.
This might where I live and what's happened here since I've moved here is you know, the million dollar in bills that are happening all over my neighborhood. Like, I feel that this community is exact same proximity to downtown as forest lawn. I just wonder why forest lawn hasn't transitioned like, like bonus or, you know, I wonder will it come?
I don't know. You know you know, forest lawn has its own issues I write and we won't get into those because a lot of people will get mad at me. But and you know, what, and I, in my real estate reporting days at the Herald, I remember doing you know, a couple of stories because you see the difference in home prices by each quadrant.
Right. And I remember people getting mad at me when you know, showing that. And I was saying, Hey, I'm not fault any fender or anything on this. I'm just giving you the facts. This is what it is. [00:24:00] Right. And but you know, you know, when you've got that main drag like that with all those businesses and all those great little you know food, food places, and et cetera, it's like food heaven out there.
Right. Okay. You experienced so, oh, who knows? Right. Things change over time and in in neighborhoods. And, you know, as I said, you know Inglewood's a perfect example. I, you know, you're probably not not cause you, you said 2003, he came here, right? Oh, yeah, I agree, man. I remember a few years ago the Inglewood and I don't know what their proper name is now, but it's like the business revitalization.
So I remember them putting out ads on television. Right. And and, and they were, if I recall correctly, there was a couple of Yahoo guys in the pickup truck driving around Inglewood, looking for prostitutes. Right. And and it will open and, and stuff like that. And then there, [00:25:00] they're kind of confused because they don't see any prostitutes.
And and there was like shaking their heads money, what what's going on here. Right. And and, and the, and the message. And I think the tagline was something like Inglewood, not what it used to be or not the way you remember it. So that's just shows you that, you know, slowly but surely. You know, neighborhoods get built.
You know, they, they, they've got to start at a small step, you know, like anything and start and build on that foundation. Right. It's like she is looking at east village. Oh my gosh. Like talk, talk about a neighborhood that's been built like an incredibly, right. I remember, I remember the days where, you know, and I called it in, in, in stories.
I called it a wasteland. It was, it was an absolute urban wasteland that. Everything gutted nothing but parking lots and fields there. Right. And look at it now. It was all its towers and the library and the music center [00:26:00] hotel, you name it coming sort of the end in watching your time and everything. I was having a conversation recently with a young woman who is working out of her home office in Fredericton, new Brunswick, I guess that she was probably about 32 years old with a couple of small kids.
And anyway, I was telling her about a little bit, my story about coming to Calgary when I did and or just sort of tell him why I came to Calgary, you know, the Alberta advantage really the schools and then. And she said, and she's like, I want to keep in mind, her age, 32 years old, I guess, from lucky.
And she said, oh, my that's unusual. That I would make that move. Most people are coming this way, you know, meaning Albertans leaving and going back to the east coast. Can I get can you share a little bit about, you know, the boom bust economy in Calgary and how you deal with it and maybe just your projections of what's going to happen in the next 12 months or five years?
Oh, boy, that's a [00:27:00] question with a lot of different topics. Lets you know that the movement, first of all, like a lot of people, you know as you mentioned because when the oil patch was quote unquote firing on all cylinders, right? Every time. Coming here, Saskatchewan and the Maritimes, you know, BC everybody, you know, Ontario, like, you know, everyone's coming here because there are jobs.
Right. And and now you're seeing a little bit of a difference there that a lot of people went back to the Maritimes and but you know, one of the things that I've come across recently is. Calgary has an, a fairly attractive place for people because of affordability in homes, right. You know, the home prices here compared to what they would be in Vancouver or Toronto you know, you know, that absolutely don't compare.
So that becomes an attraction for people to come here, becomes an attraction for businesses to to move to Calgary. Right. [00:28:00] And And, you know, I was having a discussion just yesterday with a then willing again, hope I pronounced his name, right? Dr. Max, a well-known CA Calgary and Alberta businessman.
He was just named chair of the business council by Alberta. And you know, we were talking about how. You know, we tend to forget, yes, things are, are, I've been rough. They've been rough in Calgary since late 2014 when oil prices collapsed and and have been like that for many, many years. And then of course, you've got the Penn pandemic pandemic, so lots of challenges on the economic side of things, but.
Tend to forget and all that doom and gloom that a lot of good things and positive things have been happening lately. You know you know, some of the industries that petrochemicals and hydrogen are, are, are starting to ramp up, you know, and then of course the, the big, the big one is the technology side [00:29:00] where we're seeing, you know, there's been a S a whack of announcements recently.
About things coming like as long web services and and other players in that tech field. So who you know, I think the future looks good, you know compared to where we been the diversity in the economy is taking place and as you know, slowly but surely it has been taking place in the last few years.
That's just going to accelerate, I think over time and And all the economic force casts that I've seen lately show a good economic growth for the, for the province here next year and the year after now, obviously bear in mind that it's compare it's year over year comparisons, you know, and you know, this past year hasn't been great and last year was even worse type thing.
But but, but, you know, Got to hold onto the positives. Right. And so things look good, things, look, look good going forward. You know you know, a [00:30:00] climbing out of that hole that was dug you know, that's started to dig in a back late 2014, Mary. Oh, I love how you say you got to look into the positives.
It seems like you're like me in that it's way more fun to be an optimist than a pessimist and people like us.
It's going to be draining. Right? There's different people that, you know, it can be draining for people in a, in a couple of ways, a is constantly being getting the barrage of news and information that is always negative right. From, from the media. That's one thing. And then of course, you know, you can take it on a personal level too, right?
You know you know when, when people are continually, I guess, focusing on the negative, a yellow, a worse screwed here, like, oh geez. You know what the, you know, we got the liberals back in power. Oh boy, well, you don't really have a lot of stuff, but you know, you can't get into that mindset [00:31:00] because.
Yeah, it's a tough place to dig yourself out of, you know, just as an aside, you know, I don't know if you know, but 5, 5, 6 years ago, it'll be six years ago next month and a half time where I was laid off from the Herald. And you could look at that. Any you know, granted, it's tough to go through a layoff and you know, you're in a down period in your life, et cetera.
But if you dwell on that and stay there and with all its you know, emotions and moods that that brings on like, you know, the fear, the anxiety, the stress, you know, the depression, oh, you know, the negativity, all that stuff. You have the estate. You're going to stay there. Right. So, so why not look at it as opportunity and to move on and do something right.
And I think, you know, Alberta's the same way. Like, you know, it's the same on a personal level, as it is on a, on a bigger level, whether it's a business or it's a province or a [00:32:00] country, you know? Yeah. Things are tough. You know, how do you deal with them? That's that's the key you know, are you resilient and you move on, you know, there was a song ATB used to have a commercial it was keep moving on, keep moving on.
And was the song, right? It's an old, I looked it up. It's an old Sam Cooke song. Keep moving on. But it's a it's, it's a, it's a great message yet. Keep moving. Cool. I, you know, Mary, I, the way that you have transformed your career or, you know, the, the career that you started in the career that you're in now kind of the same thing, but like, I can't imagine many careers have changed as much as yours and seen as much change and that you're a real inspiration for how you you've maintained and stayed so relevant in your career.
Well, thank you. You know, I'll give this to the Herald, even though they, they laid me off, you know, I did have like all of us at that time that were laid off, had a kind of a session with about workplace stuff. I [00:33:00] got transitioning as a thing, and this was with an independent consultant, right. That we had these workshops.
And I always remember what she always said to us, you know, in those sessions about. You know, first of all, focusing on what you do and, and what are your skills, et cetera, but then looking at. Beyond what you've done for me with 35 years at the hair, look beyond that. Okay. How can you take these, these skills and go into different directions?
And that that's, that was a real eye-opener for me, because it really opened the door to a lot of different possibilities that, okay. Yeah. I'm a writer by trade. I'm a journalist. Where else can I use those skills? And so I've done everything like you know, over the last five and a half years or so, I've done everything from from editing a script from a young lady who wanted to do a YouTube video on.
Her [00:34:00] life in Rwanda and how she lost all her family you know, to a ghost writing for business executives for you know, articles that go into trade publications to podcasts, to, to you know, you know, simple, you know, writing for just different platforms, right? Some, so that's the thing.
It's, it's just how you see things and how you see the opportunity and keeping yourself open. Yeah. We are easy, easy to find on social media. And you're fun to watch. What's the best way for people to start to connect with you or see what you're up to, which, yeah, you're right. I'm all a, you know everything's pretty simple with me.
You know, like Facebook is, you know, just my name and LinkedIn, the same thing. I post a lot of the stuff there on Instagram, same thing, just you know, Mario tonic goosy. And Twitter, trying to remember what that is. I think it's a, at a M T capital's empty O N E 1 2, 3. I [00:35:00] think it is. But, but yeah.
Yeah. That's that's you know, I, I'm a big social media fan, a bit, bit of a nut in that regard, but I everything I do Every place that I write, et cetera, everything I post on all social media channels. I think it's I think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread in many ways for, for business, right.
Because you know I, I don't, I think if you're not on social media, whether you're an individual, an entrepreneur or a, or a company you're, you're missing the boat big time. Final question. If you had a billboard, your biggest billboard in Calgary, let's say, what would it say? What would the billboards day?
You know what? I come back to my signature on my emails and the last did you notice it, but. I'm trying to think what I didn't notice, but I don't remember a caption caption at the bottom is carpet diem. So [00:36:00] I'm looking at it right now and I I've I've lived by that I think my whole life more so more so in recent years you know, become more of a philosophy of mine than, than anything.
So. Thank you very much for being on the show. It's a pleasure to have a face-to-face with you for the first time. Well, thank you. That was excellent. I really appreciate it. I really enjoyed this. Excellent