Career Crossroads

#91 – Every good magician has a stage name and Dan Chan is known as ‘The Millionaire’s Mentalist’. He has earned that name after a career of performing at events for wealthy tech moguls from companies like Twitter and Amazon but when he was first starting out he was making balloon animals at children’s birthday parties. 

That’s because magic was not Dan’s first full-time job. After getting a degree in Finance from the University of California, Riverside, Dan was hired as one of the early employees at PayPal – before the merger with Elon Musk’s X.com – and Dan worked his way up from Customer Service to the Finance department. After 13 months, Dan’s path split dramatically from members of the ‘PayPal Mafia’ who went on to found companies like YouTube, LinkedIn, Yelp, SpaceX, and Tesla. Instead of staying in the world of tech, Dan committed himself to magic full-time and now, 20+ years later, he reflects on his career journey on Career Crossroads.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Danchanmagic.com
• Millionairesmentalist.com
• Follow Dan on Instagram @danchanmagic

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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:

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#90 – Today’s episode of the podcast isn’t an interview- it’s just you and me talking. Now that we’re two months into the new show format, I wanted to give an update on how things are going and let you know about the podcast’s record-breaking month of May.

I also want to talk a bit about the importance of preplanning to take time off and my own experience with it. The best month in the history of the podcast came during the month I was paying the least attention.

Take a listen and let me know what you think.

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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:

Instagram: @career_crossroads

LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast

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#89 – As a first-year offensive lineman on the University of Waterloo’s varsity football team, Ben Brown was supposed to be living his dream. With the support of his father, who had been his football coach, Ben received a football scholarship to an excellent school and was excited for the next chapter of his life. Before Ben’s university career began, however, tragedy struck as Ben’s father passed away. Suddenly, Ben was carrying the weight of his and his father's dream all on his own.

Despite this incredible hardship, Ben pressed on and outwardly, had a successful first year of university. His grades were good and he seemed to be happy, but internally Ben was struggling. He decided that he needed to step away from the football team and take a term off school for his mental health and when he came back, it did not take long to realize he no longer saw a future in his program of study.

With the help of a career counsellor at the university, Ben found a new path in an unexpected place that involved leaving the university behind. Now, years after graduating from Conestoga College, Ben is living a new dream as a firefighter.

Listen to Ben's Academic Crossroads today to hear the whole story.

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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:

Instagram: @career_crossroads

LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast

Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast

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When you know you want to change your career but you are unsure of where to go, you might seek the help of a professional. Chris M. Wilson, this week's guest, struggled to find the help he was looking for and that challenge led him to dedicate his life to helping people going through similar struggles. 

As a career coach, Chris helps people find clarity in what they really want because without that you can't move forward. Before we talk about that, Chris walks me through the early part of his career as a helicopter pilot and mechanic and why he felt he needed to move on from that field. 

Find Chris on social media and YouTube at @iamchrismwilson 

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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:

Instagram: @career_crossroads

LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast

Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast

TikTok: @jonathancollaton

#87 - What would you do if your ability to do your job disappeared overnight? How would you react? 

That's a question Andy Thibodeau wrestled with in March 2020 when Covid-19 shut down his career as a public speaker. As a 25+ year veteran of the industry, this was the only job Andy had ever really known and in the span of 48 hours, 31 bookings cancelled and his ability to make an income evaporated.

As Andy struggled with this new reality and the recognition that he was a people person who could no longer be around people, he visited a friend one last time before we headed into lockdown. Something that friend said gave him the mental slap he needed to act and less than 5 days later Andy had a new job lined up to provide him with both the income he needed and the interaction with others that he craved. 

Hear about Andy's career crossroad on this week's CC Shorts episode.

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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:

Instagram: @career_crossroads

LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast

Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast

TikTok: @jonathancollaton

#86 -If you told 20-year-old Josh Green that he was going to be a business consultant in the future, he would have thought you were joking.  How did he end up a business consultant when he was well on his way to a successful career as an actor and improv comedian? He was getting regular work, making more money than most actors he knew, and even had scenes in movies with Ice Cube and Danny Glover.

As 20-year-old Josh would soon find out, the way you feel today may not be the way you feel tomorrow, and when that happens you need to know what else interests you. It took years of travel and teaching abroad for Josh to realize that he wanted to be his own boss, and the best way for him to do that was to run his own company. Moving back to his hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Josh set to work on making that a reality. 

This is the story of how over the past 12 years....

• Josh went back to school as a mature student to obtain a Bachelor of Business Administration (his second degree)
• Created, sold, and/or shut down many successful (and sometimes unsuccessful) businesses from a wake park to dog walking to cookie cough and beyond 
• Ultimately, realized his passion is in helping other people through the process of navigating the difficult world of taking an idea for a business and turning it into something real

Everyone has a story to tell. Listen today to hear Josh's.
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Links from the episode:

• The Tangible Plan  

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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:

Instagram: @career_crossroads

LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast

Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast

TikTok: @jonathancollaton

85 - Attending university can change your life. Sometimes, in ways you don’t expect. For Frank Chen, coming to Canada from his native China to study at the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) was a way to get into a stable career, while also making his parents proud. To satisfy both desires, Frank chose to study accounting and he was successful in his studies. 

During one of his co-op terms, however, Frank came to the realization that he wasn’t passionate about accounting. When he shared this knowledge with a colleague who was also from the co-op program at UTSC, Frank was informed he wasn’t the only one who felt that way. The more they conversed, the more they realized that a lack of love for accounting wasn't the only thing they had in common. Both of them were interested in entrepreneurship and it didn’t take long for Frank and his colleague to decide they were going to start their own company. 

That is how Frank, a university student, became the co-founder of Sumer, a grocery delivery service in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. From the challenges of running a startup as a university student, to the difficult decision to shut it down in 2022, Frank and I talk through what he learned from his Sumer experience and how he is applying those lessons today.

More importantly, Frank and I discuss how accepting that he lacked passion for what he chose to study taught him a lesson that has influenced every decision he’s made since then.

Links from this episode:

• Ideas Can’t Wait Podcast
• Find Frank on LinkedIn  

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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:

Instagram: @career_crossroads

LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast

Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast

TikTok: @jonathancollaton

#85 – “What can I do with my degree?” 

This is one of the most common questions asked by students who have nearly finished pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into completing a difficult academic program and are now realizing they are unsure of what comes next. With a decade of experience working as a Career Counsellor at the University of Toronto Scarborough Academic Advising and Career Centre, and another decade of experience prior to that in Toronto Employment Centres, Wei Huang is well equipped to help students navigate this question.

Wei’s biggest piece of advice? Reflect on your values; they will guide you in determining what careers fit what you are looking for. 

Listen to our conversation for the full story. 

If you are a student at the University of Toronto Scarborough you can book an appointment with Wei by calling the UTSC Academic Advising and Career Centre. For everyone else, email her at [email protected] 

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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:

Instagram: @career_crossroads

LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast

Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast

TikTok: @jonathancollaton

#83 - In the early days of his career, Brian Millado jumped between jobs in the Department of Student Life at the University of Toronto. He wasn't jumping because he didn't like his roles, or because he was chasing higher pay; he was jumping because he was continually offered the chance to work on different programs as his skillset was in demand. Things were good. Until one day, they weren't.

One day, Brian looked around and realized that all his peers knew what their next step was....but he had no idea what was next. He had exhausted all areas of interest and suddenly, he didn't see a path forward in Student Life.

In this, the first CC Shorts episode of Career Crossroads, Brian and I discuss this moment in time where he hit a dead end. We walk through the emotions of his situation, how he overcame it, and what advice he has for others who experience a similar crossroads.

If you'd like to get in touch with Brian, you can find him here on LinkedIn.

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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:

Instagram: @career_crossroads

LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast

Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast

TikTok: @jonathancollaton

#82 – Chris Lewarne is well known in the Toronto fitness community as one of the trainers at Barry’s Bootcamp, helping people achieve their fitness and health goals. Fitness, however, was not the path Chris set out on when leaving high school. 

Growing up, his family struggled financially, and Chris worked some awful jobs as a teenager to help contribute. With those experiences pushing him forward, he dreamed about the financial stability a high-paying career could provide and as a successful student, he chose a career in law to help him achieve his goal. Upon graduation, Chris was obsessed with making his way to New York City and it didn’t take long for that to happen; his first job offer was with a corporate law firm in NYC and Chris jumped at the chance. Then one day, Chris’s life changed. It changed so profoundly that he quit his job at the law firm without any real plan and spent the day wandering the streets of New York.  

Ultimately, one of the worst experiences of Chris’s life set him on a new path that brought him back home to Toronto, years later. Listen today to hear about:

• What it was like working in corporate law in New York City
• What prompted Chris’s move from law to fitness
• How Chris ended up back in Toronto
• How his new career led him to become a contestant on Canada’s Ultimate Challenge. 

Links from this episode:

• Follow Chris on Instagram @the_cuddlycanadian
•  Take a class with Chris at Barry’s Bootcamp’s Richmond studio in Toronto
• Watch Canada’s Ultimate Challenge on CBC Gem

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You can find Career Crossroads at careercrossroads.ca or follow us on social media:

Instagram: @career_crossroads

LinkedIn: Career Crossroads Podcast

Facebook: Career Crossroads Podcast

TikTok: @jonathancollaton