Preface: The origins of the phrase are a mystery. It takes a village to raise a child is a proverb spirited from African or Native American cultures. The phrase translates into saying that it takes an entire community of different people interacting with children for children to experience and grow in a safe environment.

Preface: The origins of the phrase are a mystery. It takes a village to raise a child is a proverb spirited from African or Native American cultures. The phrase translates into saying that it takes an entire community of different people interacting with children for children to experience and grow in a safe environment.

Preface: The origins of the phrase are a mystery. It takes a village to raise a child is a proverb that spirited from African or Native American cultures. The phrase translates into saying that it takes an entire community of different people interacting with children in order for children to experience and grow in a safe environment.

The thought leaders, game-changers, and innovators that we look up to are often impacted by the same thing: they’ve been exposed to people, environments, and interactions that have helped shape and define who they are today.

The It Takes a C-Tribe Village Podcast aims to identify, dissect, and celebrate the unsung heroes, things, and experiences that have impacted the greatest minds of our generation and how these individuals are paying it forward for those to come.

Guest: Tom Viinikka (Veen-ika), Co-Founder & CEO, AligVR

Interviewer: Sahr Saffa, Chairperson, C-Tribe

Bio: Tom Viinikka is an Edmonton-born serial entrepreneur. He started his first business during his undergraduate business studies at the University of Alberta. Since then he has founded, bought and sold businesses in a variety of industries including, construction, real estate, logistics, retail and tech. Most recently, Tom co-founded Edmonton based startups vrCAVE and AlignVR and is working to change how the world identifies and trains soft skills by using virtual reality technology.

Preface: The fourth industrial revolution is blurring the lines between physical, digital, and biological spheres. This complex transformation is changing the way we do many things, it is shifting the power dynamics, and requiring that more transparency be shared by our leaders and influencers. What are the steps needed to allow all sides to elicit trust between one another? How can we encourage more collaboration between individuals, public and private sectors and other convening powers to address key challenges and opportunities relevant to our local, national and international communities?

Panelists:

Marc Beckles - Sr. Director, Youth Strategy & Innovation, RBC

Interviewer: Mack Male -  Co-Founder, Taproot Edmonton

One of the most central ideas to the 4IR is the speed of change and the amount that has happened in such a short period of time. Ray Kurzweil argues that technology change is actually exponential. This is really important because humans are terrible at understanding exponential change. We generally overestimate what we can do in a short period of time and underestimate what we can do in the long-term.

Here’s a quote from a critic of all the technological change going on, Andrew Keen, who has written multiple books on this topic. He says “everything is getting perpetually upgraded, except us. What it means to the human today is bound up in network technology particularly thinking machines. If there is to be a new renaissance, this relationship with smart tech will be the core of its new humanizm.

I thought that was really important to frame this conversation about collaboration because you need humans to collaborate. What if there are no human jobs to do so?

Preface: The origins of the phrase is a mystery. It takes a village to raise a child is a proverb that spirited from African or Native American cultures. The phrase translates into saying that it takes an entire community of different people interacting with children in order for children to experience and grow in a safe environment.

The thought leaders, game-changers, and innovators that we look up to are often impacted by the same thing: they’ve been exposed to people, environments, and interactions that have helped shape and define who they are today.The It Takes a C-Tribe Village Podcast aims to identify, dissect, and celebrate the unsung heroes, things, and experiences that have impacted the greatest minds of our generation and how these individuals are paying it forward for those to come.

Guest: Daniel Matishak (@danielmatishak), Co-Founder & CEO, Mindable

Show notes: 

"So much of the experience is dependent on who you’re with, what you did, etc. Any place can be an adventure if you get those two things right. I like doing risky things so last year, For example, I went to Bali and I walked with some Komodo Dragons. I was so fired up. I have pictures with local Balinese people—for some reason they wanted a picture with me and the Komodo Dragons—and we’re giving a thumbs up next to these beasts. In my head I’m thinking “man these things are so fast and dangerous and if this animal just turned around and took a chomp out of my leg” The shitty thing is once they bite you, it’s pretty serious because of all the bacteria in their mouth. It’s stuff like that that just get your heart going and at the end of it, you’re like “holy man, I’m so happy that I didn’t die!”

Travel is number one. I have this conversation in my office a lot; for example, last year I was gone for four months. When you’re a growing and young company, for your CEO to be gone for four months, they really didn’t understand why I travel. A big reason is I get so inspired by understanding how the world works and understanding why things happen the way that they do. To me, traveling doesn’t mean just going and relaxing somewhere and getting drunk for seven days, but it just means getting a chance to understand a new culture and how the world works. To me that’s the most inspirational thing I could ever do. "

Bio: Founded in 2010 by Daniel Matishak (@danielmatishak), Mindable is one of the most exciting digital publishing companies in the personal transformation space.

Mindable invested in an idea that they were passionate about and grew from a basement operation, to being ranked one of the top 2,000 websites in the world (Alexa.com). Mindable was voted as one of the fastest growing tech companies in 2015 (Deloitte), coming in at #14 of the Top 50 in Canada, and #122 of the Top 500 in North America!

How have they pulled this off? One strategy that has paid off is a mostly remote workforce, that enables the company to attract top talent not just from their own backyard, but from across the globe.

There are, of course, challenges that come with a dispersed team like Mindable’s. Namely – how do you maintain the right culture when more than half of their staff never sets foot in the office?

Over the years Mindable has had the opportunity to tap into some of the most interesting markets and as mentioned, have found success and passion publishing authors, articles, and products in the self-discovery and personal transformation space. This massive market grants Mindable a digital playground to publish content, test new ideas and connect with a valuable network of unique individuals.

Preface: The origins of the phrase is a mystery. It takes a village to raise a child is a proverb that spirited from African or Native American cultures. The phrase translates into saying that it takes an entire community of different people interacting with children in order for children to experience and grow in a safe environment.

The thought leaders, game-changers, and innovators that we look up to are often impacted by the same thing: they’ve been exposed to people, environments, and interactions that have helped shape and define who they are today.The It Takes a C-Tribe Village Podcast aims to identify, dissect, and celebrate the unsung heroes, things, and experiences that have impacted the greatest minds of our generation and how these individuals are paying it forward for those to come.

Guest: Nisha Patel (@anothernisha), City of Edmonton Poet Laureate & Canadian Individual Slam Champion

Show Notes: "Eventually I reached a point where I was like, “you know what, I want to see what happens if I pursue this full time.” I’m not sure what will happen and I don’t know if I can pursue this full time, but you hear about people in their retirement years, or you hear from Millennials, “oh, I want to write a book one day”, or “I want to travel the world when I retire”, or “I want to do this when I retire.” I don’t want to live a life waiting for retirement, I want to try things now. Either I can spend this money when I’m 67 (or whenever the retirement age is) or I can use all of my savings to see what it takes to be a full time artist and do what I want for a year. My year was up a few months ago, but I think I’m doing pretty well right now to buy myself a little bit of time as an artist.

She is the author of "Limited Success" and co-author of "Water".

Her work has also been published in The Glass Buffalo Vol. 2 No. 3 &  The City Series: Number Four - Edmonton, as well as The Polyglot Issue 3: Curating our Canons.

Nisha holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Alberta School of Business with a major in Business Economics and Law, a minor in Political Science, and a Certificate in Leadership.

Overall, Nisha, is one of those people that I wish I spent more time getting to know during the earlier parts of our working relationship as members of the Global Shapers community. Her story is so beautiful for many reasons, but the one that stands out the most to me is that she has allowed a very dark moment in her life—where their literally was no way out— to propel her into being the most celebrated artist her in the city and amongst the best in Canada. She’s a hidden talent here in Edmonton and has basically taken over a world I had no idea about: the world of written poetry and artistry. What’s interesting though, is that throughout this podcast, I uncover that she thinks about the same things while building her artistic business that I would think about while building a tech business.

Preface: The origins of the phrase are a mystery. It takes a village to raise a child is a proverb that spirited from African or Native American cultures. The phrase translates into saying that it takes an entire community of different people interacting with children in order for children to experience and grow in a safe environment.

The thought leaders, game-changers, and innovators that we look up to are often impacted by the same thing: they’ve been exposed to people, environments, and interactions that have helped shape and define who they are today.

The It Takes a C-Tribe Village Podcast aims to identify, dissect, and celebrate the unsung heroes, things, and experiences that have impacted the greatest minds of our generation and how these individuals are paying it forward for those to come.

Guest: Kyle Murray, Vice Dean at the University of Alberta School of Business (https://www.kylemurray.com)

Interviewer: Sahr Saffa, Chairperson, C-Tribe

Bio: Dr. Kyle Murray is the Vice Dean and a Professor of Marketing at the Alberta School of Business. He held a previous role as the Director of the School of Retailing at the University of Alberta before making the transition to Vice-Dean. Kyle began his career as an Assistant Professor at the Richard Ivey School of Business and he has been a visiting professor at INSEAD (France), Monash Business School (Melbourne, Australia), and the Dublin Institute of Technology (Ireland). Dr. Murray holds a B.Sc. in Psychology and Ph.D. in Marketing and Psychology are from the University of Alberta.

Kyle’s research examines human judgment and decision making, using the tools of experimental psychology and behavioral economics to better understand the choices that people make. He’s currently working on complex behavior change challenges in business and society, including the Canada-wide BIOrg project.

His research has applications in consumer marketing, customer loyalty, e-commerce, and pricing. He has consulted in these areas for clients including the Competition Bureau of Canada, Consumers Council of Canada, General Motors, Industry Canada, Johnson and Johnson, Leger, The Research Intelligence Group, LoyaltyOne, and Microsoft.

Show notes: "I was always interested in business, but when I came to university I was actually more interested in psychology and in how people think and made decisions. My undergrad degree was in psychology. As I was working my way through that degree I did take a couple of business courses and my plan was to go and work in the business world. I spent the first 5 years of my career working in finance for a wealth management company in Edmonton. I was also taking MBA classes at night to upgrade my skills a little bit and one of my professors said "with your background, you'd be a good fit for a PhD." I didn't really know this even existing in business, but gave me the chance to marry by two interests in business and psychology and a lot of the research I do now in consumer psychology—also known as behavioral economics—is about trying to understand how people make decisions." 

Preface:The thought leaders, gamechangers, and innovators that we look up too are often impacted by the same thing: they’ve been exposed to people, environments, and interactions that have helped shape and define who they are today.

It takes a C-Tribe Village Podcast aims to identify, dissect, and celebrate the unsung heroes, things, and experiences that have impacted the greatest minds of our generation and how these individuals are paying it forward for those to come.

Guest: Johnathan Holland, Founder & CEO, SmartPay Checkout

Show Notes

In the early days, I would literally sit in front of a computer and Google “how to build a company in Canada?” What I realized is that everyone around me wasn’t going to help me achieve the level of success I was looking for which was a multi-billion dollar company—which is no small feat. In the early days, if there’s no one giving you advice that you can honestly look at and say “I wish I could trade places with this person,” find examples of people online, read their books, listen to their podcast and do whatever it takes to surround yourself with the information and knowledge that directly correlates with where you want to be.”

Bio: Johnathan Holland is a serial FinTech entrepreneur in the payments space with a proven track record of success. Johnathan went through the Next 36 accelerator in 2016 where he was taught by business leaders with 10 figure exits. His current business, SmartPay, has just graduated from the #1 globally-recognized incubator, the DMZ. SmartPay continues to grow month over month, where it’s exceeding over six figures of revenue every single month. Yes, you heard that right: every month. However, this wasn’t achieved overnight. It’s taken Johnathan 2.5 years to see any revenue from any of his business ventures and an additional year and a half just to turn its first profit.

The SmartPay solution is simple, but so effective: they allow eCommerce businesses to integrate debit payments on their website. They’ve approached the problem a different way than some of the incumbents in the space like PayPal and VISA

Outside of building a fast-growing technology rocket ship, Johnathan comes from humble beginnings and considers himself a late bloomer. Despite this, he advocates for Canadian entrepreneurship and believes that the country has what it takes to grow the next wave of multi-billion dollar companies.

Preface:The thought leaders, gamechangers, and innovators that we look up too are often impacted by the same thing: they’ve been exposed to people, environments, and interactions that have helped shape and define who they are today. 

It takes a C-Tribe Village Podcast aims to identify, dissect, and celebrate the unsung heroes, things, and experiences that have impacted the greatest minds of our generation and how these individuals are paying it forward for those to come.

Guest: Vanesa Flynn, Energy Healer & Usui Reiki Teacher, Vanesa Flynn (website)

Show Notes

"After losing everyone and everything that was close to me, I had to rely on myself. Looking back, that was so important to my journey and it was what I needed because that was my catalyst for my change. If I didn’t have that happen in my life, I would’ve tried to do what was inauthentic to me. I really think that my journey has helped me melt my ego so that I’m able to be authentic and know that it is okay for me to be myself. I don’t think that I am like a lot of people, but I’m showing people that it’s okay to be yourself. When you’re yourself, people can see that you’re the real you, and that it’s okay to be the real you."

Bio: With a fairly challenging past, Vanesa unconsciously began her healing journey after attending a meditation institute that was lead by Thai Monks. Meditation quickly became a pillar to her healing by helping her release her trapped emotions. In 2016 Vanesa began learning about Ayurvedic (/ˌäyərˈvādik/) medicine, the chakra (ˈCHäkrə/) system, and journaling; in 2017 she met an Oracle who helped her heal the wounds of her soul through Shamanic (/SHəˈmänik/) practices.

Her journey of awakening—and challenges— started when attending university in 2011. Her desire was to become a registered dietitian, but every year she attended, she was kicked out because of her failing grades. What kept her in school and afloat, per se, was the fact that she lost an immediate family member every year she attended university; despite her performance in school, they allowed back year over year. However, by the end of her third year, she had lost her entire family–everyone and everything that was close her vanished.

Although it was not acceptable in her family, she had a passion for business, as well. She joined a network marketing company in 2010 where she was first exposed to business. It eventually went under, unfortunately, but it ignited her passion for owning her own company. She dropped out of university and started a healthy meal delivery company in 2014. This gave her the platform to combine everything that she loved ranging from health, business, and helping others. After 9 months of growing the company, everything came to a crashing halt when the business partnership failed.

Fast-forward to 2017 is when she began deep self-reflection and understanding her rights as a medicine person. Her relationship with the Oracle has evolved into a teaching environment to which she is a student to this day. Vanesa was referred to her Reiki Teacher and she has taken her training. After receiving her Reiki Master she began working with clients.

Throughout her journey, she has come to realize that helping others is what truly fulfills her. Vanesa wants to share her healings, teachings, and guidance with others so they can heal and evolve. She has, since then, dedicated her life to evolving the consciousness of Earth.

Brands and things mentioned: Jesus Walks, Kanye West

Preface:The thought leaders, gamechangers, and innovators that we look up to are often impacted by the same thing: they’ve been exposed to people, environments, and interactions that have helped shape and define who they are today. 

It takes a C-Tribe Village Podcast aims to identify, dissect, and celebrate the unsung heroes, things, and experiences that have impacted the greatest minds of our generation and how these individuals are paying it forward for those to come.

Guest: Malin Pettersen, VP of North American Operations, Vev Design

Interviewer: Sahr Saffa, Founder at C-Tribe Society and VP of Canadian Operations at AutonomIQ

Show Notes

“I felt like an alien a lot of the time. I think it’s because of the way I carry myself, and the way I dress, and the fact that I have an accent. There’s a lot of factors that make me alien-ish. Sometimes it’s challenging because it feels like you have to prove something and you have to work 10x harder in order for them to believe you, trust you, trust your ability, and that you’re good at what you do… but I think it’s [the tech industry] going in the right direction and it’s obviously a conversation that needs to be had.”

Malin's final research paper on How Might Changes in the Fashion Industry affect of the Role of a Project Manager at Fashion Scout

Brands mentioned: Vev Design, Holzweiler, Saks Potts, Sara Toronto

Bio:  A fashionista turned tech businesswoman, Malin (@malincornelia) graduated with First Class Honours at Winchester University (UK) studying fashion and business, worked as a PR executive for Scandinavian fashion success Holzweiler. Just recently she moved across the Atlantic Ocean to establish a design enterprise software called Vev Design in the North American Market; all by the age of 22! Malin has had an unconventional path to where she is now, working retail floors to afford contact lenses, to making lunch for 30 + people and 16 hour work days (as an intern you do whatever you have to do), just to be part of the art that is fashion. Her well-connected network offered her the opportunity to scale the Norwegian Startup, Vev, abroad. Malin is a firm believer in young leaders, and thinks the best way to describe her (and her career) is ‘a jack of all trades’.