Leaders Of Tomorrow Podcast

When it comes to the world of business, our minds tend to gravitate towards sales, marketing, and maximizing revenue - all essential components of any successful enterprise. It's also crucial to consider how to best serve our customers or clients. Yet, there is an often-overlooked area that can make all the difference in the success of a business: organization, consistent input, and a strong business infrastructure. These factors can have a significant impact on the overall performance and longevity of a company.

In today’s episode of Leaders of Tomorrow, we are going to share another President's Club call where Chris Thomson and some of our best operators will discuss these essential factors and their impact on business performance.

They will talk about the importance of setting expectations with clients and how effective tools can be used to manage time. They also explore ways to set expectations before hiring people and why having an organized Google Drive is crucial for workflow optimization.

You will find out what the video walkthroughs are and how they can make a significant difference in the business.

They will also discuss the challenge of preventing business systems from breaking down over time due to entropy, will talk about structures that promote accountability among team members, will share some effective tools they use to manage their time and so much more.

Enjoy!

What You Will Learn In This Show:

• How to prepare for production throughout the Student Works sales process. 

Resources:

Student Works

In today's show, we are going to rebroadcast our interview with Dan Sharp, one of our alumni who is today the President and CEO of Infoware Canada Inc, a successful technology company that is helping law firms recover time to enhance productivity & increase profitability.

Dan was a guest on our show in October 2019 when he talked about how joining Student Works changed his life forever and helped him gain transferable skillsets that formed the foundation for a successful professional life. 

Dan also shared his journey after he left Student Works from working at Canon, rising to National Director, to becoming an entrepreneur and running Infoware.

Before rebroadcasting the interview with Dan, we are also going to play a recent follow-up to Dan’s interview, a conversation in which he will discuss how his company coped with the recession, identified an opportunity to improve company culture and became certified as a great place to work. 

He'll emphasize the importance of employee satisfaction and the challenges he faced to achieve his current success. He will also talk about his future plans for continued growth and improvement for his staff, clients, and the company, he will discuss the importance of a growth mindset and a continuous learning approach in business, will talk about the benefits of using technology to increase productivity and profitability and so much more.

Enjoy!

What You Will Learn In This Show

• The value of transferable skills gained from Student Works and how they can form the foundation for a successful professional life.

Resources

Dan’s Linkedin

Student Works 

Chris Thomson LinkedIn

Chris’s Email

In today's episode of Leaders of Tomorrow, Chris Thomson talks to Hailey McCoubrey, one of our top veterans. She is a third-year student at Western University and a second-year operator in our program. 

She operates in Honey Harbour and surrounding areas and runs her business from her cottage on an island. It is a unique territory where finding customers and stuff to recruit can be a challenge. But Hailey managed to lead her business to success. Last year she was one of our top rookie operators (she did $230,000) and her goal is to double her business.

During today's show, Hailey is going to talk about her amazing journey with Student Works, what she did to achieve success in her first year, her plans for the future and the lessons she is taking from our program.

You will find out more about who Hailey was before Student Works, how she heard about our program and what made her decide to join it.

Hailey will first talk about her experience during her first summer in our program and the unexpected lesson she learned from it.

She will also share the challenges she had to overcome to achieve success with her business, will talk about the importance of accepting criticism and asking for feedback, will reveal what you need to do to get your business in the local papers and how to use Facebook marketing to promote your business and so much more.

Listen now and enjoy!

What You Will Learn In This Show:

• Some of the unexpected lessons Hailey took from her first year in our program 

Resources:

Student Works

In today's show, we are going to rebroadcast our interview with Dave Hanley, a successful entrepreneur and seasoned sales practitioner. He had a big part in building two bootstrapped software companies and became a profitable industry leader. Currently, he is the Chief Revenue Officer at AdvertiseCast, a podcast advertising platform connecting brands with highly-engaged podcast audiences.

Dave was a guest on our show four years ago when he talked about his experiences with the Student Works Program. He shares how it helped him decide to be an entrepreneur and how the exposure to management and leadership with Student Works helps him pass through the sleepless nights when he loses a client. 

He also gave some valuable advice that will inspire you to go out into the marketplace, take bold actions and create the results that you truly want.

Before rebroadcasting the interview with Dave, we are also going to play a recent follow-up to Dave’s interview, a conversation in which he will talk about how his business grew enormously and how it was acquired by Libsyn, one of the long-standing players in the podcast industry. 

Chris and Dave will have a fantastic talk about selling your business and leadership at a higher level. 

You will learn more about AdvertiseCast, the concept and the story behind the business.

Dave will share a core skill that he learned at Student Works and he is still using today in his business, will reveal the story behind how AdvertiseCast was purchased by Libsyn and will also talk about what he is working on right now and some of the challenges he is facing

You will also find out that building a great product is not enough to achieve success in your business. What else do you need? Listen until the end to find out!

Enjoy!

What You Will Learn In This Show

• The story behind how AdvertiseCast was purchased by Libsyn

Resources

Student Works 

Chris Thomson LinkedIn

Chris’s Email

Dave’s LinkedIn

In today's episode of Leaders of Tomorrow, Chris Thomson talks to Noah Propp, one of our top operators managing in the Montreal area, who did over $100,000 for the business last year and is aiming for $300,000 this year.

During today's show, Noah is going to discuss the success he had last year, how he overcame some challenges, the biggest lessons he learned and the importance of assuming responsibility for everything that happens in your business 

You will find out who Noah was before joining the program and how this experience changed his life.

Noah will talk about the challenges around recruiting he had in his first year and how he overcame them, and he will also reveal the best way to induce confidence in your team.

He will share some of the unexpected lessons he learned in his first year in our program, and will talk about what shifted in his business and what are his goals for this year.

You will find out what makes the difference between a midsize operator and a top operator, how the Student Works experience can have a huge impact on your career in the long run and so much more.

Listen now and enjoy!

What You Will Learn In This Show:

• The challenges around recruiting Noah had in his first year and how he overcame them

Resources:

Student Works

In today's episode of Leaders of Tomorrow, Chris Thomson is going to start a series of conversations with some of our successful rookies, people who are off to a great start and who are going to talk about their impressions and the lessons they learned after their first months into our program.

In today’s show, Chris is going to talk to Alexander Rutenberg, a third-year student at Queens and a top rookie operator on the window cleaning side of our business, managing in the West Island Beaconsfield,  and Wil Brawn who is in his final year at Queen's University and is a top painting operator in Central Toronto, in Leaside.

They are going to have a fantastic conversation about their first impressions in our program and the unexpected lessons they already learned from this experience. 

They will talk about the results they got so far in the program and the transferable skills they got the chance to develop at Student Works.

They will also discuss how these skills are going to help them in their future careers, they will highlight the importance of the network you can be a part of after joining our program, they will share some of the habits that help them be successful and so much more.

Enjoy!

What You Will Learn In This Show:

• A little bit about Wil and Alex and their results in the program

Resources:

Student Works

207 | Patrick Lalonde | Shedding the Victim Mindset and Taking Charge of Your Life

Books:

Principles: Your Guided Journal (Create Your Own Principles to Get the Work and Life You Want)

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't

Outliers: The Story of Success

In today's show, we are going to re-broadcast our interview with Paul Flick, one of our successful alumni, who has 20 years of leadership and management experience in the franchising industry. 

Paul is the CEO and Founder of Premium Service Brands (a company that offers multiple services in the home services space) and 360 Degree Painting (a painting franchise company whereas Premium).

Paul was a guest on our show in the fall of 2020 when he talked about his experience with Student Painter back in the 1980s when he helped open up a new division in Michigan and Ohio, he shared details about his job at Coca-Cola after leaving our program and he discussed his successful career as an entrepreneur and what he does in the present.

At the beginning of today's show we are also going to play a recent follow-up to Paul’s interview, a conversation in which he will talk about what happened to his businesses from 2020 since today, how he has acquired a number of new brands and grown his business from a $100 million to $400 million in just 2 years and a half.

You will also find out how Paul engaged with private equity back in 2021 and what that process has been like.

He will talk about how his experience with knocking on doors at Student Painters still helps him today and he will share his plans for the next five years and how he is planning to grow his business into a billion-dollar one.

You will also learn more about how to survive massive economic downturns, how business structures allow you to work with greater freedom, how to run a successful franchise operation and so much more.

Enjoy!

What You Will Learn In This Show

• How Paul went from a $100 million business to $400 million in just 2 years and a half?

Resources

193 | Paul Flick | How I Created a Multi-Million Multi-Service Franchise Company

Student Works 

Chris Thomson LinkedIn

Chris’s Email

Today's episode of Leaders of Tomorrow is going to be a special one as we are going to share our latest President's Club call, where we selected 10 of our best operators to share best practices and tips on how to run a successful business within our program.

You are going to learn what are some of the amazing things that we're doing at the Student Works Management Program to create the incredible success that we have year after year. 

Chris Thomson and his guests are going to have an incredible conversation about preseason marketing best practices, developing marketing teams, how we enrol people, how we hold them accountable, and how we support and train them. 

They will reveal the best practice for training someone and getting them up to speed really quickly.

You will learn how you can help your team build up their resistance to potentially uncomfortable situations.

They will also talk about the importance of getting your team to know each other better and how you can do that through fun activities. 

You will learn more about the importance of focusing on the awareness of the brand and you will also discover the secret to keeping your employees accountable.

They will also talk about how to promote your business through Facebook community groups and through local newspaper articles and so much more.

Enjoy!

What You Will Learn In This Show:

• How to develop great marketing teams and why is this so important

Resources:

Student Works

In today’s show, Chris interviews William Chyz, Managing Director at Traynor Ridge Capital Inc. William, a former student painter, currently helps HNI’s with their alternative investments. 

We start this show with William sharing his backstory. 

As a high school student, William did not have much idea about what he was going to do with his life. So, after working some odd jobs, when he joined Student Works, admittedly, he was quite naïve. But he learned the different nuances of managing a painting business in a very short time.

Specifically, as a student painter, William shares how he got a chance to hone his cold-calling skills. Going forward, this sales experience proved to be invaluable as William developed a thick skin and evolved into a more confident individual.

William graduated in 2009, at the height of the economic crisis.  Despite all odds, he managed to get a job working at a trading desk at Scotiabank. In this segment of the show, William reminds listeners that while your first job may not always be glamorous, you have to go the extra mile to develop critical skill sets that can propel you ahead.

His next employment was with BNN (Business News Network). Working in media was an interesting experience for William, and this is where he met his boss, the CEO of Westcourt Capital Corporation.

After working in extremely large organizations, William realized that in order to grow faster, he had to work in small and fast-growing organizations. 

When William joined Westcourt, he was just the fifth employee on the roster. He made the decision to get back into the financial industry as he got an opportunity to work in the unique field of alternative investments.

In this next segment of the show, William gives us a peek into his professional life. William and his Westcourt team conduct due diligence for alternative investments and help HNI’s generate greater returns while mitigating risk. Here, William also shares how their investment portfolio has fared in the wake of COVID.

We hope you enjoy this show!

What You Will Learn In This Show

• How a Student Works experience can equip you with critical and transferable skillsets

Resources

Student Works 

Chris Thomson LinkedIn

Chris’s Email

In today's episode of Leaders of Tomorrow, Chris Thomson chats with Chris Mills, an amazing young leader who was an operator and a business coach in our program between 2009 and 2013.

After graduating from our program, he got involved in the hospitality business and worked as a senior market manager at Airbnb for about five years.

Today, Chris is the vice president of sales at Rented — A TravelNet Solution, a company that provides revenue management technology, tools, and services to help vacation rental managers optimize their portfolio of properties and gives them an opportunity to make more money and maximize their business opportunity.  

In today’s show, Chris is going to talk about the incredible progression he has made since joining the program and how this experience shaped him into the successful young leader he is today. 

You will find out more details about Chris's background, who he was before Student Works, how he heard about the program and what made him decide to join. 

Chris will share more details about his experience at Student Works, the most important lessons he took from it and what he still uses today from what he learned in our program 

He will also talk about his experience as a senior market manager at Airbnb and the lessons he took from it and then he will share more about what Rented does and what his role in this company involves.

Chris will also talk about his failures and the lessons he took from those experiences, will share some of his key habits, will reveal some of the most important qualities a leader of tomorrow should have and so much more.

Enjoy!

What You Will Learn In This Show:

• What was Chris’ experience at Student Works and what does he still use from what he learned in our program

Resources:

Student Works