What an amazing organization, and opportunity to have a positive impact on youth. I have always believed that competencies and skills learned as an entrepreneur have the biggest benefits across any career path, and Junior Achievement programs teach exactly those competencies and skills at the perfect age group. The JA Company Program is THE life-changing experience I wish I had back in high school. Through JA I've supported and delivered over 35 Company Programs, on top of other great day programs that touch on financial literacy and basic life lessons we all wish our kids had.If anyone is actually reading through my profile, please go volunteer with JA, it is an amazing way to have a lasting impact on our youth and communities. I leveraged my entrepreneurial background and focused on the Company Program, but any career path or background can make a difference. It's all about showing these kids how life really works.

After having such an impact in my home community with Café de Joel, I had the opportunity to bring the same kind of impact to a larger community, la communauté franco-ontarienne. Through my experiences, I was able to support hundreds of businesses, from startups to successions in Ontario, and build one of, if not the largest network of GrowthWheel Certified Business Advisors in Canada. And let's not forget my passion for helping young entrepreneurs, I was also fortunate enough to guide thousands of students and open their eyes to the wonders being an entrepreneur. Through partnerships with organizations like JA North and Eastern Ontario, and GrowhWheel International, I leveraged my experiences, my passions, and my approach to building relationships, to support the entrepreneurial community in Ontario, and that is exactly the positive community impact that always drove me forward.

What drives someone to start a business? Could be in my blood, my grandfather had a business in Rockland, so did my aunt. My parents have multiples businesses in Clarence-Rockland.For me it was the idea that I could build something that had an impact on the community. I wasn't aiming low either. I wanted to build a business so in-tuned with the community that it would come to define it. Wise words.I put most of my efforts on the structure of the business. Business coaches will say something like ''systemize the routine, humanize the exception''. So I established workflows for customer service, staff management, inventory management, finance and wholesale. I built a team that could greet clients the way I would greet them, build relationships, and give our business a chance at a great reputation.The best part of this business is by far the people I met. Getting to know our clients on a personal level has defined this experience for me. So have I achieved what I set out to do? Not yet, but we are getting very close.

I joined the Chamber of Commerce and it's Board of Directors because I saw an opportunity to make a difference in my community. Sounds cheesy I know, but small businesses are what drive a community like Clarence-Rockland, and being part of an organization that has as it's core values to promote sustainable economic development was an obvious choice. As it was a new organization, I put myself to good use by tackling website management, establishing an outbound communications strategy, creating a unified online presence, and a host of other projects that kept me busy.I strongly urge any business owner to consider joining your local Chamber of Commerce and be involved. A strong and vibrant Chamber of Commerce is better for all business owners, for citizens, and ultimately for everyone.

Asnet Technologies was a great learning experience for me. It allowed to take everything I learned so far about dealing with people and problems, and throw all that into a corporate environment.Asnet Technologies is the leading video conference provider in New Zealand, with clients ranging from school boards and hospital networks, to governments and international corporations. I was used to hospital networks, but the reality is corporate environments are fast paced and high stakes. So I took it all in, became more efficient, I grew personally and professionally. We implemented systems to allow for better service and faster response times.I mastered the technique of problem solving by building relationships.

I went from the University to Care Connect, a company that connected doctors and medical specialists to patients in remote areas when traveling was either unfeasible or impossible. Care Connect then merged with 2 other similar companies to become the Ontario Medicine Network.During that transition my responsibilities evolved. I did less support, more training, more development, more installations, more management. To give a bit of context, most of our ''clients'' were hospital staff with very basic knowledge of the equipment. How to turn it on, check, how to turn it off, check. They were nurse, admin staff, in short, people who had better things to do than sit around and try to figure out what the problem was. I've always enjoyed dealing with them, because this is where I learned to perfect the art of problem solving by building relationships. I got to know them, they got to know me, it never took very much extra effort and I was good at it.I strive in environments where people are under pressure and I can make a difference in the way I connect with them. OTN gave me that and I was all the richer for it.

The University is where I really started my career. I transitioned from a part time student job to a full time contract with all the responsibilities that ensued. The main responsibility being providing support to professors and students taking part in courses offered via video conference and audio conference. Added to that were multiple projects including migrating codecs from individual rooms to a central location to allow the video and audio signals to be re-routed to another codec in case of failure.This experience is what really got me to learn that it's not just about fixing technical problems, it's about being able to connect with the person having the problem. Assuming a nondescript equipment failure that takes 5 minutes to resolve. Any given tech guy worth his name is able to resolve the issue in 5 minutes no questions asked. But it take the right kind of person to fix the problem and have the client happier for having had the problem in the first place. Maybe they learned something fascinating along the way, or maybe while the problem was being fixed there was a good chat and a really funny joke they'll be able to tell someone else later. Regardless of what the problem was, the relationship built during that 5 minutes will have longer lasting effects on that person than a random technical problem.Still with me?This is where I learned that even in tech sectors, people want to interact with people, not robots that can fix things. A lesson that served me well since then.