Chapter 7: I. LOVE. THIS. JOB. I get to be myself, I'm encouraged to be creative, I get to interview people about their fascinating life stories and I adore the people I work with. But you know what? I may have never even heard about this job if life hadn't intervened yet again. While visiting Montreal a dear relative died literally right in my arms, which kept me in Montreal for a while to plan the funeral and arrange care for my 97 year old grandmother. With that kind of traumatic event, you can't just go back to being your old self, you have to slowly learn how to be the new you. Older, wiser, a little lonelier. I believe that the deaths of others are among the only events that truly age us. They're markers of time passing and reminders that life is finite. While I was in Montreal and feeling pretty sad, I got a call that really picked me up. It was Luke Readman from Raymond George, calling to give me an education on what was out there on the market. I loved working at Bilingual Source so I had my blinders on until then and had no idea what my options were. In a little while I spoke to the owner, my curent boss, Julie Robinson and had one of those moments where you think, "I want to work for YOU". Both of them seemed so upbeat and creative and fun, but most of all, so unmistakably authentic. There was none of the false pretense I had come to associate with workplace environments and that really spoke to me. When she offered me a job, I had no choice but to accept..{to be continued...}

Chapter 6 - The Beginning Part II: When my now ex-wife and I decided to move to Toronto, I also took the decision to put my music career behind me and make a real go of something lucrative for a change. (Ouch}What happened next drastically changed the direction of my life. Once again sheer dumb luck intervened. While packing my belongings and monitoring a garage sale, I got a call from Bilingual Source to interview for a bilingual sales role. I had a great, hour long conversation with Shane Diamond which ended in him asking me if I had ever considered doing what he was doing. Recruiting.I hadn't. At all. Not once.More dumb luck! I got the first job I interviewed for and spent nearly 6 amazing years learning the ins and outs of recruiting at Bilingual Source. Coming from Sun Life, this was a breath of fresh air. It was a small boutique environment filled with disparate, fascinating characters, some of whom barely got along, but all of whom managed to work well enough together to make what was, to me at the time, good money.Now remember, I was no longer playing in bands for the first time in 15 years so I was hungry for a culture I could really sink my teeth into. Enter Greg Benadiba, my direct manager, now the president of the company. He could see I was hungry to learn and be creative and bounce crazy ideas off people and that i basically never shut up. He did his best to focus my A.D.D. style energy and (more or less) succeeded. The training and development I got from him and the team at Bilingual Source were priceless. And yes it's a small company so sometimes there's drama, and yeah sometimes the lines between business and personal get blurred and sure it's not perfect.... but it was perfect for me at the time.Slowly, steadily, I began to miss playing shows less and less. I found myself playing guitar and piano for fun instead of composing tunes for release. Spontaneously, authentically, I started to fall in love with recruitment.

Chapter 5 - The Beginning: Being a musician is the first thing I tried to do professionally. I poured my heart and soul into it for 15 years. That's if you don't count the six years where I spent countless hours a day learning to play instruments.Did I succeed? Did I fail? You tell me.Spoiler alert!!! I didn't get famous. Not even close. Nor did I make money. At some points I managed not to lose too much money which itself is a win. You know all those people that say things like, "Music is a tough business"? Surprise! They're right. It's about who you know and even then it's mostly timing and luck. So if these are your measurements for success, I failed. Not totally, but mostly.That said, I am unbelievably proud of the music I made and I do think that learning to play musical instruments enriches your life in a way that entirely defies description. It's ineffable. It's one of the few things humans do that feels close to magic. Secondly, I did get to do some unquestionably cool stuff. I got to rub shoulders with celebrities like Arcade Fire, Franz Ferdinand, Weezer, Snoop Dogg, Jimmy Cliff, Celine Dion (though I was only backstage for that one) and Ron Sexsmith. I had songs I wrote and/or produced playing on commercial and college radio many times over. I had music videos created by illustrator Meinert Hansen (Arrival, 300, Across The Universe, just unbelievable work) and animator Virpi Kettu (she worked on There, There and Burn The Witch for Radiohead!)My biggest achievement was playing music I co-wrote with my closest friends in front of 20,000 people. Four times. Guys, this may sound petty, but I have had no bigger thrill in my life than hearing waves of applause - some coming from so far that it takes a second to reach you - for something I helped create.Thirdly, and most importantly, I learned how to build a myriad of different professional and personal relationships, quickly, effectively and effortlessly. In short. I learned how to recruit.

Chapter 4: Fall 2010 to Fall 2011 was a real roller-coaster ride. I got to record my largest ever studio album, signed an exciting contract with a new label, and started planning my wedding. Things were looking up until our label suddenly rescinded our contract (they closed shop shortly after) and we started asking ourselves the question: What in the actual heck are we doing with our lives?I couldn't truly answer that question, but I could look for work and hope for the best. One of the biggest companies to work for in downtown Montreal is Sun life and I always loved their building, so I headed over to their historic Metcalfe street office, did an open house interview and got hired more or less on the spot. Sun Life was really impressive. Internally, their brand was unbelievably strong and they had a very specific vision of what they wanted for their corporate culture. I was taking inbound calls of various types. The more things I showed aptitude in, the more types of calls and tasks they give me: service, sales, claims, escalations, medical, dental, drug, disability, HR Admin, the list goes on. I can't say I've learned more anywhere than I did at Sun Life. I love learning so I soaked it up like a sponge and enjoyed into the upbeat, friendly and positive culture. One of the things I learned was about myself: I don't like to conform. I mean no one likes to be assimilated, but many people do really like to be part of a team where their role is clearly defined and where they are encouraged toward action rather than reflection and creativity. That makes perfect sense. It's just not me. So, feeling tired and a little lost, my wife and I decided to do what what many Montrealers refer to as turning to the Dark Side. We moved to Toronto.

Chapter 3: In early 2006, I was on a roll with my music career. I was producing recordings, making commercials and feeling like a million bucks. Plus, the artist I was musical director for, Amanda Mabro, was taking off. That great run lasted through the summer of 2007. Then I started failing. Hard. I lost a couple of big contracts, record sales were slow, gigs were not well-paying, festivals were not panning out. I had to face facts: I was not profitable. Time to bite the bullet and get a job again.A friend and fellow musician was working at Express Scripts so he referred me. They're a medical insurance software company which sounded a touch dull but also pretty useful to know about. The environment was the big sell. The shifts were not too bad, the money was decent, the team was nice and if you worked night shift you got paid a premium aaaaand you could watch dvds at work. It sounded fine and I was not in a position to be too picky.This was the first job I actually took seriously. I became a systems expert, mentor, unofficial trainer; I tried my best to be a leader and a good resource for them. My biggest takeaway from this job was that it was a francophone office. My French had gotten pretty pathetic by then so being immersed in that environment was an opportunity for me to really focus on the French language. I was very public about my project and my co-workers were unbelievably supportive. They recommended books, movies, music, etc. It was awesome.Then, yet again, I got really busy with music and started to have a total burnout. My Dr. suggested a little time off and I took him up on it. My friend was right though: the environment was the big sell. I'm still in touch with a bunch of the wonderful people I met there.

Chapter 2: This was my first time using a staffing agency and also my first account manager role. I had worked at a weird array of telemarketing jobs while at the radio station, but never anything really serious. These guys were a huge California technology re-seller who was mostly known in the US as Mac Mall, which, as a music producer, sounded really cool. This was the quintessential progressive, fun, sales environment, They had people like Microsoft and Adobe coming in to buy us lunch to try to nudge toward selling their products. There were contests and games and my manager, John Zimmer, would play whatever song I sent him super loud when I made a huge deal. I really liked working for John and overall it was pretty cool.They invested tons of time and money in sales training and you know what, I still quote lots of things they said regularly. Who knew this stuff was gonna change my life? Do you ever know that while it's happening?That advice and training plus my phone skills really made me great at the job. I landed some huge POs which was really exciting. The reason this didn't work out longer term is because things were really picking up in my music career and that's where my loyalties were. I really miss a lot of the people I met there to this day.

Chapter 1: I had just dropped out of college to start a music production house/record label, when a good friend and fellow artist called me up and asked me if I would be interested in working in radio. She was doing an internship at 940News and they were looking for an assistant producer. I was super excited and somehow got the job even though I was entirely self-taught. In my first week the "morning drive" traffic and weather reporter quit with no notice, literally during her shift on air. I was shocked. It was like being in a movie. So, in a stroke of sheer dumb luck, they asked if I'd be willing to make a demo and do overnight traffic and ops. I guess I did ok, even though, looking back, I was pretty awful at first. They gave me the job and over 2 and a half years I got more comfortable on the air and gained more and more shifts. If I'm being very honest I was only ok on the air. It was an all-news station and I was un-trained so being good on command when I really didn't know what I was doing or care about the content was a challenge. I did have lots of fun and loved working there.In the end, I left because I had trouble balancing the 24 hour rotating shifts, managing my record label and playing gigs. That said, I do love that this was something I got to do in my life.