APeeling in September is a digital magazine filled with real stories by real people with real solutions to life and work. This issue features a story of riches to rags and redemption. Stories about servant leadership, overcoming obstacles, immigration, the life of a digital nomad, and journaling along with fiction and book recommendations.

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APeeling

LeadershipImprovement Success

Digital Magazine

September 2020

Publisher: MarketAPeel

Editor: Shanon Peel

Design: Shannon Peel

APeeling Magazine is published by

MarketAPeel

939 Homer Street Unit 411

Vancouver, BC V6B 2W6

778-839-0521

Copyright 2020 MarketAPeel.

All rights reserved. No part of this

magazine may be reproduced into

any information retrieval systems

without the written permission of

MarketAPeel. The publishers are not

responsible in whole or part for any

errors or omissions in this publication.

All opinions and views are those of

the writers and not of the publisher.

ISSN: TBD

Photo by EyeAPeel

When we do not

MarketAPeel

The Harvest

Depends on

Everything done

before the fruit

ripens

Shannon’s

Thoughts

A year ago I published the rst

issue of APeeling.

It was 36 pages with 3 articles I

ghostwrote along with my own ar-

ticles to ll the pages. There were

over 200 readers that rst month.

Over the last year I’ve pub-

lished 9 issues and last month’s

issue was over 100 pages with 10

contributors and over 2200 readers.

That’s right, in 9 issues, I added

another 0 to the reader count.

This is the 10th issue and the

start of another year for the APeel-

ing Magazine. I hope that this time

next year I’ll have added another

0 to the readership and have more

stories to help people nd the solu-

tions they need for life and work

I am thankful for everyone who

has submitted stories to share the

lessons they’ve learned from their

lives and work with others. Thank

you for supporting me, I will forever

be grateful.

Those of you who are readers

of APeeling are my gems, my dia-

monds, and gold. Without you there

would have been no growth. Thank

you for helping me.

My social media followers, es-

pecially those who have engaged

with my posts are my tribe and I

hope I am supporting you as much

as you have supported me over the

last year.

The design of APeeling has

gone through a number of changes

and I want to continue to make it a

better experience for the readers

and the contributors.

If you have any suggestions,

have seen a cool idea elsewhere,

or would like to see a certain story

told, please send me a note.

I have received lots of positive

feedback so far and contributors

have told me stories about how be-

ing in APeeling provided them with

new followers, contacts, and poten-

tial clients. I love hearing these sto-

ries because it makes all the work

worth it.

If you want to contribute a story,

please feel free to send it to adver-

tising at marketapeel.agency.

The Apple Peels are

link buttons.

I made changes to help readers

nd the stories they want to read.

First Section

Each page is the start of an article so you can see if you

want to read more of it. At the bottom of each page is a

peel to click to go to the full article.

Second Section

This section is two pages listing the contributors and the

clients of MarketAPeel who are featured in this issue.

Click on the images to go to the appropriate pages.

Third Section

This is where the articles start and you can experience

the magazine one page at a time.

Click the Peel to go to section one

Click the Peel to go to section Two

Click the Peel to go to section Three

How to Navigate

APeeling

Accountability used to be an is-

sue for me because I lacked trust in

others.

I wasn’t able to hold people ac-

countable because I never trusted

them and if I couldn’t trust them, I

couldn’t have the tough conversa-

tion to hold them accountable. In-

stead, I would say things like, “Can

you just get that done for me?”

I wouldn’t explain that I needed

it done by a certain time and ask if

they were able to do it. I didn’t hold

people accountable to the task at

hand because I didn’t trust they’d

stay if I held them to a deadline or a

level of excellence. When I had my

IT company, we used tickets, which

would not be closed on time for one

reason or another. Not because

people didn’t want to get them

done, they wanted to do the work.

The problem was, I wasn’t clear

about my expectations because I

didn’t want to create conict. I g-

ured if I created conict, they were

What is Accountability?

Click the Peel to continue reading

by Likky Lavji

As it is with most immigrants,

the rst months in Canada were

hard for my family. Or at least that

is what I am told. I don’t think I ex-

perienced any hardship. I think we

were relatively fortunate.

We rented an apartment in

downtown Vancouver on Pendrell

Street. My mom, who had trained

as a typist in Dar es Salaam, en-

rolled in a shorthand course at a

local vocational college. With her

experience working at a university

in Dar es Salaam, and this addition-

al training, she hoped to get a job

quickly.

My brother registered at Lord

Roberts Elementary School in

Grade 1 and I was sent to Marigold

Pre-School.

My dad hit the pavement in

search of work for the rst time in

his life. From time to time, he remi-

nisces and describes how very hard

this was for him. He did not have

the condence to ask for work or to

sell himself. He would go from busi-

ness to business and walk around

Success takes struggle

Click the Peel to continue reading

by Shakeel Bharmal

Throughout my life, I unwittingly de-

ed the odds and achieved what oth-

ers believed was impossible for a rural

Southern Alberta high school drop-out to

achieve.

At 26, I was the head of a three-bil-

lion-dollar organization, which was the

cornerstone of what we now call the

cloud computing industry.

At 32, I was standing at the base

of the World Trade Centers wondering

why I was alive when so many people

weren’t.

At 35, I was bankrupt and a hopeless

addict living on the streets of Vancou-

ver’s Downtown East side.

At 42, I was in a loving relationship

with a daughter on the way and a lym-

phoma cancer diagnosis.

At 45, I co-founded a company called

UrtheCast, which endeavored to cre-

ate an unabridged view of the world in

one-meter video resolution by putting

cameras on International Space Station.

Deloitte & Touche called us the most

exciting and important tech-company in

Canada that year.

In 2001, my life was out of control. I

thought I was in control of everything,

but it was just the opposite. I ran a bil-

How to do the Impossible

Click the Peel to continue reading

by Cameron Chell

Since the early days of the US

response to COVID-19, our kitchen

table has been home to a pile of

newspapers in various states of or-

der. There’s the stack of the week’s

papers, the news sometimes too

fresh and real to face. There’s the

folded assortment of mini cross-

words from Page 3 that often serve

as a welcome alternative to polite

conversation at yet another meal at

home. There’s the treasure trove of

articles that struck a chord awaiting

clipping and gluing into my now

beloved Quarantine Journal.

Today’s crossword, actually

published 6 weeks ago yet still lin-

gering in the pile, gives two clues

on the power of print to reach and

connect with all those customers

safe at their own kitchen tables.

Eight across - “things stuffed in

takeout bags” and one down - “an-

swer to the riddle ‘what stays in

one corner but travels around the

world?’”.

Keep a Journal

Click the Peel to continue reading

by Valentina Bellicova

Is the laptop lifestyle for you?

Let’s dig a bit deeper to make

sure you are on the right path. This

probably goes without saying, but

people who choose this lifestyle

typically enjoy travel.

However, this was the case before

early 2020. The vast majority of

remote workers have recently been

forced into this lifestyle and prob-

ably were not offered the luxury of

picking the destination.

When traveling is again acces-

sible, this inherently brings certain

pros and cons. It means having a

minimalist mindset and

narrowing down what you need for

your day-to-day living. You’d

be surprised by how little you need

to be happy.

Think back to

various vacations you’ve had

throughout your life. Did you pack

too much or not enough? During

the very rare times I forgot

something it was just as easy to buy

What is a Digital Nomad

Click the Peel to continue reading

By Andrew Murdoch

We All are CEOs

Click the Peel to continue reading

by Anthony Gruppo

As the CEO for the Marsh & Mc-

Lennan Agency Northeast, and now

Marsh Commercial, UK, people of-

ten asked me to dene the role of a

CEO. They want me to talk in terms

of a Chief Executive Ofcer. But I’d

rather not because honestly, I don’t

know how to dene it or what it

really means.

I believe that everyone is a CEO

I look at it this way, if you can

coach yourself and others, can be

entrepreneurial in your thinking,

and act like an owner, you are a

CEO, no matter your job or your

title.

Nobody wakes up in the morn-

ing and thinks, “Let me look at the

corporate organizational chart, I

only have 4000 spaces to climb to

become the CEO.” Not a very mo-

tivating thought, is it? Wouldn’t it

be more motivating to see yourself

as the head of your own company,

right now, today?

I ask my colleagues to think of

themselves as a CEO, because it

is how I see them, and it is how I’d

The rst part of writing a novel is

guring out what it’s about. The

next step is to gure out whom the

story is about. Characters tell the

story, are the reason people con-

nect with it, and want to continue

to read it. Whether your story has

one character, like Tom Hanks in

‘Cast Away,’ or a group of people,

like the gang in ‘Friends,’ success

is measured by the emotional con-

nection the audience has with the

characters. The more authentic the

character’s responses, emotions,

and actions, the more the reader

will connect with the whole story.

Whom is #ThatsLife About?

Charlie - The Jaded one – The one

who is bitter about men

Rose - The Romantic one – The

one who is happily married

Lindsay - The Fun one – The one

who parties and has lots of men

Sophie - The Abused one – The

Know Your Character

Click the Peel to continue reading

by Shannon Peel

I thought I’d put together

a list of Women Authors.

e problem is there are

so many I didn’t know

who to put on the list and

who to leave out. So, I

went to Facebook to ask

women who their favou-

rite female authors were.

e list grew fast and it

would take a long time to

tackle everyone who was

mentioned, however, let’s

give it a go, shall we?

Bronte Sisters, Char-

lotte, Emily, and Anne.

I chose the sisters be-

cause my favourite novel

is Jane Eyre. I identied

with the character’s in-

dependence, strength,

and her disconnection

to the world around her.

I have reread this book

so oen I almost know it

by heart. Why include all

the sisters? ey all wrote

books, which inuenced

the genre and proved that

women could write suc-

cessful novels in a male

dominated world.

Facebook comments:

“Charlotte Bronte - Jane

Eyre was a classic I loved

reading in my academic

years”

Maya Angelou

Her ability to be open

Reading Lists & Authors

Click the Peel to continue reading

by Peter Goral & Shannon Peel

Are You Overwhelmed by the

amount of Content you need

to post on Social Media?

APeeling members have access to a content 

library lled with generic evergreen content which

they can use for their own social media posts

Free Access in September

Learn More

This Month’s Contributors

Shannon Peel Shakeel Bharmal

Peter Goral Andrew Murdoch

Valentina Bellicova Anthony Gruppo

Cameron Chell

MarketAPeel Clients

Become an APeeling Member

•  Discounts on products,

•  Access to Content Libraries

•  Personal Branding Workshops and

•  promotion in the APeeling Magazine

•  Learn how to tell your story

Click the Peel to Learn more -

Chop and Chisel

Eat Real Meals All Your Meals AYM Kitchens

Shakeel Bharmal

er, richer, happier. Social Media is

a reection of these messages as

we try to portray ourselves in the

best light possible using the same

techniques as professional adver-

tisers. Seth Godin said it best when

he called Marketers liars, we are in

a way, we tell the best stories and

spin the worst into appearing bet-

ter. We manipulate stats to t our

stories and we strategically make

our topics t what we believe soci-

ety wants.

Social media is a study of so-

ciety and the individual’s driving

needs. Take a moment to study

your social media proles, what

do they say about your values and

goals?

Social media is a difcult world

to navigate and a business needs

a Marketing Manager who under-

stands how to analyze the data and

create engaging content to tell a

brand’s story. The rules keep chang-

ing as the industry tries to manage

the large amount of content being

posted to it.

Edit Your

Social Media Copy

Your brain does funny things

when trying to edit recently writ-

ten copy, it sees what isn’t there.

It knows what you intended to say

when you wrote it and reads that

intent, instead of what is actually

in front of your eyes. Then after a

few days, when you reread what

you wrote, the errors start jumping

up and down while screaming at

you. Don’t feel bad, even the best

writers in history needed editors.

As Hemingway said, the rst draft is

shit.

There are countless ways to say

the same thing. That is the beauty

of the English language, two peo-

ple can write about the exact same

topic using very different styles, vo-

cabulary, and tones. This article has

been rewritten over ten times and

I still can nd errors in it, can you?

If you do please let me know in the

comments section.

Here are some tips to help you

write error free social media con-

tent.

1. Find a proof reader - a good one

2. Be patient and proof it before

you post

3. Take time before you proof your

work, a day or two can make a dif-

ference

4. Use grammar computer pro-

grams to help you.

Engagement is the

Currency of Social Media

The hard part is creating content

people want to engage with. By an-

alysing the reactions people have

with your content, you can learn

what kind of content you need to

be producing.

A Couple Problems -

There is the content you like to

make and the content people like

to engage with. You can’t create

content that doesn’t t within the

parameters of your brand and mar-

keting plan, so what do you do?

The best thing you can do is cre-

ate the best content you can. Con-

tent that reects your brand, rep-

utation, and image. Then tell your

story to the marketplace to attract

those customers who will identify

with your product or service. You

will have to boost posts and pay for

ads to get your message in front of

the right eyeballs.

The other problem is the lurkers

who don’t engage with any con-

tent, making it harder to know what

is good content and what is bad

content. Even if they love what you

create, you’ll never know, so you

might as well make content that

reects who you are.

You can’t be everything

to everyone, don’t try to be.

Be you.

Social Media is about People

not Tech. Since we communicate

on social media with technology

and don’t actually see the person

we are talking to it can be hard to

remember that there is someone

on the other side of the screen.

This can be seen when people

make cruel hurtful comments on

stranger’s posts. Comments they

would never make to someone’s

face in the real world for fear they’d

get beat up or slapped down hard.

The thing is, you are creating

content in hopes that people will

read it and not be offended or think

you are a troll. Create marketing

messages that appeal to people’s

emotional needs. Understand why

your customers buy your product

and create interesting content that

explains how you meet their needs

and solve their problems.

Entertain, Educate,

Inform on Social Media

Social media is an interactive

platform to build a community. It

is not a broadcasting station to

scream your ad all day long.

APeeling

in Your InBox

Monthly

Subscribe Today!

How can you get better results

on social media?

Consider all the ways you can

entertain, communicate, and in-

clude others in your business’ story.

Think like an informative, educat-

ing, entertainer.... Basically, be Bill

Nye the Science Guy.

Facebook is making it harder

for businesses to engage with their

followers.

It is putting a wall up between

the two so that businesses have to

pay to get their message in front

of their targeted market. The min-

ute Facebook went public prots

became important and considering

the size of their community, they

have every right to charge for ad-

vertising.

Facebook advertising

is different.

It is better suited to branding

than it is to sales or driving trafc

off site to your website.

The rules keep changing and

what worked yesterday will not

work today. The amount of noise,

competition, and distraction the au-

dience is faced with makes it harder

than it was ve years ago to get

noticed by your fan base.

Businesses have to be strategic

and constantly aware of how their

audience interacts with the content

to get the most out of their adver-

tising dollars. Testing the market

before jumping in with all resourc-

es will help businesses get in front

of their target markets and ensure

Want Your Own Magazine?

MarketAPeel will Design

your brand magazine in

print or digital

they get the most out of their bud-

get. Anaysing the results and dig-

ging deep into the data to under-

stand the how your ads and posts

are being received, engaged with,

and charged is vital to making bet-

ter decision on future ads.

It has never been easier to get

in front of your target market and it

has never been so complicated to

manage an advertising campaign.

You Got to Pay to Play

on Social Media

In the days before everyone and

their dog got into content mar-

keting and posting on Facebook,

social media had the power to do

amazing things for a brand. In to-

day’s world, you have to pay to

play - but before you do you need

to understand how Facebook ads

work or else you’ll end up spending

a lot of money you didn’t need to

spend.

It’s not good enough to occa-

sionally put a look at me ad every

once in a while. It takes a strategic

plan of action to ensure that you

are getting the best ROI possible.

Keep the sales ads to a minimum.

Social Media is

Today’s Word of Mouth

Social media and online reviews

are the 21st century’s version of

word of mouth and are more valu-

able because of their reach.

Are you asking your customers to

write reviews?

Are you nding social media en-

gagers to follow your business

page?

Are you engaging with your cus-

tomers to be part of the conversa-

tion?

Don’t fear reviews. Good and

bad are opportunities for you to tell

your story, show your integrity, and

inform about your policies.

Let’s say you get a horrible re-

view from a client who wasn’t hap-

py with your service. You did ev-

erything you could to make them

happy, you even gave them the

kitchen sink and they still sunk you

online.

Has this happened to you?

It happens to small businesses

all the time because some people

are jerks. They want to get every-

thing for free and have you thank

them for the opportunity to serve

them. These are the people you

don’t want to have as clients, they

don’t deserve your service.

When I worked in the online

review industry I had clients who

found themselves in this position

and would call me looking for help.

The good news was that the review

brought them to the table and they

could tell their side of the story in a

professional manner. It also meant

that the business owner could bring

all his happy reviews to the table to

offset the one bad review.

Online reviews are like a scale.

Good on one side, bad on the oth-

er. As long as you have enough

good reviews to offset the bad

ones, you’re golden. In fact, your

more golden then if all you have

are good reviews, because people

don’t trust companies with no scars.

Reviews and customer com-

ments on social media are part of

your story. Draw on them to show

the marketplace why they should

contact you.

Social Media isn’t

a Commercials only station

I know you are on social media

to get people interested in buying

your product and service, it can be

tempting to post ad, after ad, after

ad.

Thing is, people don’t like to be

sold a product, they don’t want to

share advertising with their friends

and family, they want to share sto-

ries, images, and interesting facts.

If you want people on social me-

dia to buy your product, you need

to build a reputation for being like-

able, caring, and trustworthy. Peo-

ple want to have a relationship with

you before buying from you. Devel-

oping a virtual relationship is differ-

ent than a real world one, it takes

a lot more time, patience, and less

sales pitches.

Social Media

is a Community...

If you approach social media as a

place to build community and con-

nection rather than a place to sell

your wares, you will nd success.

As people get to know you,

know more about what you do and

why you do it, they will start to pay

attention and when someone they

know needs your services, they will

refer you.

It can be time consuming, dif-

cult, and frustrating, however if you

approach social media strategically

and create helpful content people

will nd interesting, you will meet

your goals.

Marketing in today’s competitive

lled market needs a strategic ap-

proach to branding, marketing, and

sales.

Submit Your Story

to APeeling

How APeeling Works

Benets to You

How to Submit

More Information

1. Anyone can submit one story free

2. Clients of MarketAPeel are in all issues

3. APeeling members can submit to 4 issues

Published in a quality product

Exposure to APeeling readers

Promotion on social media

Backlinks to your websites

Send a 500 - 1500 word edited story

to advertising@marketapeel.agency.

I do not edit submitted stories at this

point in time

We all have a story,

a legacy, a memoir.

Sites like Ancestry.com give us

dates and places but they don’t give

us the stories.

Ever wonder why your grandpar-

ents moved to a different country

or how they met? Are you curious

about what life was like when your

mother was a teenager?

Some people want to know about

their family stories, their roots, or

how they are similar to a member

from a previous generation. The

sad thing is many of those who

came before us took their stories to

their graves. The family storytellers

share their stories, but it takes less

than a generation for those stories

to be lost or changed due to embel-

lishments and poor memories.

To help you get started with put-

ting your story down on paper, I’ve

created a 7 day challenge.

Start preserving your story for

your great-grandchildren today.

Take the one week

write your story

challenge

Preserve Your Story

What is

Accountability?

According to the Webster’s dic-

tionary, accountability means, an

obligation or willingness to accept

responsibility or to account for one’s

actions.

Accountability is when you can

trust people to deliver on a project

or a commitment when they said

they would. The second part of ac-

countability is having faith in your-

self to deliver on the promises you

made so others will trust you.

Accountability is what builds

trust in our relationships because

we are ensuring we take responsi-

bility for our promises. We are re-

specting others and ensuring they

know they can count on us in the

future. Accountability is the actions

we take when a promise is broken,

an excuse is made, or a deadline

casually pushed out.

Keynote Speaker | Facilitator | Consultant

APeeling Columnist

We can choose to not hold

someone accountable and ignore

the issue or we can step up and

hold make them answerable by

having the hard conversations with

them or ourselves. When we do

not take responsibility for ensuring

our promises are met, we cannot

successfully demand others take

responsibility for theirs. It starts with

us through example and ends with

us through communication of ex-

pectations.

My Story

Accountability used to be an is-

sue for me because I lacked trust in

others.

I wasn’t able to hold people ac-

countable because if I couldn’t trust

them, I couldn’t have the tough

conversation to hold them account-

able. Instead, I would say things

like, “Can you just get that done for

me?” I wouldn’t explain that I need-

ed it done by a certain time and ask

if they were able to do it.

I didn’t hold people accountable

to the task at hand because I didn’t

trust they’d stay if I held them to a

deadline or a level of excellence.

When I had my IT company, we

used tickets, which would not be

closed on time for one reason or

another. Not because people didn’t

want to get them done, they wanted

to do the work. The problem was, I

wasn’t clear about my expectations

because I didn’t want to create con-

ict. I gured if I created conict,

they were going to leave the com-

pany.

Accountable to Myself

When you are not being ac-

countable to yourself, you do not

take responsibility for what you

promise to do because you don’t

trust the process to get it done.

You won’t hold yourself account-

able if you have limiting beliefs

about yourself, don’t care about

your performance, and do not trust

yourself to do the job you promised

to do. It’s easier to let the deadline

pass, to only do the minimum of

effort, or to produce at a level of,

“Good enough,” than it is to have

tough conversations with yourself

and those who rely on you. If you

don’t do what you said you were

going to do, it affects other people

who will either have to initiate a

difcult conversation with you or do

the work themselves.

Limiting beliefs like, I’m not good

enough will always come into play

when we fail to be accountable

because if I’m not good enough, I

don’t trust the process I set up to

get the job done. If I don’t trust the

process, how am I going to hold

myself accountable?

It’s a cycle, which starts when

we agree to do something we don’t

think we can do because we feel

pressured or it’s part of our job and

we are scared others will nd out

we can’t do it. It is the same rea-

son why we don’t start the task and

hope it goes away because we be-

lieve we can’t gure it out, which

will prove we don’t belong in the

role, in the relationship, or with the

company. We hope it will go away

because our manager won’t want to

have the hard conversation and will

eventually give the task to someone

Discover how integrity is

getting in the way of success

for your organization, your

team, and you.

Free ebook

Download

Click to Discover

else to complete.

There is also the other side of

the coin where we want to try lots

of different things. We start projects

but then they get hard, boring, or

something more interesting comes

along and squirrel, we’re off on an-

other project.

People who suffer from shiny

object syndrome won’t hold them-

selves accountable because they

are on to the next shiny thing, which

is a better idea than the last one.

They make lots of promises and of

course, nothing ever gets done.

A lot of people, like myself, are

a quick start. My Colby index says

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As it is with most

immigrants, the rst

months in Canada

were hard for my fam-

ily. Or at least that is

what I am told. I don’t

think I experienced any

hardship. I think we

were relatively fortu-

nate.

We rented an apart-

ment in downtown

Vancouver on Pendrell

Street. My mom, who

had trained as a typist

in Dar es Salaam, en-

rolled in a shorthand

course at a local voca-

tional college. With her

experience working at

a university in Dar es

Salaam, and this ad-

ditional training, she

hoped to get a job

quickly. My brother

registered at Lord Rob-

erts Elementary School

in Grade 1 and I was

sent to Marigold Pre-

School.

My dad hit the

pavement in search of

work for the rst time

in his life. From time

to time, he reminisc-

es and describes how

very hard this was for

him. He did not have

the condence to ask

for work or to sell him-

self. He would go from

business to business

and walk around the

streets of downtown’s

west end in between.

Eventually, my dad

managed to lever-

age his experience in

the car business back

home to get a job in

sales at a used car

dealership. The letter

he received from the

Canadian diplomat in

Dar es Salaam came in

handy in his interview.

The downside was

the pay was 100%

commission-based. My

dad was not success-

ful in car sales. While

he had been working

in business since he

was 13 years old, he

was not prepared for

face-to-face sales in

Canada. It seemed to

him that his skills and

experience did not

translate. A very kind

co-worker felt bad for

my dad and arranged

to record a couple of

his own sales to my

dad’s name. If it was

not for him, we would

have depleted the

little savings that we

had brought with us to

Canada.

One day, after my

dad had been on the

job for a few months

in, this kind man said

he wanted to level

with him. He told him

he didn’t think my

dad would survive in

the car sales business

and urged him to do

something else. My

dad knew he was right

and saw this hard truth

telling as another act

of kindness.

The man offered

my dad an option.

He knew a guy who

knew a guy who had a

connection with an oil

company. Sounds sus-

picious already, I know.

There’s No Success

without Struggle

By Shakeel Bharmal

This ‘guy’ had an op-

portunity to take over

an old, boarded-up

gas station in Surrey,

British Columbia. The

guy that knew the guy

said that he was look-

ing for a partner who

would be able to in-

vest and help run the

business.

With the savings

mostly intact, and

my mom’s blessing,

my dad took a leap

of faith. Connections

were made and, within

a couple of weeks, my

dad and this stranger,

whom I will call “Jim,”

were in business to-

gether running a Mo-

hawk gas station.

At the time, Surrey

was considered a rural

farming community.

There was no public

transit to get there.

The dealership my dad

was working at made

him a good deal on a

jade green Ford Gal-

axy 500. It was huge,

as were most North

American cars sitting

on the used car market

then.

With the OPEC oil

embargo of 1973, gas

prices jumped 350%.

This car had a V8 en-

gine. No wonder they

gave him a good deal!

My dad commuted

two hours a day be-

cause he didn’t want to

uproot us from down-

town where my mom

was completing her

course and had made

a few friends. Also,

Surrey was not cosmo-

politan then and my

dad feared it might not

be welcoming for im-

migrants.

The deal with Jim

was this. Jim would

live with his family in

the apartment at the

back of the gas station.

He and his wife would

open and close the

station. My dad would

drive from downtown

and work the middle

of the day. Drawing on

his bookkeeping back-

ground, he would do

the daily accounting

of sales and purchas-

es. Essentially, my dad

would run the busi-

ness, but Jim would be

the front man when it

came to dealing with

the local bank branch,

the Mohawk district

manager and the sup-

pliers.

The business did

not turn much of

a prot for several

months so we had to

spend some of our sav-

ings. Fortunately there

was still some left.

On a few occasions,

my dad saw Jim taking

cash from the till with-

out writing it down.

When my dad asked

him what it was for, Jim

said his wife needed

to buy some food for

their baby. One day,

my dad worked up the

courage to confront

Jim and say that they

needed to establish

a process for drawing

funds, as well as set a

budget for how much

they could take out of

the business.

Jim was dismissive

and said that was not

necessary and that this

was how business was

done in Canada. He

was patronizing and

was playing on my

dad’s trusting nature.

My dad pushed back

and said that, even in

Canada, you have to

make a prot before

you draw money and

that they were not yet

protable. My dad

grew increasingly sus-

picious.

After a few weeks,

my dad got a call from

the bank manager at

the Newton branch of

the Canadian Imperi-

al Bank of Commerce

(CIBC). The bank man-

ager asked him to

come and see him lat-

er that day but not to

tell Jim. This was a sur-

prising call. Since the

day the papers were

signed with the bank

to open the account,

Jim had always been

the one who dealt with

the bank.

The bank manager

told my dad that, after

months of excuses and

stalling by Jim, CIBC

had conrmed that the

initial investment he

had promised had not

come through. What

was more, a credit

check the bank had

conducted revealed

that Jim was essentially

bankrupt. Our savings

were the only thing

keeping the business

aoat.

So Jim and his fami-

ly were living rent free,

drawing cash from

the till and doing little

more than unlocking

and locking the doors

and pumping some

gas. My mom and dad

did not know what to

do. The bank manag-

er suggested that my

dad organize a meet-

ing with the Mohawk

district manager at the

bank and the three of

them could discuss

how to proceed.

They met on a

Saturday. The bank

manager revealed ev-

erything that he had

learned and my dad,

the bank manager and

the district manager

devised a plan. My dad

did not have any credit

history, but he present-

ed the letter from the

Canadian diplomat.

With that, and his view

of my dad’s character,

he granted my dad

a small line of cred-

it. That line of credit

was enough to buy a

truckload of gasoline.

The Mohawk district

manager advanced my

dad enough credit to

buy some cases of oil

and some in-store mer-

chandise.

Then, the district

manager went to the

gas station and evict-

ed Jim and his family,

giving them 1 week to

vacate the apartment

in the back. He tore up

all the contracts and

put new agreements in

place with my dad. A

week later, my family

moved into the suite

at the back of the gas

station.

The process that

started with providing

excellent service to a

Canadian diplomat,

followed by govern-

ment policy changes

in Tanzania and Can-

ada, a failed career as

a used car salesman, a

con man, an incredibly

supportive CIBC bank

manager and a coura-

geous Mohawk district

manager had culminat-

ed in a completely un-

predictable outcome.

One year after immi-

grating to Canada, my

dad was once again a

business owner. As I

think about this story,

the biggest lesson for

me is the importance

of resilience, perse-

verance and faith. This

story and this lesson

was very helpful when

I faced my own career

crisis thirty six years

later but more on that

another time.

Through the rest of

the 70’s and 80’s, I paid

attention as my dad

talked about what was

going on at the gas

station. Various CIBC

bank managers and

Mohawk district man-

agers came and went

and I learned how my

dad evaluated each

one of them. Some

were fair, some were

not. Some were great

teachers, some were

students. This was my

introduction to effec-

tive and ineffective

business practices and

relationship manage-

ment.

As I spent summers

watching the cash reg-

ister and eventually

pumping gas, I learned

several other busi-

ness lessons. I learned

about the challenges

of nding good em-

ployees and the dis-

appointment of losing

good ones. I learned

about incredible cus-

tomers and nasty ones.

I learned about the im-

pact that oil prices and

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the economy had on

gasoline prices and the

impact gasoline prices

had on cash ow and

prots.

I did not know it at

the time but, when I

started university, I re-

alized how much I had

already learned about

business. As I have

continued to work

through my career, in

several organizations,

as a manager, manage-

ment consultant, mar-

keting director, general

manager, president

and chief operating

ofcer, I have drawn

on the lessons learned

through this humble

gas station business.

In one form or another,

I worked in that busi-

ness from the age of 4

until the age of 27.

Here is a fascinat-

ing coincidence and

twist of fate. Eighteen

years after the kind-

ness shown by that

CIBC bank manager,

my brother started a

job as a teller (now

called a customer ser-

vice representative) at

a CIBC Branch in New

Westminster, British

Columbia. He worked

his way up to a branch

manager and now,

45 years later, he is a

CIBC community vice

president.

And what was my

rst job after univer-

sity? I joined Mohawk

as a sales coordinator

and was promoted to

the position of district

manager before the

company was acquired

by Husky and I went

to graduate school. I

think it is just incred-

ible how those early

experiences subcon-

sciously imprinted to

the point that they

inuenced my brother’s

and my career paths.

What is your story?

If you were an immi-

grant child, and are

now in a leadership

role, I would love to

hear how your early

experiences impacted

your career.

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email programs learn

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How to Do the

Impossible

By Cameron Chell

I don’t believe in impossible

because I have overwhelming ev-

idence that when we search our

stories, we discover inextricable ev-

idence that the impossible does not

have to exist because we nd ways

to overcome anything.

All that exists

is possible.

Throughout my life, I unwittingly

deed the odds and achieved what

others believed was impossible for

a rural Southern Alberta high school

drop-out to achieve.

At 26, I was the head of a

three-billion-dollar organization,

which was the cornerstone of what

we now call the cloud computing

industry.

At 32, I was standing at the base

of the World Trade Centers wonder-

ing why I was alive when so many

people weren’t.

At 35, I was bankrupt and a

hopeless addict living on the streets

of Vancouver’s Downtown East

side.

At 42, I was in a loving relation-

ship with a daughter on the way

and a lymphoma cancer diagnosis.

At 45, I co-founded a company

called UrtheCast, which endeav-

ored to create an unabridged view

of the world in one-meter video

resolution by putting cameras on

International Space Station. Deloitte

& Touche called us the most excit-

ing and important tech-company in

Canada that year.

The Event that

Changed my life

In 2001, my life was out of con-

trol. I thought I was in control of

everything, but it was just the oppo-

site. I ran a billion-dollar company, I

owned jets, and was on the cusp of

bigger deals.

To gain this level of success, I

needed to be in control, to do ev-

erything you’re supposed to do to

be successful.

I was “That Guy”. The guy who

was always going to be smarter,

better, faster, and at the top of what-

ever I did. I’d get up early, run all

the strategies, did all the self-help

things we need to do to achieve

more success, and then something

happened to unravel it all.

It was the morning of 9/11/01

and I had a meeting at the World

Trade Centre. When the plane hit

we were in a state of bewilderment,

then as events started to unfold,

bewilderment was replaced with

chaos.

At rst, I didn’t understand what

had happened, but I wasn’t all that

concerned. My rst thought wasn’t

about the people or the situation.

My rst thought was: “I have a

meeting in Midtown this afternoon

and the trafc’s going to be terrible

so, I need to cut this meeting short.”

That’s how self-centered I was.

I didn’t think I was being self-cen-

tered. I thought I was being smart.

I wasn’t in the moment, I was al-

ways thinking of my next move

and how to be a step ahead of the

game. That’s how you win, by stay-

ing focused on the future. Or so I

thought.

All hell broke loose when the

second plane hit. It felt like an

earthquake. It didn’t feel real. It

wasn’t possible. In fact, it was an

absolutely impossible situation.

When I got outside, the realiza-

tion of what had happened became

real and I instantly realized I had no

control over what was happening.

Here I was, the person who did

everything every day to stay one

step ahead, to control the situation,

the narrative, and my destiny at all

times. I was suddenly thrust into a

chaotic situation of impossible and

possible happening at the same

time. There was nothing I could do

to move forward, to get ahead, to

be certain of my future.

If I stepped right or left, some-

thing could fall on me and I’d be

dead. If I ran straight, I might live,

but I didn’t know. If I stood still, I

could live, but I didn’t know.

At that moment, I realized I was

completely lying to myself. Every

day, I felt I had done the things I

needed to do to always be one step

ahead, yet in that moment, I real-

ized none of that mattered. I was

not able to predict anything. I could

not stay ‘safe’ and everything could

end.

In the chaos surrounding me

people were dying, they were jump-

ing to keep from burning, they were

running in different directions and I

didn’t know which way was going to

result in staying alive.

At that moment, I learned life is

completely out of my control and

it was the worst thing I could have

discovered about my life.

The Aftermath

I made my way from downtown

into Midtown. The phone service

was sporadic and it took awhile

but I called who I could to let them

know I was ok.

When I called California to check

on my son, I found out he had taken

his rst steps. It was surreal.

I should have been dead, yet,

I was hearing the most amazing

news in the world and I all I wanted

to do was get drunk.

Up until this point in my life, I

was disciplined with my body and

my health. I drank in moderation

and only socially. I didn’t do drugs

and took obsessively good care of

myself.

That night, I got completely

drunk and that was only the start of

my problems.

Over the next six months, my

companies witnessed an unfore-

seen downturn as the tech market

collapsed. Daily, I witnessed the

stock price of my company go down

and once again, I realized I was not

in control of the outcome. No matter

what I did, I could not change the

stock market’s .com meltdow.

I’d done everything I was sup-

posed to do to be successful, to

increase the valuation of the com-

pany and create wealth for my

investors. Yet, I could do nothing

about the .com market correction or

the regulations governments were

putting into place, which slowed

technological advancement for a

few years.

I was supposed to be success-

ful. I’d worked hard. Followed the

process and there was nothing I

could do, so I drank.

Drinking turned into drugs and

the drugs turned into harder drugs.

I started disappearing for

months at a time to get away from

the impossible situation I’d found

myself in. Whenever I wanted to

escape, I’d get on one of my jets

and go hide somewhere, I wouldn’t

tell anyone where. Eventually, I

went broke, completely bankrupt,

and ended up on the street in the

Downtown East side of Vancouver,

Canada’s poorest and drug-lled

four blocks.

I didn’t have to live there. I had

friends who would come pick me

up. In fact, they’d hired private in-

vestigators to nd me, and forced

me into rehab. However each time

I’d let them down and return to the

street looking for the next high.

Eventually, I’d pushed my luck

too far. My friends realized they had

to allow me to hit rock bottom be-

cause I didn’t want to be saved. I’d

let them down too many times.

The Event that

Changed my life

While I was living on the streets

of Vancouver I offended a local

gang because I was still too arro-

gant and cocky for my own good.

Whenever this gang would nd

me, they would beat me up for fun.

One day, they beat me so badly, I

ended up in the hospital. While ly-

ing in my hospital bed, I realized as

long as I stayed on the street they

would nd me and the next beating

would kill me.

I didn’t want to die.

When I got out of the hospital,

all I had were the dirty clothes I’d

gone in with and the spare key to

my Jeep, which I’d miraculously

managed to keep.

During one of my rehab mo-

ments a friend bought me the Jeep

and for some reason I didn’t sell

it for drugs. However, that didn’t

stop the gang from taking it from

me when they beat me up. Now, I

needed it back because it was the

only way I had to get out of Vancou-

ver.

I found the Jeep parked on

the street and the spare key still

opened the locked door. As I was

getting in, I heard a yell from down

the street. It was one of the gang

members and he was coming to

stop me from taking the Jeep back.

At that moment - it was crystal

clear, if he caught me, I wouldn’t

live to the end of the day.

I didn’t know how close he was,

I didn’t know if he was chasing me,

I didn’t know if other people were

coming after me. I just drove East.

The Aftermath

After I left the city of Vancou-

ver, I pulled into a Safeway parking

lot. I was shaking. I’d gotten away

from the gang member, I’d taken

my Jeep back, but I was a mess. I

needed help and knew nobody was

going to give me money.

I’d bee wearing the same

clothes for weeks. They were cut-

up, bloody, dirty, goodness knows

what I smelled like. I hadn’t eaten

for a couple of days. I had no upper

teeth because I had knocked them

all out during different seizures and

overdoses.

I had no money. I was driving a

Jeep I couldn’t prove was mine be-

cause I had no identication. I had

no idea how I was going to repair

my life, get clean, get my family

back, and get out of bankruptcy. I

didn’t know how I was going to live

to tomorrow, let alone what to do

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Learn From Cam Chell

when I got there.

At that moment I asked myself,

“Cam what do you want?”

I wanted to be safe. I didn’t want

to die. It was the rst time in years I

realized I didn’t want to die, at least

not by getting beaten to death on

the streets of Vancouver.

I decided, I wasn’t going to die.

That was the only decision I had to

make and the next question I asked

was, “How do I stay safe?”

This is key to understanding how

we achieve the impossible.

It’s three simple things.

In that moment I answered those

three simple things to do the impos-

sible, live to tomorrow.

1. What’s important to me? – To

live

2. What’s the solution? – I need to

get to my brother’s place

3. What can I do right now in this

instant to get closer to my broth-

er? -- I need to drive East.

How do I make that happen?

The only answer I could come up

with was, I needed to ask for help.

Everything in my entire life was

about me doing it, me accomplish-

ing it, and me being successful on

my own. Standing there in the park-

ing lot of Safeway, dirty, smelly, and

scared, I had to ask for help.

I was nally at a place in my life

where I had to ask for help and I

still had friends willing to help me.

I knew the rst thing I needed to

do was call my friends and ask for

help, so I went around the parking

lot asking strangers, “Can I borrow

your phone? I need to call and ask

somebody for help.”

Amazingly, people let me use

their phones to make calls. I

couldn’t get a hold of some of the

people I called. Some who an-

swered hung-up when they heard

my voice. I couldn’t blame them.

Finally, I got my former CFO

Blair on the phone. Blair knew my

shtick. I’d called him plenty of times

lying about needing money for rent

and used the cash to get high in-

stead.

I’d let him down many times be-

fore. Blair’s a smart guy. He could

have hung up on me or told me

no. But he didn’t. Instead he said,

“Cam I’ll do something for you. I’m

going to send $12.95. First of all,

you need to know the exact number

because there’s no way Western

Union will give you any money be-

cause you have no ID, you smell,

you’re ugly, you’re an idiot. So, you

need to know the exact amount

of money. I don’t want to give you

enough money to get yourself in

danger, so I’ll send you $12.95.

What you do with it is up to you, but

when the $12.95 runs out, if you’re

still alive, I’ll help you again.”

Surprisingly, (After a bunch of

cajoling) Western Union did give me

the money Blair sent and I put gas

in the Jeep. Then I started driving

until I was low on gas again and I

started looking for another Safeway

and did the same thing. It took me

ten days to get back to Alberta, to

my brother’s place, to safety.

A lot of those days I was in the

back of the Jeep puking my guts

out and wondering what to do next.

All I really cared about was be-

ing safe, to live, and to get to my

brother. To get there I needed to do

the next thing to get one step clos-

er. I in the moment focusing on the

next step, the one right in front of

me, that moment - not looking down

the road to tomorrow. I could only

look at the task right in front of me

at today.

Once I did one thing, I’d ask,

“What do I need to do now to get

safe?” Then I’d focus on the next

thing. Each step geting me closer to

Share the Story

my goal, my brother, my safe place.

Doing the impossible isn’t about

doing everything and knowing the

whole plan. It is only about doing

the next thing. To keep taking steps

to move towards what you want, for

me it was to be safe at my brother’s

place.

When I nally made it to my

brother’s place, something amazing

happened, my arms were around

him and his wife and they were

literally carrying me into the house.

I asked, “Why are you going to help

me this time?” My brother respond-

ed, “You have ten days clean?”

During my escape from Vancouver

to his place, I didn’t think about

staying cleaning for ten days. I only

thought about doing the next thing

to get to safety.

Against all odds, I had 10 days

clean by focusing on the next thing.

That is how we accomplish the im-

possible.

The Lesson

I can’t do it on my own.

No matter what you do. No mat-

ter who you think you are. No mat-

ter what, if you think you are doing

it on your own, if you think you’re

the solitary hero, you will not ac-

complish the impossible.

Show me any person in history

who was successful, and I will show

you that the reason they were suc-

cessful was because of the people

around them.

We all need to ask for help and

stay focused on the future while

being in the moment to do the next

thing to get to where we need to be.

Turn the page to meet Cameron Chell

and discover more about him.

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About Cameron Chell

Cameron Chell is considered

a ‘serial entrepreneur’ with his

rst ventures beginning at age 14

and a trajectory in business that

spans more than 25 years. He is

the co-founder and CEO of the

Business Instincts Group (BIG) and

BUILD Impossible. He has launched

numerous successful tech start-ups

such as Dragany Innovations (CSE:

DFLY) (OTCQB: DFLYF), ColdBore

Technologies, Raptor Rig, Urthe-

cast, KODAKOne and Currency-

Works (TSXV and OTCQB: CWRK).

His entrepreneurial success is

based on principles of clear vision,

quantiable results and tireless pur-

suit of goals.

A sought-after speaker, Chell

has addressed audiences of thou-

sands in settings around the world.

His presentations include speeches

at the United Nations, Tony Rob-

bins, and TEDx Montreal Women.

His talks touch on themes ranging

from technology to homelessness

as he shares his life experiences of

overcoming hurdles and doing “the

impossible.”

Cameron Chell

Gets Schooled

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Why indeed keep a journal?

While the list of reasons may be

endless, the main reason is that it

is a proven personal development

process that ne tunes your blue-

print in such a way that it brings

about improvements in every area

of your life.

A journal can have a single focus

such as developing and tracking

the progress of a major (or minor)

project, or, it can be as wide reach-

ing as a life project. Personal devel-

opment can be a potpourri of your

daily life’s challenges and victories;

it can also be single focused such

as losing weight or training to run

your rst marathon which when

achieved can move you on to jour-

naling on another goal, scattered

with mini-projects to reach the fen-

ceposts along the way. Just like a

journey to a far off destination you

will nd that along the way there is

plenty to marvel at, to soak in and

expand your thinking, your knowl-

edge, your understanding of life,

beauty and the essence of nature

and who we are.

BUT, to achieve any of the

above, a new blueprint needs to

be created to replace the one you

have now, the one that is run by

the imprint that was formed by the

time you were seven. Well, create

may not be the right word. Create

suggests that out of thin air a new

blueprint can be drawn just like an

architect does with each new proj-

ect. You can’t just toss away the

one you have and voila! Just like

that have a new blueprint.

This is the part that is your life’s

journey. First, you need to know

that your blueprint is not all that

bad,, it’s just that its our human

nature to focus on things that are

not good because that is the pain

that keeps happiness at bay. There

is denitely a lot of good and

you want to not only preserve the

good, but to improve on it, make it

stronger.

One small change to your blue-

print can have a massive spin off

that can change your life. Before I

had even started journaling, I had

decided to make one small change

in my life. To get t again. I had

always been physically active, but

Why Keep A

Journal?

By Valintina Ballicova

work, raising a family, yada yada

yada (pick an excuse of your own)

took its toll on me and I denitely

needed to shed some LB’s.

Undoubtedly you have heard the

saying “Life is a marathon not a

sprint.” While that may be true, I

can tell you that life is both. Using

the same analogy of a marathon

and sprint let me tell you a short

story about how Nina - yes that

Nina, the one who introduced me

to journaling, the one who trained

us, “the gruesome foursome” to

run a marathon.

Nina was a rm believer in mix-

ing things up, of cross training be-

fore I ever heard of the term. Bit by

bit we noticed that we were spend-

ing more time outdoors. Some-

times it was just a short warm up at

the gym then out we went. A short

run to a nearby park, where we

“played” on the monkey bars, tried

chin-ups on the pull up bars, and

holy guacamole! Learned to use

the parallel bars. The nearby beach

served well for squats and lats.

The town where exercised was

on a peninsula with a steep drop

to the beach. Sometimes we would

run on a trail down the hill but

more often it was down a series of

steep steps. First a leisurely walk

up, then faster, then run up. She

even had us walk up the steep in-

clines and steps backward.

But there was always a run.

Sometimes a short one, sometimes

a long one. The short ones became

increasingly faster, then sprints that

left us gasping. The long runs be-

came longer.

Of course we grumbled, but se-

cretly we loved the slimming of our

bodies, the strengthening of our

legs and arms, the disappearance

of our mufn tops, and I noticed

that our postures improved, that

we walked with a more condent

and even an authoritative gait.

All that from that one small

decision. One morning after the

workout Nina pulled a fast one on

us. As had become our routine we

were enjoying coffee and munch-

ies at the local café, when Nina

pulled out some forms out of her

bag, and spoke (paraphrased):

“Hey guys (everyone was “guys”

in those days), I got some paper-

work I’d like you to ll out. Next

month is the rst half-marathon

of the year, it’s a great warm up

for the many marathons that are

held throughout the year. So these

are the registration forms for that

half-marathon …”

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We were stunned. After an initial

moment of silence a chorus went

up …

“What? Are you nuts!” “Not on

your life!” “Yeah. Right.”

Our protests were met with that

rm look and resolve I had come

to know that she was serious. She

gave us one reply:

“You have already run the half-mar-

athon several times. And we still

have a month to practice more”

That sly fox!

Before we left the café Nina had

four signed registration forms for

the February Half Marathon. Bin-

go! Would have never done this if

it wasn’t for that one small decision

to get t. To achieve life’s sprints

and milestones, small incremental

steps must be taken.

Think about a ship and the ship’s

captain. When the ship sets sail it

has a destination. To get to that

destination the captain has to make

small changes in the direction that

his ship faces. Say the ship is sailing

from New York and its destination

is Tokyo. To reach that destination

the captain will need to make small

but constant steering changes, rst

southbound to the Caribbean, then

westbound to Panama, then cross-

ing the narrow Panama Canal, then

north up the Pacic with incremen-

tal changes towards the west.

Sometimes those incremental

changes are as small as just one de-

gree to the left, or to the right.

What if that ship was called “My

Life?” What if all it ever sailed was

between New York and Miami. And

what if you were the captain?

One day as you dock the ship in

Miami, you look out on to the hori-

zon. In the distance turquoise wa-

ters blend with the blue of sky. The

scene that nature has laid out for

you is seductive, it holds promises

of something. What? You do not

know.

In your heart you yearn for more

than just New York to Miami. You

yearn to explore. In the morning,

you change your course.

Your journal is that ship. You are

its captain. One difference: your

ship is now called “My Journal”

and it gives you safe haven to make

small incremental changes to your

blueprint. It is the place where you

can, and should be, unabashedly

honest. There is no shame or em-

barrassment when you pour out

your heart and soul onto the pages

of your journal. And, to truly im-

prove that blueprint, that is what

needs to happen.

You will never be able to move

forward if you do not identify the

things that are holding you back.

Have you ever laid in bed at night

with your brain just running at full

speed? You mull over thoughts and

then out of the blue, Eureka! You

have had an epiphany and it sud-

denly feel as if a massive weight

has been lifted off your shoulders.

You feel free! You feel as if you

have cast off a yoke that has kept

you down forever. Suddenly you

feel excited, lled with exuberance

and looking forward to the day.

Journaling is a way for you to

reach those moments without los-

ing sleep! You won’t have to worry

about lying awake in bed until the

wee hours of the morning, because

you already worked it all out in your

journal.

Simply by writing in your jour-

nal, new neural pathways have

been created in your brain. Writing

engages the analytical left side of

our brain, leaving the creative right

side to come up with solutions. In

this way the brain becomes aware

of what you want to achieve, where

you want to go and will actively

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seek solutions.

In your daily journal write down

the solutions that come to mind.

In the light of day you can engage

your logical powers to evaluate

them. Choose one, apply, and see

what happens. Is the new tactic

taking you closer to what you want

to achieve? If yes, continue; if no,

re-evaluate, correct course and

continue.

As you saw in the sample journal

entry in the previous chapter Jane,

the journal writer, refers to some-

thing that happened when she

was a little girl. We are who we are

today because of our early years’

environment, experiences, and our

reactions, thoughts and feelings

associated with those experiences.

The blueprint for who we are today

was deeply ingrained in our psyche

by the time we were seven years

old. Our parents, teachers, friends,

home life, where we lived, culture

and belief systems that we were

exposed to all helped design a

blueprint for our life. Even our reac-

tions to events in our lives continue

to play a critical role in how we live

our lives.

Two people may be in the same

place at the same moment and

have the same experience, but how

they react to that experience will be

different. Think of the classic exam-

ple of twins born into poverty. Their

parents worked hard at making a

living but were only managing to

bring in meager earnings. As chil-

dren the twins often went to bed

without food. They witnessed loud

and sometimes violent ghts

between their parents. Their father

turned to crime and was eventually

sent off to jail. This was life as they

knew it.

Many years later, one of the

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twins found himself in a courtroom

in front of a judge. Sadly, he mir-

rored the life of his father. Sitting in

the courtroom was his twin broth-

er. He on the other hand had tak-

en a different road. He was now a

prosperous and upstanding citizen

admired by many. He married and

provided well for his family.

A reporter covering the trial was

curious. Two brothers, with exactly

the same upbringing yet, one fell

victim to his childhood, the other

rose above it. What was the differ-

ence? He decided to pose a ques-

tion to each of the twins: to what

events in their life did each ascribe

their current situation?

One twin replied:

I grew up in abject poverty.

Food was scarce. Our parents

fought a lot, mostly about money.

My father eventually abandoned

us. It was hard for our mother. What

choice did I have but to follow the

only life I knew how to live.

And the other one said:

I grew up in abject poverty.

Food was scarce. Our parents

fought a lot, mostly about money.

My father eventually abandoned

us. It was hard for our mother. What

choice did I have but to look at

my life and seeing that I was at the

bottom of the pit, I realized that I

had no place to go but up.

Journaling gives you the oppor-

tunity to x some of the areas in

your blueprint that may be holding

you back. When you write in your

journal, be brutally honest with

yourself. In fact, you have to be

in order to really understand what

is going on. When you lay it all

out on paper, it is somehow much

more real. It is there for you to an-

alyze and determine what part of

the blueprint isn’t working for you.

What link do you want to change?

Once you identify the problem, it is

easier to x it.

When you take your car to the

mechanic shop, don’t they ask you

what the problem is? If you don’t

know what it is, they hook it up

to a device that checks under the

hood to identify the problem. From

there, they can x it.

It’s the same with your brain.

Once you identify the problem it

is easier for you to x it. Your brain

has been imprinted with memories,

feelings and emotions that need to

be examined before they can be

repaired.

Word of caution. Unlike a me-

chanical shop that can x all the

problems with your car with one

appointment, journaling can’t do

that. Work on just one or two things

you want to change or improve on.

Your life blueprint is deeply in-

grained in your psyche, lives in your

subconscious self and is the engine

that drives your life.

What you will nd is that as you

begin to redesign your blueprint,

even with just one or two items, the

improvement will have a positive

impact on all areas of your life. It

may be small and subtle, or it may

be a sudden gargantuan mental

shift. Either way it’s all good. Keep

on keeping.

Valentina inspire entrepreneurs who

have a desire to write, to share their

knowledge and experiences, to enter-

tain, and educate.

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Wikipedia denes a Digital Nomad

as the following:

“A type of people who use tele-

communications technologies to

earn a living and, more generally,

conduct their life in a nomadic

manner. Such workers often work

remotely from foreign countries,

coffee shops, public libraries, co-

working spaces, or recreational ve-

hicles. This is often accomplished

through the use of devices that

have wireless Internet capabili-

ties such as smartphones or mo-

bile hotspots. Successful digital

nomads typically have a nancial

cushion. The digital nomad com-

munity has had various events es-

tablished to host members of it.

Common types of digital nomads

include retired or semi-retired

persons (including snowbirds), in-

dependently wealthy or entrepre-

neurs, and (often younger) remote

workers.

People typically become digital

nomads for positive reasons, such

as nancial independence and a

career that allows for location

independence. This sort of lifestyle

may present challenges such as

maintaining international health

insurance with coverage globally,

abiding by different local laws and

sometimes obtaining work visas,

and maintaining long-distance rela-

tionships with friends

and family back home.”

Is the laptop

lifestyle for you?

Let’s dig a bit deeper to make

sure you are on the right path. This

probably goes without saying, but

people who choose this lifestyle

typically enjoy travel.

However, this was the case before

early 2020. The vast majority of

remote workers have recently been

forced into this lifestyle and prob-

ably were not offered the luxury of

picking the destination.

When traveling is again acces-

sible, this inherently brings certain

pros and cons. It means having a

minimalist mindset and

narrowing down what you need for

your day-to-day living. You’d

be surprised by how little you need

What is a

Digital Nomad?

By Andrew Murdock

to be happy. Think back to

various vacations you’ve had

throughout your life. Did you pack

too much or not enough? During

the very rare times I forgot

something it was just as easy to buy

the item.

For me, it’s far more likely that

I overpacked. Trust me when I say

that traveling with less is a bless-

ing, whether due to lugging heavy

baggage or the exceedingly com-

mon airline fees for extra and over-

weight bags.

Do you really want to be that

person holding up the line at the

airport while you move

items from one bag to another? I’m

sure it gives everyone a good

laugh until it’s their turn to have a

bunch of strangers eyeing up

what they have in their luggage!

Plus, depending on how you

handle your accommodations, you

won’t need to bring that much.

More on that later in Chapter 3.

One item you won’t get away

with leaving behind is your

laptop. Although, some can make

do with a mobile cell phone or

tablet. These circumstances are

rare, and for the purposes of this

book, I will assume you already

have a laptop. If not, keep your eye

open for deals around holidays, liq-

uidation sales, or even purchase

something second-hand on a site

like Craigslist. If you are on a

budget, you can usually locate a

good refurbished model too. The

type of remote work you will be

doing dictates what type of device

you will use.

On that note, a good purchase

is a universal power converter. A

digital nomad is nothing without

power. We don’t require much, but

power is our heartbeat.

You may also require special

equipment like an external mic,

cameras, lighting, tripods, etc. But

please keep this to a minimum. A

stack of books on a chair is tripod

enough.

You may nd adequate wi

hotspots in public places like coffee

shops, public libraries, co-working

spaces, airports, and malls.

However, internet speeds may not

be the best since you are

sharing the broadband with numer-

ous others. Something else to

consider is that public (free or oth-

erwise) wi is not the most

secure.

There’s always a lot of talk about

which devices are safer and have

better privacy. Sorry to break it to

ya, but Facebook and social media

aren’t the only concerns around

data protection. If you use public

wi, you are exposed. If this is a

concern, accessing your own pass-

word-protected wi in a recreation-

al vehicle, Airbnb, house sit, or a

mobile hotspot device is preferred.

It’s always a good idea to have

a backup plan. If electricity is the

digital nomad and remote worker’s

heartbeat, then the internet is our

lifeblood!

Nobody has achieved a single

thing without the help of someone

else. Stepping into a new remote

lifestyle will take effort and a steep

learning curve. You can collapse

this learning curve if you surround

yourself with other like-minded

people. Join Facebook groups,

Telegram chats, meetups, webinars,

and seminars.

Do a search for these three

terms and you will naturally nd a

conversation that will feel right:

Digital Nomad, Remote Worker,

and Laptop Lifestyle.

Telegram is a chat app and you

can join the Digital Nomad Jour-

ney chat here. There are dozens

of Facebook groups for digital

nomads. There are far too many

groups to mention in this book.

People tend to nd the most

value in the Group pages that are

focused on the part of the world

they wish to travel to or are already

located. A simple search and you

will nd what you are looking for.

For example, Bali Digital Nomads

is a Facebook Group that provides

Bali localized knowledge.

Not a fan of Telegram or Face-

book? No problem. This LinkedIn

Group called TRT Remote Work

& Travel Community Worldwide is

full of remote professionals. But a

small warning. Do not, I repeat, do

not join a community and start de-

manding answers! The law of reci-

procity is a very real thing.

Try your best to contribute to

the conversation and bring value

to the group. People will be more

willing to help you out if you start

things off on the right foot. Plug-

ging into the right network will get

you access to resources, and you

might even nd employment and

business opportunities as well. As

they say, birds of a feather ock

together. Be with your people and

you will make more progress in

a shorter period of time. I cannot

stress this enough. Do not take

advice about the laptop lifestyle

from someone who has not

lived it.

“It ain’t what you don’t know

that gets you into trouble. It’s what

you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

- Mark Twain

When I was growing up, I used to

think traveling the world and

living that exotic lifestyle was only

for older retired and/or semiretired

people. Perhaps, at that time, I was

right. The digital revolution

wasn’t here yet. But these days,

the internet has made the world

smaller and more accessible. Op-

portunities to explore new parts

of the globe are no longer out of

reach. You no longer have to wait

for retirement. The laptop lifestyle

isn’t reserved for independently

wealthy or successful entrepre-

neurs. True, the transition may be

easier for those who are better off.

You may already have a digital job

and never considered packing a

bag and booking a oneway ight.

Or perhaps your current profession

is already location dependent? You

could be a janitor making minimum

wage or a high-earning investment

banker. Either way, you are still

“stuck”

in a particular location. That de-

mands you clearing some time in

your calendar to develop a new

skill set that can be used in a

digital and remote way.

Find a way to solve a problem,

create value, or reduce risk and you

WILL be compensated for that skill

set. Ideally, it will be something you

are already familiar with or have an

interest in.

But if you are starting out, I’d

suggest picking something easy

and locking in a quick win. We will

discuss your options in Chapter 2.

How I Became a

Digital Nomad

The reasons for seeking a laptop

lifestyle are different for everyone.

I found myself newly divorced

and sleeping on an air mattress in a

friend of a friend’s spare bedroom.

I was drowning in my own debt

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with an added ve gures that my

ex left on my credit card. I felt like

the world’s biggest loser. A failed

marriage coupled with a mountain

of debt that was overwhelming. I

was choking on my situation and

sick to my stomach because I had

created that crippling situation.

I had a choice. I could bitch and

moan or I could take control. It was

a painful and expensive lesson: you

will never control someone else’s

actions. Complaining about some-

one else saying or doing some-

thing is like complaining about the

weather. You are wasting your time

and breath.

I knew the only way I had a shot

at improving my nancial mess was

to increase income and/or reduce

expenses. So, I got off that air mat-

tress, and I took action. I got rid of

almost all my belongings, including

selling my car. I studied my digital

nomad options and realized that I

could live on a fraction of what my

expenses were in my hometown

of Vancouver, Canada. Not a big

surprise since Vancouver is widely

known to be a very expensive loca-

tion.

I share all of this because nan-

cial independence is a very REAL

possibility when choosing the

laptop lifestyle. I shudder to think

where my life would be had I not

taken action when I did. I doubt

that I’d still be on an air mattress,

but I would not have realized such

a profound sense of freedom. I

certainly would have been much

worse off when the pandemic and

associated economic downturn hit

in early 2020.

Some of my loved ones were

concerned about my life choices

and worried that I was taking on

too much risk. It is clear to me now

that I have reduced my risk in a

meaningful way, and I hope the

same for you.

Life can be unpredictable, and

it’s only prudent of us to hope for

the best but plan for the worst.

Tony Robbins likes to say, “Antici-

pation is the ultimate power. Losers

react; leaders anticipate.”

Have you thought of a plan or

how you would “react” if you were

to get sick or injured while living

remotely? Financial protection

might not be the sexiest topic, but

it’s a necessary one. A last minute

ight back home and an unexpect-

ed hospital bill in a foreign country

have the reputation of causing last-

ing negative consequences.

Insurance is a dirty word in some

circles. But a policy is far cheap-

er ten years too early rather than

one minute too late. There are a

number of nancial institutions and

products in the marketplace today

who cater to digital nomads such as

Safety Wing. Please research your

options as the specics exceed the

goals of this book. However, some

points to consider and chat with

your Agent about are:

How does this policy complement/

supplement my employer policy or

national health coverage?

How long is the elimination period?

(This is the period of time you must

wait BEFORE you receive your ben-

ets. Typical Disability coverage has

a 90-day elimination period which

would cause severe nancial harm

to most people. Data shows us that

88% of the time you are recovered

before this period expires.)

What are the exclusions? (Reasons

you would not receive your ben-

ets. You want to make sure what

you are and are not covered for!

An example might be scuba diving

activities.)

Have your agent explain what

the process of submitting a claim

looks like, and ask if they are able

to assist with that. This might be a

complicated process, and keep in

mind that if you are dealing with an

illness or injury, the simplest task

might feel difcult and overwhelm-

ing.

Clarify if your coverage is world-

wide or restricted to certain parts

of the world. Starting out as a new

digital nomad, you can lower your

nancial risk if you have some sav-

ings built up, already secured reli-

able remote income, and/or have

the added benet of sharing this

lifestyle with a partner. If one of you

falls on hard times, the other would

be in a better position to carry the

burden until good health returns.

Obeying local laws and obtain-

ing work visas can certainly be

an issue but goes beyond the

scope of this book since it’s heavily

dependent on where you currently

claim residency and where you

plan on traveling. This requires

some good old-fashioned Google

searches to start. Depending on

the complexity and your goals, it

might also make sense to speak

and hire an expert. There are

advanced tax strategies and Spe-

Click to Discover

Want To Listen

to APeeling?

APeeling Members

have access to

APeeling in Audio les

to download and

listen on the go

cialists that can assist you. It also

might make sense for you to ac-

quire residency elsewhere or even

get dual citizenship.

I’d suggest keeping the com-

plexity low if you are only consid-

ering this lifestyle change for the

rst time. After a year or two, you

will have a better understanding of

your needs and who to speak with

regarding legal or tax matters. On

that note, I can suggest Nomad

Capitalist for further details. They

specialize in helping six and seven

gure entrepreneurs and investors.

Until traveling is once again

available, now is a great time to

start the process of getting an addi-

tional passport, opening a foreign

bank account, and learning about

the benets of each.

“The best time to plant a tree

was 20 years ago. The second

best time is now.”

--Chinese proverb

Maintaining relationships with

friends and family can be challeng-

ing, especially if they do not sup-

port your lifestyle choices. My

mom was not very happy with my

decision to live and work remotely.

I know that she had good inten-

tions and my best interests at heart,

wanting the best for me. However,

there is a lot to be said about the

law of attraction. You will natural-

ly attract those you are “like” and

repel those you are not. To avoid

losing touch with those who are

important to you, please consider

creating calendar reminders. Per-

haps every second week or month

even.

This calendarization will set you

up for success, and I’m sure your

loved ones will appreciate hearing

from you on a regular basis.

What’s the point of having all of

these amazing adventures around

the world if you have no one with

whom you can share?

You might even inspire them to

make some changes in their own

life so that they can become re-

mote workers. Recent events have

forced many people to become

comfortable with facetime and

virtual communication in order to

stay connected during times of

social distancing and self-isolation.

If you’ve ever wondered if digi-

tal nomads are legitimate, my hope

is that by now the answer is fairly

clear. There are many reasons why

so many people feel pulled towards

this way of life.

Have you ever met someone

who regretted traveling? I haven’t.

There is so much to be gained by

exploring this beautiful planet and

the people on it. It seems crazy to

me to put that experience off for a

few decades. There is no need for

that. Keep reading!

Get the book

from Amazon

Click the peel

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Everyone

is A CEO

by Anthony Gruppo

As the CEO for the Marsh & Mc-

Lennan Agency Northeast, and now

Marsh Commercial, UK, people of-

ten asked me to dene the role of a

CEO. They want me to talk in terms

of a Chief Executive Ofcer. But I’d

rather not because honestly, I don’t

know how to dene it or what it

really means.

I believe that

everyone is a CEO

I look at it this way, if you can

coach yourself and others, can be

entrepreneurial in your thinking,

and act like an owner, you are a

CEO, no matter your job or your

title.

Nobody wakes up in the morn-

ing and thinks, “Let me look at the

corporate organizational chart, I

only have 4000 spaces to climb to

become the CEO.” Not a very mo-

tivating thought, is it? Wouldn’t it

be more motivating to see yourself

as the head of your own company,

right now, today?

I ask my colleagues to think of

themselves as a CEO, because it

is how I see them, and it is how I’d

like you to see yourself. Imagine

how different, how productive, how

animated, how energetic you could

be if your title, right now, was a

CEO.

Imagine if we thought and acted

like the CEO of our position in our

family, our life, our business and

our community? Imagine all of us

thinking and acting like owners of

everything we do and how great

we all could be together instead of

working in silos or limited by our

cubicles and titles.

Greatness is...

Think about how many times

you have heard the word ‘Great.’

Great athlete. Great businessper-

son. Great celebrity. What does

that mean? How do you dene

greatness?

Are we great when we hit ev-

ery benchmark, every goal, every

objective? Does the eight-year-old

with straight A’s come home and

say, “I’m Great,” and his parents

say, “Yep, you are Great, you have

made it, and now you are done?”

Or is the CEO Great once they’ve

hit their forecast for that quarter?

Or they’ve hit their annual goals?

Are they Great then?

I don’t think hitting benchmarks

is Greatness.

Perhaps the pinnacle of Great-

ness is when people duplicate

what we did and continue what we

started. Maybe then we are Great. I

think that’s a better denition.

When my father, who was a role

model passed away from ALS, he

asked me to duplicate what he

started so it could continue for”

“the family. He’d built a supportive

family dynamic and I was honored

to continue his legacy as a leader

who helped others.

Are you improving the quality of

life for your family and loved ones?

Are you improving the quality of

life for the people whom you work

with and serve? Are people happy

to come into an environment where

you lead, or do they feel it’s some-

thing they have to do to earn com-

pensation?

Success will never be achieved

until people seek to duplicate what

you started.

Are You in

your Own Way?

Long before becoming the CEO

of the Marsh & McLennan Agen-

cy in the Northeast, I sometimes

struggled with focus, discipline,

and all the issues many of us en-

counter. But I knew I had to do

more than change my job title to

obtain the life I wanted for myself.

I had to ask myself some hard

questions and nd the courage to

answer them honestly because ly-

ing was not going to help me move

in the right direction. I developed a

Personal Strategic Plan to help me

discover the answers.

When you match your goals to

what you’re trying to do in your life,

your profession, and your job, hap-

piness will ensue.

Are your Goals Equal

to your Potential?

Often times, we struggle with

welding our passion to our poten-

tial to increase our performance.

As you dene your short and long-

term goals, think about welding

them to your potential.

In the past, I used overview

goals to formulate my mission, to

be a welcome leader in any arena I

chose to stand in. As time went on,

I realized in my life, both personally

and professionally, the goals had to

be more specic.

For a dream to become a goal

you need to write it down, give

yourself a deadline, and outline a

metric you will use to measure your

success.

Dreams are Goals

with Deadlines

The goal process should nev-

er be taken lightly; it is not one of

those measures that becomes com-

monplace. Cheating on your goal

is similar to robbing your heritage

and desecrating the foundation of

the overachiever who came before

you. Leaders are not like everyone

else who plays the game. Leaders

are the creators and visionaries of

the goals of others. If we take our

goals lightly, we short arm the fu-

ture for those whom we lead.

Every moment we fail to support

each other and second-guess our

achievement, we prevent the sur-

vival and success of the system. No

matter where we go, goals follow

us and bang loudly on our souls. In

the end, it was never the goals that

drove us; it was always the need,

desire, and courage to conquer

them. To take them lightly is to as-

sume we were never here at all.

Goals create the future of an or-

ganization and the well-being of a

family. We cannot count on some-

one else to deliver our future and

dream our dreams for us. We can

set examples for our families and all

those who follow in our steps. We

have no right to question the goals

of our children if we constantly fall

short of our own goals.

We might only have six min-

utes to get a goal accomplished, as

there may be no long-term oppor-

tunity. Short-term is nothing more

than putting some kind of a quan-

tier on the goal to complete it in

a realistically fast period of time.

Long-term is a vision of the future

built on a foundation of successful

short-term goals.

Together, we can strive to reach

heights which seemed too high for

us. Discussing our goals with others

is one of the most successful ways

of dealing with achievement and

staying focused. Tell people what

you are trying to accomplish be-

cause it puts a subtle pressure on

us to deliver upon our goal. It also

helps people point us in the right

direction. It is critical we follow

through using direct action to take

steps to continue forward because

we do not want to process items re-

peatedly like a hamster on a wheel.

Planning is the glue to our goal

process. Our goals are brought

to conclusion through thoughtful

processes. Remember, although

we have to be successful at what

we create, we also want to chal-

lenge ourselves to be better than

our current selves. It is important

we set short and long-term goals

which challenge us. I have found

that what stops most people from

achieving success is their inability

to change and try new endeav-

ors. Goals force us to stretch and

to achieve in areas where we have

not yet been successful, may be

uncomfortable, or we have not at-

tempted to penetrate in the past.

We have to put in the effort to plan,

to look at short-term and long-term

goals, measure and have the ability

to change or pivot.

A Team is a Force of One

So much has been written about

goal setting and how critical it is

for organizations and individuals to

set goals, yet rarely are we clear on

how to implement or communicate

the goal process.

As I discussed before, visualiza-

tion is critical in goal planning. The

process is easier than you think.

With the help of the exercises in

this book, identify and build on

your strengths, both personally and

professionally. You will then able

to project how things will look in

the future based on those same

strengths. It is not necessary to

abandon your current delivery sys-

tem, but merely expand upon it.

Based on your current planning and

goal-setting methods, you can proj-

ect what the environment will look

like in the future.

If people do not believe in the

dream and vision of the company,

they will not follow the goal-setting

process in the future. To combat

apathy within the company, leader-

ship must give people the chance

to debate and discuss the vision.

This process will help them to sup-

port the company’s entrepreneurial

spirit because they were involved in

the goal planning process and can

attach themselves to leadership’s

vision and dream. As they watch

leadership planning well into the

future, they may feel compelled to

plan for their own futures by creat-

ing individual goals.

I have found few individuals can

really plan for the future and build

their own perpetuation plans. Many

speak of it, but few can truly deliv-

er a solid functional plan. Part of

the planning process and part of

the goal-setting environment is to

decide early on whom you will col-

laborate with to accomplish your

tasks. At our organization, we have

colleagues who are driven and

dedicated. Even though they may

lack the overall picture of the entire

company, they know the goals and

Available

on

Amazon

leader’s vision, so can focus on their

particular area of expertise.

Without them, the delivery

system would fail, but with them

change and creativity is common

and cherished. Many people are

surprised when they fail at accom-

plishing goals or fail to achieve

their level of goal-setting processes

because there are some external or

internal reasons which caused the

process to break down. They may

have relied solely on their ability

and instinct which may be sufcient

in a short-term goal process, but

inappropriate for the long-term.

Certainly, as we get older, we real-

ize the need to have creative talent

around us in order to support our

long-range planning process. If

not, it’s no different than being on

a construction site and having the

most high-powered equipment tun-

nel trenches that then collapse. The

tunneling process goes very quick-

ly, but when the machinery stops

and you turn around, you notice

everything disintegrated because

no one had been laying pipe and

back-lling the ditch. Conclusion:

we realize planning and goal set-

ting go hand in hand.

Supporting Those

who Support You

Where can you nd the peo-

ple to ll your team? By getting to

know the people with whom you

work. If as a leader you hold your-

self above everyone else and are

too far removed from them, you

will miss nding emerging leaders.

Take Kim, who worked closely with

me on the Roots of Leadership

Podcast. When I met her she was

the receptionist at Marsh & McLen-

nan Northeast. If I’d ignored her as

insignicant to my responsibilities,

I never would have discovered her

talent and passion for writing. She

now works in the creative relations

department and does a remarkable

job with the podcast.

Or Caryn Ojeda, when I met

Caryn, she was doing project work

for us on seminar systems and now

she is the producer of the Roots of

Leadership Podcast and helping

with branding for individuals and

companies. She is fantastic at what

she does.

Each of these women support-

ed me and in turn, I support them

in their careers. I would not have

known what they were capable of,

what they wanted to do, and what

was possible, if I had walked past

them every day with my nose in the

air because my ego says, “I’m the

all-important CEO.” No. My job as

CEO is to bring the right resourc-

es into the organization to help it

grow, to coach the people I am

responsible for, and motivate ev-

eryone to be the best they can be

every day. When I am doing my job

correctly, I nd the people whom

I need on teams throughout the

company to support the long-term

goals.

Success does not come from

one individual doing everything

or dictating what is to be done. It

comes when everyone passionately

makes the effort to move together

as one toward set goals. As a result

of my consistently supporting my

teams, nurturing, and working with

them, there has always more than

one person who can step into my

position when I vacate it. I believe

that when you build a strong, pas-

sionate team, it should work this

way. Promotion from within could

not have happened if I had walled

myself off in an ivory tower and had

not supported and collaborated

with the people who make up my

teams.

Help Make APeeling Better

Click Peel to

take a quick Survey

Is Your Next Step,

the Right Step?

Who are the people you sur-

round yourself with? Who are the

people who support you, who can

help you plan your next step and

tie it back to your Personal Strate-

gic Plan? Do you have a Personal

Board of Directors? Did you do the

work and create the list of those

whom you want to sit on your

board? Were there names you for-

got to add? Go back to your list,

rm it up, and ask them to help you

write your Personal Strategic Plan

and hold you accountable to your

goals.

A Living Document

I wrote my rst book, Creating

Reality, almost 20 years ago and

when I reread it now, much of the

perspective is not the same, be-

cause the passion, the goals, the

dreams, and the aspirations have

been changed. The Personal Stra-

tegic Plan which I’m asking you to

build is a living document that will

continue to evolve as you do. As

you become more courageous and

condent, as you begin to surround

yourself with people who think the

same way, your life will change.

You have what it takes to do

this.

You do not have to be in the front

to lead. You can be in any position

to lead. You can lead from the rear.

I’ve met people of all ages who

have the power, the energy, the

mindset, the tenacity, and the focus

to achieve.

In my life, every time I tried

something new, I’ve encountered

people who believed it couldn’t

be done. People close to me said I

couldn’t go from working construc-

tion to an ofce. Then when I was

working in the insurance business

and I started to write books, people

said I couldn’t do that. Every time I

took on a new venture that looked

Check it out for free in September

Join the APeeling

Community

to be outside of where others be-

lieved I should be, I met detractors,

as you will, but they don’t matter.

What matters is how you see your-

self, the dreams you have, and the

people you surround yourself with.

Who will support you?

What Moments will You Make?

Think about your day, your week,

your month, your year? What mo-

ments are you seeking to create?

Make as many moments and op-

portunities for yourself, those you

love, and those your serve.

What Seems Impossible to

Achieve?

As you put your strategic plan

into action, as you connect it to a

goal and objective, an action and

a strategy, as you assign times and

structure, and as you select people

who will help you, what you be-

lieved is impossible, will become

reality.

Anthony C Gruppo is the CEO of

Marsh Commercial in the UK, a

speaker, author, and a mentor. This

has been an excerpt of his book the

Pushers of the Possible.

Published!

Pushers of the Possible

Available on Amazon

Published!

Anthony C. Gruppo, CEO of Marsh Commercial, UK, talks

to business leaders who started out with a dream and the

determination to build successful companies by Pushing the

Possible in both life and business. Join Anthony and his guests as

they share their stories, the advice they received from some of the

greats, and how they Pushed the Possible in their lives.

Buy it Today

I read ction to nd inspiration in life and how to persevere through my

struggles. The genres I go to are dark lled with crime and violence My

favourite characters are awed, some so awed they’d be considered

evil.

The writer puts the heroes into the worst of situations with insurmount-

able odds and powerful villains. The plots demand personal sacrice to

obtain redemption & save others, even if it’s at the cost of their own lives

What can I possibly learn from stories like these?

• Redemption & change are possible

• Struggle is nite & necessary

• To not give up no matter the odds

• To nd resources when options limited

• Find Happiness in the moment

• Loyalty matters

• Actions make a difference

• There is always a solution

• Fight for the benet of others

• What we do has consequences

• Take responsibility for our past acts

• To work hard

• To dig deep inside for strength

• Can’t do it all on our own

• Teamwork makes anything possible

• Anyone can have supportive friends

Connect with me

on LinkedIn

Was there ever a time when it

was simple to be a woman in your

40s?

Was it easier back in the day

when men were men and women

were women and everyone knew

their place?

I doubt that made it any simpler.

At least I hope it didn’t because

if their lives were simpler, better,

more productive than ours are to-

day, what was the point of strug-

gling for feminism and equality?

It doesn’t always feel like it

made women’s lives better. It feels

like more pressure, more stress, and

more responsibilities.

It also feels like something is

missing. Like this can’t be all there

is to life? Like it’s all one big revolv-

ing wheel that goes nowhere.

For instance every morning at

our house is exactly the same:

“Mom where’s my shirts?”

“Shirts? In your closet?”

“No.”

“Folded in a basket?”

“No.”

“Damn. Are you sure?”

“Ya. Never mind I found them.”

“Where”

“Wet and stinky in the washing ma-

chine. When did you wash them?”

I try to think. I can’t really remem-

ber when I did.

“Uhm. Do you have a dirty one that

you can wear?”

Sending my daughter to school

in dirty clothes, what would my

mother say? Thing is I know exactly

what she’d say, she told me just last

week.

“You just need to do things during

work breaks, you work from home

how hard can it be to stop, take a

break, switch out the laundry, do a

load of dishes and sweep the oor

then go back to work?”

It is a good question. I generally

don’t take breaks though and if I do

I’m surng the net or checking my

social media. I don’t really think to

do the laundry. Hence my daughter

yelling at me about how hard done

by she is because she has to wear a

shirt she already wore to school.

Heaven help us what will the

kids think? What will her teachers

This is 40?

By Shannon Peel

The Novel #ThatsLife was written as a serial

series. Each Issue of APeeling will include a

chapter for you to enjoy.

think? Will they call social services if

her shirt gets dirty enough?

My husband comes down to

save the day. He does this a lot.

He’d grabbed a couple of clean

shirts, that she doesn’t like, out of

her dresser, walked into the kitchen

and said,

“Your choice the dirty one, one of

these, a smelly one, or you could

just go in your bra. Up to you.”

I choke on my coffee. ‘And if

she’d chosen to go in her bra, then

what?’ She doesn’t. She just says

Daaaad in that oh you’re so em-

barrassing way teen girls have and

grabbed a clean one out of his

hand.

“I’ll go run the load in the washer,

pour me a cup of coffee for when I

get back.”

He says and disappears into the

laundry room.

My gawd I can’t even imagine

what my great-grandmother did

before washing machines were in-

vented.

I turn, pour my husband a cup of

coffee, add two teaspoons of sugar

and pop a bagel into the toaster for

his breakfast.

I’ve lled the dishwasher and

am just turning it on when I feel his

strong arms wrap around me from

behind and he kisses my neck. I

lean into him. It feels so - normal.

“Yuck.”

Our 10-year-old son’s voice in-

terrupts us and I am twirled around

to face my husband who kisses me,

while our son makes fake gagging

noises.

The kiss is just a kiss, normal.

“Your coffee kind sir.”

“Sugar?”

I look at him, shake my head,

and turn to butter his bagel.

“Gus & Rose’s place Sunday after-

noon?” He asks. I just nod. “Girls’

night after?” I nod again. “And I’m

stuck babysitting?”

“Parenting dear. It’s called parent-

ing when the kids are yours.”

“Are you sure they’re mine.”

“Positive.”

That’s a typical morning. Every

day it’s the same. A chore I forgot

to do, my husband swooping in to

x things, my kids needing some-

thing or disapproving of something

I did or didn’t do.

Each day is pretty much the

same, chores, kids, work, bed. It’s

the same thing. Perfectly the same.

Perfect. The perfect life.

I am 40 years old. I have a won-

derful loving husband, two well

adjusted kids, a gorgeous home in

a suburban neighbourhood, and

a career. I have a good life. And I

feel like I am missing something,

like I’ve forgotten something, done

something wrong.

Did my mother feel this way?

Did my grandmother? Did my

great-grandmother?

Did my grandmother ever forget

to switch over the wash and have

to wash the load two more times

before it made it into the dryer?

Did she own a dryer? Did she have

to run her kids around from one

activity to the other, help them with

homework more advanced than

when she’d gone to school? Did

she feel the pressure of friends,

family and society to be perfect?

Always feeling judged? Did she

ever look at her life and wonder if

she made the right choices?

Will it be different when my

daughter is 40? By then everyone

will probably just swallow a pill and

say, “That’s dinner.” So, if wom-

en have more time because they

don’t have to cook, will life be any

different? Or will my daughter be

looking at 40 saying I think I forgot

to do something. Will she have re-

grets? I hope not.

I hope she knows what she

wants and can be satised, happy,

and in love.

Five Women

Navigating Life in

the 21st Century.

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Delivered to you

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Fraser Valley Areas

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The rst part of writing a novel

is guring out what it’s about. The

next step is to gure out whom the

story is about. Characters tell the

story, are the reason people con-

nect with it, and want to continue

to read it. Whether your story has

one character, like Tom Hanks in

‘Cast Away,’ or a group of people,

like the gang in ‘Friends,’ success

is measured by the emotional con-

nection the audience has with the

characters. The more authentic the

character’s responses, emotions,

and actions, the more the reader

will connect with the whole story.

Whom is #ThatsLife About?

Charlie - The Jaded one – The one

who is bitter about men

Rose - The Romantic one – The

one who is happily married

Lindsay - The Fun one – The one

who parties and has lots of men

Sophie - The Abused one – The

one who is lost and scared

Justine - The Perfect one - The one

who battles depression

Character’s Voice

To write really good characters

you have to know how they will

react to situations. If my charac-

ters got together at Rose’s place to

watch the movie, an Ofcer and a

Gentleman, would they all experi-

ence the same thing? Let’s nd out.

The Question

What did you think about the

last scene in the movie, ‘An Ofcer

and a Gentleman?’

Sophie’s Answer

The ending? Oh well. It was

romantic I guess. I mean. There she

is working in a dead end job, un-

happy, and knowing that’s all she

has to look forward to. Depressing.

I guess. She’s young and there will

be other men, other classes of of-

cers, but she is hurt because he

didn’t want her, he was gonna leave

her behind. Then he walked in and

saved her, took her away, and ev-

eryone cheered. Heck, I cheered

even though I knew it was gonna

happen. Why is it wrong to want

that? I mean. I want a man to come

save me from my life, sweep me

off my feet and carry me away to a

#ThatsLife Characters

by Shannon Peel

safer one. Make life easier. Happi-

er. But everyone tells me it’s wrong

to want that. They tell me, “I won’t

nd a good guy if I need one to

save me.” I’m beginning to believe

them. No man wants a woman as

messed up as me. I can’t blame

them.

Rose’s Answer

I just love the classic love stories

they are so romantic. Here she was

working away thinking that he’d

abandoned her and then he comes

in, all dressed up in his white uni-

form looking so handsome, to sur-

prise her like that. Pick her up in

front of all her co-workers and car-

ry her away into the sunset to live

happily ever after.

What a story. I cried. You know,

Gus is romantic like that. Once,

before the kids, he came to my

workplace with a big bouquet of

owers. He’d already arranged ev-

erything with my boss, a week off,

can you imagine. Gus had planned

everything, packed my suitcase and

took me to Hawaii for our rst wed-

ding anniversary. It was so roman-

tic. Just like him. I love him

Lindsay’s Answer

Well a man in uniform is so sexy.

When he walked in, all condent in

his uniform looking hot, I thought

yummy. Then when he grabbed her

head and just took a kiss from her

like that, wowza. The rest was too

tame though. Way too censored in

my opinion, but what can you ex-

pect from the 80s. Come on, the

scene needed more heat. I love a

man who takes what he wants, just

comes and grabs a woman all cave-

man like and she melts into him

with passion, heat, then they fu**

hard. That’s what that scene need-

ed. Now that would have been

something to clap for.

Charlie’s Answer

The whole movie was Bull shi**.

Men don’t give two craps about

saving some poor little woman

from her life and what a pathetic

thing to want. Clapping because

he’d showed up and stole her away

from what? Come on men don’t do

that sh**. They just want someone

to cook for ’em and fu** em. They

don’t want to be bothered with all

that touchy feely stuff.

Know Your

Client Like an

Author Knows Thier

Heroes

OK so some of them are into

the whole romance thing, like my

brother in law Gus. But Gus and

guys like him are so, I don’t know.

Gus is a good guy, a nice guy, a

family guy. Those guys are all mar-

ried to woman like my sister Rose.

Strong, independent, career

women like me, we attract selsh

guys who are focused on their ca-

reers as much as we are focused on

ours. Who has time for all that ro-

mantic stuff. I just don’t trust it. The

only reason they are doing it is to

get laid, so why bother it’s not real.

Justine’s Answer:

I don’t know. It was a Holly-

wood ending all romantic and stuff.

My husband Gary saves me from

my mistakes all the time and he’s

perfect. I mean he must be every

woman who knows him tells me

how jealous of me they are. Now

that he’s saved her, how is she go-

ing to be able to live up to that?

The movie is just a farytale, it’s not

real. Once the feelings from such a

romantic gesture are gone, what’s

left? What’s the point? How could

they keep that feeling?

What can ction teach

about leadership and

team building? Some

leadership principles

explored by Orson

Scott Card in Ender’s

Game

Good ction puts

their characters into

difcult unreal situa-

tions to authentically

behave in a real world

way. When done right,

readers can learn solu-

tions from a ctional

story for real world

problems

Or we can think

about the solutions

presented to deter-

mine if we think they

are correct or not and

how we’d do it dif-

ferently. Some of the

lessons from Ender’s

Game:

a) Thinking we under-

stand everything and

not listening to others

makes us the worst

member of the team

b) Need to understand

the end game. What

we are working to-

wards and why

c) Controlling our emo-

tions and our actions

d) Acting decisively

when action is required

e) How to help team

members develop

thinking skills

There is lots to

learn from when we

read stories of all types

What are some

stories that teach us

about work, life, and

leadership

Sure this is a YA

novel, but I am get-

ting more out of it now

than I did when I was

younger and just en-

joying the story

Orson Scott Card

wrote the book before

its publish date in Jan-

uary 1985. The tech-

nology he wrote about

didn’t come to fruition

for another 5-15 years

in our day to day world

Think about what’s

possible.

Peter’s

Reading List

Ditch The Act demonstrates how revealing your

failures and weaknesses is an essential ele-

ment to building and sustaining a viral personal

brand to help propel your relationships, your

career, and/or your business.

Why is it we are so caught up in allocating hu-

man beings with titles, labels and outdated

measurements? Why have we subjected hu-

mans to the performance review process from

birth when it is a soul-destroying activity that

sucks the motivation out of the very humans

who you are looking to inspire?

Believership is a higher form of leadership, ig-

niting purpose and the power of many moving

in the same direction. While leadership forges

a path, Believership becomes a paved road

for many to travel together. Believership is all

about bringing the true self to leadership and

all employees in order to create value rather

than extract value, drawing out the collective

effort of the team ...

Peter Goral is a supportive marketing professional I connected with on

LinkedIn. I asked him which books I should add to this issue’s reading list

and he suggested the following. Click the book to purchase on Amazon.

Bronte Sisters, Charlotte,

Emily, and Anne.

I chose the sisters because my

favourite novel is Jane Eyre. I iden-

tied with the character’s indepen-

dence, strength, and her disconnec-

tion to the world around her. I have

reread this book so often I almost

know it by heart. Why include all the

sisters? They all wrote books, which

inuenced the genre and proved

that women could write successful

novels in a male dominated world.

Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre was

a classic I loved reading in my aca-

demic years”

Maya Angelou

Her ability to be open and bare

her soul in her writing without con-

cern of being judged, criticized

or ridiculed makes her a strong,

amazing, and inuential woman in

literature. She changed a genre and

made it better with her work. She

is credited with inspiring so many

Female authors of all races. Her

strength, honesty, and determina-

tion are inspiring. She inspires me

to be more honest, more open, and

to bare my soul in my writing.

J.K. Rowling

I have to admit I haven’t read all

the books, nor have a seen all the

movies. I am adding her because

she changed the way publishing

houses looked at both Young Adult

writers and Female authors ability to

make money. Her success inspires

others to follow their dreams. Like

her, life hit me hard, her ability to

pick herself back up and focus on

her dream inspires me to overcome

my own challenges in life.

Shannon’s List of

Female Authors

Pushers of the Possible

Available on Amazon

Get Your Copy

Today

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