July 2020 Volume 2 Issue 11

Volume 2 Issue 11 • July 2020

published by ZX Media Corporation

DISCOVER ALBERTA’S INNOVATION ENGINE Extending the horizon of possibilities to solve today’s challenges, reaching new potential, and creating a healthier and more prosperous future for Alberta, and the world.

albertainnovates.ca

Engage. Inspire. Educate. Together.

COMMUNITY

We are All Graduates: Our Transition from the Old World

23

Staying Sane When Your Relationship Falls Apart

30

14

Why and How to Build Your Resiliency Muscle

34

Behavioural Profiling

16

The Doorway

38

Pandemic May Change Home Buyers’ Criteria In Alberta

Simon House: Leaving the Light On

40

19

SheInnovates

42

Investing to Create a Better World

5

Alberta Innovates Seeks to secure AI

8

Telling It Like It Is

10

Business feature: Emelle’s Catering

12

An update from Teleroo

Krista Malden & Kenzie Webber

publisher@communitynowmagazine.com

CONTENT CONTRIBUTORS VOLUME 2 ISSUE 11 Diane Swiatek

Teleroo

Jade Alberts

The Doorway

Robert Price

Ken Goldstein

Alberta Innovates

Carrie Gour

SheInnovates

Patricia Morgan

Steven Archambault

Subscribe for your free issue of Community Now! at www.communitynowmagazine.com Copyright 2019 ZX Media Corporation, Calgary Alberta Canada Community Now! Magazine Copyright 2018, published by ZX Media Corporation.

Volume 2 Issue 11 | July 2020 All rights reserved. This magazine or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher and writer.

"The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones that do."

- Anonymous

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Investing To create a better world.

“It’s easy to compare investing in and building tech companies to poker. They utilize some of the same skills like risk mitigation, probabilities and capital planning. They also utilize some of the same principals such as optimism, long-term thinking, patience and timing. Games like poker have provided me a lot of different attributes and it has made me a pretty good player at the game of life.” – James Lochrie

J

ames Lochrie is well known as an investor, founder, volunteer and creator.

But what makes him Different? What makes him stand out?

First: James is a self-taught entrepreneur, who believes life is to be lived to the fullest. “We need to keep moving, we need to get busy with life, ” said James when speaking about education, experience and knowledge.

“Get busy with life!” This is a powerful statement and one James lives by every day. James doesn’t shy away from the fact he dropped out of University (more than once) and he takes pride in the knowledge he has gained

through experience over the years. He is selftaught in nearly every area of life. “Research, risk taking and finding your passions are important factors in the progress throughout life,” states James.

Second: James thrives on the challenges he faces and accepts risk as a form of learning and growth. Risk taking is exciting for James and he incorporates it into his daily life.

“If you are unhappy with the status quo it will never change unless someone takes a risk.

Progress only comes with the risk of going the (continued on next page) Community \\ 5

(continued from page 5...) wrong way, invention only comes with risk of rejection, businesses don’t get created without the risk of failure. Anything meaningful comes with some type of risk and the trick is being able to understand how to balance the risk and the reward.”

Third: James wants to build community and he wants to be a part of the bigger picture.

“I could go buy a beach house and sit around but what good is that doing me or our ecosystem? I want to see our community grow and be successful and I want to constantly improve and keep playing the game of life and enjoy the process of learning, teaching and impacting,” says James.

James’ first love and his first realization of pride of a creation was being a founder of fintech start-up Wave. Wave was one of the largest technology exits in Canadian history.

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James had the opportunity to create, fail, recreate, and learn in a company that he created … an experience that only comes from taking the risk of starting and believing in a new venture.

When asked: what is the most interesting investment you have made / or most interesting company you have invested in and why James responds with: “That’s a very difficult question to answer because they are all so interesting in their own ways. Most unique would be Virgin Galactic because it is essentially a science fiction startup that is at cutting edge but in the public markets. The one with the most interesting potential is Syantra which will change breast cancer diagnostics and potentially save millions of lives. But my favourite is still my seed investment in Wave because of my role in the building of that company. That one is going to be hard to replace.”

Alberta has an amazing ecosystem of investors, believers, amplifiers, storytellers and creators but one of the strongest elements is the knowledge that is being shared. Thin Air Labs, founded by James Lochrie; Capital Partner, Gregory Hart; Design Partner and Jim Gibson; Community Partner is one ecosystem that is making waves ‌ not only in the innovation community but the global health, education and gaming communities.

Thin Air Labs is an innovation investment company composed of experienced entrepreneurs, investors, designers and community leaders, like-minded and experienced like James who believe in and invest in the ecosystem to generate a return on investment as well as meaningful impact for people and the planet.

THIN AIR LABS SECTORS Thin Air Health: Thin Air Health was founded to help transform how the convergence of capital, communities and ideas can lead to healthier lives.

We believe that the Health system needs not to be broken and rebuilt, but rather be set free to iterate, experiment and unlock.

Thin Air Education: Thin Air looks at education through a new lens. Partnering with InceptionU where people learn to think critically, collaborate, communicate and problem solve while they adopt new skills in technology that will prepare them for the changing workforce.

An amazing example of the work James does is outlined in the success of Symend.

Symend’s science-driven digital engagement platform enables service providers and financial institutions to better engage their at-risk customers with empathy, contributing to the dignity and welfare of individuals while building lifelong value for the company and the brand. In May 2020, Symend announced the closing of a $73 million dollar Series B fundraising round, one of the largest Series B rounds in recent Alberta history.

Thin Air Games: Thin Air Labs & New World Interactive partner together to provide the support, funding, and expertise needed for new gaming ventures to successfully build and launch video game projects.

With a team of video game developers, entrepreneurs, and investors we offer, business, and financial support to small venture teams from around the world to build a prosperous ecosystem.

Thin Air Work: Thin Air Labs identifies future-fit companies that are building enterprise software solutions for businesses. The strategic injection of Design, Community and Capital has helped several high profile companies scale more quickly.

With initiatives like Thin Air Labs James is teaching others how to play the game of life by showing up, by taking risks and by moving opportunities forward.

James is living his full potential! Imagine what the world would be like if everyone lived their full potential!

Stay tuned to learn more about building, believing in and creating more through investing and risk taking with James Lochrie in the September issue of CN!.

Community \\ 7

ALBERTA INNOVATES SEEKS TO SECURE ALBERTA’S AI ADVANTAGE M

From Alberta Innovates CEO Laura Kilcrease

ore and more, we use artificial intelligence (AI) as part of our everyday routines without thinking about it or even knowing it. Things like spam filters, suggested playlists, voice to text apps, face recognition in social media posts, personalized newsfeeds, traffic flow maps and mobile banking all use artificial intelligence to enable amazing experiences and functionality from our hand-held devices and computers.

AI ceased to be science fiction some time ago.

Now, it helps us to find opportunities and solutions previously hidden to us.

By adopting AI in health, agriculture, energy, financial services, logistics, construction and engineering, Alberta can create a knowledge-based economy that’s built on its traditional economic drivers.

Alberta Innovates sees AI as an essential tool that allows us to transform data into information that can be used to make better decisions. AI provides us with new ways of solving complex problems needing smart and creative solutions.

• Analyze wood-chip quality using AI and deep learning to improve oriented strand board production and quality;

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For example, we can use AI to: • Analyze x-rays and MRIs and other medical imaging to improve diagnoses; develop predictive modelling to provide personalized health care; • Optimize water treatment processes;

• Enhance or simulate industrial control room operations for greater efficiency and safety;

• Make rail and truck transportation systems more efficient so we can get Alberta products to customers; • Improve agriculture productivity through autonomous vehicles, precision irrigation, drones, soil sensors, and image recognition analytics.

Alberta Innovates and the provincial government have been supporting AI research for nearly two decades. Now, Alberta is home to some to not just a top ranked institute, but also some of the world’s top talent in AI and machine learning at the UofA and the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii). The presence of these key researchers has attracted companies like Google DeepMind, Google Brain, Mitsubishi, Royal Bank and others to set up offices in Alberta to leverage the existing expertise and talent pool.

If we can continue to grow our AI capability, it will lead to the creation of new companies and will also make existing industries more productive and globally competitive. Technologies that employ artificial intelligence will create over $50 trillion in economic impact by the year 2025 and have the potential to increase productivity by 40 per cent or more (McKinsey & Company; Accenture).

And there’s all the data that is an untapped resource. The world produces 2.6 quintillion bytes of data daily. Right now, the datasets are too generic, they’re stripped down beyond use, or aren’t applicable to an industry challenge. But what if the data could be refined and curated and accessible, so that it’s useful?

For example, Alberta’s integrated provincial health-care system creates unprecedented amounts of data. Digital health platforms including AI and machine learning can lead to

better quality patient care and cost-savings to the health care system You may be noticing a pattern here – improved efficiency, optimized processes, cost savings, better outcomes – all with the help of artificial intelligence.

AI can be an economic driver as well as an economic enabler.

What makes this such an opportunity for Alberta is that in a digital economy, you can be competitive in markets from anywhere in the world. Many Alberta businesses responded to the limits imposed by Covid-19 precautions by rapidly transforming their sales delivery to a digital model and remote delivery. Instead of taking years, this digital shift happened overnight, and now Alberta is ready for the next step.

However, as much as the digital economy allows Alberta to compete anywhere, it also allows others to take our advantages if we don’t and maintain and nurture them.

That’s why Alberta Innovates will continue to advocate for and support the development of new AI products, knowledge transfer and commercialization, and we will seek ways to help Alberta businesses adopt AI to improve their core businesses, and we will continue to advance the awareness and the connections to build on the momentum that has been created here.

I want Alberta to be seen as a centre of innovation excellence – where companies, capital and people come to seek cutting edge solutions and applications of the newest ideas.

I want people to be thinking “Alberta is the place we need to be.”

This is a future that is possible for Albertans – Alberta Innovates is here to help seize it.

NOW! \\ 9

Telling It Like It Is With Jade Alberts This issue of Telling It Like It Is features

Jo-Anne Reynolds Founder of Sexy AF Spirits How has covid affected your business and what have you done to adapt?

We were focused on B2B and were in our first restaurant and then covid hit, so we had to pivot to B2C and an online retail store only. We also offered curbside drop off/pick up and have been offering promotional codes.

You are a serial Entrepreneur with Spike Bee and now SexyAF Spirits? Please share the inspiration and story behind Sexy AF Spirits I was in California on a girls trip and we would go out for lunches and dinners. I would be ordering wine and drinks but my girlfriends for various reasons (religious, health, designated driver etc) were not drinking alcohol. They only ordered tea, water, pop or “whatever you wanted from the barman”. I felt they were socially excluded and didn’t have much choice for anything alcohol free to drink. I returned to Calgary and told my husband I wanted to create fun, tasty, classy and sophisticated drinks that are completely alcohol free so when people who are not consuming alcohol go out to order drinks they have a choice and feel like they are part of the fun.

It is a competitive market out there, what separates Sexy AF Spirits from the competition?

In beverages, taste is always going to be the most important factor, however, at Sexy AF we are also trying to make alcohol free mocktails sexy.

When you are out at a bar or restaurant with friends no one will be able to tell who has the alcohol free option. It is also important to note that unlike almost all of our competitors who are

10 // Community Now!

non alcoholic, Sexy AF is alcohol free, the difference being non alcoholic started as alcohol then was distilled off and watered down to get under the 0.5% threshold whereby Sexy AF is alcohol free meaning none of our process ever involves alcohol.

This will be a great differentiator for Sexy AF in states like Utah and countries like UAE and cities like Dubai. The competition in North America is also much softer than the UK, where North America only has a handful of people doing the artisan alcohol free or non alcoholic beverages, the UK is about 5 years ahead of us and they will have 50 brands in the market.

Marketing is an important part of telling your story and getting your brand out there, please share some of your success and what hasn’t fared as well.

You have to be your authentic self, no matter who that is. A lot of people won’t realize how introverted I am, so interviews like these are vital to the success of my business but are very hard for me to do, so be yourself and be authentic and you won’t have to worry as much. Obviously for myself and my companies social media is vital to our success, it is a free platform to reach potential customers and to broadcast your message, it is also a very important area to harvest feedback from people, but here you need to be aware of what is important and what is just a troll bringing negative energy, I have had a few trolls in my social media life but I never engage with them.

Another important aspect of marketing that I am loving right now is the beverage industry and packaging, it is so different from the tech indus-

try and UX/UI on a website, they both do similar things, trying to catch and capture the attention of a potential customer, however, I love to be able to pickup a bottle of Sexy AF, turn it around, feel it, and think of the packaging and how it looks in a bar, in a restaurant, in a grocery store and how that packagin can impact and influence a customer’s decision to purchase.

What has not fared well for me in the past is outsourcing my marketing efforts to others, I am naturally a creative person so marketing for me is fun and I love it, however, as a CEO sometimes you do need to have others do some work too and I have found that while other people may be incredibly talented at marketing and many different areas of marketing, you as the business owner are the one who truly loves your business, you love your customers and you love your product or service, not a lot of other people or companies you outsource to are going to have the same level of passion as you do, the passion needs to come through in your marketing efforts..... but again it has to be authentic What is Sexy AF’s funding model going to be for Sexy AF? 4A: We are building Sexy AF on old school business fundamentals, we are looking at debt financing to grow our business. Unlike tech there are not many venture capital firms for beverages so we don’t have to worry about that endless loop of taking VC dollars to get runaway then trying to raise another round at a 20x valuation. Instead we have healthy profit margins built in, that won’t mean we are profitable right away, however, it will allow us to grow our business as our customer base & demand grows. We will be looking to institutions like ATB Financial and BDC for funding, and I must say it does seem to be a great time to be a female entrepreneur with an in demand product going into these discussions.

What is next for Sexy AF Spirits?

We are continually looking at opportunities to grow and scale our business, as such we have had discussions with distributors about representing Sexy AF in Alberta and across Canada, and just last week we had a distributor call us about representing Sexy AF in New York and Connecticut.

So the future is bright. It is balancing what we can do right now for our customers while providing free samples and getting liquid on lips to educate a consumer base that is truly being introduced to a new beverage option in the alcohol free & non alcoholic space.

We are excited about our upcoming collaborations with other premium brands that will help us leverage our existing customer base with their established customer base and using these types of campaigns to drive traffic to both businesses.

Also, we are very focused on the service industry and what that will look like over the next 6 to 18 months, there is no doubt the world and the service industry has changed greatly since March and Sexy AF being new in the space has a decided advantage over more established brands, we are able to change with the needs of our customers, change distribution channels from B2B to B2C, change from a local delivery to an Amazon drop shipper if need be, these are things some may look at as challenges or potential problems, I look at them as opportunities for a young startup who is ready to take a leadership role while disrupting an old marketplace.

If you had one piece of advice for small business or start-ups, what would it be?

When you feel overwhelmed and defeated, remember to say to yourself, you didnt come this far, to only come this far. If you are tired, take a break, don’t give up.

Jade Alberts - Peer Guidance - Jade Alberts Consulting 403-771-1301 www.PeerGuidance.ca www.JadeAlbertsConsulting.com www.LinkedIn.com/in/JadeAlberts Community \\ 11

BUSINESS FEATURE:

EMELLE’S CATERING

CELEBRATING

21 YEARS

R

unning a business means learning to REIMAGINE and RECREATE as the world changes.

Then the Globe Stopped! No events to cater, no large weddings, no corporate lunches or fundraisers! The Globe Stopped!

Emelle’s Catering run by owner; Mary Lee Newhnam; CEO & Executive Chef and Nicole Burke; Director of Catering Sales who joined the team, in May of 2001 and never looked back had to jump and reimagine what their business would be like in the new world and how they could support the community!

“We are in the business of celebration. As one of our favourite clients says - “ celebrate and celebrate largely” . Well, largely isn’t currently an option, but being grateful still is!” said Nicole “Large scale corporate gatherings and weddings have now turned to petit affairs.

We have launched our WTF weddings – Weddings on the Fly – small intimate, elopement style weddings. Boxed picnics which replaced the company picnics or office meetings. In addition, we are doing more home based delivery – so prepared meals that we call Food Hugs. “

Emelle’s opened May 15, 1999 (2020 = 21 years of success) with a store front neighbourhood cafe coupled with a catering division, which usually caters events from 2-5000 for staples in Vancouver, like Bard on the Beach, Science World, the Law Courts & the Vancouver Rowing Club (to name a few).They also have a secondary location on the Sunshine Coast.

Emelle’s has most recently won two Small Business BC awards; Best Employer & Best Marketer. This is the first time a company has ever won 2 awards in the same evening.

Emilies has also been awarded the Georgia Straight Golden Plates Winner 3 years running, the Courier’s Best of the City twice and have won Multiple BC Wedding Awards over the years as well.

Reaching their 21st year in business, celebrating their amazing accomplishments…business couldn’t be better!

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As a business it is important to learn to reimagine how you can serve your customers as the world changes.

“Time still goes on, so marking those birthdays and anniversaries is still important.” said Nicole “We have had to lean up our team, sadly and adjust the variety of our offerings to better manage our inventory. The silver lining; when you need to essentially re-start your business it allows for the opportunity to really evaluate what’s working and what’s not.”

FUN FACT: Mary Lee = ML = Emelle’s ( so what appears to be all fancy & French, is her name :). ) Advice From Emille’s: stay true to your values. Come from a place of abundance, as scarcity bring out the worst in people.

Do what you are most passionate about, as that is what is going to get you thru the hard times. Stay focused on the end game – keep it streamlined, stop and think ( no rash decisions), leverage your contacts, don’t be afraid to ask for help and always be grateful.

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AN UPDATE FROM TELEROO

L

ast time we talked, I mentioned that The Uncomplicated Family (TUF) Corporate Group is a quality of life company. We are constantly seeking out opportunities to improve quality of life for vulnerable populations, and we do this through a combination of direct service delivery, collaborative technology that facilitates best-in-class virtual care, and creating and curating clinically-informed games, apps, videos, and other digital resources that contribute to quality of life at home and in the community.

We're currently operating three companies under TUF - Teleroo WorldÂŽ, Kids Digital Health Portal, and Kid Uncomplicated.

Each company has a unique value proposition and set of independent offerings. They are also mutually reinforcing, which is something that benefits us but can also be put to work for other health systems and professionals, and I'll explain how.

To provide a quick overview of our companies: Teleroo WorldÂŽ is a best-in-class virtual care platform that provides health professionals and families with the collaborative tools required for excellent health and wellness outcomes. With Teleroo WorldÂŽ, all users are empowered and supported to share infor14 // Community Now!

mation, share status updates (photos, videos, and text), ask questions, and collaborate within and across environments (circles of care, caregivers at home, school, and in the community).

Kids Digital Health Portal is the world's first online therapeutic space, where families can subscribe to an ever-growing collection of clinician-developed and curated games, apps, videos, and resources that are fun for kids and demonstrated to promote healthy brain development.

Kids Uncomplicated is an Alberta-focused service company that delivers clinical and family supports to kids and families living with complex needs. Our team is expert speech-language pathologists, psychologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, behavioral specialists, and family support coaches who know navigating systems and finding the right supports is hard. We make it clear, simple, and rewarding.

Our larger value proposition is that we facilitate personalized virtual care that achieves exceptional health and wellness outcomes.

We connect health professionals with people living with chronic health concerns, disabilities, and/or complex needs and all the people who support and care for them. We give ev-

eryone involved in a person's care and health journey the tools, resources, and content to actually collaborate and achieve continuity of care. We get unprecedented results and, because we focus on virtual care, we save everyone money, time, and worry, including limiting exposure during the pandemic and reducing disruption to people's routines.

As evidence of our unprecedented results, Kids Uncomplicated uses Teleroo World® to serve kid and families living with disabilities and provides them with access to the content available through Kids Digital Health Portal.

With our service model, our families achieve their quality of life and therapeutic goals in an average of 14 months, as compared to the provincial average of 36 months.

Over the last couple of months, all of our companies have made some serious strides despite and in answer to COVID-19: • We launched the Kids Digital Health Portal (kidsdigitalhealth.com) in April 2020, bringing therapeutic games and content into homes for parents and children at the onset of the pandemic.

• We announced a strategic partnership with Autism Canada in May 2020 to bring healthcare, wellness, education, and entertainment to the thousands of children and families living with autism spectrum disorder.

• We entered in several new agreements to help allied health professionals bring their service delivery online with Teleroo World®, and are also customizing our platform to better deliver virtual care to seniors, Indigenous peoples, and moms and moms-to-be.

• We increased the number of families receiving services through Kids Uncomplicated, in large part due to our 10-years experience and impressive track record delivering virtual clinical and family supports.

Email: info@teleroo.com www.Teleroo.com • www.kidsuncomplicated.com Community \\ 15

Behavioural Profiling

Understanding How to Positively Get Along with Yourself and Others

I

’m a Certified Professional Behavioural Analyst (CPBA). Chances are you’ve never heard of a CPBA! I have a great job. Let me tell you about what I do.

But first, here are some questions for you.

Ken Goldstein

Writer’s note: When I first wrote this article for Community First Covid19 had not impacted each of our lives. I think it is more important now more than ever to really make the effort to understand oneself, our wants and needs so that we do not lose sight of who we are.

We have all been through changes that pushed us to limits we did not know we were capable of. We’ve missed friends and work colleagues.

We’ve felt a loss of control and order. We’ve felt a loss of consistent information and even the ability to make our own decisions. Each of those feelings is directly tied to your Behavioural Profile.

As we as a collective move forward and things open up to a new reality, take the time to ask, “How are you doing?” and most importantly make sure you listen to the answer.

Behavioural Profiling is about how we behave not why. Let’s use the how to stand for HONESTY OPENNESS and WILLINGNESS when you are really trying to understand yourself and others.

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Are you the type of person who walks into a room full of people you don’t know and makes a quick judgment about the others in the room based on what you see and hear?

Do you think you are a good listener? Do you really hear what others say?

Have you ever had a disconnect with someone and you couldn’t understand why? Did you ask yourself, “what’s their problem”?

Behavioural Profiling (DISC) can help you understand others better and change your answers to these questions.

One of the greatest challenges we face as people is trying to understand who we are.

We are often so busy trying to figure everyone else out, that we don’t even try to figure ourselves out!

If the subject of what I do comes up when I meet someone and I tell them I’m a Behavioural Profiler (CPBA) they often respond with the same two questions: “Are you like the guys on Criminal Minds?” and “Are you profiling me now?” They think that all profiling is like what they see on television and they don’t realize how their business or workplace, or they themselves can benefit from Behavioural profiling..

Behavioural Profiling (DISC) helps you understand how people consistently behave.

A person’s behaviour is a fundamental, ingrained and important part of who they are.

How often when you meet someone new do you make the decision whether you like them based on your initial perception? And what are your perceptions based on, if not your own behaviour? We tend to filter the behavior of others through our own behavioral traits.

I began using DISC 11 years ago. I used another tool before that, but DISC is the one I’ve chosen to use because for me it provides the format and approach, I think is most helpful in my work. Since I started using DISC, I’ve completed over 1000 Behavioural Profile Assessments for business clients, friends and other individuals trying to figure themselves out and find better ways to communicate and interact with those they come into contact.

Something important to remember before I go any further - DISC profiling deals with someone’s behavioural patterns, not their psychological makeup.

I can’t tell you how many times people who complete a profile are amazed at how accurate their profile report is. Sometimes they realize something about themselves that they always sensed but never really understood or fully realized. Understanding their profiles has helped them in all of their relationships, both professional and personal.

DISC is built around four unique behavioral styles. The unique qualities of each impacts the way we approach people, tasks and the complexity of our daily lives.

To fully understand DISC, it’s important to understand how the four individual components work together to create the whole.

While a typical person may have one or two

dominant characteristics, it’s the combination of the four components of DISC that defines a person’s behavior. The four components of DISC create a “behavioural makeup” unique to every individual.

Research has consistently shown that behavioural traits can be grouped together into four styles. These styles measure Dominance, Influencing, Steadiness and Compliance, thus the acronym DISC. People with similar styles tend to exhibit specific types of behaviour common to that style and that is just who they are.

A Behavioural Profile Assessment measures all four of the variables: Dominance, Influencing, Steadiness and Compliance. It identifies which of the four variables is more dominant than the others on a scale from 0 -100, and from that we know how to categorize the profile: High D, High I, High S or High C. The other three variables help round out the profile, because nobody is one dimensional.

Keep in mind – the DISC model analyses behaviour styles; that is a person’s manner of doing things. It doesn’t analyze why they act that way and it also doesn’t judge their behavioural style. A profile is not a test and does not measure skills, education or values.

I am frequently asked whether a profile is good or bad. The answer is simply that there are no good or bad profiles because DISC is a neutral language and therefore is non-judgmental in its results. That’s one of the things I particularly like about DISC. For me to label a profile as good, bad, exciting, dull, average or exceptional would mean I would have to grade and even judge the profile, which goes against the neutrality of the results and I think it lowers its value. (continued on next page) Community \\ 17

(continued from page 17...)

DISC doesn’t measure good or bad, right or wrong. It measures behaviour under normal conditions and under stress. Different behavioural styles are beneficial or detrimental depending upon different situations and circumstances. We all have something to offer in the workplace and in the world. DISC helps employers find the right fit for the business culture and role and helps individual find the right culture and role for themselves before hiring or committing to a job.

Behavioural profiles help you understand yourself. Understanding yourself allows you to help understand others, be it in the workplace or in one’s personal life. The next step is to value the differences respectfully.

At different times most people think of themselves as being able to read people like a profiler. Here are the primary traits associated with each of the four measurables in a Behavioural Profile Assessment, and their influence on the individual’s behaviour, that will help you when there’s a need for you to be a “profiler.”

Influence: those who work towards relating to people through verbal persuasion. The people who have this profile are energized by being around others.

Steadiness: those who work towards supporting and cooperating with others. The people who have this profile are people who need information before they make a decision.

Compliance: those who work towards doing things right and focus on detail. The people who have this profile need order, be allowed to follow the rules.

You meet and talk with people every day.

Behavioural profiling can help you communicate better and have more satisfying and productive relations with everyone you interact with.

How you view and respond to others and how you understand and view yourself will directly affect how others respond and to you.

Behavioural Profiling is a great tool for creating better outcomes in all your interactions with other.

Dominance: those who work towards achieving goals and results. The people who have this profile need challenges and want the rewards associated with the risk taken.

Ken Goldstein is the Founder and Managing Director of The Goldstein Group.

He is a Certified Professional Behavioural Analyst who uses Behavioural Profiling as part of his People Management Solutions consulting business.

Email: ken@goldsteingroup.ca T: 403 452-5303 • C: 403 816-8721 www.goldsteingroup.ca • linkedin.com/in/ken-goldstein-75615112

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PANDEMIC MAY CHANGE HOME BUYERS’ CRITERIA IN ALBERTA

Robert Price, founder and CEO of Bode Canada, Alberta’s first online real estate marketplace.

I

f you’re like me, you’ve likely garnered a whole new appreciation for your home.

After spending nearly three months quarantined in my house, and with the uncertainty of how much longer this may last, I’m certainly looking at my home through a new lens.

When your home suddenly and unexpectedly becomes your office, school, gym, restaurant and theatre for 12 weeks and counting, it makes you think one of two things - how can I change my current home to meet these new demands or what will I look for in my next home?

The latter is of particular interest to the many Albertans who are actively engaged or thinking about entering the real estate market.

And, the early data is showing some interesting trends. (continued on next page) Community \\ 19

(continued from page 19...)

Location First, let’s talk about location. We have always been taught that location is the most critical factor in terms of home selection, but does location have a new meaning now?

Historically, value of location consisted of two primary elements, proximity to work and access to amenities. Now that our work and home life have melded together, location drops down on the priority list. For years, we’ve seen a segment of the population choose rural life in Springbank, Airdrie and Cochrane - that 30-40 minute commute to downtown was worth the views and more relaxed pace of life. But, as companies switch to work-from-home arrangements either long term or permanently, that commute may become a thing of the past. Pandemic and post-pandemic home buyers may care much less about distance from the downtown core.

Home size and floor plan “Shh...I’m on a call!” How many times has this been said at your household over the last few months? As we try to juggle home and office life, a home office would now appear to not be a luxury, but a necessity. Home builders and designers have espoused we may need to move away from the open concept home

20 // Community Now!

to one that is more segmented with increased privacy. I’m not one to believe that we must all “up size” our homes to live in this new pandemic-era, but I do see the value and importance of a separate mudroom area where healthcare workers, for example, can remove soiled clothing, shoes and backpacks without fear of potentially bringing the virus into the rest of the home. And, food storage - extra pantry space, cupboards and a larger kitchen will increase in importance as we bulk buy groceries, minimize our trips to the grocery store and have more meals at home.

Lot size and green space As most of us heed the advice of public health officials and “stay home,” the one thing we’ve been encouraged to do is get out for walks or social distance with friends outside. Who knew driveway parties would become a thing?

In anticipation of more time outside and proximity to green space, larger yards and outdoor patio spaces are rising in importance. Urban centres are seen as hot spots for the virus and the desire to be distant from others, with more room to breathe, relax and enjoy, is another factor that may drive consumers to the suburbs, where they can buy a property for similar or less money than inner city living.

The data and trends Early studies in the UK show there’s been a surge in demand outside of the large metropolitan centres where buyers are enjoying the opportunity to work from home on a regular or permanent basis. Since lockdown started,

nearly half of prospective home buyers there say they want to work more from home and are valuing features that make this possible and more enjoyable. (See chart)

Will Alberta follow suit?

While it’s still early days here in Alberta too, Bode’s initial data assessment of Calgary and its adjacent communities of Airdrie and Cochrane, would suggest we are following a similar trend as the UK. While there are a number of market performance metrics

to consider, Days on Market (the speed at which homes sell) combined with average price provides a strong directional picture and meaningful comparison from March through until May.

Days On Market Comparison March-May 2019

2020

Comparison

Airdrie

68

55

-13

Cochrane

94

68

-25

Calgary

57

56

-1

Airdrie and Cochrane have reduced Days on Market significantly versus last year and in comparison, to Calgary over the same period.

Average Pricing Comparison (in 000’s) March-May 2019

2020

Comparison

Airdrie

$378

363

4%

Cochrane

$406

$393

3%

Calgary

$466

$432

7%

From a pricing perspective Calgary pricing has fallen markedly more than both Airdrie and Cochrane in the same period.

While it’s still too early to tell if Albertans will be leaving urban centres in droves, it certainly gives us something to think about.

With our unemployment rate at an all time

high and the province’s economic recovery in question, home buyers will be highly motivated to get more home for their dollar.

There’s no question they can do that outside of the big city, and if it meets all of their new home buying criteria too, we just may see this shift from metro to rural-living continue.

Community \\ 21

Banbury Crossroads Banbury Crossroads School

School

Seeking aschool school like home?

For 40 years, a Banbury haslike offered an atmosphere where Seeking home?

children feel safe,Banbury comfortable, and relaxed. an We atmosphere offer For has offered For40 40 years, years, Banbury has offered an atmosphere full Pre-Kchildren to Grade 12.

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To Weappointment offer full Grade Toinlearn more, (403) 270-7787. please schedule an withwith us today or please schedule anappointment appointment us today or callAnne Anne in at at (403) 270-7787. call in the theoffice office (403) 270-7787.

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Building B1, #201, 2451 Dieppe Ave SW, Calgary, AB T3E 7K1

www.banburycrossroads.com

Building B1, #201, 2451 Dieppe Ave SW, Calgary, AB T3E 7K1

www.banburycrossroads.com

Building B1, #201, 2451 Dieppe Ave SW, Calgary, AB T3E 7K1 22 // Community Now!

We are All Graduates: Our Transition from the Old World Diane Swiatek, Founder and

“

Director of Banbury Crossroads

The word of the

year is “proximity”, for that is how we used to meet all of those needs, and now, aside from our intimacy with

familial cohorts, we must meet them without it.

T

School, Est. 1979

his is the usual time of year when we celebrate graduations from institutions of

learning, which is a momentous example of a transition—meaning a time of alteration, or modification in circumstances and context.

Woven into that idea of change is the concept of transformation, which I am using to refer to change within persons themselves, in their character, understanding and ability. There is an interplay between these two concepts of external and internal change. In this fluid world of 2020, change has been so drastic that some people joke about not liking it and wanting to take the year back to its beginning.

We cannot, of course. It is here, for real. It is not only the school and university graduates among us (continued on next page) Community \\ 23

(continued from page 23...) who will be required to transform internally, in order to make adaptations to external circumstances. We all do. How appropriate that these concepts of transformation appear now, in the midst of our Covid-19 world. It is like we are all graduates of the Old World and are perched on the doorstep of a New Transitory World.

The transition we are experiencing has nothing to do with what we need as human beings. We still experience familiar necessities: food, shelter, education, physical fitness, social connection, work, recreation, cultural stimulation, rest, purpose, a healthy environment… well, everything. The transition involves simply how we get these needs met.

The word of the year is “proximity”, for that is how we used to meet all of those needs, and now, aside from our intimacy with familial cohorts, we must meet them without it. And the reason for that shift is due to the “butterfly effect”, whereby, in the complex systems defining life on Earth, each little thing that people do, and that happens in nature, creates unpredictable ripple effects, both small and large, which can cross the world. Benjamin Franklin wrote these words, based on an old German and English proverb from the 13th and 14th centuries: For want of a nail the shoe was lost, For want of a shoe the horse was lost, For want of a horse the rider was lost, For want of a rider the battle was lost, For want of a battle the kingdom was lost, And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Covid-19 created a butterfly effect. Every individual has always had social responsibilities towards others, but now they also have the responsibility to transition effectively from that Old World into the New, non-proximal one.

24 // Community Now!

Every aspect of our lives is being transformed to accommodate this one change relating to the lack of physical closeness. Children are vulnerable to any societal transition, and so are their parents. Parents who are working from home, and whose children are also at home needing academic support, engage in a juggling act. Since Banbury was faced with the conundrum of trying to help our parents deal with this double duty, our teachers maintained frequent, personalized contact with their students, both online and by telephone, so that the children would have their own educational direction to follow. This was hardest to accomplish with our youngest; yet, we are a Self-Directed Learning school, and our students are generally well-equipped to work independently. They also had hard copies of the work they were involved in. From one to three times a day, we contacted each one individually and within small groups, to make sure that they could progress academically and emotionally, as well as this situation allowed. We had one-on-one instruction, art classes, and mindfulness sessions on Zoom.

The time involved in this computer-intensive contact kept our teachers hopping, and they felt exhausted. However, one silver lining to this cloud was that for quieter students, they felt free to share their feelings and thoughts in that context—with no other students listening—and the teachers cherished that closeness. The students did, too. Yet, social distancing was isolating for both teachers and students, who craved the connection, excitement and stimulation of person-to-person interaction. It was even worse in other schools, where we heard of some students who had “gone dark”. That was a distressing development: the teachers of those AWOL students felt helpless to force the parents to force their children to do school-focussed work. In the end, who knows what learning those dark

students absorbed? They learned something, but it may not have been positive.

As I perused Banbury’s yearbook for 20192020, its most outstanding facet was how Old World it was, in the pre-pandemic months before the outbreak. In those 7 months, life was dynamic and full of accomplishment.

We enjoyed our treks within the community, absorbing plentiful evidence of art, science, math, culture and literacy. Internships were begun at AARCS and U of C. Plays were attended at Vertigo Theatre. Inside our walls, we sped around in the usual dance of learning, with our secondary students mentoring elementary students, with a Winter Camp crowding us with students from Korea, Viet Nam, China and Hong Kong, and with all of us carrying out projects together. We collected food bank donations. We collected ourselves together in knitting club, chess club, coding club, harp club and gym activities.

We shared valentines, and tea, and cuisine from the Foods class. We soaked up as much learning as we could in that wide world, both inside and outside the school’s walls, and we took it for granted. I know that now. We will never take that for granted in the same way again! Neither will we take for granted the various kinds of closeness we enjoyed—the hugs and contact sports, the story telling and problem solving, the singing and cooking, the Exhibitions and collaborative work—all done in sheer, natural, comfortable proximity.

Proximity. That is the key element missing now, in how we must fulfill our needs in the pandemic world. And even when places “open up” their restaurants, stores, sports arenas and theatres, proximity is still a danger. We are not pandemic savvy.

The possibility looms of a worse second or third wave. Certain places tried opening up (continued on next page) Community \\ 25

(continued from page 25...) schools early, but in Quebec, some schools found themselves having to reverse track and close down again. Toronto mandated masks in public spaces. Florida, Arizona and Texas are awash with new cases. Some people have interpreted the desire to squash the virus with masks and social distancing as a government attempt to remove civil liberties. So, when they do not wear their masks and do not socially distance, they cavalierly put others at risk—but are pleased as punch that they are free of restraints upon their liberty. They do not realize that the definition of “liberty” is freedom combined with responsibility—the right to pursue one’s own goals, but only while respecting the right of others to pursue theirs. Freedom is not license—carte blanche to do whatever one wants without compunction for others. Proximity is missing now from our world, because it has to be.

So, this is our situation: as usual, we still need to seek knowledge and wisdom in order to understand our environment, and to solve problems realistically, bravely and creatively.

We need to learn how to communicate and interact with each other as collaborators, to be humbly and rationally open to new information, and to be responsible. The challenge is that we need to do all of this without proximity. We can adapt to this reality, because we need to. These adaptations to issues of disease prevention will alter us down to our core, and they will influence our future interactions. We may never shake hands again.

In the schools of this country, we have all— every adult and child—been undergoing a process of transformation since the pandemic started, simply in discovering ways to meet our needs under the conditions of quarantine or social distancing. However, even before the pandemic, we were increasing our powers 26 // Community Now!

of critical thinking, of creative exploration and problem solving, as a matter of course.

All along, we have been developing skills in empathy and communication that are crucial for displaying compassion for each other.

These are the designed end-results of schooling. So, we are equipped to survive. We can shift readily into new frames of mind and new world views, built in response to our morphing environment. We can handle our amazing epiphanies, wild emotional distress, or quiet and steady realizations. Even our younger students have been gaining a wider perspective of the world around them. Banbury’s focus on self-directed learning specifically promotes the internal transformation from helplessness to self-efficacy that occurs naturally throughout childhood. We believe that the better the members of our community get at living proactively, with intention, the better we become able to show resiliency and social responsiveness, as well as to learn from our mistakes. This is the core of adaptability.

Darwin said that it is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive—it is the most adaptable. So, adaptation will strengthen people, young and old, to face the next waves of transition in our society, since more and more is in flux. Our graduates do not just face issues like the pandemic. Every issue that existed pre-pandemic is still present. Far from the future being some sort of variation on “The Jetsons” that children of my generation watched on TV decades ago, the future will in fact be quite different. Societal transitions are already beginning that will affect future diets and medical procedures, race relations, routes to knowledge acquisition, designs of cities and buildings, transportation for individuals and goods, and sources of energy.

Our graduates are open to the idea of “finite” as applied to population growth and use of geologic resources. In their lifetime, they are

still facing one of the most profound transitions in human history—the task of figuring out how to preserve, and continue to exist on, the only Earth we have. We have now proved to ourselves that we can change; the next change is to create a sustainably healthy relationship with this planet. We just have to survive the pandemic, hopefully in a shorter time than the seven years that the Bubonic Plague lasted. We have much work to do.

The Western society we have inherited, and

tion. It was, even before Covid-19 came along.

There is a need for innovation in Alberta, with government support, to create other sorts of occupations not based on the carbon economy. We need to develop industries that focus on alternate sources of energy. Alberta needs to become known for something new, and this will only happen if intrepid entrepreneurs unleash their creativity and effort. There are fewer choices for new graduates now, particularly from universities and colleges. Many

typical jobs are in a holding pattern, waiting also create, is now in a very rapid state of tranto see how long the virus has a grip on us. It sition focused on health is difficult to visit poand disease containtential employers, and ment, and its resultant We need to learn how it is inappropriate to economic resuscitation. to communicate and in- shake their hands.

No longer can the gradMoreover, they are uates of this year simply teract with each other competing with expetransition into a world as collaborators, to be rienced workers laid full of guarantees. off from their previous humbly and rationally Some expectations that jobs. When vulnerable high school graduates open to new information, graduates emerge in a had in the past are still year of recession, it is and to be responsible. expected: they usualdifficult enough; in a ly attend some sort of Covid-19 year that is post-secondary school, also a recession, it is a daunting challenge. get jobs, form relationships with friends and families, work in the world contributively and Employment is just the beginning to a perfor satisfaction, travel and enjoy recreation, son’s lifetime of contribution to their society. and then retire. Some of these expectations If work is perceived as meaningful, and proare still reasonable, such as post-secondary vides authentically collaborative connections, education. In one form or another, similar it can be fulfilling. Today, however, desperto that of schools in general, universities and ation impacts many of these decisions. We institutes of technology will still be offering all need to eat—but most of these graduates classes, even if they are online, or blended onalso need to pay back student loans. We have site and online. Most of our graduates will to be cognizant of what we end up choosing attend these institutions, gladly. However, from the thousands of opportunities that we the kind of predictability that my parents’ face every day. It is a quizzical paradox that generation, or even my generation, faced for we need to be, at the same time, both purthis full progression of accomplishments is poseful and “going with the flow”, in order no longer there. This is especially true for to develop self-efficacy. At the same time, we employment, as the economic climate existing (continued on page 29) now in Alberta is undergoing its own transiCommunity \\ 27

As the outside world is a force unto itself, the best thing we can do is to self-initiate transformations, so that we can adapt.

28 // Community Now!

(continued from page 27...) need to realize that each action matters, in some unknown way and forever, because it does. We also need to admit that we are only in charge of ourselves. As the outside world is a force unto itself, the best thing we can do is to self-initiate transformations, so that we can adapt. In the current societal climate, our graduates still need to question their paths, as all graduates have had to do before them. However, they will be doing so, while seeking opportunities that they may not have imagined before. They may enter interim careers, publish books, become consultants, or create their own work. We all know that there is much work to be done in the world, but it is not easy to create your own employment, especially without prior experience, and without seed money. The youth graduating from post-secondary now may need to be much more innovative, clever and courageous than previous cohorts of graduates, to wriggle their way into the world of work. I think they will be seminal in transforming both themselves, and the world that we all inhabit.

From a long-distance viewpoint, human beings are innovative, persistent creatures who are, as Kahlil Gibran observed, “the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself”.

Somehow, we always find a way. We are all capable of small examples of determined innovation. Grandparents, stuck in nursing homes, have been greeted through their windows by their children and grandchildren who throw them kisses. Parents maintain isolation but change the location, by taking their children canoeing out to Two Jack Lake.

And still, stalwart workers provide essential services that keep everything going for everyone else. Food stores and pharmacies make deliveries like never before. Garden centers deliver sand, dirt and compost for people to

dig gardens out of their cultivated lawns or native fescue. People determinedly don their masks and gloves to enter stores safely, even if only to obtain splashes of pink petunias and scarlet geraniums for their pots and gardens.

That spirit of persistent optimism arises like whack-a-mole, over and over, just when we feel like giving up. We can’t give up.

So, how do we all go forward? Along with the graduates among us, we need to think of our lives as a song, knowing that this phase is only one chorus of it. As Alan Watts explains in his video, “Why Your Life is Not a Journey”, the universe does not have a destination that you are trying to get to. Part of our ability to take responsibility for ourselves means deciding what will feel satisfying as we go through life. Instead of engaging in a constant drive for achievement, we need to keep the point in mind, that life IS the song.

The point is not to just get to the end of the song, for the end of our life song is death. Obviously, the experience of our constant NOWS is the point. Life is a constant transformation.

With full commitment, we must immerse ourselves in our current moments—whatever is happening, while it is happening, and no matter what is happening—simply because it is our life. This self-awareness is sure to enlist every shred of resiliency and resourcefulness that we have at our disposal. We will learn how to work under pressure, to keep designing dreams, and to be bold. Our actual graduates now celebrate the fulfillment of their old dreams and their realization of inner transformation coming. However, everyone is graduating from the Old World that still lies fresh in memory. Some of us, who have stared grief in the face, still need to heal from our scars. We all treasure our memories, yet we are also busy adapting. Once the dust of virus particles settles, we shall see where our transformations have led us.

Community \\ 29

Staying Sane When Your Relationship Falls Apart Carrie Gour

D

ivorce is hard. A high conflict divorce is other-worldly. The expense, frustration and negativity of it all can wear you down until you barely recognize yourself.

“

To save your sanity, focus

instead on what

you can control which is only and ever yourself - and do not defend or engage.

30 // Community Now!

Whatever is “bad” in a typical divorce is amplified times ten. Holding it together through the aftermath of a relationship is one thing, but in the case of high conflict, you’ll do this while also being terrorized by your ex. It’s not unusual to require protection or restraining orders or for police to be involved.

No, it’s not “normal,” but this kind of separation isn’t an outlier either: in North America up to 25% of all divorces and separations are considered high conflict.

So, what can you do to stay sane when a high conflict divorce is making you crazy?

1. Focus on what you can control. You can’t control what your ex says about you. High-conflict personalities (HCP’s) love drama: they will blame you for everything and outright lie, telling anyone who’ll listen that you’re bad and/or crazy in an effort to “prove” they’re the victim. To save your sanity, focus instead on what you can control - which is only and ever yourself - and do not defend or engage. Doing so will prolong an “attack/defend cycle” that only serves them. Remember, it can only be a “cycle” if you participate.

2. Electronic warfare. In high conflict divorce, a never-ending stream of hostile and abusive emails and text messages is the norm. Electronic correspondence is beloved because it allows HCP’s to get under your skin 24/7.

HCP’s have no genuine interest in using emails or texts to deliver information; rather,

they want a quick and easy way to keep you on the defensive. As above: Do not respond or engage. Document the texts and emails and take them to your lawyer. If necessary, take them to the police and file criminal harassment charges. If they’ve crossed the line into threats or stalking, file a temporary restraining order.

3. Document, document, document. The last thing you want to do is document evidence of abuse but if there’s any hope of making it stop or holding your ex accountable, you must.

Capture everything, both sides of conversations, including messages that seem innocuous. Context is critical in proving coercive or threatening patterns of behaviour. You won’t have the mental capacity for “data manage(continued on page 33) Community \\ 31

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(continued from page 31...) ment,” collecting 50 or more text messages and emails a day, every day, but an app like PwrSwitch solves for this. PwrSwitch collects and consolidates all text and email history between you and your ex, saving everything in a time and date stamped, word searchable pdf on the cloud that you can easily share with counsel or police. “Switch” the power dynamic and regain a sense of control.

4. When responding, be BIFF. Never hit “send” when you’re upset. Instead, wait till you’re calm and edit your response in a way that’s Brief, Informative, Friendly and Firm (BIFF). Engage with your ex in a businesslike manner, offering just the facts (no “I feel or I think” statements. HCP’s couldn’t care less what you think or feel). Keep it as neutral as possible (don’t blame, even if warranted, as it invites more conflict). Be clear in your ask or the information you’re sharing and avoid open-ended statements.

5. Impose a Divorce Curfew. Don’t do anything divorce-related after 7 or 8 pm. Shifting your focus to something positive (or at least nothing to do with you divorce) will help you sleep, calm your nervous system down and focus on your future.

6. Doing the least can be doing the most.

You’re at the end of your rope. Going through a toxic divorce is traumatizing, and it can be hard to function. You may have trouble eating, sleeping or concentrating at work.

You’re likely more irritable than usual, on high alert waiting for the other shoe to drop.

This is survival mode, so give yourself permission to feel and function at a less than optimal level. Life right now is not optimal!

At this stage, just making it through each day is what success looks like, so congratulate

yourself for doing the basics. You ate tater tots for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Awesome!

You fed yourself! Stepped out of the shower and forgot to rinse the conditioner out of your hair? Go You! You’re clean!

7. Grief and Loss are a season. Remind yourself this is a temporary window of time. This too shall pass. The divorce won’t define you - but how you respond to it will.

8. Don’t go through this alone. Shame from the things your ex says and does can keep you isolated and HCP-induced trauma is real.

Share your experience and feelings with understanding friends and family to help get you through and find a therapist who specializes in high conflict divorce, if you can. Remember 25% of all separations look like yours: you are not alone.

9. Take care of yourself emotionally and physically. Be kind to yourself and to your body. Get outside, eat as well as you can and take time to exercise. Just keeping to your normal routines as much as possible is a form of self care. Try to avoid making major decisions or changes in life plans. Don’t cut your bangs, pluck your eyebrows or watch the shopping channel late at night. You’ll use that Acti-fryer less than you think.

10. Find the Good. (Thank you Andrea LaRochelle). Don't let the negativity change you.

You are so much more than what is projected onto you in times of conflict. A high-conflict divorce will shake your sense of self, absolutely, but it’s a situation you must manage - it’s not who you are. Good can be found in the smallest and most unlikely places, if you look for it, like finding a deeper sense of self awareness, strength and compassion.

Community \\ 33

Why and How to Build your Resiliency Muscle Patricia Morgan

D

uring the boom, we scrambled through deadlines and endless demands for more; often chasing more of anything that was shiny, comforting or electronic. During the bust, we worried about salary freezes and layoffs. During Covid-19 we have all of that, plus a global pandemic.

Challenges don’t stop; they change. Developing our personal resilience can support us during times of boom, bust, and viruses.

You have probably witnessed a feisty toddler who screams, “No! I do it myself!” She is like an egg with a strong yolk, delivered from a free roaming chicken. There are also fragile children and eggs with weak yolks. Then how we treat children and eggs -- beating, frying, poaching or cuddling -- changes their makeup. However, as adults we can make choices to strengthen our yolk and build our resiliency muscle.

Defining and Giving Context to Resilience

Why Building Your Resiliency Muscle is Important

Personal resilience is the capacity to stay steady or recover from life’s inevitable challenges and adversity. My mentor, Dr. Al Siebert wrote, “Resiliency is something you do, more than something you have . . . You become highly resilient by continuously learning your best way of being yourself in your circumstance.”

I was recently asked if people are born resilient. The answer was “Yes . . . and.” Some people are born with strong constitutions.

34 // Community Now!

Many of us think that if we did not have hardships we would be happy. Not so! Our lives are meant to be rewarding, meaningful and challenging. Challenges may include loss, change, illness, poor behavior of other people, and your own errors or misjudgments. No matter the environment or circumstance, challenges arise.

Some of my most distressful moments came after my husband and I adopted our Kelly,

our daughter with undiagnosed Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Juggling home, personal and workplace demands became my norm.

Dysfunctional behaviours from my painful childhood surfaced. Often the balls hit the floor with physical and mental issues. The distress necessitated visits to the hospital for irritable bowel syndrome attacks, a cardiac arrhythmia attack, shingles, many headaches, and an overnight in a psychiatric ward.

Three hundred and seventy-six women took the time to respond to those questions. Then I interviewed 27 women in North America who were identified as resilient women. Their stories are inspiring and enlightening.

After that mentally, emotionally and phys-

• stress-hardy. They are healthier physical-

ically demanding period, I began to boost my own resolve, confidence and personal resilience. I discovered I was stronger than I thought. I engaged in significant therapy, acquired a master’s degree in clinical psychology, and hours, weeks and months, indeed years, of personal development and training.

Eventually, I became fascinated with this ability to recover or to stay steady when the going gets tough. Indeed, the resilience literature refers to the need to experience challenge. Napoleon Hill beautifully described this paradox of being strengthened by toil and trouble.

“The strongest oak of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It’s the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.”

It was when I stepped into professional speaking that Dr. Siebert supported me in my own research. He gifted me with three questions to ask my women audience members.

1. What is the worst work-related experience you’ve endured?

The Benefits of Resilience Similar to academic research, I concluded that those whom we would describe as resilient are:

ly, emotionally, mentally, and socially, • content in their relationships, and, • more successful at work, home, and community.

Yes, developing resilience is demanding, accomplished with few people noticing, often humbling, and not always pleasant. The reward, however, is positively life affirming.

Should you be interested in strengthening your yolk consider the three Cs of resiliency.

The Three Cs of Resiliency One. Care for your body Eat, sleep and exercise. Thousands of dollars are spent telling us how to do these three life survival basics.

1. Eat sensibly with minimal white sugar, flour, salt and processed foods. Translation: Eat more vegetables, fruits, protein (meat, nuts, beans, legumes and dairy products) and whole grains and eat less junk food. I’m not a dietitian but, hey, I can see my mother’s wagging finger when I reach for a bag of potato chips.

2. How did you cope?

3. Looking back, what did you learn? (continued on next page) Community \\ 35

(continued from page 35...)

Three. Choose your perspective

2. Sleep deprivation causes accidents, miscommunication, illness and an unnecessarily ugly face.

Develop some habits that provide a realistic and sometimes needed optimistic viewpoint.

3. Find the kind of exercise that works for you, your life style and body. Walking is always a healthy alternative. A minimum of 20 minutes three times a week is recommended.

Two. Change your critical self-talk If we indeed have between sixty and seventy thousand thoughts a day, we had better be aware of the most damaging and the most empowering. Then increase the latter.

1. Journal your thoughts, your conversations and dreams. Look back in a couple of days with a detective’s eye.

2. Seek out a professional if you can’t control the nasty put-downs in your head and replace them by some supportive self-talk.

You might be surprised to discover, with an observant therapist, just how many thoughts have been tripping you up.

3. Identify your strengths. Then use and celebrate them. Take Martin Seligman’s free VIA Character Strengths assessment at https://www.viacharacter.org/character-strengths-via.

1. Know what you value and live accordingly. Values range from freedom to family, from contemplation to merriment, from culture to nature, from honesty to kindness, from order to creative chaos.

2. Hang around supportive and caring people. Trade in the old ones if necessary.

New thoughts may require new pals.

3. Hum tunes that cheer you. Eliminate the ones that depress.

4. Laugh at the absurdities. We can often catch ourselves stressing over trying to change unchangeable circumstances, places or people. Give up on Aunt Ethel’s smoking. Her addiction is for her to take on or not.

5. Before going to sleep, think of three or more reasons to feel grateful.

Resiliency is the ability to adapt, to learn and carry on after the inevitable set backs of daily living. I’m reminded of what Stephen Covey said; “You are the creative force for your life!”

Use that force well. Then when the going gets tough you can demonstrate your resiliency muscle!

Patricia Morgan is the author of From Woe to WOW: How Resilient Women Succeed at Work. Contact her at 403.242.7796 or patricia@SolutionsForResilience.com

Patricia Morgan’s BIO Patricia Morgan is often referred to as a Spunky Seniorpreneur. Her ability to provide bitesized knowledge nuggets for resilience has helped many people emerge stronger after facing unthinkable challenge.

With a MA in Clinical Psychology, she has authored several books on resilience, stress management, and women’s issues including Love Her As She Is: Lessons from a Daughter Stolen

by Addictions, From Woe to WOW: How Resilient Women Succeed at Work and Frantic Free: 167 Ways to Calm Down and Lighten Up. She is a recipient of Global TV’s Woman of Vision award and the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers’ Spirit of CAPS award for her contribution to the Canadian speaking industry. She is described as a therapeutic counsellor, speaker, author, mentor, wife, mother to three, and grandmother to five.

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The Canada Blockchain Consortium was founded to unite Canada’s diverse community of blockchain business owners, developers, adopters and those interested in exploring this technology’s transformative potential. Through our inclusive ecosystem, we can educate and bring prosperity back to our nation.

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The Doorway:

‘It Takes a Village’ - COVID-19:

During the early stages of COVID-19 a community member took advantage of a grocery store 10 for $10 sale and dropped off a large amount of our young people’s favorite canned foods.

The pandemic brought life to a stop for many of us but through this time many of our young people have moved out of group living situations including shelters and treatment centers and into their own places. Our supportive community provides consistent donations all year round allowing us to always keep a few months supply on site. Donations in the months leading up to the pandemic unknowingly prepared us with the supplies necessary to build move-in and care packages. These packages have also prevented people from having to take transit and visit countless stores due to reduced stock. Now regular donors are generously giving cleaning supplies to help us prepare to reopen.

A couple of our young people were seeking used computers to help stay connected to work, school and The Doorway. A couple generous community members donated lap tops and tablets to keep them engaged and learning.

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We know one of our young people’s most loved aspects of The Doorway is the home cooked food, made just for them by community. So of course it's been in our COVID-19 care packs.

We had a lunch for our young people planned for March as an opportunity for them to bring their friends/family who could benefit from meeting us.

A compassionate and hard working group of women named the ‘Perogy Pinching Mamas’ cooked sausages and pinched a 450 perogies for us back in Feb to ensure the meal would be delicious! Rather than being used for the lunch we included them in our care packs that were delivered directly to young people through out the pandemic.

Our young people also got to enjoy home made Banana bread. “I ate perogies for dinner and banana bread for dessert. I appreciate the canned and frozen foods I have received in food hampers but it’s so nice to eat a good home cooked meal.”

Quite regularly in our space we have home made lasagna they can enjoy. To provide them a familiar meal from our space as well as an activity we delivered “build your own lasagna kits! “A very special community member created a step by step recipe and bought/ prepared each individual lasagna ingredient in the kits. Alternative high schools have been creative and flexible in finding ways students can still earn credits during COVID-19, including getting Foods credits for cooking!

For over a decade The Doorway has received soup on a monthly basis from Soup Sisters. This ‘hug in a bowl’ is another kind gesture from community people who are more than willing to give money, time and kind message on each container of soup. When groceries were low and finances tight we were able to deliver large amounts of soup to our young people.

www.thedoorway.ca Charitable Registration Number: 13140 1226 RR0001 Community \\ 39

Leaving the Light On Steven Archambault

On Simon House’s front lawn is a gas lamp that stays forever lit. The lamp is a symbol of hope and recovery for all addicts; those who still struggle and those in recovery. As long as the lamp is lit Simon House is open and addicts have a place to go when they are ready to work towards a better way of living.

When the lamp was first installed it caused a little controversy; you can imagine the conversation between a donor who saw the need for an enduring image of hope and an Executive Director who needed every penny spent at Simon House to count. The Executive Director made sure that no penny was wasted. Lights were turned off when no one was in a room, heat in the houses were set to avoid waste, and surely many times the phrase “put on a sweater” was uttered. However, the donor, a recovering addict themselves, knew how important this symbol of hope would be.

Many addicts feel as though they have been abandoned by friends, family and society. The stigma they face from people who may not understand addiction is only surpassed by the stigma they place on themselves. Sadly, our desire to help those who are suffering, and our hopes for their recovery and healing is not enough. All addicts need to find a common place where we feel a common bond of understanding if we truly

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want to heal. The place we begin this journey is “The Bottom”. As addicts in recovery this rock bottom state of existence can be severe; in our literature we describe three final destinations: “Prison, Insanity or Death”.

Addiction has the potential to destroy not just the addict’s life but the lives of those who love them. Often those who love an addict feel as though they cannot abandon them, and will continually try to prove their love and support by enabling the addict in various ways. When our loved ones stop the enabling behaviors, they are actually directing the addict towards the light of recovery. Our loved ones are allowing us to see a beacon of hope and to hold the keys to the door of recovery.

In our daily work we often hear loved ones say, “I thought if I loved them enough they would stop using” or they believe that if the addict truly loved their family it would be enough to pull them out of addiction. Yet nothing is further from the truth! Why? Simply put, we addicts have to love ourselves before we can believe recovery is possible. We only come to love ourselves after we reach rock bottom.

Simon House works when the men who come here to begin their recovery accept that they are worth the willingness, honesty, integrity, courage, perseverance, and faith that is necessary to work the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. Simon House works because the addict surrenders their self-will and

allows another addict with experience, strength and hope to guide them along their new path.

Simon House works because we work the Twelve Step program with each other every single day.

The light on the Simon House lawn is an open invitation, but the opportunity that Simon House provides comes with responsibilities. If a recovering addict at Simon House behaves irresponsibly and runs on their own self-will, they are actually choosing not to continue their recovery here. Addicts (like everyone) require healthy boundaries, and they know that crossing

these boundaries has consequences. Boundaries keep addicts (even though they will argue otherwise) and those that love them safe.

If someone you know or love is struggling with addiction, you do not need to be alone in searching for your own light. There are resources in the community that support the loved ones of addicts affected by addiction such as the AlAnon family groups. Al-Anon members walk with you on your journey as the addict you love walks with us on theirs.

Simon House Recovery needs the communities help. to find out more go to: https://simonhouse.com/ To Donate go to: www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/12612

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SHEInnovates PROFILE

Get to know SheInnovators through CN! Magazine over the next few issues!

SHANNON PESTUN DIRECTOR, WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP, ATB FINANCIAL

S

hannon Pestun grew up in an entrepreneurial family that owned a medium-sized business, giving her the first taste of what owning a business was truly about. Fast forward to today, we know her as the Director of Women’s Entrepreneurship at ATB Financial, and as ‘A Girls Biz Banker’ online where she advocates for women’s entrepreneurship and shares financial advice 42 // Community Now!

and mentorship with her followers. In her role, Pestun is working within the financial industry to re-imagine the systems and supports that influence the success of women entrepreneurs. Staying on top of Canada’s dynamic entrepreneurial environment, Pestun recognizes the important role women play in the economy.

“‍The entrepreneurial landscape is changing, and women are a big reason for that change, “says Pestun. “Today, more women than ever are pursuing entrepreneurship.”

the financial industry could be a driver for change. It was at this point that she started advocating for a different type of experience for female customers.

‍ or Pestun, a key piece of encouraging more F women to start and grow their businesses is to better understand the systemic and attitudinal barriers women face, and that includes looking at how the financial sector can be a catalyst for women’s success.

Challenging the status quo Pestun believes the full and equal participation of women in the economy is essential to Canada’s competitiveness. Women-owned companies play a vital role inCanada’s economy, and yet in Canada today, only 16 per cent of Canadian businesses are majority-owned

‍“Banks and investors play a critical role in the success of any business. By better understanding how we can break down barriers, we can play a more meaningful role in helping women reach their full potential.”

An accidental banker Pestun wasn’t always clear on what her career path would look like, though she was always drawn to supporting others. A curious mind, she pursued an education in business and marketing and worked in a number of different industries before pursuing a marketing career at ATB Financial. Pestun refers to herself as an accidental banker. “‍ I never imagined I’d become a (business) banker,” she says. “I’ve always been passionate about marketing, but something from within kept pushing me towards a career where I could work more closely with entrepreneurs.”

This feeling motivated her to move to a role managing relationships with small- and medium-sized enterprises across the province where she spent the next six years working closely with entrepreneurs- as a banker. It was in this work that Pestun began to recognize that men and women had different entrepreneurial experiences. Her curiosity led her to examine the attitudinal and systemic forces that affected these differences, and where

or led by women. According to McKinsey, advancing women’s equality could add up to $150 billion in incremental GDP by 2026.

“We have to create systems where more women can start and grow their businesses,”says Pestun. “And that means asking what role we (as an entrepreneurial ecosystem) can play in breaking down the barrier’s women face when accessing financial, social and entrepreneurial capital.”

Build her business The programs she has worked to create at ATB Financial for these female entrepreneurs emphasize getting past the barriers women need to overcome to be successful. One such program is the ATB Financial Build Her Business Crowdfunding initiative. The Build Her Business initiative is a crowdfunding program where women in Alberta can bring their ideas to market and through a crowdfunding campaign, have people fund their ideas in exchange for a reward. In addition to the platform, participants are also given access to role models and educational resources. Crowdfunding allows women to validate their product, increase awareness, test pricing strategies, get pre-sales - all of which in turn can help them get future lending from banking institutions. In the inaugural Build Her Business campaign, 86 per cent of the campaigns were (continued on next page) Community \\ 43

(continued from page 43...) successful, raising an average of $12,000 each, and a record of $66,000 for one campaign.

Encouraging women to take risks Shannon asks women to take risks every day – to dream big, take chances and be willing to put their ideas out there. She also encourages women to enter programs like the ATB Build Her Business campaign to help them get started. She believes that, as women, we often hold ourselves back and like to make sure we have everything lined up perfectly before we allow ourselves to get to the next level, and that means we often miss big opportunities.

To take risks and trust in ourselves will push us closer to success. She also believes that financial acumen is important for women in business. “‍ Knowledge is power. Mastering the numbers allows entrepreneurs to make sound and quick decisions. That goes for women working in businesses. The glass ceiling is easier to get through when you understand the financial aspects of business and entrepreneurship.” ‍The only Albertan and representative from the financial sector, Shannon is one of seven members on the Women’s Entrepreneurship Expert Panel which is part of the Government of Canada’s Women Entrepreneurship Strategy. The strategy looks to double the number of women entrepreneurs by 2025. When she’s not being an advocate for women in business, speaking at events, mentoring, or being ‘A Girls Biz Banker’ online, Shannon is an Alberta girl at heart, changing from heels to boots and spending her time as an equestrian rider.

The next round of the ATB Build Her Business campaign begins in November to continue to support Alberta’s talented entrepreneurs and innovators.

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BUILDING A FAMILY LEGACY IN TRANSFORMING WASTE INTO VALUE

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wo years into her undergraduate degree in Business at the University of Calgary, Victoria Ross decided to look deeper into the idea of transforming waste into value after taking an entrepreneurship class.

“It wasn’t until I took the entrepreneurship class that I really knew I wanted to pursue it,” says Ross of the class that others warned her she would hate.

VICTORIA ROSS FOUNDER AND CEO, AGRO SYSTEMS “I just loved it – it was so much more practical and hands-on.”

Inspired, Ross took her idea to task. Pursuing multiple ideas around waste diversion; Victoria spent two years researching the quickest, most impactful way she could execute her vision. She discovered that the waste created by breweries can actually be used as nutritional animal feed, but most of it in the Calgary area was going to com-

post sites and just rotting and degrading.

This led her to two years of research and development into how she could begin to repurpose the waste into nutritional animal feed.

A great idea isn’t enough “You can have a really cool idea, but it’s not really going to work unless you talk to

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(continued from page 45...) the people that you want to eventually sell it to, consult with them and iterate your idea,” she says of the process.

“It requires a lot of personal growth and development. I really had to know what my weaknesses and strengths were, build on those, and be flexible.”

She credits several mentors who encouraged and guided her along the way, including preceptors at the University and her business partner (who she literally cold called after googling for local experts on creating alternative nutritional fertilizers/ feeds).

“They instilled a lot of confidence in me that I didn’t have before – they showed me where I could improve and what I already did well and connected me with the right people who would also grow me as an entrepreneur,” Ross says.

“Mentors are absolutely necessary in the entrepreneurial space.”

Building a legacy With Agro Systems going into operation in June 2018, Ross continues to learn and grow along with her business.

“The long term vision is being able to help farmers who are doing their jobs to help feed others and being able to provide the breweries with something more affordable so they’re not losing money on that aspect of their business,” Ross says of the farmers and brewers who are her customers, and like her, small business owners.

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She credits her customers as helping her to make Agro Systems a success in early days, when she was picking up 1100 pound bins of waste on her own from the breweries.

“All of these brewers were actually helping me load up my truck. That was amazing, they’ve been so patient,” she says. “And the farmers make a real effort to be on time every time so that we can keep our operations going; if the farmers don’t come grab their grain we run out of space to repurpose the brewery grain.”

The collaboration and cooperation of her customers has seen Agro Systems take off. Now serving 19 local breweries and supplying nutritional animal feed to three families of famers, Ross been able to hire on her first employees – her father and sister. Being able to do this is important to Ross as her goal is to build an empire, a legacy to pass on to her own family.

An inspired vision Hiring her biggest inspiration in creating Agro Systems has really brought the vision full circle.

“The biggest inspiration has been my dad.

He is a farmer and for 30 years he worked as a farmer and had to work two jobs to get the bills paid,” says Ross, citing the fact that nearly 50 per cent of Canadian farmers can’t afford to live off of just being a farmer, something she learned in University.

“It really frustrated me to see all of these hardworking men and women who can’t survive off the means of their passion. So, I wanted to be able to create a company that would be able to provide them with cost saving products or a value-added message that could be implemented into the agriculture industry.”

“It Takes a Village“ - African Proverb

Our Mission: Promoting curiosity, communication and engagement in making Alberta a stronger and better place to live, to be educated, do business, promote innovation and community celebration. www.communitynowmagazine.com Facebook: @communitynowmagazine Twitter: @communitynowma1 Publisher@CommunityNowMagazine.com