Episode 38: Change Your Mindset, Change Your Life | Manuel Lolarga

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Manuel La Larga is a professional engineer and principal at Tandem Engineering Group, where he leads multidisciplinary teams and drives large-scale engineering projects across multiple industries.
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With over 20 years of experience, Manuel has built a reputation for combining technical expertise with strong leadership, mentorship, and business development.
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Based in Windsor, he is also an entrepreneur and consultant through the Extraordinary Group, where he focuses on helping individuals and teams reach their full potential, both personally and professionally.
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All right, everybody, welcome back to another episode of Cracking the Success Vault here with Spectre Group.
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Uh, today I'm joined by my great friend, uh Manny LaLarga.
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You're uh uh a principal at tandem engineering.
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I know that you also do some real estate stuff.
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Uh and we're gonna talk a little bit about leadership development and everything today because you and I have had some great conversations.
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But uh, for those of you that uh the people that are listening that don't know who you are or where you came from, okay.
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Uh let's start at the beginning.
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Where did you grow up?
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Where were you born?
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And you know, how'd you get to Windsor?
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Yeah, absolutely.
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Yeah, thanks for uh having me here, Sean.
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Really appreciate the time to be able to share.
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I think it's all about adding value.
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So yeah, again, my name is not Manny Larga.
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I uh was born and raised here in Windsor, so homegrown.
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Uh I went to you know school at the University of Windsor and uh you know struggled a little bit out of the gate, but I got a chance to you know get in the workforce and then I lived in Kitchener Waterloo for about 10 years.
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And then about six years ago, I moved back here to Windsor.
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Uh, you know, the opportunity was right, was able to connect with some uh people that I used to work with in the past, and then now I'm a principal engineer uh for a company called Tandem Engineering.
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So, you know, I'm glad to be here.
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Yeah, and so what took you away from Windsor?
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What took you to Kitchener?
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Yeah.
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So back in 2008 or nine, I'm sure a lot of people kind of remember those days.
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You know, I was working about 80 or 90 hours a week, traveling a lot, right?
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And then right around 2008, so my biggest client was Diamond the Chrysler.
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And what ended up happening was they went bankrupt along with uh another, you know, big company there.
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And because of that, they downsized from about maybe 72 people down to 12.
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Right.
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And I was like lucky number 13, so I got the short end of the stick.
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But you know, when one door closes, another one opens, and uh the person that actually hired me out of school, he moved to Kitcher Waterloo.
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And then when I found out that he was there and he knew I was looking, and then that's when I saw an opportunity to reach out to him, and then I lived there from 2010 to about the end of 2019.
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Okay, and then moved back here uh to get become a part of tandem.
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Yes, yes.
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Got it.
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And so what what made you get into engineering in the first place?
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Is it is it the thing you always wanted to do as a kid growing up?
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Like what what made engineering the thing that you went after?
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Interesting story.
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So when I was very, very young, I thought I was gonna be maybe a doctor or something along those lines.
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Uh, and then I realized started to grow up it's just definitely not my cup of tea.
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But because I never had anybody in my close family that was actually engineering.
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So I went to a guidance counselor when I was in maybe grade 11 or 12.
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They asked me what I wanted to do.
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I didn't know.
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So they just looked at my transcript.
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Looks like you're pretty good in math and science.
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You should go into engineering, and that's literally how I went to engineering.
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And I didn't even know anything about what engineering does at the time.
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Really?
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Yes, yes.
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Wow.
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I have always heard guidance, I've always heard the story of like guidance counselors being like, yeah, no, you're probably never gonna succeed at something.
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You're no, I've heard some crazy stories, and someone's like, Yeah, you know what?
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Well, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go succeed, right?
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I might have Beezer, you know, C's and D's on my transcript, but I'm just gonna go make something to myself.
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Um, very rarely do you hear of that that story of like they said go here and I didn't know anything about it, but I did it.
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Um, and so what were your thoughts when you started going through the process?
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Was it something you enjoyed?
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Like, what did you like about it that made you actually stay with it?
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So when I was kind of going through the process, one of the things I want to do is to seek advice from people or people that you know that went into that industry.
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And I almost didn't go into engineering at the time because one of my older brother's best friend, we were workout partners in grade 12.
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And we got a chance to, you know, talk.
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I said, hey, you know what?
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I'm planning going to engineering.
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What are your thoughts?
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Right.
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And he gave me a lot of, let's say, negativity about it because it's not like in high school.
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Your professors are not like your teachers, you're taking six courses in six labs, right?
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You're gonna be like living at the campus almost all the time.
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So I really got discouraged.
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But then again, I realized that you know what?
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Here, I'm getting advice from somebody that actually failed after his first year.
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Right.
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All right.
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So I knew I couldn't take advice from somebody from where I want to succeed in.
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Right.
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Right.
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So this is when I reached out to a distant cousin or sorry, a distant uncle in California who actually owned an engineering firm.
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Oh, wow.
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And that's where he kind of gave me the ins and outs, the goods and the bad.
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And so I seek advice from experts, especially somebody that owns it.
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And once I got a chance to have a really good conversation with him, right, and then that's when I started to pursue uh engineering uh at a higher level with a different kind of perspective going in.
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Yeah.
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I mean, perspective is kind of everything uh for anything.
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Uh and you and I have had a lot of these kinds of conversations about leadership and you know, trying new things and doing new things and getting advice and mentorship, because that's not something that you would hear that a typical probably 18, 19-year-old kid would do.
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He would take advice from his friend about whatever his his career path, about um, you know, money, about you know, buying the car or investing money.
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Like people just don't take that type of advice and go, you know what, maybe I should think about who I'm getting this advice from.
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Yes.
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So at that young of an age, what made you go?
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I should probably take a second, get a second opinion.
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Well, I shouldn't take advice from this guy that failed.
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I should go get advice from someone who succeeded.
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What I mean, you weren't involved in the leadership development kind of stuff that you were now.
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So what made you like have that sort of epiphany at that age?
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Yeah, well, when I was kind of right before I went to a university, and I guess my my uncle, he actually visited me.
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He drove to California from California the winter, and he stayed with us.
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So when we drove back, that's when I really got a chance to hear the ins in and out.
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Kind of gave me a good uh, you know, good viewpoint of what I can expect, whether it's in school, in the corporate world.
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And just that's what really kind of got me thinking about I can't really count on people that are, you know, in my sphere of influence because that's where we're your biggest breaks in life, or the people where you want to grow, it's gonna come outside of your sphere of influence.
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Yeah.
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Right.
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I didn't really get a chance to get dive deeper in that into uh when it came to leadership, maybe further on into my career.
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But at least in the beginning, right when I was starting school, because I know how difficult it can be, it's just getting advice from the right people because most people are told uh what to do.
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But then it's about okay, what what what kind of goal?
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What are you trying to accomplish at that time?
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Right.
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And I know when you're 18, 19 years old, you're probably not, you know, thinking long term and stuff like that.
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But I also had to pay my own tuition as well.
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So that really kind of gave me a little bit more urgency, right, to be able to accomplish something on my own.
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And I think that's where my maturity and leadership started to begin, because it started with leading yourself.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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I mean, leading yourself is kind of, you know, you kind of you have to, you know.
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I mean, I look at my career as, you know, uh as a financial advisor.
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I mean, if I'm constantly broke and constantly living paycheck to paycheck and not saving money and not getting insurance and not doing these things that I tell people to do, um, you know, it's not a very good look.
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But at the same time, I mean, I've had actually, it's it's it's funny we're having this conversation.
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I probably had five or six people, honestly, in the last like two months that have been like, this plan is great and this makes sense, but like show me what you're doing.
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And I've had to be like, here's exactly what I'm doing, right?
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Uh, and it's been like, oh, okay, so you're actually, you know, doing what you preach you're doing, right?
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Um so I I love the fact because you are also, you know, you're you're the you're the uh the average of the five people that you hang out with the most, right?
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And so when we're going to school and we're young and we have all these maybe these big dreams and these wild things that other people think that we can't do, or maybe it's gonna be really hard to do.
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Um, getting advice from people that aren't where we want to be is kind of already setting up a success for uh a failure, right?
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You're not you're not setting yourself up for success, right?
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So um so that must have been some interesting conversations that you had with him, knowing that he owned this big firm.
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Um did did he give you any other lessons besides kind of that when you guys were having these conversations about getting into engineering?
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Uh, I think he the biggest thing that he kind of did was he he wasn't afraid to tell me the truth.
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Right.
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I think a lot of people would kind of hide that, but he was very, you know, bold, you know, somebody that owned his own engineering firm out west, right?
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And he's very, you know, stern with a lot of his employees.
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And so that's one of the things that I learned right away about he wasn't worried uh about sugarcoating some of those things.
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And I really appreciated that, right?
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Because I'd rather learn some of those things now versus if when I get into the corporate world, you know, five, six years later, that I know what to expect.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, setting up setting up expectations uh are is a big driving factor, I think, for a lot of people.
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Um and we'll get into that a little bit later because I want to hear almost your sort of some of the things that you expect now that you're a principal that at an engineering firm and that kind of stuff.
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Um, but so okay, so he gave you advice and you decided I'm not following this friend that I work out with.
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Yeah, I'm gonna go do this thing.
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Uh and what were some of the things?
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So, like you move away to Kitchener, now you're getting hired by somebody else.
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What was the expectation there?
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Like, how did you decide?
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Well, I'm just gonna go leave this thing that I was good at because of their downsizing, and now I'm gonna go move to a city where I probably don't know a ton of people uh and do a different career.
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What was that like?
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Yeah, I think that was probably one of the most challenging parts of my life because the first time I was actually living permanently from home.
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I in my in my first job, I was, you know, living in different cities, but it was only okay one or two months at a time.
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But here, being you know, laid off from work, I realized that you know what?
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I had to be able to take ownership of my own decisions.
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And being away from home for the first time, Kitchener Water in a city, I didn't know anybody.
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All right.
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I think my first week when I started, I was actually living out of a hotel.
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Oh wow.
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Yeah, I was living out of a hotel, right?
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And then I at that same time when I started to work, I also had to look for a place to stay.
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All right, Kitchener Waterloo is a little bit different now, but back then it was it was a little bit easier.
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But just that whole that whole process there, you know, getting a place, you know, you also want to be able to impress because it's a very big firm.
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The second company I was with is you know over 10,000 employees at the time.
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And I started at one that was coming from like 15 or 12 to 15.
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So it was definitely a humbling experience to be able to see something that large.
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Uh, but it also, I was like, you know what, I almost felt like I have a chip on my shoulder, right?
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That I wanted to prove myself.
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And that's where my sense of urgency really started to kick in.
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And and then another area in my career started to grow.
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Yeah, which was what?
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That is when learning other expertise.
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So the other automotive industry, I realized there's a lot of engineers that I can be able to, you know, pick from and choose from and to learn from you know experts, right?
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And really humble myself.
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Like, because I think as an engineer, especially when you're young, is that we have a little bit of an entitlement mentality.
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At least I see that with a little some of my engineers, right?
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And what I've noticed is that when you have an entitlement mentality, right, and then as you go through your career, it starts to turn into egos.
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Yeah.
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Right.
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And there's a difference between a strong ego and a big ego, right?
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And then I think that's really what stops people from growing and learning or going to that next level in your career or into your life.
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Because when you get that ego in place, and then now you feel like that you know everything.
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Right.
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And I know engineers or people in my industry are very strong personalities like that.
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That's one of my goals here to change that narrative when it comes to engineers, because everywhere I talk to, they're surprised that wow, you're really an engineer.
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So yeah, I would 100% agree with you because uh whenever I have to meet in my career in finance, if I have to meet with an engineer or an accountant, I know that you're gonna be hyper analytical.
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You're gonna want to pick apart every little detail.
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And I can't use words like this is just a concept.
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Like, let's let's get the understanding of the concept before we start doing numbers.
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They're like, no, just show me the numbers.
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And I'm like, you're not gonna understand the numbers until I show you the concept.
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So let's like back up a little bit.
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And you have to like almost massage around the fact that, like, listen, I get it, you're you're you're smart, you know a lot, you're you can read numbers, but before you can read the numbers, we need to like back up a little bit, right?
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Um, do you think that that's something kind of created in the like education of engineering because of the things that engineering does?
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I mean, they build buildings, they build bridges, they build all these amazing things.
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Do you think that that just kind of comes along with it?
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Or is it just the personality type that you need to be successful at engineering?
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Like, what do you think creates that like uh big ego versus the strong ego?
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Yeah.
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So this is something that you know we talked in great lengths because I believe the school system, and not that I'm down on the school system, I did, you know, graduate from University of Windsor.
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But one of the things I know, especially over the last few years, that the school system teaches you how to learn, but it don't teach you how to succeed.
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So if you're learning the wrong thing, it's very hard to position yourself for success when you go out in the corporate world.
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Right.
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So that is a really one of the biggest things that I noticed, right?
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Because a lot of people that I've seen, they are really good at working hard, but they don't do the harder work, it's just where their mind develop them themselves, or you know, personal growth and development, which I know we talked length is, yeah.
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Right.
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I know I get it.
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There's a lot of people that have certifications, at least in the engineering world, MBA, you might have their PhD and a lot of that, which is great.
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But at the end of the day, is that really what is going to be the best way to position you for success?
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Right.
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And then when it comes to doing the harder work, uh, that's where I really and a lot it might people say, well, I don't have the personality to become a leader, or I don't have the personality to become a project manager, or that is.
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And then one of my good friends that was living in Kitchener Waterloo, he said, Manny, it's not a personality thing, it's a mentality.
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Has anybody even gave you maybe this book?
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Or have you ever met this person, or you ever, you know, read this or heard this podcast or audios to kind of change your perspective on how you see yourself, right?
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Because when you change the way you see things, the way you some of the things that you see will start to change.
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Yeah.
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And then that was an epitome for me when somebody told me that.
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Yeah.
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And I'm sure you've seen the uh um Tony Robbins, uh, when he's like, uh he the the newest one is him and Theo Vaughn, the comedian.
00:16:10.960 --> 00:16:14.559
And he's like, Okay, Theo, look around the room, look for anything that's red.
00:16:14.639 --> 00:16:18.399
And he picks out things that are red, and then Tony says, Okay, tell me what you saw that was blue.
00:16:18.559 --> 00:16:20.159
And he's like, uh nothing.
00:16:20.320 --> 00:16:22.000
I only looked at the red things, right?
00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:26.720
Uh, and that perspective of being able to say, okay, like, how do I learn?
00:16:26.799 --> 00:16:27.759
How do I get better?
00:16:27.919 --> 00:16:34.720
Just because I maybe am an introvert doesn't mean I can't learn to become an extrovert in certain situations, right?
00:16:34.960 --> 00:16:42.480
So I would 100% agree that that that mentality and the mindset shift um is really big.
00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:46.799
And it's and it's not just big for like a you to develop as a person.
00:16:47.279 --> 00:17:03.360
If you want to, like you said, succeed in your career, if you want to succeed in your personal relationships, if you want to succeed with money, you have to be able to look at things differently than the way that we were grown up, um, the way that we were looking at things growing up, right?
00:17:03.519 --> 00:17:13.680
Because if you're, you know, if your parents were never good with money and you learned those habits from them, how do you expect to be better with money if you don't look at it from a different perspective?
00:17:13.920 --> 00:17:14.240
100%.
00:17:14.640 --> 00:17:15.039
Right.
00:17:15.279 --> 00:17:17.759
Um, and so what was this like then?
00:17:17.839 --> 00:17:25.039
So going to Kitchener, you're in this uh whole new environment, you're living away from friends and family for the most part.
00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:29.440
Um, now you're living at home most of the time versus traveling a lot.
00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:37.440
Um, where did this like learning is it was it the the mentor that hired you with that company that said, Hey, go read these books, hey, go do these things?
00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:41.519
Or was it something that you said, I need to go search these things out myself?
00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:44.400
How did you start to learn some of the concepts?
00:17:44.559 --> 00:17:44.799
Yeah.
00:17:44.960 --> 00:17:51.599
So I think it's mainly a twist of fate that this happened because I didn't really learn it within the engineering realm, so to speak.
00:17:51.839 --> 00:17:54.480
Now I knew how to work hard, like I mentioned earlier.
00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:54.799
Right.
00:17:54.880 --> 00:17:59.519
I I always said that the best way to be able to lead is by example, right?
00:17:59.599 --> 00:18:04.160
So I was always uh one of those hard workers, I was never what I call people are like a nine to five.
00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:05.440
I was the start to finish.
00:18:05.599 --> 00:18:07.759
So that's what really helped grow my career.
00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:10.559
I developed that when I was really, really, really young.
00:18:11.359 --> 00:18:17.359
So when it came to you know starting to develop doing the harder work, which is your mind, it actually came from my neighbors.
00:18:17.759 --> 00:18:25.920
When I when I uh first moved into the neighbor to that neighborhood, uh my friends there, they uh they're entrepreneurs, all right.
00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:35.440
They had businesses outside of the careers, they were able to scale it at a high level, all right, and we were to be able to walk away from the corporate careers at the age of 26 and 28.
00:18:35.759 --> 00:18:41.519
So when I got a chance to learn from their stories, and like, how did they able to be able to position themselves like that?
00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:42.000
Yeah, right.
00:18:42.240 --> 00:18:57.119
And they were talking about, you know, building other assets, other income streams, you know, learning about leadership skills, effective communication, you know, time management, financial literacy, business intelligence, all these things that you're not really taught in school.
00:18:57.200 --> 00:18:57.759
At least I wasn't.
00:18:57.920 --> 00:18:58.160
Yeah.
00:18:58.240 --> 00:18:59.920
I mean, I was never taught them either.
00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:00.480
Yes.
00:19:00.640 --> 00:19:04.559
Uh they teach you even like I took a degree in like business marketing.
00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:11.440
Yeah, most of the time they talk about marketing businesses, they talk about financial for businesses, how to read corporate ledgers.
00:19:11.519 --> 00:19:18.960
Yes, no one ever teaches you how to do personal finance or how to market yourself personally, or like none of them talk about any of that stuff, right?
00:19:19.039 --> 00:19:20.720
It's that corporate world mentality, right?
00:19:20.799 --> 00:19:22.079
Where never none of us are taught that.
00:19:22.240 --> 00:19:22.559
Yeah.
00:19:22.720 --> 00:19:23.119
Yeah.
00:19:23.279 --> 00:19:27.039
And that's, I think, one of the biggest things that I've noticed in the school system.
00:19:27.119 --> 00:19:30.880
Like you do a lot of calculus algebra, very technical stuff.
00:19:31.119 --> 00:19:35.920
But if there was, let's say, a public speaking course or effective communications course, right?
00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:38.640
These are skills that you're going to take for the rest of your life, right?
00:19:38.720 --> 00:19:42.160
And that's the best way to position yourself for success, right?
00:19:42.319 --> 00:19:43.279
Learning how to network.
00:19:43.440 --> 00:19:45.119
You know, I know we met at a networking event.
00:19:45.200 --> 00:19:45.279
Yeah.
00:19:45.440 --> 00:19:45.680
Right.
00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:49.759
Just because it's all about who you know, what not what you know.
00:19:49.839 --> 00:19:50.000
Yeah.
00:19:50.160 --> 00:19:50.319
Right.
00:19:50.400 --> 00:19:54.640
And that always bothered me when I was really young in my career because I was an extreme introvert.
00:19:54.799 --> 00:19:56.000
I didn't like talking to people.
00:19:56.559 --> 00:20:04.319
Literally, if you would have met me maybe 10 years ago, I would you would be seeing me in the cubicle for eight to ten hours a day, and I probably would talk to nobody.
00:20:04.480 --> 00:20:05.440
And I was fine with that.
00:20:05.519 --> 00:20:07.440
And I did that for basically years.
00:20:07.599 --> 00:20:07.839
Yeah.
00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:08.319
Right.
00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:14.480
But then I you're then I realized that if you really want to get to the next level, you have to do things that are uncomfortable.
00:20:14.720 --> 00:20:14.960
Right.
00:20:15.039 --> 00:20:25.039
So that's when I started to, when I met that couple who are my neighbors, they taught me a lot about leadership, effective communication, all of these things that I never learned when I was, you know, growing up.
00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:25.440
Right.
00:20:25.599 --> 00:20:28.480
Because your parents are they only know what they know.
00:20:28.720 --> 00:20:29.119
Correct.
00:20:29.359 --> 00:20:34.960
So if you don't what what you don't transform, you're gonna transfer it to the next generation.
00:20:35.200 --> 00:20:39.359
So I knew I had to be able to change that mindset if I can affect more people while I'm here.
00:20:39.680 --> 00:20:41.359
That's an interesting way to say it.
00:20:41.599 --> 00:20:44.160
If you don't transform it, you're gonna transfer it.
00:20:44.400 --> 00:20:44.799
Yes.
00:20:45.119 --> 00:20:46.559
That's an interesting way to say it.
00:20:46.799 --> 00:20:47.759
And that could be anything.
00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:48.880
It could be anything, yeah.
00:20:49.359 --> 00:20:49.519
Right?
00:20:49.759 --> 00:20:56.319
It could be it could be your financial situation, it could be your relationship situation, it could be whatever.
00:20:56.720 --> 00:21:00.480
If you don't transform something, you're gonna transfer it.
00:21:00.559 --> 00:21:01.519
That's an i i I like that.
00:21:01.839 --> 00:21:02.079
Yeah.
00:21:02.400 --> 00:21:08.960
And so okay, so then you start learning all these things from friends, neighbors of yours up in Kitchener Waterloo.
00:21:09.359 --> 00:21:22.559
Um did you instantaneously start to see like how they could be um transferred into uh the corporate world, into your engineering career?
00:21:22.960 --> 00:21:27.519
Um you know, obviously it's not something that just happened instantaneously.
00:21:27.599 --> 00:21:28.480
You had to work at it.
00:21:28.559 --> 00:21:29.359
Yeah, right.
00:21:29.680 --> 00:21:39.839
But did you start to see like little things just kind of like, oh, that you know, I'm so glad that I learned this or did that or took this course or whatever because it put me in a position for that thing.
00:21:40.160 --> 00:21:40.559
Yeah.
00:21:40.720 --> 00:21:43.440
So yeah, it doesn't happen, you know, overnight.
00:21:43.839 --> 00:21:57.839
So when I started to really seek, you know, advice, I went to like networking events, uh, some of the things that they ran, and they talked about the things that I mentioned earlier, and this is where my mindset started this to shift.
00:21:58.240 --> 00:21:59.759
But it's not that I was trying to learn.
00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:04.079
More things at the time, I had to unlearn a lot of things, right?
00:22:04.160 --> 00:22:08.559
Because being in corporate at the time, I think it was about 13 years into my journey.
00:22:08.799 --> 00:22:24.079
So it was very foreign to some of the concepts because I never, I never, let's say, read a book that's gonna help me, whether it's personally, financially, leadership, like none of those things were ever put in place for me to be able to succeed at that next level.
00:22:24.240 --> 00:22:24.319
Yeah.
00:22:24.480 --> 00:22:24.720
All right.
00:22:24.799 --> 00:22:28.160
And then in the networking, all of those things took a lot of time.
00:22:28.319 --> 00:22:40.000
And then when I started to get into certain seminars, leadership seminars, it probably took maybe about six to maybe nine months when I started to now not just learn it, but start to apply it.
00:22:40.960 --> 00:22:47.440
What kind of things do you think you started to like try to unlearn?
00:22:47.599 --> 00:22:53.839
What were some of the things that you were like, this area of my life is not serving me, and I need to change it?
00:22:54.079 --> 00:22:54.319
Yeah.
00:22:54.559 --> 00:23:02.640
The biggest one because of my personality as an engineer is my introverted, you know, passive kind of mentality.
00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:03.200
All right.
00:23:03.359 --> 00:23:07.839
I see, let's say, my boss at the time, he was very extroverted.
00:23:07.920 --> 00:23:08.640
He was very clever.
00:23:08.799 --> 00:23:09.519
He liked to talk.
00:23:09.599 --> 00:23:10.720
He liked to talk a lot.
00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:12.400
Very smart, very intelligent.
00:23:12.480 --> 00:23:18.640
And I just thinking, and then I see a lot of people in the corporate world that uh, especially people that are higher.
00:23:18.799 --> 00:23:23.920
I noticed how well they communicate, how they interact with some of their clients, how they interact with their team.
00:23:24.079 --> 00:23:28.079
As like, that's just not me because my personality is not like them.
00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:30.880
But I was trying to, I think I was trying to be like somebody else.
00:23:31.119 --> 00:23:40.880
And then what I learned from some of my good friends, their big mentors and business partners of mine, is like you're not trying to be somebody else, you're trying to evolve into a better version of you.
00:23:41.039 --> 00:23:41.599
Right.
00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:44.880
And then that's when I started to apply some of the things.
00:23:44.960 --> 00:23:55.440
Like I read, like I went from you know, reading notebook, now I read about 40 books a year plus anything related to personal growth and development, attending a lot of networking sessions, just meeting new people, right?
00:23:55.599 --> 00:24:00.880
Because it's all about, like I mentioned, who you know, not versus what you know, yeah, and expand my network.
00:24:01.200 --> 00:24:01.599
Yeah.
00:24:01.839 --> 00:24:07.920
And I I hear a lot of people say that because you hear like two different trains of thought.
00:24:08.079 --> 00:24:12.000
You hear it's not uh what you know, it's who you know, right?
00:24:12.160 --> 00:24:15.359
And that can go in positive and negative, right?
00:24:15.759 --> 00:24:28.640
So when when you say it's not what you know, it's who you know, what would you say would be the the one thing that anybody who thinks of that as a negative, right?
00:24:28.799 --> 00:24:36.960
Like I didn't get the job because I didn't know the right person and they're doing someone a favor, like that type of mentality.
00:24:37.440 --> 00:24:51.039
If you had somebody, let's say, that was working for you or that you met at a networking session that was making those types of comments, the negative attribute comments on that topic, what would you tell that person?
00:24:51.359 --> 00:24:55.759
The first thing I would actually tell them is you have to change the way you think.
00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:00.559
One of the things I noticed with people is that they're very hard on themselves, right?
00:25:00.720 --> 00:25:04.319
So this comes with you know speaking down in yourself, right?
00:25:04.400 --> 00:25:08.960
Because what you say or what you speak is going to turn into reality.
00:25:09.279 --> 00:25:09.599
All right.
00:25:09.680 --> 00:25:13.119
And I was very hard on myself early on, like I'll never be like this, I'll never be like that.
00:25:13.200 --> 00:25:15.279
So it's called saying positive affirmation.
00:25:15.440 --> 00:25:21.039
So if you want to change the way your outlook on life, you literally have to change your words or what you say about yourself.
00:25:21.440 --> 00:25:21.680
All right.
00:25:21.759 --> 00:25:26.559
And I think that's like a foreign concept, especially if you're an engineer, is like what is it's as simple as that, right?
00:25:26.720 --> 00:25:33.759
Yeah, and it's there's no tangible numbers, there's no tangible formula that says, well, if I do this enough, I'm gonna get X.
00:25:33.920 --> 00:25:43.440
Yeah, it's tough when your whole career, your whole degree is like uh verifiable proof and data.
00:25:43.599 --> 00:25:43.920
Yeah.
00:25:44.079 --> 00:25:49.599
And when it comes to like changing the way you think and the way you act, there's no verifiable proof or data.
00:25:49.839 --> 00:25:51.839
No, they want like hard evidence, yeah, right?
00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:52.319
Yes.
00:25:53.200 --> 00:25:54.240
It's crazy.
00:25:54.559 --> 00:26:03.920
Um okay, so let's so okay, so you're starting to like learn and change some of the things that you're you're doing.
00:26:04.160 --> 00:26:09.920
Uh where did the opportunity then come from going from Kitchener and moving back to Windsor?
00:26:10.079 --> 00:26:11.200
Where did that come from?
00:26:11.519 --> 00:26:15.759
So when I got a chance to connect with my neighbors, this was around 2017.
00:26:15.839 --> 00:26:20.720
So this is where I had to make a big shift into where I wanted my career to go.
00:26:20.880 --> 00:26:24.799
This is also where I learned a lot of my entrepreneurial spirit because it came from them.
00:26:25.039 --> 00:26:34.880
So when I started to re to start to grow a side of me that I never seen, right, and then I see my leadership, my effective communication started to grow.
00:26:35.279 --> 00:26:41.519
One of my old friends that I used to work with back in Windsor, so he saw me started to change and to grow and stuff like that.
00:26:41.680 --> 00:26:46.240
So he was kind of poaching me over the next, you know, one or next 12 months.
00:26:46.319 --> 00:26:49.920
And I said, I always kind of push him on because I, you know, I love the community that I was.
00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:50.240
Yeah.
00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:55.440
And then the opportunity started to came up, right?
00:26:55.519 --> 00:26:58.640
And sometimes when the opportunity comes up, it's too late to prepare.
00:26:58.799 --> 00:27:02.000
So that's when I got a chance to say, you know, he met with me.
00:27:02.240 --> 00:27:03.440
We got a chance to connect.
00:27:03.599 --> 00:27:05.680
And then I thought that would be a great time to move.
00:27:05.759 --> 00:27:06.880
This is right before COVID, too.
00:27:06.960 --> 00:27:09.119
So I guess timing really helped on that one.
00:27:09.519 --> 00:27:11.279
And then I got a chance to do that.
00:27:11.519 --> 00:27:18.720
I think the hardest part was actually telling the company I was with that I was leaving, because I totally blindsided them.
00:27:19.200 --> 00:27:19.440
All right.
00:27:19.519 --> 00:27:34.559
And this is where I was very blessed or you know, hold such such high gratitude for what I've learned because when I got it, when I told them that I was leaving, one of the uh vice presidents of that company, because they were they're all shocked that I was leaving.
00:27:34.640 --> 00:27:34.880
Yeah.
00:27:35.039 --> 00:27:38.720
And I told them why I was leaving, you know, and coming back here to Windsor.
00:27:38.880 --> 00:27:40.160
And he understood it.
00:27:40.400 --> 00:27:41.279
He understood why.
00:27:41.440 --> 00:27:42.960
And he said, you know what, Manny?
00:27:43.039 --> 00:27:45.119
You know, because they they like what I've done for the company.
00:27:45.200 --> 00:27:51.759
It's like if you ever, ever want to come back to Kitchen Waterloo to work for us, just give me a call, you can start the next day.
00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:52.319
Wow.
00:27:52.480 --> 00:27:52.720
All right.
00:27:52.799 --> 00:27:59.279
And that was really, really powerful because all along and I never really knew how much value it was.
00:27:59.440 --> 00:28:04.960
But over those last two years, just growing and developing, you know, becoming a business developer, right?
00:28:05.119 --> 00:28:10.000
It really kind of humbled me right up to where I was going.
00:28:10.319 --> 00:28:10.559
All right.
00:28:10.640 --> 00:28:15.759
And then that's when you know I became a principal engineer, you know, going to tandem engineering where I am now.
00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:16.160
Yeah.
00:28:16.400 --> 00:28:20.480
And did you ever see yourself becoming a principal of an engineering firm?
00:28:20.640 --> 00:28:24.880
Like if you went back 10 years ago, I guess you've been here for like almost 10 years.
00:28:25.039 --> 00:28:34.160
Let's say like 15, 20 years ago, would you have thought like old Manny like would never have had the goals that he had of becoming a principal?
00:28:34.240 --> 00:28:41.359
Or would or would he just be like, I'm I'm good living in the corporate world, doing my start to finish?
00:28:41.599 --> 00:28:43.039
Yeah, absolutely not.
00:28:43.200 --> 00:28:44.240
No, absolutely not.
00:28:44.400 --> 00:28:51.039
I was just one of those guys just under my in front of my computer and doing the hard work and just doing that on a day-to-day.
00:28:51.200 --> 00:28:58.559
I I just knew how to work hard, but as you start to grow in your career, especially if you're working 80, 90 hours a week, I was at a point where I was like that.
00:28:58.640 --> 00:28:59.599
It was a lot of hours.
00:28:59.759 --> 00:29:03.680
And when you start to get a little bit growing into your career, you realize what's the most important thing?
00:29:03.839 --> 00:29:05.200
It's not money, it's time.
00:29:05.359 --> 00:29:05.680
Yeah.
00:29:05.839 --> 00:29:06.240
Right.
00:29:06.400 --> 00:29:12.079
And then I knew I had to develop other skills to be able to evolve to that new better version of me.
00:29:12.240 --> 00:29:21.519
And then when I started to learn about these other people, people that are principal engineers, people that own their own businesses, I see the way and learning from their stories.
00:29:21.680 --> 00:29:24.880
And I can pick and choose how can I apply that to my life?
00:29:25.039 --> 00:29:26.160
What are they doing that's differently?
00:29:26.240 --> 00:29:29.279
A lot of it happens to habits and the discipline into that.
00:29:29.599 --> 00:29:32.160
And then that's when I started to say, you know what?
00:29:32.240 --> 00:29:33.759
I think I can lead one day.
00:29:33.920 --> 00:29:39.759
I can think I can do some business development or be that, you know, part of that, you know, being an entrepreneur of the company.
00:29:39.839 --> 00:29:43.440
Basically, that's where I am at tandem engineering, is that business developer.
00:29:43.759 --> 00:29:59.920
So did you if you went, okay, so if you went back like let's say 15, 20 years ago, and you're looking at the old version of Manny, would do you think that the old version of Manny would be like, ah, that guy is so lucky that he gets to go on lots of vacations?
00:30:00.079 --> 00:30:03.519
Oh, that guy's so lucky that he's got control of time because I don't.
00:30:03.839 --> 00:30:08.960
And would he be like, you know, kind of, I'll call it complaining, I guess.
00:30:09.039 --> 00:30:10.240
I don't really know a better word for it.
00:30:10.400 --> 00:30:38.640
Complaining that he doesn't have the things that he wants, and then just through understanding communication, understanding goals, understanding um, you know, uh taking an extreme ownership in the in the choices that you make, that taking the the development and the mindset shift that he turned into the Manny Now, where it's just like, if I want the thing, how do I figure it out?
00:30:38.799 --> 00:30:45.440
Like, do you think that the old Manny would have been that sort of complaining type person of the things that he didn't have?
00:30:45.680 --> 00:30:45.920
Yeah.
00:30:46.079 --> 00:30:47.200
Oh, absolutely.
00:30:47.359 --> 00:30:54.400
Uh, because I remember being, you know, 15 years younger and just looking at other people, even in my sphere of influence, I see people moving on.
00:30:54.559 --> 00:30:59.039
And it's like, and I always kind of blame you, maybe my personality, right?
00:30:59.200 --> 00:31:12.400
Because, you know, being I was the youngest of five kids and going through school, going through, you know, my first career job, and even my boss told me this too, is that, you know, man, you're too quiet, right?
00:31:12.559 --> 00:31:16.000
I don't know if I can put you in front of the client because you don't say anything, right?
00:31:16.240 --> 00:31:21.680
So when they what they do, so what's doing that for somebody that's young in the career, even somebody that's young, right?
00:31:21.839 --> 00:31:29.759
When you put a when you start to uh put that behavior into a personality, now it becomes an identity for that person.
00:31:30.160 --> 00:31:32.960
So growing up, that's what I say.
00:31:33.039 --> 00:31:45.920
It's like I can't be that next person because I am this, or I cannot, you know, be like that because I am this, because it's it was an identity that was put down from my sphere of influence, young and growing up into my careers.
00:31:46.079 --> 00:31:47.920
And then I just kind of accepted that.
00:31:48.319 --> 00:31:48.559
Right.
00:31:48.640 --> 00:31:56.400
It needed, I needed somebody outside of my in uh sphere of influence to be able to break that, I guess, curse and that thinking.
00:31:56.559 --> 00:31:56.880
Yeah.
00:31:57.039 --> 00:31:57.279
Right.
00:31:57.440 --> 00:32:04.079
And then that's when really the I started to think differently to be able to say, yeah, you know what, I can do this.
00:32:04.160 --> 00:32:04.319
Yeah.
00:32:04.480 --> 00:32:04.799
All right.
00:32:04.880 --> 00:32:07.680
And started speaking good about my I call it positive affirmations.
00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:09.519
Positive affirmations, yeah.
00:32:10.079 --> 00:32:20.000
And I mean, I'm I'm assuming that now that you're a principal and you have some people working for you, that you're now helping others try to break some of those habits.
00:32:20.160 --> 00:32:20.319
Yeah.
00:32:20.559 --> 00:32:25.839
What would you say to like even to a guy like myself, right?
00:32:26.160 --> 00:32:32.960
Jason and I now have, I don't know, 10, 12 sales guys between both avenues of our business.
00:32:33.200 --> 00:32:36.799
Um, and they probably see themselves as one thing.
00:32:37.119 --> 00:32:43.680
How would you go about helping someone see a different side of themselves?
00:32:43.759 --> 00:32:43.920
Yeah.
00:32:44.079 --> 00:32:47.279
Or see a better version of themselves, or what could be?
00:32:47.440 --> 00:32:49.519
How would you how would how do you go about doing that?
00:32:49.680 --> 00:32:51.359
Yeah, so that's a really good question.
00:32:51.599 --> 00:32:58.160
Because about, I would say six or seven years ago, I started to evaluate what kind of separates one engineer from another.
00:32:58.319 --> 00:33:01.039
They can have equal technical skills, right?
00:33:01.200 --> 00:33:03.200
But then their outcomes are very different.
00:33:03.839 --> 00:33:12.480
So when I moved to this company here in Windsor, I actually created an internal training system called mind over engineering, right?
00:33:12.559 --> 00:33:14.799
So it really has nothing to do with technical skills.
00:33:14.880 --> 00:33:18.960
It's about how did I think during certain situations, right?
00:33:19.039 --> 00:33:22.240
Because you can have two engineers look at the same problem.
00:33:22.480 --> 00:33:26.559
One guy looks at an obstacle and another guy looks as an opportunity.
00:33:26.799 --> 00:33:29.680
So during my mind over engineering, I do it about once a month.
00:33:29.839 --> 00:33:36.240
And I start to train my staff to think differently about how they see problems, right?
00:33:36.400 --> 00:33:38.400
I always say, don't play to the minimum.
00:33:38.720 --> 00:33:40.559
That's also kind of how I grew to my career.
00:33:40.640 --> 00:33:42.799
I never played, you know, you have a job description.
00:33:42.960 --> 00:33:44.160
I never played to the minimum.
00:33:44.240 --> 00:33:47.519
I always look at, okay, what can I do to become that lead engineer?
00:33:47.759 --> 00:33:50.720
Or what can I do to help my project manager and project coordinator?
00:33:50.880 --> 00:33:55.039
So when I started to do those tasks, I end the results started to follow me.
00:33:55.119 --> 00:33:55.359
Right.
00:33:55.440 --> 00:34:00.880
And then I was starting to do work that my principal engineer did, doing proposals, meeting the clients, right?
00:34:01.039 --> 00:34:05.279
I only can get that to the level when I really started to develop my communication and speaking skills.
00:34:05.440 --> 00:34:09.280
So then that's when I started to advance into my career even faster.
00:34:09.760 --> 00:34:20.239
So in my mind over engineering training, I talk a lot about, let's say, we call it the soft skills in the industry, which is not something a lot of engineers like to work on, right?
00:34:20.320 --> 00:34:23.199
Because maybe they need to see a little bit more tangible evidence.
00:34:23.360 --> 00:34:23.760
Right.
00:34:24.000 --> 00:34:27.360
And I love teaching that every month.
00:34:27.519 --> 00:34:29.280
It's probably one of the most important meetings.
00:34:29.360 --> 00:34:37.199
I tell it to my staff all the time, is because this is this is all of the tests that I had through my entire career.
00:34:37.360 --> 00:34:41.760
Now I can share that as a testimony so that you don't have to go through the same mistakes as I did.
00:34:42.000 --> 00:34:42.480
Right.
00:34:42.719 --> 00:34:43.119
Yeah.
00:34:43.360 --> 00:34:47.679
And so how do you then go about sharing that mind over engineering?
00:34:47.840 --> 00:34:53.360
Is it like a you do a little episode podcast like this recording yourself?
00:34:53.440 --> 00:34:55.760
Is it like you guys in training learning about something?
00:34:55.920 --> 00:35:01.519
Are you bringing up a past thing that happened and how you solved it and how you problem solved?
00:35:01.599 --> 00:35:07.440
Like, how are you bringing this awareness to the the the engineers that are that are training with you?
00:35:07.679 --> 00:35:08.079
Yeah.
00:35:08.320 --> 00:35:12.239
So when I'm going through, and I do it, yeah, like imagine, I do it once a month.
00:35:12.320 --> 00:35:19.360
So I pick certain, let's say, tasks that I've done in the past, and over some of the things that I learned, it's kind of the way I think.
00:35:19.519 --> 00:35:22.559
And then I'll pick, let's say, for instance, networking.
00:35:22.639 --> 00:35:26.159
I'll give this as a good example because I like sharing this example to my staff.
00:35:26.320 --> 00:35:30.559
It's like, this is why it's so important to develop your effective communication skills.
00:35:30.719 --> 00:35:32.320
And I gave them one story.
00:35:32.480 --> 00:35:36.159
And that story was, you know, I went to the Windsor Wednesday event.
00:35:36.239 --> 00:35:41.760
I connected with a gentleman there who connected me to another networking event that he ran.
00:35:41.920 --> 00:35:45.039
Uh, I had I made some good connections at the table that I was.
00:35:45.199 --> 00:35:47.679
A month later, somebody gave me a call, right?
00:35:47.920 --> 00:35:52.239
And then she said, Hey, you know, you don't know who I am, but you met my neighbor there.
00:35:52.480 --> 00:35:53.679
And then we connected.
00:35:53.840 --> 00:35:57.360
I ended up interviewing that person, and then that person still works with me today.
00:35:57.440 --> 00:35:58.480
It's been four years.
00:35:58.639 --> 00:35:58.960
Wow.
00:35:59.119 --> 00:35:59.519
All right.
00:35:59.679 --> 00:36:07.119
So that's kind of like an example of how I show that networking is very important to be able to open up more sphere of influence about who you know.
00:36:07.199 --> 00:36:09.519
And I also found clients, business partners that way.
00:36:09.599 --> 00:36:09.760
Yeah.
00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:16.559
The one I'm gonna be doing this Thursday, literally the topic mind over engineering, is gonna be called buy back your time.
00:36:16.880 --> 00:36:17.440
Yeah.
00:36:17.760 --> 00:36:22.320
About developing good time management skills because we all want time management.
00:36:22.559 --> 00:36:22.719
Yeah.
00:36:22.880 --> 00:36:32.800
So that was something when you and I got together last time that was very I'll call it eye-opening, I guess.
00:36:33.119 --> 00:36:37.519
Because Jason and I have talked about this, uh, Dan Martel's book, Buy Back Your Time, great book.
00:36:37.760 --> 00:36:45.599
Um, and he talks about doing like uh, you know, a 15-minute check every 15 minutes on what did you spend your time on?
00:36:46.000 --> 00:36:48.320
And he says, do it for like two weeks.
00:36:48.480 --> 00:36:49.920
Yeah, you did it for like six.
00:36:50.159 --> 00:36:51.199
I did for six weeks.
00:36:51.440 --> 00:37:00.159
Uh and I'm just like, after I left there, I was like, man, like I I don't even have the time to do the thing for two weeks, let alone six.
00:37:00.480 --> 00:37:05.280
How did you um how like how did you do it?
00:37:05.440 --> 00:37:09.760
Like I'm so al and uh maybe this is just an excuse.
00:37:09.840 --> 00:37:10.880
I'm so run off my feet.
00:37:10.960 --> 00:37:12.079
I have so much planned.
00:37:12.159 --> 00:37:13.519
I'm doing all these things.
00:37:13.760 --> 00:37:16.960
Maybe I'm just not making that that that thing a priority.
00:37:17.519 --> 00:37:27.920
But at the same time, like there's other things that are also as important or more important than doing an Excel document every 15 minutes of what I spent my time on.
00:37:28.000 --> 00:37:28.239
Yeah.
00:37:28.400 --> 00:37:28.719
Right.
00:37:28.880 --> 00:37:32.239
Like, how did you go about doing that for six weeks doing everything that you were doing?
00:37:32.400 --> 00:37:32.719
Yeah.
00:37:32.960 --> 00:37:39.280
Well, first off, I had to, I was gonna about to do a networking talk about time management.
00:37:39.760 --> 00:37:50.239
And so I said, this is a great way to be able to share personally about systems that I have in place and to be able to take a log on what I do in a day.
00:37:50.559 --> 00:37:54.000
Because a lot of people, we've heard of people budgeting their finances.
00:37:54.079 --> 00:37:54.239
Yeah.
00:37:54.480 --> 00:37:54.719
Right.
00:37:54.960 --> 00:37:57.440
And some people do, some people do, don't.
00:37:57.519 --> 00:37:57.679
Yeah.
00:37:57.840 --> 00:38:01.280
Then I asked the question is, well, when was the last time you audit your time?
00:38:01.760 --> 00:38:02.079
Right?
00:38:02.159 --> 00:38:04.880
Because if you think of what's more important, time or money.
00:38:05.199 --> 00:38:05.519
Time.
00:38:05.679 --> 00:38:06.400
It's time.
00:38:06.639 --> 00:38:09.440
So time is what we want the most, but we treat it the worst.
00:38:09.760 --> 00:38:15.760
So when I really started to understand that concept, it's like I have to make this a priority because I need to know where my time is going.
00:38:15.920 --> 00:38:16.079
Yeah.
00:38:16.239 --> 00:38:26.159
So once I was able to, and I did it for say, I only wanted to do it for maybe one, maybe two weeks, but I wanted to extend it for six weeks so that I can really get some good data.
00:38:26.320 --> 00:38:27.840
Again, it's probably my engineering mind.
00:38:27.920 --> 00:38:28.159
Oh, yeah.
00:38:28.320 --> 00:38:31.679
So I can be able to analyze, okay, where am I spending a lot of my time?
00:38:31.760 --> 00:38:34.159
Because at that time I was training for a marathon, right?
00:38:34.239 --> 00:38:42.000
You know, we were working a lot of hours at, you know, tandem engineering and then, you know, running a couple other businesses, plus, you know, you know, family events and so on.
00:38:42.159 --> 00:38:49.440
So I really need to put a log about where my time is going because there's a difference between being productive versus being busy.
00:38:49.920 --> 00:38:52.880
A lot of people think being busy is being productive.
00:38:52.960 --> 00:38:53.039
Yeah.
00:38:53.199 --> 00:39:05.360
And I think that's where a lot, even myself, when I did that that audit, I was like, wow, I still do about 17 to 18 hours a week that are not important and non-productive, which is an eye-opener for me.
00:39:05.440 --> 00:39:15.360
Because what can you do with that you know extra 18 hours to be more productive or to be able to spend time with you know family or so on, or maybe even just exercise.
00:39:15.599 --> 00:39:25.519
So when I did it on myself, it was more of a light bulb moment for me, but I also wanted to share to the people that I got a chance to talk to about when was the last time you audit your time?
00:39:25.760 --> 00:39:32.800
Because a lot of people are really difficult when it comes to time management, and they always say that they're busy.
00:39:33.199 --> 00:39:33.519
Right.
00:39:35.760 --> 00:39:41.519
When I hear you talk about that, yeah, Jason and I shared something this morning to our staff.
00:39:41.679 --> 00:39:41.920
Yeah.
00:39:42.079 --> 00:39:44.639
Uh this morning, a similar, right?
00:39:45.039 --> 00:39:55.760
Where you're growing in your career and you're making maybe more money than your friends are making, or you're having more success than other things, and those other things can sometimes start to go by the wayside.
00:39:55.840 --> 00:39:56.239
Yeah.
00:39:56.559 --> 00:40:02.960
Because our sphere of influence is now a different sphere of influence, right?
00:40:03.119 --> 00:40:13.760
There was overlap in the beginning, and now I've moved into a different, but now I'm also connected to other people, and you're gonna start to kind of progress yourself into a different circle of friends.
00:40:14.079 --> 00:40:24.000
Um when I hear you talk about that, I'm like, okay, there's probably a lot of time that I'm doing things that are not productive.
00:40:24.480 --> 00:40:35.599
Um, but at the same time, like you also don't just want to be a robot always working, never having fun, not doing things.
00:40:35.920 --> 00:40:45.440
And so, what would you say to the person that maybe works for you that is like, okay, I have a lot of stuff that I'm doing.
00:40:45.760 --> 00:40:52.559
Is it just that I need to be okay and comfort with where I'm at in life because I don't want to change those things?
00:40:52.800 --> 00:40:59.440
Uh, or would you try to encourage that person to change those things because life is better on the other side?
00:40:59.760 --> 00:41:03.599
Um, because there's obviously things that you we only have so much time in a day.
00:41:04.079 --> 00:41:08.800
We have to give up something to grow and get something else, right?
00:41:08.880 --> 00:41:18.159
So it's not uh I when I was reading a book the other day, it's not so much a sacrifice, as people would say, it's an investment in something else.
00:41:18.559 --> 00:41:18.800
Right.
00:41:18.880 --> 00:41:29.760
So, yes, I might be quote unquote sacrificing this thing, going out to the bar with friends, whatever, but I'm actually I'm not sacking, I'm choosing to go invest my time somewhere else.
00:41:30.079 --> 00:41:35.039
Um what do you what would you tell that person who's like, I don't know if I want to give those things up?
00:41:35.199 --> 00:41:35.360
Yeah.
00:41:35.599 --> 00:41:35.760
Yeah.
00:41:35.840 --> 00:41:40.079
And that's a really good question because it's gonna lead to my talk that I'm gonna be doing on Thursday.
00:41:40.239 --> 00:41:40.480
Right.
00:41:40.559 --> 00:41:46.480
So there's a difference, you know, we all know the concept of you know, spending money versus investing money.
00:41:46.880 --> 00:41:47.119
Right?
00:41:47.199 --> 00:41:52.480
You spend money on food or whatever, you're not really getting an inv uh a rate of return back.
00:41:52.559 --> 00:41:56.079
Yeah, but when you're investing into something, you expect some kind of return.
00:41:57.199 --> 00:41:59.440
It's the same thing with time, right?
00:41:59.599 --> 00:42:05.519
If you spend time on something or somebody, are you gonna is it is it a good investment back?
00:42:05.760 --> 00:42:08.239
And don't get me wrong, I'll spend time with some of my friends.
00:42:08.320 --> 00:42:12.719
I call it like uh having progressive or conservative relationships, right?
00:42:12.800 --> 00:42:15.519
There's people in life where they're gonna, it's like an elevator.
00:42:15.599 --> 00:42:19.360
They're either gonna bring you up, they're gonna bring you down, or they're neutral.
00:42:19.679 --> 00:42:19.920
Right?
00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:21.360
They're not gonna be up or down.
00:42:21.599 --> 00:42:25.119
The ones that are gonna bring you down are very easy to spot, right?
00:42:25.199 --> 00:42:26.559
Because they're always negative.
00:42:26.719 --> 00:42:30.960
Maybe if you're going somewhere in life, they would try to pull you down, right?
00:42:31.119 --> 00:42:33.920
Those are very easy to spot, but it could be your best friend.
00:42:34.320 --> 00:42:34.800
Right.
00:42:35.119 --> 00:42:38.320
The the second type of people are the hardest to spot.
00:42:38.400 --> 00:42:39.599
These are the more neutral people.
00:42:39.760 --> 00:42:49.760
These are the friends that you kind of hang out with, you know, all the time, but they're not really want to grow, they're not very ambitious about going to that next level, but they're not necessarily negative either, right?
00:42:49.920 --> 00:42:53.039
But then just like in an elevator, there's a capacity, right?
00:42:53.119 --> 00:43:00.000
So if you have so many people in the elevator there, it's eventually going to bring you down because it's gonna stop you from reaching your potential.
00:43:00.639 --> 00:43:04.719
And then there is the third type of people, which is the rare type of people.
00:43:04.880 --> 00:43:10.480
These are the people that are going somewhere in life, they're thinking about the future, right?
00:43:10.559 --> 00:43:18.000
If you look at the people that, and this is the best way to spot neutral people or negative people, the next time you have a conversation, what are you guys talking about?
00:43:18.159 --> 00:43:19.519
Are you talking about the past?
00:43:19.679 --> 00:43:22.639
Yeah, or are you talking about events, things that are happening now?
00:43:22.800 --> 00:43:25.440
Usually it's about things that we've done many years ago.
00:43:25.679 --> 00:43:28.880
But the rare conversation, this is when you know you're on the right elevator.
00:43:29.039 --> 00:43:36.639
When you're talking with somebody and they're talking about things that about the future, what they're gonna do, some of their goals, some of the things that they want to accomplish.
00:43:36.800 --> 00:43:39.920
Those are the people that you really want to surround yourself with.
00:43:40.079 --> 00:43:44.159
The challenge is the people that are negative is like the three minute people, right?
00:43:44.400 --> 00:43:49.519
But then we like to spend like three days with the three minute people or three hours with the three minute people.
00:43:49.760 --> 00:43:54.239
But what you really need to do is how do I spend more time with the people that are going somewhere?
00:43:54.400 --> 00:43:59.760
And that's where you have you can start to invest your time properly, like the network invention.
00:44:00.079 --> 00:44:03.840
Know that we go to, I looked at it as an investment because you never know who you're gonna meet.
00:44:03.920 --> 00:44:04.239
Yeah.
00:44:04.480 --> 00:44:06.239
Like like we connected there.
00:44:06.320 --> 00:44:06.480
Yeah.
00:44:06.639 --> 00:44:08.400
And I found one of my engineers there.
00:44:08.480 --> 00:44:10.400
I found you know clients there, right?
00:44:10.639 --> 00:44:13.599
So I was able to add a lot of value and and vice versa.
00:44:13.760 --> 00:44:20.800
So that's where I like to spend or invest my time in because you know I'm expecting something in in in return, right?
00:44:20.880 --> 00:44:25.119
Because I always say if I'm gonna go talk to this person, you know, I'm gonna add value.
00:44:25.360 --> 00:44:27.280
And if something comes back, that's great.
00:44:27.360 --> 00:44:32.000
Or at the at least I'll be able to share part of my story that can probably help them down the road, right?
00:44:32.079 --> 00:44:33.599
Which I've done in the past as well.
00:44:33.760 --> 00:44:34.000
Right.
00:44:34.079 --> 00:44:36.159
So that's the way I look at it when it comes to time.
00:44:36.239 --> 00:44:38.320
It's investing it in the right places.
00:44:38.480 --> 00:44:40.800
So it will add value and help them, right?
00:44:40.880 --> 00:44:42.800
And if it if it returns, that's great.
00:44:42.960 --> 00:44:44.719
But I never think about the return.
00:44:44.800 --> 00:44:49.519
I just know if I'm always doing good, helping other people succeed, I'll eventually succeed along the way.
00:44:49.760 --> 00:44:50.239
Right.
00:44:50.480 --> 00:44:52.480
And then so how are you?
00:44:53.199 --> 00:45:03.760
You obviously have to have a goal in mind of where you're trying to get to, what you're trying to do, if you're gonna be deciding what to invest your time in, not versus not in, right?
00:45:04.559 --> 00:45:16.639
Um you know, and you know, I I love the fact that you're you're here having this podcast because obviously you're giving me an hour of your time and plus, you know, some drive time uh versus somewhere else.
00:45:16.880 --> 00:45:23.119
So how do you decide those goals and what thing makes the most sense to invest in?
00:45:23.360 --> 00:45:23.840
Yeah.
00:45:24.159 --> 00:45:28.320
So like you mentioned, it's all about where you want where you want to go, right?
00:45:28.559 --> 00:45:33.280
Because if you don't have a goal, I look at it this way if you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every single time.
00:45:33.519 --> 00:45:33.760
Yeah.
00:45:33.920 --> 00:45:34.239
Right.
00:45:34.480 --> 00:45:40.880
And every person that asked, whether it's engineers or people that out and about, I ask, so you know, where do you want to see yourself in two years, five years?
00:45:41.039 --> 00:45:42.159
You know, how do you want to see it?
00:45:42.320 --> 00:45:45.199
And most people draw a blank, which kind of blows my mind.
00:45:45.360 --> 00:45:49.440
But then again, I can understand that mentality because that's how I was 10 years ago.
00:45:49.599 --> 00:45:49.840
Right.
00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:50.239
Right.
00:45:50.400 --> 00:45:58.320
So once I had an idea where I wanted to be, like, you know, maybe a managing partner here or building other uh businesses, right?
00:45:58.400 --> 00:46:00.719
So I had a goal and a target in mind.
00:46:00.880 --> 00:46:04.639
So now I start to develop the habits to start to get there, right?
00:46:04.719 --> 00:46:07.440
And habits is one thing, but you also got to be disciplined.
00:46:07.519 --> 00:46:12.800
Yeah, that's the challenge for most people because we have a lot of, let's say, habits that we're not proud of.
00:46:13.119 --> 00:46:13.280
Right.
00:46:13.440 --> 00:46:19.039
So the book that I read in Atomic Habits is not about bringing a new one, it's replacing the old one with better ones.
00:46:19.199 --> 00:46:19.360
Right.
00:46:19.519 --> 00:46:23.199
So slowly over time, that's what I've done so that I can be okay.
00:46:23.280 --> 00:46:24.800
Does this align with my goals?
00:46:24.960 --> 00:46:26.559
Does this align with my values?
00:46:26.719 --> 00:46:31.840
So now it's just a decision saying, okay, I am not gonna do this, I'm gonna pursue this.
00:46:32.000 --> 00:46:32.239
Right.
00:46:32.320 --> 00:46:38.239
And then when you make those uh small decisions consistently over time, it's gonna start to compound.
00:46:38.320 --> 00:46:38.480
Yeah.
00:46:38.559 --> 00:46:41.119
And then that's when you really start to see some of the results.
00:46:41.360 --> 00:46:41.760
Yeah.
00:46:42.000 --> 00:46:42.239
Yeah.
00:46:42.320 --> 00:46:44.000
And I mean, that's true for anything, right?
00:46:44.079 --> 00:46:48.400
It's true for your fitness, it's true for business, it's true for your finances.
00:46:48.559 --> 00:46:59.760
I mean, I always tell people when when people are like starting fresh or they're young people, uh, if they either if they have debt and they're trying to like, well, do I pay off debt or do I save money?
00:47:00.320 --> 00:47:03.679
Honestly, sometimes I'm like, that probably should do both, right?
00:47:04.079 --> 00:47:09.440
You don't go to the gym and pick up a 50-pound dumbbell in one hand and a 25-pound dumbbell in the other hand, right?
00:47:09.679 --> 00:47:14.960
You take two 25s and you start curling both at the same time because you're not going to make one stronger than the other, right?
00:47:15.119 --> 00:47:19.679
You have to say, okay, I'm going to pay off debt and save money at the same time.
00:47:19.840 --> 00:47:20.800
And then I'll get ahead.
00:47:20.880 --> 00:47:26.719
It might be a little slower, but at least if anything comes up emergency-wise, I've got some money set aside, right?
00:47:26.960 --> 00:47:29.760
Um, and that's just learning habits, right?
00:47:29.840 --> 00:47:39.119
You also can't go from saving zero money to saving a thousand dollars a month because you get this great job because you're not used to saving a thousand dollars a month, right?
00:47:39.199 --> 00:47:41.920
It's that's a big thing to say, right?
00:47:42.079 --> 00:47:47.199
So you have to take those in little strides and like you said, replace the little habits as you're going, right?
00:47:47.519 --> 00:47:49.760
Um, man, Manny, we could talk forever.
00:47:49.840 --> 00:47:53.440
Uh, we're running out of time because uh I think there's somebody else coming in behind us.
00:47:53.679 --> 00:47:56.320
Um I'm gonna end the podcast.
00:47:56.559 --> 00:48:06.559
Uh one question in a second, but is there anything that you want to tell anybody about, you know, tandem, what you guys do, you know, how you your favorite book?
00:48:06.639 --> 00:48:15.199
Like, is there anything that you would tell anybody listening here that if there was one thing that they could do to like change their life or get in a better place or do whatever, that they they should do this thing?
00:48:15.440 --> 00:48:15.679
Yeah.
00:48:15.760 --> 00:48:20.400
So I think it's easier to put a picture of success versus what it takes to actually be successful.
00:48:20.639 --> 00:48:22.239
So it's those little habits.
00:48:22.400 --> 00:48:26.079
And something I tell my staff all the time is like, okay, what are your habits?
00:48:26.159 --> 00:48:27.039
Are you are you reading?
00:48:27.199 --> 00:48:28.960
Are you putting good nutrients into your mind?
00:48:29.119 --> 00:48:29.360
Right?
00:48:29.440 --> 00:48:31.599
Because I think most people are mentally obese.
00:48:32.000 --> 00:48:37.920
So when I started having a fit mind, it started to really strengthen other areas in my life.
00:48:38.079 --> 00:48:45.440
And when I started to implement that into tandem engineering, when I started, you know, many years ago, we're a growing company, or we have an office in Detroit and Windsor.
00:48:45.519 --> 00:48:49.360
We're really ready prime to expand to that next level, right?
00:48:49.519 --> 00:48:52.159
But then it also demands a newer version of yourself.
00:48:52.400 --> 00:49:01.119
So why I want my biggest goal is to be able to transfer a lot of my I'm just wanting to a conduit of wisdom to the other people so that they can start to grow and learn together.
00:49:01.199 --> 00:49:04.559
Because if we're all alignment, then that's what teamwork is, right?
00:49:04.800 --> 00:49:06.800
Together everybody achieves more, right?
00:49:06.880 --> 00:49:12.079
And that's what it that's the standard barrier that I want to have for my team and my staff to go to the next level.
00:49:12.320 --> 00:49:12.559
Yeah.
00:49:12.719 --> 00:49:12.960
Yeah.
00:49:13.039 --> 00:49:14.719
I mean, having a fit mind is huge.
00:49:14.880 --> 00:49:18.239
I mean, you know, everything is, you know, mental.
00:49:18.400 --> 00:49:18.639
Yes.
00:49:18.800 --> 00:49:22.559
And if you can withstand those mental fights, you're you'll you'll be okay.
00:49:23.119 --> 00:49:25.199
Um well, thanks for the time today, Manny.
00:49:25.360 --> 00:49:27.119
Um final question I have here.
00:49:27.280 --> 00:49:32.320
We always end the podcast asking our guest, what does success mean to you?
00:49:33.679 --> 00:49:37.760
Success means that I leave a legacy.
00:49:38.079 --> 00:49:41.039
All right, because there's two there's two deaths in life.
00:49:41.360 --> 00:49:46.320
One when people your true death, the other one is when people start to forget your name.
00:49:47.199 --> 00:49:47.519
Right.
00:49:47.760 --> 00:49:53.280
So when you start to impact people in a positive way while you're here, people are gonna remember that, right?
00:49:53.519 --> 00:50:02.559
So when the legacy continues to grow, when you start to transfer this mindset, right, and then that's what I think true success is because it's just like you know, a flame.
00:50:02.719 --> 00:50:06.480
A flame will never a candle will never lose its flame if you light another candle.
00:50:06.719 --> 00:50:06.960
Right.
00:50:07.039 --> 00:50:17.760
So if you're able to be able to share your story kind of like this, and to be able to share your the the test that you pass, now it becomes a testimony to others.
00:50:18.000 --> 00:50:18.159
Yeah.
00:50:18.320 --> 00:50:33.760
I one of my mind of engineering that I said was, you know, if I'm gonna write a book, if you write a book about yourself from the time you're born to where it is now, and you give it to somebody that is in need of encouragement and they read your book, would it change your life?
00:50:34.559 --> 00:50:38.800
If it wouldn't, then you need to start changing your life so you become better.
00:50:38.960 --> 00:50:42.559
So I know this is just a chapter of where I am, but my book is continuing.
00:50:42.639 --> 00:50:44.000
I'm you're the author of your own life.
00:50:44.079 --> 00:50:44.320
Yeah.
00:50:44.480 --> 00:50:44.800
All right.
00:50:44.880 --> 00:50:58.880
And so that's that's what success to me is that if I when I write a book at the end of my lifetime, I can give it to somebody, and even if it's impacting one person, and that one person could be able to affect generations or thousands, maybe break a generational curse.
00:50:58.960 --> 00:50:59.280
Yeah.
00:50:59.440 --> 00:51:00.960
That's what success is to me.
00:51:01.199 --> 00:51:01.920
I like that.
00:51:02.079 --> 00:51:04.239
I like I like that analogy you used.
00:51:04.400 --> 00:51:08.400
If the the a can a flame on a candle will never go out if it lights another candle.
00:51:08.639 --> 00:51:08.960
Correct.
00:51:09.119 --> 00:51:09.840
That's really good.
00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:10.239
Yeah.
00:51:10.480 --> 00:51:11.039
I like that.
00:51:11.199 --> 00:51:17.679
I think and I and I think it goes to the testament of like, you know, who you are since I've met you.
00:51:17.840 --> 00:51:18.079
Yeah.
00:51:18.159 --> 00:51:20.400
You know, we've had some amazing conversations.
00:51:20.559 --> 00:51:27.280
Um, and it's always just sharing wisdom on how to do anything better, whether it's business, whether it's real estate, whether it's networking.
00:51:27.360 --> 00:51:30.960
Like we've just had some really good conversations over the past, and I know they're going to continue.
00:51:31.119 --> 00:51:31.360
Oh, yeah.
00:51:32.239 --> 00:51:33.840
Um, but uh yeah, we're out of time.
00:51:33.920 --> 00:51:44.880
So uh, Manny, thank you very much for taking the time to chat about leadership and some of the things you guys are doing at tandem to make tandem, you know, a great organization of engineers that are doing something different.
00:51:45.119 --> 00:51:48.000
Um anything else you want to say?
00:51:48.239 --> 00:51:55.039
Yeah, no, I just wanted to just thank you for giving me this opportunity to be able to and use this platform to help other people.
00:51:55.199 --> 00:51:57.519
So I'm really excited to be able to share a little bit about my story.
00:51:57.840 --> 00:51:58.480
I appreciate it.
00:51:58.639 --> 00:52:01.440
And uh I guess I'll probably see you at the next Wisdom Wednesday.
00:52:01.840 --> 00:52:02.320
Oh, hundred percent.
00:52:02.400 --> 00:52:08.000
So uh, ladies and gentlemen, that's another episode of Cracking the Success Vault here with uh Spectre Group.
00:52:08.079 --> 00:52:10.800
And our guest today, Manny La Larga from Tandem Engineering.
00:52:10.960 --> 00:52:20.639
Um, as always, you can find us on all the streaming platforms, the the podcasts, uh, whether it's uh, you know, Spotify, whether it's Apple Podcasts, Apple Music, YouTube, you know where to find us.
00:52:20.800 --> 00:52:21.440
Till next time.