Lead Yourself 2017!

On May 9, 2017, our Leadership Lunch networking group organized an event that brought leaders in the community together to share their stories and experiences to empower others. With over 100 in attendance at Cutten Club in Guelph, the event was a major success! The room was buzzing with energy, leaders in the community networking and sharing their own experiences with one another.

We had 4 incredible speakers and 2 facilitators who were vulnerable and honest in their stories, which made their presentations authentic and memorable.

Evan MacKinnon

Evan shared both the hardships and victories of leading a multi-million dollar transport trucking business and managing his life-long struggles with addictive behaviour. By speaking with brutal honesty, he connected well with the hearts of the audience and provides hope, genuine compassion, and practical guidance to those who are struggling. By learning to live gratefully through all of life’s commotions, Evan is convinced that there is a positive life lesson buried in every situation. Evan portrays himself as living proof that God works with all of us to rewrite the ending to our story.

Evan’s talk was not only genuine, but he was vulnerable and shared with us the dark side of life that everyone at some point experiences. He taught the group that sometimes you have to come to the realization that there is a problem and that it needs to be fixed and the importance of self-love.

Seth Partridge

Seth’s purpose is to empower the people in his life every day to inspire them to reach their potential. At Intrigue, he builds and improves Intrigue’s information systems, and makes the team moan and groan with his brutal dad jokes. Things like spreadsheets, keyboard shortcuts, and bad puns make Seth smile.

Outside of Intrigue, Seth is a happy husband to his high school sweetheart Bethany, and proud dad to Nora and a bouncing baby boy due in July 2017! Seth loves spending his free time drumming, photographing weddings, renovating his home, watching the Green Bay Packers, and jogging.

Not only did Seth break out a number of dad jokes (typical) he spoke to the group about the importance of focus and focusing on the things we can control and be grateful as opposed to the things we have no control over and that frustrate us.

Sue Nash

With a background in science (B.A. Chemistry, Florida Atlantic University) and medicine (B.S. Medical Technology, The George Washington University), Susan has long recognized the importance of blending science, technology, and holistic healthcare into personal wellness.

Susan does not believe in “one size fits all” fitness programs. She understands that we are all unique and achieve our goals through different methods. She also does not encourage quick fixes – which never work in the long run. Instead, she uses proven programs which build a strong foundation for long-term health. Her ongoing quest is to help people navigate their way to better health through a holistic approach to movement and healthy living practices.

Susan led us through an exercise that helped the group understand how their body reacts when under stress. We are all different which means under stress or when at work we have different preferences. While some individuals show their emotions when under stress, others may appear with no emotion and insensitive. That being said we need to recognize that we are all different and when we can respect other differences we can work together better.

Harold DeVries

After nearly a decade of self-employment as a personal clothier and wardrobe consultant, Harold DeVries turned his attention to assisting others with realizing their dreams and aspirations of self-employment. In January 1999 he began work as a Business Advisor/Trainer. He has had the privilege of helping hundreds with the development of their business ventures.  In June of 2012, after 4 years as a corporate sales/technical trainer, Harold joined the advisory team of the Business Centre Guelph Wellington, continuing the work he is so passionate about.

Harold is a dynamic speaker, an engaging facilitator, professor, Business Advisor, entrepreneur, and coach. As a Toastmaster, he recently competed at the District Level in the International Speech and the Evaluation Competitions. He is motivated by a clear purpose, “I exist to serve by helping to build foundations.”

Harold, a Toastmasters, speaker, facilitator, business advisor and coach took us through an animated talk which brought to life the role of the ‘Inner Critic’. Harold took us through his journey and how his inner critic defeated him and the hard work it took to make it nothing but a silent whisper. He was once told before a performance, ‘Let the horn blow for you son.” Since then he realized that we all have the power to silence our inner critic through self-examination and positive affirmations.

Carly O’Brien

Since 1996, Carly has been working with groups and individuals to advance thinking and excellence in performance. Clients include post-secondary institutions, private business owners, not-for-profit leaders and business partnership teams. Clients seek Carly out for her practical way of articulating situations, offering practical suggestions and for meeting them where they are to help them achieve their own goals.

Her own mission is Dining rooms through Boardrooms and as a member of the team at Intrigue, she helps empower leaders to strengthen communities. Carly has herself opened a successful professional services business that operated successfully for several years before she chose to join a larger team and scale for greater impact.

Carly took the group through a facilitation to understand the different ways to be proactive and reactive on how to manage stress. As leaders sometimes we can find ourselves under a lot of stress and sometimes we cause the stress. By having the group walk around and see how others deal with stress, everyone was able to learn something new they can implement.

Neil Rampersad

Neil has a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Ryerson University, is a Professional Engineer and has been in the Building Technology Industry for the last 15 years in both Operations and Sales roles. He is passionate about leveraging technology to improve productivity in all areas of life.  As a former Building Automation Technician, Consulting Engineer, Sales Executive and lifetime nerd he helps make technology easy for everyday people to understand and implement.

The Bike Shed is his latest venture where he integrates technology, cycling, and awesome people.  The vision at the Bike Shed is to enable people to ride a bike like they did when they were a kid.  Fitness is fun, technology is easy and life is now….

Neils talk was not only emotional but he taught us that there is never a perfect time to do something, and if we continue to wait we’ll never do it and live with regret. We need to be confident in ourselves and follow our passions and if the road is unknown and scary.

We wanted to thank everyone who came out and made it a success! As a group, we truly believe that when we bring great leaders together and share our stories we all become better leads in our family lives, work lives and in the community. Keep an eye out for Lead Yourself 2018!

Tricia wants to ensure your experience with Intrigue is awesome! She helps non-profits, businesses, and communities grow together. Tricia assists the sales team in business development. Outside of work she is an avid tea drinker, world traveller and loves getting active and cooking healthy.