I have been a guest on Roxana Radulescu’s All Personal Podcast sometime in February 2021. I was honered and privileged to be a guest here. We had a wonderful conversation which I invite you to listen and read the transcript below.
Roxana: Welcome back to the All-Personal podcast where we turn the good old saying nothing personal, just business upside down. And we prove how in fact it’s all personal, nothing is just business because it’s all either intra-personal, how we manage ourselves or interpersonal, how we manage our relationships with others, both at home and at work.
It’s all about our personal skills muscles. In this episode, I talked to a fellow Romanian, living in Toronto. He’s actually the second fellow Romanian living in Toronto talking, doing this podcast. His name is Emanuel Petrescu and he is a digital marketing specialist. Helping businesses enhance their online footprint through search engine optimization, email marketing, paid ads, and social media. He is a business administration alumni. And before coming to Canada in 2017, he has worked in different fields, from government administration to media research, accounting, and some entrepreneurial endeavours. He spends his time, mostly working on digital marketing stuff, watching – he says – too many movies and series, reading and sometimes writing. By the way, he also authored a chapter in the Grow Together book anthology published by the Immigrant Writers Association here in Toronto, where he is also the marketing manager.
Check our discussion on what differentiates successful people from the rest. Check it out because you want to find out how talking about the marketing side of a movie and about an article written by Seth Godin in a job interview, can have a huge impact in lending you the job. So are you ready? Here we go.
Roxana: Emanuel, welcome to the All-Personal Podcast.
Emanuel: It’s a privilege being here. Thank you.
Roxana: It’s so great to have you here. I think you are the third guest, who’s a Romanian, but actually, only the second guest is a Romanian living in Canada. So pretty special, huh?
Emanuel: Story of my life. Yeah.
Roxana: And I guess, and for everybody out there who doesn’t know, so if you look at our names, the ESCU names are totally Romanian. That’s how you’re recognized people from Romania. So, I wanted to, before we dive right into our discussion, which is going to be a super interesting one, I wanted to ask you to shortly, introduce yourself, say a few words about who you are, what you do.
Emanuel: Sure. My name is Emanuel Petrescu. As you previously mentioned, I’m a full-time digital marketer by day; I have been working in digital marketing (SEO, social media, podcasts, video editing and, email marketing and some paid advertising) since coming to Canada in 2017. Previously, coming from Romania, I’ve had different positions working in different fields: accounting, media advertising and entrepreneurial endeavours and some consulting as well as holding a government job for about three years or so.
So I have different fields of experience in my resume, which is something I always say to people: that that’s my strong point. That’s my strong skill. And that’s what differentiates me from everyone else.
Roxana: So, yeah. And thank you for that, because so many backgrounds, right? I mean, there is no one thing and you started by saying, okay, I’m a digital marketer and I do this and I do that, but there are so many things, that you’ve done.
And I was wondering. Why digital marketing? So how did you get to do what you’re doing now? Given all of these very diverse backgrounds.
Emanuel: You said I did many things and I did. That’s true. But that doesn’t mean all of them were successful, but that’s beside the point 🙂 Actually, I have a music background. I was a DJ, also had my own recording studio and a record label, which I started back in high school. And for almost 10 years since finishing high school, I focused all my attention on that. And I had some success at one point. Everything was good, but starting off young and with little budget (you can also interpret that as no budget at all), I to learn how to do things as in build websites, create content, create press releases that actually work, that can get some replies and feedback and so on, how to maintain a relationship with all the important stakeholders in order to be promoted, etc. Then I learned about SEO, how to structure my website, how to write my articles, keywords and all those things. So I was quite intrigued by that and although I didn’t focus at that point exclusively on that, I gained some experience. I was successful on this side of my business. Basically, my websites were ranking on the search engines – as in Google, on the first results for most of the important keywords in my industry. That’s one set of skills that I developed in my previous experiences. Then I applied this acquired knowledge to other endeavours. And also I did some consulting for friends and people who would recommend me: talk to him, he might be able to help you with this. So that’s always something that I did. I’m having a background: consulting people in regards to their marketing. And as I say, enhance their online footprint.
Roxana: Aha. Okay. So that’s probably, I’m guessing a technical and more technical term, which we’re going to go back to. But I wanted to ask you because you mentioned music background and that is an experience in high school. And I have to say, I’ve been talking to many people on the All-Personal podcast, and we seem to always go back there around that age, the high school age, where people start talking about something that they were good at back then, and that they enjoy doing back then, and then they look retrospectively and they think about how that particular thing or skill or passion or talent helped them or got intertwined with what they’re doing right now. So I was wondering, do you think that particular experience with your music producing and recording and that music background that you had there and how do you think that helped you grow in your career?
Emanuel: That’s a good question. Arguably, everybody will tell you that the high school years, that period, it’s one of the best times of their lives on a personal level. Obviously when you have kids and so on you have different moments, when you’ll say that you’ll be happier, but at a personal level, between you and yourself, having a conversation, probably those were the days. So yes definitely it did help. Those are the years where you’re happy, but also the years that shape your personality and the way you do things and the way you see some of the things.
So I was lucky enough to discover from a relatively young age that that’s something I would like to pursue, not just as a simple consumer, but also on the production side and not necessarily me singing or producing exclusively music, but being on the business side, the executive producer. There’s a famous, you must know him, Romanian sculptor – Constantin Brancusi. When I was a kid, I was to go to a big park back home in Romania, Bucharest, Herastrau Park and there was a sculpture there, of Constantin Brancusi, which is an actual sculpture of him 🙂 the sculpture is not made by him, but there’s this sculpture of him (a sculpture of a sculptor).
And over there it says: I want to shape forms that can give people joy.
And that’s a motto or mantra that sticks to my mind.
And I said that I want to be part of things that give people joy. Obviously, music is something that a lot of people enjoy and gives joy and maybe part of that, be part. That’s why I say to be part, not necessarily I produce but putting everything together: get the artist, get the beatmaker, etc. The executive producer creates the environment, the recording studio, ensuring that it’s released and gets to as many people as possible. That was the spark that drove me. So obviously, as I said, I was lucky enough to experience that at a young age during high school. I’ve seen some success. And I tried to apply the same framework, obviously improved based on the experience that I gained throughout the years interacting with so many people, being in all kinds of environments, you know, being on the road also because I had a lot of concerts.
So I had the opportunity to meet and interact with people from different parts of the country.
Roxana: Yeah. I mean, that sounds like an extraordinary experience to gain, especially in high school. And I remember that you said at the beginning of the interview, that then, as you started with other careers than you were maintaining and developing the relationships with the promoters. And that sounds like that experience with the music and producing music. And as you said, the business side of music, that seems to have helped a lot in your career path afterwards. So that is super interesting to hear. I’m always fascinated to hear these stories of how people got to do what they’re doing right now. And then I was wondering, how did you decide to stick to the digital marketing or to the marketing side of things?
Is it because it helps you reach out more people, or as you said, release the quantum to as many people as possible? I liked that.
Emanuel: Well, there’s a certain joy, when you see that the work you do has some good results and people benefit from it. From the work and from your input, because, not always in this line of work, you’re actually doing the work.
But sometimes just by saying: “Hey, you have some problems with your website“, to give an actual example from my line of work, just by saying you have this problem or this problem, he goes in and fix it. And within a couple of months or so, he started getting more leads, more sales, more calls, more prospects.
So that has a significant impact on that person’s business. Especially if it’s a small one, it can make or break, actually make the business go well. So that’s something quite satisfying on the personal level. And that’s what excites me.
Roxana: It’s interesting that you say that. So, when you talk about that, I’m definitely sure that people listening to this episode can resonate and can hear the excitement in your voice when you say that.
So I was wondering how did you discover these skills that you had. And what would you say were the top three skills that you have been using all along that you were very good at and helped you.
Emanuel: A tough question. I mean it’s difficult to talk about myself from that perspective and to your point, I got excited when I was talking about it because I know I can make the difference.
Back to the skills questions, I would say that being persistent and consistent could be one skill. We’re not talking about hard skills, say any technical skills, but more let’s say… I like to call them empirical skills.
Roxana: Oh, that’s a good name. I was looking for a name that can replace the soft skills name. So empirical sounds great.
Emanuel: Yes. And also to this point, I’m going to deviate a little bit, but I advocate for NOT using the term soft skills and call them real skills. And that’s after Seth Godin’s blog posts, which I’m going to share with you, and maybe you can share it with your listeners. Actually, the name is exactly like this Let’s stop calling them ‘soft skills’ because, and that’s quite true, there’s nothing soft about them. I mean anybody can learn a tool, can learn software, can learn a process. Some take one day, some might learn it in one year, but anybody can do it. But those “soft skills”, read between the quotes, It’s something that shapes throughout life.
Roxana: Absolutely. Yeah. I agree. I call them essential skills or I’ve heard people calling them life skills. I think it’s a combination. I don’t know. I think we need to coin a term.
Emanuel: Everything sounds better than soft skills actually.
Roxana: Absolutely. Yeah. On that, we agree. Okay. So talking about your empirical skills, so you’ve said being persistent and consistent, and you’ve said that’s one. So talk about that, about being persistent.
Emanuel: Well, yeah, as you know, life overall is not easy. I have a theory saying that life is not supposed to be easy, but it can be enjoyable. Hard doesn’t mean bad. That’s right. You know, if you want to get something done, I always say: you need to get that thing done. It’s not if or so; you need to get something done and that’s it.
And you must be consistent and persistent until you get the job done, whatever it might be personal or even at a business level. And if you look throughout the careers of the most successful people, the only thing that differentiates them between the so-called “failures” is they were persistent and keep going, keep going, keep going.
I wasn’t happy with the results most of the time. There were times of frustration, times when you want to give up. But that’s natural. And I think I learned about that. I’m still learning obviously, but overall, I think persistence is one set of skills that everybody should start working on immediately.
Roxana: So was that skill of being persistent and consistent, was that something that you’ve always had? Did it come natural to you? Was it always there?
Emanuel: No. Okay, If I look back now, introspectively, especially when I was even younger, before high school and the period after high school, a couple of years, moments that shaped me into the person that I am today, shaped my personality, I didn’t always insist on things.
And now being in Canada, I can make the comparison of over the environment because the environment is important: where you grow up, the way you are brought up, family, etc. Obviously, that’s the most important thing, especially when you’re a kid, but also what happens outside of the family, because you go to school, you interact with other people and so on.
So at one point that definitely influences you in a positive way, o,r not so positive. I wouldn’t call it completely negative, but to answer your question, I wasn’t always like that.
If the environment would have allowed me to be, then maybe I didn’t care that much to insist to get my stuff done. But, usually when I want to do something, I try my best and if it doesn’t happen when I want to, it will happen at one point.
Roxana: Right. And I like that you mentioned that it’s all of these experiences, right? So with how you’re being brought up, it’s your family, it’s your school? Your friends, all of that matters so much in who we become along the way and how we can grow our skills, muscles. Cause I really love to say, and I think people have, they’re sick of hearing me saying skills are just like muscles, but I think they are.
And I think the more we train them, like on a skills gym, the more they become strong skills, muscles that we can actually use and we can count on. So it’s great to hear you say that, Hey, you know what? One of my top skills is being persistent and consistent, but it wasn’t something that I was always good.
Emanuel: A muscle must be trained, right?
Roxana: Yeah, exactly. So what’s another, another skill muscle that you had that was very helpful in this journey?
Emanuel: I think, to be able to learn it’s very important, but most importantly, to unlearn and then relearn. Those three are actually just one skill overall. I don’t have a name for it, but now that I mentioned it, maybe I’ll come up with something.
Roxana: Yeah. I can, I can probably jump in and say that this is a sign of a growth mindset.
Emanuel: Some might say yes, some might say… 🙂 If I might add, this I learned more after I got married. The side of the learning and the unlearning and relearning
Roxana: That’s absolute, that is such a great… I don’t know why you said that, but I find that it’s such a great topic to talk about because that’s one of the life experience, life experiences that most of us have at some point, or at least if they don’t, if we don’t get married, we were in a partnership, right.
And there’s so much, especially I find unlearning and relearning, that we have to do.
Emanuel: Yes. That’s true like that. You, you’re kind of forced to learn and relearn, but apply that framework to other endeavours, for example in how you approach your work, the job that you’re doing and any other project, then I believe it’s beneficial for the long-term.
Roxana: Absolutely. And I always say that all of these skills, that’s why they’re so strong, so let’s call them strong skills instead of soft skills because they, they don’t disappear, they don’t walk out the door the minute we leave our home, or, we go at work or are at work now it’s virtual, but it’s the same thing.
They don’t disappear. They don’t go away. We can use them no matter what environment we’re in, we just apply them differently maybe. But we can definitely use them. So, as you said, something that helped you unlearn and relearn at home, definitely, you can take that with you and unlearn and relearn things when you talk to clients when you’re at work and so on, so that doesn’t go away just like that.
So how did you, how did you work on these skills? How did you build them as strong skills for you?
Emanuel: Coming back to what I said. I learned them, I apply them. I wasn’t always, and I’m not always successful in doing what I preach most of the time, but I try, I am persistent. So eventually it turns out in a good way, one way or the other ☺.
At first, they came somehow natural. As in, you hit a wall. Then you need to understand what was going on and how to react in order not to hit the wall again. After doing this a couple of times, I try to smooth in the process and learn and do as well as possible during those certain situations.
It’s difficult to give a general description. I see these expressions happening in each individual situation.
Roxana: So that was more I’m thinking right now when you decide, cause you mentioned at the beginning and I wanted to go there a little bit that you also work in accounting and media advertising, entrepreneurial initiatives and also a government job.
So these are not very similar jobs necessarily. Right? So talking about these, these skills of yours that you mentioned being persistent, consistent, and the capacity to learn and unlearn, how did that shape your career journey? Was there anything in particular that you think helped you learn more things in your, in all of these careers that you mentioned and then really helped you become the strong digital marketer that you are today? How do you see that?
Emanuel: Very humbling hearing that. The most important thing that we need to remember, or I need to remember, I try to remind myself, is that we’re working with people and it’s always about the people, not as much about yourself, but about the other person that you interact with. As long as you have that in mind and try to find the proper channels to communicate with all the stakeholders, the people you communicate within in any situation of life, personal, family, and also business, I believe that’s the key factor in going forward and develop a certain personality that will help you be useful in any kind of environment. I don’t refer to the specific jobs, I refer to them as environments, because as I said, technical, the hard skills can be easily learned by almost everyone.
How to survive in the environment, which is different, but at the same time has many, many similar points, that’s something that you learn by… by living.
Roxana: Exactly learning by doing learning, by living. I love that definition. I have a preferred definition of learning, me being and learning nerd, of course, I have a favourite definition of it and it’s this: learning is movement from moment to moment. So it’s exactly that. Learning by living. I love that expression too.
Emanuel: That sounds right. I mean, it is what it is, you know? So it sounds so natural and obvious that I cannot add anything to that.
Roxana: So I think because you mentioned it’s all about the people and in everything that you’ve said so far, it sounds like this is your, I wouldn’t necessarily call it calling, but definitely something that makes you passionate about doing things.
So all of that, reaching out to as many people as possible, building relationships, maintaining those relationships with them, and the fact that you say that it’s always about the people, no matter what, what you do, it’s always going to be about the others. So was this one, something that was always natural to you? I don’t know. As, as a kid and then growing up building relationships with people and caring so much about that.
Emanuel: I would say yes. I don’t know if they came naturally. I think there’s a synergy that requires obviously two people to engage and keep a friendship or any kind of relationship. So it’s not just you, in this case, me, it’s the others around you.
I still keep in touch, even now so far away from each other, but I still keep in touch with all my friends. Most of them, I know since grade school and some from high school. So we still interact and have a conversation every now and then, quite recently, so I would say that this came naturally because as to the point of our previous conversation, the environment that we were brought up allowed us to express and develop in a certain way. And obviously, the ones next to you were learning. We used to learn from each other back then. Need to see the context and the time. So put everything in one piece and you’ll discover that those were the things that shaped us which is quite different from, not necessarily better or worse, but different from what someone from a different place would experience.
I’m talking mostly about the personal relationships and connections that you develop when you’re a kid. And if you’re lucky enough as I was so far to keep those relationships up until this day. I’m happy with where I am, but as I said, it wasn’t easy at all.
I might think it was very hard, there were times as in a personal matter, you know, didn’t want to pursue that route, but overall it’s been good.
Roxana: Right. And I’m glad that, and you brought this up and the fact that the environment, again, has such an impact on who we become.
And I wanted to ask you all of these, all of these skills because obviously, you moved countries and you moved continents. I mean, we both did, but I’m interviewing you right now. So, so how did that help you in, you know, building or, you know, unlearning and relearning to live in a different country on a different continent?
Emanuel: That’s probably the best example I could give: me moving to Canada at a later age in life. Well, not old, but still, not young anymore either. And also it’s the reason I came to Canada: I got married. So I had two channels of learning, unlearning and relearning: being married and also coming to Canada.
I had a job. I had the connections, my relationships, had my friends there. I know how things work and the way things are done. I came here and I almost felt like a teenager. Fresh out of high school, looking for any kind of perspective one might get. I was lucky enough that I decided early before coming to Canada, to the career I would want to pursue, since I had so many past experiences in so many different years, I kind of like took some time to decide what I want to do here.
And I decided that digital marketing is what I’m most passionate about. I have some skills that could be easily implemented in a job here. I was lucky enough to get a job in the field soon after arriving in Canada when I know that many, many people spend even years and spend time in school and doing their education to get to the career that they want.
So I was, I feel very lucky and blessed. On the side of aspects. So definitely, you know, there’s a video on YouTube. Anybody can search swimming lessons, John Wayne. So basically to describe it a little bit, John Wayne learns that this kid doesn’t know how to swim. So he takes him and throws him into the lake.
That’s what life does to us most of the time. So once you’re here, you need to do it otherwise you don’t have any choice.
Roxana: Yeah know that that’s good that I mentioned it. And I’m actually, I’m going to put this in the description of this episode as well. Because I think we all experienced this and in a different moment in our lives, it doesn’t end.
It doesn’t matter if they’re personal or professional, really, but we’re just thrown headfirst into the water and then go ahead, find your ways, swim away, do something so that you survive initially and maybe even thrive after some point.
Emanuel: This is where I think the way we were brought up in our background from our home country was put to good use.
They trained us quite, quite well in in being successful in other environments, except home.
Roxana: Yeah, I think you’re right. And talking about that the culture difference. Apart from that. So that was like, whenever I tell people how it was for, for us back in the day at school and how they, they make you do stuff and you don’t really have a voice to say no, or to ask, but why do we need to do this?
Like that, or, you know, the, you learn that you have to adapt and you have to find your way and you have to be creative and operative at such a young age. And I wanted to ask you, when you moved here, what struck you about the culture here as compared to the Romanian culture? Did you find that they were more similar or pretty different?
Emanuel: I won’t tell you one of my stories. I’m going to tell you the story that a good friend of mine told me, who has as kids. He’s my age, but he has some young kids who are going to school here. He is also an immigrant, from Southeast Asia. And he told me this: listen, you know, kids here don’t even lie? If they don’t want to do something or they didn’t do something, they just tell you, I don’t want to do it.
They’re not going to tell you, I don’t know, make up an excuse or something like that.
Roxana: My dog ate my homework. Remember that? That was, yeah, that was a pretty popular excuse when I was in school. Aliens and cats, and I don’t know, we were very creative about finding excuses. Of course, everybody knew they were lies, but anyway okay.
So back to our discussion, cause I feel we can diverge on many different other paths in our discussion here. But I was wondering what was something that was difficult for you to learn or to unlearn and relearn, as you said?
Emanuel: I wouldn’t say difficult, but it was a hustle a little bit when I had to approach it.
Getting a job as a 20 year old would.
I was conscious about my decision to come here and that my previous experiences don’t matter that much for the Canadian work environment. And I was surprised to learn – I enrolled in all sorts of programs that the government has for new immigrants in order to prepare them for the job market here.
So I enrolled in all those programs and I had to learn how to do my resume. I had to learn how to apply for a job, and I had to learn how to “sell myself” between quotation marks, obviously, to an employer, which is quite different from Europe and especially from Romania. So that was something I wouldn’t say difficult, but had some friction, as I came to Canada, you know, started applying as a kid with no experience trying to get a job.
Roxana: Right. And I hear because I used to actually work in one of those programs that were helping new immigrants adapt and settle. And I remember, especially then I was thinking that my job as a mentoring coach in one of these programs was such a therapy for me as well, because basically, I was helping people who were just like me, new immigrants or newcomers to Canada.
And I remember a lot of them saying that. Talking to employers and actually “selling yourself”, as you said to potential employers, that was something that they weren’t comfortable with. So how was that experience for you as somebody who, again, who finds relationships with people so important and so crucial, how did that go for you? Cause obviously you found a job sooner than other people. So what was it that you used? What helped you most?
Emanuel: I think it’s still about the connection I established – the human interaction. Obviously, those courses and everything else helped me build such a resume that would reflect the type of personality that I have.
But I believe at the end of the day you go through a process and your resume can get you up to one point only. Then what happens there It’s your responsibility and the way you are.
And you can’t really fake that. You can fake it for a, for a week or two, a month, even a year. But at one point the bubble will burst and you’re damaging yourself before anyone else.
So I believe it’s very important to establish a connection, but also to let them know what kind of person you are. Hopefully you’re a good person with a nice personality, but even if you’re not, I don’t know, at least let them know in advance about that. Don’t waste anyone’s time and don’t waste yours.
Roxana: And I liked that you say that because, and I don’t hear, maybe I do hear some people, but maybe not enough people saying that. And I think this is one of the best points that we could ever make is just be who you really are because one way or another people will find out and that will come out and they will see you for who you are.
So, as you said, don’t waste your time. First of all, do yourself a favor first and then do them a favor as well. Just letting them know how you are, because it’s not, I don’t think necessarily it’s about good or bad. It’s about being a good fit at one point or not. And that matters a lot.
That’s, that’s great advice. I wanted to ask you though, given that we’re talking about strong skills and skills that you developed along the way, were some areas where you were uncomfortable. I was wondering if you have a favourite mistake and you can share it with us.
Emanuel: Favorite mistake. That’s a good one.
I won’t call them necessarily mistakes. There’s power in the words we’re using so “mistakes” I would consider them in quotation marks, but sometimes for example, even in a job interview or any business conversation. Some people might say don’t bring up certain subjects, certain personal subjects.
I personally find out that’s the way you establish a connection is by talking personally with the other person. And by bringing up some personal subjects, that’s one way for developing that personal relationship. And I’ll give you an example.
I was talking about being in that program. I was telling you about how new immigrants also go in the mentorship program, and I still keep in touch with my mentor and I was talking to him recently. Something came up out of the blue and it turned out that he had more experience than I had and he was able to guide me in a certain direction that has had better results than the direction I was going.
So by talking to people, by telling them different stuff regarding your personality, it’s not the first thing I’ll tell someone I’m Romanian, but if that’s something that might come up that’s a point that the other person could relate to. If you like a certain type of music, or I recently read the book or personal matters, bringing them up in a conversation, it could make a difference and could help you establish a deeper, meaningful connection.
When I got my first job here in Canada, that person, that connection was Seth Godin and the movie Interstellar.
Roxana: Interesting. So did you, did you talk about that in the interview or how did that come up?
Emanuel: I actually mentioned the soft skills and hard skills article by Seth Godin in that interview. And in regards to Interstellar, I think it was something in regards to the marketing of that movie.
Roxana: Mm, well, I mean, I, you know, there and thanks for sharing that cause. It’s you wouldn’t think that there’s a connection between, you know, and a job interview, Interstellar, Seth Godin, and how you connect with the interviewer and then the employer, right?
Emanuel: I actually found out that my boss had a personal relationship with Seth Godin. He was also a publisher and he interacted with Seth Godin as a client in the past.
So he kind of like knew the person. He knew him in person. So that’s something to build upon.
Roxana: Did you know that before you went in the interview or you found out about the relationship between your boss and Seth Godin during the interview?
Emanuel: No. No. It just came up and I told him about the article and Seth Godin and he told me Yeah, I know Seth. We’ve been doing some business back in the day.
Roxana: Wow. That’s an amazing story to tell. I think this is, and thanks for sharing it here again, because I think it’s, you never know you really never know how you’re just by saying something or mentioning something, you’re actually building a connection. I love that you say hey listen, it’s all about also talking about stuff that’s more personal to you. I mean, the article and Seth Godin, were something that was important to you. And then you mentioned it in the interview and look what happened.
So I guess the moral of the story it can be now, don’t be afraid to, to share. And again, going back to your idea of be who you are and show who you are.
Emanuel: Oh, absolutely. A hundred percent true. That’s the only way. And you feel good about being you. It’s hard to put a mask on a daily basis. I don’t know. I mean, there are some professionals, actors that do this for a living. They also get paid significantly but I couldn’t live with being somebody else.
Roxana: I agree. I mean, and I think for actors, these, this comes as a, maybe not just as a mask, but it’s somebody that they become for a while. Cause they pretty much transform into that character.
I mean the, the best ones do, but I think they, they do have the training to help them cope with that. But I think what you said is so true is so tiring and it’s so hard to wear a mask every day. And I think right now these days, literally, we can resonate with that because just wearing a mask every day, that is not something that we’re happy to do.
We just have to do it, but that doesn’t mean it comes naturally and it is tiring.
All right. So what is one thing that you’re most proud of today?
Emanuel: There are many things. I don’t refer to them as being proud but I’m happy and satisfied with many things. One thing I quite enjoy and I get a thrill and, some might say get a high every time this happens is when I give back.
And when I help people, the way that I was helped.
We were talking just a few moments ago about mentoring and I was in the mentorship program. I was lucky enough to apply everything I learned and that helped me a lot.
I was lucky enough to be in this program.
So I always try to give back some of my knowledge to share some of my experience here, because I believe my example can help others. And I’ve been recently, at least for the past year, since the pandemic, mentoring quite a few numbers of mostly young, but not everyone is young, new immigrants to Canada that they are looking to start in the field of digital marketing and, for whatever reason, they decided to look up to me.
I gladly put that hat on and I’m having constant conversations with different aspirants in this career, especially immigrants who asked me questions and I share basically, I don’t do much. I’m just sharing my story and go into as many details as possible for them to have a reference and to be able to apply or take at least one good idea from my experience and from my journey. So that’s something that I’m happy and proud of. Yeah. You could say, you can say proud.
Roxana: That’s great. And you, that you mentioned it. Because I know the, again, I know the program and I know how it works and I know it works actually.
I mean it helps a lot of people. Not necessarily, even, even as you said, just people who have been here for a while, just sharing their story and letting their mentees know that, hey, this works this way, or this works the other way or this is how I did it.
And it’s just that mutual sharing. And the fact that you’re sharing an experience that you’ve already had in that work, which helps them tremendously in feeling less isolated, less alone, less confused and lost their transition to their new life basically.
Emanuel: It does because nobody tells you this, but there is a constant pressure coming from a country, being in a new environment, you ask yourself, especially in the first six months to a year: Oh, what have I done, did I made the right decision? and so on, you know, all those questions that all the new immigrants go through, but it’s unlikely that the person who’s a certain age doesn’t have a set of skills that any company a would use. It’s just that they don’t know how to present it, or, we can’t do this alone. Nobody can do things alone. Self-made is very a deceiving term because self-made doesn’t take the credit for your hard work and for your brilliance and so on. But there are so many people involved and without them, nobody would succeed.
And I believe sharing some of, some of my experiences can make a small difference in somebody’s life and wellbeing, you know?
Roxana: And I think that is absolutely so well connected with your idea that you know, it’s all about the others as well. It’s not about us and I absolutely love the self-made anti-definition.
Let’s put it this way, right: it’s cause it is a very deceiving term because it’s always more than just the surface and it’s always a combination of people and events and experiences that took us there. So, you’re absolutely right.
Emanuel: Arnold Schwarzenegger has a video on this. He says it better than I could. So I’m going to leave the link maybe you want to share.
Roxana: Absolutely. I mean, come on, who doesn’t like Schwarzenegger?
Emanuel: Probably Bruce Willis, Stallone and Van Damme, but back in the day. Now they’re all friends.
Roxana: You mentioned John Wayne, you mentioned Arnold Schwarzenegger, you also mentioned Brancusi the sculptor. So I think there’s a lot of art there. Your, your music background, your artistic background shows up again and again, and again.
Emanuel: It’s in everybody. I just bring them up, you know, I said the name and you resonated with that right away. So it was in there. I just, I was the one who said it first, that’s it.
Roxana: Yeah, that’s a, yeah. Yeah. That’s you see that? That’s, that’s an interesting discussion which can be a totally separate discussion. But again, the fact that you said that it’s in everybody and it’s in there. I do believe that as well. So we all have like, creativity is there for everybody, for sure.
Okay. So we don’t have enough time. I never have enough time when I’m talking to people on that podcasts and it’s a long podcast, but it’s fascinating hearing people’s stories and stories of becoming. And I can’t let you go before I ask you for a thought of wisdom that you want to share with our audience for this episode, and it can be a quote or your thoughts, a book, a video movie. And you’ve mentioned a few, but one thought that you want to leave people with.
Emanuel: I want to leave people with something that I remind myself every day. And it’s a, it’s a quote, it’s from the Bible, the Ecclesiastes, and it says:
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.
Take your time. Be yourself. Work hard towards your dreams, be persistent, be consistent, take into consideration that you might be wrong sometimes. Don’t be afraid to reach out to people simply say, just ask, I need help with this.
Now we have Facebook, LinkedIn, all these social medias. I’m sure that there’s one person in your list that will be able to give you some guidance. I do that. I bug most of the people ☺
Roxana: That was a, that was such a great quote to share. And it’s so true. I mean, one of the things is just to give yourself time and there is a time for everything.
And I wanted to ask you as well about where people can, can find you. And I also want you to mention your book. Cause if I don’t ask, talking about asking, right, because I know that you contributed to a chapter in our book and it would be great if you could let people know what the book is and also where they can reach you.
Emanuel: I was actually about to mention it. I have a note here. So I’m also the marketing manager of the Immigrant Writers Association, which is an association from here, Canada. And the name says everything. It’s about immigrant writers.
We recently released our second anthology called Grow Together.
It’s a collection of 15 chapters. If I’m not mistaken. Stories are written by immigrants from Canada, fiction and nonfiction. Personal sharing. As I call them empirical experience and it’s a great read and quite enjoyable, and I recommend it to everyone, especially I would recommend it to the human resources department who works with a lot of immigrants.
I know some people in that department have read it and they said that they helped them understand the mentality and the background and improved the relationship with those people who are immigrants in their departments. So it’s an interesting read besides the point. I have a chapter included.
Roxana: What’s your chapter called?
Emanuel: Should I trust others? and I’m sharing actually one of those not, I’m not saying bad, not so good moments since I came to Canada, because there, there are different periods in the immigrant’s life. After you come here and somehow establish yourself in a direction, but there’s still a little bit of struggle there and some are personal at some personal level. So I share some of that experience and how I managed to pull through it.
And this is what you could consider one of the best mistakes recently by actually me reaching out to the Immigrant Writers Association because this is the second anthology. I learned about the first one. I took the book. I read it, I enjoyed it I reached out to people.
Now you can connect with anyone on social media, on LinkedIn, on Facebook and so on. So that’s how I kind of like put myself in the spot right there.
Roxana: Right. But that, that’s a great, that I think that’s a great lesson for everybody.
And especially people coming here from a different country, reach out to people, ask for it. Go ahead and put yourself out there. Don’t wait for people to ask you or notice you necessarily.
Emanuel: You don’t have anything to lose. What’s the worst that can happen. Not replying to your message or unfriend you? I mean, if you’re that sensitive, that’s a different story.
Feel free to reach out. Yeah. Nothing bad is going to happen. Only good things will. Worst case scenario is that nothing is going to happen.
Roxana: Exactly. Exactly. I love that perspective. Okay. So Grow Together. That’s a great title by the way.
Where do people reach you?
Emanuel: I’m quite active on LinkedIn and on Twitter. @EmanuelP986 everywhere. And through my website, Emanuelp.com. That’s basically where they can send me a message, reach out they have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer them as best as I can.
Because I didn’t mentioned immigrant writer the book Grow Together can be purchase via Amazon.
Like everything else nowadays… You get your food, you get your movies, you get your clothes now, shoes. And Grow Together by Immigrants Writers Association.
Roxana: Awesome. That’s, that’s a great tip. And I will actually put all of these links in the description of this episode for people to just reach and, and make sure that everything is a click away.
Thank you so much for, for being a guest again, and for sharing some of your story of what brought you here to where you are doing who you are today. And I think we’ll keep, can we’ll continue the conversation at some point as well.
Emanuel: Most definitely it was a pleasure was actually mine. So, but yeah, it was a privilege being here and thank you so much for having me. Bye.
Roxana: So, should you trust others? Do you trust others? Do you trust yourself enough to give yourself time as Emanuel shared? There is a time for everything, so be persistent, reach out and take action in building your dreams. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to win. And if that’s not all personal, I don’t know what is. Until next time…
