The Rise Above Podcast

In this episode Bram reflects on the importance and benefits of doing things that make you feel uncomfortable and the pathways that it can help unlock.  Click Here to view my links and to book a discovery call. 

In this episode Bram answers a few questions that hes received after he decided to leave his corporate job (after 12 years) and start the entrepreneurial journey of launching his own insurance brokerage.  Click Here to view my links and to book a discovery call. 

In this episode Bram reflects back on his dozen years of experience in the Insurance Industry and makes connections in what led him to his current position, in launching his very own insurance brokerage.  Click Here to view my links and to book a discovery call.  Click Here to visit Aura Kids 

Professional Rugby Player, Global Team Lead of an Incubator/Accelerator Agency, Start Up Director & Father Lucas Caneda joins Bram Bains on this episode of The Rise Above Podcast. Lucas talks about his Journey with overcoming obstacles in his sports career, wanting more from life, managing a high performing team, explains the value his team brings to startups, and shares insights about the process of taking startups from seed to IPO.  Follow us on Instagram @TheRiseAbovePodcast for bonus content - Be sure to pay it forward and share it with a friend! ************************************************************ Interview Transcript [00:35] Bram: Welcome everybody to the rise above podcast. This is episode number seven. I'm being joined by a special guest today. I've got Lucas Caneda. Lucas is a professional rugby player. Lucas is a global team lead of unicorn. Unicorn is a rural tech incubator accelerator. Lucas is also a director of one of its startups, challenger X. Challenger X is a SAS and B2B company, who is turning Davids into Goliath through digital and traditional marketing. It offers radical improvement of the revenues and profitability of amateur sports clubs throughout Europe and around the world. Lucas is also a father. Welcome to the show. Lucas, how are you doing today?  [01:24] Lucas: Hey Bram, thank you for having me on your show, especially being here doing fine, looking forward to this conversation. Yeah, just let's get into it.  [01:37] Bram: Let's get into it. Okay. Tell us a little bit about your story. You wear many hats there. You know, being a professional athlete. I believe that's pretty demanding with training and playing and recovery and rest and whatnot, but yet you're also a leader there of a team and a father. How do you balance everything? What do your days look like?  [02:00] Lucas: They look pretty busy to be honest, but I do enjoy it. I do think there's more to gain about doing all this stuff and I'm pretty happy to be doing it. Of course, it requires effort, but everything does. If you're not willing to do what it takes, you're probably not getting far. I've managed to join my passions, I would say, which is usually not something easy to do. When I was young, I was, I always wanted to become a professional rugby player. I come from Argentina; I'm currently living in France. Why? Because I knew when I was back home, if I wanted to fulfill my dream, I had to go somewhere else because there were no professional teams backing Argentina. I knew I had to go elsewhere. I looked for my opportunity. I worked very hard for that opportunity. Even the things blocking, things not going as expected, but eventually five or six years ago, I actually managed to get an opportunity and I didn't hesitate.  I flew right away. That's when my professional career in rugby started. I've done that for like say one year, just focusing on that. But after that, I started also studying while I was the professional player. Two years ago, I decided that was, I would say, not enough, that I wanted other things too. I also started working while I played. That's how I came to unicorn. How I started at unicorn and how I managed to mix things up between business and sports. I think there's great connections and a lot of added value in doing both things at the same time. Especially at the start-up world that we live in. There's lots of things that go hand by hand. You need to be able to say, roll up your sleeves and put yourself to work.  You need to be able to learn how to take a hit and stand back up. That happens a lot in rugby, and it happens a lot in the start-ups. You need to know that it's not an easy trip. It's not an easy journey, but the journey itself, it's actually a great experience. There's a lot of synergies between businesses, sports that can actually be of good added value to both sides of the coin.  [04:55] Bram: Okay, awesome. You mentioned the journey there. That's a perfect segue. That's something I really wanted to explore with you and what your journey looked like, your personal journey, growing up and falling in love with rugby and pursuing that passion. Then, it is bringing you here to where you are today. What's your story look like from the beginning? I know there was a little bit of adversity in there. You were told by the majority ofpeople that you're too small to play rugby at 5'7. I know you had an injury in your career as well, that was fairly major and potentially career ending. I'd love to hear about that from your perspective. [05:36] Lucas: Yeah, sure. I mean when it comes to being too small to play rugby, I was told many times that, if I wanted to become a professional day, I should have been a couple inches taller. I said, okay, that's not something I can change. But I can do a lot more that you guys think I can. Of course, you need to work to get there. You need to do what it takes. Sometimes it's not easy. Sometimes you want to stop, but as long as you have something in mind, I do think you should follow your dreams and do what it takes to get there. I don't like to sound, egocentric or whatnot, but it can be done if you do what it takes. If you actually put the effort into it, you can actually get where you want to be.  In my case, that was becoming a professional rugby player. It took a long while. I finally came to France when I was 25 years old. I had that in mind for the last three or four, I think. It doesn't come quickly or at least not always. But you need to keep going till you actually get where you want to be. If you want to speak about my I would say serious injury. I think on one side that happens. I mean, in every sport, in every everything that you do, you will have problems or obstacles to face, some things to overcome. In my case, I had a big knee injury, broke my ligaments. Some people said it might have been a career ending injury. After a couple of days. I mean of course you feel a bit bad about what happened, but then quickly turn your mind into positive thinking and start thinking ahead, what's coming next. How do I recover from this? I mean, a couple of things that happened when I was at the game, the game I got injured, our doctor at my team, he was, those kinds of guys that tell you every time that tells you, yeah, keep going, keep going. This is nothing. I got to hit unto the floor, tried to stand up, then my knee started like feeling weird I fell down and called the doctor. I said, hey, strap my knee up. Something's wrong, strap it up so I can keep going. He started checking. He said to me, look straight to me in the eye and said, not this time.  How come not this time? Strap it up. I need to keep going. He said, this time I cannot do this. When he said that, I mean, I knew something was wrong. He never does. He's always the one pushing to keep going. So, I knew it was serious. Then I had a couple of, I would say pointers that helped me recover. Pretty much. One of them was my injury was kind of at the end of the season, there were still some games left, but I knew it was a six-to-eight-monthinjury. I set myself an objective. I checked for the next season, what was our first game. Actually, it was one of the best teams in Argentina. I said to myself, I need to be at this game. I went to my coach, which I appreciate very much. I have an excellent relationship with him. A great coach. Asked him, hey I know we played this game first game of the season. I need to get ready before the first game you always have, like, we call it friendly games. I know you guys call it in different way. Exhibition. Yeah. It's like tests, you do usually have three games before the actual start of the season. I started doing some math’s and the first exhibition game was five months and one week after my surgery. I tell the coach, hey, I know I need to play at least some exhibition game for you to put me on the team for the first game. But how many do you need me to play? Because first game it's like five months away. I probably won't be there in time. He looked at me and he said, you need to play all three. I was like, dude, I mean, that's physically impossible. I mean, that gives me five months to recover, fully recover from an injury. Usually, it takes between six and eight. I mean, I can try and push for six, but he said, if you don't play all three, you won't be in the first game. I need to do something. I was so focused on getting to the first game. I remember my surgeon, he said to me okay these are the exercises that you need to do as soon as you can, after you get operated. Couple of very basic things that you need to do. I remember after my surgery; the room was not ready yet. I was on my bed laying on a hallway before going to the actual room, feeling dizzy because of the anesthetics and everything that you, that you take for this surgery.  I started doing the exercises. I mean, I knew I had no time to lose. Then when I told my, my surgeon that I started like an hour after the surgery, he looked to and said, are you nuts? I mean, dude, you said as quickly as you can. I should wait a bit, no time to do this. I don't know if that helped or what did, but the good thing about this story is that five months, one week later, I was playing the first game. Everything went well, I played 10 minutes. Not more just to try it out. But it was more than enough. Second exhibition game, I played like 63rd or game. Then first season game, which was very important. I managed to play the whole game. The beauty of the story is that I don't know, again, if you do what it takes, if you actually invest yourself, the results are usually a lot better than if you don't do as much. [13:33] Bram: Yeah, definitely. I mean, it sounds like you're definitely on a mission there to suit up and be ready for that game. That's I think that's important to set those targets and put in the work exactly what you said. I think that's a great story being that you're a competitor, you're an athlete. I kn

Innovation Leader, Speaker, Author, Founder & Managing Director of an Innovation Consulting Agency Ally Muller joins Bram Bains on this episode of The Rise Above Podcast. Ally talks about modern day Innovation in 2021, shares some stories that illustrate a modern day approach to Innovation, and speaks about her book - Corporate Innervation: Unlocking the Genius Inside Your Organization.   Follow us on Instagram @TheRiseAbovePodcast *** Update June 15 2021: I just received my copy of Ally’s book in the mail and I realize that I mistakenly referred to the book as Corporate Innervention in the Podcast...Sometimes I write too fast and I can’t read my own writing. The correct title of the book is Corporate Innervation: Unlocking the Genius Inside Your Organization.  Just wanted to take a moment to put up the link for anybody interested in purchasing the book and taking a deeper dive into Ally’s work and theory surrounding Innovation in the Corporate space! Link to purchase book: https://www.amazon.ca/Corporate-Innervation-Unlocking-genius-organisation/dp/1922391042/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Corporate+innervation&qid=1623763261&sr=8-1 Follow us on Instagram @TheRiseAbovePodcast for bonus content - Be sure to pay it forward and share it with a friend! ************************************************************ Interview Transcript [00:36] Bram: Welcome everybody to episode number six of the rise above podcast. Today I've got a very special guest Ally Mueller. Ally is an innovation leader. Ally is a speaker. Ally is the author of corporate intervention, unlocking the genius inside your organization. Ally is the founder and managing director of Goya Consulting. Ally, how are you doing today? [00:59] Ally: Good, thank you. Thank you for having me on. [01:02] Bram: You're very welcome. Thank you for agreeing to do this. We're definitely getting into a few fun things here today to get the ball rolling. I do have some icebreakers here for you. The floor is all yours. Feel free if you want to answer a short, simple, or if you want to elaborate on anything, it's all yours. What is your favorite movie? [01:24] Ally: Well, it's a tough one cause I'm a bit of a cinephile. but my favorite movie is actually Casablanca and I know a lot of people love that, but I actually thinkthat's a perfectly written and executed story. That's why it's my favorite. [01:41] Bram: Classics. Awesome. Okay. Aside from your own, what is your favorite book? [01:47] Ally: My favorite book, well, I love reading novels, so I really love the book Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. That's something I read when I was in high school and something I reread quite regularly. I really love it. [02:01] Bram: Awesome. Okay. What is your favorite place to travel? [02:06] Ally: I really love France. I've been there probably about 22 times. I think it is. I am looking forward to this post COVID world, so I can get back there and do a bit more travel. I just love traveling through the countryside and speaking the language and eating the foods. All those beautiful things. [02:27] Bram: Who are some of your mentors or influences? [02:31] Ally: Some of my mentors and influences, I've got some people that I worked with in Australia, some personal mentors, and things like that. They've certainly helped me on my journey. In terms of looking for a wide audience, I'm always looking to many different people and many different things. I don't like to narrow it down into just one set of people. I really love the work of Simon Sinek. I think that is really great, but it's really only one aspect. I like to couple that up with the work of people like Renee Brown and what they've done in that space. Then if we think about, what people like Michael Porter have done at Harvard University and how they've brought management theory to life in a whole different way and giving it a really strategic perspective. I like to look at all the different pieces of work that people have done and put it together like that. I don't really get into people that are probably a connaissance, so much in the business world. I think we can get away from that a little bit. I think I'm just a bit more grounded in the theory of what people doing. That's what I like to read about. [03:51] Bram: Are you a morning person or a night person? [03:57] Ally: Both actually, it sounds to like, I get up really early. I love to get up really early and I love to exercise and, fuel my day with some coffee. I'm a huge coffee fan. Then, I love to work really hard all day. Then, after I've done the family thing and all that type of stuff, I'm still up at night. I'm either, thinking about something or I'm reading a novel because that's my time to read something that's non business related. I suppose I'm doing a bit of both. Burning the candle at both ends, which probably isn't a great thing for an entrepreneur, but that's me. [04:28] Bram: What is your favorite type of food? [04:30] Ally: My favorite type of food. Depends on the day, I really like either some really authentic Mexican with some good quality tequila or some Japanese, depending on that. That's probably my two go-tos. [04:52] Bram: Nice. Okay. What is the most out of character thing that you've ever done? [05:00] Ally: Well, that's a really hard question. I don't really know, actually. I've done lots of different things in my life. I've done everything from music, dancing, snowboarding to everything. I'm not sure what would be out of character for me. I'll give anything a go. That's probably me. [05:17] Bram: Awesome. Okay. If you could be immortal, what age would you stop aging and why? [05:23] Ally: I think I would stop aging at about 40. When I turned 40, which is not that long ago. I'm not too old yet. Because I feel like that's when I started to really embody who I am as a woman and all the wisdom that I developed over time and really started to feel comfortable in who I am. That would probably be the time to stop aging right there.  [05:48] Bram: If you could go back to being 10 years old with all the knowledge you have now, or if you could skip ahead to the year 2030 with $20 million, what would you do and why? [06:04] Ally: I think I'd go back to the little ten-year-old girl. Money can be earned, but wisdom can be relearned in different ways. I'd go back to the 10-year-old girl. I'd tell her not to stop writing. She stopped writing for a period of time and thought she needed to be something else. I think I'd go back to my 10-year-old self and tell her to keep up with her creative writing.  [06:26] Bram: Nice. Okay. If you could travel anywhere in the world or if you could visit the moon, which one would you choose? [06:35] Ally: I think I'd see the world. [06:38] Bram: Awesome. Okay. Some really goodanswers in there. Some gems I think we might touch on a little bit later. Thank you for going through that exercise. I'd love to hear your story Ally. I know you're the founder there of Goya Consulting. You're in the innovation space. Can you share your path that led you to start this company?  [07:03] Ally: Sure, absolutely. It's a bit of a way with journey actually. Might need a cup of coffee for this one. It's a bit long. But the reality is, I have done many different things over the course of my career, and I think that that's what led me to be really good at what we do and starting a business that helps large organizations innovate. The core purpose of Goya Consulting is we help large organizations and leadership teams build innovation ecosystems so that they can take their ideas from Genesis into something that creates bottom line value.  This isn't just about the whole ideation thinking process. This is about everything along the journey. We build a whole systemize and process flow for them but getting there is a really interesting journey because I come via way of, I started my career in politics. I started in a graduate program working for a politician who was the leader of the house in Australia and working in an advisory model in that space. Which is really different, which took me to London, which I worked for a minister in the house of Lords in London doing quite a similar thing. That entailed lots of research, lots of advice, lots of politics which is very different. Just by chance, and by luck, I was offered an opportunity to work on really large infrastructure projects. What would it look like to lead a team of people in a world first project? I was like, why would they want me to do that? You know, why would I not do that? But also, I was all of 23. I had older bravado in the world, and I thought, sure, why not? I'll give this a go. I had the mindset of there's nothing I'm not willing to learn. There's nothing I'm not willing to research, have a go at ask. I went from there into being an infrastructure, public private partnership, finance expert. From there, I went into investment banking. From there I came back to Australia, and I was working in the banks over here. I was doing corporate structured finance. Then from there I went into mergers and acquisitions. I got an opportunity for someone to say to me, would you come and work on a startup with me? It was at that point that I was really tired of what I was doing. I felt that it was a little soulless. Sure, you can earn a great way and lots of money, but that wasn't enough for me. I want a full life with everything that goes along with that. I was given the opportunity to do something that I was really passionateabout, which is around sustainability.  We started up a sustainability startup, which was focused on how we were accessing government funding and grant money that couldn't be used in other ways and what we were doing to leverage that in the commercial market, to create solar opportunities and sustainable energy ventures in ways that we weren't able to do before. I really loved that and I thought that was fascinating and fun. Then I took a break and had a family and realized that I c