ATHABASCA – The chance to hear and meet a Canadian gold medal Olympian and the host of The Amazing Race Canada was well worth the price of admission alone, but there were so many other great speakers along the way.
After a two-year hiatus, Power Up North was back at the Athabasca Regional Multiplex Sept. 20-22 with over 100 participants hearing inspiring tales of the rural advantage from Hawkey Studios proprietors Jonathan and Dusty Hawkey; to Indigenous story-telling and self-publishing with Brian Cardinal, complete with tipi; to taking control of one’s own business and personal life with business coach Diana Noble; digital marketing with Willy Grant; and finding inspiration with the likes of motivational speaker Ian Hill and many, many more.
The highlight of the event, organized by Community Futures Tawatinaw and Athabasca’s Tourism and Economic Development committee, was undoubtedly keynote speaker and 2010 Olympic gold medalist Jon Montgomery, who is also the host of Amazing Race Canada.
“How can I couple passion and interest with effecting change in people's lives, enriching my community that I am so inextricably intertwined with the landscape that we all get to trespass on and call home, Big Momma here on planet Earth,” he said. “So, I'm wickedly inspired just by being in your presence.”
Montgomery said achieving what we want is never easy but if people have perspective and the capacity to build confidence, they will find a way.
“We need confidence and perspective if you want to be able to accomplish these things and that's what we're going to talk a little bit about here today. Confidence and perspective. Where does it come from? How can I get it? And what do we use it for?”
Building up that conviction, heart, desire and passion to succeed over the years, he moved to Calgary to immerse himself in that Olympic feeling, which paid off in spades come the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
“I’m lucky that the first sled I ever saw go past me at 125 km/hour was in fact a skeleton sled,” he said. “I didn’t know what I was witnessing, at the time I thought it was a horrible luging accident but when I saw five more sleds go down like that, well, I won’t pretend I’m the sharpest tool in the shed, ladies and gentlemen, but even I can recognize a trend when I see one. They were intended to go down like that and I had to find out how.”
He spent the next seven years doing whatever he had to do to become good enough to qualify for the Olympic team and building confidence.
“Every time I watched the Olympics, I’d hear announcers say, ‘If you want to be a champion, you have to be confident,’” he said. “They never elaborate on that point. Nobody ever says, ‘And here's actually how you do that.’ You're just wanting and hoping for confidence. I found myself asking, where does confidence come from? Can I make it like cement in a wheelbarrow?”
It’s something would-be and experienced entrepreneurs can work on to build themselves up. Confidence starts in small attainable goals, he said, plus how you talk to yourself, your internal dialogue as you celebrate those small victories, he said.
After his inspirational speech he took time to let everyone get their picture taken with him and wear or touch his gold medal, refusing to wear it himself saying he’s the keeper of the medal which Canadians won.
It’s that kind of inspiration and motivation entrepreneurs need to be successful in business and in whatever other endeavors they attempt.
“I believe Albertans can be the catalyst for the renaissance,” said Hill during a four-hour opening session. "The skills, abilities, and competencies to win the battles behind this aren't the skills, abilities, and competencies to win the battles before us. We're in unprecedented times so, it takes some new tools, some new skills.”
Hill also led two very raw sessions focused on mental health, sharing his own very personal stories.
People are trapped in patterns because they are safe and work, but nothing ever changes, he said so to overcome the inertia of safety, be the catalyst for change.
“Progress and change are intertwined,” said Hill. “There can be no progress without change.”
But don’t feel overwhelmed, focus on what’s in front of you, he added.
Hill said people need to stop trying to change and start training to change but there has to be willingness, then add in education, understanding what you are learning, then developing an action plan.
“Your action plan needs a clearly defined objective and a clearly defined timeline,” said Hill. “Then have accountability; let someone know your plan and give ways for others to give you feedback and add support under accountability, we need support in life’s journey.”
So many others shared their secrets to success, and the struggles they encountered along the way energizing all in attendance and providing them with potential paths to their own success.
