Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:02 Flow in the rest of the world. You've tuned in to the Mac city morning show. And I'm your host Elliot Pierre. We're going to start the show off the same way we start every show off with a moment of gratitude. I know you could be doing a million other things with your time. So the fact that you're spending with us truly does mean the world to me. So thank you on that note, Tanner.
Speaker 1 00:00:20 Oh, she caught me, loves near listen to the next <inaudible>
Speaker 0 00:00:29 All right. And we're back. Okay. We have my favorite type of guests today. I don't know this guy's name for goodness sakes. I don't know, uh, what he does. I kinda know where he works, but I don't know what he does at work. So you're about to meet a complete stranger with me. And that's my favorite episode. So on that note, sir, I don't introduce my guests. They do it themselves. And I couldn't introduce you if I wanted to. So can you tell everybody at home who you are and what you're about? Uh, my name is Diego
Speaker 2 00:00:53 Richard, and I'm a indigenous youth career coach with careers and next generation.
Speaker 0 00:00:56 Okay. Very cool. All right, man. Well, thank you for taking the time and coming on the show today. So my question to you is how did you get involved with careers next generation?
Speaker 2 00:01:07 Uh, well, I, uh, applied to the job by the balls on the resume. I'm kidding. My boss will probably watch us, but that's not true. That was a joke. Uh, and, and yeah, had that interview, like, I guess they had somebody fall through a few days before, so they called me like the next day I played on Sunday. They called me on Monday for an interview. Yeah. And yeah, just got started like that then. Yeah, it's been great.
Speaker 0 00:01:31 So how long have you been with them for? I think two weeks. Six weeks. So you're brand new? Yep. Awesome. So you're working with the indigenous youth then. And so like a, we've had your boss and, well, I don't know who your boss is, but we've had two individuals from careers on the show. Um, so they've explained what their components of that a career or a company's all about. So like what do you do in particular? What makes you different from, um, the people that you work with?
Speaker 2 00:01:58 Uh, well, I, I work more with the indigenous communities I needed to students. We have a program called indigenous career pathways, or I think it's just career pathways. Right. And they, and basically what happens is any indigenous students, they apply. If we take them in, they just let us know what they like, uh, like want to be an accountant. You want to be a lawyer. You, they let us know. Right. Uh, we try and find an internship so that they can learn about it and see if it's something they want to pursue more.
Speaker 0 00:02:24 Okay. Now with the indigenous communities in this, uh, region, there's quite a lot. Yeah. So how do you in contact with them and how do they all get in contact? Like how does that work? The communication. Cause they're so diverse in regards to geography. Like there's no way you're getting all the way up to four MCI and going down to Conklin and going to all these different places. So
Speaker 2 00:02:47 I will, a lot of it's due tax. I get good responses to tax. A big chunk of my job is just reaching out to them, making sure they're okay. Uh, every, uh, every couple of weeks, but then gives you the conversations will drag on. So I'm almost in constant communication fishing now because they're just getting started. Some replacements just ended a few days ago. Okay.
Speaker 0 00:03:06 Very cool. Now with yourself in particular, you from Fort McMurray, are you from somewhere else or in raised here? Born and raised for Mac? Yeah. All right. What school did you go to? High school Westwood. Westwood. Oh man. We're splitting the room again. Tanner.
Speaker 3 00:03:23 There's always a first, second, third. So you guys can debate it out on two and three.
Speaker 0 00:03:26 Uh, ah, I went to Mark Tanner, went to a comp and then you went to Westwood. So yeah, obviously I'm going to always say Merck is first place and he's going to say comp is first place, but you I'll say Westwood third place. Yeah. Yeah. Comfortably third. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:03:46 So you're born and raised in four back. That's
Speaker 0 00:03:47 So cool, man. Three of us today, it happens so often on this show. So now that I know that you're born and raised in Fort Mac, I'm not going to put you on blast about your age. Um, you're obviously a lot younger than me, probably closer to Tanner's age. But um, when you grew up here, which one of your gentleman's, which gentleman's is your favorite Joel, miss to go to?
Speaker 2 00:04:07 I live by thick woods. So that's that one. There
Speaker 0 00:04:10 We go. Think of Jonah's it's the best one. In my opinion, my humble opinion. It is the best one. So
Speaker 2 00:04:15 Edmonton. Now they do have you been to it? No, I haven't. I have you have. It's amazing.
Speaker 3 00:04:19 How does it rank to the roof to the rest of the genome is important, Marie?
Speaker 0 00:04:23 Well, they have an asterix next to them because they're in Edmonton. That being said it is equally as good as first place. If they were in Fort McMurray right now, they would be holding top spot with thick wood. In my opinion. Do
Speaker 3 00:04:38 You think it's just cause it was, it was new.
Speaker 0 00:04:41 Well, here's the thing I like where to seat. This is a good thing about Tanner. You, he knows me. I've gone back three times because I thought just nostalgia because I love Joel, miss so much that the first time I gave him a pass. So I've been back, um, two extra times equally as good both times. And it's been over the stretch of, uh, a year and a half.
Speaker 3 00:05:01 Yeah. So consistent, consistent. They're they're
Speaker 0 00:05:04 Crushing it. Edmonton. Jonah's like killing it.
Speaker 3 00:05:07 I mean, Tim listeners go ahead and hit that place
Speaker 0 00:05:09 Up. Yeah, definitely, definitely hit that place up. It's in the boondocks. I'm not going to lie. My buddy lives just right around the corner. So he bought this place and for the last decade he's lived there. I'm like, I hate coming to your place. It's so far, you're so far away from everything, but now he's literally a five minute walk away from this gentleman. I'm like, you live in the best part of town, hands down.
Speaker 3 00:05:32 And uh, sometimes the best food is worth the worth going to you. Can't just get it anywhere. You got to go.
Speaker 0 00:05:39 That's exactly it. So going to Westwood, were you in any, um, like extracurriculars, every high school has their own thing Westwood's known for their things?
Speaker 2 00:05:49 What were you probably the, I was in the nerdiest sport and the nerdiest club. I was in the math leadership club,
Speaker 0 00:05:55 Math, leadership and badminton. Okay. Tell me about math leadership.
Speaker 2 00:06:01 Uh, well we didn't do a whole lot. It was kind of like a pilot thing. Yeah. When I was there. So yeah, we basically just hung out up on. Shall we? Or, uh, we did do a bit of tutoring.
Speaker 0 00:06:12 Okay. Yeah. And so did you go into post-secondary afterwards?
Speaker 2 00:06:17 Yes. I studied economics at the university
Speaker 0 00:06:19 Of Alberta. You still are? Yeah. Okay, cool. Nice. And so you've put that math knowledge to place. Yeah, I guess, I guess so. All right. So how deep are you in this economics? Uh, degree. I've got one semester left. Oh, wow. So you're deep in it. Yeah. Deep. Okay. I got a question for you. I'm going to put you on a bit of a hotspot. I took economics micro micro macro here at Canada college. Just level one, two, but it helps. It's helped. It's helped me tremendously just in day-to-day life. Understanding there's something popping right now. The people at home I know about it's called cryptocurrency. What's your view on cryptocurrency?
Speaker 2 00:06:59 Uh, do I have to answer this, this? No, I'm I'm kidding. I it's, uh, I, uh, peop the people who love it, absolutely love it. Yeah. Fanatical about it. And I guess there aren't really many people just like, absolutely hate it. But I do think that there's some interesting projects, uh, like the, uh, I, I can't remember what it's called now. Uh, non fungible tokens. Yes. I think it, can we just get rid of registries and attach it NFT to a car that would be, yeah, I know. Right? Like some of the technology is like revolutionary, uh, even like, uh, smart contracts for like other people don't know this, but we actually do lose billions of dollars a day in the, uh, pain for, uh, we call them custodians in the financial markets. Uh, cause it takes some time to like, it's called a clearing house. Uh, when you, whenever you buy a stock or something to go through, it costs lots and lots of money. Yeah. And you can get rid of that with a smart contract basis. Right? Well, this is what, this is what the peers. Yeah. In theory you can do it.
Speaker 0 00:08:04 So you think it's here to stay then POS
Speaker 2 00:08:07 Possibly. I, I didn't, I don't have a crystal ball. I couldn't tell you.
Speaker 0 00:08:10 I like it. I like, I don't know if it will ever be as big as people think it's going to be. Um, but I do feel like that it's got enough industry buy-in that it has a lot more legitimacy now than it ever has before. And I think the NFTs are really cool. Actually. A Tanner hit me up with one that's on auction. I don't know it's on auction right now. Don't don't go bid on it cause I want to win, um, for hot wheels. So there's some hot wheel NFTs on, uh, up for auction right now. Yeah. Oh, I'm not even going to say which one I want. I don't want anybody at home bidding on any of them. I want to win the bid, but I think it's cool. They can, even if it doesn't go anywhere, just being part of it is fun.
Speaker 0 00:08:50 And I feel like there's a lot of cool things out there. It's just, it's a fun, new kind of space. So, but I, the reason I bring it up, cause you said that you were an economics is because of my background that I took those classes. I'm more able to understand, although it's a new thing, I'm actually able to understand it a little bit better because of the courses that I took in my youth. So do you guys talk about this kind of stuff in your course? Is this like on the horizon at all? Obviously you're educated on it, but uh,
Speaker 2 00:09:21 No, not so much in the classes. It's very mathematics based. So it's yeah. You're taking the derivative of saying it to zero for like four years. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:09:32 Cool. So, uh,
Speaker 0 00:09:34 When you're finished, I'm just going to put you on the hotspot. I don't, it's my show. I can do what I want. Um, you came back to Fort McMurray right now. You're working here currently. Like, is this a place after you finished your schooling that you think you're going to gravitate back to Fort McMurray? Or would you like to kind of explore the world? No good or wrong answer.
Speaker 2 00:09:51 I'm I'm going, I'm going wherever. There's a job, honestly. So there's lots of opportunities in Fort McMurray. So possibly. Yeah. Yeah. Very cool.
Speaker 0 00:09:58 Okay. Yeah. I know. I was the same way when I finished, I was like, whoever wants to pay me, I did want to come back to Fort McMurray. I love Fort McMurray. So I went out of my way to apply here first. Uh, but there's one place on the planet that if I could've got a job there, first I would have went and it's Hawaii. Oh yeah. If I would have, if somebody in Hawaii would have given me a job offer when I was 20, whatever, and I finished school, I would have said, sorry, Fort Mac. I love you. But Hawaii, that's a spot.
Speaker 3 00:10:26 I will 100% leave you for a job in Hawaii.
Speaker 0 00:10:28 I'll tell you that. And I would be okay with that. I would find out how to come with. Yeah, that's exactly it. All right, man. We're at the part of the show called the Mac city minute. This is Tanner segment. He's going to hit you up with some questions. Best of luck to you. Tanner Mac city, minute
Speaker 3 00:10:45 Question number one for you today. What is your favorite part of working with indigenous youth?
Speaker 2 00:10:52 Uh, prob I just love the kids like they are they're absolutely. They're so grateful. They are the best. Uh, yeah, that's, that's probably about it. They're just individually. They're awesome. Okay.
Speaker 3 00:11:05 Question number two. What has been your favorite part of your new job so far?
Speaker 2 00:11:12 Well, there's a lot. Uh, I know the people are pretty good. Uh, uh, you've had crystal and Eric on previously and they're both great, great people to work with. So I enjoy that
Speaker 3 00:11:28 Question. Number three. How do you use your post-secondary education in your current job?
Speaker 2 00:11:35 Uh, well this one is, uh, Hmm. Well, definitely like the background knowledge I have about the labor market, because we're, we're tackling like a very interesting economic problem that happens in any developed economy where it's called a structural unemployment. So what happens is you have people who are qualified for jobs that don't exist are there's a job shortage where there's other job shortages and the people don't have a skill sport. So we try and usher them into high growth, uh, careers and that's uh, so yeah, I guess just, uh, wrecking, recognizing that you can convey the importance of what we're doing a bit better. There you go.
Speaker 3 00:12:19 And your final question, what is your go-to Fort Mac snack?
Speaker 2 00:12:26 Ooh, I talked about that. Joel must pizza, but
Speaker 0 00:12:29 Like what I was, so when they're
Speaker 2 00:12:32 Doing their roles, a little things. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:12:36 And those have been your five questions. See,
Speaker 0 00:12:38 When I was growing up here, there, there that didn't exist. Those don't arrows. They weren't a thing. You got a brand new they're delicious. They're delicious. So like me personally, I'm not like I let like I'll crush a donor. Let's not, let's not get it twisted, but I prefer the donor pizza personally. I'm a donor pizza guy. And then I also like their wings and dependent on what's going on. I'm sometimes they go hot wings sometimes go, um, salt and pepper or, uh, just golden wings. But uh, yeah, when I eat, I throw down. So Joel misses your spot, is it? Yep. Okay. And you grew up in <inaudible> so yeah, obviously that's yours and it should be anyways. I've eaten all the Jonah's and I'm not going to tell you who's second, third, fourth place, but thick wood hands down to me, in my opinion is number one. And I live in Timberly now. So it's closer for me to go to Kimberly gentleman's, which I do. I'm just saying it's not my favorite. Sorry. Nobody's giving me any hate on that comment though. I've made it a lot and I haven't had any,
Speaker 3 00:13:36 Any surprises, nobody from gentleman's is reached out.
Speaker 0 00:13:39 Well, listen, when I go into thick with Joma because they know who I am now, and they're always happy to see me. So
Speaker 3 00:13:46 You don't get that same response in like Timberly
Speaker 0 00:13:49 Or no, I'm invisible. When I go into Timberlake, I wonder why that is maybe because I'm not putting them number one, billing, maybe a shoot me a smile. I'm going to put you in number one, billing. So anyways, right at the part of the show, my man, thank you very much. We're running out of time. You've definitely answered the max city minutes. The most articulate we've had a guest so far. So congratulations on that. Thank you. You crushed it. So the Mac city minute, you, your hall of fame, number one spot. But before we cut elucidate a shameless, shout out. This is your part of the show where you can say whatever, whoever you want, say hello to pump up anybody you want you're up.
Speaker 2 00:14:28 Oh, well definitely careers. Uh, the next generation, it's such an amazing program. Everyone should apply for it. Even if you kind of know what you want to do, or if you don't have no idea what you wanna do. Yeah. Definitely give it a shot. Uh, and yeah, especially, and our employer is of course, uh, we have lots of in town, but especially easing skin and hair care and uh, ACE cosmetics. Yeah. Yeah. I found them. So they hold a special
Speaker 0 00:14:55 Place. There you go. Love it. That's awesome, man. Cool. Awesome. Well, thank you very much for being on the show and uh, anytime you want to come back, come back and chat with us. You killed it today. Thank you. Appreciate it. Cool. All right. Well for McMurry wood, Buffalo, that's another episode of the Mac city morning show in the bag. Thank you very much for tuning in truly does mean the world to me. And we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.
Speaker 2 00:15:35 Talk about quenching your ugly thirst.
