Project Innovate: Recent Episodes
Project Innovate
Empowering business students with the tools they need to succeed by exploring the ever-evolving business world. Brought to you by the Innovative Business Association.
We're often bombarded with the phrase "busy is better." But busyness without direction can lead to burnout and stagnation. Prioritization is the compass that ensures our energy is channeled purposefully.
Imagine trying to solve a puzzle, not by looking at each piece in isolation, but by viewing the bigger picture. That’s the essence of design thinking. It’s about holistic solutions, not piecemeal fixes.
Self-reflection of the past, present and future can be beneficial for where you want your life to go. By utilizing the structure of 3 where's, this can help how you see yourself currently and where you want to see yourself in the future.
Join Fayez as he explores his journey from the start of Project Innovate to what the podcast has come to today!
*7:55 - Correction: April 2023.
Systems aren't just about efficiency. They're about crafting a life where time and energy are directed meaningfully, making the complex seem almost... effortless.
The age-old debate: quality vs. quantity. But what if I told you that one fuels the other? Instead of viewing them as separate entities, envision them as intertwined threads, each strengthening the other.
Imagine a meeting with the most crucial stakeholder of your life - you. Today, we delve into the transformative power of quarterly check-ins with oneself.
Have you ever heard the saying, "Show me your friends, and I'll show you your future"? The essence of our being often mirrors the community we surround ourselves with. But how much weight does this old adage truly carry? Dive in with us today as we explore the profound impact of community on our lives.
Creativity and innovation are critical for personal and professional success in today's fast-paced world. By tapping into your creative potential, you can generate breakthrough ideas, solve complex problems, and drive groundbreaking change.
Collaborative leadership is a style that emphasizes teamwork, open communication, and shared decision-making. By engaging and empowering team members, collaborative leaders create an environment that fosters innovation, strengthens relationships, and drives collective success.
Change: The Only Constant in Life and Business:
Change is inevitable in both our personal and professional lives. Learning to embrace and adapt to change is crucial for success, allowing us to seize new opportunities, overcome challenges, and stay ahead in a competitive landscape.
The Art of Persuasion: A Path to Success:
Persuasion is a powerful tool that can help you win over others, build stronger relationships, and achieve your goals. By understanding your audience, establishing credibility, utilizing persuasive techniques, and honing your communication skills, you can make a lasting impact and become a more effective influencer.
Time Management: The Key to Success:
Effective time management is essential for success in both your personal and professional life. By organizing and prioritizing your tasks, you can maximize your productivity, reduce stress, and make significant progress towards your goals.
In this episode, we go over five actionable steps to help you master time management and unlock your full potential.
Emotional Intelligence: The Foundation of Success.
Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to recognize, understand, and manage your own emotions and those of others. A high EQ can help you navigate challenging situations, build strong relationships, and make better decisions, all of which contribute to greater success in life and business.
Discover the power of emotional intelligence (EQ) to level up your personal and professional life. Take these steps:
- Know Yourself: Reflect on emotions, practice mindfulness, seek feedback.
- Manage Emotions: Stay composed, express feelings constructively, stay positive.
- Empathy Matters: Listen actively, read non-verbal cues, understand others' perspectives.
- Social Skills Win: Communicate effectively, resolve conflicts, build strong relationships.
- Real-Life Practice: Face EQ challenges, learn from experiences, commit to continuous growth.
Embracing failure is a crucial step towards personal and professional growth, transforming setbacks into opportunities for learning and development. By adopting a growth mindset and applying the lessons learned from failure, you can build resilience, improve your problem-solving skills, and ultimately, achieve greater success.
Mentorship is a powerful catalyst for growth and success, offering you the opportunity to learn from the experiences and perspectives of others. By embracing the power of mentorship, you can accelerate your personal and professional development, unlocking your full potential and enhancing your ability to navigate the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
Talk about a food coma, here's how I'd build a $100M condiment business step-by-step...
$0-$1M: Find Product-Market Fit 🤔
$1M-$10M: Scale the Deliverable 📈
$10M-$50M: Offer more sh*t & Professionalize the business 💼
$50M-$100M: Stick or Twist 💨
p.s: just for fun, thought I’d share my approach to building businesses. inspired by Alex Hormozi
Delegation: The Key to Success
Effective delegation not only allows you to focus on high-level tasks but also fosters a sense of ownership and responsibility among your team members. By entrusting them with essential tasks, you create an environment that promotes learning, development, and collaboration.
Intensity makes a good story. Consistency makes progress.
Intensity makes for an exciting story, highlighting moments of extreme effort and breakthroughs. However, it's consistency – the steady, deliberate practice of good habits – that truly drives progress and lasting results.
Between the beginning and the end of any journey, you'll encounter the mundane middle – the repetitive, seemingly boring tasks that, when done consistently, lead to the results you're looking for. It's crucial to identify these tasks and commit to doing them regularly, even when they seem mundane.
Don't limit yourself to being a "one-trick pony"; instead, strive to be a versatile professional who can artfully and gracefully apply their skills across various domains.
In this pod, we go over 4 comprehensive steps to help you develop a diverse skill set and embrace the generalist mindset.
Exploring the truth about networking in the real world and how you can be uncommon in the face of mediocrity.
This episode was previously recorded in April 2023.
Is what you want right now what you will want in 5-10 years? Enter progression bias and how to hack it for success.
Learn how to supercharge your internship search in less than 5 steps from your host, Fayez Shaikh!
Here’s Hanna, in a nutshell:
- Building Patco Cafe: Patco Cafe is currently an online coffee shop that began as a way to share and connect with others. The shop holds collaborations and pop-ups every now and then! In the near future, the team hopes to
- She believes in putting my best foot forward in everything, putting in 100% effort in all I do.
- Her main goal is to be able to make a positive impact on those around me every day whether it be physically, mentally, or professionally.
- In her spare time, you'll find her working on side projects, either by herself or in groups with others!
Welcome to the Project Innovate Podcast where we empower students to think like founders and drive change by bridging the gaps between theoretical concepts taught in class and the practical skills required and demanded in order to navigate the business world today. I hope you guys enjoy, subscribe, rate and review our podcast!
Here’s Stephanie, in a nutshell:
- 3x Webby Award-winning speaker, writer, producer, engineer, and developer content guru.
- As a leader at Google, her mission to blend storytelling and technology to create remarkable online developer content. She brings a unique combination of technical expertise, world-class public-speaking skills, sales and marketing expertise, and the ability to lead organizational change.
- At Google, she’s created over 500 videos, blogs, courses, tutorials, and podcasts that have helped developers learn fundamentals, solve their toughest challenges, and pass certifications all around the world.
- She’s the writer and creator of Google Cloud Youtube series like Eyes on Enterprise, Networking end-to-end, and Season of Scale.
- Look closer, you might recognize her as the host of the weekly Google Cloud Platform Podcast
- She comes from humble beginnings, born and raised in San Francisco, she’s active in her community, fiercely supporting women in tech and mentoring students.
- Award-winning Speaker. Engineer. Creator.
- Talks about #ai, #ml, #kubernetes, #googlecloud, and #cloudcomputing
Luki’s purpose is to help you find yours! He is a career coach who wants to help you find meaning and purpose in the work you do. If you're a bootcamp or computer science grad looking to land your first job, you know the job-search process can be tough this is where Luki comes in! Whether you need help with your resume, interview prep, networking skills, LinkedIn, overall soft-skills, confidence, or finding your purpose.
He has "been there, and done that", starting out as a stereotypical shy-introverted computer scientist, then moved out of his comfort-zone into management consulting, then found his "calling" to be a career-coach who teaches effective communication and how to network, among other things! Luki is the founder of Focus Inspired, which aims to provide career success for all...By weaving mentorship into the fabric of society...Their view is that the world has so much untapped potential simply by unlocking strengths and having people grow. With a little bit of FOCUS, we can help you be INSPIRED with your job to make it a career and eventually find your calling.
They share SIWIKE "Stuff I Wish I Knew Earlier": their experience in recruiting, lessons learned from working in industry, and sharing perspectives and practical activities based on research. He is also a published author of "Stuff I Wish I Knew Earlier: How to unlock your career potential" for young professionals.
Join us in this episode to learn about some of the career exploring tips that you can apply on your journey!
Listen to the second half of the episode featuring James Costa once again as he talks about a typical day in the life of a product manager, some other product career opportunities and the future of working from remote!
James is a senior product leader focused on building products that people want and growing teams that people want to work on. With over 13 years of product experience with scaleups and enterprises, he brings a product practice that balances human-centric design and data-informed execution to develop real, forward-looking strategies. He has worked as a product manager at various roles as well as exercising his entrepreneurial muscle in the startup space in building Phuse: design services focused on building the future of web and mobile for companies across aerospace, education, pharma, and beyond. He’s a mentor at ADP list, as well as a chapter co-lead at APM Toronto.
Listen to the first half of the episode to learn about product management and how to break into product management!
Marie-Philippe Généreux is currently completing her fourth and final year at the University of Toronto in the Digital Enterprise Management Specialist program. Born and raised in Montréal, Marie moved to Toronto at the age of 19 to challenge herself and step out of her comfort zone and crossed a language barrier as a French speaker. She is incredibly passionate about communication & marketing. A few of her accomplishments include being a TV actress during her teenage years, launching a bilingual podcast called the Xtra Mile Podcast, negotiating sponsorships for student associations, and freelancing in graphic design and digital marketing. She believes people are the most important aspect of any organization. And with that belief, she strives to meet new people, hear new perspectives and learn from others. As far as a career, she feels that she belongs in an organization where she can utilize out-of-the-box thinking and effective communication skills to lead simultaneous projects and teams at once. She strives to be creative and contribute to projects that have a long-lasting impact.
Listen to this episode to get to know her experience with digital branding, business consulting, recruiting strategy and communication strategy!
Samina is a Tech & Business Enthusiast | Marketing Consultant | Communications Team Lead at UTM Office of the Registrar | Campus Manager at Amazon | Student Advisor at SPC | and Mentor at ICCIT. Experienced Marketing Specialist and Content Creator with demonstrated skills in leadership, brand management, sales, project management, web design, management, digital marketing, strategizing, planning, ideation, graphic design, social media management, advertising, public speaking, photography and videography. A strong leader with experience in managing teams, leading projects and achieving growth. A tech enthusiast interested in the telecom industry. Graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree focused in Digital Enterprise Management from the University of Toronto.
Hasan Raouf is a fourth-year student at the University of Toronto, Mississauga. He is President at the Innovative Business Association, and Vice-President at the Pre-Law Organization. He is pursuing a Bachelors of Commerce - more specifically, a specialist in Finance, a major in economics, and a minor in law.
Additionally, he works in Personal Banking at TD.
Walk through Hasan's journey as he unmasks tips and guidance on what it's like to be a leader, balancing three different degrees, finding a purpose to keep driving forward, and how to manage constantly being ahead.
Ahmed Abdullah is a 2nd year Digital Enterprise Management Student at the University of Toronto, Mississauga.
He is the founder and CEO of Vinyl Imprint, which is a customized apparel business that sells everything from sweaters to masks. In fact, Vinyl Imprint has sold over 10,000 pieces! On the side, Abdullah also currently works at TD Bank.
Listen to us through this episode where we navigate how he took textbook concepts and translated them to the real life skills demanded by the business field today!
Stacey Speranza is a 3rd year Bachelor of Commerce student graduating in May 2023 from the University of Toronto. She will be joining Molson Coors as a marketing intern this summer and worked for Neslté Canada last summer!
Until graduation, Stacey is learning business fundamentals through the Rotman program at the University of Toronto specializing in Strategy & Innovation as well as Financial Statement Analysis with a minor in Economics.
On the side, Stacy interviews female trailblazers for her podcast, The Business Casual, which is currently being streamed in over 45 countries and aims to help young ambitious female leaders around the world grow both professionally and personally.
Prieeyya Kaur Kesh is the Founder & CEO of Our Wave Hub. Our Wave Hub is a Canadian educational technology (ed-tech) company & strategic advisory practice that was born out of a vision to reimagine education. They enable people and organizations to navigate a rapidly changing workforce because as we know it, our education and training systems are not fully equipped to keep up with the exponential rate at which technology is changing our lives. In an era of double disruption to jobs (caused by COVID-19 and technology adoption), there is an immense opportunity to be innovative, collaborative and agile in the development of talent for the future of work. Our Wave Hub is working to bridge the skills gap between a displaced and emerging workforce, and the in-demand skills employers are looking to hire for.
Empowering business students with the tools they need to succeed by exploring the ever-evolving business world! Brought to you by the Innovative Business Association.