The Problem You Are Solving

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Understanding what problem are you trying to solve. And if you understand what problem you're trying to solve, then your idea will go a lot of places.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

Welcome to another episode of Sell Me This Podcast. This week we're joined by Moose Abel, the founder of Struggle is Your Success in QA Enterprises. We have a fascinating conversation about the power of struggle in building businesses, the journey that Moose took in not only starting a not-for-profit, but also transitioning that into a successful tech enterprise. I hope you enjoy the episode. Welcome to another episode of Sell Me This Podcast. I feel like this is one of the episodes that I've been looking forward to most all year. And I am incredibly excited to have with me Moose. Um, Moose, I feel like you don't need an introduction, but uh why don't you uh give us a 30-second overview of who you are and um how everyone knows you here?

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Sure, yeah, man. First of all, it's uh it's a great honor to be on this podcast. So sell me this podcast is is it's very intriguing. Yeah, so everyone who knows me, my name is Moose Sap, but people call me Moose. That's my professional name. Uh I'm a two-time founder, entrepreneur, disruptor, community, um, community engager, communicator, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

I feel like that's the that's the understatement of the year. I feel like there hasn't been an event I've been to in the last year that you haven't also been there. Right. Um, and I feel like you're you're infamous, and I feel like you you didn't use your your uh line, which is the only moose in Canada.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Yeah, I didn't yeah, I am the only moose in Canada, so people will not forget that, but I did not use my mind this time. Yeah, yeah. There you go. I got to steal it from you. So you got to steal it from me. That's good.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

You know what? That's a big honor to be able to steal your words from you.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Absolutely, man. I appreciate this.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

Amazing. So I'm super excited to have you on the show today. I feel like we have infinity things to talk about. Yeah. Um, but I I just want to dive right in. Um, you have such a fascinating story. Yeah. And I feel like that story has led you um to some do some really incredible things. Absolutely. Um but for the people that that don't know you the way that that I do or some of the other folks in the community do, um, you know, how did how did you arrive um where you are today?

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Yeah, absolutely. My my journey was was is an interesting journey. So I'm a first generation immigrant, uh, Calgarian, of course. So um grew up in Canada, grew up in Calgary, uh here, and then also uh throughout my life, um I had some some difficult times, right, growing up, right? So um I come from divorced parents, of course, right? Uh shout out to mom, shout out to dad. Um, but I also come from intergenerational trauma. Uh I come from pain, I come from s a lot of struggles, I come from uh being on a very, very dark path. Um uh I come from bullying, uh a lot of interesting stuff. But uh those struggles have led me to who I am today as a uh as a tech leader, as an entrepreneur, as a social entrepreneur from the uh social impact side, and just being, you know, being that authentic voice and also understanding, you know, we all go through trials and tribulations in our lives, and using struggle is something good, and it can be a mechanism for something great.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

So I love that framing, and and I think that there's so many people that especially now try to live their lives without discomfort. And so, even you know, without getting too um you know thoughtful over here, there's you know, if you think about everything from like Uber Eats to Uber, and I I feel like maybe I'll try to find an example that isn't Uber, but like everything is so easy right now. You know, Amazon delivers everything to your doorstep. What is it about struggle that you think actually makes uh you know someone come out the other side better?

SPEAKER_00 4:19

A lot of things, you know, uh a lot of things. Uh what about struggle? Rejection, failing, failing in school, um, bullying, intergenerational trauma, um, imposter syndrome imposter syndrome, um not having that sense of belonging, uh dying to fit in in a community, right? Um racism, discrimination, um always trying to explain yourself, right? Um these are all struggles that all of us go through, but we never looked at how we can use these struggles, and it can be um a fireball for us or a motivator for us to do incredible things.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

So it sounds like you almost you you run towards that struggle, right? And some of them it sounds like are chosen, some of them are things that probably happen to you along the way. But did you always have the outlook that the the struggle was something you were going to embrace and run into? Is it something that you learned? Like it's such a a valuable mindset, um, but not everyone has so like how how did you develop that?

The Sudan Trip That Changed Everything

SPEAKER_00 5:38

I didn't develop it, I lived the struggle, I lived the poverty, uh, I lived the rejections, I've been in situations where I've been fired before. I've been in situations where um I was dying to fit in in a community, and I've been in situations where um overlooked and uh yeah, tough situations and being on a very, very bad path, right? And then surviving some serious dark path, um, and being caught up with the wrong crowd, um drugs, violence, things like that. Yeah, it's not that something that I developed, but when you survive these struggles, you look at yourself where you are someone privileged, God has given you a second chance, and you are obligated to do right. So for me, my wake-up call was I don't want to live this life, I don't want to be in poverty anymore, I don't want to be in struggles anymore, I don't want to be uh in pain anymore, right? So what happened? Mentorship. I was directed by a friend that I needed to go back home, and back home was Sudan for me. And going back home as a Canadian, seeing a third world country, how people were on a survival mindset, I looked at myself and was like, wow, I have all the resources. Uh and living in a first world country with access to education, access to clean water, access to communities that want to help, I should do something with this. And that's where it kind of sparked for the work that I do today.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

Unbelievable. And so so that perspective really sounds like it was the gift that was the catalyzer for you to kind of move from A to B. Um and is it fair to say, kind of change some things in your life and um and and start to move forward from that point?

First Jobs And A Career In Tech

SPEAKER_00 7:55

Yeah, absolutely. So after my journey from Sudan, going back home, seeing my my my mother, and seeing uh how communities and seeing the youth out there, they're on survival mode, and they were building, you know, side hustles out of nothing, and they were, you know, and they're they were very smiling and they were very happy and they're they have that motivation and fire. I I I came back and and I said that I want to do something great, I want to do something empowerful, um, and then I started this not-for-profit. And then my journey, um, so I was a youth at risk at the time, right? And then overcoming becoming a youth at risk. Um, I got myself worked in tech, so my career started off at Staples, right? So selling laptops and then from there being promoted, uh fixing motherboards and uh, you know, building uh uh not building them, uh installing software, you know, uh Windows, right? Um, and then from there it's a Shaw and now and then all of that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 9:02

So the the rest of the story kind of wrote itself.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

Yeah, it kind of reversed itself, right? So and then yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

Yeah, I feel like everyone looks so back so fondly on the kind of that first job for me. Um Wendy's Wendy's was my first job, so not quite as tech adjacent.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

Um and and so was was Staples kind of your first um so job in that sense?

SPEAKER_00 9:24

Yeah, so my first job was two actually. Your Wendy's, it was McDonald's and staples, so with two part-time jobs, those were my two for uh first part-time jobs. Um and yeah, just that I I got in love with tech, yeah, right, and you know, just took my career from there from Staples. I left McDonald's from Staples, went to Shaw from Shaw, um worked at uh HP, and then from HP, the rest of the street. Keep on going. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, like HP syncruit for McMurray. Right. So it's it's a lot, and then um, and then my last job, and then first first Calgary Financial, um, and then I think WBM, and then uh yeah. I think my last tech job was WBM Technologies, was oh, actually, sorry, ATT Windsor, Detroit. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

Oh my goodness. Well, I feel like you've you've created your own tech job. Right. So you're you're still working in that space. Well, what is it about tech that you love so much?

SPEAKER_00 10:30

What is it about tech? Um, it's fascinating on how things can be disrupted, but also we use tech to make our lives a lot better, right? To increase productivity, to increase efficiency, to uh have proper uh data, clean data, right? And you can see everything, and yeah, so I love tech. I love tech, I love tech gadgets, all that stuff, but then my heart, my passion, I was like, ah, uh, I live my life in the corporate world. Let me go back and you know, that spark that you know inspired me from my trip to Sudan to come back is oh, let me start a not-for-profit and let me get my hands wet in the nonprofit space and let me do this thing, you know.

Building Struggle Is Your Success

SPEAKER_02 11:28

So well, and and I think that you know, I I know we we briefly cross paths at WBM, but you know, I I think when we really first got to know each other, and I don't even know if you knew that that I was in the room at this point, but I was at a uh Innovate Calgary not-for-profit breakfast at the science center when you did um one of your first talks of struggle as your success. Right, right. And and with three years ago, yeah, that was and and I was blown away by the by the story, by the vulnerability, by by the work and purpose of what you were doing. Yeah. Um, so if you were to share with our listeners the work that you're doing with struggles or success, what is the what is the mission that you're on and kind of what does that work entail?

SPEAKER_00 12:11

So the mission is that so what is struggles or success? Struggle is your success is an in is an innovative not-for-profit that focuses on entrepreneurial skills for BIPOC youth at risk youth, uh, the ones who are incarcerated in the justice system, but also the ones who are failing in community. So the ones who are dropping out of university, the ones who are dropping out of high school, the ones who are who are lost, you know, don't have a proper path, don't have proper mentorship. So we teach entrepreneurial skills through an innovative flagship program called called Dream It, Plan It, Build It. What's the dream, what's the plan, and how are you going to build? So yeah, um, that's it. We've we've impacted, I think, surpassed 500 plus kids to date, right? Um yeah, and and the mission is not to leave a youth behind, is our number one mission. The vision is to really teach these youth who are struggling the entrepreneurial skill sets through their talents so they can build something that's tangible with a proper outcome that they can lean on and also use that talent to go back to academia and become the best of versions of their of themselves.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

I I love it. Is there is there a specific a age group you're working with? Are these people that are kind of um at the age of where they're starting to be able to make some of those entrepreneurial choices? Yeah. Are they at a fork in the road? Like what's the what's the kind of age group range range or 14 to 29 is our is is the demographic. Okay, so it's it's pretty broad on that front, but people that can can really take those skills you're teaching them and then have the ability to run with them at that point.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Yeah, absolutely, 100%. And we've seen we've seen the the impact, we've seen um stories, man. There's so many stories that are on LinkedIn. One of our graduate is now a top 20 under 20 uh Avenue magazine uh alumni. Yeah, yeah. Then we also have um another youth who was featured on ATV's website, and he's building animations. And so we get we we work with a lot of organizations. We get referrals from Alberta Health Services, CPS, um uh community associations such as PMAST, peer remediation and skills training, and momentum, you know, all incredible uh non-for-profits that that they have these youth and they like, hey, we need SIYS to come in and you know bring bridge that gap because we we have we use that lens of trauma-informed practices, but also that on entrepreneurial spark, right? Right and that entrepreneurial spirit.

SPEAKER_02 15:12

And and so are are you leading those courses yourself?

SPEAKER_00 15:16

I was. I was uh uh about four months ago I stopped doing facilitation, right? So now I have a team of uh facilitators that run the program. Uh matter of fact, today we have uh uh we're graduating ten kids, and then uh on Friday the 27th, March 27th, yeah, in Eridry at Community Links. We're graduating another 10 kids, so it's incredible.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

You must be so proud.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

Very social impact, social good, very it warms my heart. Me going to bed is changing one life at a time and showing the value proposition in the you in a youth is is is beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

I love it. Did did you imagine that it would reach the stage? Like 500 um people impacted is you know an incredible incredible societal impact. Yeah. Um, and I know that each one of those five hundred has their own individual story as well. And you know, you shared a few of them, but in your wildest dreams when you were setting out um and kind of incubating the SIYS program, did you think it would be here?

SPEAKER_00 16:24

SLS was founded in 2012. Yeah. Okay, so from 2012 all the way to 2021, I was trying to figure this thing out. Yeah, it was just a passion. Something that I love. From 2021, we registered the not-for-profit in 2021, then we partnered with another organization. I did not know that it would have this massive impact. I would not be where I am without the non-profit leaders. There's so many names that I would like to mention uh on this podcast, but I can't mention all of them.

SPEAKER_02 16:59

You don't want to do your Oscar speech where you actually miss someone. Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

I think I think uh there was Eminem mentioned um uh he won a Grammy and he mentioned all you know 120 rappers. Uh but for in this case for me, I am grateful for every nonprofit leader, volunteer, board member, and judge who judged our program, I would not be without them. Absolutely without I could not do this without them.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

That's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

The credit goes to them 100%.

SPEAKER_02 17:33

And and I I think that even that spirit of gratitude and the spirit of the community, you know, even before the show we were talking about Calgary as a community and just the the openness to have everyone help each other.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Yeah, man. Yeah, man. Calgary, Calgary, Calgary's ecosystem is people want to learn, people want to listen, people want to have that coffee, people are inspired. You know, changing Calgary's name from Cowtown, I think, to Blue Sky City. Yeah, I think Calgary Economic Development has done a great job uh in calling it Blue Sky City because you know the sky's not the limit, man. You know, it's it's always blue, it's always bright, it's always great, right, to to to impact. And everybody wants to have a coffee and want to learn, so yeah, yeah, it's beautiful.

Scale Through Community And Partnerships

SPEAKER_02 18:27

It it is, and and you know, I don't think there's a whole bunch of stuff I want to unpack, and the not-for-profit that you've built is is only one chunk of it. But just to kind of um you know end on this point, if we think about the the impact, are are you only in Calgary right now, or are you only in the so now we're in Calgary and area, so now SIS is embedded in Calgary with a lot of male partner partnerships with with SIYS, but now we're delivering programs in Eritre, and now we're eventually hopefully seeking a partnership with the city of Edmonton, um, on the justice side, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:01

So to help the youth there. Um, and yeah, my intention is to have this as uh a registered charity, right? So it will be SIS society very soon, um, and it becomes a national organization, right? Uh for entrepreneurial skills for the underserved uh uh youth who who need it the most.

How Listeners Can Support The Work

SPEAKER_02 19:27

And and yeah, I love love the path that you're on. If if there was one ask that you had of our listeners, right? And so if there was something where you know there there's uh a slow but steady growing number of people that listen to the show, um if you were to ask for for help or for um something from them, is is there anything that comes to mind that that they could contribute to um to the work?

SPEAKER_00 19:49

Yes, absolutely. So besides every not-for-profit is always asking for money, right? And donations, right? Uh in this spirit, I would we're looking for volunteers, we're looking for uh uh volunteer facilitators, we're also looking for um leaders who can be entrepreneurial judges, right, that can witness the program. I think not everything is money, yeah, right? It's social impact, community impact. When you see the value proposition, I think then the donation will come automatically. So, yes, hey, do you do you want to do that? Right, do you want to donate to SIYS? Yes, please. If you know, uh if you want to fund us, yes, please reach out to me. I'm happy to have a conversation. But beyond that, we actually really want to help these kids. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:45

I I I love it, and I I think that's an incredible path that you're on there.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Appreciate you, man.

Launching QA Enterprises For Ethical AI

SPEAKER_02 20:50

So so pivoting a little bit to the other side of this. So um people though that don't know. I know that's why you feel like I know you and I with this chat because you're you're kind of known as the the guy that's building this incredible not-for-profit, but there's a whole other side of it.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Whole other side.

SPEAKER_02 21:04

And and so if we um I was about to make like a Batman two-phase joke, but that maybe maybe has more evil implications than planned. Um, you're not Harvey Dent. Um, what is the other side of Moose?

SPEAKER_00 21:16

The other side is is Moose is a is a technologist. Okay, I'm a tech guy. Right.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

So we moved on from Staples.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

Yeah, so moved on from Staples to Shaw to Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:31

So what are you what are you doing today then?

SPEAKER_00 21:34

What am I doing today? Yeah, so so you're a tech guy and yeah, I'm yeah, so from Staples, all all these jobs that I did in tech. Um, so I'm a tech entrepreneur. I I started an artificial consultancy firm called Quality Amalgamation, QA Enterprises, where we implement responsible ethical AI implementation. And automation is what we do, right? So uh why quality amalgamation if you look at all the AI tools, right? They all talk to each other, right? So it's amalgamating these tools so they can be integrated within your current stack and your current um tech uh portfolio and making sure that you're using AI in an ethical manner. So being a technologist as service desk and tier one, tier two, tier three, and then all the way to um becoming working on SAP and CRMs and ERP systems, you know, it was very easy for me to learn artificial intelligence, right? Because you know, I understand GPUs, I understand, you know, all of the Windows implementations. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:55

So I feel like I'm gonna start an acronym swear driver for you here.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:00

I I I I so that's very interesting. So you um launched QA Enterprises, yeah. And so what are some of the big problems that you know that you're solving for customers, that you're solving as you talk to people about AI and as you're building?

Data Risks And AI Governance Basics

SPEAKER_00 23:14

So um, so QA Enterprises was started in November 2022. I think it was right after Open AI uh started. Um I in terms of businesses, we haven't like really worked with a lot of businesses, but you know me as I I go out and network with a lot of people. I've seen a lot of people really don't understand how to talk to AI in an ethical, responsible manner. What does that mean? That means prompting. They don't know how to generate correct prompts, they don't know understand the ethics of prompt engineering, and there's a lot of fear and stigma, right? Banks don't want to use AI, or they have their internal process, they don't want an outside consultant. Education and AI literacy is not available, or if it is available, it's it's there, but it's also confusing on how to adapt in your current business. So what QA does is we amalgamate these AI tools, but we also educate in an ethical manner and really understand how you talk to AI. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

So it's it's really around like where you're finding value is in that connection point between the the people and the technology and and how that actual physical interaction happens of saying, okay, I'd like you to generate a report, I'd like you to do this. Hey, maybe you shouldn't put your entire employees' uh health information, which you probably shouldn't have anyways, uh, you shouldn't, right? Yeah. Into uh you know Chat GBT free version.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

Not hell, yeah. Health health information is a big massive no-no. Uh financial statements on Chat GBT and Gemini is a massive no-no. You gotta be careful where your data uh you're sending your data to and who owns that data, right? Governance practices are are are also uh a massive issue in Calgary's ecosystem and and and across abroad, right? So um prompting.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:23

Prompting. I've seen I've seen people uh where I visit their offices, they have Chat GBT open and they're just writing sentence after sentence, sentence after sentence, and they're always trying to think and become creative on how to talk to AI. So there's there's um there's ways to talk to it in a very responsible manner.

SPEAKER_02 25:43

And so if you were to distill some of those ways into a couple like really pointed takeaways that that someone could say, okay, here's three things, you know, that that Moose has said that I can start doing tomorrow, um, what recommendations would you have?

SPEAKER_00 25:58

So when it comes to so let's let's before we go into the three the three basics of uh and the three the three basics and the three takeaways of prompting. I think people need to understand what is prompt engineering. In simple words, prompt engineering is how to talk to AI and how to talk to machine learning in an ethical, responsible manner. That's number one. Okay. Now, when it comes to prompt engineering, right, there's I'll give you an example. A good a good prompt and a bad prompt. Here's a bad prompt. Tell AI, write me about dogs. That's a bad prompt. Write me about dogs, it's not specific. Okay. But then a good prompt is write me about dogs or uh no, write me about dogs in terms of their, you know, the type of food that they want, right? Specific foods, right? I think the keywords need to be very selective. So the three takeaways is basically garbage in, garbage out. Whatever you give AI, it'll you give it good uh you know, you give it bad garbage, it will give you bad results, right? You give it good prompts, good keywords, it will give you good results. So that's number one. And number two, I think before you you really talk to AI, you need to put a strategy framework, right? A strategy framework around like a small one pager on what do you want AI to do for you? What do you want it to solve? What do you want it to automate? Right? Right, have that written, write it, write it in a Word document, half a page, right? What do you want AI to solve? I want it to automate my emails. Okay, perfect. You want it to automate your emails. How are you going to do that? What do you want it to do? Right? And then break down these three strategy frameworks, and then from there use these keywords and inject them into AI.

SPEAKER_02 28:14

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

Yeah, so that's that's two. And then the last one would be is getting practice right in prompt engineering. Start using a lot of keywords, right? Specific keywords. Like if you ask me in a moose, okay, I love your three takeaways. What are the what give me an example of of keywords that I can use? Use words like outcomes, use words like deliverables, use words like strategy, use words like um sustainability, deployment, right? Those these words will give AI a very powerful way for it to give you a proper result and a proper report. But if you're using words that are like help me understand or help me, you know, words that are like not very deep, it will it won't give you the the the keywords that you want.

SPEAKER_02 29:13

So just to um kind of repeat back to you just to make sure I understand what you're saying properly, really being pointed around the finish line that you want the AI to cross.

SPEAKER_00 29:22

Yeah, what's the finish line?

SPEAKER_02 29:24

And say, okay. Like I I've heard a couple of different frameworks, right? Like the one that I I think that I've heard pop up more and more is I think it's called the race framework, which is you know, responsibility, uh accountability, context, and uh endpoint. Yeah. So like what is the re what is the response? Like what is the uh I want you to act as if you are uh my AI advisor. Um here's the accountability, here's the context, supporting documents, supporting et cetera, et cetera. And then here's how I know you're done. What's what's the endpoint? Yeah, well what you're saying.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

Yeah, yeah. What's the end point? I think actually I even have it here written. Um so set the set the stage or set the tone. All right, yeah. Set the stage, set the tone to AI. Shape the output. Garbage in, garbage out, yeah, good input, good output. Three, iterate and optimize. Right? Keep it keep iterating and keep optimizing, right, into a solution that AI can solve for you. Yeah, so yeah, that's a little bit about QA and then my working around QA. So yeah.

Mini Techies And AI-Powered STEM Learning

SPEAKER_02 30:31

I think that there's there's 400 more things I could ask there, but I just for the sake of time today, too, want to um pivot onto the education side. So I'm I'm seeing a little bit of a uh common trend um in terms of education, both through QA and the struggle of success work you're doing. And I think from that you've actually launched an education platform. Yes, I did. Um that it sounds like it almost ties those two worlds together.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

Yes, so uh let's talk about you know uh the work that I do from a social impact perspective and the work that I do around AI. The youth that we graduate, we see them that they they have no access to education, but they want to be engineers, they want to, they want to be doctors, they want to learn financial outcomes and financial literacy, all that stuff. So, um, but because of their their situation, they can't go to school, they can't get a job, you know, and some of them have dyslexia and all that stuff. So I looked at it, I was like, I did a research, and I was like, is there anything around STEM, science, technology, engineering, and math for youth, but leveraging AI? I couldn't find anything. We wanted to create something that's very powerful, very easy, and very digestible. So then I came up with mini techies. So mini techies is STEM education, it's a STEM education education platform, uh, turning your screen time into your into uh turning your screen time into skill time, right, using AI avatars and AI tutors.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

Very cool. So what is what does that mean if I if I don't quite understand what an AI avatar or AI tutor is, like what how do you describe it?

SPEAKER_00 32:22

So it's a it's a gamified platform, right, where youth can download the app, learn science, technology, engineering, and math, right, led by an AI a custom AI avatar, cool, right? And a custom AI tutor, right? From real source Alberta curriculum that's injected, and that and it's gamified learning, where the they take the curriculum that's embedded in the into the app and it turns it into a game, and then they start playing these gamified uh categories into the app. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:57

That that's incredible. I feel I I saw you do the reads you were but here's the the real time demo. We'll make sure we put a link in it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So notes. But you know, I I agree with with what you're saying there too, where the the promise with AI, um, especially in the education space, is that it doesn't have to be a classroom of one to twenty or thirty or four hundred, which seems to be on the path we're on. You know, you can really create a one-to-one customized experience based on how that individual learns.

SPEAKER_00 33:25

Right. So we launched an MVP, it's downloadable now. Um, it's downloadable on uh on the App Store. We got approved through the App Store, we gotta prove through Google Play Store, so it's downloadable, people can check it out. It's a minimal viable product, it has one game in it, right, which is technology, right? So build me a rocket, you know, uh things like that. Um, and then it's schamified reinforcement learning for these youth that don't have access to education for underserved populations, and it's also available for everyone, so it's not a target, uh specific target demographic, but I see these youth they're good they're glued to their phones, they're really glued to their phones. So we're turning screen time into uh skill time using a parental dashboard. So in terms of privacy, there's no no worries there. Um parents can look at their their kids what type of game they're playing, but it's all uh all based out of a curriculum. And then we have I I do want to do a shout out to Dr. DeAndre Wilson. She has a PhD in uh in STEM, and she's uh doing a research paper on mini techies um to get that out and and get it publicized. So very cool. Yeah.

Design Thinking Over Pure Creativity

SPEAKER_02 34:47

So I I have to ask, with with the evolutions in AI, and if you think about you know, even the ease now to develop you know some of these MVPs and use some of these technologies to really make ideas come true, how has that started to find its way into the work you're doing with struggles or success? Because if you think about, you know, and this is a conversation that we seem to have a lot right now, too, with the only barrier right now is creativity. The the technology actually is not the barrier anymore. Nope. The ability to dream up things, the ability to see new patterns and connect new ideas, that's the novel idea and novel component of it. Not necessarily the execution of building the app, building the website, building the platform. And so is there an optimism as you're going through these entrepreneurship cohorts with what technology can do for a lot of um you know underserved communities or people that might not have had the same access to resources before?

SPEAKER_00 35:47

Yes, 100%. I think you're absolutely right. The barrier is not technology, you can build anything today, anything, any platform. You can use clawed code, cloud codecs, right? And you know, prompt engineering, and it builds your platform in no time, right? So um I think the issue is more than creativity, more than um just coming up with an idea. I think there's uh there's an issue where people really need to understand design thinking, right? You know, design thinking and how to be innovative, right? How can you become someone different? A lot of people everyone has a great idea, but some some great ideas don't become sustainable, and some ideas fall off, right? But how can you become innovative? And the best way to become innovative is really understanding design thinking practices. And what is design thinking practices is how to understand how to be empathetic, sympathetic, prototype, test, and evaluate, right? Understanding what problem are you trying to solve, and if you understand what problem you're trying to solve, then your idea will go a lot of places.

SPEAKER_02 37:11

That makes a lot of sense to me. Do you do you think that some of the struggles um either that you've had or that your students have had, um, or leaning into those struggles breeds more creativity and kind of novel ways to look at differences, um, solutions or scenarios?

SPEAKER_00 37:32

Yes and no. Um some of them breeds a lot of creativity, but some of them breeds a lot of literacy, lack of education, lack of some of these youth never used a laptop before, right? So there's a there's an education gap. So what SOS is we're trying to use that entrepreneurial skills, right, to replace that education gap and say, hey, okay, you never used a computer before. No problem. Here's where you can use Canva AI. Right? What's your dream? My dream is to you know build a marketing agency. Okay, let's leverage Canva AI. All you need, you know, it's just write a sentence and it does things for you. And then you can edit with the colors. So it's how to become very creative, but also very innovative at the same time to reduce that barrier of a youth who never used a laptop before in his life, doesn't even know how to open Windows or the start menu or how to shut down a computer. Right? So we bridge those gaps. So it's a yes and no answer, but leaders like yourself, like deliver digital, would be a perfect fit for SIS to come in and you know solve that literacy piece, right? Other organizations that are, you know, like uh uh yeah, there's multiple, like DeAndre Wilson, Tech Helps, Charles McCann, all those leaders.

Start Sooner And Find Moose Online

SPEAKER_02 39:07

Yeah, so you're a fascinating person. I could ask a bajillion questions. Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Um is there is there any kind of final words of wisdom? Like if you were to think about where you are today, the things that you've achieved, the things that you've built, um, the the hurdles you've had to jump over to get there, is there specific advice like if you look back at Moose fifteen, twenty years ago? Is there specific advice that you'd give yourself um knowing what you know now?

SPEAKER_00 39:43

Yes, I would give uh advice for to me why did I not start sooner?

SPEAKER_02 39:51

I I love it. Well anything else you'd want to add to that?

SPEAKER_00 39:54

Yeah, why I never started sooner, why I I I didn't find the proper resources and mentorship. You know, if I started sooner I would be in a different place right now, but I'm also grateful for the journey of taking that pain, taking those struggles, and turning into something uh that will be an everlasting legacy for Calgary and for Albertans. It's beyond myself.

SPEAKER_02 40:30

I I think that's a wonderful way to wrap up. Um, Moose, if someone wanted to track you down, find you, hopefully in a positive way, not like a creepy way. Um what's what's the best way to get in touch with you?

SPEAKER_00 40:42

I think the best way to get in touch with me is on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is my jam, Instagram is not. You can find me on Instagram, right?

SPEAKER_02 40:51

A couple more lifestyle photos and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 40:53

Yeah, about lifestyle photos, sure. Um, but LinkedIn's where it's at for me. Um, shoot me a message. Happy to make a coffee and happy to support, you know. I've I've had people who supported me. I'm grateful for them. I had people like yourself who was giving me an opportunity and a platform to share this voice. So I would love to give it back. You know, I would love to give it back and I'd love to uh open some doors for the ones who want to learn and want to build great things.

SPEAKER_02 41:25

Amazing. Thank you so much for coming on the show today, Moose. Thanks, man. It's it's been a pleasure, a long time coming, and so glad we were able to have this conversation.

SPEAKER_00 41:32

Yeah, yeah. Cool.

SPEAKER_02 41:33

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