Archive for category: Uncategorized

Rostie and Associates is now hiring a sales professional who has experience in recruitment as well as exceptional negotiation and communications skills. If you’re searching for a stimulating and rewarding career in a fast paced environment, please send us your resume for review: rostie@rostie.com

 

This month our posting by Mahtot Gebresselassie of Outlier Plan focuses on how Toastmasters, a leading communications and leadership skills program that can help you become a better communicator.  One of the services Outlier Plan provides is facilitation, which requires advanced skills of communications.  Happy reading! The late actor George Jessel once said, “The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public”. A lot of people would agree with that statement as the fear of public speaking plagues a significant percentage of the population. Perhaps you are one of those who suffer from it and worry that it could impact their career and entrepreneurial pursuits in selling yourself and your ideas. As an entrepreneur though you probably believe that there is a solution for every problem. You would not be wrong! There are a number of trainings and workshops to help you conquer the irrational dread that is Glossophobia or fear of public speaking. In this post I would like to share a few things about the training that helped me become a good public speaker – Toastmasters. Click here for photo Credit As a young girl or a grown up, I was never shy and I always felt like I have something to say about any topic. I wanted to voice my opinion, too! But I used to feel nervous doing presentations even though I really wanted to get up and speak. There were times when I thought I would rather not speak instead of putting myself through that experience. That was until I joined Toastmasters. I was never the same after I attended my first Toastmasters meeting as a guest a number of years ago. Standing in front of an audience became one of the things to which I look forward. I learned so much and developed confidence in my ability as a communicator. My communication skills help me a lot in my current roles at Outlier Plan and beyond. I am an urban planner; I correspond with project teams and stakeholders in getting approvals for development applications. I am a researcher; I interview people and collaborate with other researchers. I am a facilitator; I moderate and lead discussions. In everything I do professionally, communications is a significant part. It wouldn’t come as a surprise then that I highly recommend joining Toastmasters to anyone, especially those with entrepreneurial pursuits like myself. You don’t need to take my word for it that Toastmasters is great for you. Here are some concrete reasons how it might benefit you. 1. Learning techniques of effective communication Part of the fear of public speaking is in not knowing how to do a presentation effectively. There are techniques – I call them the Toastmasters winning formula – that you can apply to make a successful presentation. These techniques range from how to organize your speech/presentation to make your point, to how to research material for your speech/presentation, to how to use voice variety and body language to engage your audience. As you progress in your experience, you also learn advanced level communications skills such as facilitation, handling the media and so on. As an entrepreneur, you can gain excellent communication skills that show off you and your ideas. 2. Practicing in front of a supportive group The dread of public speaking significantly lies in feeling exposed and judged by your audience. That is why it is important you practice in front of a supportive group as you develop your techniques and the trust in your own speaking ability. Well, in Toastmasters meetings you get a round of applause even for getting up and saying your name! Once you are comfortable with yourself as a speaker, you can speak in front of any audience. That is the magic of Toastmasters! As an entrepreneur, feeling comfortable speaking to any audience increases your chances of spreading your ideas and making yourself known. 3. Getting constructive feedback Yes, there is a lot of applause in toastmasters. There is also a lot of constructive feedback for every presentation, small or big, you make. Expect to be told what you do great and what you could do differently to be better for next time. This definitely refines your communication skills. It also teaches you how to receive feedback graciously and use it to for the betterment of yourself. As an entrepreneur, you know that there is always room for growth. How you take feedback and use it to your advantage is a great skill to have. There is a bonus, too! At a Toastmasters club, you will develop a network of likeminded people who      are in the pursuit of self-development. The relationships you build there could lead to friendships, an essential component of healthy living, entrepreneur or not, business acquaintances, to career opportunities, and more. That is why I say to you, hurry and join a local Toastmasters club now! If your office happens to be at the Rostie Group like ours or anywhere in the Water Park Place building, you are actually lucky. There are two clubs that meet in the building: RCB’s Front Street Speakers and 20 Bay Street – Pros of Prose. Check them out. You better find your local club as soon as possible!

Click here for photo Credit

Halloween is in full force at The Rostie Group. We had little gremlins prepare spooktacular treats for each and everyone of our clients. The team is dressed in their Halloween gear. We have vampires, gremlins, punks, cowboys and more.  Check out our photos:

The treat bags for each client that the gremlins prepared…

Cynthia, Melisa, and Cerlita with Mahtot of Outlier Plan (one of our coworkers)

Halloween Treats for all!

The ladies posing after prepping the treats table.

Punk Melisa

Cynthia and the great folks from Metrolinx in our newly renovated lobby

Just hanging around at the concierge of WaterPark Place with this lovely lady from Adecco

The vampire, the cowboy and the punk at the entrance of the skywalk that connects our building to union station and The PATH!

Mahtot Gebresselassie of Outlier Plan, a boutique urban planning firm, has written a very interesting article about coworking and why they chose The Rostie Group as their coworking solution…

Outlier Plan Coworks from the Heart of Waterfront Toronto – Mahtot Gebresselassie

What is coworking? Coworking space as we know it now was first introduced in 2005 in San Francisco even though the concept existed in different forms since the 90s. Fast forward to 2013; there were about 2500 co-working spaces worldwide. DeskMag reported that in 2013, an average of 4.5 coworking spaces opened every day around the world. There is a growing community of this new office culture in Canada, too. But first things first: Is it “co-working” or “coworking”? Well, Coworking Canada (yes, there is such an association) prefers “coworking”, without the dash in between. We like it without the dash, too. Coworking Canada also defines the culture as follows:

Coworking is about making the personal choice to work alongside other people instead of in isolation. For some, coworking is all about the accelerated serendipity that comes from individuals intermixing in person as opposed to online. For others it’s the motivation and accountability gained from working within a set of peers. And sometimes it’s just a reason to put on some pants and get out of the house in the morning. 

Source: The Toronto Star

There are about 100 coworking offices in Canada with a membership of 4,100 people and with over 20 of these offices located in Toronto. They offer a range of packages from flexible desks, to dedicated desks, to private offices. There are associations that provide support too; there is a Coworking Toronto and a Coworking Ontario and a Coworking Canada. In fact, Coworking Ontario became the first in the world to offer health insurance for members of coworking spaces in the province.

Why do we want to talk about coworking? When we decided to start our consulting firm Outlier Planning, Research, and Facilitation, it was to be in the Water Park building at 20 Bay Street with the Rostie Group, on the 11^th floor. It was the right fit for us. We like to work in downtown, it is convenient for our preferred modes of transportation, we like nice office spaces, and the waterfront is just a few minutes walking distance – two minutes to be exact. We also are not tied down by lease; we can stay or move on as our demand changes in just a month’s notice. Rent and cost for office facilities are reasonable. To rent an individual conventional office space on Bay Street would have been unaffordable – in fact, unthinkable – for a start-up company like ours. Even though we are disciplined enough to work from our kitchen tables, we figured we wouldn’t be as effective as having an office to go to every morning. That is why we love coworking and talking about it!

Guest waiting area

Our coworking experience has been enjoyable so far. We share an office space with multiple professionals and we run into many others in the shared kitchen and in the corridors. They come from different professions and different cities in and around the GTA. We meet cool people from different industries whom we would not have been able to in our regular day to day work. Meet some of them below.

Brice Roberts: Brice works for himself; he has his own firm, Valih Consulting, which specializes in financial software development with subsidiaries in Quebec and New York State. In the past he worked with alternative working arrangements such as Informaticiens Reunis in Quebec and the Freelancers’ Union in New York to get cheap medical insurance and other benefits. That informed his decision to “use new concepts of shared spaces” and go for coworking as he puts it. Before coming to the Rostie Group’s space, he was with another similar facility. He didn’t like the environment and the service. He says it lacked “human touch”. That is what he found at this coworking space. For him the smiles he gets during his day, the quality of the space, which is full of flowers, and sunlight through a window make a difference. That is why he plans to stay as long as he can.

A view from coworking space

Brule Nanton: Works for Clarity Hosting Solutions, a data hosting (in the cloud) solutions provider. Coworking at the Rostie Group is beneficial in that the office is in close proximity to one of their Data Centers in the GTA (downtown at 151 Front Street). It is important to have 24hr access to the office space, and part of their coworking package allows them to book rooms for client and staff meetings. The quality of the space and the reasonable rent are two other reason why this coworking office works for Clarity Hosted Solutions. Brule says he enjoys coworking here because of the interaction with other fellow coworkers. For the company, this arrangement is permanent as they need to be close to their downtown Data Center as their other office that they maintain at the Data Center in Markham.

Heather Spiegel works for Promeus Inc., a recruiting firm that works with executives for the public sector, specifically health and education. It is a boutique firm therefore it is convenient for them to share space in a coworking office instead of renting an entire suite. Heather says that they are happy here at the Rostie Group for a number of reasons: it is convenient both for staff and the candidates they interview as the location is close to the subway and the highway; the space is beautiful with lots of light; the staff is approachable, accommodating, and responsible with confidential material. Just like us at Outlier Plan, they like the fact that they can interact with professionals from other industries. In fact, Heather and our urban planner Mahtot “co-eat” lunch every once in a while!

One of the meeting rooms

Victoria Syme: is a marketing and communications consultant with boutique marketing agency, Harmony. Prior to her coworking with us, she was at the company’s store front office at another location. When the company expanded, they needed more space and more facilities. They found that the Rostie Group was the perfect choice for them. Harmony coproduces the Redpath Waterfront Festival and proximity to the Waterfront was important. The fact that the Rostie Group was involved with the Waterfront community was another reason for their choice. Victoria says that she doesn’t want to work from home. She says she is young, social and enjoys meeting people, something she wouldn’t have been able to do had she worked from home. The fact that there are great facilities here at the Rostie Group including the meeting rooms make her coworking preferable to working from home or a retail space.

After we talked to the above cool people, we decided to evaluate the Toronto Star’s Profile of a Coworker. Below is the comparison.

 

Feel free to browse the Outlier Plan website and view the complete article here.