Barry and Epic Engage
On LinkedIN, you will see… “Humans. Together. Strong. I work one to one, and in small and larger groups with Entrepreneurs, Educators and Emerging Leaders seeking to unite, inspire, more effectively respond to change and constructively create it.” Consider…
- I am a Leadership Speaker, Mentor, and Coach for entrepreneurs, educators and emerging leaders building a better world.
- I am a Business and HR Educator @ CNA.
- I am Showrunner @ TUGtv.
I am The Unity Guy, and Epic Engage is The Character Leadership Company. The goal is about helping you forge powerful, practical Unity moving forward, through the application and practice of Character and Purpose. Humans together, strong… at school, work, business and community… as educators, entrepreneurs and emerging leaders.
My and our work is really all about exploring, identifying, practicing, celebrating and mastering our strengths of Character and building upon them to move the needle on together, strong.
Yes, we help you move forward together, stronger… through “sharpening the blades” on Character, Purpose and Unity.
Ultimately, I am an educator and entrepreneur by education, experience and enthusiasm… with a mission to build character and purpose driven cultures of strength to build a better world locally and globally… at home, school, business and community.
A Bit of My Story…
Growing up in a construction family, and amidst teachers at that, I did not realize it but I had already caught “the bug”. It was a dual bug really… business and education. As a kid, I loved learning but did not imagine myself a teacher… though, looking back on how I studied, I should have seen the signs. Encyclopedias were fair game. And, learning and initiative and creativity were my play toys. That being said, it was my university years where I met Professor Hattenauer.
This was a man initially feared when you “heard” you were getting him for any number of Human Resource Development courses. But, he changed my life. He demanded much of us; because he believed in us. He engaged me in classroom discussions when I would have “preferred” not. He showed me capacities I never knew I had, by engaging me in the classroom. There is so much more I can say but I reserve that to telling my audiences in person. It is a story of character, leadership, education, unity, excellence, love and inspiration; and it changed my life.
All of that is to say that even then I did not fully realize the bug had taken hold. As I progressed through my initial career with the Government of Canada, I took on more and more opportunities to lead and train… and when I moved to Vancouver in 1987 and into industrial software sales by day and a career with Dale Carnegie Training® through to 2001 by night, I knew I had this deep love for and understanding of the power that education has to lead, unite and inspire. And, by this time, I had experienced glorious examples of leaders that could manifest noble, forward, together, strong.
Through my career in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors over 40 years, I witnessed and experienced the same. I saw the fundamental value of character, love, unity, excellence, education and leadership for building strong cultures at school, work, business and in the community. I had incredible mentors. I sought out ever-increasing opportunities to be an ongoing student of character education and leadership and its role in building strength and prosperity.
CMHA had the pleasure of inviting Barry to a staff development day. In one word AWESOME! Barry was very energetic, interactive, and effective. The experience allowed us to see how, while we are all very different in our personalities and skill sets, we all have the potential to contribute positively both professionally and personally.
CHARACTER LEADERSHIP GUY
Back in 2001, I became a Certified Tutor/Trainer through The Ruhi Institute for spiritual and community development. Then, from 2002, I had the honor of joining the ranks as Facilitator (and then Master Facilitator) for the Virtues Project™; a globally engaging movement for character leadership and community capacity building. In 2004, I became a Certified Facilitator for Personality Dimensions® and its work in temperament and personality assessment. And … in 2011-12, I studied and wrote on character and temperament in my book Human Being Being Human©.
Yes, I am a lifelong student of the work around character, education and leadership and building communities of character, leadership, unity and excellence. And, over these last 25 years, armed with that passion, I have taught college level business courses. I am a teacher. I believe that education is truly the oldest and most noble of professions and am adamant about advancing the power of character, capacity and creativity based education to unleash potential. I am a business educator with an expertise built over 40 years in community, economic and business development.
COMMUNITY GUY
That said, I would humbly suggest that I have been and am a community guy, in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. Work with the Departments of Labour and Rural. Agricultural and Northern Development and Canada Employment and Immigration bore that out in my early career.
Then with Atlantic Canada Plus and working at CNA as a community college business educator, I continued with a career in community and economic development that now spans the federal and provincial public service, the private sector and the community sector.
And as both a speaker and business educator… I have delivered on education, leadership and business management as a vehicle for community, economic and business development… to hundreds of thousands of youth and adults across North America.
Through it all, the message is character leadership and education… noble, together, strong.
CREATIVE NERD GUY
With all of that in mind, on a personal note… I am a singer, rocker, cartoonist, and dancer… yup. Indeed, I bring that love of these art forms to my work with EPIC Engage™… cartooning, singing and dancing… they all require creativity, harmony and rhythm… and the freedom to let it go; key ingredients in creating epic engagement. I am a Baha’i, guided by the drive that we all matter and that that is the starting point for all great things…. reaching out to the Human Radio. These days, I enjoy a beautiful, modest, little home I call “The Cottage” in Mount Pearl, NL, Canada with memories of my #bestlittledogintheworld Panda… teaching, speaking, coaching, mentoring, singing, dancing, cartooning, boxing, walking, and following my Shinedown, NFL, Star Trek Discovery, (and Picard, and all Star Trek (most of all, Strange New Worlds, geeking out here lol) and Stargate, Supernatural and great and epic super hero and sci-fi fantasy movies (I am a big time Marvel freak).
It is a good life, and I am grateful.
By the way, my new fave song by my all time fave band is Atlas Falls. Check it out.
BOTTOM LINE
I humbly offer my resume of life and work. Consider, 40 years in leadership training and development, 25 years in business education and coaching, 20,000+ contact hours in speaking, training and facilitating, 1500+ clients coached, and delivering to audiences as large as 4,000. I have indeed presented and performed in front of over 200,000 people of all ages and backgrounds, as a Master Facilitator with the Virtues Project™, a Facilitator with Personality Dimension®, and speaker and coach. As such and as a Vocalist and Rocker, Author and Writer, Dancer, and Cartoonist, I live my work. I love my work. If I or our team can be of service… CONTACT BARRY TODAY
