Ron Monteiro Podcast Transcript
Ron Monteiro joins host Brian Thomas on The Digital Executive Podcast.
Welcome to Coruzant Technologies, home of the Digital Executive Podcast.
Brian Thomas: Welcome to the Digital Executive. Today’s guest is Ron Monteiro. Canada based Ron Monteiro is a speaker, trainer, and author with a passion for transforming workplaces and helping people love what they do. Despite facing challenges with social skills and a severe fear of public speaking, Ron excelled as a finance professional and rose through the corporate ranks at Kraft.
There, he found not only a career path, but also the support he needed to overcome his anxieties and build lasting confidence. In 2021, Ron launched his own company with a mission to inspire individuals and teams to embrace every day of the week with enthusiasm. His keynote speeches and training sessions have reached organizations such as Walmart, Kraft Heinz, Blue Rock Therapeutics, and the Four Seasons Hotels.
Ron’s expertise is captured in his new book, Love Mondays, a proven process to bring joy back into your work week and life. He provides a step-by-step process to cultivate a culture that makes Mondays enjoyable for your entire team at lovemondaysbook. com.
Well, good afternoon, Ron. Welcome to the show.
Ron Monteiro: Thank you so much. Very excited to be here.
Brian Thomas: Awesome. I appreciate you making the time, Ron. Hailing out of Toronto today, appreciate it. I’m in Kansas City, so we’re just an hour apart. But I always love to see where we go, see where the podcast takes us. So I appreciate that.
And Ron, I’m going to jump right into your first question. Your journey from facing challenges with social skills and a fear of public speaking to become a speaker and trainer. is inspiring. What were the key moments or strategies that helped you overcome these obstacles?
Ron Monteiro: Yeah. Thank you for that question.
So I moved from Kenya to Canada when I was a teenager and I really struggled from a social skills perspective and that carried right into my first job. And I, you know, I was one of those people who just did not want to say anything in meetings, just focused on my technical skills. And I landed at a company Kraft Foods, most people know it, and they had a phenomenal development program that just helped you focus on your development needs in a way that push you out of your comfort zone, but was still supportive.
And so I ended up staying there for 15 years and I went in as a very shy accountant and it came out as a business leader. And you know, I think there’s several pivotal moments, but I think it was really around being at the table with marketing and sales and being in meetings where I was expected to speak and expected to carry my end of the bargain in terms of the financial.
And then we did several courses as well to say, Hey, here’s a public speaking course. And I ended up diving in full steam ahead, and I feel like I had enough mentors and coaches who actually believed in me more at the start than I believed in myself. And so I, for me, I think it was the environment that I ended up in somewhat accidentally.
And, you know, fast forward many years later, I now speak for a living. So it was one of the things that was my greatest fear. It’s now probably one of my strengths.
Brian Thomas: That’s awesome. I appreciate that. Love the story. And you know, we talk about, you know, self esteem or self doubt or, you know, limiting beliefs.
And you know, at the end of the day, a lot of us get to where we need to be because we had someone that was in our life or, or multiple people that were great coaches or mentors to us. So I love the story. I really do. And Ron, you used your expertise to leapfrog into writing a new book, Love Mondays.
Describe to me briefly a few actionable ways that leaders can cultivate a culture that makes Mondays more enjoyable for their entire team.
Ron Monteiro: Yeah. And just to, the book is really an observation around, you know, I’ve been to many organizations, works, many people, and many people are kind of down on Mondays, get excited, a little bit excited on Wednesday, it’s hump day.
And then Friday, they’re all joyous. And no, I believe it’s, it’s not the best way to live. I believe we can all find much more joy. So to answer your question, I think it really comes down to. a leader’s ability to motivate, engage their team. And it starts with truly caring about your individuals on your team and starting with trust.
And I always think about some of the business meetings I’ve been in and you jump straight into the business and you don’t spend time getting to know your team members. And interestingly enough, my experience at craft foods, I stayed there 15 years. All my other jobs were two years, a year and a half, three years, and the reason I stayed at craft was phenomenal development program that I talked about, but much more than that, we developed lots of social bond beyond work, and I knew that most of my managers, not all.
Truly cared about my development and spent time and invested time, and it was part of the manager responsibility to help grow your team. So I think it’s really, you know, stepping back and saying similar to a sports coach. I want to understand everybody on my team and really get to know them as a person and help them grow into the type of people and the type of roles they want to grow in.
So I think it starts with building trust, creating an environment where people actually love what they’re doing. So, you know, for example, I always talk about. constructive coaching or criticism in private praise in public. And so it’s very simple things that you can do as a leader to show your team members that you truly care and you’re invested in the long term.
Brian Thomas: I really love that. And it does foundationally, we talk about this on the podcast. Trust is everything with relationships, no matter where you’re at in life and your career. I appreciate that. And of course, obviously that mentoring that you brought up there again. But I do want to highlight one thing is it’s kind of funny.
And I I’ve told my staff this for probably 20 plus years is Monday is my favorite day. Love to come in every day and see my team. And that’s what really drives me. So I appreciate the share. I think we have a lot in common there. And Ron, you help people love what they do. How do you encourage individuals who may be starting out on their careers to find fulfillment, even in less than ideal situations?
Ron Monteiro: Yeah, so it’s interesting that, you know, in society, we often have things that we love as kids or children, right? There’s things that just light us up and then we go through education and schooling and influences from parents and other people and we often forget that and we end up going to a path that maybe is a little bit more money driven or Influenced by our parents that you know, for example me I went into accounting I was very good at math and I just Follow the path.
Okay. I’m going to need to make a certain salary to make a living. It was nowhere in my realm of thinking was, is what’s my purpose? What’s my gift? What can I add to the world? So there’s a brilliant concept called IKIGAI. It’s a Japanese concept and I have it in the book, which talks about truly finding what lights you up.
And there’s four questions to ask. One is what do you love to do? The second is what are you really good at? The third is what does the world need? And the fourth is what can you get paid for? We all need to get paid. And, you know, it’s interesting in Okinawa, Japan, where this concept originated, the word retirement does not come up because people are doing what truly lights them up.
It could be a fisherman. It could be a teacher. It could be something else. And so for me, people who love what they do. Love Mondays. And so it’s about stepping back and saying, Hey, what’s my purpose? What lights me up? What would get me excited on a Monday? And I love your story of saying you found something that you get really, really excited on Monday.
So for me, when I, you know, when I think about it, I was, I had a really good finance career, no complaints, but now in my current capacity of training. It hits all those four questions and I feel like I’m right in the middle there. I found my Ikigai right now, which means I’m not thinking about retirement.
I’m thinking about how can I add value? How can I share my gifts with the world? So, you know, that’s one way to say, how do we step back and really understand our own individual gifts and what we can add to the world?
Brian Thomas: Thank you so much. And I love that icky guy that you went through and stepped through that.
I’ve read that before, and I think it’s important that we all find exactly what really drives us in life so we can be fulfilled, find our purpose. And of course, if we can do that and make money at the same time, that’s kind of the equation for me anyway. So I appreciate that. And Ron, the last question of the day, Ron, what exactly is Monday Maverick, and how can you become one?
Ron Monteiro: So one of the things I try to do, and I always try to say, How can I bring in role models? And that’s what really helped me back to my example. I was telling you about craft people believed in me more than I believed in myself. So I always tell people one of the things that helped me start my own business, for example, and succeed so far is surrounding myself with what I call uplifters, people who, you know, are going to help me get to where I want to go.
Some of them have walked my path. So Okay. Monday Mavericks originated from me just interviewing people on a podcast, people who love Mondays. And my little podcast is called the love Monday show. And I just have met so many people who truly love what they do, who are energized on Monday, who that’s their favorite day of the week.
I love what you said there. And so in that section, I have 20 people who we’ve called Monday Mavericks. And they truly love what they do. And they have a massive ripple effect on the people around them. So, you know, a couple of examples. I have this one gentleman, his name’s Brian Kerr. He’s the CEO of Coortha Dairy, a fantastic ice cream company in Canada.
And he started as a student and he would just get lost in the ice cream plant. And now fast forward 20 years later, he’s the CEO of the company. And it’s just pure joy for him to run the company and you could just see it and it was employees. I’ve done some work with them. I also have a Buddhist monk in there who seems like the happiest person I’ve ever met.
And I tried to boil it down to what are the things that people are doing? I have another person who’s a principal of diversity, equity inclusion in at her school board. And again, the common theme among all of them is they just have found something that they love to do, that they have a passion for, that they have energy for.
And so what we’ve done in that section, we’ve interviewed 20 people and we’ve tried to boil it down to, you know, three or four things that each of them do. And again, coming back to one of the things I said earlier, many of them pointed back to, for example, my publisher, Gitika. She said, I loved going to the library.
It was heaven for me when she was young and now she started a book publishing company. So there’s a real through line. If people are willing to sit back and go through that introspection, which is a very hard thing to do in today’s environment with cell phones and social media and pressure and things like that.
So Monday Mavericks is just a great way to say, here’s 20 people who have found. Their purpose, so to speak, and are doing things that they love to do. So for me, it was all about finding inspiration in those 20 people. And, you know, I daily inspiration in people who I consider Monday Mavericks.
Brian Thomas: That’s awesome.
I love that. And I know a lot of people dread Sunday night. Oh, I got to go to work on Monday, but no, I, if you really, again, there’s just so much noise out there today, but if you can really look inside yourself and find the child in you, you can truly find your purpose in life. And I think that’s a huge game changer.
So, I really appreciate that, Ron. And Ron, it was such a pleasure having you on today and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
Ron Monteiro: Yeah, you too. Thank you very much for having me on. I really appreciate it.
Brian Thomas: Bye for now.
Ron Monteiro Podcast Transcript. Listen to the audio on the guest’s Podcast Page.
