Episode 38: Change Your Mindset, Change Your Life | Manuel Lolarga

In Episode 38 of Cracking the Success Vault, Sean Penhale sits down with Manuel Lolarga to break down how mindset, mentorship, and intentional growth can completely transform your career and your life.

From his journey in engineering to stepping into leadership roles, Manuel shares the real shifts that made the difference — not just learning new skills, but unlearning limiting beliefs that were holding him back.

This episode is packed with practical insight on how to take control of your time, your thinking, and your direction.

You’ll learn:
 • How to change your mindset by changing your internal language
 • Why most people never audit their time (and how to start)
 • The importance of mentorship and learning from those ahead of you
 • How to build a strong network that accelerates growth
 • Why clear goals are the foundation of success

At the core of this conversation is a simple truth:

If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.

Whether you're an entrepreneur, leader, or professional looking to level up, this episode gives you actionable strategies you can apply immediately.

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction to Manuel Lolarga
03:03 – Journey into Engineering
06:01 – The Importance of Seeking Advice
08:49 – Navigating Career Changes
11:56 – Ego and Growth in Engineering
14:53 – Transforming Mindsets for Success
18:11 – Learning from Networking and Relationships
21:09 – Unlearning Limiting Beliefs
24:01 – The Power of Positive Affirmations
26:11 – Career Growth and Entrepreneurial Thinking
28:08 – From Engineer to Leadership Roles
29:43 – Shifting from Time to Value Thinking
32:49 – Training Your Mind for Success
35:07 – Networking for Growth
36:50 – Time Management Strategies
41:35 – Investing Time in the Right Areas
45:23 – Setting Goals That Actually Work
49:33 – Building a Legacy and Defining Success

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Manuel La Larga is a professional engineer and principal at Tandem Engineering Group, where he leads multidisciplinary teams and drives large-scale engineering projects across multiple industries. With over 20 years of experience, Manuel has built a reputation for combining technical expertise with strong leadership, mentorship, and business development. Based in Windsor, he is also an entrepreneur and consultant through the Extraordinary Group, where he focuses on helping individuals and teams reach their full potential, both personally and professionally. All right, everybody, welcome back to another episode of Cracking the Success Vault here with Spectre Group. Uh, today I'm joined by my great friend, uh Manny LaLarga. You're uh uh a principal at tandem engineering. I know that you also do some real estate stuff. Uh and we're gonna talk a little bit about leadership development and everything today because you and I have had some great conversations. But uh, for those of you that uh the people that are listening that don't know who you are or where you came from, okay. Uh let's start at the beginning. Where did you grow up? Where were you born? And you know, how'd you get to Windsor?

SPEAKER_02 1:12

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, thanks for uh having me here, Sean. Really appreciate the time to be able to share. I think it's all about adding value. So yeah, again, my name is not Manny Larga. I uh was born and raised here in Windsor, so homegrown. Uh I went to you know school at the University of Windsor and uh you know struggled a little bit out of the gate, but I got a chance to you know get in the workforce and then I lived in Kitchener Waterloo for about 10 years. And then about six years ago, I moved back here to Windsor. Uh, you know, the opportunity was right, was able to connect with some uh people that I used to work with in the past, and then now I'm a principal engineer uh for a company called Tandem Engineering. So, you know, I'm glad to be here.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Yeah, and so what took you away from Windsor? What took you to Kitchener?

SPEAKER_02 1:58

Yeah. So back in 2008 or nine, I'm sure a lot of people kind of remember those days. You know, I was working about 80 or 90 hours a week, traveling a lot, right? And then right around 2008, so my biggest client was Diamond the Chrysler. And what ended up happening was they went bankrupt along with uh another, you know, big company there. And because of that, they downsized from about maybe 72 people down to 12. Right. And I was like lucky number 13, so I got the short end of the stick. But you know, when one door closes, another one opens, and uh the person that actually hired me out of school, he moved to Kitcher Waterloo. And then when I found out that he was there and he knew I was looking, and then that's when I saw an opportunity to reach out to him, and then I lived there from 2010 to about the end of 2019.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

Okay, and then moved back here uh to get become a part of tandem.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Got it. And so what what made you get into engineering in the first place? Is it is it the thing you always wanted to do as a kid growing up? Like what what made engineering the thing that you went after?

SPEAKER_02 3:03

Interesting story. So when I was very, very young, I thought I was gonna be maybe a doctor or something along those lines. Uh, and then I realized started to grow up it's just definitely not my cup of tea. But because I never had anybody in my close family that was actually engineering. So I went to a guidance counselor when I was in maybe grade 11 or 12. They asked me what I wanted to do. I didn't know. So they just looked at my transcript. Looks like you're pretty good in math and science. You should go into engineering, and that's literally how I went to engineering. And I didn't even know anything about what engineering does at the time. Really? Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Wow. I have always heard guidance, I've always heard the story of like guidance counselors being like, yeah, no, you're probably never gonna succeed at something. You're no, I've heard some crazy stories, and someone's like, Yeah, you know what? Well, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go succeed, right? I might have Beezer, you know, C's and D's on my transcript, but I'm just gonna go make something to myself. Um, very rarely do you hear of that that story of like they said go here and I didn't know anything about it, but I did it. Um, and so what were your thoughts when you started going through the process? Was it something you enjoyed? Like, what did you like about it that made you actually stay with it?

SPEAKER_02 4:11

So when I was kind of going through the process, one of the things I want to do is to seek advice from people or people that you know that went into that industry. And I almost didn't go into engineering at the time because one of my older brother's best friend, we were workout partners in grade 12. And we got a chance to, you know, talk. I said, hey, you know what? I'm planning going to engineering. What are your thoughts? Right. And he gave me a lot of, let's say, negativity about it because it's not like in high school. Your professors are not like your teachers, you're taking six courses in six labs, right? You're gonna be like living at the campus almost all the time. So I really got discouraged. But then again, I realized that you know what? Here, I'm getting advice from somebody that actually failed after his first year.

unknown 4:59

Right.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

All right. So I knew I couldn't take advice from somebody from where I want to succeed in.

SPEAKER_03 5:05

Right.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

Right. So this is when I reached out to a distant cousin or sorry, a distant uncle in California who actually owned an engineering firm.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 5:13

And that's where he kind of gave me the ins and outs, the goods and the bad. And so I seek advice from experts, especially somebody that owns it. And once I got a chance to have a really good conversation with him, right, and then that's when I started to pursue uh engineering uh at a higher level with a different kind of perspective going in.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

Yeah. I mean, perspective is kind of everything uh for anything. Uh and you and I have had a lot of these kinds of conversations about leadership and you know, trying new things and doing new things and getting advice and mentorship, because that's not something that you would hear that a typical probably 18, 19-year-old kid would do. He would take advice from his friend about whatever his his career path, about um, you know, money, about you know, buying the car or investing money. Like people just don't take that type of advice and go, you know what, maybe I should think about who I'm getting this advice from.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

So at that young of an age, what made you go? I should probably take a second, get a second opinion. Well, I shouldn't take advice from this guy that failed. I should go get advice from someone who succeeded. What I mean, you weren't involved in the leadership development kind of stuff that you were now. So what made you like have that sort of epiphany at that age?

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Yeah, well, when I was kind of right before I went to a university, and I guess my my uncle, he actually visited me. He drove to California from California the winter, and he stayed with us. So when we drove back, that's when I really got a chance to hear the ins in and out. Kind of gave me a good uh, you know, good viewpoint of what I can expect, whether it's in school, in the corporate world. And just that's what really kind of got me thinking about I can't really count on people that are, you know, in my sphere of influence because that's where we're your biggest breaks in life, or the people where you want to grow, it's gonna come outside of your sphere of influence.

SPEAKER_03 7:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

Right. I didn't really get a chance to get dive deeper in that into uh when it came to leadership, maybe further on into my career. But at least in the beginning, right when I was starting school, because I know how difficult it can be, it's just getting advice from the right people because most people are told uh what to do. But then it's about okay, what what what kind of goal? What are you trying to accomplish at that time? Right. And I know when you're 18, 19 years old, you're probably not, you know, thinking long term and stuff like that. But I also had to pay my own tuition as well. So that really kind of gave me a little bit more urgency, right, to be able to accomplish something on my own. And I think that's where my maturity and leadership started to begin, because it started with leading yourself.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, leading yourself is kind of, you know, you kind of you have to, you know. I mean, I look at my career as, you know, uh as a financial advisor. I mean, if I'm constantly broke and constantly living paycheck to paycheck and not saving money and not getting insurance and not doing these things that I tell people to do, um, you know, it's not a very good look. But at the same time, I mean, I've had actually, it's it's it's funny we're having this conversation. I probably had five or six people, honestly, in the last like two months that have been like, this plan is great and this makes sense, but like show me what you're doing. And I've had to be like, here's exactly what I'm doing, right? Uh, and it's been like, oh, okay, so you're actually, you know, doing what you preach you're doing, right? Um so I I love the fact because you are also, you know, you're you're the you're the uh the average of the five people that you hang out with the most, right? And so when we're going to school and we're young and we have all these maybe these big dreams and these wild things that other people think that we can't do, or maybe it's gonna be really hard to do. Um, getting advice from people that aren't where we want to be is kind of already setting up a success for uh a failure, right? You're not you're not setting yourself up for success, right? So um so that must have been some interesting conversations that you had with him, knowing that he owned this big firm. Um did did he give you any other lessons besides kind of that when you guys were having these conversations about getting into engineering?

SPEAKER_02 9:30

Uh, I think he the biggest thing that he kind of did was he he wasn't afraid to tell me the truth. Right. I think a lot of people would kind of hide that, but he was very, you know, bold, you know, somebody that owned his own engineering firm out west, right? And he's very, you know, stern with a lot of his employees. And so that's one of the things that I learned right away about he wasn't worried uh about sugarcoating some of those things. And I really appreciated that, right? Because I'd rather learn some of those things now versus if when I get into the corporate world, you know, five, six years later, that I know what to expect.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Yeah. Yeah, setting up setting up expectations uh are is a big driving factor, I think, for a lot of people. Um and we'll get into that a little bit later because I want to hear almost your sort of some of the things that you expect now that you're a principal that at an engineering firm and that kind of stuff. Um, but so okay, so he gave you advice and you decided I'm not following this friend that I work out with. Yeah, I'm gonna go do this thing. Uh and what were some of the things? So, like you move away to Kitchener, now you're getting hired by somebody else. What was the expectation there? Like, how did you decide? Well, I'm just gonna go leave this thing that I was good at because of their downsizing, and now I'm gonna go move to a city where I probably don't know a ton of people uh and do a different career. What was that like?

SPEAKER_02 10:57

Yeah, I think that was probably one of the most challenging parts of my life because the first time I was actually living permanently from home. I in my in my first job, I was, you know, living in different cities, but it was only okay one or two months at a time. But here, being you know, laid off from work, I realized that you know what? I had to be able to take ownership of my own decisions. And being away from home for the first time, Kitchener Water in a city, I didn't know anybody. All right. I think my first week when I started, I was actually living out of a hotel.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

Yeah, I was living out of a hotel, right? And then I at that same time when I started to work, I also had to look for a place to stay. All right, Kitchener Waterloo is a little bit different now, but back then it was it was a little bit easier. But just that whole that whole process there, you know, getting a place, you know, you also want to be able to impress because it's a very big firm. The second company I was with is you know over 10,000 employees at the time. And I started at one that was coming from like 15 or 12 to 15. So it was definitely a humbling experience to be able to see something that large. Uh, but it also, I was like, you know what, I almost felt like I have a chip on my shoulder, right? That I wanted to prove myself. And that's where my sense of urgency really started to kick in. And and then another area in my career started to grow.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

Yeah, which was what?

SPEAKER_02 12:17

That is when learning other expertise. So the other automotive industry, I realized there's a lot of engineers that I can be able to, you know, pick from and choose from and to learn from you know experts, right? And really humble myself. Like, because I think as an engineer, especially when you're young, is that we have a little bit of an entitlement mentality. At least I see that with a little some of my engineers, right? And what I've noticed is that when you have an entitlement mentality, right, and then as you go through your career, it starts to turn into egos.

SPEAKER_03 12:49

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

And there's a difference between a strong ego and a big ego, right? And then I think that's really what stops people from growing and learning or going to that next level in your career or into your life. Because when you get that ego in place, and then now you feel like that you know everything.

SPEAKER_03 13:05

Right.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

And I know engineers or people in my industry are very strong personalities like that. That's one of my goals here to change that narrative when it comes to engineers, because everywhere I talk to, they're surprised that wow, you're really an engineer.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

So yeah, I would 100% agree with you because uh whenever I have to meet in my career in finance, if I have to meet with an engineer or an accountant, I know that you're gonna be hyper analytical. You're gonna want to pick apart every little detail. And I can't use words like this is just a concept. Like, let's let's get the understanding of the concept before we start doing numbers. They're like, no, just show me the numbers. And I'm like, you're not gonna understand the numbers until I show you the concept. So let's like back up a little bit. And you have to like almost massage around the fact that, like, listen, I get it, you're you're you're smart, you know a lot, you're you can read numbers, but before you can read the numbers, we need to like back up a little bit, right? Um, do you think that that's something kind of created in the like education of engineering because of the things that engineering does? I mean, they build buildings, they build bridges, they build all these amazing things. Do you think that that just kind of comes along with it? Or is it just the personality type that you need to be successful at engineering? Like, what do you think creates that like uh big ego versus the strong ego?

SPEAKER_02 14:29

Yeah. So this is something that you know we talked in great lengths because I believe the school system, and not that I'm down on the school system, I did, you know, graduate from University of Windsor. But one of the things I know, especially over the last few years, that the school system teaches you how to learn, but it don't teach you how to succeed. So if you're learning the wrong thing, it's very hard to position yourself for success when you go out in the corporate world.

SPEAKER_03 14:53

Right.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

So that is a really one of the biggest things that I noticed, right? Because a lot of people that I've seen, they are really good at working hard, but they don't do the harder work, it's just where their mind develop them themselves, or you know, personal growth and development, which I know we talked length is, yeah. Right. I know I get it. There's a lot of people that have certifications, at least in the engineering world, MBA, you might have their PhD and a lot of that, which is great. But at the end of the day, is that really what is going to be the best way to position you for success?

unknown 15:23

Right.

SPEAKER_02 15:23

And then when it comes to doing the harder work, uh, that's where I really and a lot it might people say, well, I don't have the personality to become a leader, or I don't have the personality to become a project manager, or that is. And then one of my good friends that was living in Kitchener Waterloo, he said, Manny, it's not a personality thing, it's a mentality. Has anybody even gave you maybe this book? Or have you ever met this person, or you ever, you know, read this or heard this podcast or audios to kind of change your perspective on how you see yourself, right? Because when you change the way you see things, the way you some of the things that you see will start to change.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

And then that was an epitome for me when somebody told me that.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

Yeah. And I'm sure you've seen the uh um Tony Robbins, uh, when he's like, uh he the the newest one is him and Theo Vaughn, the comedian. And he's like, Okay, Theo, look around the room, look for anything that's red. And he picks out things that are red, and then Tony says, Okay, tell me what you saw that was blue. And he's like, uh nothing. I only looked at the red things, right? Uh, and that perspective of being able to say, okay, like, how do I learn? How do I get better? Just because I maybe am an introvert doesn't mean I can't learn to become an extrovert in certain situations, right? So I would 100% agree that that that mentality and the mindset shift um is really big. And it's and it's not just big for like a you to develop as a person. If you want to, like you said, succeed in your career, if you want to succeed in your personal relationships, if you want to succeed with money, you have to be able to look at things differently than the way that we were grown up, um, the way that we were looking at things growing up, right? Because if you're, you know, if your parents were never good with money and you learned those habits from them, how do you expect to be better with money if you don't look at it from a different perspective? 100%. Right. Um, and so what was this like then? So going to Kitchener, you're in this uh whole new environment, you're living away from friends and family for the most part. Um, now you're living at home most of the time versus traveling a lot. Um, where did this like learning is it was it the the mentor that hired you with that company that said, Hey, go read these books, hey, go do these things? Or was it something that you said, I need to go search these things out myself? How did you start to learn some of the concepts?

SPEAKER_02 17:44

Yeah. So I think it's mainly a twist of fate that this happened because I didn't really learn it within the engineering realm, so to speak. Now I knew how to work hard, like I mentioned earlier. Right. I I always said that the best way to be able to lead is by example, right? So I was always uh one of those hard workers, I was never what I call people are like a nine to five. I was the start to finish. So that's what really helped grow my career. I developed that when I was really, really, really young. So when it came to you know starting to develop doing the harder work, which is your mind, it actually came from my neighbors. When I when I uh first moved into the neighbor to that neighborhood, uh my friends there, they uh they're entrepreneurs, all right. They had businesses outside of the careers, they were able to scale it at a high level, all right, and we were to be able to walk away from the corporate careers at the age of 26 and 28. So when I got a chance to learn from their stories, and like, how did they able to be able to position themselves like that?

SPEAKER_03 18:41

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

And they were talking about, you know, building other assets, other income streams, you know, learning about leadership skills, effective communication, you know, time management, financial literacy, business intelligence, all these things that you're not really taught in school. At least I wasn't.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Yeah. I mean, I was never taught them either.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Uh they teach you even like I took a degree in like business marketing. Yeah, most of the time they talk about marketing businesses, they talk about financial for businesses, how to read corporate ledgers. Yes, no one ever teaches you how to do personal finance or how to market yourself personally, or like none of them talk about any of that stuff, right? It's that corporate world mentality, right? Where never none of us are taught that.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

Yeah. Yeah. And that's, I think, one of the biggest things that I've noticed in the school system. Like you do a lot of calculus algebra, very technical stuff. But if there was, let's say, a public speaking course or effective communications course, right? These are skills that you're going to take for the rest of your life, right? And that's the best way to position yourself for success, right? Learning how to network. You know, I know we met at a networking event. Yeah. Right. Just because it's all about who you know, what not what you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:50

Right.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

And that always bothered me when I was really young in my career because I was an extreme introvert. I didn't like talking to people. Literally, if you would have met me maybe 10 years ago, I would you would be seeing me in the cubicle for eight to ten hours a day, and I probably would talk to nobody. And I was fine with that. And I did that for basically years.

SPEAKER_03 20:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

Right. But then I you're then I realized that if you really want to get to the next level, you have to do things that are uncomfortable. Right. So that's when I started to, when I met that couple who are my neighbors, they taught me a lot about leadership, effective communication, all of these things that I never learned when I was, you know, growing up. Right. Because your parents are they only know what they know.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 20:29

So if you don't what what you don't transform, you're gonna transfer it to the next generation. So I knew I had to be able to change that mindset if I can affect more people while I'm here.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

That's an interesting way to say it. If you don't transform it, you're gonna transfer it.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

That's an interesting way to say it. And that could be anything.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

It could be anything, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

Right? It could be it could be your financial situation, it could be your relationship situation, it could be whatever. If you don't transform something, you're gonna transfer it. That's an i i I like that.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

And so okay, so then you start learning all these things from friends, neighbors of yours up in Kitchener Waterloo. Um did you instantaneously start to see like how they could be um transferred into uh the corporate world, into your engineering career? Um you know, obviously it's not something that just happened instantaneously. You had to work at it. Yeah, right. But did you start to see like little things just kind of like, oh, that you know, I'm so glad that I learned this or did that or took this course or whatever because it put me in a position for that thing.

SPEAKER_02 21:40

Yeah. So yeah, it doesn't happen, you know, overnight. So when I started to really seek, you know, advice, I went to like networking events, uh, some of the things that they ran, and they talked about the things that I mentioned earlier, and this is where my mindset started this to shift. But it's not that I was trying to learn. More things at the time, I had to unlearn a lot of things, right? Because being in corporate at the time, I think it was about 13 years into my journey. So it was very foreign to some of the concepts because I never, I never, let's say, read a book that's gonna help me, whether it's personally, financially, leadership, like none of those things were ever put in place for me to be able to succeed at that next level.

SPEAKER_03 22:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

All right. And then in the networking, all of those things took a lot of time. And then when I started to get into certain seminars, leadership seminars, it probably took maybe about six to maybe nine months when I started to now not just learn it, but start to apply it.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

What kind of things do you think you started to like try to unlearn? What were some of the things that you were like, this area of my life is not serving me, and I need to change it?

SPEAKER_02 22:54

Yeah. The biggest one because of my personality as an engineer is my introverted, you know, passive kind of mentality. All right. I see, let's say, my boss at the time, he was very extroverted. He was very clever. He liked to talk. He liked to talk a lot. Very smart, very intelligent. And I just thinking, and then I see a lot of people in the corporate world that uh, especially people that are higher. I noticed how well they communicate, how they interact with some of their clients, how they interact with their team. As like, that's just not me because my personality is not like them. But I was trying to, I think I was trying to be like somebody else. And then what I learned from some of my good friends, their big mentors and business partners of mine, is like you're not trying to be somebody else, you're trying to evolve into a better version of you.

SPEAKER_00 23:41

Right.

SPEAKER_02 23:41

And then that's when I started to apply some of the things. Like I read, like I went from you know, reading notebook, now I read about 40 books a year plus anything related to personal growth and development, attending a lot of networking sessions, just meeting new people, right? Because it's all about, like I mentioned, who you know, not versus what you know, yeah, and expand my network.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

Yeah. And I I hear a lot of people say that because you hear like two different trains of thought. You hear it's not uh what you know, it's who you know, right? And that can go in positive and negative, right? So when when you say it's not what you know, it's who you know, what would you say would be the the one thing that anybody who thinks of that as a negative, right? Like I didn't get the job because I didn't know the right person and they're doing someone a favor, like that type of mentality. If you had somebody, let's say, that was working for you or that you met at a networking session that was making those types of comments, the negative attribute comments on that topic, what would you tell that person?

SPEAKER_02 24:51

The first thing I would actually tell them is you have to change the way you think. One of the things I noticed with people is that they're very hard on themselves, right? So this comes with you know speaking down in yourself, right? Because what you say or what you speak is going to turn into reality. All right. And I was very hard on myself early on, like I'll never be like this, I'll never be like that. So it's called saying positive affirmation. So if you want to change the way your outlook on life, you literally have to change your words or what you say about yourself. All right. And I think that's like a foreign concept, especially if you're an engineer, is like what is it's as simple as that, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:26

Yeah, and it's there's no tangible numbers, there's no tangible formula that says, well, if I do this enough, I'm gonna get X. Yeah, it's tough when your whole career, your whole degree is like uh verifiable proof and data.

SPEAKER_02 25:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

And when it comes to like changing the way you think and the way you act, there's no verifiable proof or data.

SPEAKER_02 25:49

No, they want like hard evidence, yeah, right? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

It's crazy. Um okay, so let's so okay, so you're starting to like learn and change some of the things that you're you're doing. Uh where did the opportunity then come from going from Kitchener and moving back to Windsor? Where did that come from?

SPEAKER_02 26:11

So when I got a chance to connect with my neighbors, this was around 2017. So this is where I had to make a big shift into where I wanted my career to go. This is also where I learned a lot of my entrepreneurial spirit because it came from them. So when I started to re to start to grow a side of me that I never seen, right, and then I see my leadership, my effective communication started to grow. One of my old friends that I used to work with back in Windsor, so he saw me started to change and to grow and stuff like that. So he was kind of poaching me over the next, you know, one or next 12 months. And I said, I always kind of push him on because I, you know, I love the community that I was.

SPEAKER_03 26:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

And then the opportunity started to came up, right? And sometimes when the opportunity comes up, it's too late to prepare. So that's when I got a chance to say, you know, he met with me. We got a chance to connect. And then I thought that would be a great time to move. This is right before COVID, too. So I guess timing really helped on that one. And then I got a chance to do that. I think the hardest part was actually telling the company I was with that I was leaving, because I totally blindsided them. All right. And this is where I was very blessed or you know, hold such such high gratitude for what I've learned because when I got it, when I told them that I was leaving, one of the uh vice presidents of that company, because they were they're all shocked that I was leaving.

SPEAKER_03 27:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:35

And I told them why I was leaving, you know, and coming back here to Windsor. And he understood it. He understood why. And he said, you know what, Manny? You know, because they they like what I've done for the company. It's like if you ever, ever want to come back to Kitchen Waterloo to work for us, just give me a call, you can start the next day.

SPEAKER_03 27:52

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 27:52

All right. And that was really, really powerful because all along and I never really knew how much value it was. But over those last two years, just growing and developing, you know, becoming a business developer, right? It really kind of humbled me right up to where I was going. All right. And then that's when you know I became a principal engineer, you know, going to tandem engineering where I am now.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Yeah. And did you ever see yourself becoming a principal of an engineering firm? Like if you went back 10 years ago, I guess you've been here for like almost 10 years. Let's say like 15, 20 years ago, would you have thought like old Manny like would never have had the goals that he had of becoming a principal? Or would or would he just be like, I'm I'm good living in the corporate world, doing my start to finish?

SPEAKER_02 28:41

Yeah, absolutely not. No, absolutely not. I was just one of those guys just under my in front of my computer and doing the hard work and just doing that on a day-to-day. I I just knew how to work hard, but as you start to grow in your career, especially if you're working 80, 90 hours a week, I was at a point where I was like that. It was a lot of hours. And when you start to get a little bit growing into your career, you realize what's the most important thing? It's not money, it's time.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

Right. And then I knew I had to develop other skills to be able to evolve to that new better version of me. And then when I started to learn about these other people, people that are principal engineers, people that own their own businesses, I see the way and learning from their stories. And I can pick and choose how can I apply that to my life? What are they doing that's differently? A lot of it happens to habits and the discipline into that. And then that's when I started to say, you know what? I think I can lead one day. I can think I can do some business development or be that, you know, part of that, you know, being an entrepreneur of the company. Basically, that's where I am at tandem engineering, is that business developer.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

So did you if you went, okay, so if you went back like let's say 15, 20 years ago, and you're looking at the old version of Manny, would do you think that the old version of Manny would be like, ah, that guy is so lucky that he gets to go on lots of vacations? Oh, that guy's so lucky that he's got control of time because I don't. And would he be like, you know, kind of, I'll call it complaining, I guess. I don't really know a better word for it. Complaining that he doesn't have the things that he wants, and then just through understanding communication, understanding goals, understanding um, you know, uh taking an extreme ownership in the in the choices that you make, that taking the the development and the mindset shift that he turned into the Manny Now, where it's just like, if I want the thing, how do I figure it out? Like, do you think that the old Manny would have been that sort of complaining type person of the things that he didn't have?

SPEAKER_02 30:45

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Uh, because I remember being, you know, 15 years younger and just looking at other people, even in my sphere of influence, I see people moving on. And it's like, and I always kind of blame you, maybe my personality, right? Because, you know, being I was the youngest of five kids and going through school, going through, you know, my first career job, and even my boss told me this too, is that, you know, man, you're too quiet, right? I don't know if I can put you in front of the client because you don't say anything, right? So when they what they do, so what's doing that for somebody that's young in the career, even somebody that's young, right? When you put a when you start to uh put that behavior into a personality, now it becomes an identity for that person. So growing up, that's what I say. It's like I can't be that next person because I am this, or I cannot, you know, be like that because I am this, because it's it was an identity that was put down from my sphere of influence, young and growing up into my careers. And then I just kind of accepted that.

SPEAKER_03 31:48

Right.

SPEAKER_02 31:48

It needed, I needed somebody outside of my in uh sphere of influence to be able to break that, I guess, curse and that thinking.

SPEAKER_03 31:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:57

Right. And then that's when really the I started to think differently to be able to say, yeah, you know what, I can do this.

SPEAKER_03 32:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:04

All right. And started speaking good about my I call it positive affirmations.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Positive affirmations, yeah. And I mean, I'm I'm assuming that now that you're a principal and you have some people working for you, that you're now helping others try to break some of those habits. Yeah. What would you say to like even to a guy like myself, right? Jason and I now have, I don't know, 10, 12 sales guys between both avenues of our business. Um, and they probably see themselves as one thing. How would you go about helping someone see a different side of themselves? Yeah. Or see a better version of themselves, or what could be? How would you how would how do you go about doing that?

SPEAKER_02 32:49

Yeah, so that's a really good question. Because about, I would say six or seven years ago, I started to evaluate what kind of separates one engineer from another. They can have equal technical skills, right? But then their outcomes are very different. So when I moved to this company here in Windsor, I actually created an internal training system called mind over engineering, right? So it really has nothing to do with technical skills. It's about how did I think during certain situations, right? Because you can have two engineers look at the same problem. One guy looks at an obstacle and another guy looks as an opportunity. So during my mind over engineering, I do it about once a month. And I start to train my staff to think differently about how they see problems, right? I always say, don't play to the minimum. That's also kind of how I grew to my career. I never played, you know, you have a job description. I never played to the minimum. I always look at, okay, what can I do to become that lead engineer? Or what can I do to help my project manager and project coordinator? So when I started to do those tasks, I end the results started to follow me.

SPEAKER_03 33:55

Right.

SPEAKER_02 33:55

And then I was starting to do work that my principal engineer did, doing proposals, meeting the clients, right? I only can get that to the level when I really started to develop my communication and speaking skills. So then that's when I started to advance into my career even faster. So in my mind over engineering training, I talk a lot about, let's say, we call it the soft skills in the industry, which is not something a lot of engineers like to work on, right? Because maybe they need to see a little bit more tangible evidence. Right. And I love teaching that every month. It's probably one of the most important meetings. I tell it to my staff all the time, is because this is this is all of the tests that I had through my entire career. Now I can share that as a testimony so that you don't have to go through the same mistakes as I did.

SPEAKER_00 34:42

Right. Yeah. And so how do you then go about sharing that mind over engineering? Is it like a you do a little episode podcast like this recording yourself? Is it like you guys in training learning about something? Are you bringing up a past thing that happened and how you solved it and how you problem solved? Like, how are you bringing this awareness to the the the engineers that are that are training with you?

SPEAKER_02 35:07

Yeah. So when I'm going through, and I do it, yeah, like imagine, I do it once a month. So I pick certain, let's say, tasks that I've done in the past, and over some of the things that I learned, it's kind of the way I think. And then I'll pick, let's say, for instance, networking. I'll give this as a good example because I like sharing this example to my staff. It's like, this is why it's so important to develop your effective communication skills. And I gave them one story. And that story was, you know, I went to the Windsor Wednesday event. I connected with a gentleman there who connected me to another networking event that he ran. Uh, I had I made some good connections at the table that I was. A month later, somebody gave me a call, right? And then she said, Hey, you know, you don't know who I am, but you met my neighbor there. And then we connected. I ended up interviewing that person, and then that person still works with me today. It's been four years.

SPEAKER_03 35:58

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 35:59

All right. So that's kind of like an example of how I show that networking is very important to be able to open up more sphere of influence about who you know. And I also found clients, business partners that way.

SPEAKER_03 36:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

The one I'm gonna be doing this Thursday, literally the topic mind over engineering, is gonna be called buy back your time.

SPEAKER_03 36:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:17

About developing good time management skills because we all want time management. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

So that was something when you and I got together last time that was very I'll call it eye-opening, I guess. Because Jason and I have talked about this, uh, Dan Martel's book, Buy Back Your Time, great book. Um, and he talks about doing like uh, you know, a 15-minute check every 15 minutes on what did you spend your time on? And he says, do it for like two weeks. Yeah, you did it for like six.

SPEAKER_02 36:50

I did for six weeks.

SPEAKER_00 36:51

Uh and I'm just like, after I left there, I was like, man, like I I don't even have the time to do the thing for two weeks, let alone six. How did you um how like how did you do it? Like I'm so al and uh maybe this is just an excuse. I'm so run off my feet. I have so much planned. I'm doing all these things. Maybe I'm just not making that that that thing a priority. But at the same time, like there's other things that are also as important or more important than doing an Excel document every 15 minutes of what I spent my time on.

SPEAKER_03 37:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:28

Right. Like, how did you go about doing that for six weeks doing everything that you were doing?

SPEAKER_02 37:32

Yeah. Well, first off, I had to, I was gonna about to do a networking talk about time management. And so I said, this is a great way to be able to share personally about systems that I have in place and to be able to take a log on what I do in a day. Because a lot of people, we've heard of people budgeting their finances.

SPEAKER_03 37:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:54

Right. And some people do, some people do, don't. Yeah. Then I asked the question is, well, when was the last time you audit your time? Right? Because if you think of what's more important, time or money. Time. It's time. So time is what we want the most, but we treat it the worst. So when I really started to understand that concept, it's like I have to make this a priority because I need to know where my time is going.

SPEAKER_03 38:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:16

So once I was able to, and I did it for say, I only wanted to do it for maybe one, maybe two weeks, but I wanted to extend it for six weeks so that I can really get some good data. Again, it's probably my engineering mind. Oh, yeah. So I can be able to analyze, okay, where am I spending a lot of my time? Because at that time I was training for a marathon, right? You know, we were working a lot of hours at, you know, tandem engineering and then, you know, running a couple other businesses, plus, you know, you know, family events and so on. So I really need to put a log about where my time is going because there's a difference between being productive versus being busy. A lot of people think being busy is being productive.

SPEAKER_03 38:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:53

And I think that's where a lot, even myself, when I did that that audit, I was like, wow, I still do about 17 to 18 hours a week that are not important and non-productive, which is an eye-opener for me. Because what can you do with that you know extra 18 hours to be more productive or to be able to spend time with you know family or so on, or maybe even just exercise. So when I did it on myself, it was more of a light bulb moment for me, but I also wanted to share to the people that I got a chance to talk to about when was the last time you audit your time? Because a lot of people are really difficult when it comes to time management, and they always say that they're busy. Right.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

When I hear you talk about that, yeah, Jason and I shared something this morning to our staff.

SPEAKER_01 39:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:42

Uh this morning, a similar, right? Where you're growing in your career and you're making maybe more money than your friends are making, or you're having more success than other things, and those other things can sometimes start to go by the wayside. Yeah. Because our sphere of influence is now a different sphere of influence, right? There was overlap in the beginning, and now I've moved into a different, but now I'm also connected to other people, and you're gonna start to kind of progress yourself into a different circle of friends. Um when I hear you talk about that, I'm like, okay, there's probably a lot of time that I'm doing things that are not productive. Um, but at the same time, like you also don't just want to be a robot always working, never having fun, not doing things. And so, what would you say to the person that maybe works for you that is like, okay, I have a lot of stuff that I'm doing. Is it just that I need to be okay and comfort with where I'm at in life because I don't want to change those things? Uh, or would you try to encourage that person to change those things because life is better on the other side? Um, because there's obviously things that you we only have so much time in a day. We have to give up something to grow and get something else, right? So it's not uh I when I was reading a book the other day, it's not so much a sacrifice, as people would say, it's an investment in something else. Right. So, yes, I might be quote unquote sacrificing this thing, going out to the bar with friends, whatever, but I'm actually I'm not sacking, I'm choosing to go invest my time somewhere else. Um what do you what would you tell that person who's like, I don't know if I want to give those things up?

SPEAKER_02 41:35

Yeah. Yeah. And that's a really good question because it's gonna lead to my talk that I'm gonna be doing on Thursday. Right. So there's a difference, you know, we all know the concept of you know, spending money versus investing money. Right? You spend money on food or whatever, you're not really getting an inv uh a rate of return back. Yeah, but when you're investing into something, you expect some kind of return. It's the same thing with time, right? If you spend time on something or somebody, are you gonna is it is it a good investment back? And don't get me wrong, I'll spend time with some of my friends. I call it like uh having progressive or conservative relationships, right? There's people in life where they're gonna, it's like an elevator. They're either gonna bring you up, they're gonna bring you down, or they're neutral.

SPEAKER_03 42:19

Right?

SPEAKER_02 42:20

They're not gonna be up or down. The ones that are gonna bring you down are very easy to spot, right? Because they're always negative. Maybe if you're going somewhere in life, they would try to pull you down, right? Those are very easy to spot, but it could be your best friend. Right. The the second type of people are the hardest to spot. These are the more neutral people. These are the friends that you kind of hang out with, you know, all the time, but they're not really want to grow, they're not very ambitious about going to that next level, but they're not necessarily negative either, right? But then just like in an elevator, there's a capacity, right? So if you have so many people in the elevator there, it's eventually going to bring you down because it's gonna stop you from reaching your potential. And then there is the third type of people, which is the rare type of people. These are the people that are going somewhere in life, they're thinking about the future, right? If you look at the people that, and this is the best way to spot neutral people or negative people, the next time you have a conversation, what are you guys talking about? Are you talking about the past? Yeah, or are you talking about events, things that are happening now? Usually it's about things that we've done many years ago. But the rare conversation, this is when you know you're on the right elevator. When you're talking with somebody and they're talking about things that about the future, what they're gonna do, some of their goals, some of the things that they want to accomplish. Those are the people that you really want to surround yourself with. The challenge is the people that are negative is like the three minute people, right? But then we like to spend like three days with the three minute people or three hours with the three minute people. But what you really need to do is how do I spend more time with the people that are going somewhere? And that's where you have you can start to invest your time properly, like the network invention. Know that we go to, I looked at it as an investment because you never know who you're gonna meet.

SPEAKER_03 44:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:04

Like like we connected there.

SPEAKER_03 44:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:06

And I found one of my engineers there. I found you know clients there, right? So I was able to add a lot of value and and vice versa. So that's where I like to spend or invest my time in because you know I'm expecting something in in in return, right? Because I always say if I'm gonna go talk to this person, you know, I'm gonna add value. And if something comes back, that's great. Or at the at least I'll be able to share part of my story that can probably help them down the road, right? Which I've done in the past as well. Right. So that's the way I look at it when it comes to time. It's investing it in the right places. So it will add value and help them, right? And if it if it returns, that's great. But I never think about the return. I just know if I'm always doing good, helping other people succeed, I'll eventually succeed along the way.

SPEAKER_00 44:49

Right. And then so how are you? You obviously have to have a goal in mind of where you're trying to get to, what you're trying to do, if you're gonna be deciding what to invest your time in, not versus not in, right? Um you know, and you know, I I love the fact that you're you're here having this podcast because obviously you're giving me an hour of your time and plus, you know, some drive time uh versus somewhere else. So how do you decide those goals and what thing makes the most sense to invest in?

SPEAKER_02 45:23

Yeah. So like you mentioned, it's all about where you want where you want to go, right? Because if you don't have a goal, I look at it this way if you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every single time.

SPEAKER_03 45:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:33

Right. And every person that asked, whether it's engineers or people that out and about, I ask, so you know, where do you want to see yourself in two years, five years? You know, how do you want to see it? And most people draw a blank, which kind of blows my mind. But then again, I can understand that mentality because that's how I was 10 years ago.

SPEAKER_03 45:49

Right.

SPEAKER_02 45:50

Right. So once I had an idea where I wanted to be, like, you know, maybe a managing partner here or building other uh businesses, right? So I had a goal and a target in mind. So now I start to develop the habits to start to get there, right? And habits is one thing, but you also got to be disciplined. Yeah, that's the challenge for most people because we have a lot of, let's say, habits that we're not proud of.

SPEAKER_03 46:13

Right.

SPEAKER_02 46:13

So the book that I read in Atomic Habits is not about bringing a new one, it's replacing the old one with better ones.

SPEAKER_03 46:19

Right.

SPEAKER_02 46:19

So slowly over time, that's what I've done so that I can be okay. Does this align with my goals? Does this align with my values? So now it's just a decision saying, okay, I am not gonna do this, I'm gonna pursue this. Right. And then when you make those uh small decisions consistently over time, it's gonna start to compound. Yeah. And then that's when you really start to see some of the results.

SPEAKER_00 46:41

Yeah.

unknown 46:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:42

And I mean, that's true for anything, right? It's true for your fitness, it's true for business, it's true for your finances. I mean, I always tell people when when people are like starting fresh or they're young people, uh, if they either if they have debt and they're trying to like, well, do I pay off debt or do I save money? Honestly, sometimes I'm like, that probably should do both, right? You don't go to the gym and pick up a 50-pound dumbbell in one hand and a 25-pound dumbbell in the other hand, right? You take two 25s and you start curling both at the same time because you're not going to make one stronger than the other, right? You have to say, okay, I'm going to pay off debt and save money at the same time. And then I'll get ahead. It might be a little slower, but at least if anything comes up emergency-wise, I've got some money set aside, right? Um, and that's just learning habits, right? You also can't go from saving zero money to saving a thousand dollars a month because you get this great job because you're not used to saving a thousand dollars a month, right? It's that's a big thing to say, right? So you have to take those in little strides and like you said, replace the little habits as you're going, right? Um, man, Manny, we could talk forever. Uh, we're running out of time because uh I think there's somebody else coming in behind us. Um I'm gonna end the podcast. Uh one question in a second, but is there anything that you want to tell anybody about, you know, tandem, what you guys do, you know, how you your favorite book? Like, is there anything that you would tell anybody listening here that if there was one thing that they could do to like change their life or get in a better place or do whatever, that they they should do this thing?

SPEAKER_02 48:15

Yeah. So I think it's easier to put a picture of success versus what it takes to actually be successful. So it's those little habits. And something I tell my staff all the time is like, okay, what are your habits? Are you are you reading? Are you putting good nutrients into your mind? Right? Because I think most people are mentally obese. So when I started having a fit mind, it started to really strengthen other areas in my life. And when I started to implement that into tandem engineering, when I started, you know, many years ago, we're a growing company, or we have an office in Detroit and Windsor. We're really ready prime to expand to that next level, right? But then it also demands a newer version of yourself. So why I want my biggest goal is to be able to transfer a lot of my I'm just wanting to a conduit of wisdom to the other people so that they can start to grow and learn together. Because if we're all alignment, then that's what teamwork is, right? Together everybody achieves more, right? And that's what it that's the standard barrier that I want to have for my team and my staff to go to the next level.

SPEAKER_00 49:12

Yeah.

unknown 49:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:13

I mean, having a fit mind is huge. I mean, you know, everything is, you know, mental. Yes. And if you can withstand those mental fights, you're you'll you'll be okay. Um well, thanks for the time today, Manny. Um final question I have here. We always end the podcast asking our guest, what does success mean to you?

SPEAKER_02 49:33

Success means that I leave a legacy. All right, because there's two there's two deaths in life. One when people your true death, the other one is when people start to forget your name.

SPEAKER_03 49:47

Right.

SPEAKER_02 49:47

So when you start to impact people in a positive way while you're here, people are gonna remember that, right? So when the legacy continues to grow, when you start to transfer this mindset, right, and then that's what I think true success is because it's just like you know, a flame. A flame will never a candle will never lose its flame if you light another candle. Right. So if you're able to be able to share your story kind of like this, and to be able to share your the the test that you pass, now it becomes a testimony to others.

SPEAKER_03 50:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:18

I one of my mind of engineering that I said was, you know, if I'm gonna write a book, if you write a book about yourself from the time you're born to where it is now, and you give it to somebody that is in need of encouragement and they read your book, would it change your life? If it wouldn't, then you need to start changing your life so you become better. So I know this is just a chapter of where I am, but my book is continuing. I'm you're the author of your own life.

SPEAKER_03 50:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:44

All right. And so that's that's what success to me is that if I when I write a book at the end of my lifetime, I can give it to somebody, and even if it's impacting one person, and that one person could be able to affect generations or thousands, maybe break a generational curse.

SPEAKER_00 50:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:59

That's what success is to me.

SPEAKER_00 51:01

I like that. I like I like that analogy you used. If the the a can a flame on a candle will never go out if it lights another candle. Correct. That's really good. Yeah. I like that. I think and I and I think it goes to the testament of like, you know, who you are since I've met you. Yeah. You know, we've had some amazing conversations. Um, and it's always just sharing wisdom on how to do anything better, whether it's business, whether it's real estate, whether it's networking. Like we've just had some really good conversations over the past, and I know they're going to continue. Oh, yeah. Um, but uh yeah, we're out of time. So uh, Manny, thank you very much for taking the time to chat about leadership and some of the things you guys are doing at tandem to make tandem, you know, a great organization of engineers that are doing something different. Um anything else you want to say?

SPEAKER_02 51:48

Yeah, no, I just wanted to just thank you for giving me this opportunity to be able to and use this platform to help other people. So I'm really excited to be able to share a little bit about my story.

SPEAKER_00 51:57

I appreciate it. And uh I guess I'll probably see you at the next Wisdom Wednesday. Oh, hundred percent. So uh, ladies and gentlemen, that's another episode of Cracking the Success Vault here with uh Spectre Group. And our guest today, Manny La Larga from Tandem Engineering. Um, as always, you can find us on all the streaming platforms, the the podcasts, uh, whether it's uh, you know, Spotify, whether it's Apple Podcasts, Apple Music, YouTube, you know where to find us. Till next time.