Live Your Life Strategically with Chris Maksylewicz

Live Your Life Strategically with Chris Maksylewicz

Kelly Kennedy: ​Welcome to Episode 72 of the Business Development Podcast. And on today's episode, we have Executive Director of the Erika Legacy Foundation, Chris Maksylewicz, with us today. He is also a marketing expert. In today's episode, we will be discussing suicide. So if this is a trigger for you, please either skip the episode or please do take precautions.

Do you understand that if you are struggling with suicide, there is help available. If you're within Canada, you can contact the Talk Suicide Canada hotline. It's 1 833 456 4566. It's available all the time. There will also be resources available through the Erika Legacy Foundation, which you are going to learn about in today's episode.

Stay tuned. You're not going to want to miss this one.

Intro: The Great Mark Cuban once said business happens over years and years. Value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal. And we couldn't agree more. This is the business development podcast based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and broadcasting to the world.

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Business Development, capitalbd.ca. Let's do it. Welcome to The Business Development Podcast and now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy: Hello, welcome to episode 72 of the business development podcast. And on today's episode, we have a really, really. exciting entrepreneurial adventure for you. We are introducing to you Chris Maksylewicz. He is a founder of multiple companies. He's been an entrepreneur and executive for many years, and now he is the chief executive director of Erika Legacy Foundation.

Chris Maksylewicz. An educator, scholar, and entrepreneur, multi award winning content creator and storyteller, Chris is a master of transformative engagement. He is currently the Executive Director of the Erika Legacy Foundation, a leading national charitable foundation that has redefined how our communities think, talk and act regarding suicide and mental health issues.

Under Chris's leadership, the Erika Legacy Foundation is committed to funding initiatives that support scientific research regarding the brain and body, while also studying the social, personal, and economic conditions that lead to suicide, using those findings to implement effective approaches to suicide prevention.

Prior to joining, Chris held leadership positions in various industries that accumulated in creating Mad Hatter Marketing, a company named for its eclectic, one of a kind style. Mad Hatter specializes in creating highly engaging and captivating branding, marketing, communication, and events. His experience with Mad Hatter has also made him a sought after speaker on the topics of marketing, leadership, engagement, and creativity by design.

He has also served on numerous charitable boards and committees throughout his career. Outside of his work, Chris is an avid memorabilia and pop culture collector, mentor, content creator, and self proclaimed Twitch Mayor. That's an interesting one, Chris. Welcome to the show. It's great to have you.

Chris Maksylewicz: Great to be here, man.

It's really great to be here. I've been waiting for this, this is pretty great.

Kelly Kennedy: Totally awesome to have you on the show. You know, you've had an incredibly varied career, a very interesting one. When I started digging deeper and deeper into you, you know, take us back to the beginning, lead us through, you know, the journey of Chris Maksylewicz.

Chris Maksylewicz: The journey is one of a It is one of a very bad student and it is, and actually truly, truly one of my favorite movies of all time is Rudy with Sean Astin and and I have quite the same similar types of stories with being a bad student, going to university and such, but born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

And you know, my family was a. Middle class family, all great. And my sister was extremely smart, is extremely smart. And I was never really. Looked at as the guy that was going to do a ton, I wasn't going to, I was going to make a lot of change, but I was going to, you know, do good work. And my, my, my father owned a oil field repair company and I

at 18 years old, graduated from high school no, nothing on the, on the horizon for university. I went to work with my dad for a year and went to work at a shop and I realized it wasn't for me. And since then I have been addicted to personal growth and education. And Yeah, I just didn't, not that it's not that, you know, labor or any kind of work like that is bad.

I, it just wasn't for me and yeah, because of that, I, with no experience at all, there was a job posting online and I was a man who used technology all my life and I loved it so much. And I saw a posting for a radio station in Edmonton and I emailed them and I emailed them. And finally, the program director of that radio station, which at the time was the number one rock station in.

Edmonton, and actually the number one rock station in Alberta. He said, listen, you have no skills. You, you're, you're, you don't have radio degree. You don't have college. You don't have anything. However, we need a guy who could just be like a monkey and work our soundboard on the overnights. And he said, we, you can do it for Christmas.

It's not that hard. I'll let you have a job. And I stayed at that job and moved up and was there for about six years. Wow. And within that time, I also went and got a journalism degree and I took journalism with the idea that I was already in media and I loved it so much, but I also knew. At that time, when I was 18 to 20 years old, I really wanted to be strategic about how I planned my life, and I know that sounds nerdy and I think that later on when I tell you about all my other history I think that's a real big thing for parents and business leaders to tell kids.

Is to really think about that idea of strategically living your life. So I went and got a journalism degree with the knowledge that if I wasn't going to do a journalist job, which probably I wasn't because it was on the way out it was becoming digital and people were getting. I did know, however, that no matter what job I ever went to, I would be the best writer and best communicator in the business.

Yes. And I knew that that had value. So I worked in radio and got my journalism and then after radio, I went out into the world. Because even radio was laying off at the time. And I became a marketing director straight out. I became a marketing director in retail. And then I moved on to becoming a marketing director for a biotech firm.

And then I did a bunch of odd little jobs for real estate. So I had a real breadth of marketing experience.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes. And a wide, wide net.

Chris Maksylewicz: And a wide net of weird experiences, everything from making ginkgo biloba pill marketing herb herbal marketing to sky rises. And it was during that time that I, I was, I was lucky enough, I don't want to say lucky though.

I would say that I knew what I was doing and I won. A couple of marketing awards that were big in the industry of health and big in the industry of local marketing and kind of got my name out there and I became a wanted, a wanted man for marketing promotions and publicity really in media relations and from there, I got to keep my contacts in media and I started to work with celebrities and musicians and just everything you can imagine. That was really, really great to be able to work with some big names and some small names and do some marketing for some bands that went really big. And, you know And I, and I was able to kind of cobble together a consulting business somewhat and still work a real job with either herbal company or whatever it was doing and yeah. Then I quit. I quit.

Kelly Kennedy: And what came next?

Chris Maksylewicz: I I quit because at the time, I was not really feeling the passion that I once had, but I knew that I was still a good communicator and I really liked talking to people and, and talking. So my lovely... Girlfriend at the time, who is now one of my best friends said to me, Hey, I'm taking a education degree.

Why don't you go into teaching? You'd be so good at it. You'd be so good at teaching youth.

Kelly Kennedy: Okay. I, I wondered, you know, we chatted briefly before the show and I was like, I want to know how this happens.

Chris Maksylewicz: And she's like, you like doing the show anyway, you like doing the schmoozing and the talking. All you do is stand up and talk to these kids all the time.

And on the plus side you also change lives and you get to see some results and you'll be part of the union and you won't have to worry about money for, you know which was a big deal for, as you can imagine when you're in your twenties and thirties. And so I went and took a four year college or four year university degree in education.

And I worked for the Edmonton public school board for a while. And at the time, at that time, the school board was a little bit behind in the times in the higher up levels. It was pretty structured. I don't do structure very well. Hence the Mad Hatter Marketing. I'm not very big on rules in general. I like outputs, I like outputs and I like to see productivity.

Yeah, so the odd part about the teaching side of it was I was also, while I was a teacher, I was taking other, another degree in broadcasting. I took another. Diploma in broadcasting. And it's a weird story, my friend. I had, I, during my teaching degree, I met my first wife and we became married and it was fantastic.

And I am now a teacher and I am finishing up my university. Degree for teaching and I was on my you know, just getting the last bit of it done and I had a, I, I, I had a pulmonary embolism and I didn't know, I just knew that I was, I w I was running up the stairs to the university. I was like, man, I'm really out of breath and listen, I like, listen, I know that I'm not the.

Most fittest, but I can go up some stairs and I went to the doctors and it was on the eve of my final exam for one of my courses, which was a big final. And I went to the hospital. They put me on this machine that scans you. And then The scan was done and the nurse said to me, yeah, don't get up. Don't sit up.

Just lay there. You just don't sit up. And I found out that the pulmonary embolism had moved to my chest and it was a really bad deal. Obviously I'm fine now, but during this time I finished my degree. I finished my work experience and I started to work in the schools and yeah. My wife at the time, her father had a construction company and I was burning both ends with teaching and a little bit of schooling still and everything else.

And he said, Hey, listen, you know, you're kind of sick now with this, with the embolism and you want to come and work for our company and just do marketing as a coordinator in the beginning. Yeah. So I left the school boards. I went to. Well, I didn't leave the school boards. I actually worked two jobs day and night for about a year working in the construction company during the night, working the teaching job in the day.

And then I stopped the, the, the education or the teaching job because there was more money in the construction job. And I went back and I really found a real big passion for marketing again. Especially in construction, because there's so many guys and so many women that you could affect. You could do a speech for 5, 000.

You could make materials on safety or whatever it was, and you could see an immediate impact.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes. Yes. I was going to say, that doesn't really sound like you stopped burning the candle on both ends. Yeah. Not for a while anyway.

Chris Maksylewicz: And then I never looked back, I never looked back and, and so now I'm a guy with a journalism, I have marketing, I have.

Education behind me. I have a bunch of stuff and the, the the company, well, my wife at the time now, although the listeners will know my wife's name at the time was Erika and in 2012 business was going well, everything was going well. Erika had a mental health episode and we had divorced and that was in 2012.

And 2015, Erika died by suicide and I was still working for the company. She was also still working in the company and started her own company. And but you know, she was still connected and 2015, Erika passed away. And she was 29 years old, and she passed away a month before her 30th birthday. So what happened is, and it's a very sad story, of course and it crushed everyone.

But her father called me after and said, Hey, listen, we're thinking of starting up a foundation because we have this plan. And it was the same plan that every other family that goes through such a tragedy and has the means. It's the same plan that every family has, which is, we just want to have this not happen to anybody else, which is a great goal to have no suicides in the world and have people not die by suicide.

And once we got into it, we realized, well, that's a great goal, but that's the end goal is to stop suicides. There's a lot of things that could happen before there. And so Erika really, really focused our, our, our focus on being proactive, predictive, and preventative. Proactive in our programming, predictive in using technologies like AI and other emerging technologies that have the ability to spot if a person is having a mental health incident, giving us that runway, if you will, to put in interventions and, and make sure they're okay.

And yes. Thanks. We're preventative because for, for just talking to people and getting the word out. And it has turned out to be a real great job for me. We really are based in science and brain health over say the therapy side. We know that therapy is very good. We know that people suggest it all the time, but we also know that suicide.

Is a chemical imbalance in the brain, and we've really specialized in that. So my journey has been a wild and crazy ride where one day I'm teaching in schools and the next day I'm hanging out with Hulk Hogan and the next day. I'm taking phone calls from people who are having mental health episodes and we are giving them resources and that's all in like a week.

Kelly Kennedy: My gosh, my gosh. Yeah, you know, we talked about it before and I knew, I knew what you did and I knew kind of the level of kind of what it was, but it still never ceases to amaze me when you chat about it. I can't imagine, first off. You know what I mean? I know that sorry doesn't go anywhere. But I'm terribly sorry that that happened to both you and Erika's family, and Erika, for that matter.

And I can't imagine how that must have affected you. Obviously it's changed your entire path. You couldn't have known that at the time. What, what surprised you the most about the whole situation, I suppose, from, you know, I mean, I get it, I get it's your ex wife, but it's, it's still family, it doesn't matter which way you look at it.

What. You were still working. Did, did you take time off? How were you able to, how, you know, what were the first, you know, six months like how were you able to get?

Chris Maksylewicz: I did not take time off. By, by the time that Erika passed away, we had been separated for about two and a half years. And I was, I was actually at the time I was making corporate films and winning awards nonstop.

So now I've got a bunch of corporate film awards because I just went off and bought cameras and mics cause I knew I could do it. Yeah. And at the time it was, I remember actually, actually I can tell you at the time I remember calling my mom and I was all alone in my house and it was like a bomb went off because I had heard from Erika's mom and and my mom I know had to sit down cause she, she, she was, she was very, very distraught about it, obviously.

And of course, but after that wears off. After that wears off, it was how can I support the family? Because like you said, no matter what divorce, non divorce especially if it's like me and Erika had the nicest divorce you've ever seen. It was just very simple and very easy. And we, yeah, by the end, by the end when she was, when she did pass away, we, we had become friends again and we're talking but it became, how can I, how can I help my family?

And so I made the, you know, the video for Erika's celebration of life and did a bunch of things. And but it, it speaks to something that I talk about now when people go through really traumatic experiences that are as such, that there is a time to have your grief. And then there is a time to get back into it and make something great happen.

And I, I quote a man who has immensely changed my life and he was a vice president at the, at Erika's dad's business. His name was Peter and he's my mentor. And I remember he said you're never. Not going to have a limp when you walk, it will just lessen as time goes on, but the best thing you can do is turn your collar up and walk right into the wind storm and just keep going.

And it's something I would urge everybody to think about in the time of mental health and COVID and, and, and such. Yeah, because it's hard. It's hard being a leader. It's hard being an executive. And it's hard being a employee currently and to make, to make that, to make the magic that is business, it is a rough game right now.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes. Yes. You know, I love your story, Chris, and I love your story because, you know, I mean, you never chose this. You never chose this. This was not your path. This was not the way that you had thought your life would go, but you know, it tipped. And you embraced it and like, you know, just tell me like from going, frankly, you know, I mean, you know, I mean, I don't know about you, but speaking about me personally, my experience with mental health and dealing with, you know, my own struggles with anxiety and stuff didn't really become a reality to me until my late twenties where I started to realize like, okay, you know, this actually matters.

Like this is real. I think it took me a long time to realize that like issues that I was having with like anxiety attacks with like certain things or whatever else wasn't like, you know, It wasn't just like circumstantial. It was, it was a part of who I was and I needed to embrace that. And as a business development person, I've had to fight my own anxiety multiple times.

And you know, I got better and better over time. I got much better at dealing with it. And now, you know, I can go into meetings, no problem, but it was not always that way. And I talk about that on the show all the time. That you can, you can overcome things like this. You can overcome some of these personal challenges, but look, you just got thrust into the world of mental health.

You got thrust into it way earlier. You know, most people didn't start thinking about this seriously until COVID.

Chris Maksylewicz: And, and we did look like Erika legacy looked like geniuses. Yeah. Cause everything we talked about, right. Was like, how do we embrace technology like right now or even before COVID started, I was using VR headsets to, to connect with therapists and you could do it in your home and you can do it.

It, it, it is, you are correct. You know, it's funny because there I was in my home office, which has, as you said, I have a bunch of cool movie memorabilia. I have anything you can imagine. And. I'm doing great marketing. I'm doing some great promotion stuff. I'm doing great. You know, just branding. We're doing some great branding.

And my wife now, Stephanie, who I adore so much, you know, I get the phone call from Erika's dad. And and I just, everything kind of stopped and was like, am I going to do this? Do I really want to be a mental health guy? And then, you know, my wife, who is immensely smarter than me was like, yeah, you got to think about this.

You got to think about this. You're riding a really good high right now with marketing and communications and you're doing great. Mad Hatter's booming. Do you really want to be a mental health guy that has to deal with that true trauma dumping, if you will day in day out from people and still keep the brave face and.

In the business sense, one of the things that Stephanie had mentioned, she which, which speaks to what you were just saying, you know in business, everything is business. And I always say that in business, everything is marketing. If you're, it doesn't matter if I'm sitting next to somebody at a hockey game or on an airplane, everything for me is trying to get business and work.

So it is. The idea of being able to, like you said, if you were in your twenties, some days, it's hard to be business development when you don't want to go out there and be business development. And there are ways to obviously get over that and, and deal with it. And some days you just. Don't be the business development some days.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, you know, I, I talk about it a lot on the show and like, I don't have a good answer for people. You know, like, you know, when I talk about like, you know, if you're having a bad day, maybe just take the day or get some, get some rest or like, you know, I don't know whether it was necessarily healthy or not, but the reality is, is like, I dealt with a lot of.

Bad, hard situations in my time in business development. I've been doing business development now for 12 plus years and then sales for 16 plus, right? Like I've been through some shit where I've had to just compartmentalize and move forward because the job needed to get done regardless of what was going on in my personal life.

Chris Maksylewicz: And that is something that I do as well. And I've learned. Now to not do that as much because there's, there's the burnout factor and the hitting the wall factor, but there are things that I suggest, like one of the things that Erika legacy does really well is educate business leaders. We go do speeches in businesses because as you know, as a workforces are coming back and actually as workforces left to become digital, it was.

I, I go and do speeches on how to help yourself in business and mental health by knowing the signs and such and, and doing simple things like the idea of pattern interruption, which isn't talked about very often. Pattern interruption is doing something other than what you are stressed about watching TV, taking a bath, going for a walk, doing exercise, whatever it is drawing music.

The idea of pattern interruption in one's day. When it was first said to me and explained to me, I was like, yeah, well, yeah, everybody knows that everybody knows you're supposed to go and exercise for your mental health. But to really think about it in the mental health framework as a leader or a worker or a executive or mid level executive to take time out of your day to truly take time of your day when things are going a little haywire and.

Just, just do something else that gives you pleasure. One of, and it's one of the things you said in my bio, which is funny at the end. I put it at the end of my bio because very few people know what Twitch is. And Twitch is a streaming platform online. And if people know about Twitch, they say, well, that's where kids go in game.

They do video gaming and you can watch them play video games, which is just stupid. And. It's not that there's a lot of chat streamers on there and I got introduced to it years ago, but then I read, got into it during COVID and I was part of Twitch talk shows and watching people do chat shows. And I realized there's a community there.

Is every day or every, whatever their schedule is, and you can connect with people and you can then get onto other platforms like discords and such. And you can always have a circle of people that if you are having a health, mental health and break, let's say are you having anxiety at any time of day?

I know a couple of Twitch streamers that I follow religiously that have people on their discords and their streams 24 seven. They just sit in the rooms. And You know, I was at a hotel a couple of months ago and I had a kind of an anxiety attack and I was able to talk to people that I knew from Twitch and it's funny cause I, I started to do a Twitch show and I'm very, getting very well known in the Twitch space.

And the big thing for Twitch streamers are, is they want to become a partner so that they get money really, so they can make some money off Twitch. And I said, I don't want to be a partner. I want to be Twitch mayor. And that skyrocketed for me and everybody knows Chris Mak now wants to be a Twitch mayor.

So I made stickers that say Chris Mak for Twitch mayor, and I sold them for 2 a piece and I've sold hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of stickers. And it's just such a stupid marketing thing. And previously I made, I'm a Chris Mak guy or I'm a Chris Mak gal t shirts that my wife just could not stand, but I've sold thousands of them.

And Stephanie always says to me, she's like, if we're in an airport or a mall somewhere and I see a Chris Mak shirt, I'm going to freak out on that person and be like, why did you spend money on this shirt? You don't even know who Chris Mak is.

Kelly Kennedy: That's so awesome. Such a marketing guy thing to do.

Chris Maksylewicz: It is, and it's fun.

It's the whole thing about the brand. And and, you know, I have found that when it comes to mental health, this... Particular job has given me everything I've wanted in the way of a little bit of marketing, a little bit of executive, a little bit of, you know, doing the song and dance and doing the show when I want, like I can stand up and crowd.

And we just do great, great work, right? We currently have, like, currently we have a program that we, we fund very For, for many years now that has reached is still reaching over 2. 5 million kids. And that means that 2. 5 million kids yearly in their classrooms. So it is in the classroom of the school get mental health and wellbeing resources daily.

That's fantastic. Wow.

Kelly Kennedy: Totally amazing because there was nothing like that.

Chris Maksylewicz: Well, and if you think about it in as you know, your, your podcast, that is 2. 5 million youth starting at like grade four that are going through the system of school through grade 12 and, and if there's. Dang with our teachers and our programs that, and our program is free to teachers that, you know, they, they can just use it whenever they want.

But if you think if a kid goes through all of that mental health training from grades four to 12, they then become the next executives. Cause you know, me and you will retire sooner or later. And you're going to have this whole new generation of leaders that understand. The science behind mental health, not just the sociology part of it, or the, or the psychology part of it, but they understand all of it.

And that's going to change the way that we work. My gosh, will it ever? So this is, so yes, so then, and it's, and it's always funny because we have that program and we, we really we really fund research. We really fund emerging technologies and it, and it is odd because I am the guy. Now, because it's charity and I realized there's obviously tax benefits charity, but I am the guy now with 100 percent no shame where I'm just like, you know what, if you have a dollar, I'll take it.

If you have a bag of money, I will take it. And it's funny because all of my business friends just are loving it because they're like, wow, I'll, I'll get, okay, fine.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. No, it's a very great initiative. 100%. I wanted to go back, you know, you said a lot. I want to just go back. Thank you for having the bravery to admit that you also have struggled with anxiety. I think it's something that a lot of us executives struggle with and we don't talk about it. It's just a part of, you know, and I try to normalize that on this show, you know, being somebody who's dealt with it, especially with regards to business development over my entire career.

I feel like we need to be more open. And I get, I get it. I get that there's like, you know, we don't want to admit that we struggle with things or that we have challenges. But I think the first step to being able to find a solution for yourself is to admit that you have a challenge. And so I just wanted to say thank you for having the bravery to mention that you also struggled with anxiety.

Chris Maksylewicz: Thank you. That is, you know, I, I do have anxiety. I have depression. And I think that There is going to be a time where we will be able to have a, a balance where all levels of business will be able to say, Hey, I've had an anxiety of a depression. I mean, right now I know that you are a very popular podcast and I know you're a very popular podcast in our business communities.

And I will say this, whoever's listening, I can almost guarantee. Over 90 percent of your listeners have had a moment in their life because if you are an achiever in business, especially there is always that time where you are sitting at your desk or you're doing your work or you get some kind of recognition and you think the worst, you just sit there and you think.

I have scammed these people, something awful. They have no clue. I don't know what the hell I'm doing.

And it's such a weird feeling because deep down, you know, that that's not true, but it's still something that happens, especially with executives where there comes a time, at least once where you're like, how did I become this?

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, I haven't talked to one executive yet that hasn't struggled with imposter syndrome.

Chris Maksylewicz: And it's something I think imposter syndrome is getting to be used more and more.

So the phrase is used more and more. And I think that might be the doorway, if you will, to opening up business in general to be more accepting and open of struggle and not being worried. One of the things that I really, really. Really press on businesses and leaders is the idea of being truly, truly open and transparent.

When you say that you care about your staff, the, because staff, it's going to take a long time for, for workers in general, it is going to take a long time for them to believe that they can speak up without being laid off. Cause that's the big fear, right? And I think that there is a place coming soon because of things like imposter syndrome, where they will be much more open to doing that.

And it's one of the things that Erika legacy does is we, we kind of work with businesses and leaders to to put in those. Not only the scripts that they, you know, scripting how to say things, but actually how do you build a proper mental health plan within an organization and a mental health plan that's scalable and can stand the test of time?

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, for sure. Hi. Yeah. Yeah, I think organizations have struggled with that, what to do with that for a long time. I think I think open door policies and, and trying to encourage openness and conversation is going to be the, the solid step one, which will kind of take it to the next steps. But yeah, I, like, I, I think, I wish that there was just a plan or like a program, whether that be.

facilitated by government or by someone else, like, like a foundation that could potentially encourage companies or standardize some type of mental health program for business across Canada. I think that it has gotten to the point and it's so critical and so important. And frankly, you need your employees to be mentally healthy.

You need your employees to be firing on all cylinders because. Yeah, I'm sure I'm sure the amount of of missed work and and whatever else the costs would far right now currently far outweigh the costs of proactive approaches.

Chris Maksylewicz: Yeah, lost time to mental health, I think, is around 10 billion of, lost revenue and always going up.

And, and I agree with that. And I think, you know, Erika legacy is working on that because we've realized our school program was so good that you can take parts of that and re rework it into a corporate framework and a family framework as well. So we're doing that currently with some of our partners is building up that program because we realized that every company has.

insurers and, and, and, you know, banks and stuff that give them mental health resources when needed, but there isn't actually a program out there. There's a bunch of bits and pieces and things you can do.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes. Yes. Agreed. You know what I mean? You can throw money at something all day long. But it's, it's like giving a loan to somebody who doesn't know what to do with the money.

What it doesn't do any good unless there's a plan on what the best use case for it.

Chris Maksylewicz: Well, it's funny you should mention that, sir. As I put on my commercial hat but, but it is true. It is true. And it's one of the reasons that Erika Legacy was properly set up is because we realized that at the time, a lot of companies and a lot of donors, private donors were just throwing money at every charity they could and whatever they wanted, but, but they didn't know.

What was going on and we start up Erika legacy to say, Hey, listen, if you want to donate and you want to put your money towards good, we will use your money for the best usages of mental health. So you don't have to go do the research. You don't have to dig through everything that's out there. We will show you what's out there and say, this is the best.

Like our youth program is the best, but 100%, I know that for a fact. Free to teachers and you're hitting 2. 5 million kids daily is changing more than those kids. It's changing the teachers, changing the schools, changing the families. So we actually are a charity that gives, you know in the business world, we, we give an, a really easy case to, to donate to because you don't have to do the research yourself.

Like, and it's fun for marketing for me. I still get to do my marketing.

Kelly Kennedy: You still get to do all the fun stuff, you know, like, okay, why does it take private industry? Like, it sounds to me like you guys have been able to do more, frankly, with schools with the public than the government has been able to do with what 20 - 30 years focusing on, you know, mental health, various initiatives.

Why do you think that Erika legacy foundation has been so successful? When, when you compare it to the public sector, why, why is private money been able to make that more effective?

Chris Maksylewicz: Personally believe that we are successful and I hope all of your listeners donate to me. I'll tell you what though, the reason that we're so successful is, and this is my, this is my belief.

I might be wrong. I, I might be wrong, but my belief is this Erika was a human being. She was a daughter and she was an actual daughter. She was an actual sister. And she was an actual, you know, and she just, her sister had just had a baby and, you know, and when you think of it, when it comes to things like mental health, especially if you think about public and private, you can connect with Erika.

You can connect with her story. You can connect with my story. You can connect with, you know, if the story is of us, all of us, when it comes to public, it seems like it's so large. They say mental health, but it's just like mental health of Canada. And you're, you just sit there and you're like, Holy shit, that's a lot.

Like, that's hard to connect with. As you know, you do business development and I'm in marketing, but to show a picture of Erika and say, listen, I can show you a video of Erika that I filmed for her, for her new business before she passed away and you're like, man, I feel bad for that family. She seemed like she was great.

What happened? And the what happened is, you know, Erika is just like every other person who has had a mental health issue or has died by suicide or attempted she had you know, a brain issue, a truly medical brain issue. It's the same reason why, you know, we say, why can't mental health be an actual medical like cancer or like anything else?

We shouldn't be ashamed of it. But I think it's public versus private is that public seems so large that people just don't know how, or don't know what to do.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Yeah. It's like, it's so they can make it so big that it's like, okay, well, we can't fix that. That's basically what it becomes.

Chris Maksylewicz: You know? And it's, it's, it's where, like I came to you and said, Hey, I need help fixing 2. 5 million youth in our nation, you would say, well. That's holy cow. What are we talking about, man? You're going to need billions of dollars. But if I said, Hey, listen Erika legacy has this program that's going to go to 150, 000 teachers that encompasses 200 are 2. 5 million youth minimum per year. Would you like to help us out?

Here's what we're looking at. We want to build some new curriculum. We want to build some new films for them and some obviously some engaging content. Yeah, that's more tangible.

Kelly Kennedy: Do you know what blows my mind with this whole thing, Chris, listening to your story, your entire path led you here. Does that not blow your mind a little bit?

Chris Maksylewicz: It, it, it, I have thought of it a lot. I have a very, and, and, you know, if you want to get into my story even more, I have a very, very, very amazing saint of a wife currently, because to be, to, to say to your now wife, Hey, I'm going to be my ex wife's fund founder, you know, Yeah. Executive director.

Kelly Kennedy: You can't see, but I'm nodding.

Chris Maksylewicz: You know, and Erika had a family of like a thousand people. She has a very large family. So needless to say my Stephanie, when Stephanie gets got to finally meet my ex family slash now employers, it's just like a thousand, just hundreds of people she's meeting. It's a lot. And but I did realize early on when we started this, that.

Encompasses everything that I'm really great at. And going back to my mentor, I remember Peter saying once to me he's like, Chris, I have no clue. You have these weird skills that you can like get Eric Clapton to give you a signed guitar for your collection. And then you can go and schmooze people and get some money out of them and do some business development and you're very good at film and graphics.

He's like, there's just a random bunch of skills. I don't know how to monetize them fully, but there is a real value there. And it turns out that Erika legacy is all of that for value.

Kelly Kennedy: My gosh, you know, I talk about synchronicities quite a bit because, you know, I mean, in entrepreneurship in general, there seemed to be a lot of them, but Like, you know, your story.

Made you the perfect person to make this foundation successful, which absolutely it might be one of the best examples that I've seen yet on the show, to be honest.

Chris Maksylewicz: And it was, it was quite amusing because originally bill called me and said, Hey, you want to be the marketing guy? And I said, yeah, I'll do the marketing for the foundation.

And they had an an executive director come in and everybody I knew, obviously in all of Erika's friends and everybody that even her family members would come to me privately and be like, why, why, why aren't you just ahead of it? Because obviously this would, this is your wheelhouse. And the executive director moved on to other things and did some other things and, and I took it over.

And It is, yeah, it's just a weird, you're right, synchronicity is quite the word for it.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, totally, totally, it's, it's a little bit wild, to be honest. You know, what I want to know, Chris, is, you know, Erika Legacy Foundation has been going now for nearly seven years. Tell me some of the findings you guys have learned during that time.

Tell me about some of the, some of the initiatives and some of the things that have come along or that you've learned about about suicide and like you said, that chemical imbalance.

Chris Maksylewicz: Well, I'll tell you, we've learned a lot. There are certain things that I've, that we learned really early on that are just really little, little things that make a huge, huge difference.

One of the first things that we learned was, You shouldn't say commit suicide. And that's just very odd because that's what everybody uses. Right. There's a X, Y, or Z person committed suicide. And yeah, you should say die by suicide because they don't commit to it. They just die by it. That's you don't commit to cancer.

Sure. Like, you know, it's such a, and when you actually think about it, you're like, oh yeah, that actually does sound kind of stupid. Like I don't commit to cancer. I don't commit to having, yeah. Leukemia. So yeah, you didn't die by suicide really changes. The impact as well, and it really starts to open up that way of communication.

So we learned that we've learned that there are technologies out there that are physical technologies. There's a, there's a physical technology called RTMS that is a magnetic therapy that can reduce depression by 85%. And it's actually, we have it in our city with us. It's in many hospitals. Not very many people know about it.

And we're trying to get, bring more light to it because usually depression and anxiety is a precursor to having suicidal thought for many, not all, but many. You know, we've learned about all these amazing technologies and we've learned how slow the system is when it comes to research and suicide.

We also learned how poorly funded mental health and suicide prevention is. You know, cancer is obviously the big one. They, they get tons of money, but you know, comparatively, if cancer says gets a hundred million dollars, suicide gets five to 10. And we hope that that will change through the pandemic that happened.

Yeah, we see that more people are open to it, but we really want to. Highlight these emerging technologies. And we we've learned that what is needed. And one of the things that Erika legacy truly wants to amplify and start to fund is really helping researchers. If you, if you think about it in the way of business, taking research to revenue.

And not revenue as you would expect with financial revenue, but how do you get your really great finding that could really help a person and change their life? Much like our TMS, that technology has been around for many years. It just shed getting light in the last five, 10 years, but it's been around for like 30 years.

Kelly Kennedy: That's the electromagnetic therapy you're talking about, right?

Chris Maksylewicz: I've never heard. And, and how do you help researchers do research, do great things, but then switch to a more business mindset to help them get their findings out into the public faster?

Kelly Kennedy: Is it just a lack of financial incentive?

Chris Maksylewicz: It is a lack of financial incentive a lot of times, because really, if you, what we have found is if you are a researcher, you really are looking at public funding grants.

And you are looking at edge large education grants through your university or such. And we want to bypass a lot of that so that you can come to say, Erika legacy and get a grant. But then we will work with you once you get a finding or you create something and we will work with you to get it to market.

Because it is, it's a lack of funding and that's why Erika legacy is always out there asking for money and funding and doing everything else because we know there's so much out there right now. That is so worth it. I have currently, I have a company, we have a company that by looking at your living life data, how you post on social media and such, and you give it access of course, but it's not, it's not looking at what you would think.

It goes into micro data, but they have a 14 time faster, this technology can look at your living life data. Day in, day out and 14 times faster. It can tell me if you are going to have a mental health incident. Four months before it happens.

Kelly Kennedy: Whoa. Just based on your social media.

Chris Maksylewicz: Just based on your living life data.

So you can set it up to your Fitbit as well. And some other things and people are like, well, that's kind of not, you know, that's come on, that's, that's way out there. That's a lot, that's a big claim. But if you think about it, is it a big claim? Because the only way people really know about their mental health, are they some kind of treatment for mental health is if they see a doctor, how many times you see a doctor a year, maybe four times.

Sure. Now, if I was tracking your living life data every day, every day, every day, and it was, and the great part about it is it's not you singly, you become an anonymous in the system. And it says this anonymous person, which will pretend be me. Looks like all of these people in our system, they're having the same kind of things happen here is the interventions that we have given these people through their, you know, we've put it to their phones cause it's an app.

And we've given all of these people that look the same. These interventions and all of these interventions have worked for these bunch of people. So we think it's going to help this person, me. And it is really, really fantastic, right? It's but it needs funding and it needs funding to get the word out.

As you're in business development, my friend, I know, you know, very well, nobody cares on the rooftop. About the thing they never hear about.

Kelly Kennedy: That's right. That's right. How has your experience been in dealing with the government with regards to getting funding?

Chris Maksylewicz: We have been extremely lucky. We haven't had to get a government grant.

People have heard our story and have heard the Erika Legacy story and heard about Erika and they have been touched so much and we've helped so many people currently since 2016 we've taken over 17, 000 calls. And we're not a crisis center. I'm just saying that right now, but we're also not a place that if you email me or text me or hit me up on Facebook and say, listen, I need some resources for my area because I can't find a therapist to go to.

We're not going to say no to you. Yeah. Yeah. That's just, we're not and out of all the people that have contacted us, as far as I know, everybody's doing just great, which is successful for us.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Well, even if you help one person, it's still worth it.

Chris Maksylewicz: Well, and you know, you know there are stories that are just unreal to me at times.

We've had, I've had a man call me and, you know, trigger warning to all your, all your listeners if, but I've had a man call me saying that, you know, I was sitting here with a gun and You know, hanging out on Twitch with you, cause I did a stream he's like, I'm not going to do that anymore. And I'm going to hand my gun in to the authorities and I'm not, it's registered, but I'm going to hand it in.

I don't need firearms cause it's too, it's too tempting. And you know, I still talk to the guy and he's doing great now. He's got a really great life and, and, and it's things like that where you're like, okay, this is why we do this.

Kelly Kennedy: Amazing. You know, you mentioned, you mentioned chemical imbalance. Like that's something that you've definitely seemed to have keyed in on with Erika Legacy Foundation and your research.

How, like, you know, I mean, in that situation, right? You talked to somebody, you talked to them off the ledge. Is there a way to get that chemical imbalance back naturally? How do you, how, how can we help people? How can we help people that are struggling? What are some of the things that, that someone like me or you could do who were not struggling?

Are there ways that we can help them if we find out?

Chris Maksylewicz: You bet. And I'll tell you right now for all your listeners, I'm sure you're going to send out all of my information, or they're going to hear about my information at the end. Erikalegacy.Com. ErikaLegacy. com. We have handed out 900, 000 cards, little business cards that have a script on them.

It's literally, it can go in your wallet. It is a script on how to ask somebody if they are suicidal. Now. That script also works for how to ask somebody if they're having a mental health incident, or if they're having anxiety or such, the first step is always getting that conversation going after that step how we can actually help somebody is to be supportive.

And again, you know, tooting my own horn, Erika legacy has resources for how to help a employee, how to help a family member, how to speak to them, what to say, how to just sit with them when needed. Because that is really the process of how to start the, the, the process of. Getting a person to get the proper health they need.

And, and sometimes the help is medical intervention. Sometime it is therapy intervention. And sometimes I have found sometimes it is community intervention, which is the idea of, especially during COVID was, you know, using your technology. To be part of a community that you can always rely on.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, yeah.

Sometimes, like, you know, sometimes people are finding out, or, you know, families, I think, are finding out at that breaking point, you know, like where you're having a daughter or a parent who's, you can tell, they've just hit the, they've hit the breaking point for mental health, they're having an episode.

You know, I've heard experiences of people taking these people to the hospital and the hospital basically saying, like, sorry, like, there's nothing we can do for you. What a destructive moment for anyone you care about or love. What do they do? What do they do if that's the situation?

Chris Maksylewicz: Well, that is a very common situation and it is something that I refer to all the time because when it comes to, especially for the, this, the family members, if you know you have a family member or a friend who is at that point, then that is the end point, right?

That's, that's, that's the bad news point that Erika Legacy doesn't want. We want to be very proactive. If you're at that point, we realized that the family members, it's like you being punched in the nose. So I come over, I punch in the nose, your nose is bleeding. And then I asked you to do a bunch of math.

And you're just like, what are you talking about? I'm going to do math. What? My nose is bleeding. I can't. And, and, and there is a heightened sense of fear. And then your anxiety goes up because you don't know what to do. And, and you are correct. There are many times where, you know, we're seeing, we're seeing currently that the new suicide hotline number nine, eight, eight, I believe in the States, we have one coming to Canada.

Yeah. There have been times where even that new number hasn't been answered for 15, 20 minutes. And that changes the trajectory of a person in need. So what we really, really, really believe in are things like, and you can find them on my website as well, things like having a safety plan where you can write out a safety plan on who you contact.

If you're a person who is struggling with mental health issues opening those doors of trust and the communication. And also it's kind of why Erika legacy is around because for instance. If you, for instance, if you're having a really bad depressive or anxiety episode in the middle of the night and it comes to that point where you're like, I'm just going to end it all technology can be your friend.

You know, I have found that I personally have had a really bad anxiety attack when I was in Toronto and I had my VR headset cause I was showing it to people, showing it what can do for mental health. And there is an app on the VR headset that I use. Which is for mental health. So I was able to, in my hotel room, do that and refocus myself.

Kelly Kennedy: Do you mind mentioning what that app is?

Chris Maksylewicz: The app is called Inner World VR, and it's on phone. It is on your iPad. It is on your computer and VR. It is a great, great app that we love. It is peer to peer cognitive behavioral therapy, and it works wonders. It is something that we are very involved in.

There were, the world is changing a lot when it comes to the ability of speed and access when it comes to technology, as we know, everybody's using zoom and such. So there's a real place for that. And that's one of the things Erika Legacy is currently funding. We're, we're trying to get funding for, we're, we are, we are raising funds currently to build VR spaces because we have a partnership that we can work with meta and a couple of VR.

Also another VR Pico is a VR headset and they will donate us some headsets to give to people so that they can experience VR mental health help. And we want to build VR spaces. We want to build digital spaces because we realized that, especially in Canada, if you think of. People like indigenous communities and rural communities when it is winter in Canada and an indigenous adult or youth is having a mental health episode, there is no way they're getting to the hospital fast enough.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, yeah, I know. It's that's yeah, the communities are so remote. Heck, like half the communities around Edmonton.

Chris Maksylewicz: So for us to build a VR space. And, and, and actually have a VR space that has daily programming that you can come in and talk about just programming all day. Inner world is one that does it beautifully.

They have, they have AA meetings, they have cognitive behavioral meetings, they have anxiety meetings and it's a meeting every hour. They go 24 hours a day. I had no idea.

Kelly Kennedy: I had no idea something like that existed.

Chris Maksylewicz: And most people don't. And that's why I. Thank you. Thank you. Urge people when I talk to them to fund Erika legacy because we're not like your normal charity where it's solely just, Hey, we're want to build a hospital or things we want to bring light to these things that will make people better that they have no clue is out there.

But it's available.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, that's amazing. Chris, if you could give one piece of advice, and I know that that's a tough one, but to people that are struggling, whether that be with anxiety, whether that be with imposter syndrome or whether they are truly, you know, they're struggling right now. You know, whether that be with an extreme case of depression or maybe they're right on the edge.

What, what would you say to that person?

Chris Maksylewicz: I would honestly, honestly, I would say if you have anxiety, if you are depressed then be that person. Don't be ashamed of not being that person. Be that person. I will straight up tell you that I have medication. I will straight up tell you that I have depression and I have anxiety and I have, you know, I have a gamut of things going on and The more that we embrace the idea that it's okay, and I know that's very cliche to say, well, it's okay, but it truly, it truly is something where if you have depression or if you have anxiety, be that person, because once you be that person and you don't live in the world of shame and stigma it allows you to go and get help.

And there is good news, my friends, you still will be that person, but it will be lessened because you will get help and maybe it'll go away. Most likely it probably won't. Anxiety is not that simple. Brain chemistry is not that simple. At least you'll have a support system around you and you'll have people that care and you will know what is happening.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I just want to say, like, if we're getting you today, and today is just that day, it's the worst day that you've had, and you've found this show, I want you to know that you are valuable, you're loved, you're cared about, and you're appreciated. And even if it doesn't feel like that way in this moment, the moment will pass, and you are valuable.

Chris Maksylewicz: You know, and that is something that we say a lot. And I, I fully agree with it. And I will say that, yes, if your listeners are listening or anybody's listening out there and you're just having one of those shit days you are valuable. Everybody's valuable. And everybody's loved. And I know deep down, we know it.

I know deep down people are like, well, of course I know what we'll do. This is just stuff that you see on t shirts and Etsy signs that people make on their cricket machines. If you are feeling down, hit up Erika Legacy, head up Erika Legacy, my friends, Erikalegacy.com. You can always email info at Erikalegacy.com.

We will help you out. We'll give you some resources. We'll point you in the direction of your greatness because that's truly what it's all about. It's truly what it's all about. Erika legacy. The one thing that we believe in is people's greatness and to not fully believe in your own greatness is a shame because you are a great.

So. You know, come see us and we'll help you out.

Kelly Kennedy: Amazing. Amazing. Chris, I just want to thank you. Thank you for the work that you're doing here. You're going to help a lot of people. And I know you didn't choose this path, but I'm thankful that it is the path you ended up on. So thank you for doing that.

Thank you for coming on the show. If people want to donate to Erika Legacy Foundation, how do they do it?

Chris Maksylewicz: Erikalegacy.com/donate. I will always take a bag full of money. If not, if not stay tuned to our social media, we do, here's the fun part of the job. So we do online fundraisers on Twitch. With streamers and they are extremely fun.

We are always looking for private or corporate donors to match donations of communities. Now, what they get out of it is Erika legacy on Twitch has reached over 25 million people and. So you get some publicity, you get some promotion, but it's hilarious to watch a fundraiser online when somebody donates 5 and you match it and the place goes crazy.

And and then we give away a bunch of cool, really unique giveaways, anything from signed iron man helmets to we've given out Harry Potter golden tickets to the. Are the invites to Hogwarts custom made Hogwarts. It's fun and our, and our corporate donors love watching it because they can watch it real time with their staff and say, look at what we're doing.

We are changing these people's lives. So yes, Erikalegacy.com/donate or watch our social media. I will always the marketing guy in me, as my wife would say. I'm a little bit PT Barnum. I will always take your money.

Kelly Kennedy: Amazing. Are you still offering marketing services through Mad Hatter?

Chris Maksylewicz: Yes. Because on, on whenever time I have free, I just love helping medium, small businesses, large businesses.

And I've realized that in the way of marketing, you know, what I always said to my clients during COVID was COVID was a perfect time to spend more money marketing. Because as we got out of it, somebody was going to win that and now they're all happy and we did it. But marketing. Is changing in a lot of ways.

And a lot of everybody's like SEO, SEO, SEO, analytics, and all the rest. There's some really unique ways to market on platforms that are just emerging. And so, yes, I still do marketing whenever, whenever people come to me because they just like my weird ideas.

Kelly Kennedy: I love it. I love it. The business development guy in me. Absolutely.

Chris Maksylewicz: Oh, yeah. And it's so fun.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Marketing and business development is super fun. I I pump it all the time on our show. All right. Well, this has been amazing. This is the end of episode 72 of the business development podcast. We have been chatting with the executive director of Erika Legacy Foundation, as well as the owner of Mad Hatter Marketing.

Chris Maksylewicz. Chris, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for coming on and educating the crowd. I'll make sure that all the links and we get a nice donation section with regards to our posts. Was there any information submitted Chris for that Twitch for that Twitch donation?

Chris Maksylewicz: Yes, I will. I will send you some shortly and but it's always on our, because we have so many Twitch streams going. Usually we do one or two a month and we just pick. Amazing people, which just by the way, speaks to Erika legacy story, amazing people who have no clue who we are. They're from all around the world.

Cause they scream all around the world and they are so impacted by the story that they're like, I want to do a fundraiser for you. And that just makes me cry every time because it's just so heartwarming. And it's always on our social media. So join our social media.

Kelly Kennedy: Perfect. Perfect. I will put links for all of that on our show post.

So if you're listening to this, head on over to our LinkedIn page. It'll be up there when this show goes live. All right. This has been episode 72 of the Business Development Podcast. Until next time, we'll catch you on. The flip side.

Outro: This has been the business development podcast with Kelly Kennedy. Kelly has 15 years in sales and business development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry and founded his own business development firm in 2020.

His passion and his specialization. Is in customer relationship generation and business development. The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development, your Business Development Specialists. For more, we invite you to the website @ www.capitalbd.ca. See you next time on the Business Development Podcast.