How Beating Cancer Fueled Joel Paquette’s Mission-Driven Leadership

[0:00]  I think if you aren't people first, especially in the healthcare sector, then you're not going to be successful, right? I think I've had a lot of conversations with uh my team about, you know, when you make decisions based on on solely business, you're unlikely to put people first and you're unlikely to be successful. But if you make those decisions based on the human the integrity piece first, the business is going to come, right? So you maybe you take an L once on a couple things from a business perspective knowing full well you're doing the right thing from a human person perspective and it's going to come back to you from a business perspective later on. Right. And I think that's the mindset you got to have. You mentioned integrity. In business there's always that moment where you have to choose between doing what's actually right and doing what's easy. Have you found yourself in those crossroads where

[0:49]  you had to make those decisions? Yeah. Yeah. And I remember saying to myself, integrity over everything. Like I think I think if you maintain that integrity over everything, the business part is going to come. And I think understanding when you make those decisions based on integrity, people take notice. And you maybe you can lean on those networks or or leverage those relationships later on depending on what the situation might be if it's a client or a community partner.

[1:13]  But integrity over everything. If you make the decision based on that, I think the business part comes is going to come for you. Some people build businesses and some build movements. Today's guest, Joelle, isn't just running a healthcare company. He's redefining what care actually looks like. from hands-on patient to leading a company that's shaken up the industry.

[1:47]  He's got the heart, the hustle, and the story to match. Joel, welcome to the show, my brother. Thank you for having me. Great opportunity. Listen, I'm I'm excited. We just kind of talked about it. You know, the energy is already there, even though it's early in the morning for both of us. I I don't know. How early is it for you? Uh 10:00 a.m.

[2:03]  I'm on my We're on the same here in Canada. Second coffee. We're ready to go. Eron. Second. Listen, I gave up coffee. I'm just drinking a little bit of tea. A little tea. A little vanilla tai tea by the way. There you go. I always love to start with the moment of realization before you were leading before the big vision. Was there a moment in your career where you thought I need to do something bigger?

[2:25]  Yeah. I wouldn't say specifically like a moment. I know I my background is is clinical, right? So I started uh I have my masters in occupational therapy. So I was a occupational therapist for a number of years. Um and then I transferred into the public sector. And I remember at one point being like, "Oh, you know what? I think I actually want to be a manager."

[2:45]  Like, I think I want to help manage a team and group of people. And and I think part of that was being able to maybe impart change on a more on a more macro level, right? Um, and then I got the opportunity with Spark to kind of come and and uh in my head be the leader that I thought I could become uh in a pretty quick pretty quick timeline. So that was a huge opportunity for me to kind of seize and and that's really the point where okay I think I can impart change now at a bigger scale right and and that was a big motivating factor.

[3:20]  I I give you a follow-up to that man you you just mentioned therapist a CEO. Yeah. I mean not a directly exactly straight line career path but what was that transition like for you? You're going from a therapist man where it's probably a little bit more not as stressful and now you're a CEO. you the head of the table. H how does that feel?

[3:38]  What was that transition like? Yeah. Um I think it actually my work as a clinician really helped me. You know, I think naturally as clinicians, you're empathetic. You have good interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence in these, you know, situations that might call for it. So, I think naturally it was good for me to kind of look at it, uh use those skills that I had as a clinician in my leadership role. Um, I think I just had a knack for like the operations piece and understanding how to get things done in a really efficient way. I think that's just something uh something I've always done. So, it was honestly um I would I don't want to say seamless, but it was it was with its challenges, but it just came naturally to me. I I did I really like that transition piece.

[4:26]  And now that I've gotten into the role specifically, um, it's been there's not a moment where I feel like I'm over my head. I just acknowledge my gaps in knowledge that I have because of my clinical background and I embrace them and I look to kind of seek more knowledge to kind of help fill those gaps and improve me in myself in my role. I love it, man. Do you think there was anything that uh people assume about being a CEO that is completely not true? Um, yeah. That you're not approachable, I guess. Like I I I we had an uh I had a cold call interview with someone one time and um it was someone at the company and they were like, "Oh my goodness, I can't believe I'm being the CEO." And I was like, "It's just a title. Like I'm probably the least intimidating person. Uh you know, at least I tried to be." So I think that

[5:15]  you're not approachable, you know, like it's just a title. I'm still a person. and you try to, you know, be approachable to not only getting any community partners, but your own team and and kind of like you said, you got to be your organic self. And if that's the case and you're approachable normally, then the title shouldn't matter, right? Yeah. I think it's a funny thing and that's why I love just to have these conversations with leaders because it goes to show like the leader, right? We're having fun. Earlier I mentioned that I was with another leader yesterday and just he's laughing, he's having a good time. I mean, the dude's been in CEO for 30 plus years, you know, and and probably doesn't get that ability to have those conversations or just kind of be open and just be themselves because people think that because they are a CEO or president that they got to walk some way, they got to dress, you know, a certain way. Matter of fact, yesterday he shows up, he's

[6:02]  like, "Normally, I'm in a suit and tie, but I feel comfortable today." And I'm like, "And we should because we are humans." And even you, you know, I love it. This is how you came to me last time. Spark branded sweater. I'm you know, come on with the sweater. Listen, man. A lot of companies, they actually, and I'm pretty sure you've experienced this, where they say uh they claim to be people first, but and a lot of people really don't live it. What does that actually look like for Spark Life Care? To be people driven first.

[6:30]  Uh people first. Yep. Yeah. I think I think if you aren't people first, uh then especially in the healthcare sector, then you're not going to be successful, right? I think I've had a lot of conversations with uh my team about, you know, when you make decisions based on on solely business, you're unlikely to put people first and you're unlikely to then be successful. But if you make those decisions based on the human the integrity piece first, the business is going to come, right? Right? So you maybe you take an L once on a couple things from a business perspective knowing full well you're doing the right thing from a human and person perspective and it's going to come back to you from a business perspective later on. Right. And I think that's the mindset you got to have.

[7:16]  You mentioned integrity. In business there's always that moment where you have to choose between doing what's actually right and doing what's easy. Have you found yourself in those crossroads where you had to make those decisions? Yeah. Yeah. And I remember saying to myself um integrity over everything like I think I think if you maintain that integrity over everything you're going to the business part is going to come and I think understanding um you know when you make those decisions based on integrity people take notice and you maybe you can lean on those networks or or leverage those relationships later on depending on what the situation might be if it's a client or a community partner. But um integrity over everything. If you make the decision based on that, I think the business part comes is going to come for you. I love this. And then when you

[8:04]  think about a leader like yourself always wants to make sure to hire great talent, um people that that really I wouldn't say are just like you, but you you see something in them. What is it that you see in them when you bring them onto the team? What is that special thing? Yeah, that's the million-dollar question, right? Um I think the the more I have been in this leadership role, the more I'm kind of looking at identifying the the subtle things, you know, you have the hard skills and the soft skills. I think some of the one of the things I look for um is just critical thinking like like more macro level awareness of the situation. Um, someone who understands their gaps in their knowledge and is open with those things, doesn't kind of pretend that they're not shows me that their willingness to learn

[8:51]  is is is and and communicate those things. Their ceiling as a leader within my organization is higher than someone who isn't open, isn't kind of communicating those those discrepancies as much. So, that's one thing I always look for is that macrolevel kind of metacognition. so to speak, of of where they're at in what they're where they want to go, what they know, what they don't. And it's hard to tease that out in an interview, let me tell you. Yeah.

[9:21]  I mean, I haven't I remember being in in the the hiring role, right? And um I would say it was never really that easy. It it was it's somewhat easy, but then not because they portray one thing at times and then they come and become something different. But then I hear, you know, that it's just people are different. you know, they don't have the work ethics that we have back then, right? We we were ready to work at 15 years old and hustle and and and make our own money. And I don't know if it's the same way if people give that same passion to what they actually do. Um, so I can only imagine, man, there there's definitely some things to go through, but I I actually want to know your time in Spark. Is there one thing that really stands out to you that you were just so happy um that was a success for you that you still kind of happy for today?

[10:09]  Um, yeah. I mean, I don't know if there's any one thing. Honestly, I think getting into this role and understanding, it's new for me, it's new like from an operations point of view, from a leadership point of view. Um, and seeing the success we've had as a group over the past two years. And you kind of start, you know, okay, the foundation that we laid, you know, 18 months ago, um, is now finally coming to fruition.

[10:37]  and the team is realizing it and you know now it's just further mo that motivation. So it's cool to see when you plant the foundation and you adopt these new strategies, these new models, it's cool to see you know the initial doubt that people might have uh because it's change and change is always hard, but when it finally comes to fruition and they're like, "Oh, this is this is pretty cool." Like that's a cool um you know reaffirmation of of what the decisions you made as a leader and that's that's pretty exciting.

[11:07]  Was there a moment in your career thus far that you just had that like oh moment where you realize that you weren't prepared for something? Um yeah, I'm sure I'm sure a lot of those moments I I think clinically there's always a lot of those. Like I find um when you I was a clinician you'd go I I had an experience with individuals with uh traumatic brain injuries. So you would go in, you'd have plan ABC clinically for that individual and then you know the the just hit the fan. I don't know if I can say that word, but that you got to like go to plan D, E, F, and you got to think on your toes and be, you know, flexible.

[11:51]  Um, in the CEO role, I would say the those moments are are aren't as frequent, thankfully. um it's a little bit more you understand what the demands are going to be every single day but um clinically it happens a lot and I think that help has helped me it's like well you know what this person's life isn't on the line and so it kind of puts things in perspective based on your other experiences well when when building a strong network you you've mentioned you know building strong networks and teams is there's been a mentor during this journey that really kind of instilled this in you or still kind of instilling you know their wisdom in you. Yeah, I think there's a lot of individuals that I'm pulling from. You know, the founder of of Spark itself uh has been a great mentor for me. I think um I think leveraging your

[12:41]  your your network and the the different leaders you might have known about um have been great. I've had some great managers in the past that I've really pulled parts of their management and leadership style from even I've had some people I have managers for like 12 months but I've pulled you know a lot of uh skills and uh brought a lot of the things that they've imparted in me with me than managers I've had for like five or six years sometimes right so it's all about I think the different leaders that have imprinted on you and then also discovering who you are what you what kind of leader you want to be over time too.

[13:19]  That's that's a huge, you know, difference when you have a leader that truly cares and is really pouring into you and and realizing that they're they're helping you grow because ideally they may not want to be in that position forever, right? They want to grow as well. They want to go elsewhere. So, the best way to do is actually, you know, grow those under you. So, I love that you found people that had no ego, you know, had no pride and was willing to give you all the knowledge possible to make you successful. And I kind of want to talk about something because you told me you had some some health issues that were happening while you were still running the company while most people would have really stepped away probably permanently. What really kept you going?

[13:57]  Yeah. Um it it actually was even before I was in the current leadership position. So I most of my leadership roles have happened after that in a healthcare right. So um what what kept me going is more so I guess two things. one in being I'm in now this leadership role that I didn't have before. These opportunities really come to me that I feel like I I want to reach for. Um but there was always I always said like the the the whole cancer experience was both motivating and and grounding at the same time. So motivating in the sense that I need to make the most out of whatever time I have left on this earth, right? Should it be, you know, knock on wood, everything's okay right now, but should it be cut short, you need to make the most of of, you know, and optimize who you could be as a leader and as a person

[14:45]  professionally and at the same time very um grounding that really what truly matters is my friends, my family, my health, you know, like those are the big things. So, um that's kind of what it it keeps me grounded, but also kind of really motivates me to kind of push myself. If the Heart and Hustle podcast has ever sparked any idea or made you think differently, do us a favor. Make sure to guys share this, post it on LinkedIn, or even text that nonprofit friend that you just have. Whatever works. This is what keeps the conversation going and allows us to just grow this community together.

[15:22]  Seriously, we appreciate you. Do you think there's a different Joel now than before? before the experience of of cancer and not the unknown. Do you think that you've it changed your life a little bit? A million percent. Yeah. I had I remember I was in the first couple meetings uh when I got back and someone who I had maybe crossed paths with professionally a couple times and older gentleman and he said to me, it really kind of imprinted on me. He said to me, "Okay, so now you're discovering your new journey now." And like that was like, "Wow." Okay. Like I I'm definitely never going to be the same, right? I think I think you carry with you your your whatever traumas or experiences and they

[16:10]  help shape you. So that was a pretty big one. Um, so I think it's it's always going to have an impact on me and you just got to take whatever lemonade you can make from the lemons you may have received and and uh keep drinking it and and find those silver linings wherever you can. If if I was to ask you to sum up the experience that you you had during that time, right? There was a pivot in your life. Um, if you could ex just sum it up for people that may have going through experience or just need to hear some motivational words, what would that actually be? Yeah, I think when you're in it, like you're it's just take you got to take it day by day. I think when you're um you can't really think too far forward or else you're going to get just

[17:00]  debilitating anxiety as far as what could be possible. Um, and always just taking it one day at a time, like do what you can today to be better tomorrow. Um, whether that's eating healthy, going for a walk, you know, seeing a therapist, those kind of things. I think that's what you can do uh in those situations. And I'm one of the fortunate ones. You know, I was able to ring the bell. I was able to to kind of continue to, you know, live my life and and and continue to push professionally. But uh when you're in it, when you're in the trenches, so to speak, it was one day at a time. One day at a time. Some days are better than others, but just always take that step forward if you can. I love it, man. And and I'm glad that you were able to overcome that, right? Like you mentioned, not everyone has that ability. Not overcome it, man, but you

[17:47]  truly are thriving now. Like look where you're at, you know, and and you're at a space where you get to help other people. when someone was there to help you and you had all these people helping you. It's almost how life really turns itself and put you in a position that when someone was helping you now you get to do that for others. And I can only imagine that you you wanted to do that because you felt that that need um to you know um keep moving forward and help others on their journeys whatever that journey looked like. And I ask you are there do you have like plans for spark?

[18:17]  I I want to be in the insight so that when it happens we heard it here first. A lot of the times we as leaders we set out these goals. If I say what's for Spark in the next three years, what does that actually sound like? Yeah, I think the the past uh 18 months we've been really gearing operations towards scalability. You know, I think we our vision and mission has really crystallized over the the past couple years. And so, um at this point, we're we're poised for scale. We're poised for geographic scale. uh we got a couple pilot projects going on as far as scaling our our model our healthcare model upwards and so um that's going to that's really the goal. So in three years time I hope to be Canadawide you know having multiple locations and still

[19:05]  having the the patient centered you know centralized quality oversight that I think makes makes us different but being able to kind of service greater Canada maybe up to Florida see Efron and and uh and who knows the model itself you know it it's super fluid it kind of leads itself to that that possibility so that's how I see us going we've kind of geared operations with that in mind so uh it's it's an exciting time for listeners that that are are listening right now and watching this, let them know a little bit of what Spark has done for the community uh thus far and continues to do for the community. Yeah.

[19:38]  So, Spark is is the the model itself is a matchmaker, right? So, we're matchmaking uh health care seekers, people seeking healthcare services with a network of healthcare providers. And so really our goal is to empower clients seeking services with choice accessibility, you know, it's a personalized match and then empowering the healthcare providers um by they can they can be leveraging our brand. They get paid top of market and they can really kind of monetize themsel as a as a business themsel. Um and that's kind of been our model is trying to connect those two and and and do it in a way that's fluid and scalable. Um, someone said to me in in a meeting when I was uh networking once, they're like, "Okay, so you're like the e-harmony and the Uber of healthcare." And I'm like, "I guess

[20:26]  so." Like that that if that's how you want to put it, but we match and we always do everything is is in home. So, we go to you, you know, as the as the client. So, at least I didn't say like plenty of fish or anything. Well, yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I'm not quite sure. You know, I I the funny thing is I've never experienced those apps, but I can see where they automatically, especially if someone's on it often, right? That's what they compare it to.

[20:50]  It's always funny what people compared to. It's like, I mean, I I guess, but, you know, not really. Definitely didn't think about it when we were doing it. Yeah. From a matching perspective, I get what you're saying, but yeah, not quite. You can't just swipe left and swipe right. It doesn't work like that. No. How do you make sure that as you're growing um that you're just not losing that human first culture? Especially you mentioned um last time we spoke about AI and people are thinking that using AI you're losing that human first culture.

[21:18]  I say no. I think it's a tool. I think it's a resource for people to really grow right without having to spend so much time on different things. But what what is your thoughts on this? How do you not lose that human first approach and you implementing AI already? Yeah, I think it's as long as you start and and maintain the the human the client experience as your baseline, right? Like what does that look like? And in situations in which it would be beneficial to from an from an operational or efficiency point perspective to adopt an AI or tool or something like for automation without impacting that client experience, then it's a no-brainer, right? Um but in situations in which there might be an impact on that then you have to have that consideration like what's the offset what's what's the ROI compared to the efficiency versus that that client

[22:08]  experience. But for us it's always been um trying to promote that client experience and then trying to delineate between okay well what is not going to impact that that we can just supremely optimize right without without adding to bottlenecks. anything about the client experience that's onetoone care is is still going to be in person it's still going to be human to human so u the operations around that and optimizing those and adopting those tools for AI was would be what the focus would be then if you can have a AI buddy in your company what what would you want him to do what what does that look like for for Spark yeah what what I guess what other limitations do I just have a little robot assistant that can just do everything for me because that would be sweet.

[22:55]  No. Um I think I think we already adopting a lot of different things from an automation perspective. We have different tech platforms realizing you know electronic medical record and we all I take every cold call about these AI platforms because this is just emerging right and if you're an early adopter and you find one that really kind of speaks to your model it can be game changer. So um I've looked at uh different AI agents that would work on you know billing automation or work on um different integrations between our two platforms. I've looked at custom GPTs for for our first Spark specifically. So I can upload the knowledge base of that GPT with all our policies and procedures and everything

[23:42]  like that. and then all my employees or contractors or even clients can then reference that TPT for any information and then there's no one required from an overhead perspective to taking time out of their day to provide that right so I mean that's a good example it's like well the information is then super accessible for them but there's not no human element there so like how do you offset that ROI and and what's going to be more important for the client experience at that point yeah it's it's a very tricky placement.

[24:13]  I feel like um we're seeing people have to be curious about it, but they're still, as we mentioned a little earlier, saying, "Well, I don't want to lose that human touch." And I'm like, "But you won't." Like, it's up to you to really replace that human ideally, right? But what can you really do? I mean, I speak to people in the nonprofit and healthcare space, and we got people in the nonprofit space using it as um for helpful grant writers. That's huge. And and what a big cost saving there, right?

[24:39]  when you think about what you pay for grant writer and and is it good but now if you teach somebody within your company you actually keep that in you're saving money and you're also educating within so I think people just it it's like anything it's like new technology when uh the phones first came out right and and it was a whole privacy safety thing it's listening to us all these different things but come on we're using phones I was talking to a leader yesterday when floppy disc became a USB it it was people were a little nervous what do you mean what is this, you know?

[25:10]  So, it's it's all about just doing it and and being comfortable with the uncomfortable because it's not going anywhere. If anything, we're going to get more superful super powerful uh AI tools and you mentioned if I'm on board with one of them early on, it's going to be a game changer for the company. So, I definitely do agree. Yeah, it's been uh it's been great. Like when I first took over the operations piece, it was uh you know I I want robots, you know, and I remember like there was a big joke like a running joke about there was a joke with my team like how many times I said bottleneck in a meeting and like automation like robots like this was like the running joke. Um and like change is hard for them you know they've done something a certain way if it's manual it's been manual but they've done it a certain way for you know five six years. So when you come in and say that

[25:59]  doesn't make sense, then then they can push back. But I think a big thing I always asked them was, "All right, if we were to 10x tomorrow, right, how would would you be able to keep doing your job as you do it now?" And if the answer is yes, cool. If the answer is no, why not? And then how can what are some strategies that we can kind of circle back to? And that's led to um us exploring different automations, different you know adoption of different tech or things like that to allow for that scalability like I said. So we were able to kind of scale upwards and growth but actually reduce our operational overhead because we've scaled so we've adopted those strategies so much. I love it man. We're going to start uh wrapping up here before we we get to that great question that blind question. If you had

[26:47]  one piece of advice for someone trying to just make a difference in their industry, what what would that advice sound like to them? Yeah, I think it's funny when you making a difference can be micro or macro. So, I think oftent times people are like, hey, I need to make this huge huge shift, right? Um, I think my clinical background, we're looking at you, you're day-to-day working with these individuals on their goals. Um, what would seeming seemingly be a small goal for someone, but you actually help them attain it, you know, like dressing themsel again, for example, like means the absolute world to them, right? So I think just taking a step backwards a

[27:34]  little bit and not focusing so much on I need to make this huge macro impact on my sector and being like okay how can I impart change for one person one sector that's really meaningful to them subjectively and then and then that is going to snowball right I think uh I've talked to talked to you about that last time is you know the small little impacts that you have on your network of all these little interactions you know just being kind and courtous and try to make a good impression on that one thing. They're all going to come back to you. You're all going to be able to leverage those later on. And so, yeah, focusing I would say, you know, try not to focus so much so on the macro. Get focus more so on the micro, how you can part of change in a small piece and then it'll build from there. And where can people find more information to learn

[28:22]  more about what Spark Lifeare does or even get involved? Yeah. So, uh you can follow us on all of our socials, uh hashtagsparkcares, uh our website, www.sparkcares.ca. Uh we also have a nonprofit company, Spark University, which helps uh subsidize trainings and create resources for our frontline any of the frontline or family caregivers. So, uh Sparku.ca would be that one. Love it, man. And the blind question. So, before we let you go, we've got a little tradition here. you get to leave a question for our next guest. They have no idea what their the question is, but I have a question for you. Okay. Um, and the question is, if you can go back in time and tell young Joel, the leader, some words of advice, what does that

[29:10]  sound like? Back in time and tell young Joel, the leader. Um, yeah, that's a good question. See, I like these blind questions. Now I got to think a little more. Say, man, I be like, "Oh, that's a really good question." You really thought about it? Yeah, mine's not that good. No, I think just be patient. I think I always felt u I was always pushing myself for something more, right? Uh, which is good. I think it's just a a natural innate thing in me. But um I think just being patient with with your growth as a person and as a leader is is important. Everyone wants what their dream jobs yesterday, you know. Um so you know just being patient

[29:58]  with yourself, continue to work on yourself and eventually those opportunities are going to come. Eventually those those opportunities based on the networking that you've done over the course of that career are going to come and and then just seize that opportunity when it comes up. Appreciate it, man. And and for your question to the next leader that we have on the podcast, what is that question?

[30:19]  Yeah, next question is uh if you had to pick someone that has inspired you as a leader, uh who would that be and why? Okay, I like that. I like that. I I got one more question actually that I just had just for the people that are listening. Spark care, is it something that is just Canada based? It is Canada based, right? As of now. As of now.

[30:41]  Yeah, we're we're um again working on that scalability and expanding out into different geographic regions. I actually think the model itself is super fluid and and would do well in the US, but uh as of right now, we're just Canada based. Got to put some time into it. I got it. I got it. We got to be patient, effort. You got to be patient. There you go. That's what you tell young Joel to be a little patient. Exactly. You still got to find that right AI model, per se.

[31:04]  That's right. Guys, it's been a pleasure. Joelle, thank you so much for being here and sharing your knowledge, your experience, as well as your leadership with our viewers and listeners. Guys, if you're still watching, make sure that you guys do like, subscribe, make sure you guys check out what Spark is doing, especially if you're in that healthcare space and be on the lookout because I believe that Orlando does happen or just the United States happened at some point. The uh and and what a great leader, Joel, to actually make it happen. Thank you guys so much for watching. My name is Era Hard and Hustle Podcast. We'll catch you guys on the next one. Appreciate it.