Event Review: Canada's Largest Real Estate Wealth Expo on March 19,2017

     It was going to be an exciting day of learning, speaking and socializing at Canada's Largest Real Estate Wealth Expo in Toronto on March 18,2017

       Anthony Robbins, Pitbull and many more amazing speaking were going to share from the stage as 15 thousand people were expecting to attend the Metro Convention Centre in Downtown Toronto

      It all started at 5:00am Saturday morning as I answer the call to volunteer at the event for part of the day. Huge thanks to Sujit K Reddy and Joanna Chabot for getting everything in order.

      I got up and had all my gear prepared the night before, the big question was how I was going to get to the Metro Convention Centre at 5:15am?  Well take a taxi of course. Now I have not been in a taxi in Toronto for at least 30 years!

     Would you believe my luck that none of the taxi's I tried to flag down on Bloor Street would stop! so I walk to the cross streets of Bathurst and Bloor to get some money from the bank machine and then tried again, waving my arms and legs. Finally a 4 door  Toyota Camry stopped and entered the back seat. I said " Metro Convention Centre please quickly!"  The driver responded " will be there in 10 minutes"
 
  I was little surprised how he gave me that answer so quickly and then I looking on his dash and he had 2 GPS units.

   We had quick conversation on his career and the taxi business in general. I said" you taxi is nice and clean" he said " thank you clean car , great service!"

   
     We arrived very quickly and I paid him and of I went to get ready and start my shift.

   I had asked for the registration area for the morning, so I could catch the afternoon session with Pitbull and Anthony Robbins

       It was a good plan to start but the day of the event was a not wise decision. 7 Days prior I had suffered a knee injury playing ball hockey so I was still recuperation from it. Luckily I had got movement back in the knee, it was on ligament that was strained.

     Unfortunately I couldn't wear my running shoes during my shift. I brought them with me to wear in the afternoon!

         It was smooth morning in giving people directions to where they can go sit and where to find the various session happening during the day.

       Late in the morning I was asked to be part of the group to get lunch with group of volunteers. I said "yes!" what followed was an adventure of going to the place which was fun experience. There was a Comicon event happening in the south building and there lots of people all dressed up in cosplay costumes everywhere.

          We got the subway shop and we picked up 12 boxes of food and divided them up amongst us. The next questions was asked "are we going the same way back?" by one of the volunteers. We said "no way we are going around!" so we went around the metro convention centre and made it back in record time. Our hands literraly we ready to fall off by the time we reach the volunteers room.

         After lunch I went back to registration and helped out for the next hour and ran some errands for my manager Ariba

  On a side" she  was AWESOME! The day before she clear with her communication and answered all our questions during our traning session. It was worked out well because we knew how to handle most of the questions that were going to be asked!

        At 2:00pm I signed off and went to change my shoes and seek out few friends who were at the event.

         It was great to listen to Pitbull being interview and sharing his mini talk on turning negative to postive. He then treated us to a few songs from a few of his hit albums

     Then the  last speaker of the night that everyone was waiting for the one and only  Anthony Robbins!

        He was supposed to be on stage at 4:30pm but didn't get on until 5:30pm which meant we were not going to get out until 8:45pm.

       Let me tell you, everyone stayed!  15 thousand attendees were glued to their seats listen to words of wisdom of Tony Robbins, He has been teaching personal development for 40 years!

         At the end of the day the experience was priceless!        

                                          




         On Friday evening we had a 2 hour training session to get the lay of the land and learn our responsibilities.

Ariba our Manager showing us the lay of land with all the seats

                                           
On Saturday morning...
                                                          

                                               

Panoram shot of networking cafe

Pitbull being interview on the big screen

                               

Pitbull being interview at 2:15pm

                                          

Anthony Robbins taking the stage at 5:30pm-8:30pm

                                                 

Pravin and Jim Pagiamtzis

Jim Pagiamtzis far left and amazing real estate agants

Jim Pagiatmzis and Dwayne Richards

Jim Pagiamtzis middle with FUN Girls

Jim Pagiamtzis and Randy Ramadhin

Left to right Jim Pagiamtzis, Randy Ramadhin and Todor Yardonov

Sunil Tulsiani and Jim Pagiamtzis

                                     

Jim Pagiamtzis journey of success (article written by Centennial College student)

                                              

Education is a lifelong journey and some people don’t want to stay still. At Centennial College, we set our alumni up with transferable skills that let them move around, if that’s what they wish to do. That was the case with Jim Pagiamtzis, who graduated from Business Management in 1994 and moved on to varied successful careers in areas as diverse as marketing, public speaking and even acting. He used his business knowledge as a platform to pursue a variety of interests on his long, colourful journey and regularly uses his skills to give back to Centennial College, the school that help set him up. Here’s his story.

Coming to Centennial

“I go to my guidance councillor and say, I want to become a scientist. She says scientist? Science doesn’t pay.” Jim says about his unusual path into Centennial College. He’d eventually come and take Business Management at our Progress Campus, something he calls “a logical choice.”

“It was a cool program because of how I’d go to school and learn on the go, at that time Centennial College was one of the first schools where a new co-operative was being tested.” He’d take part in two co-op placements, working in the field while he took classes.

“I went to school, and I worked for a company called Oshawa Foods,” he explains “I go to work for four months there, and made some really good money, so I did two co-op work terms.”

“I had to compete with other students to get into the program,” he continues, discussing how in-demand the position was.” Three people interview me for Oshawa Food position! There a lot of competition. I’m grateful that I had that choice, because it helped me later on to understand the world of business, and it allowed me come out of college with no debt!”

“My work ethic definitely improved from being in business, understanding numbers and accounting.” He says, reflecting on what he learned that would later benefit his career. “My accountants loved me, Understanding numbers, expenses and investments helped me.”

“Later on , I realized working independently and working with a team were two of the greatest assets.” He adds “When you don’t have a strong team, things can fall apart.”

A varied career

“I just started working with Digital Marketing here in early June.” Jim says, before that though, he had a long varied career, always trying his hand at new things. From the conventional to the unusual, all grounded in what he’d learned in Business Management at Centennial College.

“After Centennial for ten years, I worked as shipper/ receiver for a couple of computer stores.” He says “Then from 2003 to 2011 I worked in the logistic industry for FedEx Freight, and at that time, I started to get mentored that had a big impact on me personally and professionally, and then in 2007/8 I wrote 3 articles for the Toronto Public Library on mentorship, marketing and volunteering.”

Jim’s passion was always in public speaking, though he’d finally get to do in 2012, after leaving the logistic industry.

“I go hired by social media company Constant Contact.” he continues, “I spoke on email marketing, in that industry for about two years in Toronto, which was my dream to speak full-time and get paid to do it.”

His love of public speaking would also motivate him to bring the Public Speakers Association to Toronto in 2013 which he calls ‘another adventure into itself” The organization currently has chapters in Niagara falls, Calgary and throughout the United States. “It let me do something bigger than me, by giving me speakers to learn from and community they could learn and make impact” he says.

“In 2016 some great thing happened.” He adds, “I taught at a private school in Richmond Hill, ONT teaching the future leaders between the ages of 8 and 13 the power of presentations skills through speaking, It was an awesome experience!”

“After that in May I got back into the acting industry.” He says, surprisingly he did background acting and appeared in few documentaries, even got a small supporting role in “A Girl without a song” in September 2014. It later premiered in Asian Film Festival in October 2015 in Toronto. Then in May he got speaking role in Matt Damon movie Downsizing which will debut in theatre December 2017. “ I got to go behind the scenes, and see how things work in big budget movies.” He says “ I have goal in directing my own movie in the near-future.”

“Then I got hired by digital marketing in June.” He says, closing the loop. “and it’s be a great experience to come in every day and enjoy what I do. The stuff I do doesn’t take a lot of my time, but all things I’m passionate about!”

“People want to succeed, but you have to listen and learn.” He says his advice to anyone looking to  pursue a similar path. “My three area of what I live for is Learn, Speak & Socialize leads to monetize $, I’m constantly learning, always reading, I read multiple books every month. Being a great communicator and ability to socialize and network effective with professionals. Try to understand social media. We didn’t have LinkedIn or Facebook in 1994! There were only phones and McDonalds! We didn’t have this social connection. That’s the biggest difference I share from stage. Now there are some many different types of medium to connect and share.”

                                              The Medium is the Message - Marshall McLuhan

Giving back to the college

“I’ve done a lot of great with Centennial College over the years.” Jim says.  “I constantly run into alumni on my journey, and I continue to look for opportunities to give back to Centennial College.”

“I’m grateful to go back and do what I do.” He explains, “I encourage others to do the same, It’s the least you can do to help your fellow alumni.”

“In 2008 I reached out to Centennial College Alumni Association and I did a couple of articles for Centennial’s Ascent Magazine for the Athletic Wellness Centre that was being built from the blueprints!”  he says explaining some of the things he’s done. “I have spoken to a few classes on social media and networking and participated in Speakers Event in 2011, I went to Family Day and I have met Centennial College Grad in my networking journey over the years.”

  

Jim Pagiamtzis at Centennial College booth at Canada Job Expo June 2016

                                 

Philosophy on success

“I was working evening shift at FedEx Freight, during that day I had nothing to do, so I made myself do something.”  He says explaining why he was involved in so many ventures. There more to it than that, though.

“It’s all about making the time.” He says “It sounds like a lot, but it happens over the years, It didn’t happen all this year, it didn’t happen all last year, it happened over time. You got to make time to do things, and I’m glad I did make the time, It allows me to empower others and share the vision of what Centennial college is doing now.”

“We all go on a journey, and we make decisions, and I happened to go on a journey that set me on a extraordinary path, but there’s nothing wrong with a regular path.” He says. Life can’t be exciting every day, but I try to make it as fun as can.”

Jim Pagiamtzis is Author, Speak and Trainer. Part-time actor  Check out www.jimpagiamtzis.ca to learn more about him.

Jim Pagiamtzis and Centennial College at Banner

Event Review: Small Business Forum 2016

                It was an amazing day of learning, sharing and socializing with amazing entrepreneurs.

              Diana Goodwin shared her story on how she went from bootstrapping to 6 figures with Aquamobile.

               The rest of the morning I check out the various exhibitors and made some new connections that I excited to follow up with in the coming days.

                 Sadly it will be the last year of the event.                     

Mayor John Tory making opening remarks

Small Business Forum

Diana Goodwin Bootstrapping tips

                                                    

Jim Pagiamtzis sharing416pages.ca

                                       

        

Attendee sharing strengths finder App

                                                  

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Donate and Learn a massive success!

     It was an awesome day of learning, sharing and networking at the Ryerson School Business.

        Donate and Learn attracted entrepreneur and professional from all over Ontario.

             Check out Enactus Ryerson Learn more

             Donate and Learn Learn more

Donate and Learn

Two connectors Ash Silva and Jim Pagiamtzis

Bassem Ghali sharing insights on Green Lotus

Jim Pagiamtzis and Chris Crawford

                                       

                                                                           

Discover Your Personal Brand 2015 in Toronto Aug 14-15

                                                                                      

                                                             

Canada's Biggest Personal Branding Conference

Build and inspire purposeful leaders and learn powerful personal branding strategies.

At DYPB ‘15, you will be spending a day and a half with some of the most insightful and passionate personal branding leaders in the industry. They will be sharing their personal stories and key insights and tools on how you can set yourself apart, become a valued leader, and connect to a deeper purpose and drive within yourself.
Have you ever felt 'lost' as a leader? Are you trying to find a corporate career path that makes sense for you? Are you an entrepreneur who is looking to find your voice? Are you a student who wants to make sure you have chosen the right academic path?

                                                                           Learn more

Public Speakers Association: Toronto a huge success! March 27,2015

                   It was an amazing evening of learning, sharing and socializing at Microsoft Store at Yorkdale Shopping Mall

  Events are held one a month in Toronto and Mississauga, Learn more about dates and times details below

 Jim Pagiamtzis
Director Public Speakers Assocociation
 jim@pagiamtzis.com
416-894-7859
 Public Speaker Association Learn more



                                                  

Zeeshan Raza sharing at Microsoft Store at Yorkdale Shopping Mall

Zeeshan Raza sharing on No Excuses

Mark Bhuj sharing

Mark Bhuj sharing on overcoming feaer

                                          




                                       





                          &nbp;           



                                      





     

Public Speakers Association: Toronto (Holiday Edition) Huge success

             It was an evening of learning, sharing and socializing and lots of prize giveaways!

             Had two special guests join us Tom Kaufmann (first mentors) Rady Soltani Founder of Pixopac (entrepreneur I am mentoring with Toronto Starter Company)

             Interview Sujit Reddy Feature Speaker with Public Speakers Association on his journey in speaking in the 3 months since joining the association

          I shared insight on strategic social media strategies for 2015. Great to see everyone pulling out there phones to take pictures of some of the slides!

        During the Q & A I gave away lots of prizes to attendees answering questions on information shared for the evening.

        We are excited for Public Speakers Association in 2015! Join us..

     Learn more click here
     21 Connections   click here                                             

Jim Pagiamtzis and Sujit Reddy

Jim Pagiamtzis sharing on social media strategies

Jim Pagiamtzis , Sujit Reddy and Thanh Campbell

Jim Pagiamtzis and Sujit Reddy answer questions for audience

Rady Soltani in the audience listening and learning

Tom Kaufmann sharing during the networking component

                                        We had meeting in Mississauga on Tuesday Dec 16 with Kevin D'Souza sharing at the Microsoft Store: Mississauga at Square One Shopping Mall
                                                                             

Jim Pagiamtzis and Kevin D'Souza