As this exciting new podcast begins we get to know our hosts, Kenisha and Griffin as they dive into some uncharted territory for the both of them - the financial world and all that it has to offer. They kick things off with a conversation with Senior Manager, Transformation & Innovation Technology & Operations, RBC, Patrick Famaran - who explains how he ended up working at the bank by following the lead of a Facebook job posting. Patrick offers plenty of advice for people looking to work in his field, including a student internship program that he encourages our audience to check out. Kenisha and Griffin follow this with Emerging Artist Josh Sahunta, who shares what it takes to be creative as a musician, but also what it takes to stay organized when you are a freelancer working as your own boss and employee -spoiler alert -it’s a very full and colourful calendar in your phone! Josh is a delight who leaves us with his great new track, This Party Sucks. It seems you never know where this podcast will go, and that’s the way Griffin and Kensiha like it.
As this exciting new podcast begins we get to know our hosts, Kenisha and Griffin as they dive into some uncharted territory for the both of them - the financial world and all that it has to offer. They kick things off with a conversation with Senior Manager, Transformation & Innovation Technology & Operations, RBC, Patrick Famaran - who explains how he ended up working at the bank by following the lead of a Facebook job posting. Patrick offers plenty of advice for people looking to work in his field, including a student internship program that he encourages our audience to check out. Kenisha and Griffin follow this with Emerging Artist Josh Sahunta, who shares what it takes to be creative as a musician, but also what it takes to stay organized when you are a freelancer working as your own boss and employee -spoiler alert -it’s a very full and colourful calendar in your phone! Josh is a delight who leaves us with his great new track, This Party Sucks. It seems you never know where this podcast will go, and that’s the way Griffin and Kensiha like it.
RBC
RBC Future Launch - https://www.rbc.com/dms/enterprise/futurelaunch/index.html
RBC - https://www.rbc.com/canada.html
RBC Corporate Citizenship - https://www.rbc.com/community-social-impact/
RBC Scholarships - https://www.rbc.com/dms/enterprise/futurelaunch/scholarships.html
RBC Emerging Artists
https://www.rbc.com/community-social-impact/emerging-artists.html
RBC Launchpad Music Entrepreneurship Program
https://www.artscapedanielslaunchpad.com/rbc-launchpad-music-entrepreneurship-program-2022/
Patrick Famaran
https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickfamaran/
Josh Sahunta
www.joshsahunta.com
Instagram: @joshsahunta
TikTok: @joshsahunta
#rbcfuturelaunch, #intheknow
Hosts
Griffin Toplitsky
Kenisha Humber
RBC team
Vishan Persaud
Rachel MacLeod
Elynn Wareham
Allison Tam
Production team
PSBX Team
Baron Manett
Dorene Arcayos
Shaun Benoliel
Isabel Magnoli
Norman Howard Team
Sandy Jobin-Bevans
Nate DuFort
Jason Reilly
Sandy Marshall
Disclaimer: Below you will find a transcription of this episode. The text is the result of an AI-based transcription from an audio recording.
Griffin Toplitsky:[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to In the Know the podcast that's guaranteed to change your life. I'm Griffin Toplitsky and I make it a policy to always over promise.
Kenisha Humber: So luckily Griffin has me, Kenisha Humber to keep him in check. Griffin and I will be your host on this podcast That may not dramatically change your life, but it will certainly help to inform you on what it means to be an active and engaged citizen in Canada while receiving tips and tricks to help you, as well as entertain you with the look at the latest emerging artists.
Cool guests, an incredibly witty banter between the two of us.
Griffin Toplitsky: Now, who's over promising. I mean, I know you have wit and charm, but personally still a work in progress on my end. Kenisha, I think it's best if we kick things off by letting our fine listeners know what the heck we're trying to achieve with this
Kenisha Humber: podcast.
Yes. And the truth is we're still working to figure that out. Not that we don't have plans, but more that our plans are [00:01:00] malleable For
Griffin Toplitsky: us, this is a journey to connect with the next generation of leaders and neighbour. In both physical and virtual spaces across Canada, but we
Kenisha Humber: also wanna go beyond that to seek out what really interested entertains us and hopefully
Griffin Toplitsky: you.
This is a dialogue after all. And in addition to our own often twisted curiosities, we want to hear from
Kenisha Humber: you. So as we were putting together this episode, we went to some of you and asked, What is a bank's role in society? Here's what you had to. Hi, my name is Carrie and I believe
Listener: the bank is there to support the growth of society
Kenisha Humber: by
Listener: funding businesses and individual.
Hi, my name is CE and I think the bank's role in society is to definitely hold on to the funds that we have, whether it be businesses, whether it be personal. I think that's like a first thing is to really [00:02:00] house our money. And then the second thing is, Really contribute to the growth of society or the country as a whole.
So their input and their influence, um, helps strengthen the dollar, not only nationally, but internationally. So I think that, um, the bank, what their role is, is definitely to help move a society forward and give them influence
Kenisha Humber: around the. Maack from Saskatchewan says, I think the bank's role in society is to help society by fulfilling their needs in terms of providing loans, mortgages, providing investing guidance and procedures to invest and to earn profit.
The most important thing, which I feel is building society's trust by providing excellence in terms of retaining of clients for years through services and products. So
Griffin Toplitsky: it sounds like the bank's role in society is tons of
Kenisha Humber: stuff. Yeah. That, that was a lot. That was a lot. That, uh, a mouthful, honestly. But they're right.
They're completely [00:03:00] right. And the
Griffin Toplitsky: word that caught my ear was trust. I feel like money is so crucial to our day to day lives that we want to be certain where we're putting it as a safe place. And sometimes we can take that for granted, which is good. Yeah, I
Kenisha Humber: mean, I do feel that a lot of us don't even really think about a bank past, Oh, my check has come.
It's in the bank, and then we move on with our lives. But I think it's really important to think about what is going on with our money? Is it just sitting there or is something happening to it? Is the bank doing anything? I think that is really key in terms of trust. You know,
Griffin Toplitsky: in prepping for this podcast, I've spent a lot of time thinking about the role of banks and big corporations in
Kenisha Humber: society.
Same. And although I have some ideas about their roles, I wanna hear from the experts.
Griffin Toplitsky: Essentially. We aren't the experts, but we will search them out. That's right. Also, we'll probably laugh a lot at ourselves, and Kenisha will laugh a lot at me, and I'll
Kenisha Humber: tell you, I'm laughing with you, which will rarely be true.
Great.
Griffin Toplitsky: Okay. [00:04:00] Now we're
Kenisha Humber: fighting. No, never. No, no, no. So what do we all have to look forward to? In this premier episode, we'll kick off by speaking with an RBC employee about how an internship changed the course of his career.
Griffin Toplitsky: Then we'll catch up with Josh Shanta, an emerging musician who will discuss how he's getting it done, both on the mic and as a producer, and leave us with his latest.
Josh will also be put in the hot seat with some rapid fire
Kenisha Humber: questions. Okay. I've seen this hot seat and it's basically just an office rollie chair, so I don't think Josh is gonna be too intimidated. All
Griffin Toplitsky: that's on deck after a quick word from one of our partners.
Kenisha Humber: The RBC launchpad Music Entrepreneurship Program is dedicated to supporting and empowering emerging artists, music creators and entrepreneurs in Canada. The objective of the program, which is a partnership between RBC Music and Art Scape Daniel's Launchpad, is to support participants through an educational and networking platform that equips participants with the entrepreneurial tools [00:05:00] required to establish and accelerate a thriving music project or in.
Check out the link to the program in our show notes, or visit art scape daniels launchpad.com for more. I think
Griffin Toplitsky: it's time to jump right into an intro for our first.
Kenisha Humber: Just like that. Huh? Just like that. Okay. But check out this segue. So when I think of who works at a big company, I sometimes wonder what led them to work there in the first place.
Griffin Toplitsky: Very nice. You mean like why did they take that job? I
Kenisha Humber: mean, we know why people take jobs, but we've been through and may still be feeling the effects of what has been deemed the great resignation across Canada. People have been and still are leaving jobs because of problems with internal culture, lack of program.
Griffin Toplitsky: And then there's concerns with cost of living and affordability.
Kenisha Humber: Exactly. And I'm kind of curious about why people stay at certain institutions as long as they do. Maybe because they validate parking. And when I think of who works at a bank, I don't know if I connect with that world. I like going into the bank, to be honest.
I [00:06:00] do almost all of my banking online or at the atm. I guess I'm just
Griffin Toplitsky: a little more old school that way. All in person at the branch. They know me and I like to think they enjoy seeing my face.
Kenisha Humber: I'm sure they do, but I was curious about the people who actually work behind the scenes at the bank. So I found our next guest, Patrick Samran, who was the senior manager of transformation and innovation in technology and operations at rbc.
Patrick was kind enough to join us to talk about his employment journey, the role of a bank in today's world, and some great non-banking related advice for his peers. Patrick, thanks for being on our show. Thanks for having me.
Griffin Toplitsky: What led you to working at a bank?
Patrick Famaran: Growing up, I never really saw myself working at a bank, to be honest.
I really wanted to be an astronaut. What really led me to working at a bank was, honestly, you're gonna laugh. It was a Facebook ad. I was on Facebook one day during my master's. I was a sustainability [00:07:00] student, you know, understanding different ways to support our ecosystems and support sustainability. But then I thought, Hey, I should probably get some work experience before I work in the, the real.
Looking for a co-op job. I didn't know kind of which area, what firm, what type of company I wanted to work for until I saw this Facebook ad for RBC Amplify. RBC Amplify is a four month long internship program that supports technology students in their graduation year to solve different, unique challenges for a bank.
And I thought, Hey, I could be innovative, I could be creative, I could be disrupt. I submitted an application anyway, uh, luckily the project that my team was assigned was related to sustainability and that really opened my eyes to, you know, the power of what a big bank does and can do. I never realized that beyond the walls of, you know, my neighborhood branch, that organizations did so many [00:08:00] interesting things from a social impact perspective to supporting young people, to supporting charitable organizations.
There was so many different places and spaces within Abank you can do as a career. So that was really, really exciting for.
Kenisha Humber: So I know you are the senior manager of transformation and innovation in technology and operations. Mm-hmm. , what exactly does your role entail? Uh, within
Patrick Famaran: transformation and strategic initiatives, which is my broader team, our whole focus is on transforming the bank.
The way we operated 50 years ago is very different from how we are currently operating. And 50 years from now, we'll be operating very different from how we're currently operating as well. And. Part of our team's mandate is really to support the transformation journey of the bank. From external market pressures to what clients are saying, to what you know, our competitors are doing, to what the industry at large is up to, to what technologies are advancing.
[00:09:00] Our team's role in that is really how can we bring the bank along in that journey, and how can we make sure our employees are well supported, well resourced, and have the capacity to challenge these challenges of the future. How do we. Make sure that everything we're doing leads to that future imperative and that future goal.
Lots of folks know that we're a bank and we operate all across Canada, but not everyone is aware of the vast kind of technological prowess of kind of our organization. And so how do we unlock that? How do we get folks from across Canada into. Roles and opportunities within technology.
Griffin Toplitsky: Right. So specifically, I'm curious what that looks like.
You mentioned the, the broad technological power. What is that?
Patrick Famaran: If you think about RBC and all of the data that our clients have used, we make so many transactions. There are so many different payments. There [00:10:00] are so many different projects, all of which need to. Kind of powered by or enabled by technology.
So thinking about our mobile apps, thinking about our website, thinking about all of our internal tools for hr. When I say technology, I mean kind of everything that. Is digital or technologically enabled. So from apps to kind of hardware and our ATMs, there's lots of interesting stuff we're doing with artificial intelligence.
If you think about the vast data RBC or any large firm is sitting on, how do we make the most of that? How do we create unique
Kenisha Humber: insights? What do you think is the bank's role in connecting with youth?
Patrick Famaran: Where I see banks connecting with young people is in more so the education or more so in the support side, and helping them become comfortable or become more aware with different financial literacy or different financial opportunities.
And so, [00:11:00] When I think about young people today in this cohort of folks who are currently going to school, you know, graduating into their first real careers, how do we bring them along in the financial literacy journey so that you know, when they graduate further into more deep adulthood or more deep maturity with, you know, their lives, How do we.
Become a part of that. And I think when it comes from a career perspective, when it comes from different, uh, financial opportunities like buying a home or, you know, thinking about other key milestones in your life, how do we be part of that? And I think those pieces of life aren't really going too far.
And so it's important for banks to remain connected with young people. Early so that they're top of mind when it, when those life milestones inevitably come through.
Griffin Toplitsky: What's your best piece of non-bank related advice for our listeners who just [00:12:00] want to hear something wise from one of their peers?
Patrick Famaran: Uh, the best piece of non-banking advice I'm really drawn to is assuming the best intent in people.
So imagine you are in a group project or group setting, uh, and. Having a really stern argument with somebody, assuming the best intent of the argument forces you to remove that person away from the argument. You may be frustrated with that individual and you may be nitpicky about, you know, how they spoke.
They may have misused the word or the sentence structure didn't really make a lot of sense, but when you assume the best intent of that argument, you're removing. Them from the equation, and you're really analyzing against the idea, the best aversion of the idea that they came out with. And so doing that allows me personally, to focus on, you know, is that.
A great idea, or am I just personally biased by my feelings about that individual? And I feel that [00:13:00] if everyone kind of exercised that best intent, we can be far more productive in a lot of different collaborative opportunities because we're focusing less so on how we're personally feeling about someone.
We may be, you know, a little frustrated or a little upset. How do we get to the root cause of the idea? And I think assuming the best intent, the best version of what everyone is trying to do and say helps get us there
Griffin Toplitsky: faster. Patrick, thank you so much for joining us. Uh, it was great having you. Thank you very much.
So basically, Patrick is just one step removed from most of our current listeners in the way that he wasn't really sure what he wanted to. Responded to a Facebook ad and found his path to a job at
Kenisha Humber: rbc. Just goes to highlight how so many people are currently finding new career opportunities. The world has come a long way from a want ad in the
Griffin Toplitsky: newspaper.
No kidding. Keep your eyes open and take a shot, and who knows what'll happen
Kenisha Humber: coming up. [00:14:00] We'll talk with Josh Hunter, who among other things will talk about the business of making.
We are pleased to have RBC emerging artists as a partner on this show. On this episode, we have a musician with us, but on future episodes we hope to meet painters, actors, and dancers from RBC emerging artists to name, but a few of the artistic fields who RBC has helped. How do you show dance on a podcast?
We are still figuring that out, but we'll get. For more info, visit the rbc.com site or Google rbc, emerging artists, especially if you're an artist looking to be a part of this amazing program.
Griffin Toplitsky: Speaking of emerging artists, we are very excited to have with us a very cool musician who is based in Alberta, but he is of course reaching the whole world with his success. Please welcome Josh Sahan. Hello. How's it [00:15:00] going? You're coming to us from a, uh, it's a clearly a soundproofed room.
Josh Sahunta: It is. It's uh, it's a great, it's pretty epic room.
Thank you. Yeah. It's, uh, it's great for recording music and taking naps because it's so quiet and, uh, Yeah. I love it. ,
Kenisha Humber: let's kick things off with this question. What was your first
Josh Sahunta: ever gig? First ever gig, Um, if you would consider this a gig. Uh, it was probably my high school talent show where I went to high school.
It was, uh, a place called WP Wagner. And they had this, um, kind of like spinoff of wood, the Woodstock Festival, they called it Wag Stock . And, uh, that was the first time I ever played, like in front of an audience and with a band and, and everything like that. It was definitely a really great start because you know, I was friends with pretty much everybody there, so it was a very welcoming audience and kind of a nice confidence boost.
So I guess if you consider that, you consider that a gig, [00:16:00] that would probably be my first one. How long
Griffin Toplitsky: had you been playing music before your first life
Josh Sahunta: performance? Uh, like for fun, probably five years or so. I had never really sang in front of anybody, so that was definitely my first time doing that. Um, and I only really started singing maybe like, A year prior to that performance.
So , it was pretty fresh at the time.
Griffin Toplitsky: What has been the biggest lesson you've learned so far? The
Josh Sahunta: biggest lesson I've learned so far in music is just to be as versatile as possible. You know, it's, it's very easy to lock yourself into. One lane as a musician and think that there's only that one way to make a career or to make an income or whatever that may look like.
And I think the biggest thing that I've learned that has benefited me the most is just that there's so many different avenues in music that you can make an income in a living from. And. [00:17:00] That's the only reason I'm able to do it as a living, to be honest, because if I had limited myself to say live performances, as soon as the pandemic hit, I would've been completely outta business.
And so I've kind of like tapped into several different markets where, whether that's production, live, performance sync, licensing. Et cetera, et cetera. So there's just different lanes. Um, I even taught music at one point when I was just kind of starting out. So yeah, it's, it's actually an incredibly versatile career path to go down.
A lot of people don't give it the credit and they think if you're a musician, oh, you must just be playing shows at bars and stuff like that. But there's so many different ways you can. Uh, you can make a living from it. And that's, that's probably the biggest thing that I've learned in my time doing it.
Kenisha Humber: Speaking of the pandemic and just the last few years in general, how have they impacted how you think about creating?
Josh Sahunta: Yeah, they've really opened up a lot more options, I would say. Um, before the pandemic, you really had to get on an [00:18:00] airplane and, and fly yourself to. You know, a music hot Bed City or wherever you knew people, and today, that's just not really, that's not really as much of a thing because you can jump on a Zoom call and do a full fully fledged production and co-write with somebody from anywhere in the world.
In fact, a lot of my clients that I work with are in the uk. And so I'm like, every single day. And, and the unfortunate thing is they're seven hours ahead of where I live, so I'm, I'm finding myself, you know, jumping on a Zoom call at seven in the morning. And for them it's the middle of the day and I'm just kind of waking up and I have to like get myself into songwriting mode when I just woke up like 30 minutes ago.
And that's kind of the trade off. But I do it all the time and it, and it really works well. And it's nice to see these companies like Zoom, kind of like making tech updates to allow for like, you know, audio transfer over Zoom and like being able [00:19:00] to like listen in on each other's session. It just makes it feel like you're kind of in the same room, even though you're not.
So yeah, it, it really has like, opened up the doors for me, um, because I like kind of like staying local as much as possible, and it's obviously cheaper and I haven't found that my opportunities have suffered. It sounds
Griffin Toplitsky: like you're very on top of the business side of music as well as the music side of music.
How do you manage that? How have you found the business side? It's
Josh Sahunta: definitely tough. I, I am self-managed as well, so I, I kind of handle all of the day to day, you know, emails, meetings, everything, plus the creative side, so it is a bit overwhelming, but, Honestly, it's kind of fun. At the same time, like I kind of allow myself different pockets of time where sometimes I'll focus on marketing, Sometimes I'll focus on business, and by business I mean.
Outreach and networking and, and all these [00:20:00] things. And then I allow myself some time for creative work as well, which of course is the most important. It's just kind of finding and allowing those different pockets of time to each have their own space because sometimes when I'm in business mode, it's hard for me to get into creative mode, and so I have to kind of like really.
Allocate time for each one. What I'm
Kenisha Humber: wondering is, uh, what creatively are you looking forward to? What's coming up next
Josh Sahunta: for you? Yeah. I'm working on, um, a little EP here and it's, uh, it's interesting kind of how it came to be. It was through like a partnership with, uh, a company called Music Bed. And they essentially, uh, license out music for use in videos.
So anybody who has a YouTube video that has music in it, they probably would've had to purchase a license to use from Music Bed. And, uh, I worked with a label from Vancouver to put together five, like very placeable love [00:21:00] songs in like wedding videos. It's not even out and it's kind of. Sort of going viral already and it's not even out yet.
And uh, I'm getting probably like 20 to 30 messages about. Like on a week to week basis, asking where people can find it. And these are people that I've never met. I, I don't know them, They're from all over the world. They're asking like, I just heard this song in this video. Like, where can I find it? Like, it's not out yet.
So I'm gonna probably be putting that out sooner than later just because of, I, I wasn't expecting that to happen, but kind of want to jump on the, on the momentum and then that'll follow up in the new year. The rest of the four songs.
Griffin Toplitsky: Speaking of your song specifically, later in this show, uh, over our credits, people are gonna hear This party sucks.
Uh, do you want to tell listeners a little bit about that song?
Josh Sahunta: Yeah. That song is, uh, it was just, it's an interesting one. I. Wanted to write a party song. We came [00:22:00] up with the production with, uh, a friend of mine in, in, out in la um, actually I guess he's in, uh, in Miami right now, but his name is Edgar Vargas and he's an incredible producer and I had the opportunity to, uh, get connected with him through Warner usa.
And. Uh, we created that instrumental and instantly it just kind of sounded like a Charlie Pooh like party song. And I'm like, this has to be a party song. But I'm like, I don't really like partying, so I don't know what , I don't know. I don't know how to do that because it's not like, how do we make an authentic song about partying when I don't like partying?
And then we were kinda like, What if it was about like a party that sucked? Like what if it was just like about not wanting to be at a party? And I was like, That could work. That could really work. So we wrote this song called This Party Sucks and, and it's kind of just a bit of like a flirty, fun song about going to a party because someone you like is gonna be there.
And even though you don't want to be at the [00:23:00] party, you're just gonna go for a chance to. To hang out with them. So that's kind of what the song's about.
Griffin Toplitsky: I've definitely just been standing around for hours with a red cup in my hand just cuz like I'm worried if I go home I'm gonna miss the big thing.
Exactly. And it never happens. It does. There's never anything interesting, but I'm just standing there upset that I'm in the house because I have fomo. Josh, we played one of your tracks for a few of our listeners, and here's a question for you from one of those new fans. Um, what was
Josh Sahunta: the moment that you knew music and performance was your calling?
Yeah, I. Honestly, it was after spending five years studying something different in university, working in my field for two years, and then realizing that, um, I should have just done music all along .
Kenisha Humber: And we'd like to close by asking Josh three exciting rapid fire questions. You ready, Josh? Yep. Let's go.
What's the best advice you've ever received?
Josh Sahunta: Be nice to everybody.
Kenisha Humber: Whose career do you admire most [00:24:00] Ed, she. , what is your hidden talent that maybe not everyone knows about?
Josh Sahunta: I'm pretty good at soccer.
Kenisha Humber: We've done it. .
Griffin Toplitsky: Thanks so much for joining us. Josh.
Kenisha Humber: As a fellow musician, I felt like I really connected with Josh.
He gave us a lot of tools to use in the business side of, you know, music, and I
Griffin Toplitsky: felt like I really connected with Josh as a guy who's obsessed with whiteboard calendars, I was very impressed how he was able to juggle every element of his.
Kenisha Humber: Well keep your schedule open, Griffin, cuz this was the first of what is sure to be thousands and thousands of episodes.
This is
Griffin Toplitsky: the rest of our life now. I hope you're
ready.
Kenisha Humber: Are you're asking me or our listeners
Griffin Toplitsky: Both. I guess I'm in. Me too. So what do we have to look forward to in our next episode?
Kenisha Humber: Come back next episode. For a look at mental Health, we'll kick off by more specifically taking a look at what employees should expect from their employers when it comes to mental health supports, and to help with that.
Joining [00:25:00] us will be the head of Group Benefits RBC Insurance, Julie Gory, and a very special guest to the show. We will have former junior hockey player and survivor of that tragic Humboldt Broncos bus accident. Tyler Smith here with us. Hope you join us.
Thanks for listening
Griffin Toplitsky: to In the Know
Kenisha Humber: We're your host, Kaisha Humber and Griffin Totz. You're currently listening to Emerging Artists, Josh Savantas. This party sucks. You can find Josh on TikTok and Instagram at josh Sahota or on the web@www.joshsahota.com. And to find out more about BC's emerging Artists follow the link in our show notes.
Griffin Toplitsky: Special thanks to Senior Manager of Transformation and Innovation in Technology and operations at rbc Patrick Fam.
Kenisha Humber: And finally we'd be nowhere without our in the know listener community. [00:26:00] Thank you all for sending such amazing questions for this week's guests. If you would like a chance to be included in a future episode of In The Know, contact us Via and follow the content prompts
Griffin Toplitsky: in the KNOW is a production of RBC dedicated to focusing on the issues that matter and are important to society and people.
For more on RBC citizenship, check out the links in our show notes. And here to share their mission is none other than Mark Beckels, Vice President, social impact and innovation at rbc. Mark, take it. At rbc,
Mark Beckles: our purpose is to help clients thrive and communities prosper. And that's why we are investing 500 million over 10 years as part of RBCs future launch to help empower young people for the jobs of tomorrow.
We want to help you be the best that you can be. So we work to increase your access to information programs, tools and resources to [00:27:00] share different points of view and challenge your norms, and ultimately helping you make sense of the world around you. We know that our future and the future of our communities starts with you, and that's why we want you to be in the.