Exciting news: The Humphrey Group has been acquired by Humance!
In this special episode of The Inspire Podcast, Bart Egnal speaks with Bernard Letendre, Managing Partner, Ontario and Western Canada at Humance, about the story behind this decision and the journey that led him there.
Bernard shares his remarkable career path from practicing law to leading major divisions in Canada’s financial services industry, to joining Humance and becoming the architect behind its acquisition of The Humphrey Group. Along the way, he reflects on lessons learned about taking risks, creating opportunities rather than waiting for them, and pursuing growth with purpose.
He also draws powerful parallels between leadership and his lifelong practice of judo, where discipline, humility, and mutual benefit are essential to success.
Bart and Bernard close with an inside look at how the merger came to be after a year of conversation and a shared vision for growth, and how it will set both organizations up to continue serving their clients in existing and new ways.
Whether you’re navigating your own career transitions or leading through change, this conversation offers powerful insights on creating your own opportunities, embracing non-linear growth, and finding strength in partnership.
Show Notes:
00:14 Show intro
00:48 Welcoming Bernard
01:14 Special announcement
02:05 "Humance" meaning
02:29 Judo and its importance
04:40 How Bernard began his career
05:01 Law and the law of electronic surveillance
05:34 Wife: "law made you less fun to be around"
06:47 Joined IG
07:06 Taking a 100% commission job
07:53 Making cold-calls to the bar phonebook
08:35 Finding opportunities in the new job
08:40 Officer training in the military
09:05 Good at management
10:19 Changing career paths regularly
10:36 Switching to Standard Life
11:21 Standard life
12:05 2009 Financial crisis - lost job
12:14 Landing at Manulife
12:36 Should you take a step down in your career?
13:01 Building a biz plan for private wealth at Manulife
13:44 Manulife tapped him to run his business plan
14:54 Advice for people who are ambitious with their careers
15:08 Don't wait for opportunity, come up with ways of creating value
15:36 Congrats, you have employment now figure out your job
16:50 How the Pandemic transformed his life
17:53 cert in organizational coaching
20:59 Why he made the leap to Humance
22:38 Long-term thinking
22:45 Doing is big "act" before it was too late
24:16 Advice: A career does not have to be linear
25:13 Not having a rigid mind
25:36 The final act: Humance
27:05 His Biz plan for expanding Humance outside the Quebec market
28:48 How Bernard reached out to Bart
31:17 Mutual benefit in Judo
33:41 Thank yous and wrap up
34:02 Outro
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Exciting news: The Humphrey Group has been acquired by Humance!
In this special episode of The Inspire Podcast, Bart Egnal speaks with Bernard Letendre, Managing Partner, Ontario and Western Canada at Humance, about the story behind this decision and the journey that led him there.
Bernard shares his remarkable career path from practicing law to leading major divisions in Canada’s financial services industry, to joining Humance and becoming the architect behind its acquisition of The Humphrey Group. Along the way, he reflects on lessons learned about taking risks, creating opportunities rather than waiting for them, and pursuing growth with purpose.
He also draws powerful parallels between leadership and his lifelong practice of judo, where discipline, humility, and mutual benefit are essential to success.
Bart and Bernard close with an inside look at how the merger came to be after a year of conversation and a shared vision for growth, and how it will set both organizations up to continue serving their clients in existing and new ways.
Whether you’re navigating your own career transitions or leading through change, this conversation offers powerful insights on creating your own opportunities, embracing non-linear growth, and finding strength in partnership.
Show Notes:
00:14 Show intro
00:48 Welcoming Bernard
01:14 Special announcement
02:05 "Humance" meaning
02:29 Judo and its importance
04:40 How Bernard began his career
05:01 Law and the law of electronic surveillance
05:34 Wife: "law made you less fun to be around"
06:47 Joined IG
07:06 Taking a 100% commission job
07:53 Making cold-calls to the bar phonebook
08:35 Finding opportunities in the new job
08:40 Officer training in the military
09:05 Good at management
10:19 Changing career paths regularly
10:36 Switching to Standard Life
11:21 Standard life
12:05 2009 Financial crisis - lost job
12:14 Landing at Manulife
12:36 Should you take a step down in your career?
13:01 Building a biz plan for private wealth at Manulife
13:44 Manulife tapped him to run his business plan
14:54 Advice for people who are ambitious with their careers
15:08 Don't wait for opportunity, come up with ways of creating value
15:36 Congrats, you have employment now figure out your job
16:50 How the Pandemic transformed his life
17:53 cert in organizational coaching
20:59 Why he made the leap to Humance
22:38 Long-term thinking
22:45 Doing is big "act" before it was too late
24:16 Advice: A career does not have to be linear
25:13 Not having a rigid mind
25:36 The final act: Humance
27:05 His Biz plan for expanding Humance outside the Quebec market
28:48 How Bernard reached out to Bart
31:17 Mutual benefit in Judo
33:41 Thank yous and wrap up
34:02 Outro
S7 E10: From Darkness to Leadership: An Entrepreneur's Lessons with Phil Neil
The Inspire Podcast
38 minutes 16 seconds
3 months ago
S7 E10: From Darkness to Leadership: An Entrepreneur's Lessons with Phil Neil
In this episode, Bart speaks with entrepreneur Phil Neil, who shares his extraordinary story of building his company from $200K in revenue to $70 million and the gauntlet of challenges he faced along the way. Phil opens up about the painful realities behind the headlines: a $5M scam during the pandemic, a devastating warehouse fire, and the collapse of major contracts.
He reflects on what he calls the “Shadow of Entrepreneurship™”, feelings of uncertainty, fear and unworthiness that trigger emotional reactivity, and undermine decision quality. It’s a shadow that affects not only entrepreneurs but leaders at every level. Phil discusses how this struggle can impact mental health and derail even the most promising careers and shares why every entrepreneur and leader needs to be equipped to face it. He also introduces the solution he's termed the Courage Compass™. A framework he’s developed to help leaders better understand themselves, their decision-making patterns, manage uncertainty, and navigate through the shadow to thrive.
Visit Phil's website to learn more: http://philneil.com/
Check out his company, The Courage Compass: http://courage-compass.com/
And connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippe-neil/
Show Notes:
00:30 Introducing Phil
01:03 Hero journey of self-discovery
02:17 The failure crossroad
04:21 From masks to natural gloves
06:19 The painful experiences towards success
07:58 Scam/conflict
08:50 Founder conflict emerged
09:57 Story
11:12 Victim of organized crime
12:17 The fire
13:34 The awakening
15:22 Launched a company to change culture of entrepreneurship
16:17 The Courage Compass Company
16:43 98% of founders fail on their first biz
17:20 Mental health issues are high in founders
17:37 Bart talks about his experiences with starting businesses
18:35 How to know if your self-management is not optimal
20:09 Uncertainty
21:12 Bart talks about the increasing uncertainty of the market
22:08 The Courage Compass
23:34 Shifting from hope to courage
23:57 Connecting to intuition
24:42 The problem with data thinking
26:25 Courage comfort zone
28:07 How can people find out more and connect with Phil
33:09 Thank yous
35:25 Outro
The Inspire Podcast
Exciting news: The Humphrey Group has been acquired by Humance!
In this special episode of The Inspire Podcast, Bart Egnal speaks with Bernard Letendre, Managing Partner, Ontario and Western Canada at Humance, about the story behind this decision and the journey that led him there.
Bernard shares his remarkable career path from practicing law to leading major divisions in Canada’s financial services industry, to joining Humance and becoming the architect behind its acquisition of The Humphrey Group. Along the way, he reflects on lessons learned about taking risks, creating opportunities rather than waiting for them, and pursuing growth with purpose.
He also draws powerful parallels between leadership and his lifelong practice of judo, where discipline, humility, and mutual benefit are essential to success.
Bart and Bernard close with an inside look at how the merger came to be after a year of conversation and a shared vision for growth, and how it will set both organizations up to continue serving their clients in existing and new ways.
Whether you’re navigating your own career transitions or leading through change, this conversation offers powerful insights on creating your own opportunities, embracing non-linear growth, and finding strength in partnership.
Show Notes:
00:14 Show intro
00:48 Welcoming Bernard
01:14 Special announcement
02:05 "Humance" meaning
02:29 Judo and its importance
04:40 How Bernard began his career
05:01 Law and the law of electronic surveillance
05:34 Wife: "law made you less fun to be around"
06:47 Joined IG
07:06 Taking a 100% commission job
07:53 Making cold-calls to the bar phonebook
08:35 Finding opportunities in the new job
08:40 Officer training in the military
09:05 Good at management
10:19 Changing career paths regularly
10:36 Switching to Standard Life
11:21 Standard life
12:05 2009 Financial crisis - lost job
12:14 Landing at Manulife
12:36 Should you take a step down in your career?
13:01 Building a biz plan for private wealth at Manulife
13:44 Manulife tapped him to run his business plan
14:54 Advice for people who are ambitious with their careers
15:08 Don't wait for opportunity, come up with ways of creating value
15:36 Congrats, you have employment now figure out your job
16:50 How the Pandemic transformed his life
17:53 cert in organizational coaching
20:59 Why he made the leap to Humance
22:38 Long-term thinking
22:45 Doing is big "act" before it was too late
24:16 Advice: A career does not have to be linear
25:13 Not having a rigid mind
25:36 The final act: Humance
27:05 His Biz plan for expanding Humance outside the Quebec market
28:48 How Bernard reached out to Bart
31:17 Mutual benefit in Judo
33:41 Thank yous and wrap up
34:02 Outro
