In this podcast episode, we get to meet and learn more about Charlie & Emanuel, ISC-GO coaching program co-founders and their journey from their home countries (Korea and Romania, respectively).
Podcast description short:
Immigrant Success Canada is your coaching program for a successful and happy life in Canada. One of the biggest decisions you will make in your lifetime is to immigrate to Canada. Charlie & Emanuel, along with their guests, will guide you to success and happiness for the next 20 years.
Episode Show notes
- 2:02 – Charlie’s Story
- 9:41 – Emmanuel’s Story
- 13:39 – Why we made Immigrant Success Canada
- 18:00 – An introduction to our coaching program: the five modules and their importance
- 21:33 – How do I sign-up?
- 21:57 – A brief overview of our other advisors, program coaches, and upcoming podcast guests
Action list
- Understanding that your success in your home country does not define your immigration experience
- Understanding the value of mentors and how they can help accelerate and improve your immigration experience
- Visit our website to explore the five modules that will help you be successful in Canada
Episode Transcript
Emanuel
Hi, welcome to the first episode of our podcast, Immigrant Success Canada, the coaching program for a successful and happy life in Canada as an immigrant. My name is Emanuel Petrescu, and I have my co-host and partner, Charlie.
Charlie
Hi, I’m Charlie Baek. Welcome to our podcast.
Emanuel
Today marks the first-ever episode of our podcast.
We are going to cover a lot of information in this podcast. A lot of things that we, ourselves as newcomers at one point, wish we would have had at that time. Now a little bit about ourselves – Charlie, a couple of words about the program before we get to know each other even more.
And I’m going to ask you what, how did you end up in Canada, basically?
But let’s talk a little bit, just for two seconds, about our program, immigrant Success Canada.
Charlie
Absolutely, Emanuel. Our program is called Immigrant Success Canada, which provides coaching services for new immigrants. We’d like new immigrants to be successful and happy in Canada.
Emanuel
Oh, that sounds great. Since we are the co-founders, I would say that the people watching us would like to know more about us and about our journey. Where we come from? Where we are and where we’re going. And I suggest starting with you, Charlie – what’s your journey? How did you end up in Canada?
And more specifically, why did you immigrate to Canada and from where?
Charlie
That’s a very good question. I’m originally from South Korea. I immigrated to Canada because of two reasons: healthcare and education. So let me tell you why I went from South Korea to Canada, about 25 years ago,
I was working for a bank in South Korea. At the time, my bank decided to lay off one-third of our employees because of the Asian currency crisis. I was terrified because I had just got married and I had one son to support
One day I met one of my best friends at a coffee shop, and I told him, I’m very concerned about my future. What if I lose my job?
And my friend told me: Charlie, what about immigrating into Canada?
What are you talking about? My friend’s point was – if I was really worried about healthcare and education in Korea and I did not have any job and any income, my friend’s advice was that Canada provides public healthcare system and public education. Really, but I don’t have any money to go to Canada.
How can I go to Canada?
So his response was Canada accepts immigrants to fill their skills gaps. That means even without money, if I have the skills they need, I can immigrate – still, it is true today. Yeah, so after the talk, to confirm his device, I actually visited a bookstore and bought all the books about Canada because I did not know very much about Canada at that time, and I read all the books, and he was right.
Canada was accepting new immigrants based on the skills they needed and also Canada was ranked number one country in the world to live in by the United Nations rankings five years in a row. Wow, this is a fantastic country and still is. Yes. Because of that, I immediately applied to immigrate into Canada.
That was the beginning of my Canadian journey. , I have lived in Canada for more than 22 years.
Emanuel
I’m curious to know the immigration process which is different from today. You had to write your application by hand, and submitted it via mail, not email, nothing electronic, right?
The immigration application was different from what we have today.
Charlie
Yes, of course. Yeah. It was much different at the time than now, 25 years ago.
Emanuel
How long did it take from the moment that you decided to come to Canada to the moment that you actually applied and the moment that you landed in Canada?
Charlie
For me, it took about more than two years.
I applied to be a permanent resident, and then I received a letter of acceptance about one year later, which was not that long, and then I had to decide whether to actually go into Canada or not, right? So it took another year for me to make my own decision. For my family and for me.
Emanuel
So yeah, you didn’t come alone.
So I need to ask, how was the experience when you told your family? Were they all okay with it?
Charlie
No. Actually, my wife was strongly against going to Canada because my wife could not speak English and we did not have any relatives or friends in Canada. And on top of that, at the time, I got a new job in a German company in South Korea as a finance manager.
I was doing really well in the German company, and I was well paid. So my wife’s point was: would you like to keep up all those things? Or starting new in Canada/ she was strongly against my decision, but at the end of the day, she followed my advice and we decided to come to Canada.
Emanuel
What does she think about the decisions now after 20-something years in 2022?
Charlie
Now she is very happy because she has her own successful business and our children have grown up very well, and so she’s really happy about our children and also my children are happy. I am also very happy in Canada, so all my family members are very happy.
Emanuel
I noticed that you mentioned the word happy a bunch of times.
It’s not just success but also happiness.
Charlie
Absolutely. That’s the keyword. Yeah. I want my family and I to be both happy and successful.
Emanuel
That’s an important thing because it sounds to me like you were quite successful before coming from Korea, right? You were highly educated, you had a job at a bank, and although the company was in trouble financially, you easily found a different job at the German company as well.
So it’s not like you weren’t successful back home. You chose to come to Canada although you were successful in Korea.
Charlie
Now Emanuel, why did you decide to immigrate into Canada?
Emanuel
That’s a good question, Charlie. Thank you. I decided to come to Canada to be with my wife. We’re both originally from Romania, East Europe. We knew each other for a while, and we got married in 2016.
Obviously, Canada was an obvious decision that came – the decision came naturally in terms of building a happy life with family and children and for the future. I came here in late 2016 or early 2017. I came just around between Christmas and New Year’s. That’s why I say late 2016, or early 2017.
Since then I’ve been happy and I like to think that I’ve become a little bit successful in what I do – I’m a digital marketer – I had the opportunity to take everything from zero, from scratch – I saw this as an opportunity.
Now, I didn’t come at an early age, it’s been quite a journey so far.
Charlie
Fantastic. So each of us has our own story, right? So that’s great. Welcome to Canada, Emanuel.
Emanuel
Welcome to Canada, Charlie. And only this year in 2022, I became I’ve also a Canadian citizen.
Charlie
Congratulations on your citizenship.
Emanuel
Thank you. And that’s something worth mentioning Canada allows for citizenship to be taken significantly faster than any other country, let’s say U.S. for example. I believe the standard time for most countries in the world, including Romania, is at least 10 years.
You need to live in a place for 10 years in order to be able to apply for citizenship. And even if you live there, there are certain restrictions. So from that sense, Canada is more flexible. You can get your citizenship after five years, after three years. I believe it’s currently 2000 days of living in Canada, of being a resident.
So that’s one important aspect as well to consider.
Charlie
That’s a good point about the process of obtaining citizenship. Okay.
Emanuel
So what is this Immigrant Success Canada, that we’ve been preparing and creating for the past year together? I believe people would like to know more about it. You said at the beginning of this podcast, just a brief introduction to a coaching program for a successful and happy life in Canada.
But I would like to take this opportunity to go a little bit more into detail and explain to our listeners more about it and why a coaching program is important.
I’ll be honest: from where I came from, I was reluctant or I didn’t know much about what coaching is, what mentorship is, and all of these things that are quite popular and are the norm in North America.
Charlie
Absolutely. The reason you and I co-founded immigrant Success Canada is because we are passionate about being Canadians, and we’d like to help and coach new immigrants to be successful and happy. Our program is basically based on our own experience, your experience and my experience. So both you and I have gone through ups and downs in Canada; so it’s about starting a new life in Canada and also maintaining our pride and also our family for the long term.
It is not an easy job. Both of us understand it and because of that strong need and because of that passion, now both you, Emanuel and I feel that we are happy and successful.
So we’d like to help new immigrants, not only be successful, but also happy – We co-developed this program, and our program is based on a holistic approach.
Our focus is long -term, which is over 20 years, not just one year or two years.
Based on our experience, the first three to five years would be extremely difficult for most new immigrants. So we like to provide a strong foundation for new immigrants to be successful over the next 20 years. The uniqueness of our program is we like to provide quality service to our clients.
That’s a key element of our program.
Emanuel
When you say the first three to five years will be difficult, that’s not something very appealing. We both went through that time and arguably, any newcomer has a buffer period, which is a little bit more stressful than one might think when they come to Canada and envision their life here.
I can tell from my experience and something you highlighted that it’s quite important to be an immigrant, to be able to share what you’ve gone through and to give yourself as an example to someone that might go through similar things. I will take just a random example: a job search.
Although you may have an education, or you may have some work experience, getting a good job in Canada is still a struggle.
There are some issues when a newcomer arrives in Canada, how, and what can one do to overcome some of these challenges?
What helped me was having mentors. What helped me is having coaches that were very specific about the areas where I needed help. for example, I was applying to jobs, and to interviews, and having a coach and a mentor helped me to do better.
The reason why we built this program is that we want to help ourselves, the ones that we were 20-something years ago or six years ago, in my case – what I would have wanted to have, what tools, what support I would have needed back then.
Charlie
Yes. Because of those reasons, our program is composed of five key elements.
So the first one is self-assessment. We’d like to provide a self-assessment of whether you are a good fit as an immigrant in Canada. we’ll provide tools and assessments because we want you to be successful. first thing is to know yourself. That’s our first module.
And then the second module is about education. Education is extremely important in Canada for yourself and also your family. at the end of the day, education will provide you with long-term success. So, we focus on building your education in terms of continuous learning and improvement.
Emanuel
Foundation – a strong foundation.
Charlie
Yeah. And then the third one is work and life balance. Each person has different desires in their work and life. So what it means to you, so for you, more success and fame, or more leisure time and more happiness and time with your family. How to create a good balance is very important for yourself and your family. We will provide you with how to make those choices when you choose a job, what kind of job is best for you to achieve work and life balance.
And then the fourth module is the natural environment of Canada. Canada is the second largest country in the world with huge land and beautiful scenery. We have to enjoy Canada fully. So in order to enjoy Canada, what kind of recreational activities and then what kind of tours or visiting places? As I told you, how you enjoy yourself and your family will ultimately help you to grow and be successful.
And then lastly, the fifth’s model is an action plan for success. So we’ll provide a tool – you’ll develop a plan for your next 20 years. How do you implement all the things in your key areas, education, work & life balance, financial independence, budgeting and all those things?
To be happy and successful, you have to plan for the next 20 years, and then you need to update it every five years.
So that’s our program’s core elements. Our program is composed of f five modules.
Emanuel
Okay. Where can I sign up? 🙂
Charlie
So the first thing is go to our website – we have a very professional website. go to the website to and you’ll find all the details about our program and if you are satisfied, sign up for our program.
Emanuel
It’s worth mentioning, for those who listen to us, that our website is www.isc-go.com. On our website, you’ll find contact forms and links to our social media channels where people can reach us directly. And it’s worth mentioning, Charlie, that if people go to our website, they’re gonna see some other people as well, other coaches and other advisors, other successful people from Canada.
It’s worth mentioning just a couple of words to introduce our listeners to our other coaches and advisors and what they do, what their role is, and who are they. Because we have one Nobel Prize winner as well, on our side, on our team, as I like to say.
Charlie
Indeed. Yeah. We have five excellent advisors and also coaches for our program.
So they help us to improve our program and make our program work for our clients. So visit our website. You’ll see their profiles, and they are excellent entrepreneurs and also with public sector management experience. So both public and private sector work experiences you can easily identify. So please check it out.
Emanuel
Because in Canada you can be successful in an entrepreneurial way or even just by having a job. Again, it’s a mix of success and happiness as well. And I’ve learned a lot from working with people such as our advisor. I can only tell you this: I wish, when I came to Canada, there was a program such as the program that we developed.
And it’s continuously improving because although we’ve been here for a while, immigrants will still be very anchored in the reality of our country, but also in the realities of the countries we come from. The mentality, the perception and what’s expected.
So that can be a shock for many. I don’t believe anybody thinks that Canada is the land of milk and honey, but at one point there will be a shock coming, let’s say from a working environment, from a different country and being here in an office environment or the working culture is a little bit different, for example, in North America compared to Europe and I’m pretty sure compared to Asia as well.
So our program will help smoothen this transition and it’ll be from people who have gone through what you are going through or what you are going to go through because you’ve made the right decision of immigrating to Canada.
Before we leave our listeners for this episode, we encourage you to share, comment, and engage with us on our website and on all of our social media platforms.
But Charlie, do you have a couple of closing remarks for this episode?
Charlie
Yes! Emanuel and I started this podcast because we believed that we will provide insightful topics and dialogue, which will help new immigrants understand and then improve their life.
So this is our first episode and we will keep recording episodes based on your interest and based on our research and study. What kind of topic would be relevant and important for you? So stay tuned for the next episode.
Emanuel
I will also mention that we will have some very interesting guests on our show: guests from all walks of life in Canada from professors, teachers, college, university, and high schools, to athletes, to basically people from all walks of lives, immigrants, but also Canadian citizens and so on. So for sure, this would be a show worth watching. That said, thank you for taking the time to listen to our podcast. I hope by now, you have already subscribed and you already visited our website. My name is Emanuel Petrescu.
Charlie
My name is Charlie Baek, see you in the next episode,
Emanuel
And see you in the next episode.