N°9 JCI TORONTO: Meet Your Mentor
Roman Lakhnyuk, as a 21-year-old immigrant from Ukraine, has been involved in a variety of work ranging from developing marketing strategies for companies like Fitset Ninja Warrior, Berry Homes, and Turnip Home in 3 different provinces. Having received a lot of support and mentorship in business, Roman has developed a passion for public speaking to share value himself. He has delivered 20+ presentations & talks in 3 different countries representing Wonsulting, a California based career consulting agency, speaking about how students can leverage LinkedIn to land their dream career.
About The Mentor
How Would You Like To Present Yourself?
As a recent university student, I would introduce myself, studying Bachelor of Commerce and now working full time as a marketing consultant and sales manager at a company. I grew up in Ukraine, and I moved to Canada in 2012.
While growing up in Ukraine, my dad was a geologist by education, and my mom was a teacher. Even though they were academics, my dad started a business and ran it for 17 years. Growing up, I saw my parents’ business side versus my parents’ academic side most of my life. I believe I had an appreciation for both sides. Moving to Canada and growing up here, going through the school system, I never felt like I had to be in the university, neither like I had to be in business. I felt like I was free to choose what I wanted to do.
Which University Did You Go To? Which Field Did You Choose and Why?
I went to the University of Alberta, which is in Edmonton, Canada.
The first year it was General Business topics; you had to take general business courses and electives. I took courses during these three years. I went through marketing, accounting and finance classes, but at the same time, I took many electives. I never really got to focus on one topic for the entire three years. At the very end, during the last year of university, I chose to major in entrepreneurship. I took that route for one year, which wasn’t enough to claim a major.
I spent a full three years there and didn’t graduate; I chose to leave school early. I enjoyed three years on campus, and this is my first year not being at university. I went to university not just to take classes; I was always building myself up as a professional, continually gaining new skills and meeting new people. I did door to door sales for three years. Last year I worked as a manager. I attempted different business ideas throughout the three years in university, such as starting a clothing brand. I even started a marketing agency to run Facebook ads and design social media campaigns for different clients.
It didn’t make sense to continue studying in university, so I decided to pursue working full time.
How Did You Feel About Making That Decision? Were You Influenced, Or Was It Planned?
The average person enters university, automatically setting their goal as getting a degree. That’s how they measure spending their time; it’s like a metric that confirms if you are effective or not.
When I entered university, the essential thing was exploration; The degree wasn’t a priority for me in any way. I took advantage of the university experience to get to understand myself better. I used the University community and classes to get good at different things. I wanted to be around many people who are my peers; that was my first goal.
My second goal was actually to learn about something new. I took a lot of different courses: Ecology, Economics, Entrepreneurship classes, English writing classes. I wanted to gain a lot of new knowledge and skills. I felt like the degree wouldn’t be an essential piece for me to focus on. I felt like those two goals were more important.
At the same time, I stopped taking classes because I started to become more involved professionally doing different jobs as an intern, as a manager, and as a speaker; By the time I started my fourth year, it was a straightforward decision not to go to university anymore because of how COVID-19 affected how people socialize. I didn’t see university as the best resource for meeting new people. I’ve found better resources to learn the things I wanted to know outside of the university.
It wasn’t a decision I had to think about very much. It was just like, okay, it was very crystal clear.
Did You Have To Talk About It With Your Family As Often The Parents Pay The University And Colleges?
I got them to understand why I’m making this decision. Even though it caused a bit of frustration on their part, mostly for my parents, it wasn’t enough to stop me. They respected my decision. The key thing is that I didn’t just choose to leave university out of, say, being lazy. It was a thoroughly thought-through decision.
The Mentor Professional Path
What Encouraged You To Focus On Building A Career In Business?
There was a time when I wanted to be an engineer. Growing up, I was interested in sciences, and I thought that engineering could be a good profession to both earn and explore sciences,
In the 11th grade, I started to explore some business-related ideas. For example, I got intrigued with the idea of turning $10 into $100. So, I started to buy cheap watches and sold them online for a higher price to profit... This and other similar ideas pushed me to go into business. I also started to research further and further into business books, meeting mentors, and finding friends who had similar interests to understand business better.
In grade 12, a few of my close friends and I organized a business mastermind group to surround ourselves with like-minded individuals..; we made hoodies that we would wear to promote the group. We even made a promotional video that we posted on social media to learn about our group.
I felt like the thoughts and ideas we had were rare, and we had to nurture and protect them through our mastermind group.
Being in that community, I gained confidence in thinking independently about the things I wanted to do, especially as an aspiring entrepreneur... I want to be an entrepreneur and commercialize my ideas.
How Did You Get Into Speaking?
At an earlier age, when I was like 16, I realized that I like to talk about a lot of different topics. One day, I realized it was because I love to share ideas. I love to share knowledge.
Whenever I was reading a book and got precious information out of it, the first thing I wanted to do was tell all my friends and family about it. I like to share what I learn, so I thought I might as well do it professionally. So that’s why I chose to get into speaking. Along the way, I’ve learned that my interest in sharing ideas was just the initial spark. But looking back, the values that brought me to speaking have been community building. Building a community is very important because, without communities, we’re just a bunch of individuals who do our own thing. As a speaker, you’re, in a way, the leader of a community. You bring a group of people together, and you, as a group, explore thoughts and ideas, which creates strength. Together, there’s going to be a lot more than if everyone did it themselves. As a speaker, I found that I brought people together and got an opportunity to lead them in a direction.
To sum it up, those two things led me to become a Speaker: sharing and community building.
Mentoring for JCI Toronto’s Community
Why Did You Want To Join The Jci Toronto’s Community Of Mentors?
I wanted to mentor people throughout the university. I expanded my network and built an infrastructure around myself. I’m very passionate about the idea of a creative approach when it comes to accomplishing things. I still relate to students in many different ways, even if I am not on campus anymore. I see a gap, a lack of creative approach within students and student groups; they go through years of education and learning everything taught to them in textbooks and classes. They forget to develop themselves as a professional. And by that, I mean as a product in the marketplace. I found that’s why I’m passionate about becoming a mentor for the JCI community; I want to bring this idea within the Student Community.
I want to mentor students within JCI because throughout the years, mostly only taken the creative side of things, the innovative approach, and I’ve had massive returns. I can give good examples of myself and other people who take a similar path. I feel bad seeing people not knowing this because it gives you such an advantage. You’re such an advantage.
What Advice Would You Give To Our Students’ Members?
Students forget that to get a high return, they need to raise their value and look around to understand the average value. Students need to look up to how they go above that value. If they don’t realize that, they will feel confused and lost when they graduate, not knowing how to get a job. And when they do get a job, chances are, it’s not the job they want; It’d be the job that they can get.
But I think there’s a way to get what you want; Raise your values and your creative side with JCI Toronto and me as a mentor.
How Would You Define Yourself As A Mentor?
My mentoring is leveraging a creative approach to get your way in business and career, specifically through social media and other ways, but mostly social media.
To Conclude, What Quote Defines You And Your Vision?
As Long As There Is A Will There Is A Way
