Meditation Is the key of the universe

My philosophy is that leadership is rooted in the cultivation of strong relationships. As someone who seeks to empower people, I believe that a good leader must know how to collaborate as a team player, guiding their team towards the same goal as a unit. My leadership experience began when I was a kid playing sports and always being competitive. However, my real journey began when I became an entrepreneur. I’ve learned that by raising other people up, you rise as well. The evidence of my leadership the community I have created with people around the world. I built two companies in the middle of the pandemic to help people deal with mental health while studying full time at university, raising funds, holding multiple jobs and partaking extracurricular activities. With my team, I built two mobile apps and two websites, more than 150 online courses around the world, 50 reviews in 6 different languages and 8 hours of original music.

I’m an honest, hardworking person devoted to help people with mental health issues. Those are my strongest values. I have faced many challenges, but I’m so motivated because I saw people suffering in the pandemic and I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing. So, I decided to start teaching meditation online. I built a mental health platform from scratch in the middle of the pandemic to accomplish this goal. The gaps I saw in higher education that inspired me was that there seemed to be little help for my friends struggling with studies and anxiety because of the pandemic. The main issue I found was isolation, so I had to teach people that when they can’t go out, they can always go within with meditation. This is an important issue because not everyone knew how to deal with this when the pandemic arrived. There is still a lot to do, but I’m hoping for the future to help even more people now that my platforms are completed. My project is a clear example of how to use higher education to help your community. I believe it underlines my priorities of bringing people from different places around the world to collaborate. My leadership at Bishops brought teachers, students and organizations from my university and the region together. “If you want to fast you go alone but if you want to go far you go with people”.

The way I lead my team is by example of hard work and dedication. In a positive, supportive and friendly environment.

When I was 19 years old, I was taught to meditate for the first time in England but at the time I didn't pay much attention to it. Nine years ago, my father died and a month later my mother had a stroke. Since that event my life changed, and I started looking for answers. Due to this event I started to learn more about meditation since only there could I find peace, and all my doubts dissipated. My mother had a hard recovery process since she had two brains operations and lost part of her body mobility. I helped her with breathing exercises, and we meditated together. This helped her a lot in her recovery, and it motivated me to learn more since those were difficult times and the two of us found peace by breathing and connecting.

I learned to love myself and thanks to that I was able to love others. Seven years ago, I started teaching meditation at La Salle College thanks to a school project. Seeing the positive impact on my classmates, I decided to teach it to all the people around me. I did it when I was traveling, with family or friends. I saw the impact I was having around me and that motivate me to continue teaching more.

In 2020, my mother was in a hospital once again, and the doctor told us that she could die in surgery. Having lived through that previously, it was hard to go through. When a doctor tells you something like that, time freezes, and life becomes a nightmare. But I nevertheless decided this time to apply all the learning I had in that hard moment. I began to meditate in the emergency room, and I found peace. In that moment I realized I had developed the tools to move through stressful situations.

My mother came out of this situation well once again. When I returned to Canada in February 2020, I had missed a month of classes, I had debts for having helped my family to pay the hospital, I had personal problems like everyone else, I was desperate, and the pandemic had just begun. However, adversity gets the best of us and at that moment I realized that I had to share my passion with the rest of the world. I thought of doing this more formally since until that day it was just a hobby. I had been teaching my friends to meditate for a few months now at Bishops University. I was inspired by other digital platforms that provide services of different types. I realized that people like me focused on wellness needed a place where they could also connect with more instructors and users.

I started giving classes on my own on social media, I offered free classes online and the response was very positive; so, I brought together a team of instructors with different skills, different backgrounds and locations but the same mission. I created a team eager to help people, educate and raise awareness. I applied my school knowledge to create a company with a social purpose. We first started with a group chat and then with online sessions to collaborate and get to know each other. Furthermore, running activities together, filming content and producing classes or music combining our talents.

From the year 2020 to date, Naw Just Breathe was created, a collective of entrepreneurs focused on well-being. I identify the struggling of my friends in the pandemic, and I had to do something to help them. We developed a digital platform and a mobile application to teach wellness and mental health classes online. I created something innovative and beneficial for everyone due to the current situation we have been experiencing. The concept is artistic and innovative. Naw has a global network of instructors who teach anything related to art, music, sports and spirituality. Naw has an innovative business model where instructors can work remotely, according to their availability and generate multiple earnings. Thanks to Bishop’s University, I was able to develop a large part of the project while we collaborated during the pandemic. We gave 36 yoga and meditation classes to help students deal with stress and anxiety, and I have also collaborated with teachers, giving meditation courses in their classes. In the same way, my teachers have given me their support with advice and guidance. My classmates and I have used Naw as an example in various school projects. At first, I thought that with this company I would no longer have time to study but it was quite the opposite, since everything I have learned at the University and the help received has helped me to develop and improve Naw Just Breathe.

We have commercial alliances with companies both in Canada and Mexico such as Futurpreneur Canada, Enactus Bishops, Programa Destinos Mexico and recently Naw was accepted into the Magog Technopole incubator. In 2021 I began to teach meditation classes in the Lennoxville retreat home. I have obtained excellent results expanding to more places in the region and helping senior adults to relax. In the same way we have given online classes to people and companies in different locations around the world for over two years as a team. In these two years, we produced around 120 mini-classes, 150 classes, 50 reviews in six languages, pictures and music around the world, we developed the platforms, social networks, alliances, we raised funds and made sales. In total more than 50 thousand dollars to date. Naw has competed and will continue to compete in entrepreneurship competitions. We will continue knocking all the doors possible and opportunities for growth. And we look forward to growing the community globally. Now the project is almost complete and ready to officially go on the market hoping that it will be a great success and can help many people. At Naw, we believe that this should be accessible to everyone and much of the content will be free. A part of the profits will always be used to continue creating free content for orphanages, hospitals, addiction centers, public schools, nursing homes. Our mission is to help and although the challenges have been many but the passion to help others and impact the world in a positive way is greater. That is why I am leading day by day this project and inspiring others to reach more people and show them the tools that transformed my life, helped me heal and have healed many more. I believe that the wave is the ocean and when you welcome others with your gifts, they pass this positivity to someone else, and you become an immense sea.

Remember: “if you can't go out, you can always go in”.

In 2017, I won 2nd place in the Tourism games representing La Salle college and this award give me confidence to compete against other students in Quebec.

I have been Nominated twice to the Enactus national competition of entrepreneurship in 2020 and 2021.

This recognition is important for me to show the consistency of my leadership in national competitions.