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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_01: It's Calgary's podcast on the Canada's podcast network.
[00:16] SPEAKER_00: Hello, this is Mario Pondagusei coming to you today with Calgary's podcast, a member
[00:21] SPEAKER_00: of Canada's podcast network, where we talk to the entrepreneurs who are making it happen
[00:26] SPEAKER_00: here in Calgary, Alberta, so you can listen, discover and engage.
[00:32] SPEAKER_00: Today's guest is Tony McGrath, who is CEO of the Grand Theatre.
[00:37] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the show, Tony, and thanks for taking the time today to be here for our listeners.
[00:42] SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, my pleasure, Mario.
[00:43] SPEAKER_01: I'm really happy to meet you today.
[00:46] SPEAKER_00: Tell me just a little bit about how you got involved with the Grand Theatre and what
[00:50] SPEAKER_00: the Grand Theatre is and does.
[00:52] SPEAKER_01: So, I've been a soldier and a banker and a CEO of an insurance company and a founder
[00:59] SPEAKER_01: of an insurance company as an entrepreneur and I've been a business consultant.
[01:07] SPEAKER_01: I got involved with the theatre around about four years ago.
[01:12] SPEAKER_01: I did some strategic planning for both the board and the management team here.
[01:16] SPEAKER_01: So, I kind of fell in love with a place and when you walk around the Grand as you've
[01:22] SPEAKER_01: done this morning, you can absolutely understand why it's an iconic, cool, steeped in history
[01:29] SPEAKER_01: building, writing the Dan Tancor that, frankly, so few Calgary's know about.
[01:35] SPEAKER_01: So it's a 1912 Vorderville theatre originally that's been reimagined as a culture hub or
[01:44] SPEAKER_01: a culture hub in Dan Tancor.
[01:47] SPEAKER_01: We've had the marks brothers here, we've had ginger Rogers, we've had Sarah Bernhard,
[01:52] SPEAKER_01: Paul Roeb's, Nellie McCleung had a women's voting rights rally in here.
[01:57] SPEAKER_01: We've got our own history of racial inequality in this theatre so goes back a long, long
[02:03] SPEAKER_01: way.
[02:04] SPEAKER_01: We've been a magnificent cinema and a golf driving range and the place was fully refurbished
[02:12] SPEAKER_01: and recovered in around about 2004 by a group called Theatre Junction, that was a theatre
[02:19] SPEAKER_01: company in town here.
[02:21] SPEAKER_01: I fell in love with both the building and the staff here and a lot of the creation that
[02:28] SPEAKER_01: happened here, it was not Calgary as I knew it.
[02:33] SPEAKER_01: So last year after some business challenges, the board asked me to step in for around
[02:39] SPEAKER_01: about three weeks as an interim CEO.
[02:43] SPEAKER_01: That's what I've done a lot of in the last five years.
[02:46] SPEAKER_01: I sat in the theatre one afternoon on my own.
[02:49] SPEAKER_01: We've got no money, I grant so frozen.
[02:52] SPEAKER_01: We've got no shows scheduled here, maybe one.
[02:56] SPEAKER_01: All of our credits maxed and we're in a position where it looks like closure is likely.
[03:04] SPEAKER_01: I sat in my own and the board at that time were looking for a new executive director
[03:09] SPEAKER_01: that would go through a lengthy recruitment process.
[03:12] SPEAKER_01: I felt as an entrepreneur and as a Calgary and as a Canadian, I needed to step up.
[03:19] SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what I've done.
[03:21] SPEAKER_01: I've given up my business which was technical adjustment consulting that I ran with my wife.
[03:27] SPEAKER_01: I've committed the next three or four years of my life to this project to put it back,
[03:32] SPEAKER_01: where it belongs right at the centre of the economy and the arts and culture sectoring downtown Calgary here.
[03:40] SPEAKER_00: What are the benefits of doing business in Calgary?
[03:45] SPEAKER_01: Calgarians have this incredible ability to get things done.
[03:51] SPEAKER_01: As entrepreneurs, you can see anywhere in this province not just in Calgary,
[03:56] SPEAKER_01: but in Calgary in particular and that's where I live and work and my family is based.
[04:03] SPEAKER_01: You run into companies here that one week can weld the inside of a pipeline and next week they're making custom furniture.
[04:13] SPEAKER_01: They might build a tech app.
[04:16] SPEAKER_01: One week and the next minute you've got a whole community based on play like my friends over at Play City.
[04:25] SPEAKER_01: Great pivot.
[04:27] SPEAKER_01: There is an incredible and growing sense of community here.
[04:31] SPEAKER_01: The young people of Calgary completely inspire me at the moment.
[04:37] SPEAKER_01: They're changing the face of the city, they're changing the way we do business, they're not accepting the status quo.
[04:44] SPEAKER_01: I think that is exactly how oil and gas started in this city.
[04:50] SPEAKER_01: People did not accept the status quo, they did not accept the way things have been done before.
[04:57] SPEAKER_01: Everybody is really willing to roll up their sleeves and get things done here.
[05:02] SPEAKER_01: And that epitomizes this theatre too.
[05:04] SPEAKER_01: We are Calgaryen, we've been part of the scene here since 1912.
[05:11] SPEAKER_01: I like to think we are symbolic of that Calgaryen entrepreneurial spirit.
[05:17] SPEAKER_00: When you look at the current situation in Calgary these days from an entrepreneurial and business standpoint, what are the biggest challenges?
[05:28] SPEAKER_01: Since I've been at the grand, we've made a very conscious decision to support local companies and local entrepreneurs.
[05:35] SPEAKER_01: Our security system, our ticketing, our restaurant, our toiletries supplies, right down to our accounting and all of the materials that appear in this theatre are all supplied locally.
[05:54] SPEAKER_01: Now we are somewhat cushioned from the impacts of things like the raise in property taxes because there's a not-for-profit we're exempt.
[06:05] SPEAKER_01: However, we've come out really strongly, particularly this week, in support of our small businesses in this city.
[06:13] SPEAKER_01: They buy our food, they buy our tickets, they supply our food and they supply our tickets and we wouldn't be here without those small businesses.
[06:22] SPEAKER_01: Large oil and gas companies have not been on the scene to support a business like this in the arts during the downturn, but our small businesses have.
[06:35] SPEAKER_01: And whenever we have an event here to raise money, we get Jolato from Fiasco and Beer from Village, Red Bloom, hairdressing salon supporters and head candies salon supporters, Kate Hucco, the local fashion designer, is putting on a show here to help us in the fall.
[06:54] SPEAKER_01: So that's doing business here. And I think there is a real movement to taking things back and not accept in bureaucracy anymore.
[07:06] SPEAKER_01: What's your vision for the theatre in the coming years? So my vision for the next 100 years? I want us to be here in another century as a historic part of the building.
[07:21] SPEAKER_01: We're going to start to archive our story, but what I'm absolutely committed to is providing the grand as a space for our arts and performers.
[07:31] SPEAKER_01: And that's everything from ballet to classical, from hip hop to digital. We're looking at augmented and virtual reality as well right now.
[07:41] SPEAKER_01: This is going to be an affordable and accessible place for our arts. We don't have a diversity policy here and we don't have any kind of reconciliation program.
[07:53] SPEAKER_01: We work with our residents theatre companies, Black Raddition, Making Treaty 7, and our whole philosophy is based on a welcome policy.
[08:02] SPEAKER_01: We actually don't care where you're from or what your gender is. So we're really making it very clear that all Calgaryans are safe in here.
[08:13] SPEAKER_01: We don't care whether you're right wing or left wing, centrist, we don't care. We've had Rachel Notley and that current premier in the theatre of Vivian Krause is coming here.
[08:23] SPEAKER_01: So we are really making sure that this is Calgary's theatre. You can be a Somali Calgaryan, you can be a gay Calgaryan, you can be a right leaning Calgaryan, you can work in oil and gas or you can work in the arts we don't mind.
[08:41] SPEAKER_01: So truly a culture has for all Calgaryans.
[08:44] SPEAKER_00: There's some personal questions Tony. What do you do to get inspired? Is there any favorite activities that kind of get you out away from sort of that work environment where you can have ideas come to you?
[09:02] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean it's very hard not to be inspired walking in here to work in the morning. My management team are all dancers. So we have a very creative buzz to the building, our resident theatre companies are around.
[09:19] SPEAKER_01: We've got a top class chef working in the restaurant downstairs. So you know there isn't much to escape here creatively, but it's been a challenging business turn around for me.
[09:31] SPEAKER_01: So my wife and I have a couple of particular favorite pastimes and one is road trips.
[09:36] SPEAKER_01: So we really love to get in the car and talk about life and spirituality and where we sit as a couple.
[09:46] SPEAKER_01: And an example of that we just went to Boseman recently down in Montana. We drove down on the long weekend to to a Bluegrass festival in a brand new small theatre down there.
[09:59] SPEAKER_01: About 10% of the size of the grand here, but we had a wonderful weekend. Boseman's a beautiful little town. And I came back with all sorts of creative ideas that we can apply here in Calgary. They've done a wonderful job there.
[10:13] SPEAKER_01: Last year we went down on a road trip. We're heighting Utah. So we went to Zion National Park.
[10:19] SPEAKER_01: When you sit on angels landing there, it's hard not to feel like a grain of sand in the world. So that's what I really like to do to take me away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
[10:29] SPEAKER_01: And this year we're planning to go to the Amalfi coast in Italy, you and your home country. I love Naples and I love that area. So we're going to spend some time around the Amalfi coast there and then maybe catch the ferry across the Croatia for a bit of a trip over there.
[10:44] SPEAKER_01: So I have a very peaceful home in Crescent Heights just at the road here. So I get the opportunity to be in the city, but it's almost like living in a small town up there. We have our own independent restaurants and independent coffee shops.
[10:59] SPEAKER_01: So I don't even feel like I live in a city, not like I grew up in.
[11:03] SPEAKER_00: So what's the best piece of advice you've ever received when it comes to being an entrepreneur?
[11:12] SPEAKER_00: Oh, so much.
[11:16] SPEAKER_01: Some years ago I ran into a guy called Tony Strangely. He's 94 years old and he lives down. He's actually 96 now.
[11:29] SPEAKER_01: He's Austrian and him and his wife lived down in California and they became kind of became life mentors for me.
[11:37] SPEAKER_01: And the one message that they gave me in their 90s and they still live on their own, still cook their own food, still drive their car, still walk every day, was enjoy the journey.
[11:49] SPEAKER_01: And I think as an entrepreneur it is very easy to get wrapped up in the stress and worry and the drive and the hustle and the adrenaline.
[11:58] SPEAKER_01: And I hear a lot about the hustle and frankly I think that is such a misjudgment of what entrepreneurship should really be.
[12:11] SPEAKER_01: If you're going to take the risk of that journey and you're going to put your family through it and put yourself through it, you absolutely have to make sure that it's a journey you enjoy.
[12:20] SPEAKER_01: Because the probability is you're not going to earn as much money as you did in a corporate job.
[12:28] SPEAKER_01: So you've really got to add the benefit of I love what I do. I love the people I work with. I love the businesses that I'm engaged with.
[12:37] SPEAKER_01: And I absolutely love my vision.
[12:39] SPEAKER_01: And I see too many people talking about working 20 hour days and working weekends and neglecting their families and neglecting their marriages and neglecting their parents.
[12:52] SPEAKER_01: That is not what entrepreneurship is about.
[12:55] SPEAKER_01: My father-in-law has run a menswear store in Brooks, Alberta for the last 40 years. He sells suits in the oil patch.
[13:03] SPEAKER_01: He has loved that business that much that he's still running it in his mid 70s.
[13:09] SPEAKER_01: It is part of who he is. He's friends dropping to the store. It is part of his personality.
[13:15] SPEAKER_01: So I hate the surviving the hustle, living in the hustle. I think that is absolutely the wrong direction to go in.
[13:24] SPEAKER_01: And I understand as an entrepreneur you have to work hard.
[13:26] SPEAKER_01: I'm working hard as an entrepreneur in this theatre right now. But you cannot do that at the sacrifice of other aspects of your life.
[13:36] SPEAKER_01: So enjoy the journey. That's the best advice I can give.
[13:41] SPEAKER_00: Everybody has a bucket list these days. What's on top of your bucket list?
[13:47] SPEAKER_01: Jesus. I've achieved. I've honestly achieved most of mine.
[13:50] SPEAKER_01: The one thing I want to achieve in my life, my wife and I have an age gap.
[13:56] SPEAKER_01: There are 18 years between us. My ambition is to live to be 100 and I'd like to help her celebrate her 90th birthday.
[14:06] SPEAKER_01: That's my bucket list. I'll be okay with going.
[14:09] SPEAKER_01: I've travelled so much. I've been to so many places.
[14:13] SPEAKER_01: I don't have an ambition to have a bigger car or a faster car or a bigger house.
[14:19] SPEAKER_01: I'm pretty content with everything I have.
[14:22] SPEAKER_01: I would love to take my granddaughter to visit my parents.
[14:27] SPEAKER_01: They're both alive in their mid 80s over in the UK.
[14:32] SPEAKER_01: I think I'd like to do that. My granddaughter and daughter live with us at the moment. She's seven.
[14:36] SPEAKER_01: So it's probably a good time to take an abu.
[14:39] SPEAKER_01: I don't have too many burning bucket list items that I can think of anyways.
[14:46] SPEAKER_00: If you weren't doing what you're doing today.
[14:49] SPEAKER_00: What kind of a profession a career do you think you would do?
[14:53] SPEAKER_01: I can't think of anything else I would really want to do.
[14:57] SPEAKER_01: I have loved working with entrepreneurs as a consultant.
[15:01] SPEAKER_01: My wife and I, because we built a federally approved insurance company from our living room,
[15:07] SPEAKER_01: we worked in a trenchies for quite a while.
[15:09] SPEAKER_01: Our whole direction is consultants with helping stuck companies get shit done.
[15:15] SPEAKER_01: We were really with great lovers of execution.
[15:20] SPEAKER_01: I think somewhere around, I had thoughts before I came here of maybe buying a family business
[15:27] SPEAKER_01: that was where they're looking for retirement or getting involved with a family business.
[15:32] SPEAKER_01: I've had a few opportunities to do that and help take it to the next level.
[15:37] SPEAKER_01: But what is really important to me is whatever I do is that I'm working with really good human beings.
[15:42] SPEAKER_01: So you know that the specifics of the job.
[15:44] SPEAKER_01: But I think I'm 62 years old now and I've still got the same level of ambition and energy that I had when I was 30.
[15:53] SPEAKER_01: So I've got no thoughts of going off and playing golf or anything.
[15:56] SPEAKER_01: So I don't know, but I think you would have to be something with real purpose.
[16:01] SPEAKER_01: But you know, I have for the first time in my career here at the grand, I've got a job where I have an opportunity to have massive community impact with the team I have here.
[16:12] SPEAKER_01: I have an opportunity to hand over a legacy to a younger leader over the next few years.
[16:17] SPEAKER_01: So I'm pretty happy where I am right now.
[16:21] SPEAKER_00: What are you reading these days?
[16:23] SPEAKER_01: I'm actually reading an Eckhart Tolly book at the moment.
[16:27] SPEAKER_01: It's really talking about purpose in life.
[16:31] SPEAKER_01: Eckhart's an incredible spiritual writer, but he's books hardgoing.
[16:37] SPEAKER_01: So I kind of coupled that with a couple of podcasts at the moment.
[16:43] SPEAKER_01: Eckhart is hardgoing and I usually read novels because I like to relax my mind, but it's a book I've picked up at the moment.
[16:52] SPEAKER_00: If you had one word to describe yourself, what would it be?
[16:58] SPEAKER_00: And why?
[17:00] SPEAKER_01: That's a tough question Mario.
[17:03] SPEAKER_01: One word.
[17:05] SPEAKER_01: Irish.
[17:08] SPEAKER_01: I am very much an Irishman.
[17:14] SPEAKER_01: I'm Canadian through and through now.
[17:16] SPEAKER_01: I've been here a long time, but the Irish are an optimistic, hardworking, gregarious people.
[17:24] SPEAKER_01: And I think that is me in its entirety.
[17:29] SPEAKER_01: So I like to be Irish.
[17:32] SPEAKER_01: I like to be described as Irish.
[17:34] SPEAKER_01: I feel that my whole personality is a kelp through and through.
[17:40] SPEAKER_00: We living interesting times these days.
[17:43] SPEAKER_00: Is there anything that keeps you up at night?
[17:46] SPEAKER_01: The theatre's kept me up at night a little bit.
[17:50] SPEAKER_01: Not really.
[17:51] SPEAKER_01: I'm troubled by the direction of our neighbours to the south.
[17:57] SPEAKER_01: And I see that in the country I grew up in in the UK.
[18:02] SPEAKER_01: Not so much in Ireland, but definitely in the UK where there seems to be a correction in a strong direction away from the hard one rights of our women and our LGBTQ community.
[18:20] SPEAKER_01: That troubles me.
[18:22] SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure why that's happening.
[18:25] SPEAKER_01: I also do not like the atmosphere of trade aggression that I'm seeing at the moment.
[18:33] SPEAKER_01: I find that very damaging for world relations.
[18:37] SPEAKER_01: I'm not a fan of globalism, but I am a fan of countries making a concerted effort to get on with each other.
[18:46] SPEAKER_01: That's how we ended up with the Second World War.
[18:49] SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying that's where we're going right now, but there's some troubling developments that lead this whole trade war tariff in balance at the moment.
[19:01] SPEAKER_01: He's just indicative of an attitude of bullying.
[19:06] SPEAKER_01: There's only one end to that.
[19:08] SPEAKER_01: The bully doesn't come out on top eventually.
[19:12] SPEAKER_00: When you look outside of Calgary, do you have a favourite place in the world?
[19:20] SPEAKER_01: What am I favourite cities?
[19:23] SPEAKER_01: I'll talk about North America first.
[19:25] SPEAKER_01: I love the climate.
[19:28] SPEAKER_01: I love that.
[19:29] SPEAKER_01: There's very much a Mexican Latin flavour to that city.
[19:34] SPEAKER_01: I really enjoy California.
[19:37] SPEAKER_01: Marcinoy owner, little resort in the Watanayoe, Mexico.
[19:41] SPEAKER_01: That's the place they ended up at the end of the Shaw Fantre Dempshun in the movie.
[19:46] SPEAKER_01: It's on a beautiful beach down there.
[19:49] SPEAKER_01: I really love the Watanayoe.
[19:51] SPEAKER_01: I love that area of Mexico.
[19:53] SPEAKER_01: Again, beautiful climate.
[19:56] SPEAKER_01: The people are always smiling.
[19:58] SPEAKER_01: They seem to be able to build a business out of anything.
[20:02] SPEAKER_01: There'll be a tire shot just appear on the side of the road.
[20:06] SPEAKER_01: Next thing you know, they're changing tires on semis.
[20:09] SPEAKER_01: They're very entrepreneurial, enterprising people.
[20:13] SPEAKER_01: I enjoy being there.
[20:15] SPEAKER_01: Of course, where I was born in Dublin, I'd love to go back there from time to time.
[20:21] SPEAKER_00: We're creatures of routine.
[20:23] SPEAKER_00: Do you have a certain routine that is non-negotiable?
[20:27] SPEAKER_00: It just happens every day.
[20:30] SPEAKER_01: I've got a couple of routines.
[20:33] SPEAKER_01: When I wake up in the morning, I have some daily readings and I try to meditate.
[20:38] SPEAKER_01: Not always successful, but I do try every morning just to calm my mind before the day starts.
[20:45] SPEAKER_01: My readings of centre around how I behave in the world,
[20:50] SPEAKER_01: how the impact of my words and actions and how I treat others.
[20:54] SPEAKER_01: That's always a good reminder for me.
[20:58] SPEAKER_01: I'm very regimented about my family time.
[21:02] SPEAKER_01: I spend time with my wife every day.
[21:04] SPEAKER_01: We get to talk about our day every day.
[21:08] SPEAKER_01: And I get to spend time with my daughter and granddaughter every day.
[21:12] SPEAKER_01: There is nothing better to remove your mind from the world of business than a seven-year-old.
[21:20] SPEAKER_01: And I went to see Barack Obama speak recently.
[21:24] SPEAKER_01: Dave Kelly interviewed him.
[21:26] SPEAKER_01: It was a magnificent session.
[21:29] SPEAKER_01: He spoke about in the morning he might be dealing with Syria and Russia.
[21:35] SPEAKER_01: An issue with Russia in the afternoon.
[21:37] SPEAKER_01: He's reading a book to his daughter.
[21:40] SPEAKER_01: I think that's a great routine to get into.
[21:43] SPEAKER_01: I spoke about it earlier as an entrepreneur.
[21:45] SPEAKER_01: You've got to pay attention to that.
[21:48] SPEAKER_00: As we wind down here, I'm going to ask you a different question.
[21:53] SPEAKER_00: Imagine that we take you to a tropical island where there's only a phone booth there.
[21:58] SPEAKER_00: But there's no internet connection.
[22:00] SPEAKER_00: You don't have access to any wireless stuff at all.
[22:04] SPEAKER_00: You can make one phone call to call us and we'll take you back home.
[22:09] SPEAKER_00: How long do you think it would take you to make that phone call?
[22:13] SPEAKER_00: And what do you think you'd be doing on that island while you were there?
[22:18] SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm pretty comfortable in my own skin.
[22:23] SPEAKER_01: So I can spend a fair bit of time on my own.
[22:27] SPEAKER_01: But if I'm on a tropical island, probably 30 minutes before I call Marcy my wife.
[22:32] SPEAKER_01: And so you need to get your ass out of here.
[22:36] SPEAKER_01: And on the island itself, I get a chance to spend a fair bit of time at our place in Mexico.
[22:42] SPEAKER_01: And we rent a number of our bungalows there.
[22:45] SPEAKER_01: So I get to spend time in guests.
[22:47] SPEAKER_01: But I love to lie on in one of our hammers.
[22:51] SPEAKER_01: And we've got a choice.
[22:52] SPEAKER_01: So my daily routine is which one.
[22:55] SPEAKER_01: And I love to listen to music.
[22:57] SPEAKER_01: So probably enjoying the sand of the waves a little bit and the beach.
[23:02] SPEAKER_00: And I'm totally okay with chilling.
[23:05] SPEAKER_00: Is there anything you'd like to add before you leave us today, Tony?
[23:10] SPEAKER_01: No, I don't think so.
[23:11] SPEAKER_01: I think I will say on behalf of the team at the grand that we're delighted to support that Calgaryens are giving us right now.
[23:22] SPEAKER_01: We have a very incredible opportunity because it seems 95% of Calgaryens don't even know we're here.
[23:28] SPEAKER_01: So I would ask our arts and culture community to keep bringing their works here to perform in this beautiful space.
[23:37] SPEAKER_01: And I would encourage Calgaryens to drop in here, buy a ticket, have a glass of wine, maybe a bite to eat.
[23:43] SPEAKER_01: And just save a something that is truly Calgaryen.
[23:47] SPEAKER_01: And he just feels like he's stepping back in time when he walks through the doors here.
[23:51] SPEAKER_01: So thanks for the opportunity to speak today, Mario.
[23:55] SPEAKER_00: Hey there, thanks for taking the time today to listen to Calgary's podcast on Canada's podcast network.
[24:01] SPEAKER_00: We hope you enjoyed the show today.
[24:04] SPEAKER_00: Make sure you sign up for our newsletters and write a review for us on iTunes and then connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn at Canada's podcast.
[24:17] SPEAKER_00: You can also check out what other entrepreneurs are doing across the country.
[24:22] SPEAKER_00: See you next time.
