The next Goodman Report podcast, an interview with the unstoppable Nelson Skalbania, is one of the most entertaining – and absolutely the most fun – of any that we have done so far.

Nelson Matthew Skalbania was the prototypical Vancouver tycoon – and the only guy in town who my mother would let smoke cigars in the house when he was doing deals with my father.

Born in Regina to Polish immigrant parents and raised in relative poverty in East Vancouver, Nelson found success as a structural engineer and made his fortune – really, many fortunes – first in real estate and then in any other business that caught his eye.

He’s the guy who, admitting that he knew nothing about hockey, signed Wayne Gretzky for $50,000 only because the 17-year-old Great One beat the then-38-year-old deal-spinner in a six-mile foot race.

At his peak, Nelson was sitting at the big table with Vancouver icons like Jack Pool, Peter Brown, Bob Lee, Sam Belzberg and Jimmy Pattison, rubbing shoulders internationally with people like the up-and-coming Donald J. Trump, and doing 1,000 deals a year, totalling $500 million – in 1970 dollars.

That’s an unimaginable pace – almost three deals every day, often for millions of dollars each. That demands a combination of intelligence, nerve and stamina that absolutely deserves to be celebrated.

Back in the day, the larger-than-life Skalbania was such a character – so brash, so unlikely in the grey Canadian outpost that was then Vancouver – that the media made him a caricature, and a target. And sure enough, the critics and the regulators took him down. But this interview will make you forget the caricature: at age 87, Nelson is still the real deal – sharp, shrewd, oddly modest about his accomplishments and surprisingly forthcoming about his indiscretions (at least one of which landed him in jail for a day and under house arrest for most of a year).

Frank, philosophical, insightful – full of the wisdom earned from “11,000 mistakes” – Nelson’s stories are great, and his advice is very much worth hearing.

This podcast is a blast. Don’t miss it.

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Nelson Skalbania’s website: https://nelsonskalbania.com/

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For this episode of the Goodman Report podcast, you’ll hear the unlikely and riveting story of how a left-wing activist became one of BC’s most accomplished business leaders and philanthropists, championing projects in the visual arts and innovation in Canadian wildlife protection and sustainability.

Freedom rider. Student radical. Academic. Social activist. Residential developer. Museum builder. Grizzly bear protector. Michael Audain has been all of these things and more in a colourful life spanning eight decades, three continents and five careers. Born to a branch of the legendary BC Dunsmuir clan that had lost its wealth and social status, little was expected of Audain. A lonely teenager plagued by insecurities, he was a dismal failure in the classroom and on the playing field. Yet Audain would become one of the most prominent home builders in British Columbia and a well-known philanthropist in support of the visual arts and wildlife causes.

Along the way, Audain did time in a Mississippi prison for participating in the Freedom Rider movement. He started the Nuclear Disarmament Club at the University of British Columbia and was a founder of the BC Civil Liberties Association. He advocated for the radical Sons of Freedom Doukhobor sect on their protest march from the Kootenays to Vancouver. He proudly displayed a photograph of the communist revolutionary Fidel Castro at the founding convention of the New Democratic Party until Tommy Douglas persuaded him to take it down. Audain worked for an airline in the Arctic, became a probation officer and a farm appraiser, was detained in Ireland under suspicion of terrorism, and sought wisdom from a Buddhist monk in Thailand. In 1980, he took the most unexpected turn of all and became a developer in Greater Vancouver’s volatile housing market. As chairman of Polygon Homes Ltd., he has been responsible for the construction of over 35,000 homes.

“My life never had a business plan,” muses Audain. Join us as he shares his story of unplanned twists and turns, victories and defeats, recounted with characteristic wit and candour. It is a tale of adventure and perseverance that will inspire many seeking to find their place in the world.

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It’s always great when a single conversation makes you smarter, and that’s how I felt after sitting down with Brent Sawchyn, CEO of PC Urban Properties Corp., for this episode of the Goodman Report podcast.

Brent is a generational talent. He has spent 35 years in the development business, earning his spurs alongside high performers like Ian Gillespie at Westbank and Eric Carlson at Anthem Properties, so he’s seen his share of highs and lows. Brent was smart enough that when he started PC Urban in 2012, he steered clear of the oversubscribed condo market and jumped into purpose-built rentals, while also launching an innovative and incredibly successful version of industrial strata. Now that others seem to be abandoning condos, Brent looks like a man who has been taking the pulse of the market from a point slightly upstream of his competitors.

Our podcast conversation is rich with lessons learned. It’s clear that Brent Sawchyn has a firm grasp of the usual business aphorisms: the only constant is change; every crisis leads to opportunity; we’re all in it together; it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Unlike many others, however, he actually applies these lessons in his business. Brent is also an avid student of his own mistakes, admitting, for example, that he was once among the developers who spent too much time yelling at city planners – people who usually weren’t even responsible for the policies making it harder for PC Urban to develop good properties. Now, Brent has learned to listen. Instead of lobbying for what he wants – and complaining when he doesn’t get it – he goes to City Hall to find out how to solve planners’ problems, to excellent effect.

These and other lessons have made PC Urban a success, and Brent’s seasoned judgment will be essential as we face a market disruption that could be unprecedented in the last century.

If, like me, you’re eager to understand how best to face this multi-generational challenge, join me with Brent Sawchyn on this episode of the Goodman Report podcast. So much history. So much good judgment.

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Follow Brent Sawchyn:

LinkedIn - https://ca.linkedin.com/in/brentsawchyn?trk=public_post-text

Website - https://www.pcurban.ca/

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