Lifestyle

Impacting Lives Will Always Come First – Avi Grondin

Published

5 years ago

September 20, 2020

The purpose of human existence is to help other people reach their fullest potential in life. We are created unique, with varying degrees of light and awesomeness, to help others become better versions of themselves while we become ours. Avi Grondin, CEO of Variance Marketing, believes that human existence has grown over the centuries because humans became so good that they gave others the license to become better.

Avi Grondin has had speaking opportunities at the TedX stage in Canada and has been featured in some of the country’s top business magazines, continually speaks of impact as the core of every social purpose. Avi reiterates that there is a need for every person to recalibrate their minds to become more impactful and more human-centric in their dealings. For Avi, the moment we shift our work’s focus from being rich and accumulating wealth to impacting lives and changing the narratives of those around us, we become better humans and make way more money in the process. And the world is better for it.

In his TedX speech, Avi said that he has learned from his mother and his clients that creating positive impacts has ripple effects. The effects spread to different people at different times. There are too many people whose sole aim of doing business is to make money. While this is good, Avi points out; it isn’t sustainable. It doesn’t meet the core requirement of our purpose.

Avi will never agree that making profits comes before making an impact. He agrees that businesses should make money. What he disagrees on, he said during one of his speeches, is for the money-making process to trump the impact-delivering.

“Whenever I speak to people, young or old, I feel good, somewhat fulfilled. You know why?” Avi asks his audience. “It is because I know that I am impacting lives, helping people see the light in themselves, helping them get better,” he says.

Avi is a serial entrepreneur with years of experience growing businesses. His marketing agency, Variance Marketing, has been at the forefront of helping many small and big companies make the most of their marketing. Avi says he offers value and makes an impact through his company when he creates and delivers marketing strategies to his clients.

‘The work that I do as a marketer is impactful. While many may see it as making sales, it goes beyond that. We not only improve sales; we also help the customers with the valuable content necessary to nurture their prospects. It is a win-win situation for all parties involved,” Avi says.

Avi is also delving into the retail cannabis space and sees his new dispensary chain, ModernDay Cannabis, as another way he can impact people’s lives.

“For every tree we buy, we plant trees,” Avi said about his new cannabis business. The savvy businessman, 24, has made it his life’s work always to give back, and make an impact with whatever he does. It is still about making the world better.”

To follow Avi Grondin’s journey and get first-hand info, click his covers on Instagram, facebook and LinkedIn today!

Lifestyle

Wanda Knight on Blending Culture, Style, and Leadership Through Travel

Published

40 mins ago

December 24, 2025

Michelle Langton

The best lessons in leadership do not always come from a classroom or a boardroom. Sometimes they come from a crowded market in a foreign city, a train ride through unfamiliar landscapes, or a quiet conversation with someone whose life looks very different from your own.

Wanda Knight has built her career in enterprise sales and leadership for more than three decades, working with some of the world’s largest companies and guiding teams through constant change. But ask her what shaped her most, and she will point not just to her professional milestones but to the way travel has expanded her perspective. With 38 countries visited and more on the horizon, her worldview has been formed as much by her passport as by her resume.

Travel entered her life early. Her parents valued exploration, and before she began college, she had already lived in Italy. That experience, stepping into a different culture at such a young age, left a lasting impression. It showed her that the world was much bigger than the environment she grew up in and that adaptability was not just useful, it was necessary. Those early lessons of curiosity and openness would later shape the way she led in business.

Sales, at its core, is about connection. Numbers matter, but relationships determine long-term success. Wanda’s time abroad taught her how to connect across differences. Navigating unfamiliar places and adjusting to environments that operated on different expectations gave her the patience and awareness to understand people first, and business second. That approach carried over into leadership, where she built a reputation for giving her teams the space to take ownership while standing firmly behind them when it mattered most.

The link between travel and leadership becomes even clearer in moments of challenge. Unfamiliar settings require flexibility, quick decision-making, and the ability to stay calm under pressure. The same skills are critical in enterprise sales, where strategies shift quickly and no deal is ever guaranteed. Knight learned that success comes from being willing to step into the unknown, whether that means exploring a new country or taking on a leadership role she had not originally planned to pursue.

Her travels have also influenced her eye for style and her creative pursuits. Fashion, for Wanda, is more than clothing; it is a reflection of culture, history, and identity. Experiencing how different communities express themselves, from the craftsmanship of Italian textiles to the energy of street style in cities around the world, has deepened her appreciation for aesthetics as a form of storytelling. Rather than keeping her professional and personal worlds separate, she has learned to blend them, carrying the discipline and strategy of her sales career into her creative interests and vice versa.

None of this has been about starting over. It has been about adding layers, expanding her perspective without erasing the experiences that came before. Wanda’s story is not one of leaving a career behind but of integrating all the parts of who she is: a leader shaped by high-stakes business, a traveler shaped by global culture, and a creative voice learning to merge both worlds.

What stands out most is how she continues to approach both leadership and life with the same curiosity that first took her beyond her comfort zone. Each new country is an opportunity to learn, just as each new role has been a chance to grow. For those looking at her path, the lesson is clear: leadership is not about staying in one lane; it is about collecting experiences that teach you how to see, how to adapt, and how to connect.

As she looks to the future, Wanda Knight’s compass still points outward. She will keep adding stamps to her passport, finding inspiration in new cultures, and carrying those insights back into the rooms where strategy is shaped and decisions are made. Her legacy will not be measured only by deals closed or positions held but by the perspective she brought, and the way she showed that leading with a global view can change the story for everyone around you.