How to Find Where You Belong | The Inspiring Story of Toronto’s Salsa Visionary

Imagine a place where you are welcomed with open arms. People don't judge you but look to understand you. Validate you for the special person that you are. I wake up in the morning like everyone else, but from there everything is just a bit different. I focus my body and my mind on my goals and what I'm grateful for in my life. I don't work in an office, but my days can be 12 to 14 hours. I have a team behind me, but at the same time, I'm a one-man army responsible for hundreds of students, dozens of helpers, and a handful of instructors. My name is Alex, and here's a day in the life of me. I don't know if you noticed, but I just got super emotional as I was sitting down. Um, about a week ago, myself, my team, Unleash the Power by Tony Robbins in LA. One of the things I picked up was this thing where you sit down and you, um, you think about 3 things you're grateful for. Funny enough, the thing that really made me tear up the most, I thought about Toronto Dance Salsa and I thought about How grateful I am, I'm getting emotional right now. Ah, ah, how grateful I am, how my life has changed because of it. The other thing was to think about 3 things that you're going to do today and you already imagine them as being complete. They're done, already taken care of, right? It's supposed to motivate you to not even worry about it. So the 3 things I thought of, 3 things I'm really excited about today is 1, crushing my classes today. So I already have the plans, I have the music picked out. Two, meeting one of the helpers around 2:30 and walking her through and mentoring her, so I'm excited about that. And doing the fitness class. So I thought about it and I'm like, you know what, it's gonna be another action-packed day, 12, 14 hours. A lot of my days are like that, but I'm like, it's already done, it's already crushed, it's not even a discussion. I find that having a structure into my morning makes it easy for me to do the rest of the day to deal with it.

I think it's important that you have a morning routine. I think it's important that you set yourself up for success every day. I think we've all had these moments where we've been alive and feeling great and wanted— felt boldness. We've all had these moments, but it's not consistent. And so he's been experimenting with his morning routine.

It helps me deal with stressors that might come. It happens, right? Everybody has stressors. And it takes away decision-making. Any decision that you do in your personal life, anything, it eats away a little bit at your energy.

Well, most people don't wake up energized and like, I'm gonna tackle the day, right? That's not how most people wake up and get out of bed. But we've all felt those moments. And when you're in that state, you feel unstoppable, you're bold, you want to go out and do really good things. You'll do things that you were afraid of doing before.

So our Mondays are our TDS days now. So we started going over everything that's happening to all the classes, emails, how are the helpers, assistants, instructors doing, what's my progress like as an instructor myself. What am I learning? Where am I pushing myself on? And I'm always asking for advice on how to be a good leader. The previous owner, Sharon, I was training under her as an instructor.

So, you know, I first kind of got to know Allison, who's in my class. I was teaching level 6, it's our highest level class. He was one of my students, and then he became a helper in that class. And he wouldn't listen to feedback in class.

And I used to be pretty cocky. So whenever he would come to me for— give me advice, try to help me, I'd be like, "No, no, no, I'm good, I'm good." And my goal as an instructor is I want everybody to get better.

I want the students to get better, and I want the helpers to get better. It's my job to lead everybody to improve. And so I'm walking by and giving him feedback, and he didn't want to take it. He kind of always brushed it off. I'm like, "Who's this guy thinking he's— okay, you want to do it wrong, do it wrong. Whatever, I don't care, man. I'm here to help you. You don't want to take it?" do it wrong. And then Sharon, the former owner of the business, was talking to him, wanted to make him an instructor.

Sharon calls me, I'm doing my training, Sharon calls me, she's like, listen, I have a back injury, it's been chronic, I can't go and teach, Evan has to come in, he has to take over, and he'll try to find the opportunity to teach.

And so I decided to put him on the spot, and I said, you know what, Sharon committed to this, so I'm going to follow through on it. Even though I don't think he'll make a great instructor, let's see him, let's give him the chance and we'll see.

So I go to pick up Evan and he's like, listen, he's like, I don't need to learn anything. If you want to take a chance, I will let you teach the whole class. I will be on the side, I will be giving you advice, I'll let you teach kids. And I'm like, yes. I knew I wasn't ready yet. I'm like, yes, I'm not going to lose this opportunity. So I started doing that. And so what happened was Evan was impressed at how quickly I was growing. How hardworking I was and how quickly I was taking feedback from him.

And over the course of that 6 weeks, he really impressed me of how much he prepared, how much he took the feedback I gave him.

He's—

one of the things he's really good at is taking feedback now, and when you tell him to do something, he'll go apply it and try it and see if it works for him. And so that was super helpful in helping him become a really good instructor. Now he's one of our best instructors. And when I was looking at somebody to help me, so I took over the business last year, I was looking for someone to help me in running the business. I talked to Alex because he's got a big heart and he really cares and he's doing it for the right reasons. And so he was the guy that I wanted to work with. And here we are a year later.

I can't even imagine a fallback. There's like, there's nothing beyond this. I am gonna crush this, I'm gonna change people's lives. I don't need a plan B. This is the only plan I'll ever need. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday I'm with Evan. Friday, Saturday, Sunday I'm working on my own and then back on Mondays with him. I'm here right at 9 or just before 9. We'd sit down and we break down all of what's happening at TDS. So it's going over the progress of the teachers, the assistants, the school, the scheduling, my personal growth, what I'm accomplishing, where I'm falling short, and where I need to grow. Being around someone who's such a hustler motivates me to be a hustler too. It's important for anyone, I think, to have a good mentor and to have great examples around you. If the people around you have high standards for themselves, if they are high performers, you're going to want to be a high performer. But if you're always working with people, you're around people who are complaining, who are just sort of mediocre or okay, and they're like, oh, life is this way, whatever. I've never heard Evan say life is like this. He's like, no, we're going to change it. It's not good enough. Blah, blah, blah. I'm like, yeah, yeah, we are going to change it, right? So it brings up my standards. So if anything, it's just like through osmosis and seeing what he does. I get to absorb that and helps me a lot. The daytime, it's pretty much a full day of work. There's always something to do because if it's not planning what's coming up, the classes, it's making sure all the classes right now are okay, the numbers are balanced, the payments are going through, all of that. It's continuous upkeep. So you have rises and falls, but that tends to be my day. Or I'm looking up quotes, right, to inspire students. To do that, or I have to go and I have to challenge someone on something, right? Something is happening, I gotta go find out what's happening, I gotta try to understand. So there's a lot of that happening too.

He came back from Mexico wanting to— he went to Mexico with a friend of his and he came back having this vision of him at the front of this army and being this general at the front of an army. Okay, so what inspires that? Boldness every day because that's what he wants. If he didn't want it, then don't make the environment to help you go and get that, but he wants it. So it's one of the things that we're working on with Alex is, okay, what's a routine for you that would make sense? In your world, you think the ideal is just teaching level 6 and just teaching Mondays?

Is that enough, you think?

Not enough for you to get good. I think you'll lose it.

Really? Yeah.

If you wanted to just be a manager and just be a coach, then it's a different story. But if you want to be the best instructor, doing one night a week is not going to be enough.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I didn't think about that. I don't want to be mediocre.

It's the people who complain that they don't get what they want, but then they don't match up their behaviors. That's the problem that I have.

Right?

And so if you look at Alex, he wants to do this thing. He wants to have a big impact. He wants to lead this thing forward. He wants to touch a lot of people's lives, and so his behaviors is rising up to match it.

So I'm gonna be taking over more classes to teach now in the evenings. Lily, who's one of our senior instructors, I want to connect with her. I want to give her a call actually. And ask her if she can take over something that I've loved doing, but I'm realizing if I continue to do everything, I'm gonna burn out. It's gonna be tough. It's gonna be tough at the beginning because I'm doing Monday nights, Wednesday nights, Thursday nights, basically most uptowns I'm there. So it's like every other Friday at least.

Uh, I think it may be a good opportunity for Lily to—

so she's done—

she did intermediate actually, but not just do the intermediate lesson, but to lead the show.

So Lily is one of our senior instructors. She's been an instructor longer than me, about 3 years now, and she's our soft instructor. And so she's a hustler, she's a grinder, she's a hard worker, passionate, loves her students.

I think maybe, maybe even reaching out and saying, listen, this is what, uh, my schedule's going nuts.

Yeah, I want— you know what, I want to give Lily the opportunity for this actually. This is going to be good for her too. So I'm going to reach out to Lily and see if she's comfortable with taking over the Friday nights, at least until I train enough assistants to be able to do some of the days I'm doing so I can go back to doing the Fridays as well. Lily, let's put her on speaker. Hello?

Hey, Lily.

Hey, how's it going? Good, how are you? Good, I'm just gonna go somewhere where I can talk to you. Oh, thank you. Lily? Yeah? I wanted to ask you something, I wanted your thoughts. So I'm gonna be taking over Wednesdays downtown on Sundays. Sundays and Mondays, okay. Yeah, yeah, so I'm gonna be doing 4 days a week. I'm finding a bit of a challenge, but it's no obligation on you, I don't wanna put any pressure on you, but I'm finding a bit of a challenge of doing the uptown loft outings. Oh, I see. Okay. So I wanted your thoughts, if you feel comfortable, at least until I train and have someone take over the Wednesday downtown, for example. Okay. Um, for you to take over the Friday uptown lofts. Okay. Sounds good. I'm up for the challenge. All right. Oh, wow. Okay. I, uh, It would actually be really good for my own growth too. I think that storytelling, you being on a stage in front, I think that would really help too. Okay, Lily, so what I'll do is I'll message you in a bit. We'll talk more about it. We'll talk about this Friday and how we can plan it out. But thank you. Thank you, and I'm excited about the growth for you too. Okay, sounds good. Alright, thanks, Lily. Okay, have a good day. You too. Bye. So that worked better than I thought it would. How could that conversation have gone better? I could have built a better value and opportunity. And just shown like the growth that I've gone through and the benefit that she'll get instead of asking that it's a favor to me.

Yeah.

I think that was the big thing.

The clerical part of what has to get done.

Yeah.

And that you're just too busy to do it without focusing on how much you love doing it. Like it's hard for you to actually let this go.

Yeah.

It's not a task for you. Like you want to go and be there and do it. Why it brings you joy. None of that is there, just like another chore that has to get done.

Yeah, it's funny, the la— I don't want to give up Fridays. I'd rather give up the Saturday afternoon side than Fridays. It's the joy of dance, right? It's also my passion, right? Yeah, because Sundays for me is I'm not really social dancing, I'm not really feeding that creative side of myself.

And then tying it into what she wants to do. She wants to be a speaker, she wants to be on stage, she wants to do storytelling. That's why I passed her the note. It's not trying to convince her to do it. It makes sense for her to do it if she has the time because it's a good growth opportunity for her.

Yeah.

But if she doesn't want to do it, there's also other options.

Yeah.

She saw it. She's a smart person.

Yeah.

Right? She saw it.

So it's not like you need to convince her to do it.

The importance of that is you are looking for opportunities for her to support her dream. This is what she wants to do. It's not like I'm a sales job trying to convince her to do this thing. She knows how it's going to help her, but you validating and recognizing that this is what her dream is and then finding opportunities for her makes it more important. Makes sense?

Yeah, no, it does. Thank you. Okay, we gotta go. We have time, we have to go. Yeah, we have to go. Yeah, yeah.

When he first started, he was late for everything, and now he dedicated himself to wanting to be 10 minutes early for everything, and nobody would hold him accountable. People would say, oh, it's just Alex, he's friendly, that's just Alex, that's who he is. But it's not the Alex that Alex wants to be. He wants to be the leader, he wants to be the general. And the leader isn't the guy showing up 10 minutes late.

So I've been working really hard to hold myself accountable and respect people's time. So if I say I'm going to be there, I'm going to be there. I really don't have respect for my time because what am I doing with those 15 minutes? Watching YouTube or wasting time on something, right? And sometimes it is work and then it's setting the right expectations with people, right? So knowing This is going to take an hour. I'll see you then. This wall here is super important. So there's two parts to it actually. We have that huge family sign. So the lights are always on except during socials, right? So we want a sort of a nice dark atmosphere here. But It's not— so it doesn't say salsa, it doesn't say dance, it doesn't say anything like that. It says family. So when you come in here, you should feel like you belong. You should feel like you're part of the community, you're part of the family, um, because that's where it counts. And right under it, what we have, our family tree. So these are some of our volunteers and instructors. Not all of them, um, but basically if, um, they've been here for a couple months, we take their picture, we add it to the wall. They put their name, they put when they started, all that. And so we're going to be adding more and more pictures. Yeah, and then we have this beautiful space where people can come in and feel comfortable, um, and have fun. Yeah, so I work here. You want to shoot the video? Let's do it.

Yeah.

All right. Originally, when we tried to shoot the bio video, it was about 5 months into— 5, 6 months into me working at TDS in my full-time job. And we tried to shoot the video, but I was holding back on some information. And every time we do a take, there was really no emotion to it. And we were trying to figure out why I'm dancing, why I started dancing, why am I teaching, all these reasons. And the reason was because I had this huge secret that I was holding onto. And I told them the actual reason why I started salsa and why I was holding back, why I wouldn't share. Hey guys, my name is Alex. I'm the director of operations of Toronto Dance Salsa. I'm also one of the instructors. Thank you so much for watching my video. I want to tell you a little bit about myself. When I was 12 years old, I was diagnosed with hyperhidrosis. Basically, that meant my palms would constantly sweat. Not only when I would be nervous, which is something maybe you can relate to. Well, my hands sweat too. No, this is constantly. When I'd be writing a test, I'd have to have my hand off the paper or else my sweat would seep through and make the ink run. Playing video games with friends, as soon as I'd hand them the remote, it'd be soaking wet. Shaking hands and having people go like this and just rub their hand off. Just constantly from age 12, and doctors said it was puberty, it was this, wasn't going away. So I was dealing with that for 10 years, uh, until I was 22. I got tired. I got tired of being unhappy like that. So I started doing a lot of research, and I found out that there is a surgery you can do to stop your hands from sweating. It was my, it was the operation. It was the operation on the hands. I was really ashamed of it. The first thing he tells me is, "You gotta tell it to people." So it's been like about a year of me telling the story to everyone, to my students. This is exciting, actually. I'm ready. I'm ready to tell the real deal of how I started dancing and everything that happened in between. It's not a safe procedure. But I was really adamant, I really pushed it, I went to meet the doctor, I went to see my family doctor, I did all the arrangements, moved the mountains, and they agreed to do the surgery for me. It was a pretty intense surgery. They put you full to sleep, they have to separate your ribs, they go in, they cut the connection to your hands. I remember when I woke up from the from the operation and they asked me to feel my hands. Were my hands sweaty? And I felt my hands and I could feel this tingly sensation. I would always get a tingling sensation and my hands would sweat. So I got the tingling sensation but there was no sweat. That was really big. Um, yeah. From 12 years old to deal with that and then just wake up after 10 years of that and just it's gone. It's crazy. Thank you so much for watching. I'm really excited about you joining our big family and I'll see you on the dance floor. Good.

Yeah, that's good. Okay, so we'll clean this up. She's gonna come at 2 or 2:30?

2:30 she's here. So Christy has been a student of ours, uh, for less than a year actually. And she's grown very quickly as a dancer, has a super positive personality. So I'm meeting her basically, I made a commitment that I would meet every helper at least once at the beginning to figure out how it's going for them and then figure out where I can serve them, where I can help them. So I have, I have these weekly meetings with volunteers where I offer them like help either in personal development or dancing. And it's fun, so I'm meeting her just to see what I can give back to her and help her with. So it's going to be us sitting down, me talking about myself, why I started, getting to know her, talking with her, and then a big portion of it is going to be, we're going to be sitting down and looking at trying to figure out her one word, her core value that she stands for. And then from there, how can she use that as a way to measure her growth? To help her, guide her in life, to put herself in more situations that are true to what she stands for.

Hello! Hey!

Nice to see you, man. Nice to see you. How's it going? It's good.

How's your day going?

Great. It's been crazy. We're doing a lot of recording. You want to sit here? Yeah, sure. I know you're busy, you got exams, but I really appreciate you coming.

Yeah, no problem. Glad to be here.

Basically, I wanted for you to really get to know me, and I wanted to get to know you and just have a conversation where I can help. And I want to make sure that I set people up for success, because what you realize and what you're seeing in my classes, I don't just teach moves. It's because it's not what it's about. And so there's a difference between a teacher and a leader. Right, like, and that's, that's what matters. And so what I'm trying to do is with all the helpers also help them grow as leaders because they all can make an impact not only for others in the school but in their lives, their family, and in themselves. We all need that. So that's, that's my responsibility to— sorry, I'm getting emotional. But it's my responsibility to make that happen, right? And hopefully inspire people to do the same. It's weird, uh, because we deserve that. We deserve that. We deserve to be welcomed in. We deserve not to feel judged. We deserve to feel loved. And you have to set that standard. You have to set that standard. And no matter what people around you say or do, you don't bring your standards down because of others. You make others raise their standards up. And it's funny, sometimes doing the right thing, it just takes a second of courage. Or doing the important thing, or making the decision that's scary right now but pays off in spades in the long run. And you've done the same thing. It's sometimes just a yes. Yes, I'll do it. And just you go with it. Shit, you always grow from it.

I always doubted myself. And there was always something I was kind of scared to fail, or you know, don't do that. And even like I said, stepping into salsa and being like, you know what, I'm just gonna let the leader lead me. And I'm not going to want to feel like I'm in control and like I know what's gonna happen and how I'm going to succeed. It's okay if the move doesn't work out, it's okay if you don't fail, you just try to kind of get back up and do it again. You try it again, you work at it, and like I said, those kind of things that are almost hidden behind the actual dance moves itself I think really helps people to grow, and so for me that inspires me at least anyways, and that's why I love taking your classes.

Wow.

So it's more than just, like you said, the moves at the front.

That means a lot. Thank you. So here's the thing. My one word, you know, is belong. I made a list of things that make me really happy. And then I tried to narrow down really what's at my core, like really what makes it special for me. What am I either looking for? What makes me excited? What makes me light up? And there were three words that stood out for me. But I had these 3 reasons and I was stuck and I was like, I can't figure out what my core value is. And so one thing that makes me super emotional is Hercules, the Disney cartoon Hercules. Michael Bolton sings the main song for that movie, it's called I Can Go the Distance. So I'm like, I need a break, I need to put myself in an emotional state, I need to figure this out. So I go listen to Michael Bolton and I'm listening to this and listen, I'm getting emotional And one of the things that says, I'm looking for a place where I belong. Soon as he said that word, it triggered. I remember I started crying. I look at this list and there was this one word that like of the three, like the belong was like, this is it. I started looking at my life and I realized that in high school, university, I was always looking for a place where I wouldn't feel judged. So I always had friends, but I was one of those people that I wouldn't always be there. I wouldn't be always invited. So when I saw this word "belong," it made me look back at my past life and I'm like, I was always looking for that place. So for me, that was the thing that resonated with me. And then I looked at all my life and a lot of my decisions and a lot of the times where I felt awkward or didn't feel that I belonged, it was always rooted in that. One mistake that I used to do is I would look in the past and I would say those things would limit me, those things crippled me. They didn't. They made me stronger. And I choose to live in the future. I choose to live in the present. I'm not going to live in the past. So those things won't chain me. And so for me, the belong was a way to free that and then push other people into it. So for you, freedom seems to be the way to go. That's what you're going to build your empire on.

I think so. It just feels right.

Okay, okay. So, um, Okay, uh, we'll wrap up. I'm gonna get— I'm gonna get ready for the class. I got a fitness class today. I gotta work out from 5 to 6.

Oh, and then you teach for another 3 hours?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And low five. Long time no see! How are you? Uh, she reached out to me. She was asking for help. She was doing on a project. She wanted someone to work with. And so I said, yeah, you know what, I'm gonna— let's go, let's meet up, let's grab a coffee. Let me see what I can do to help. She's not a student of ours. She was a student studying in university. So we sit down, we grab a cup of coffee, started talking, and she started interviewing me and taking pictures. And it was like a full hour session of why I started dancing, what I'm about. And I remember at the end of that interview, she said how important that interview was for her because so many schools she reached out to, so many people she reached out to, nobody would respond to her. Nobody reached out, nobody replied to her, and she was about to give up on everything. And so like she was grateful that I responded. And now she comes in and she's got a— yeah, she's got an exhibit.

I need to say thank you because yeah, it was very helpful to like get to start and everything.

So that means a lot. I'm really happy for you.

If you happen to— are you free somehow tomorrow?

I'm trying to think about it actually. Is it in the evening?

Well, no, it's like 12 to 4 open to the public.

I will come.

I'm gonna have my Snapchat. I'm gonna be snapping it up.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, bye, beautiful. Good luck. I'll see you tomorrow. It is an emotional Monday, I gotta say. It's, uh, it's emotional. Wow, holy cow. Okay, I need to get ready. We're gonna be working out soon. We gotta work out at 5 o'clock and then teaching from 7 to 10, changing lives. I'm energetic. I'm energetic. Hey guys, it's been a crazy long day so far. It's only 4:17. I'm gonna be coming at you with a quote in a second. Watch out. WaterSense with Alex. It is such an amazing thing to be loved for who you are.

Whoa!

Monday hustling. You gotta hustle. It's a great day. Workout, then go chase some lives. Uh, we finished the workout. I am severely lightheaded, but it was worth it. Here's the thing. I've learned like the dread of going to do something you don't want to do, like working out or whatever it is. Whenever you finish it, you have such a good satisfaction, especially because you didn't want to do it. So always focus on the great feeling you're going to have at the end of the workout and not the workout or whatever it is you have to do. Focus on the satisfaction. Oh, it's already done. I think that's a really good lesson for anyone right now. And you'll be surprised at how much energy you actually have even as you're grinding. Like we were doing 5 sets plus a finisher. I'm dying by the 3rd and a half set, but I just keep going one more, one more, one more, one more, push, push, push. And you get to it and you got this high about you, right? A natural high. You have a high about you that you feel amazing like a superstar. And you have more energy in the long run. So Even though I'm tired right now, when 7 o'clock hits, all this adrenaline, all this power that's pounding through me right now, I'm going to add more of that into the class. They're not going to see it coming. Right now I'm so mellow though. I need to— I got to go get some food. I got to eat something. But it's worth it. It's all worth it. So my teaching stops at 10, but I don't stop until 11:30. Yeah, so it's like 13, 14 hours my days are usually. It's insane. Wow. But I love it. I would never change it for the world. That's the pursuit of happiness.

Alex's most important role right now at TDS is teaching. It's the— those 3 hours that he teaches on a Monday night is super, super, super important. That's the chance for him to have the biggest impact.

We're all running around, we're trying to be, but don't forget we're still a family. We're together in this through and through, from beginning class to end. Okay, come on. 1, 2, 3. Woohoo! Ah, there you go. See, now woohoo is it. Isn't it an amazing thing to be loved for who you are? That's the focus today, and it has a lot to do not only with the love you give to others, but you gotta love yourself too. Sometimes we're too hard on ourselves, and we're gonna focus today and spoke to the helpers. When they're gonna be partnered up with you, when I'm gonna be walking around, it's not only gonna be, ooh, mm, that's not really good, No, it's going to be love and care and be like, yes, you're going to do great. Have fun. Smile. So can we do that? Can we make a commitment today to be loving, caring, and fun? Can we do that? It's Monday. I want us to have an amazing time. We are going to make a commitment in this class that nothing outside is going to affect us, that this is our place to be who we are, to be part of a family.

Recognizing the importance of you have an ability here to touch a student's life. Like, the class that you put on today could touch one of these students' lives and have a profound impact. That could be tonight. That could be every single night that Alex teaches.

Right now, I'm working really hard to become a better leader, uh, and to become the best instructor in Canada. To set a standard, uh, for every instructor at our school and everywhere, what it means to Be outstanding. There's nothing you want to change about yourself. There you go. Feel that. Stefan, are you feeling that you're amazing? Yeah? Always? Oh, I love that. Our week is just starting. You got to set yourself up for success. You got to love yourself. Yeah, feel that. The way you are. Guys, I miss you. Welcome back. Round of applause.

¿Cómo estuvo la clase?

I think my weakest points were the theme that I started with. I didn't do a reminder in the middle of the class. Yeah, that was one of my weakest ones, which, which is something I'm struggling with, to tie it continually in. Some classes I would do it a little bit more, but consistently it wasn't like every 15-20 minutes. It was that coming back, coming back to it. I think that the huddle with the helpers was really good. You weren't there for it, but we did that. Super fun. I was really much more honest and vulnerable. I'm like, guys, I love you. This is something important that we're doing. Okay, I really felt that, like, this was a special thing, which was great. And I finished with a high energy at the end of class, as far as I know. Like, I didn't let— like, I didn't do the serious story, people deserve love and blah blah blah, and stop it there. You're going to make a commitment, do the woohoo, do the woohoo, and it's like raising it up, so leaving it on a high, which is nice. And so some of the students are like, I'm really looking forward to my Mondays and blah blah blah. It's a nice reinforcement.

Did you high-five them on the way out?

Yes, yeah, to the previous classes, to the next classes. When I was a student, I wish that more people would tell me words of encouragement, words of sincerity. So I'm going to ask you to do 2 things, and you give me a woo-hoo for that commitment. The first thing I already mentioned. As you leave, you got to find 2 people from the Level 1 class that's coming in and you're going to give them a loving high five. Wham, wham. That's 1. 2, if you love what you did right here, I want you to just go find 1 person outside of this class and give them that love and make them feel special, right? The more we spread that love, the more we spread that generosity, honestly, it always comes back to us, doesn't it? When we're kind and we are loving to others, it always comes back. Why? I am only here because you care about the environment that I create. You're like, I want to go to Alex's class. That, or like, it's the only class that's being taught. One or the other. But it's not. It's not. I can see you're smiling and see you enjoying it. I love you guys. So just one person. You're going to make those two commitments for me, okay?

There are some nights that are the best night that he's ever done. Like, that is amazing, and then we'll fall back for the next 2 or 3 weeks. Why are you not more consistent?

It's one of my weakest things, so maybe I'm avoiding it. It's part of it.

You haven't had a perfect class. You've had moments of greatness in each of your different classes. You haven't had the perfect class, but you've already done all of this stuff. You've already done all of it.

Yeah, you can do it.

You know, if he stayed at that high level, he'll grow super quick, and there'll be a point where I won't know what to tell him anymore, right? You have to find another mentor. You have to continue to seek out other expertise, other help to continue to grow. And I think that also You know, maybe scares him a little bit.

Because I want feedback. I want that. Even if it's this, even if it's like for the next 3 weeks, it's like, Alex, it's the same thing. I don't care. I'm like, I'm trying, I'm trying in some way to improve it. You might not be seeing it, but I'm thinking about it. I can't not continue to grow, not continue to get feedback. It's important. Pain is good. Like what I'm feeling right now, the discomfort is a good thing. It makes me want it more. Makes me value it more, and it makes me better.

If you take the heart that he has and energy and passion he has and match it to the behaviors that he has shown and wants to be, it's— that's an unstoppable force. There's still, yes, room to grow, but just doing what he's capable of on a consistent basis is insane. And so he sees that, he wants that, his past behaviors haven't been like that, and so he wants to do it. You know, it's like he's just on the cusp of making a huge breakthrough as a leader, as somebody who people would look up to and respect and want to follow. And so this was the first, this is like the opening of the kimono, this is the starting point for him. And I'm just hoping that people see the amount of care and love and attention to detail and heart that goes into each class. That he puts on.

Monday's gonna be different.

New standards. Raising the bar. Raising the bar on the already best salsa instructor in Canada.

I'll get there. Okay. Okay. Anything else? Nope. Okay, man. Thank you. I don't know, I think that One of my limiting beliefs was that to be a good leader, you have to be stoic, I thought. You have to be strong. For people to respect you, you gotta be, you know, gotta make a decision, you gotta do it like that, and this is how you do it. What I'm learning is through vulnerability, actually, there's a lot of strength to it, and people can feel more open when you're vulnerable. And people don't respect you any less if you say that you're working on something, you're trying to get better. I think maybe it's like a middle school mentality when you think you're different and people will pick on you and you don't want to say it. But everyone— as you get older, it's funny, you go through so much drama, so much difficulty, you realize that everyone goes through this. And so when you share that, most people are like, Yeah, I've been through that too. Yeah, I've been there too. Right, you have kind of that awareness in general. Or maybe I'm just fortunate that in the environment I'm in, I have that. It's 11:45. I've been up since 7:45. It's been 14, 15 hours. These are a lot of my days. No! It's worth it. It's so worth it. When I see people smiling, when I see people having a great time, when I see that I'm building something bigger, bigger than what most people can even imagine, it's worth it. If there's one lesson, it's that take a chance on yourself and go in all in. Go all in on what you love, and you will always come out in spades if you put the hard work and the love into it. I wasn't the best dancer. Evan didn't think I could be a good instructor. I took a chance on this when I had other career options. Couldn't be happier. I'd shoot myself if I had a 9-to-5. I work 14 hours and I'm grateful and I'm happy. I think that's where true happiness lies. It's not the money you get or how many hours you put in. It's following your passion. You just have to have the courage to do it. You have the courage to do it, so go out and figure it out. And if you're on a dance floor, maybe I'll be able to help you with that. I want our space to be about more than dancing. I think that a lot of dance schools, or in general businesses, they focus on just the product that they're trying to do, or the service, or whatever it is. Dancing is a means. And my big vision for TDS is when people come in for the lesson, they might not expect it, but they grow as people. And they, they get to laugh more, and they get to be more confident about themselves, and they get to be more loving. And they get to take that into their personal life and they feel good about themselves and they make the people around them feel good about themselves. I don't know why I'm getting emotional, this is really weird, but I feel really strongly that TDS has done a huge amount for my life and the transformation that I've gone through and the hard work that I've put in. Doesn't say dance. Like, I work Toronto Dance House, but it doesn't say dance. It says family there. And so when you come in, it's the intention that it's more than just that. You're part of a community. You're part of something. And I think that speaks really deeply to everybody. We're all tribal. No man is an island. And we all want to feel that we belong. And at my core, my core value, my one word is belong. That's the thing that I was looking for a very long time. In high school, in university, a place where I wouldn't be judged, a place where I'd feel that I'm enough. Yes, everyone tries to improve and tries to grow. As a dancer, you want to grow. But as a human being, you're enough. And I don't think that we get that at work, sometimes with our friends, with our colleagues, with our family. It's all— and then so you get all this coming at you, all this judgment, all this you're not quite fitting in or this or that. And sometimes it's with yourself and you just don't feel fit in with yourself. You don't feel like you deserve it. And that's cruel. That's so isolating. So I want something better at TDS. I want people to feel like they belong. They don't need to be the best dancers. They don't need to They don't need to execute moves perfectly. I will get them wherever they want to get as a dancer. They just need to love themselves and have a great time, smile, and meet some new people, right? And couples connect, hug each other, love each other. Because in 50, 60 years' time, when I'm lying on my deathbed, I'm looking at my life, I'm never going to remember that I executed some move perfectly. You don't remember that, but I'm going to remember if someone broke down in my class and cried because I said something that really hit home for them. And that's happened recently. That's happening. I'm noticing that I'm saying things that are hitting people in the heart and like touching them like that, letting them have an environment where they can be vulnerable, really vulnerable. That is incredible. And That is something that I'm very grateful for. And so I want that for TDS. I want, I would love that TDS is in a bunch of locations across the States, across Canada, where we are giving that message, right? That we are saying that yes, you are enough. You should love yourself. It doesn't matter if you have two left feet. You come to us, and we will show you actually that you're not half full or half empty. You are completely full. You're just missing it. You're just not seeing it. So we're going to create that environment where it's loving, and you're going to realize how much you have inside you. So that's what I want for TBS. It's short. Yeah, it feels weird. Feels weird talking like this, but I get emotional because it's It's important to me. It's important to me. And I think it could make the world a better place if more people felt that they belonged. It's powerful. Yeah.