Industry Icebreaker recap: Caring is a competitive advantage
Former Surepoint Group CEO Trevor Muir shared how he overcame mental health struggles and helped rescue a $100-million business.
Caring is a competitive advantage.
It’s easy to say, but as attendees to our first ever Industry Icebreaker learned, it’s much more difficult in practice when a $100-million company is on the line as well as hundreds of jobs.
SiteNews, in partnership with the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA), hosted Surepoint Group co-founder and former CEO Trevor Muir for an evening of high-level lessons and high-level hockey at the Oilers Hall of Fame in Rogers Place.
After he and the other Surepoint Owners sold a majority stake in the company to a private equity firm, they were flush with cash the future looked bright. Despite this, something felt wrong.
“I had everything everybody believed they wanted to make them happy,” said Muir. “A wife, kids, friends, family. I had a fancy acreage. Lots of money. I even had a sports car in the garage. But my life started to spiral out of control. When I had the most of everything, I felt the absolute worst.”
After growing up on a farm in rural Alberta near Grand Prairie, Muir was on a rocketship of success, but he found himself fighting an immense mental health battle that had him contemplating suicide.
Muir is not alone in his struggles.
During the discussion, Mike Martens, President of ICBA Alberta, noted that as a benefits provider for more than 300,000 construction industry workers, they have seen claims for mental health related services rise. In response, the group has funded a Wellness Program to provide a variety of mental health supports and hired NHL star Corey Hirsch to be a mental health advocate for the industry.
After he sought help and began to work on his mental health challenges, Muir was tasked with saving Surepoint Group when financial struggles, an eroded corporate culture and multiple global crises threatened to bring it all crashing down.
He spoke honestly with workers, vendors, customers and anyone else involved in the business about the challenges it faced and the sacrifices that needed to be made to save it. The leadership team took substantial pay cuts to avoid layoffs, asked for patience from its partners and was able to make it through.
“I wanted to prove that caring is a competitive advantage—in life, in business and certainly in our industry,” said Muir. “And when we started to grow, I was told you can’t have the same culture. I think that’s a lazy answer. It’s harder, and it’s not exactly the same, but you can build an amazing culture and I wanted to prove that.”
Following Muir’s stirring words about normalizing mental health conversations and transparent, honest leadership, the crowd headed to the Sky Lounge at Rogers Place to watch the Oilers take on the Los Angeles Kings. While the Oilers were beaten back to a 5-0 loss, attendees lingered right to the end, discussing Muir’s insights and enjoying refreshments.
“We feel this event was a rousing success,” said SiteNews editor Russell Hixson. “The Industry Icebreaker aims to be the perfect balance of professional development, networking and fun. What an exceptional night and thank you to Trevor for making the time to chat with us.”
If you missed this Icebreaker, don’t worry.
Because the event sold out in weeks, SiteNews is announcing that the Industry Icebreaker will continue as an annual event featuring a different Canadian NHL teams. To be part of the next SiteNews event, secure your spot at SiteSummit, taking place in North Vancouver this summer.
