Brenden Kumarasamy is this week's guest on SHLTMM. He'll share stories of his parents who immigrated to Montreal, Canada from Sri Lanka, a few years before their first child was born. It's a pleasure for me to introduce you to Brnedan and his mother, Vijee.
Beginning at a young age, Brenden felt compelled to become an accountant in order to relieve his parents of their financial burden. Now he's the founder of MasterTalk where Brenden refers to himself as "a public speaker, communicator and facilitator." Brenden is the first in his family's lineage to complete higher education.
My guest currently lives in Montreal Canada where he purchased a home for he and his mother in order to eliminate two mortgages. Culturally, as the first born, he had inherent responsibilities, including being very protective of his mother. Unfortunately his father, who passed away in 2019, was affected by alcoholism and made things challenging around the home. Both parents worked hard as factory workers, but just couldn't make ends meet. Brenden, who says, he was always good with numbers, studied accounting and got great jobs out of college and was eventually able to pay off all outstanding debt.
Brenden admires and loves his mother tremendously. He says, "my mother has a very different life now than what she struggled through in the last ten years. Culturally, "you don't just walk away from your partner or family member who is struggling. You continue to support them and provide for them. My #1 priority was making sure everyone was safe," says Brenden.
Sri Lanka, is an island country located in South-Central Asia, and Brenden shares stories of both his parents who grew up in Sri Lanka. His mother is the youngest of a large family and she loved to tend to the family garden. She married at 30 years old and immigrated to Canada. His mother taught her son many wonderful life lessons including his story that he shares about the $10 bill he found on the ground. Vijee hoped that her son understood that " even if we don't have a lot, we have a lot more than other people do and always be generous and lead with that generosity."
After years of studying to be an accountant, then technology consultant, he was able to shift into doing what he really loved. He felt all of his steps in life where important. "That first step was absolutely necessary to get to the person I am today." Kumarasamy continues, " I got out of survival mode later in life and started to focus on the bigger picture of what I could do to serve the world"
Brenden's Youtube channel is full of wonderful videos with professional advice for improving ones public speaking skills. He is self taught and wants everyone to understand that it wasn't easy in the beginning. He practiced hundreds of times before he felt he was ready. He was very fearful of launching that first Youtube video. He talks about trying to reach out and help many with public speaking skills and says "that when you care about others and only want to add value, you’ll be able to overcome any fear/obstacle in the service of others."
MASTERTALK: https://www.mastertalk.ca/
YOUTUBE MASTER CHANNEL-"MASTERTALK"-https://www.youtube.com/@MasterTalks
ROCKSTAR COMMUNICATOR WEBSITE: https://www.rockstarcommunicator.com/?r_done=1
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/all/?fetchDeterministicClustersOnly=false&heroEntityKey=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_profile%3AACoAABrmbRABNB9-E_3DuEEVBO0EIaIuSnmoIH8&keywords=brenden%20%F0%9F%8E%A4%20kumarasamy&origin=RICH_QUERY_SUGGESTION&position=0&searchId=a6724d6a-158d-4b1a-a818-839e6be2c6da&sid=DHE