What brought you to Level5, and what were you looking for at that point in your career?
I didn’t start my career in consulting. After university, I spent two years working at a large firm in a specialized area of insurance. I really enjoyed the client-facing side of the role and building relationships with different clients, but I wasn’t quite ready to specialize that early in my career. I wanted exposure to different industries and business challenges, so consulting felt like a natural next step.
I was also looking for a smaller firm where I could learn from people with different backgrounds, build close relationships with colleagues, and take on meaningful responsibility early in my career.
Level5 was actually a firm I’d first come across in university. I originally started on the Ivey track at Western before transferring to McMaster to study economics, largely because I was interested in the relationship between business, government, and society. In my final year at McMaster, I remember going through Ivey’s entire employer directory looking for places I might want to work, and that’s how I discovered Level5.
When I started exploring consulting a couple of years later, Level5 was one of the firms I revisited. What stood out was its perspective on brand as the entire business system and the variety of clients it worked with. Throughout the interview process, the people I met were genuine, approachable, and responsive. That made a big impression on me and ultimately made Level5 feel like the right place to be.
How do you feel your prior experience helped you as you entered consulting? What did you have to learn?
One of the more valuable things I brought from my previous role was an appreciation for relationships and client service. I remember my managers constantly telling me, “Justin, pick up the phone.” Coming out of university, especially during COVID, it was easy to rely on email for everything. They pushed me to build stronger relationships with clients, and I learned pretty quickly that trust is built through the little things, like a five-minute phone call, being responsive, and following through.
Something else that helped was having worked within a large organization. I’d seen firsthand how established processes and competing priorities can make change difficult. That experience helped me empathize with clients facing similar challenges and appreciate what it takes to make sure a recommendation actually gets implemented, rather than just looking good on paper.
That being said, starting consulting was humbling and the learning curve was steep. I was coming from a role with fairly clearly defined responsibilities to working across unfamiliar industries, getting up to speed quickly, and making sense of new business challenges. Anyone who knows me knows I’m not exactly short on opinions, but learning to develop a point of view on unfamiliar business problems, often without all the information, was a different challenge. It probably took me a good six months to find my footing, and it’s something I’ve become much more confident in over time.
Looking back, how have your experiences at Level5 shaped your understanding of what makes a good consultant?
When I first started at Level5, I had a fairly straightforward picture of what the job would look like. A company comes to us with a challenge, we do the analysis, develop a recommendation, and present it. I hadn’t fully appreciated how much work goes into actually rallying people behind that recommendation.
That really hit home on a project where we were working with a client made up of several member organizations that needed to agree on a unified strategy. Each had its own priorities and perspectives, and getting everyone aligned was honestly more challenging than developing the recommendation itself. I remember watching my senior colleagues navigate some pretty difficult conversations. There were times when they had to push back and others when they knew it was better to listen. I learned a lot just from watching how they handled those situations.
As I’ve taken on more responsibility, I’ve realized that a lot of those same skills apply internally too. You’re constantly working with people who have different approaches to solving a problem, including people who have a lot more experience than you. I’ve had to get better at knowing when to stand behind my thinking, when to challenge someone else’s, and when to recognize that there’s a better way to approach something. I’ve come to appreciate that being a good consultant is as much about knowing how to work with people as it is about finding the right answer.
Who has had the biggest influence on the way you work or lead, and what did you take from them?
Without a doubt, my dad. He’s had a huge influence on me, both personally and professionally.
My dad started out driving a truck delivering cookies and eventually worked his way up to become an executive at the same company. He also worked from home long before that was common, so growing up, I got to overhear his calls and see how he approached his work. Plus, we got free cookies all the time, which was awesome as a kid.
What I’ve always admired most about him isn’t necessarily what he accomplished, but how he went about it. He emphasized doing the right thing and keeping your word, even when it wasn’t easy. He believed in treating everyone with the same respect, whether they were a janitor or a CEO, being honest, and always putting your best effort into what you do.
One thing I remember him telling me growing up was, “Stop, think, calm.” I was an extremely competitive kid (and still am), and he was always reminding me not to let my emotions get the better of me. He coached me in hockey, and that advice came up pretty often after a bad shift or a questionable call from the referee. It was usually the last thing I wanted to hear.
I hadn’t thought about that advice in years, but looking back, he was absolutely right. Taking a moment to think before reacting is something I’ve come to appreciate, especially when navigating difficult conversations.
I think my dad taught me a lot more about how to carry myself than I realized growing up. How you show up matters just as much as the work you do. I try to carry that lesson into how I approach my work and treat the people around me. I’m still learning, but I’m grateful to have had his example.
Looking back, what’s one piece of advice you’d give your younger self?
Don’t be afraid to fail.
Looking back at some of the decisions I’ve made, like transferring universities or leaving a job I was settled in to pursue consulting, it might seem like I’ve always been comfortable taking risks. In reality, I’ve always put a lot of pressure on myself to get things right, and I’ve probably spent more time worrying about failing than I should have.
I’ve come to appreciate that some of the best opportunities to grow come from getting comfortable being uncomfortable. I’ve learned a lot from putting myself in situations where I might not succeed, and I’d definitely encourage my younger self to do more of that.
I think part of getting over that fear of failure is not putting so much weight on the result. It might sound cliché, but I’ve learned that my successes and failures don’t define who I am. When you can separate who you are from what you accomplish, I think it becomes easier to take chances and just go for it.
