Rodney Munro, VP Operations
Interviewed by Angus MacCaull
Rodney Munro is a quiet man on the surface. Sometimes it can seem like he might not even speak English. Or that he might be speaking another language in his head. He pauses when you ask a question. Is he translating from his own private words into ours? What’s he saying to himself behind that peaceful smile? Whatever it is, there’s a lot going on in there. Or as Rodney says, he does “have a lot of stuff in the old noggin.”
There’s another Rodney that’s more talkative. This is the Rodney that you might see late at night after a few rum and cokes, somewhere near a campfire. He’s an admirably well rounded person, living the good life in Nova Scotia. He’s a thinker, a family man, and a professional. I had a chance to explore some personal questions with him at his office in Whycocomagh.
AA MUNRO
Where did you grow up?
RODNEY
Whycocomagh.
AA MUNRO
Where’s that?
RODNEY
Where’s that? It’s in the middle of Cape Breton, central to everything, the brain center. Grew up just up the road on the old family farm. My parents got a lot off the farm from my father’s father and built a house there. That’s right across from the old farmstead. When I came back from university I managed to be able to be in a position to purchase the property, so that’s where I’m at now.
AA MUNRO
I didn’t realize until recently how much boat activity there used to be in the Bras d’Or Lake. In a way it was the center of everything.
RODNEY
Oh it was. The Marion came right into here and took the goods up from Sydney. I’m not sure how many passengers, but certainly Whycocomagh was bigger than Sydney back in the earlier days. And it was much more busy than it is today in terms of activity particularly around the waterfront. I’m a little bit younger than that myself. This is where the boat stopped and everything had to be shipped overland to different places. I know my grandparents would ship stuff over to the train in Orangedale from here and put stuff on the boats that would come off the train and vice versa. And then there’d be the truck inland to Mabou and Port Hood and Margaree and through that country. So it was the center I guess in terms of that. And still of course the Trans Canada goes through here and it’s still the head of the lake. There’s not much commercial traffic in terms of boating these days but it is a place where you can branch off to other areas of Cape Breton from here. It does have that history.
AA MUNRO
I just got this coffee at the Farmer’s Daughter. It was the busiest I’ve ever seen it there.
RODNEY
Yeah it’s been busy here the last few weeks. There’s a lot going on. The festival was on a couple weeks ago.
AA MUNRO
What’s keeping you busy these days?
RODNEY
I’ve been fairly active in terms of trying to improve my physical activity. Particularly since last December I’ve been fairly active in going to the gym and working out and trying to get in shape and just improve my overall health. That’s been fun. I go over to Port Hawkesbury to the Y, so it’s a time consuming process to drive over there and back and get a workout in and while I’m there I probably do the groceries and do some errands and stuff like that. I do that three or four times a week. It’s usually three times during the week and once on the weekend. So that’s good. I enjoy my time alone actually. I enjoy the quiet. I don’t know a lot of people over there in the gym. It’s kind of nice! I kind of like my anonymity [laughs]. Everywhere else around here you’re running into people that you know and don’t get time to think. So I like my time to think about stuff. That gives me a chance to do that too.
Rodney with a smile.
AA MUNRO
Do you enjoy the drive?
RODNEY
I love driving. My wife doesn’t like how much I love to drive. Or my kids. I could drive all day.
AA MUNRO
So you don’t mind the drive so much to Port Hawkesbury then, just the time.
RODNEY
It takes up quite a bit of time,. I like the gym there though. It’s got a good atmosphere. It’s a nice gym. It’s clean. It’s airy. It’s spacious.I do like that time to myself. It’s a big factor, but also an added bonus that I get that time to think and reflect and maybe even plan in my own mind what’s going on. I’m not a big planner on paper but I do have lots of stuff in the old noggin there.
AA MUNRO
I like driving with talk radio. Podcasts, interviews, that kind of stuff. Do you like driving in silence?
RODNEY
I probably could drive in silence and not notice it. My head is spinning all the time. I do though enjoy the odd topic if it’s of some kind of interest to me. I’m not quite sure if I can give you an example or not. I like to think of things that are going on separate of what’s being thrown at me from the radio. So it’s not really an educational type of think session. It’s more of a thinking through the logic of what I’ve learned on a daily basis and trying to apply that to what I want to accomplish.
AA MUNRO
Do you still have chores at the house when you get home?
RODNEY
I have chores continually at the house because I’m continually renovating the house. But I like the whole process. I do it from start to finish. Whether it’s the rough construction to the gyprocking to the crack filling to the painting to the trim. There are certain things I don’t do because of their technical nature, like wiring. I do do some plumbing. But trying to stay away from that as well. I also do dishes. I do laundry. I cook.
AA MUNRO
Anything in your life that you’d like more time for?
RODNEY
I would like more time to do some traveling.
AA MUNRO
Anywhere in particular?
RODNEY
Traveling doesn’t really have any boundaries for me. I enjoy traveling to the next community and exploring. I think of myself a little bit as an explorer actually because I enjoy finding out new things about places. It doesn’t necessarily have to be places far away. If it’s of interest to me sure. But traveling can just be locally or it can be up the province or it can be out of province. I’m open to new experiences.
AA MUNRO
Do you have a favorite TV show right now?
RODNEY
I do. Suits. Are you familiar with it?
AA MUNRO
I have seen it on the Netflix selections but I don’t know anything about it.
RODNEY
That’s actually where I’ve been watching it, on Netflix. I didn’t actually watch it on TV. I’m not sure why I started watching it. I think I heard on the radio a guy talking about Suits one day and how he got addicted to it and he was talking about what it was about and I said I must look at an episode and see and now I’m addicted to it. So, why do I like it? That’s a good question. It’s about lawyers. A law firm in particular. And there’s a lot of strategy involved in the show in terms of how they are able to win their cases I guess. It’s very strategic and it’s funny and I like strategy. I do like strategy, so it’s a learning experience. A lot of it is real world lingo. I believe it to be real in terms of the law. What is actually being read into the script and being done in the show. It’s pretty interesting. It’s also a little bit of thinking out of the box. Trying to come up to solutions to problems in a different way. It’s a pretty cool show.
AA MUNRO
Did you ever at any point think about doing law yourself?
RODNEY
I did. Yeah. Thought about it, but wasn’t really prepared to go down that road. I had more interest in business.
AA MUNRO
Is it the analytical side of law or the arguing, the persuasive side that’s more interesting to you?
RODNEY
Probably more the analytical side of it and the strategy to it as opposed to the arguing. I’m not big into arguing with people. I guess if you’re a successful lawyer you do need that analytical side of it to bring out to win your arguments so I guess it all goes hand in hand in that sense. But I enjoy the strategy side of it I guess moreso. I’m not big into wanting to argue with anyone or negotiate. I don’t like negotiating with people. I’ve learned I have to do it, but I don’t like it. I guess it depends on the position you’re in in the negotiation. I would prefer to say here’s what I want. That’s my final offer. Take it or leave it. But in the real world things don’t work like that.
AA MUNRO
Would you say that’s a weakness of yours?
RODNEY
I’ve kind of come to learn more about that and try to make it not so much of a weakness anymore. But it certainly would be a weakness if I wasn’t open to negotiating. I see that it has to be done.
AA MUNRO
Some might say that your family’s favourite hockey team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, is a weakness.
RODNEY
I suppose some might! They’d be wrong though [laughs].
AA MUNRO
What about strengths? What would you say is your greatest strength?
RODNEY
That’s a tough one. We’ve sat down and we’ve done strengths and weaknesses and I mean hanging out here at A.A. Munro Insurance has given me the opportunity to explore my strengths and weaknesses quite a bit over the years. Over twenty years. And I’d say a lot of those years have been at a management type level where we do get introduced to people like Frank Gallant at Peak Experiences and different other webinars and books that we’ve read or chatted about. So I think I’ve been able to explore that quite a bit and I do have a list of both strengths and weaknesses. It’s hard for me to narrow down what a major strength would be. I’d rank probably analytical up there with with “nice guy” type strength. I’d say those’d probably be the couple top ones.
INTERVIWER
How about a personal philosophy? What’s the key to success according to the “Book of Rod”?
RODNEY
I think I’ve always succeeded because of probably working hard, trying to figure out how things work and trying to be nice. I think that’s probably done me well. I’m reasonably successful. I’m not where I want to be in every way. But certainly if I think about my successes that’s what has done it for me. I can think back to sports, not the most talented person in the world by any stretch of the imagination but I worked hard. I tried to learn the strategies. Tried to learn my strengths and weaknesses. Tried to get along with people. And I didn’t always try to do things my way. Tried to see what other people’s thoughts were and incorporate that all together. And the same thing in the business world. You work hard, you look at the strategies, you try to be nice to people and you try to be accommodating as much as possible and you can be reasonably successful doing that as well. So a lot of people take sports analogies into business and in a lot of respects you can make those analogies. When I think about it I guess maybe that’s been my philosophy in terms of this world is to do all those things. And probably in my own personal life too. You can bring that across there too. Working hard at things and being nice and maybe not trying to be so strategic when you’re dealing with personal stuff. But certainly there should be reasons for why you’re doing things. And you have to certainly be accommodating. Those are some of the big factors I guess.
AA MUNRO
Great. You wrapped everything all together there. Great talking to you Rodney. Thanks.
RODNEY
Thank you!