Traci Falukozi - Movie makeup artist - mermaid tail maker - world traveler

Mark Laurie:   0:02
you're listening to fascinating women with Mark Laurie. And now Mark Laurie. Hello, and welcome to another episode of fascinating women. I am Mark Laurie, your host. Today's episode is with Tracy Falukozi. I've got that wrong Traci how do we pronounce it again.   is right in front of me here. Um, Tracy is one of the youngest women we've had on this show so far. And yet what she is compressed in her life so far is truly amazing. I think she vibrates in her sleep. Thinking of new things she can do. She's not a woman that sits round is blindly watching TV. She is a participant in the world. Uh, first time, some of the first things that I have done with her  is first time I've ever photographed mermaids underwater was with Tracy. She has, ah, body painting with us at exquisite in that direction. She works on set with movie industry around town. Um, and she travels the world with her body painting craft. So welcome, Tracy.

Traci Falukozi:   1:02
Hi. How are you doing this morning? I'm doing great yourself. Good, good.

Mark Laurie:   1:08
So good to have you on this show. You are, as I mentioned, the youngest woman that we've interviewed so far for this show, which is really kind of cool. You don't have that normal span of years reflected back on. And yet you have packed so much into it. Which is why, of course I found you fascinating. So let's kind of start back a bit in your for youth, which probably was not all that long ago. What are the three things happening to you when you were really young. That kind of put you on your course today. Your curiosity, your engagement, your conscious energy.

Traci Falukozi:   1:38
Um, yeah. So I think I think one of the major things that sort of, you know, made me who I am, as I've always been a bit science and I didn't inquisitive. And I remember as a really young kid when we first moved here from Ontario, Um, and I first saw the mountains. I asked my dad, Will you know how to mountains happen? And there he is, you know, with his five year old explaining to me the theory of plate tectonics and you know how mountains were formed. So I've always liked the sort of science answer to things and the technical answer and stuff like that. And that was that was definitely a formative thing for me is always asking questions and looking for, you know, the real answers to things, not just the comfortable answers. Um, or the easy answers would probably be my 1st  one And then on that, I don't know, maybe maybe, just like my love of reading. Like I started reading Ah, lot when I was, you know, early on and in grade school, and and I've just always been a reader, so I've always had those creative worlds, and I never and never read like a biography. It was always just like fantasy science fiction and a particular favorite of like, the animals when I was quite little. So, you know, there was always, like, creative fantasy going on there. And, um, yeah, that was kind of my start.

Mark Laurie:   2:54
You're really already at that young age into your own imagination. Like where you wouldn't have the some outside credit person say, Here's what you can imagine. You

Traci Falukozi:   3:05
are. Oh, no. Yeah, absolutely not going to do what everybody else told me to. And as a kid, I can remember picking things like I took hep akodo as a kid. And I was like, I wanna do martial art, but I definitely want to do karate. When I was like, Why don't you want to do karate? And I go Well, because everybody does karate. This, like, idea that if everybody else was doing it, I absolutely didn't want to

Mark Laurie:   3:25
wait. Would that be when you decide that you're that much of individual? 

Traci Falukozi:   3:33
I was, like, 11 or 12. Yeah, I was quite young when I decided that I wasn't gonna do what everybody else was doing. 

Mark Laurie:   3:41
You always kind of walked out of the lines. Then you're not You're not really part of the pack.

Traci Falukozi:   3:46
No. And I mean, part of that might have been like I was picked on a lot as a kid. I was very shy when I got into elementary school and I got in Ah, a little bit late in grade one because we had just moved, and I didn't really make any friends collapse to try to talk to them. And I realized very early on in the, um that kind of nothing I was going to do was gonna make them like me. And so I was like, Well, if nothing, if you're not gonna like me, the way. I'm just gonna do what I want and kind of just not really pay attention, toe what everybody else was doing. So that's kind of what I did. Just did my own thing and was happy with it. So I mean, it's not to say I don't enjoy, uh, people's company and, you know, collaborating and things like that. I just I just learned very early not to let other people's opinions of what I was doing stop me. So if I If I decide I'm going to do something, I'm pretty much just gonna make it happen. So

Mark Laurie:   4:41
speaks a lot of confidence in yourself that you have not that early of an age command. I see that evolved today still, but so you have that an early age itself develop that comforter that some of the parents is still. Did you?

Traci Falukozi:   4:52
I was a bit of both. I mean, my mom was very supportive of me and my choices, and she was always very much like, well, you know, you could do whatever you want. And, you know, kids don't have to like you. And, you know, she let me be creative when I wanted to and and, you know, took me to my telescope classes when I wanted that Teoh and yeah

Mark Laurie:   5:13
telescope. I love that. I love that. About

Traci Falukozi:   5:15
13. I built my own telescope

Mark Laurie:   5:17
seriously, that you built your telescope.

Traci Falukozi:   5:21
I e x scored well on my Royal Astronomical Society Naked eye observing test. And I got offered a spot in the telescope making class, and I took it, made myself an eight inch refractor telescope. I

Mark Laurie:   5:37
think this isn't really 1000 where this is really cool, I think when I was 15 the biggest night of the science project to describing my dad was involved in the ah, the cargo power at the time which built the dam. And so I got a call for the building of the the Bears pas Damn, which was kind of cool, but they were quite like building telescope. You mentioned you were bullied a young age. How did you deal with that? He just disappeared from them. Er

Traci Falukozi:   6:04
you know what? I made friends with all the teachers because I discovered that the kids wouldn't pick on you if you were, um, standing beside the T shirt. Right? Recess or they wouldn't pick on you if you were in one of your teachers offices at lunch hour. Um, you know, cutting out, um, cutting out lamination, zor, rearranging their poster boards, like, if you were or yeah. And then I would just read. I just find the spot in a playground where I could be by myself and just read which sometimes was hard because they would seek me out and ruin my day. But you can hide pretty well if you want Teoh. So I was just very non confrontational, like I was not going toe get into those fights and arguments. I just sort of hid from them, which was fine, which allowed me to, like, you know, more time to read. Really?

Mark Laurie:   6:51
So it turned into a positive experience.

Traci Falukozi:   6:53
I mean, at the time, probably not. I was pretty upset about it.

Mark Laurie:   6:58
Yeah, that kind of We revisit some of childhood things going down and look at them. I have that character growth thing, but really it was painful.

Traci Falukozi:   7:05
Yeah, exactly. At the time, I would have, you know, traded that for for something else, but, uh, you know, it's cistern. It okay?

Mark Laurie:   7:13
It has Indeed. You are a bigger than life person. like your You've got your air time I met you here's died of a different kind of oddly well,

Traci Falukozi:   7:22
that's because that's because, ah, hair dye fades pretty quickly. So you know, that starts off the same color most days, but it does. It does drift. Who

Mark Laurie:   7:33
has been a mentor or inspiration for you?

Traci Falukozi:   7:37
E. I mean, I've always so I've had maybe not a mentor, but, um, an inspiration and somebody that we've always looked up to is Chris Hadfield. Um, ever since I was kid was like, Really? I'll probably like that, Like 12 13 14 sort of age group. I wanted to be an astronaut really badly. Just why I ended up going into the sciences to start with. And, um, I sort of Chris Hadfield was a big world model in that just tryingto do everything I could to put myself in the right spot. So, you know, be the kind of person I wanted to be. But it turns out it was actually really, really bad at calculus, and I just couldn't make it past that hurdle duty that you do, and you and you do actually need that to get like a physics degree. So

Mark Laurie:   8:28
I didn't ever

Traci Falukozi:   8:28
get the physics degree that I wanted. Um, I'd intended to get a physics degree. And then, as it turns out, I ended up with, like, a general sciences degree with a focus on chemistry. So

Mark Laurie:   8:38
I was at a university or college.

Traci Falukozi:   8:39
University. University? Yeah, I did. I am. I went to McMaster, which is the same university. My parents, um, had been Teoh when they were at school. So that's where they met. And they went back there because again, part of that was like, you know, I didn't want to stay in Calgary after high school. Um, you know, I've been picked on a lot, and you know, you you staying in the same place with your high school friends, and you kind of have this idea that, like, they expect you to be a certain way. And I just didn't wanna have right. I wanted to go somewhere where nobody really knew me. And I could do whatever I wanted to and and I just

Mark Laurie:   9:15
making a new identity. Almost.

Traci Falukozi:   9:17
Yeah, kind of. Yeah. I just wanted that opportunity to sort of try again with new people and try again. I did. And that's, you know, you see, now that I'm pretty outgoing. I taught myself that like that when I was at university, I'd going, like, talk to people I didn't know. I just walk up to strangers like, Hi. Can we have a conversation on? That's how we met, Actually, a lot of my friends at university. Um, so it was, you know, but I was hard for me. That was, like, that was me trying to, like, practice this skill that I had never really

Mark Laurie:   9:47
was. Really? Yeah. I relate to Remember, I was 13 years old, is when this hit me. I was I was always kind, like the shy wallflower kind of back in the end, we moved in off lab, and I'd read a book in It was, um, people came to dinner. There's a sequence there were the main character is found a way to blackmail a girl. Toe started leaving career because his wife had said, Your does this boring scientists and you politically carpeting. And this triggered was That's where I learned. You have things that contribute year. You're only internal responses. And he, uh, he opened the door. Any is thought was before the door was, It's It's a bold New World kind of thing right now. Hope that targeted Milton or courses much where interesting book and if you driven away and I use that. And so my biggest recollection, that was as the meeting of the why and so I mean, we need somebody think up such and such. I just take my hand up. I've committed to my brain that I would be the next volunteer whenever wasn't so. It's okay. Markets doing such a such a good person inside me. What I just read audio. We have no idea. I just knew I had to do something That's awesome arrived. When you do that, like when you if you're lucky the first couple times you do it, it's a positive response. I think it was a native response. People like I'm not anymore, but it's rushes it when you

Traci Falukozi:   11:02
So Yeah, and you know, I have to say, like, you know, a lot of the friends that I made in university in first year. I made them just by simply being like Hi, good morning, it, Zaid am were in linear algebra classes. Please be my friend and they're like, Oh, my God, I'm half a sleeve. What are you doing here? Please stop talking to me. And you know, it's 15 years later and she still talks to me. I'm

Mark Laurie:   11:27
a morning person, aren't you?

Traci Falukozi:   11:29
You know, I have gone through phases. I didn't always wasn't always a morning person. I have become a morning person. Uh, when my sister got married, we started going to the gym five days a week at 6 a.m. Five. So Sam and that we had to get up early, and I went with her five days a week, and that really flipped me into being a morning person. Um, I find that I'm not a morning person for the first hour. So if I can have that first hour by myself, I am perfect. But if I have to, like, you know, share the kitchen somebody that doesn't work What if I have that time by myself? Like, you know, I do film work, and a lot of times it's very early in the morning, but usually it's an hour's drive to wherever I'm going. So by the time I've gotten up, brush my teeth gotten out the door and got into set. It's been an hour, and I'm awake and ready to go and, you know, smile on my face could do whatever we want. But you know, that first hour in the car is good thing. I'm alone.

Mark Laurie:   12:28
So what's the most spontaneous thing you've ever done? That you just did? This thing? That's the peak of spontaneous things that you've done

Traci Falukozi:   12:38
most. Well, I mean, maybe the most spontaneous was not even actually my fault. Um, when I was in university and it was 20 this is important detail. Uh, my friend called me up in the middle of summer vacation and she goes, Hate, What do you doing next week? And I said, No, no, just kind of working. Nothing particular on this. A friend of mine from Ontario, one of my very oldest and dearest friends. And our parents had us. We were friends when we're like, two years old and she called. She does well, I just one. There's one tickets and I'm thinking, Oh, she's never been out to calorie to visit. Like maybe she's coming to Calgary to visit. She goes for two to Rome for two weeks and what she was. Yeah, I won one of those radio station contest that you think nobody ever wins. And I was like, Yeah, I'm going with you. Like she won the contest on a Monday. And on Sunday afternoon, I was on a flight with her to Rome, and it was just like, How is this even here? How is this happening? So I turned 21 on one of those big lake European like drunken bus tours with a bunch of Americans and Oh, man, it was Christ. Quite the party

Mark Laurie:   13:50
that shape your life going forward from that. That's a pretty big experience.

Traci Falukozi:   13:55
That was awesome. I mean, I've always liked to travel. My dad traveled a lot for work when we were little, And so we we got to see him come back home with all kinds of cool things and stuff like that. But, yeah, I mean it, You know, this was that was pretty awesome. And I, um Yeah, I don't know that that would change my life too much. No, no, that's not

Mark Laurie:   14:17
much of your life perspective. Because it would be the I've when you start to travel inspection a big moment like that your brain kind of goes. We like this. We want more of this.

Traci Falukozi:   14:28
Yeah, except I think my first, like my first time out of the country, was when I was, like, five or six years old there. When we were in Calgary, from Ontario, there was, like, a two week gap between, I think, when we had to get out of the house in Ontario, when we could move in here and my parents took us down to Myrtle Beach. So I went to the States very young, and then we'll to Mexico when I was, like 13 14 and then but the big one would have been. My dad was working in Africa in South Africa for, I think, about almost two years, rhinos around 16 and so one of the summer's that he had been working there. He had just a truly unreasonable volume of air miles because of the flying back and forth every two weeks. So I took my mom and my sister and I, um, to South Africa to see South Africa, and that was like a really like changing experience. That one was because, you know, you're 15 16 years, the height of their You're sort of like teen, you know, self absorbed nous And, you know, and to see things the way they were. Like, you know, there is just this, like, huge amount of wealth next to this, like, really abject poverty. And you're like, what? And, you know, it's very obvious the divide, and it really was startling. And it was weird school, and I saw elephants in the first time, you know, in the wild, and And I saw, like, lions, and we got to go on safari, and it was just, like, so crazy. And that was like, that was when I first got my taste for travel. Was that one is I was like, I'm coming back to Africa like we're doing this again, you know? And then and then, you know, years later, my sister and I did we We did. We took six months and traveled the world, and we spent nine weeks of our six months, um, in Africa, just in general. So, you know, we we did go back in the back. Yeah.

Mark Laurie:   16:30
What would you say? Jizz unique skill or talent with the world shines on you for

Traci Falukozi:   16:35
my unique skill. Italian, I don't know,

Mark Laurie:   16:42
but do you bring to the party

Traci Falukozi:   16:45
like just relentless optimism in some way? It's just like this unyielding belief that if I decide I'm gonna do something, I'm going to do it and it's gonna work out, and it'll all be okay. Sometimes I feel like I finished projects. Just unlike sheer stubbornness, I decided this is gonna work. So it's gonna happen.

Mark Laurie:   17:09
I relate that. When I that's for the Vanja being as old as I am looking back on things when I was your age and younger, pulling stuff up was like to share bootstraps like this is gonna happen The way I see it's gonna happen.

Traci Falukozi:   17:24
Yeah, yeah, And sometimes it's just, you know, I'm just gonna get this done. I've said I'm gonna do it. I'm going to do it. It's gonna happen. And it's gonna happen if it kills me. And you know, that was I think I think people ask me how I made the first mermaid tail, and sometimes I'm like, I think it was just pure stubbornness, like, I don't know, like I didn't know what I was doing. I was just sort of putting it together and figuring it out as I went along. And then I was like And I need a mermaid tail Cool. That happens. So like, No, but they're like how and I was, like, genuinely I made it out of tears and swearing, but, you know,

Mark Laurie:   17:56
so why mermaid tails like, I'm That's a big part of your identity these days from the stuff you've done. But why mermaid tails?

Traci Falukozi:   18:03
Because they're so cool. They're so pretty.

Mark Laurie:   18:07
They are that

Traci Falukozi:   18:08
literally. I was bored and I was like, I want a mermaid tail. These things are really pretty. And then I was like that, But you could make one of those got time. So I just sat down and started sculpting scales. Very like, Hey, maybe you should start with something small and I was like, No, I would have said something smaller. He's like, just you can learn how to use materials. And I was like, No, I'm just gonna do it, E. I taught me something. A fiberglass for that, You know, I tell me what kinds of neat things, Billy again, I have this, like, amazing science background. So, you know, read the read the tech specs on something. You know how it works, right? You know how to use that product. And so you just have to follow the instructions, you know, mixed her day with perky and figure it out.

Mark Laurie:   18:50
That's we have a huge advantage of its other creative types that don't have the science. Like I don't let my photography I'll come across photographers who were technically skilled like they really know the craft at an engineer level kind of thing. Yeah, and they conduce things because they know what's possible. Like they can see at that something I've I've always run my photography more my emotion. I've learned the skills on the side, but that's an enormous advantage that you've got because you can almost like you can see inside things and go Oh, that's

Traci Falukozi:   19:21
yeah, really go. This is how this works, right? And so you can sort of take and go like OK, well, if that's why it works, then I don't need to use this product with it. I can use this product with it because that's the same saying filters come up that lets you kind of play.

Mark Laurie:   19:36
How do you want to change the world?

Traci Falukozi:   19:38
I want to change the world. That's a big question. Um, no, no, I just I think I just like to make people happy. Just, you know, I'm not from out here for a whole lot, but sometimes I just, you know, like to make people happy, make kids happy. You know, I do a lot of face painting, right? And really, the entire idea facing is just to make kids smile. And, you know, I think that sometimes that's enough. You know, you don't this you yourself world hunger. But sometimes you can just make people happy

Mark Laurie:   20:06
and it ripples out like I've seen you work with kids and and you do it with such a joy. Um, I think the kids connect with you because they see your inner child is always on display.

Traci Falukozi:   20:18
My inner child is very happy, like, you know, I build mermaid tails and they put glitter on people for a living. Like, you know, some people talk about, you know, like my inner child. And you know, when they say, like, not happy or not set aside, are saying and I'm like, No, I like when I was kid, you know, I would pretend I was a mermaid in the pool all the time. So happy in her child. Satisfied? She's got no problems.

Mark Laurie:   20:41
That is so cool. What's a perfect day for you?

Traci Falukozi:   20:44
Perfect day. For me, perfect day would probably be like one way, I guess. Ah, get up in the morning and go to the gym and on the day sculpting or painting. You know, um and then in the evening could go to Outrigger Dragon Boat practice would be absolutely perfect. Just, you know, I love a summer day out on the water. I started Dragon boating like like three years ago, and I didn't realize how much it had been missing for my life before. That, like, always love the water. Why didn't I think of both sports before now? No idea. But

Mark Laurie:   21:21
that's a team thing, that it's one of the big boat.

Traci Falukozi:   21:24
Yes, yes, the Dragon boats. Like it's it's Ah, it's 20 to 20 people. So you've got 20 paddlers, a steers person and a drummer, right? So it's a big team, which is really cool, and you've all got a working unison to make the boat move, make it happen, and then outrigger is the exact opposite it's well, I usually take a now trigger a single at rigor. So it's one person in a boat

Mark Laurie:   21:54
going to extremes. Like what about the group of forward as well,

Traci Falukozi:   21:59
one for everybody's There's no in between

Mark Laurie:   22:03
Now you also stuff with movie sets, which you've worked really hard to get onto. And that's not for how long now.

Traci Falukozi:   22:08
Um, so I I got my eye at sea membership in November of 2000 15 or 16 so for five years is a full member. And then it was about two years more than that as, ah, permit, um, trying to get in. So it's been a both six ish years that will say six conservatively.

Mark Laurie:   22:33
Why the movie sets air are predominantly from my recollection, doing stuff with the movies. Boring. There's ITT's like there's a big rushes of doing stuff and then it's like, wait around while they lights up.

Traci Falukozi:   22:48
Yeah, that's is everywhere. Thanks. Don't forget the snag.

Mark Laurie:   22:52
We have the snacks. Why did you Is that like a big left turn for use of that? Just like a natural evolution of what you do.

Traci Falukozi:   23:02
Well, I don't know. I mean, I I am. I learned how to do, like, very basic social effects makeup back in like a junior high drama class. And it was a hobby. And I dabbled, like, you know, really hard in it for years. And when I was working in the lab that I was working in first I just remember being like, you know, I started working for a big company and my grandma when I got the job. Oh, Tracy. Thistles. So good. You know, this is such a big company. You can work here until you retire. Remember, coming rocks into a bucket one day, being like I cannot retire out of this job, I'm gonna lose my mind. It was just, you know, it was just the same thing every day, and I was like, I can't I can't do this forever. I well, go into an early grave, so I was like, Well, but what else do I want to do? Like I don't You know, I have this degree and and what else dried? What else do I know? When I was like, Well, I didn't make up like that was kind of fun. So why you took a night school class and I was like, No, I could do more of this. And so I quit my job and I want to make it school Vancouver. And yeah, I just really liked it. I like that. It's different every day and, you know, yeah, there are periods of, like, intense boredom on set, but, you know, there's always something toe to keep you, you know, interested in or doing. And, you know, you're always working, and sometimes he really can appreciate those, like, bits of downtime midday because dresses in the make up department busiest part of our days before most people even get there. Right? So, you know, we've got to get everybody ready for for crew call, Right? So we're there hours before everybody else. So by the time we got on set and we're just waiting for them instead of the lights were just taking a breather like that's when we get to breathe for the first time all day. Were like, Okay, everybody's done. Should stand here for a minute, go OK and watch for problems. Right? And then you said that arrest the day, maintaining and looking for problems. But like you kind of already done the hard part, you know, And then you're just kind of keeping things together. So, you know, you kind of learn to appreciate those breaks and just the building. Just stand there. Me like, Okay, now we watch. And it's beautiful, like, you know, working in Alberta. Like I can't think of anywhere. Better to work in film. You know, when a lot of cases were when the mountains were in the valleys or in the fields. You know, we're outside, you know, it's it's not a desk job, that's for sure.

Mark Laurie:   25:22
Yeah. No, it's changes rapidly. How is it work with something? He works in pretty big stars, as I recall along the way.

Traci Falukozi:   25:28
Well, I mean, I've been on shows with them, but I've never really been their makeup artists. Like I've seen them on set. I, you know, said higher in passing. But, like, I've I'm just getting to the point where I'd start working in the trailers with these stars. But I'm not. I do a lot more of, um, background makeup these days. Like makeup on. You know, the people, um, thinking out in the back and having a coffee with their friends. So in the back of the scene. But now one day I'll get to work. There definitely been stars on set when I'm there and I've, you know, got to meet them and, like, watch the sunset. But I'm not like doing their makeup primarily. So,

Mark Laurie:   26:08
Devin, inspirational quotes that guide you

Traci Falukozi:   26:11
hope way. Not really much of, ah, quotes person. I have have lake. No, I'm more and more about funny quotes. Kind of person I know

Mark Laurie:   26:24
fits that fits,

Traci Falukozi:   26:25
right? Yeah. E think about it. I'm sure Chris Hadfield said something. Um oh, there we go. That's that's what I do like there's no situation so bad that panicking can't make it worse. Chris Hadfield said about when he was on a space walk and he went blind in space because he had, uh, God's ah ah, visor defogger in his eyes when he was on a spacewalk. So that was maybe maybe that's the one I like.

Mark Laurie:   26:53
It's the one good race. Yeah, that was, um I was the ah, Shope. Tom Hanks was in, and he has turned in this guy. This general that was a prisoner and said you don't seem nervous, goes Why would without help exactly that was every told, a move that came up several times. And it's a you don't seem like, you know, there's You don't seem aware of the impending disaster, incensed by With that, without help, not helpful. That result really kind of just kind of stuck with me. That was neat. And you've got some big goals like you're doing some contests or some ventures trying get involved in Japan and

Traci Falukozi:   27:36
yeah, I mean, I mean, I was trying to go toe go to Japan for my honeymoon in which that's, uh, yeah, there's some jobs that I'm trying to get in Hong Kong working at, ah, doing makeup for Ocean Park, which would be really cool. Um, I'd like to, you know, work my way up to doing or film makeup and stuff like that. I'd like to maybe try and go back to the world's and compete there again. I e did it once and for about five years ago, and I think it was probably about five years too early. I went it was just overwhelmed by it. Um, I probably should have waited. I was looking back. I feel like I was at that point, you know, when you're overconfident because you don't know enough about how much you don't know. And then I was like, Oh, boy, And I'm out of my league, You know, I hate my heart is yeah, I painted My heart is but, you know, looking back on that paint, I'm just like who I could I should've waited Fun, though. Had a good time.

Mark Laurie:   28:27
I've had experience. I got into it, Andi. Within minutes, I've realized I'm really over my head. Oh, yeah, I'm going like I'm not gonna back down. Like I'm just gonna shoulder through it and see how far up the ladder I can go before I crash and burn. And I'm I don't How are you to do how you approach failure? Like, what's your biggest failure? Where something's happening, All that went all wrong?

Traci Falukozi:   28:54
Well, I don't know. Yeah, I I kind of feel like I feel like I don't like uh huh. I mean, yeah, you can fail. It's something. But I feel like I don't allow myself to be finished until its profit until it's done until it's right, you know? So I mean, like, e mean there's, like, that old saying of like, you know, if your if your if you it is if you're if you're still failing, it's not the end or something like that. E think I kind of like, really? You know, put it to that where I look at it and like, Oh, yeah, this is this is not going well, but, I mean, if I had to pick my biggest failure would probably be like a second semester. First year calculus. I did, in fact, a lot of three times It couldn't pass it like just absolutely was a was an Impenetrable. And in the end, I just worked around it so well, I just I looked at it was like, OK, well, I can't I can't pass this course So I cannot get that physics degree that I wanted can get a physics screen. OK, so I was like, Okay, we'll try it again next year and see if I can maybe get like, a chemistry degree of some variety in analytical chemistry. Pass it again. And I was like, No, not gonna do analytical chemistry. I tried 1/3 time. Maybe if I get this, I'll do like just pure chemistry, like just regular you know, We're just, like, just like a general chemistry degree, you know? And then silicon pass it is. All right. All right. I'm not gonna do it again. We're not gonna take us 1/4 time. I was brutal, So I'm just going to look at the course catalog and Shahbaz, many courses as I could into my last year that didn't require that course and just fill it into whatever I needed to get that degree. I was like, You only have one year left. You have 10 courses. Just take whatever you need. Teoh Teoh form a degree. So I always say that I have, like, sort of an eclectic science degree because I just sort of took whatever I could to not have to take that that particular course. So anything that that wasn't a prerequisite, for they would take it. And I just feel like smashing together.

Mark Laurie:   30:48
So So what you did was alter your goal to fit your needs. Your purpose?

Traci Falukozi:   30:53
Yeah, I guess I kind of did. Yeah. I just just said All right, well, that's not happening. We'll restructure.

Mark Laurie:   31:00
I think that quote that you had there was if it if it's going to end well. And if it hasn't them, the end isn't here yet.

Traci Falukozi:   31:06
Yeah, something like that. I'm sure that somebody said it more eloquently than that, but I can't

Mark Laurie:   31:10
remember. I thought the first time I account that was in the the most. The glorious hotel. Exquisite. No,

Traci Falukozi:   31:20
I'm sure it's on a picture with the cat. Somewhere on the Internet,

Mark Laurie:   31:23
a lot of it's a really good one. Brown for quite away. Quite a ways from time to time. I like that. So you're you don't see failures failure that you're more like me. You see failure as simply a learning tool that gets you closer to something.

Traci Falukozi:   31:41
Yeah. I mean, like, you can feel bad about things not going the way you want them to. But at the end of the day, like, you know, Yeah, you just You just have to realize that, like, you know, you've made some mistakes and you won't make those mistakes again.

Mark Laurie:   31:56
That's me. It's just it's ah, anything that didn't work out the way I wanted to Often times it's worked out for the better. Especially hindsight. Have seen some things in the Fed. If I if that had worked out the way wanted to. It would be such a disaster now it would take me down different paths or I would have met someone. So sometimes failures is a good thing. Yeah, but always pick up learning thing up. But I've learned that the it's not the number times or fall down. Sometimes you get up and I've lived by that.

Traci Falukozi:   32:26
Yeah, that's a good one. Did you like that? What is?

Mark Laurie:   32:30
You haven't failed until you don't get up. And then when you say OK, I'm throwing the tile and then that's then it's kind of over. What percent? Alec trade. You wish that you had. When it's something that you go, I really wish that was in my my physic by physiology will make up.

Traci Falukozi:   32:46
You know, sometimes I really wish that I could just sit down and, like, focus on a boring piece of text for longer than five minutes. Like even with science, like I struggled my way through reading all of my textbooks, and I excelled at my lab courses, and I really like I'm better at doing than like the sitting in reading part. And I just wish that I could sit and focus and, you know, sort of like, sit and read from a text book and learn really well that way. Way struggled with it like I made it happen. But, you know, I wish that that king easy with us for some people. Look at some my friends who work in an office and their accountants and lawyers and stuff like, How do you just sit there and read all day? They're like, Oh, it's it's final. I'm like, Oh, I you know And that's to me. Seems like a superpower. Like how easy would it be to learn new things that I could just sit and read and learn them? Yeah, what happens? Like, you know, bash my head against

Mark Laurie:   33:39
the hard way, got to get your hands in the mud, one person said. Yeah, I didn't leave with with computers and guy. So when I have learned this and I says, when you when they take your cold dead, hands off the mouse will be finished. Great on. That's the That's the whole The whole process of you have been. It's been very exciting. I've really enjoyed this conversation. It's been great. We're amazingly, at the end of time already.

Traci Falukozi:   34:05
All right. Way

Mark Laurie:   34:07
really Vows. Well, thank you Traces so much for joining me on this conversation. And I will probably be back again sometime.

Traci Falukozi:   34:14
Yeah, absolutely. Well, thanks so much.

Mark Laurie:   34:15
You're welcome. But this has been fascinating. Women with Mark Laurie join us on our website and subscribe at Fascinating women. Dossier Fascinating Women has been sponsored by Inner Spirit Photography of Calgary, Alberta, and is produced in Calgary by Lee Ellis and my office media.