Growing up on the east coast of Canada, Bobby Umar was the first person in his family who was born in this new country. This meant a lot to him as now it was his duty to bridge the two cultures of Canada and Pakistan. Since he belonged to a middle class family, his father worked tremendously hard to give Bobby and his siblings a good life.
As Bobby explored his potential, he soon realized that a small town living was not ideal for him. Therefore, he decided to go to McGill University in Montreal. He originally went into the field of engineering for his father who used to believe that, “engineering, physics and math are good things so you should do that for a good job.” Bobby followed his father’s wishes without a second thought about whether he himself would enjoy it or not. However, he soon got bored of his job once he started working for Bombardier in Engineering. During this, he decided to use his spare time to start a musical theatre company. But, after Bobby left engineering and the theatre company, he felt a bit lost on the next step as he was unclear about what to do. He decided to try marketing because the field seemed to be about people, and he liked people. Bobby ended up doing an MBA in marketing, yet after three years working in brand marketing, he felt like it wasn’t the kind of environment he preferred. Later on, he also dabbled in performing arts again, because he liked to be on stage and showcase his talent to the world. But then, he started reflecting on whether he was good enough to make it as a performer. Finally, Bobby decided to dive with a personal brand to truly figure out what he really wanted to do. He discovered several things about himself including – he loved to nurture people, liked to perform in front of an audience, enjoyed persuading people, and lastly, he liked to have diversity.
With this personal branding deep dive, Bobby had narrowed down to a few dozen options for his career. He decided to become a motivational speaker. Even though people had been complimenting him on his speaking skills for years, he never took them seriously. Although he did think about being a teacher, as he had taught many people previously, he never actually fully pursued it. In the fall of 2006, Bobby came up with Raeallan – Transformational Speaking and Training, where he focused on his keynotes and workshops around the world or online, usually for conferences or corporations. His goal was simple: to build thought leadership in business professionals and teams. Today it has been 15 years since Bobby successfully launched Raeallan and he has done 5 TEDx talks and was named an Inc Magazine Top 100 Leadership Speaker, alongside Richard Branson, Brene Brown, and John C Maxwell. With his determination, he hopes to continue building his thought leadership brand further.