Who loves talking about the weather? Who panics that a "conversation" is running out of ideas about two minutes in? Who knows the hidden trap of the question, "So, what do you do for a living?" Who'd like to engage in real conversations that improve work places and relationships and can turn casual connections into meaningful ones?

Join Minister Faust for a fun, funny, provocative, and lively workshop that he began at TEDx Edmonton 2011 with a video that has been viewed more than 800,000 times. Learn a better way to converse... and connect.

So many people are afraid of public speaking, and yet almost everyone knows that if you want to succeed in your job, get that promotion, get investors, help your community, win friends, or simply get a date, you need to be able to speak with confidence, clarity, and style. And here's the great news: you, too, can master those skills.

Become an outstanding communicator--whether it's for speaking with a small group or a giant crowd--using the Diamond Method, the proven method taught to cabinet ministers, legislators, government staff, community organizers, and students. Conquer your fear, impress the people you need to impress, and speak your way to success.

Some people marvel at how creative other people are, as if they possess some secret magic we could never gain… or never wield in the first place. But we all started life being creative, so when did it begin to crumble? But what if your creative life is just about to be reborn? Extensive brain research into creativity, combined with the tools that real artists and thinkers use to accelerate their work, are freely available. All you need in your busy life is someone to distill them for your success in career, hobbies, relationships, and community.

Join video game writer, sketch comedy writer and actor, improv comic, novelist, cartoonist, teacher, and youth leadership coach Minister Faust to understand what neuroscientists and artists know about the creative mind. In his dynamic workshop exercises, re-activate your creativity so you can achieve at the next level.

Magical thinking never helped anyone but Gandalf. When you’re facing a major problem or a major opportunity, a fuzzy notion of what’s wrong or what’s right won’t deliver you the results you want.

If you want a great breakthrough, then you need a great plan providing a clear, testable, revisable pathway to victory. But how?

Join veteran teacher and community organiser Minister Faust in a dynamic workshop to learn how to create specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timed plans to turn your dreams into reality.

Why do you need to know anything about Africa, the “dark continent” of starvation, civil wars, and no history? Such lies and stereotypes endure thanks to bad journalism, Hollywood, and do-gooderism. They’re a major obstacle to helping Canadians make the best investments in and forge political, financial, intellectual, and artistic partnerships with one billion citizens of 55 countries with a higher per capita GDP than India or China.

Join award-winning journalist/broadcaster/novelist Minister Faust for a dynamic audio-visual session on the ancient civilizations and modern realities of millions of students, scientists, innovators, and world-changing entrepreneurs.

Lesson plans available for teachers.

Potential audiences: Businesses seeking clients, investments opportunities, and expanding markets in the 55 countries of Africa Recruiters seeking professionals from the 55 countries of Africa Social service agencies helping new Canadians Teachers in any discipline working with students of all backgrounds . 

To the limited extent that media and school display any African styles art from any of Africa’s 55 countries, the depiction is usually stereotypical and degrading: poorly-made wooden carvings and amateurish street paintings.

But what about the stunning range of ancient art from Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia, to the medieval genius of Nigerian, Beninese, and Ghanaian sculptors? What about the dazzling array of contemporary painters, installationists, digital artists, animators, and illustrators? 

Join writer, journalist, and graphic novelist Minister Faust for a visual tour of global African artists from 5000 years ago to those making the future today.

While many people think that Africentric science fiction and fantasy are new, they stretch back to the 19th century as a liberationist genre depicting better tomorrows to inspire revolutionary change today. In the early 20th Century, major African intellectuals such as W.E.B. DuBois used science fiction as a means to communicate key political and social analyses. Onward through Octavia Butler and Samuel Delaney to Nalo Hopkinson and the global blockbuster Black Panther, African creators are exploring the meanings of our past and present to design the minds that will create the future.

Join internationally acclaimed contemporary SF novelist Minister Faust for a discussion on select classic and current Afritopian works on the page and on the screen, with projects and assignments for teaching them to today's tech-immersed students.  

Join award-winning Can-Lit author and journalist (and veteran English teacher) Minister Faust to learn about critical concepts such White Saviours and Super-Duper Magical Negroes, and the books, films, and graphic novels you could be teaching that would thrill you and your students.

You might think writing is a mysterious process you either "get" or you don't, but it's not true.You can improve your writing, whether your aim is self-discovery, personal expression or publication. Whether you want to write the next YA breakout, a memoir of family or career, or the Great Canadian Novel, with the correct guidance, you can enhance your understanding of structure and technique to write like a professional.J oin former English teacher and internationally acclaimed and award-winning novelist Minister Faust for a fascinating session to take you from wishing wannabe to real writer.

Turn your literary dreams into reality. 

The biggest difference between books that failed and the most beloved high fantasy epics and space opera mega-books? The best-developed worlds are multi-layered, drawing upon anthropology, politics, ecology, psychology, technology, and more… and their authors knew that just because they’d imagined something, didn’t mean they’d have to put it in the book.

Join award-winning science fiction and fantasy author Minister Faust to learn how to create dynamic, unforgettable worlds… and ensure your readers never get so blocked by your cities that they can’t see the stars.

What do Katniss Everdeen, Luke Skywalker, Avatar Korra, and Bilbo Baggins all have in common? It’s more than just being heroes—it’s that they’re archetypal heroes.

But what are archetypes? They’re patterns, formulas, or algorithms that exist in all stories and religions and lives. If you understand them, you can make heroes that are exciting, the kind people dream of being, the kind that you want to talk about forever and ever with friends and fans to debate what you hate and what’s great.Join award-winning science fiction and fantasy author Minister Faust to learn these formulas and how to apply them to your next mega-awesome story! 

You can have the most amazing plot in the world, but without magnetic characters, we’ll have a tough time caring. And unless your characters exist inside dynamic social networks of cause-and-effect, they'll never truly live in the minds of your readers.

But if you sharpen your skills and master these concepts, you'll create unforgettable characters who will ive forever.

Join novelist Minister Faust for a dynamic craft-and-draft intensive workshop drawing upon psychology, sociology, and mythology to create characters so vibrant and three-dimensional that your readers will want to write them love letters.

So you want to “do the right thing” by diversifying your work? How do you do that and still write an engrossing story with engaging characters? Doesn’t making your work inoffensive mean removing everything that makes it great?

Nope—unless all you like is stereotypes. And shouldn’t every writer be better than clichéd plots and hackneyed characters?

Join award-winning novelist Minister Faust to learn how to find and delete the stereotypes falling into your stories and replace them with fresh, vibrant people and plots. Lift your stories and novels from the asphalt… all the way to the rainbow.

Face it: without an engrossing plot, your book isn't getting read. The best characters, language, world-building, or social commentary can’t make a closed book connect with readers.

If you’ve ever feared you simply didn’t know how to write an engrossing plot, great news! You can learn the straightforward principles and structure of plot behind every beloved story from The Odyssey to today’s bestsellers and blockbusters. And once you know the rules, you can break them all—because at last you know them!

Join award-winning novelist Minister Faust for a writing-intensive session on how to plot with your enemies (and your heroes) to make the best plots of your life.