Ron Tite is funny. The standup comedian-turned-business-consultant-turned-bestselling-author is, as they say in show business, a natural. He will have you laughing throughout this week's episode of Chiseled. Ron's disarming charm is due not only to his comedic instincts but also his endless interest with the unknown. Growing up poor, he was surrounded by people who told him he just had to find work. But Ron was too curious to get a blue-collar job. As a kid intrigued by the craft of comedy, he took risks early, starting with telling Bill Cosby-style stories at his high school in Oshawa, Ontario. "I wanted to experience what it was like to deliver something in front of a crowd," he said. Ron headed off to college without much more than a dime in his pocket, an interest in sports, and the desire to make people laugh. He had no idea the opportunities that lay in wait. "Like everybody in this field, I did a phys ed degree," he joked of his early ambitions. "I didn't know there were careers. ... If somebody would have told me, 'I am a writer,' I would have been like, 'Get out of here, nobody's a writer.'" Ron's insatiable appetite for discovery and his exposure to people outside his bubble opened his eyes to boundless possibilities. He went with them, first by getting a job in the business school at his university, then moving into program management before learning how to build websites at the dawn of the Internet. He was poached by the company he hired to design his business school's website, started consulting with them, and then got picked up by the advertising company that partnered with the website company. He eventually went out on his own, in many different directions, on- and off-stage. "There was no plan, there was no path, there was no journey. Just being open to new experiences and being curious about it along the way is what landed me in this position," he said. Ron has gone from a successful standup career to a creative director in advertising to the owner of a strategic consulting firm for global brands. His clients have included Walmart, Google, Kraft, Volvo, and Intel, to name a few. Whether using art, comedy, artificial intelligence, or something else, Ron says he is all-in on learning new ways of doing things. "It's not enough to be curious about it. You need to explore it and embrace it," he said of emerging technology and processes. Everything Ron does — even the tormented telling of a joke gone flat — is fascinating to him, he says. I think you'll find Ron's perspective and comedic flare fascinating too, so let's go get Chiseled.
