Moving Forward and Becoming Great is Good Enough

Originally a professional basketball player, Garry Priam of Diventa Solutions’s athletic ventures led him to live abroad in Italy for nine years across six different cities. Garry’s time in Italy had a lasting impact on him. His fluency in Italian and work as a published Italian author shaped his perspective as both a person and a professional consultant. Making it a tradition to bestow his businesses with Italian names, Garry’s most recent venture, “Diventa” (meaning “to become”), embodies his belief that anybody can become something great.

“I would consider myself to be a really good listener,” Garry said. “Everybody here has something to offer, and we’re all amazing creatures.”

During his Italian basketball career, the owners and sponsors of Garry’s teams would sometimes ask him and his teammates to lead team-building initiatives and deliver keynote speeches focused on leadership development. Realizing he loved and looked forward to these events, combined with a passion to work for himself, helped plant the seeds for Garry to invest in himself, leading to the creation of his first business.

“I was actually doing these keynote speeches in Italian,” he said. “If I can do this in Italian, I can do this in English!”

Eventually moving from Italy to Canada, Garry would go on to create his first consulting company in 1999, “Mossa,” Italian for “to move.” Focusing on organizational development, change management, and strategic planning, Garry assisted businesses from a variety of industries and sizes. Garry learned the importance of homing in on what he was naturally strong in, combined with surrounding himself with people who wanted him to succeed and possessed unique strengths and gifts different from his own.

“Focus on your strengths,” Garry emphasized. “Then bring in other people to help you.”

As Garry’s network and experience grew, most of his projects came from referrals and connections he made as long as 15-to-20 years ago. This culminated into one of his most formative experiences when he got a contract with “Kal Tire” (think Canada’s version of America’s “Les Schwab” as they have the same business model). Garry reached out to the vice president of human resources, who remembered him from a networking event years earlier, where they spoke in Italian. She later talked to the vice president of training and development about Garry and recommended that he be brought on as a contractor. Needless to say, Garry got the contract.

What was thought to be a 9-month contract expanded into a two-year endeavor. Garry and the rest of the contract consultants got the opportunity to actually work in the stores for five months doing oil changes, tire rotations, brake jobs, going on sales calls and all the other tasks of working at a tire store. This enhanced the facilitation of the training and ERP project and everyone at Kal Tire from the President to Administrators are required to work in the stores for 6-to 9-months with customers and alongside employees so they can speak to pain points and areas of growth from personal experience.

“It was really difficult, but we learned so much!” he exclaimed. “The leaders know the pain points [like] how long it takes to do the work, because they’ve been in the trenches.”

Eventually moving from Canada to the United States, Garry opened his second consulting Company “Diventa Solutions LLC” in 2023, providing similar services as Mossa, helping organizations become more inclusive, cohesive, and successful.

Garry is also involved with Tabor 100 and heard about Tabor originally from a fellow consultant at a Seattle networking event about a year after moving to Washington. Becoming a Tabor 100 consultant, has allowed Garry to grow his practice, his professional network, and work with a variety of people.

Through his consultantship with Tabor 100’s Technical Assistance (TA) Program, Garry has provided vital TA services to small minority-owned businesses through Diventa Solutions, such as business development, coaching and marketing support. Currently, Diventa Solutions is one of the consulting firms actively providing Personal Narrative-writing services assisting in certification renewals of Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBE) with Washington’s Office of Minority and Women’s Business Enterprises.

‘It’s been an excellent business relationship being a part of Tabor 100” Garry said. “I’ve met some great people there!”

When it comes to takeaways as a consultant and business owner, Garry touched on themes of being a lifelong learner, using opportunities like his professional workshops to teach and to learn from his students and to grow as a professional and person.

“You have to create a magic potion where you have to have a whole lot of belief, [and] a whole lot of craziness,” he said.

Garry stressed that aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners should spend less time chasing perfection at the outset and more time putting something solid and workable into the world, recognizing that progress often comes first and refinement follows.

“Good is good enough,” he said. “You can try making it perfect, but we’re all perfectly imperfect.”

For more information on Diventa Solutions, visit www.diventasolutions.com

To request Technical Assistance through Tabor 100, complete an initial intake form at tabor100.org/technicalassistance