A Dealmaker's DNA with Ilan Jacobson: Recent Episodes
Ilan Jacobson
Why are entrepreneurs driven to do what they do? Put in endless hours and endure countless failures in pursuit of their dreams. Ilan Jacobson is one of those entrepreneurs. He's built businesses in sectors ranging from finance to axe-throwing. He's endured his share of failures, but he, and the entrepreneurs he interviews each week, wouldn't go down any other path. Hear their stories: how they conceived of their ideas, cleared hurdles, endured failure, and ultimately, achieved success, on A Dealmaker's DNA with Ilan Jacobson.
How does a person become an entrepreneur in the entertainment verticals? Today’s guest can share his experience. Allen Lau is the executive advisor for WEBTOON and Wattpad. He’s a serial entrepreneur, a speaker, and an authority on entrepreneurship, the innovation economy, and the benefits of a diverse workforce. He’s also a leader in Canada’s tech community.
Listen to the episode to hear what Allen has to say about how an introvert can succeed as an entrepreneur and leader, how Wattpad came to be in the first place, and what lessons Allen has learned about very high growth.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Allen’s origin story and what led to his entrepreneurial journey
- How an introvert can be a leader or entrepreneur
- What Allen’s startup journey looked like
- What happened after Allen left IBM
- How Wattpad came to be
- What network effect means and what people get wrong about it
- When Allen transitioned Wattpad from a mobile reading app
- The first lessons Allen learned about really high growth
- Why some people are great at storytelling but others are not
Related Links
Allen Lau
There are a lot of buzzwords out there. One that you may or may not be familiar with is “proptech” what does it mean? You’ll learn more about it by listening to today’s guest, John Asher. John is the president and co-founder of Konfidis. Listen to the episode to hear what John knows about self-teaching, what brought him to the world of startup tech, and what Konfidis is all about.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- John’s origin story
- How John’s childhood growing up on a farm shaped him
- How John was taught to self-teach
- Why John decided to study accounting
- When John concluded that accounting wasn’t for him
- What big companies do well
- Why John decided to move into the world of startup tech
- What Konfidis is all about
- The big goal for Konfidis
- What John is seeing gain traction in the proptech world
- Sorting through the different factors that affect housing
- Shifts in who owns residential real estate in Canada
Related Links
John Asher
Konfidis
Quotes From the Show
“You’ve got to put in the work if you ever actually want to see output.”
“This company is my midlife crisis, how about that?”
“Whatever happens in the U.S. seems to find its way to Canada eventually.”
Why are you working? That’s something that Michael Brown has been thinking about lately: what he’s working for and what his legacy is going to be.
In today’s episode, you’ll hear from Michael Brown, the CEO and co-founder of Swept. Michael has a somewhat unusual background as an entrepreneur and has managed to do many different things with it. Listen in to hear what Michael has to say about where he got the motivation and determination to hustle, why he decided to go into the kinds of companies he chose, and what his background as a mechanic has to do with his entrepreneurial career.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Michael’s origination story
- Where Michael’s hustle came from
- Understanding the value of a dollar
- What Michael did after high school and studying abroad
- Why Michael decided to go into the kinds of companies he did
- Whether Michael’s background in mechanics impacts his entrepreneurial career
- Michael’s purpose right now
- What Michael wants his legacy to be
Related Links
Michael Brown
Quotes From the Show
“My summer was very different from everybody else’s”
“It’s very rare to have a professor who’s actually done it, successfully, who is teaching you. One of her classes is: You have to start a business for $10”
“I want to work hard so I can give more.”
When Drew started out, he had goals of creating things and finding good people to work with, and he’s managed to achieve those goals and more. He’s the CEO and president of INDOCHINO and a serial entrepreneur, and today he brings his story to the podcast.
Listen to the episode to hear what Drew has to say about building confidence from childhood, learning lessons from fear, and connecting with people in an authentic way that’s not all about networking.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Drew’s origin story
- How to build a child’s confidence
- Lessons that can be learned from fear
- How to hack the skillset for meeting and connecting with people
- What Drew’s first few years as an entrepreneur looked like
- Drew’s thesis for what he’s doing and how he spends his time
- What Drew learned about finding fraud
- Why gratitude is so important
- Embracing the feeling of uncomfortableness
- Economic themes to double down on today
Related Links
Drew Green
Quotes From the Show
“Luckily, I just had the most wonderful grandparents in the world.”
“In order to grow, in order to make stuff happen, there has to be movement.”
“I don’t want to meet people inauthentically.”
"I’ve embraced the desire to be uncomfortable, because when you’re uncomfortable you have to figure things out, you have to solve, you have to create."
Today we revisit an interview with Mo Lidsky that took place in early 2020. Mo is the CEO of Prime Quadrant and is a man with many accomplishments. He is an entrepreneur, an investor, advisor, and author. In a replay of this episode, Mo takes the time to explain how he got to where he is today and what his views are on nature vs. nurture. Listen to the episode to hear what Mo has to say about self-awareness, inspiring children, and promoting alignment among critical people inside of an organization.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- What Mo’s early life was like
- Mo’s first business
- Mo’s view on whether success boils down to nature or nurture
- Times when some influence or shift changed Mo’s trajectory
- Mo’s views on self-awareness
- Tools that young people can use to figure out what they should be doing
- How Mo puts his ideas into practice with his children
- Tools that promote alignment among the most critical people in the organization
- How Mo got into his current business
- What Mo loves about what he does
- What is enough
- How philanthropy has influenced Mo’s non-philanthropic ventures
Today’s guest invented the concept of the top-line royalty fund after years of experience in his field. He explains today that entrepreneurship is just in his DNA.
Sean Morrison is the President and CEO of Diversified Royalty Corporation. In more than 20 years working with franchises and finance, he has a lot to say about his experiences, skills, and how he’s operated in various roles. Listen to the episode to hear what Sean has to say about transparency, how to access skillsets related to door-knocking and cold-calling in the modern environment, and how he developed the idea of a top-line royalty fund.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- What Sean does
- Sean’s childhood and background
- The value of transparency
- The ways to hack the skillsets of door-knocking and cold-calling
- Sean’s CFO role and what came after that
- Sean’s desire to use his fact-based sales pitch skills
- Sean’s idea for a top-line royalty fund
- When Diversified Royalty Group really got started
- How the advisory council Sean was a part of connected to Boston Pizza
- Lessons Sean learned from dealing with the government in 2008
- What Sean thinks about government spending in the past few years
- The best way to find Sean online
Related Links
Sean Morrison
Diversified Royalty Corporation
Quotes From the Show
“I think entrepreneurialism has always been in my DNA.”
“I’ve always wanted to be the institutional salesperson versus the retail salesperson, and the institutional one has to have a fact-based sales pitch.”
“I would say that if they didn’t spray the firehose, we would have been doomed. Did they overspray? Of course, cause it’s not their money, who wouldn’t overspray?”
What drives a person to begin a private equity firm? How do you come up with a name for a business like that or work with partners within it? These are all topics that today’s guest will touch on in his interview.
Listen to the episode to hear from Rob Normandeau as he discusses his degree and previous business experiences, what it’s like to partner with other entrepreneurs, and whether money is the best motivator, as well as what other types of effective motivators for success exist, as Rob discuss his journey, his business, and the future of his industry.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- What Seafort Capital does
- Where Rob grew up and what his childhood looked like
- Where Rob’s law degree came in
- When Rob thought about leaving law
- The transition to a publicly listed company
- Why Rob left Clarke
- Rob’s move to Halifax
- How Rob ended up starting a private equity firm
- Why Rob wanted to expand
- Where the name Seafort Capital came from
- What it means to partner with entrepreneurs
- Whether money is a good motivator
- Good motivators for Rob
- What Rob has learned about the East Coast
- What Rob thinks about the future of his industry
Related Links
Rob Normandeau
Seafort Capital
Quotes From the Show
“I used to always joke that since I studied law, I wanted to get admitted, do my articles, and get admitted so that my mom could tell the ladies at Bingo her son was a lawyer, and then I could move onto business which I thought was more interesting.”
“What we recognized from the start was that if we were successful, if this thing really grew and developed, we would reach a point where it made sense to bring in other investors.”
“It’s important to try to aspire to success and to wealth, but you can’t be short-term in your thinking.”
Firepower Capital – Christen Daniels
What does a head of customer success and corporate development do? What is it like to work for a fintech company? Today’s guest is Christen Daniels, and she’s the Head of Customer Success & Corporate Development at the fintech company, Georgian.
Listen to the episode to hear what Christen has to say about how she ended up in this position, why she’s not a natural risk-taker, how she thinks about risk, and what she has to say about the psychology of transactions.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- What Christen’s childhood looked like and how she ended up where she is
- Christen’s experience studying in another language
- Why Christen says she’s not a natural risk-taker
- Why Christen wrote for the LSAT
- When Christen decided to focus on corporate law
- The psychology of transactions
- What Georgian does
- Recommendations Christen has for entering her field
- Defining and building community
- Christen’s view on the future of evaluations
Related Links
Christen Daniels
Georgian
Christen@georgian.io
Quotes From the Show
“I like having a clarity of path, a clarity of purpose, kind of understanding how the pieces are going to come together, and having a little bit of certainty.”
“It was really clear to me that I’m fairly passionate about transactions.”
“Deals are really different when you own the results.”
What do you know about the intellectual property laws in the Metaverse? Probably not much, but somebody has to, right? Julie MacDonnell is an intellectual property lawyer by trade, which is a more traditional field, but she’s doing things to disrupt that space.
Listen in to learn about Julie’s company, Halloo, what roles that she believes accelerators and incubators have played in her journey and why she recommends them to others, and why she believes that giving back is so important.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Where Julie is from and what her upbringing was like
- When the chip on your shoulder goes from positive to negative
- The role that accelerators and incubators played in Julie’s journey
- The importance of taking the right money
- How to start finding a network
- Starting relationships with an authentic desire to get to know each other
- Metaverse IP law
- Areas of law that young lawyers should be paying attention to right now
- Why Julie believes that giving back matters
Related Links
Julie MacDonnell
Halloo
Quotes From the Show
“I’ve got this theory that many problems, business problems even, should be approached through a trauma lens.
“Any accelerator program that gives you money and doesn’t take equity, I strongly, strongly encourage.”
“The barrier to entrepreneurship is so, so low, because what we’re selling and trading and buying in this space is intellectual property.:
How does someone wind up going from a Jewish private school and university, to working in the adult entertainment industry, tp becoming a serial entrepreneur?
Josh Garellek is the co-founder of Arctic Leaf Inc and PartnerPortal.io. He’s interested in teamwork, passion, and camaraderie, bringing people who share those things and what they can do together, and how partnerships and relationships affect business and brands. Listen to the episode to hear what Josh has to say about his role in bringing a fraternity to his university and how frat life affected his entrepreneurial path, how Josh identifies his strengths and plays to them, and what Josh thinks about the Metaverse and online risks to children.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- How Josh grew up, what he’s like, and what he’s doing
- Whether Josh got his entrepreneurial instincts from his home growing up
- Whether Josh’s frat played a role in shaping his entrepreneurship
- The reaction Josh got when he went to work for PornHub
- Why the adult industry is an early adopter of new tech
- What interests Josh about the concept of partnerships and relationships
- What Josh has done to identify his strengths and double down on what he’s good at
- What e-commerce brands get right and wrong
- What brand is really effective
- How seriously brands are taking the Metaverse
- What Josh is doing with his children to mitigate online risks
- What brands need to do to evolve over the next 15-20 years
- How Josh would advise a young person entering the marketing space
Related Links
Josh Garellek
Josh on Twitter
Josh on Instagram
Arctic Leaf
Partner Portal
Quotes From the Show
“I like sitting down and playing video games with a console controller and all that stuff, but to build the games just wasn’t fun for me.”
“Fun fact about the adult entertainment industry is that they created online transactions.”
“We’ve gotten to that point where the brand is bigger than my name.”
Firepower Capital – Rob Lydan
Entrepreneurs can come from anywhere – including from the trades sector. Today’s guest has a background in trades and is even a qualified welder. He’s also the Managing Director at Phoventus, a company that works in renewable power.
Rob Lydan joins the podcast today to discuss how he ended up in renewable power and what factors brought him to this point. Listen to the episode to hear what Rob has to say about what influenced him about the trades, what his professional trajectory looked like, and how to interact with people who are influential in your life.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- What Rob’s childhood looks like and how he got to this point
- What drew Rob to computers
- What influenced Rob to look toward trades
- Rob’s professional trajectory
- Why Rob didn’t pursue work in Canada when he started Phoventus
- The role of anger in becoming an entrepreneur
- What people get right and wrong when faced with people that influence their lives
- Balancing steadfastness in your vision with flexibility
- How much success in business is reliant on luck
Related Links
Rob Lydan
Quotes From the Show
“You can be the general manager, you get the office right next to the front door, not because it’s most convenient for you, it’s because it’s the shortest walk if you have to leave.”
“Seeing the physical object appear is a lot different than doing something that is purely academic.”
“That’s why when I look at how I treat people, I decided I’m just going to be nice to everybody. Because what goes around comes around.”
“I’m a big believer that there’s probably 100 people that you’ll meet or know if your life, that will determine what happens to you, and how you treat them is the sole determination of how your life will turn out.”
Frank Baylis is an entrepreneur as well as a politician. He’s the president of the medical technology firm Baylis Medical. He also ran for office to represent the riding of Pierrefonds—Dollard in the House of Commons of Canada and was elected in 2015. In today’s episode, Frank will discuss what he’s learned from running a medical technology firm that produces ventilators, what inspired him to get involved in politics, and why having the right business partner is so important.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Frank’s early life and how he got to Canada
- What it means that Frank thinks of himself as a politician
- How it was for Frank joining his mother’s business
- What Frank has learned about picking a good partner
- What Frank has learned about the partnership dynamic
- What the aligning vision looks like today
- Writing down goals
- Why you need a board of directors
- What the experience of transitioning the business was like for Frank
- What Frank has learned from producing ventilators
- What Frank has learned from having a global mindset
- How Frank’s learned to do business in other countries without making mistakes
- How Frank moved into politics
- How Franks avoided getting too frustrated with politics
- Whether anyone can be anything they want to be
- The value of self-awareness
- Frank’s end goal
Related Links
Frank Baylis
Quotes From the Show
“We may disagree what’s a priority or where we put the emphasis, but the majority of us, we’re almost in agreement 95% of what we want to do.”
“When you become aligned and then find someone that’s aligned and wants to do the same thing you do, that’s the foundation that you build upon.”
“There’s no such thing as a self-made man.”
Giving back can have just as much value as getting, so why not make that a focus? Stephanie Shapiro is the COO of Together We Stand, an organization that supports and serves the military families of the Canadian armed forces. In today’s episode, Stephanie will explain why she believes it’s so important to pay attention to what the military does for citizens.
You’ll also hear Stephanie’s thoughts on mental health, adversity, and vulnerability, and transitioning from a government job into her current role.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Stephanie’s family history and formative years
- Whether Stephanie had it ingrained in her how lucky she was to be born in Canada
- Why Stephanie landed in HR
- What Stephanie’s journey looked like
- How Stephanie is thinking about mental health
- Whether adversity is a good thing, and how to look for
- How vulnerability equates with bravery
- Why Stephanie decided to leave her government job
- What Together We Stand is trying to accomplish
- Understanding what Canadian armed forces do domestically
- The value of giving back
Related Links
Stephanie Shapiro
Together We Stand
Mama Needs a Vodka
Quotes From the Show
“I talk a lot about vulnerability in the workplace. And to me, I’m a huge advocate of that.”
“To me, vulnerability within the workplace is where the magic happens.”
“The reality is that our Canadian armed forces members and their families and veterans have done so much more than simply serve when there’s conflict.”
Being an entrepreneur means being able to handle some strange and wild circumstances. And if you’re interested in being one, you need to be up to dealing with anything, from one end of the spectrum to the other.
In today’s episode, you’ll hear from Robin Kovitz, the president and CEO of Baskits, inc. In this episode, she discusses the unusual situations that entrepreneurs have to deal with. She also discusses her lifelong dream of attending Harvard, what criteria she put down as part of the process of deciding what business to buy, and what the value of kindness is in business.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- How Robin grew up
- Why Robin’s family were so adamant about her being educated
- Why Robin’s lifelong goal was to get an MBA from Harvard
- How going to Harvard was life changing
- What the process was of Robin deciding to take a risk on buying a business
- Robin’s non-negotiables
- The value of kindness in business
- The strategy of doing the right thing
- Robin’s views on women in entrepreneurship
- Changes over the past decade in terms of women in power
- The importance of passion for your work
- The future for Baskits
Related Links
Robin Kovitz
Baskits, Inc
Quotes From the Show
“How you take that failure is at the key, I believe, of being a successful entrepreneur.”
“To be good at this job, you have to be willing to do everything.”
“I had this vision, because of my entrepreneurial roots, of running a small business. I really enjoyed being with customers, helping employees and team members”
What is the future? How do we affect it? How do we raise kids in ways that help them realize and take advantage of their own abilities to make and shape the future?
In today’s episode, you’ll hear from Alistair Leyland, a founding partner at Array of Stars. Listen in to the interview to hear his ideas about how to foster innovative mindsets, why storytelling is such an important skill set for entrepreneurs and innovators, and what the next big transformative thing is likely to be.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Alistair’s origin story
- How to foster an innovation mindset
- How a doctor and teacher fostered more innovative and entrepreneurial mindsets
- What made Alastair move to the Canadian Film Center
- The skillset of storytelling
- The concept of having difficulty with authority
- What Array of Stars does and why Alistair started it
- Web 3 and the metaverse
- What people are underestimating and why
- Alistair’s opinion on NFTs
- The next big transformative thing
- Brands that are at the cutting edge
Related Links
Alistair Leyland
Array of Stars
Quotes From the Show
“A big part of the Hippocratic oath is finding any and all ways to deliver maximum care for patients.”
“Web 3 is essentially the next chapter of the internet.”
“I would say you don’t have to look too much further than what Nike is doing, with scooping up shops within the Web 3, NFT space.”
What is the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and what does that mean for you? What does understanding this have to do with success in building your finances or having a career as an entrepreneur? In today’s episode, you’ll hear from Jason Carvalho, entrepreneur, investor, and founder of Carvalho Capital. Listen to his interview to hear what he has to say about how he got into technology in the first place, what the Fourth Industrial Revolution is, what risk really is and how to balance taking risks with the need to be prudent.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Jason’s early life
- How Jason landed in technology
- How Jason figured out that he was an entrepreneur early on
- Where Jason took his entrepreneurship after finding himself in Victoria
- How much of life’s successes are luck
- Transitioning from entrepreneur and investor
- Defining the fourth industrial revolution
- How the metaverse is going to change things
- Getting prepared for the next generation of worker
- How to balance the desire to be all in with the need to be prudent
- What risk is
- How to follow Jason
Related Links
Jason Carvalho
Jason on Twitter
Carvalho Capital on Twitter
Quotes From the Show
“To be frank, when you start building things, you can see, you understand how it works.”
“There’s no stopping the idea of the metaverse.”
“In order for you to be disciplined, you have to wake up every single day and realize the system is trying to take money from you.”
Are you running on autopilot? Do you know how to turn off the autopilot? Today’s guest says that people spend more time on autopilot than they’d like to think, and it can prevent them from getting on the right path. Listen in to this interview with Steve Divitkos, an entrepreneur and the former CEO of Microdea. In this episode, you’ll hear about how Steve views entrepreneurship, why introspection is so difficult, and what Steve did right and wrong as a new CEO.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- How Steve was exposed to entrepreneurship
- Why Steve views entrepreneurship through the lens of freedom
- Why Steve decided on his educational path
- What Steve would suggest to people who want to change their path
- Whether everyone has the same ability to remove themselves from autopilot
- What’s difficult about introspection
- An overview of Microdea
- What made Microdea a success
- What rookie mistakes Steve made as a new CEO
- How to recognize and address hiring mistakes
- How the experience of being a CEO compared to what Steve thought it would be
- The importance of focusing on health for the mind and body
- What Steve is interested in doing next
Four exercises to help create a set of criteria against which to evaluate potential career paths:
- Codify your personal core values
- Identify what you're uniquely good at, what you enjoy doing and how you can get paid for it
- Define your WHY
- What do you want people to say at your funeral
Related Links
Steve Divitkos
In The Trenches
Quotes From the Show
“The best definition of entrepreneurship that I’ve ever heard is the relentless pursuit for opportunity without regard or resources currently controlled.”
“Maybe the better way to put it is I remember the moment where I decided I didn’t want to stay on the path that I was in.”
“The concept that…was helpful for me, is this entire concept of being deliberate. Don’t just let life happen to you.”
“I think being an entrepreneur, being a CEO, was the hardest thing that I have ever done in my entire life.”
Partnerships are notoriously difficult, but today’s guest has had some notable success with them. Gregory Wade is currently the managing partner of NextBase, but in the past he’s worked for AT&T and with Samsung, to name a few. Listen to the episode to hear what Gregory has to say about how he ended up working with these large brands, what makes a partnership successful, and why Gregory chose to write a book about mentorship.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- What Gregory’s childhood looked like
- How Gregory ended up working with multinational brands
- How Gregory ended up back in Canada
- What people get wrong about partnerships, and what makes a partnership successful
- Why Gregory wrote a book on mentorship
- What’s broken in building the next generation of leadership
- External mentorship for young future leaders
- The problems corporations face
- The building blocks to a successful career
Related Links
Gregory Wade
Quotes From the Show
“Setting objectives and setting goals is so important.”
“Imagine being able to bring together two long-time rivals in Blackberry and Samsung.”
“It was important for me to understand that space, so in business I could at least understand what the heck… the construct to a contract.”
“I worked very very hard, even at young age, to try and set up what I called these building blocks to a career - wanting to ensure that I built as many components of those blocks that were different.”
Why would someone choose to move from investment banking into cannabis retail? Today’s guest is Mimi Lam, the CEO, and co-founder of Superette, a cannabis retailer. Mimi’s backstory includes a conservative upbringing and a work history in investment banking before she moved into the cannabis world. Listen to her story to hear Mimi talk about how people can check in with themselves to determine whether they’re pursuing their passion, how travel factored into Mimi’s life, and how cannabis has factored into her life.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Mimi’s background
- What caused Mimi to move from investment banking to cannabis
- The importance of keeping an open mind
- How people can audit themselves in the desire to pursue their passion
- The value of travel in finding yourself and becoming a better person and entrepreneur
- What was appealing to Mimi about Judge Judy
- What Mimi’s family thought about her journey
- Whether Mimi was with a contrarian mindset or developed it along her path
- Mimi’s opinion on the desire to prove people wrong
- Mimi’s transition from banking to cannabis retail
- How cannabis factored into Mimi’s life
- The importance of storytelling
- Where the cannabis retail space is going
- Mimi’s end goal
- What Mimi’s learned about managing teams
Related Links
Mimi Lam
Superette
Quotes From the Show
“We don’t really know what we want to do growing up.”
“I am not the same person today as I was prior to leaving for Shanghai.”
“We looked 2w and said, there’s a big opportunity in retail.”
“I’d rather spend every day doing the things that I love than regretting wasting that time because I had a paycheck or because I did something someone else told me to do”
Sometimes, a non-linear path is the best path for the person that’s on it. Today’s guest is a good example of learning and living in a less-than-linear way. In today’s episode, you’ll meet Joelle Faulkner, CEO of Area One Farms. Area One is an alternative asset management firm where Joelle created a farmer-centric private equity model. Listen to the episode to hear Joelle explain what made her pursue varying degrees, what kind of impact her science background has on her business success, and what it was like at the beginning of starting Area One Farms.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- What Joelle’s childhood looked like
- What made Joelle go into law and biodesign
- Why Joelle didn’t like law
- How much of an impact a science background has on the ability to build a business
- Theories around the role dyslexia plays
- How to figure out what you want to do
- What led Joelle to start Area One
- What Joelle underestimated about building a business
- What Joelle would tell her younger self
- How much of Joelle’s decision making is rooted in the desire for happiness
- Whether insecurity is bad if it drives results
- What’s coming next in Joelle’s journey
Related Links
Joelle Faulkner
Area One Farms
Quotes From the Show
“If you could ask questions about it, you could probably understand the answers.”
“I think engineering and science – it made me really good at math.”
“Pick something that will get as close to delighting you as possible.”
“If you want kids to really respect money, and respect hard work that makes that money, they actually have to understand it”
How can understanding and predicting human behavior help in business and in life? In today’s episode, you’ll hear from Ben Baldwin, founder of the first goal achievement system for teams. Ben discusses why he’s so interested in predictive analytics, whether predictive analytics is used as much as it should be, and what he thinks about the word innovation and how it’s used.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- What Ben’s childhood was like
- Motivations other than money
- What works best in terms of number and type of founders
- Ben’s opinion on nature and nurture
- Commonalities among failures
- Why Ben is interested in predictive analytics for human behavior
- Whether predictive analytics is used in the way it should be
- Interacting with people instead of code
- What innovation means to Ben
- Work selves and home selves
Related Links
Ben Baldwin
Upteaming
Quotes From the Show
“The desire for income is often driven by freedom.”
“There’s so many different ways to fail.”
“The only ingredients in the [people] system, in everything that we have, are people and time.”
“Something has to enable time or people in a better way to participate in our universe”
“Conscientiousness is one of the strongest drivers, predictors of success”
Where does data factor in when it comes to the personal relationships and people skills that are so necessary for business? Today’s guest classifies herself as a person who’s very objective and likes the objectivity of data that breaks down to ones and zeros. Listen to the episode to learn about Jaime Leverton, the current CEO at Hut 8 Mining Corp. She’ll discuss how her childhood and environment growing up led her to her current path, why she’s passionate about data, and how she ended up working in cryptocurrency.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- What Jaime’s childhood looked like
- What Jaime’s childhood gave her to drive her success
- How much did Jaime’s parents’ influence her life and choices
- Marketing and thematics
- What Jaime was passionate about when it comes to data
- What data is going to mean in our lives
- Dealing with the emotional side of business
- What Hut 8 is all about
- How Jaime got into cryptocurrency
- Bitcoin as currency
- What critics are missing about bitcoin and crypto-currency
- What’s happening with NFTs
- What resonates with Jaime about transformation and growth
- The importance of knowing who you are
- The process of accepting who you are
Related Links
Jaime Leverton
Quotes From the Show
“I think people from small towns really have no one to depend on but themselves.”
“What hard data does, and when you’re looking for patterns, there is nothing more objective than something that can ultimately be broken down into 1s and 0s.”
“Even in dealing with people, I think data plays an important part.”
What goes into creating a company culture? How do you foster a community of mentorship within your company? These are some of the questions that today’s guest will address in this conversation.
Jamie Opalchuk is the Founder and CEO of HostPapa. In today’s episode, you’ll learn more about how he got there and what he thinks about building and running a company today. Listen to the episode to hear Jamie speak about his first entrepreneurial experience as a lemonade stand owner, how COVID has changed watercooler talk and after-hours networking, and how he views failure.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Why Jamie started HostPapa originally and what his goals were
- What life was like for Jamie growing up
- Whether it’s upbringing or genetic makeup that makes people act on their ideas
- How Jamie’s upbringing makes him less risk-averse
- What’s happening as watercooler talk and other networking becomes rarer
- The time between the lemonade stand and HostPapa
- How Jamie views failure
- Whether failure should be an option
- What Jamie has learned about scaling
- Creating a company culture
- Scaling mentorship within a country
- Jamie’s continuous learning habits
- The importance of routine
Related Links
Jamie Opalchuk
HostPapa
Quotes From the Show
“I had a couple other businesses, and I decided to solve my time constraints, I would start another business.”
“Great companies are built on people and ideas and vision, and then execution.”
“When I was in school, procrastination was a habit.”
“Small steps lead into big marches”
How does someone find their way from working in politics and policy into the cannabis field? Today’s guest is Jay Rosenthal, and his interesting work history has taken him from the political field to entrepreneurship and now into the cannabis industry. Listen in to hear Jay’s thoughts about what sparked him to go into entrepreneurship, what Canadian businesses can learn from American businesses, and what characteristics you need to succeed in the cannabis industry.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Jay’s origination story
- What was in Jay’s background that led him to his career path
- What brought out Jay’s entrepreneurial spark
- Jay’s thoughts on the mentality that an entrepreneur has to have
- What Canadians can learn from the way Americans do business
- How it took so long to legalize cannabis
- How the War on Drugs camouflaged racism
- Where to double down if you’re interested in becoming a cannabis entrepreneur
- The next domino after cannabis to fall
- What characteristics you need to succeed in the cannabis industry
- Why entrepreneurs should get involved in politics
Related Links
Jay Rosenthal
Business of Cannabis
Quotes From the Show
“The arc needs to be having it work. There’s going to be hiccups along the way, because not everything works especially when you’re building something new.”
“When I got into politics or working for elected officials, it didn’t seem like a stretch.”
“The war on drugs in the US – and to a lesser extent here – it really only put black and brown people behind bars in the US.”
“I just don’t see where you would be able to go into a store and buy mushrooms.”
Tom Short is the founder and Chief Customer Officer at Kudos, a company that helps improve company culture and engagement with employees and colleagues. Company culture is an important requirement for today’s job seekers, so if you want a company to succeed, it’s important to learn how to create a good company culture. And according to Tom, even if your company culture is bad currently, it’s not too late to make a change. Listen in to hear what Tom has to say about how he found this path, what’s involved in changing culture, and how to show appreciation in a way that’s authentic.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- What Kudos is for
- Tom’s childhood and how he found his path
- Tom’s opinion on naivete
- How much of Tom’s trajectory was up to DNA
- How coming from a military family influenced Tom’s path
- How hard it is to change a company’s culture
- How to do due diligence on a company’s culture
- Why companies choose not to invest in culture
- How to appreciate in an authentic way
- How to train people to be better colleagues when it’s not naturally part of their demeanor
- How much culture comes from stereotypes
- How to reach Tom
Related Links
Tom Short
Quotes From the Show
“Lots of people have great ideas and epiphanies in the shower or they see opportunities, but it’s all about getting after it and making it happen.”
“Every business on the planet has got people, and people are weird"
“Everyone’s lousy at whatever they start at the first time.”
How can you follow your passions in life? What role does emotional intelligence have on your ability to negotiate and make deals? Delee Fromm has answers for some of these questions. Delee is a lawyer with a background in psychology who currently works as a speaker and author. Listen to her interview to hear what Deele has to say about how she grew up, what she thinks people do wrong in negotiations, what men and women do differently in terms of dealmaking, and how to reduce inequality.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Delee’s background
- What the effect is of growing up in small towns
- What Delee’s parents did right and wrong
- How you follow your passions
- What Delee learned about human nature in her psychology background
- Whether intelligence is innate or learned
- Key components of emotional intelligence
- The emotional responses of psychopaths
- What people do wrong in negotiations
- Whether men and women negotiate differently
- Doing better at eliminating inequality
- Equality of outcome versus equality of opportunity
- What companies and organizations can do to support diversity
- How to balance diversification with virtue signaling
Related Links
Delee Fromm
Quotes From the Show
“You feel unique when you’re in a small setting.”
“I’m a person who believes that you follow your bliss.”
“Because they’re not aware of the emotion bubbling up, it becomes very strong, and they may act on it before they’re aware.”
Matt Cohen was highly influenced by his first investment in Turnstyle Solutions, and he used what he learned as he became the founder and managing partner at Ripple. In today’s interview, Matt shares useful information about his experiences in investing, founding, and entrepreneurship. Listen to the episode to hear what Matt has to say about what creates entrepreneurs, the necessity of sacrifice as an entrepreneur, and the importance of maintaining a good network.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- What Ripple is and why Matt started it
- What creates entrepreneurs
- Matt’s backstory
- The level of sacrifice involved in being an entrepreneur
- Matt’s view on failure
- Matt’s curiosity
- Maintaining a good network
- The line between business and personal
- Matt’s mentors
- How to pick jockeys
- How our minds perform at a high level
- How to reach Matt
Related Links
Matt Cohen
Quotes From the Show
“Building out a network beyond what you grow up in, in the bubble you grow up in, is really important.”
“What I was very adamant about doing as soon as I left high school was trying to get out of the bubble I grew up in.”
“You don’t want someone who has gone through failure and is just glass half-full person their entire life.”
“When you ask for advice, you get money, and when you ask for money, you get advice.”
Did you know you can still succeed as an entrepreneur even if you’re not certain about your path? Even if you struggle with stress and anxiety? These are some of the issues that today’s guest is going to talk about. Adam Levinter is the founder and CEO of ScriberBase, a published author, and a podcast host. Listen to the episode to hear what he has to say about why too much self-imposed pressure is detrimental, why asking for help makes you stronger, and what’s happening in the world of subscription-based business models.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- How Adam got to the space he’s in
- Whether going into business for himself was something that was on Adam’s mind from childhood
- Adam’s advice to people who think they need to have a defined path
- Why too much pressure is detrimental
- Techniques that Adam finds to be effective in dealing with anxiety and stress
- Self-awareness and asking for help
- Building trust as a salesperson
- What ScriberBase does
- Areas where Adam thinks that there’s going to be a boom
- What some subscription businesses get wrong
- Whether the excitement of subscription models is going to change
- What Adam wishes he would have known early on
Related Links
Adam Levinter
Quotes From the Show
“I feel like this chapter is a chapter of many in this life.”
“When I feel a sense of anxiety, or I feel a sense of stress, I get to a pen and paper as fast as I can.”
“Nobody cares about your idea and how good it is. Will people whip out their wallets and pay for it?”
Are you financially literate? Would you know it if you weren’t? Today’s guest says that literacy on personal financial issues is one of the biggest problems in Canada, and Canada doesn’t even know it. Justin Thouin is the co-founder of LowestRates.ca. He’s an expert in personal finance and entrepreneurship, and his website has helped Canadians save over a billion dollars. Listen in to hear what Justin has to say about how he became an entrepreneur, the importance of trying hard, and what other leaders and entrepreneurs can take from Justin’s experiences.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- What Justin does with LowestRates.ca
- How Justin got to be an entrepreneur
- Why Justin’s parents pointed him toward the traditional path
- How being in a competitive sports environment helped Justin become a better leader
- Why kids must learn to try their hardest
- The difficulty of getting started
- The biggest learnings of the first days
- How much education is needed for growth
- What other leaders and entrepreneurs can take from Justin’s experiences
- Whether success is born or bred
- What mortgage rates are going to do over the next few years
Related Links
Justin Thouin
LowestRates.ca
Quotes From the Show
“Our goal is to help people save time and save money.”
“I’m a really competitive person. I can’t stand losing, and I’ll do almost anything not to lose.”
“I think personal finance, or personal financial literacy, is the biggest problem that Canada doesn’t even know it has.”
“Winning matters, but winning is the outcome of effort and preparation – it just doesn’t come easily”
How powerful is a personal brand? How does having a personal brand affect your life, your career, and your business prospects? Today’s guest knows a little bit about that situation. Joining the podcast today is Nav Bhatia, otherwise known as the Raptors Superfan due to his support of the Toronto Raptors. Listen in to today’s discussion to hear what Nav has to say about passion, honesty, and hard work.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- How Nav ended up in Canada
- Where Nav got his passion and character from
- Why so many people have a hard time finding the passion in their lives
- Patterns of behavior that lead to excellence in sales
- How important it is to Nav to represent the Sikh community
- How important a personal brand has been to Nav
- How the personal brand has impacted Nav’s business
- Why giving back is so important
- What Nav thinks young entrepreneurs should focus on
- Nav’s next steps
- What the future of the Raptors looks like
Related Links
Nav Bhatia
Nav on Instagram
Nav Bhatia Superfan
Quotes From the Show
“I always feel, if you do the right thing, money comes. It’s a secondary thing.”
“I feel when you are a Sikh, you can be seen from far away.”
“This country gave me everything. It gave me all the good things in life.”
How do you get from Canada to Korea? What prompts someone to go into the financial field and succeed? Today’s guest is James Burron, cofounder and president of CAASA, and he’s going to discuss how he ended up where he is and what’s influenced him over the course of his life and career. Listen in to hear James discuss how growing up in a small town affected his worldview, how adversity affected his path, and what he’s learned about the art of cooperation.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Where James got his start
- Why James wanted to be in Korea
- How James got to where he is now
- How James’s birthplace and childhood home affects the way he views the world
- What James’s parents did to contribute to his adventurous nature
- How much adversity impacted the person James is today
- What CAASA is and what they do
- What James has learned about the art of collaboration through his career
- Where Canada is leading and failing
- Strategies people need to pay attention to as they’re starting their careers
- Strategies that James doesn’t think people are taking seriously enough
- What fund managers are doing right and wrong when it comes to raising capital
Related Links
James Burron
Quotes From the Show
“It’s not a startup unless you’re terrified every once in a while.”
“In the financial community, everyone knows everyone else.”
“I think taking folks for granted and that they’ll want to do something is a first mistake that people make.”
How do you go from being a rapper to a tea entrepreneur? Today’s guest has an unusual story and he can tell you all about it. Daniel Lewis may have started out as a rapper, but now you may know him from T by Daniel. He’s an entrepreneur, a public speaker, and a marketer. Listen in to Daniel’s story and hear what he has to say about his journey, the importance of words, and why having passion matters so much.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
Daniel’s current role and self-image
- Daniel’s background
- What Daniel’s parents think of his journey
- Why Daniel believes words are powerful
- What Daniel’s inherited from his parents
- How Daniel landed on tea
- How important passion is to Daniel and why it’s so important to him
- Advice and cautions that Daniel would give to new entrepreneurs
- How Daniel served tea to the Prince of Wales
Related Links
Daniel Lewis
T by Daniel
T by Daniel on Instagram
info@DanielSpeaks.ca
Quotes From the Show
“That incident in 2009 was the catalyst for the rest of my life and the change that would come.”
“The way my parents have raised me and my siblings, and continue to, is – they lead with love.”
“Passion kicks in when results are not necessarily there.”
You may have heard of Mark Skapinker as the managing partner at Brightspark. But what you may not know is that Mark has had four separate careers and that there are through-lines in those careers that have followed him throughout his life. Listen in to hear Mark explain how he ended up where he is and why that’s important. You’ll learn about the importance of passion in building a career, how Mark made a decision that led to the “freemium” model, and what it means to be a good venture capitalist.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- What Mark’s childhood looked like
- How Mark ended up in Canada
- The importance of passion in building a career
- The through-lines between Mark’s various careers
- Mark’s decision that led to the “freemium” model
- Why it’s important to “go big or go home”
- Becoming a good venture capitalist
- Patterns for success and failure in cultures and leadership teams that Mark has seen
- The success rates that Mark’s seen
Related Links
Mark Skapinker
Brightspark
Quotes From the Show
“For one reason or another, I always knew I was leaving South Africa.”
“It’s no coincidence that the counterculture of the 60s and the Grateful Dead, and people like that grew up in Palo Alto and that Apple grew up in the same part of the world.”
“The beauty of our industry is that when something succeeds, you just ignore all the stuff that fails and make-believe that that didn’t happen.”
Stella Millis is already close to FirePower Capital, as a Director of Private Equity at FirePower herself. But how did she reach that position? What is it about Stella that made her the person she is today, and that made her suited for the roles that she has today? In today’s episode, you’ll hear what Stella has to say about growing up in a Greek immigrant family, what kinds of obstacles Stella faced, and how her core values played a role in bringing her to where she is today.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Stella’s professional background
- Stella’s childhood
- What role Stella’s obstacles played in making her the person she is today
- What gave Stella the interest in engineering
- Stella’s core values
- How Stella moved into forensic accounting
- Advice for someone considering a radical shift in their life
- Whether we’re a product of genetics or upbringing
- Advice Stella would give to women in industries like engineering
- How listeners can find Stella
Related Links
Stella Millis
Quotes From the Show
“At the end of the day, people are people.”
“I was one of the youngest individuals who graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Music when I was 16.”
“You gotta have a set of values. They’re developed from when you’re really young.”
Some of the most successful entrepreneurship stories started when the entrepreneur decided to create a product that they were looking for or solve a problem they were having. That has something to do with how Mariam Ekram came to found Koa Natural Foods, a company that provides healthy and delicious foods.
Listen to hear more from today’s guest, Mariam Ekram. Mariam is the founder and president of Koa Foods as well as the founder and president of Empowering Women. Listen in to what she has to say about her career path as an entrepreneur, why mindset is important, and the value of passion in building businesses.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- What Mariam does at Koa
- What led to Mariam’s career path as an entrepreneur in Canada
- How an immigrant mentality affects the way Miriam looks at the world
- What gave Mariam her mindset
- The power in faking it till you make it
- Authenticity in relationships
- How important passion is in building businesses
- Where Mariam can be found online
Related Links
Mariam Ekram
Marian on Instagram
Koa Natural Foods
Quotes From the Show
“I was obsessed with trying to find out what kind of greatness could I achieve as a person?”
“If you walk into a room and don’t believe in yourself, how do you expect others to believe in you?”
“You’re not faking it, you’re putting yourself in a state of extreme discomfort till you make it.”
Is teaching part of the entrepreneur’s formula for success? Today’s guest has some thoughts about that. Raymond Luk is a serial entrepreneur and investor. He’s the founder of Hockeystick and Flow Ventures. In today’s episode, you’ll hear Raymond discuss his background as the child of educators who were immigrants to Canada, the importance of failure in entrepreneurship, and whether or not entrepreneurs need to be extraverted to be successful.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- What Raymond is focused on right now
- Raymond’s background
- How Raymond’s family ended up coming to Canada
- The perception of young founders
- How Raymond transitioned to entrepreneurship
- The importance of failure
- Whether you need to be outgoing and extraverted to be an entrepreneur
- Raymond’s take on the nature vs. nurture debate
- Advice that Raymond would give to young entrepreneurs
Related Links
Raymond Luk
Raymond on Twitter
Quotes From the Show
“I think that a big part of our job as entrepreneurs and leaders is teaching.”
“We care about the big success and the big failure, not that much in-between.”
“I’ve become a lifelong learner starting from a young age. It’s one of my favorite things to learn new things.”
Will Sutherland is a vice president at Kilmer Group and describes himself as the cowboy in his office. Will joins the podcast today to talk about his views on leadership and business and what he’s working on now. Listen in to hear what Will has to say about what he thinks about when he makes a career move, what the three types of leadership are, and what you can learn from taking a long-term view.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Will’s current role
- What Will’s childhood looked like and how he got to where he is now
- What Will thinks about when he’s making a career move
- Where Will is in the nature vs. nurture debate
- The three types of leadership
- The importance of balance
- What you can learn from someone with a long-term view
- Patterns that Will has seen that led to success or failure
- What makes Will hesitate in getting involved with a company.
Related Links
Will Sutherland
Quotes From the Show
“As a young person working with teams, working with contractors, you realize the soft skill stuff is 80-plus percent of the issue.”
“You’re going to find out more about what not to do in the first five years of your working life than what actually works.”
“I am the cowboy in my office, that’s my role, to try to do non-vanilla deals.”
Why is it important to have fun on the job? Today’s guest is Perry Dellelce, a founder and managing partner at Wildeboer Dellelce law firm. One of the firm’s founding principles has to do with fun, and according to Perry, they were casual at work before casual Friday’s existed. Listen in to today’s episode to hear about how Perry ended up founding a law firm at a young age, why he thinks having fun with your work is important, and what lessons he’s learned along the way.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- What Perry’s childhood and background looked like
- How the immigrant side of Perry’s life affected his work ethic
- What led Perry to start his own firm
- Whether Perry understood how big of a risk he was taking starting his own firm
- Whether Perry thinks a chip on the shoulder is a good thing or a bad thing
- Why having fun is important
- The hard lessons Perry has learned along the way
- What you have to have to be an investor in something
- An example of a winning investment that surprised Perry
- Where listeners can find Perry
Related Links
Perry Dellelce
Wildeboer Dellelce LLP
Quotes From the Show
“I think what your viewers and my viewers will find interesting is more the story of the law firm.”
“We were casual in 1993, long before The Gap made casual Fridays a reality.”
“To this day, I stand up and pay a little bit more attention when one of the seven sister law firms are on the other side.”
Kevin Moshal is a Reginal Managing Partner at Grant Thorton. Kevin is a proud Canadian who immigrated from South Africa. In today’s episode, Kevin discusses the educational system that helped shape him growing up in South Africa, why South Africa produces so many accountants, why he decided to make the move to Toronto, and what he knows about leadership.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- What Kevin’s upbringing looked like
- The educational system in S. Africa and why it works well
- The mentality of education in S. Africa in the 80s
- Kevin’s thoughts on parenting and educating his own kids
- What kids learn from sports
- Why so many accountants come from S. Africa
- Why Kevin moved to Toronto
- How Kevin moved up the ranks in his firm
- Kevin’s take on nature vs. nurture
- Lessons that Kevin has learned about leadership
- The best way listeners can reach Kevin
Related Links
Kevin Moshal
Quotes From the Show
“You’re always trying to prove something, and that adrenaline pushes you forward.”
“It’s not what happens to you that matters. It’s how you respond to it that matters more.”
“We as human beings have the most beautiful wonderful thing that was ever given to us. We actually can make choices. It’s called free will.”
How do you transition from running a window-washing business to selling PPE in the middle of a pandemic? Today’s guest can tell you all about it. On today’s episode of the podcast, you’ll hear from Michael Morozov. In the interview, he’ll talk about his background and how he got started as an entrepreneur, how he goes about getting things done without overanalyzing them, and how he recovered from the sudden nosedive in business caused by the pandemic by getting into the PPE business.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Michael’s background
- How Michael got started as an entrepreneur
- Where Michael’s instinct for entrepreneurship came from
- Michael’s mentality around deciding how to get things done
- Transitioning from B to B to B to C
- How to avoid overpromising something that you can’t deliver
- The disadvantages of overanalyzing
- How to balance your team
- How Michael got into PPE
- How Michael got his hands on PPE supplies when they were hard to find
- Why Michael can thrive on chaos
- Why Michael doesn’t think DNA determines success
- Advice for other entrepreneurs
Related Links
Michael Morozov
Quotes From the Show
“Whoever you surround yourself with, that’s who you become.”
“I don’t care what the business is as long as it has a return.”
“You can’t have a shark and want him to eat salad all day. You can’t.”
How do curiosity and empathy combine to make you more successful at sales? Today’s guest has some thoughts on the subject. In today’s episode, you’ll hear from Sam Jacobs, CEO and Founder of Revenue Collective and host of the Sales Hacker podcast. Listen in to hear Sam discuss balancing the free market and regulation, how a Chief Revenue Officer fits into the C-Suite, and which tools sales people most need in their toolbox.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Sam’s view of the connotations of being viewed as a sales guy
- Go-to questions for new accounts
- Sam’s childhood and how it shaped his curiosity and empathy
- Balancing the desire for free market enterprise with protecting people
- Sam’s early career
- Where the CRO fits among more traditional C-level executives
- The value of customer success
- Tools that salespeople need in the toolbox
- Sam’s view of nature vs. nurture
- What The Revenue Collective does
- Where you need to be in your career to join The Revenue Collective
- Sam’s advice for listeners
Related Links
Sam Jacobs
Sam@revenuecollective.com
Sam’s Podcast
The Revenue Collective
Quotes From the Show
“One of the fundamental aspects of success is true intellectual curiosity, and true empathy in sales, specifically.”
“The thing I learned from childhood was really ambition, and that was because I felt misunderstood for a lot of my life, and I felt like I needed to show the world something that was inside of me that I felt like hadn’t come out.”
“One of my mantras in my company is “I’m always going to be more invested in customer success than in sales.”
As a woman, is it possible to have a high-powered career and have children? And what’s the right way to accomplish that? Today’s guest is an example of what is possible for women who want both the demanding career and the rewards of motherhood. Listen in to the episode to hear from Batia Stein, a corporate immigration lawyer and partner with EY Law. In today’s episode, Batia discusses balancing motherhood and career, how adversity may help you succeed, and what Batia has learned about leadership and being a leader.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Batia’s childhood
- How having parents that were older and less involved played a role in Batia’s leadership qualities
- Why independence could be a fault
- What Batia does to help herself become more comfortable with less control
- Advice for women in high powered careers who are looking for the right time to have children
- The challenges of moving countries and transitioning from high school to college at 17
- How much of Batia’s work ethic she thinks is a learned behavior vs. innate
- Why Batia decided to go to law school
- Why Batia decided to go out on her own as a lawyer at a young age
- What Batia learned from waitressing
- Why corporate immigration work appealed to Batia
- What Batia thinks about the trend toward de-globalization
- What Batia has learned about leadership
- How to balance being strategic and authentic
- Common trends that Batia sees in people who move up in their careers
Related Links
Batia Stein
Batia on LinkedIn
Quotes From the Show
“I really prefer to be self-reliant than to rely on other people.”
“I firmly believe that our children are given to us to challenge us.”
“Even with the adversity, you have to be grateful for what it gives you to be able to develop you.”
How does a lone wolf learn to effectively build sustainable teams? How does an Angel Investor learn to pick the winners from the losers when making investments? These are some of the questions that today’s guest will discuss. Solon Angel is a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer with an interesting personal story. Listen in to today’s episode to hear what Solon has to say about how being an outcast can lead to being an entrepreneur, how to not just have vision, but separate the right vision from the wrong vision, and how to use your curiosity effectively.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- An overview of Solon’s career
- Solon’s childhood and upbringing
- What Solon’s parents did to harness his energy and put him on a path to success
- Transitioning a lone wolf mentality to sustainable team building
- How being an outcast can benefit an entrepreneur
- How to take care of your children without coddling them
- How to separate the right visions from the wrong visions
- How to know when to move on from an idea that’s not working
- Tools that can help you use curiosity in the best way possible
- Solon’s view on the nature vs. nurture debate
- The value of self-awareness
- Whether people can change
- Separating the winners from the losers as an Angel Investor
- The best investment that Solon has made
Related Links
Solon Angel
Solon’s website
Quotes From the Show
“You have to shake me up to get the best from me.”
“If you have a kid who is high energy there’s only two outcomes – he can be very successful or wind up in jail.”
“I’m actually humble enough to know that I don’t know what is a good or bad idea. I just know I need to try that.”
What is the role of a coach in your life? And how can a coach help you succeed? Today’s guest has some answers. Kelsey Boyer has spent the majority of her career in the technical recruitment space with her most recent role being a Partner at an AI Recruitment Start-up in Toronto. She obtained her life & executive coaching certification in 2016 and had been coaching on the side but earlier this year; Kelsey took a big leap and started her own leadership coaching business.
Listen in to hear how Kelsey overcame a difficult background to become a successful entrepreneur. In today’s interview, Kelsey discusses how to transition out of a job successfully, why manifestation works, how to convince people that they can manifest the results that they want in life, and why Kelsey thinks it’s so important to be a coach for women.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Kelsey’s background
- When Kelsey began to be motivated by her struggles
- Mentors that helped steer Kelsey in the right direction
- The role that Kelsey’s relationship with her brother played in her life
- Kelsey’s involvement in sports
- Kelsey’s university experience and early career
- Kelsey’s experience with leaving jobs
- How long it took Kelsey to decide to leave her position as a Partner
- How to convince someone that manifesting something is actually real
- What the role of a coach looks like
- Why Kelsey focuses on coaching women
- Common challenges that Kelsey sees with her clients
- Trends among people who succeed in their careers
- Whether Kelsey believes we are more nature or nurture driven
- How to get people to become more self-aware
- Why your why or your legacy is so important
- How young is too young to have a coach
- How to find a coach that’s right for you
Related Links
Kelsey Boyer
Kelsey on Instagram
Quotes From the Show
“I think I’ve just always been that kind of person who wants to do better and continue to move towards my best self.”
“As soon as I declare anything out loud it’s like yeah, I gotta do it now.”
What is the future of coding, and why is this skillset so important to the younger generations and those that will follow them? Today’s guest has some strong feelings about why it’s so important for all different types of people to learn these skills and have access to jobs in the tech industry.
Heather Payne is the CEO of Juno College. Listen in to learn about what Juno College does, why Heather believes it’s so important, and what led her to become an entrepreneur and found a college.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- What Juno College does
- What Heather’s early life looked like
- Heather’s time in China
- Heather’s experience working for McDonald’s
- What Heather tells other women who are looking for leadership roles
- Where Heather’s self-awareness comes from
- Why Heather thinks other women, in particular, may feel jealous or resentful
- How Heather feels about supporting children without glossing over failures
- What Heather gains from exercise
- Where Heather sees the trajectory of coding careers
- What parents should be doing with their children early on
- Good decisions that Heather has made in her life
- What Heather got from an executive coach and a therapist that she couldn’t have gotten from mentorship generally
- Heather’s views on nature vs. nurture
- What Heather expects Juno to look like in five years
- Where listeners can find Heather
Related Links
Heather Payne on Twitter
Heather Payne on Instagram
Juno College
Quotes From the Show
“We’ve got deep McDonald’s roots in our family.”
“What I think has been great, especially in recent years, is that there’s a real movement that I have seen and it’s been visible, of women supporting women.”
“As soon as we have people at the table who represent different types of folks, different walks of life, different backgrounds, everything about our product has become better.”
Do you ask for things when you want them? Many people find it difficult to reach out and ask for something, but the people who can do it often find that they get what they asked for, and this contributes to their success.
Today’s guest is Bryan Gelman, one of the founders of Albert Gelman Incorporated. He’s built a business in the insolvency world, and he’s also the first guest on this podcast who reached out and asked to be on the podcast. Listen to the episode to hear what Bryan has to say about how he ended up working in insolvency, why he’s passionate about his work, and why people have such a hard time with the ask.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Bryan’s background
- Why the store that Bryan’s parents opened was so pivotal in his childhood
- Why Bryan’s parents didn’t want him to go into business with them
- Bryan’s interest in starting his own business
- What attracted Bryan to the insolvency world
- The correlation between authenticity and memorability
- Bryan’s passion for both the process of building his business and the work he does
- What Bryan thinks about nature vs. nurture
- What Bryan thinks his parents did right
- The early years of building Bryan’s business
- Why people have a hard time with the ask
- Building your team
- How to think about hiring
- What Bryan thinks the market will look like over the next year or so
Related Links
Bryan Gelman
Quotes From the Show
“I think it’s gotta be a combination, because you’re born with your parents’ DNA, and then they need to teach you things.”
“When you’re in a family with a small business, and you lose that business, it’s the dinnertime conversation.”
“If you’re an honest guy, and you do good work and good service, you can make a life for yourself.”
How important is it to have a competitive spirit – and to know when to be competitive and aggressive and when to reign it in? What’s the difference between mentorship and sponsorship, and how do these concepts affect your professional career?
In today’s episode, you’ll hear from Tamryn Jacobson, a partner in the Litigation Group at Goodmans, and a cousin of Ilan Jacobson. Listen to the interview to hear Tamryn discuss her upbringing and what effect it had on her career, what decisions and choices Tamryn made that benefited her career, and what Tamryn thinks about whether most people are generally good people.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Tamryn’s childhood and when she moved to Canada
- The things from living a different way that affected Tamryn’s success and character
- Whether living under apartheid during childhood influenced Tamryn’s decision to go into litigation
- What Tamryn’s upbringing looked like
- Whether Tamryn experienced sexism in her career
- What Tamryn thinks she did right in her career
- Mentorship and sponsorship
- Tamryn’s opinion on the importance of a competitive spirit
- Tamryn’s thoughts on nature vs. nurture
- How to motivate someone who has to work harder to keep up
- How biases influence decision-making
- Whether Tamryn believes that people are generally good
- How to stay passionate in challenging situations
- What people get wrong about negotiation
- What percentage of the personality is nature or nurture
Related Links
Tamryn Jacobson
Quotes From the Show
“I think law, like most professions, certainly has – I’ll say a bias against women.”
“You build relationships with people, you build trust with people, and it’s not necessarily you asking them to do you favors, but by proving yourself to people you might be able to get them to want to advance your career.”
“I think typically men are more willing to ask for things than women.”
Blaise Vas is the managing director of The Linen Cupboard Laundry. In today’s episode, you’ll hear about Blaise’s upbringing, how he came to Canada, and what he thinks about the DNA of the entrepreneur. Listen in to hear what Blaise has to say about the resourcefulness of his own parents and their influence on him, what it’s like to travel back and forth between Dubai and Canada, and when and how Blaise began to feel like an owner and take ownership of his business.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Blaise’s background
- The languages that Blaise speaks
- Whether education was instilled in Blaise early on
- Where the resourcefulness shown by Blaise’s father comes from
- Whether attending college in the US was a culture shock for Blaise
- Blaise’s view of himself as an outsider
- How Blaise got to Toronto
- The most uphill battle that Blaise wasn’t expecting
- How long Blaise has been traveling back and forth between Canada and Dubai
- The liberating feeling of doing something for yourself
- When Blaise began to feel like he owned his company
- What Blaise attributes to learned behavior or DNA
- What Blaise thinks about the percentage of nature and nurture
- Remembering the other people involved in your venture
Related Links
Blaise Vas
Quotes From the Show
“Language is just a tool for you to learn about culture.”
“Where other people see challenges, you see opportunity.”
“I didn’t want to keep putting roots down in a country that may one day allow me to call myself an emirate.”
Randolph Mank has a fascinating background working in government as a diplomat. In addition to his expertise in government and global business, he joined the private sector in 2012 as the VP Asia for Blackberry. In 2014, Randolph founded MankGlobal Consulting. Listen to the episode to hear more about Randolph’s experiences as an ambassador, his entry into the private sector, and his thoughts on nature vs. nurture.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Randolph’s background and how he ended up in Asia
- How Randolph went to university without finishing high school
- How being the youngest of seven factors into Randolph’s personality
- What Randolph learned from his time in Ottawa
- How Randolph got through frustrating times
- What Randolph learned from his diplomatic role
- What Randolph has learned about doing business around the world
- The differences in doing business in different parts of the world
- What ambassadorship really looks like
- How to stay sane when dealing with catastrophe
- Maintaining a relationship and family during many moves and in dangerous places
- Randolph’s view of nature vs. nurture
Related Links
Randolph Mank
MankGlobal
Quotes From the Show
“You have to be a scrapper. And to some extent, your background feeds into that.”
“The other part that I learned is just how much trouble Canadians can get into when traveling abroad.”
“It does become personal. But in terms of human resiliency, you see it in the faces of children.”
Rick Ekstein started out in a family business. He’s known for having been the president and CEO of Weston Forest Products and founding Phaze 3 in 2016. Rick is interested in philanthropy and advocacy, politics and policy, and disrupting the status quo.
In today’s episode, you’ll hear Rick talk about his background, what it means to be a planner, and why self-awareness is so important. He also talks about the value of recognizing when you can’t solve a problem on your own and need to seek outside help, including therapy, when necessary. Listen in to hear what Rick has to say about teaching kids about the tools they need to succeed, the value of having a network, and whether it’s helpful to be motivated by a fear of failure.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Rick’s history with Weston
- The importance of not knowing that you have a ceiling
- The categories of good leadership
- What it means to be a planner
- Why leaders are not always good teachers
- How much self-awareness is nature and how much is nurture
- Whether Rick’s work ethic was inherent or instilled
- Accepting success
- How parents can teach their kids to become successful
- Being motivated by a fear of failure
- The importance of your network
- Philanthropy and advocacy
- Maintaining relationships in your network
- Lessons for driving success and avoiding pitfalls
Related Links
Rick Ekstein
Quotes From the Show
“I was brought up with this work ethic of hard work.”
“It takes a lot of courage to say we’re going to do something brand new.”
“I do believe to a very large degree that if you want to do something bad enough, you’ll figure out a way to do it.”
How do you raise a child who will be successful in business and entrepreneurship? Are there characteristics in parents that produce successful children? Are there characteristics in children that parents should look for and specifically nurture? Who better to ask about parenting dealmakers than the mother of a dealmaker?
In today’s episode, Ilan interviews his mother, Marsha Jacobson. Listen in to learn about Marsha’s early life and experiences as well as her thoughts about the value of struggle, what bravery really means, and what it takes to be a good parent, as well as her thoughts about Ilan himself.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Marsha’s early life
- Marsha’s experiences with depression
- Ilan’s childhood
- The impact of struggle on your life
- Signs of Ilan’s adult personality in his childhood
- The importance of having a supportive partner
- The family’s relationship with divorce
- The nature vs. nurture question
- What being brave means
- What makes a good parent
- How discipline factors into parenting
- How to help a child become the most self-aware version of themselves
- Whether vulnerability as a characteristic is important
- What listeners should know about Ilan
- Where listeners can find Marsha
Related Links
Marsha Jacobson
Quotes From the Show
“When you have to do something on your own, when you have to figure out things on your own, you grow from it.”
“I would go so far as to say that you only grow from struggle.”
“Working hard to me is what I think people refer to as choice.”
Frank Baylis is an entrepreneur as well as a politician. He’s the president of the medical technology firm Baylis Medical. He also ran for office to represent the riding of Pierrefonds—Dollard in the House of Commons of Canada and was elected in 2015. In today’s episode, Frank will discuss what he’s learned from running a medical technology firm, what inspired him to get involved in politics, and why having the right business partner is so important.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Frank’s early life and how he got to Canada
- What it means that Frank thinks of himself as a politician
- How it was for Frank joining his mother’s business
- What Frank has learned about picking a good partner
- What Frank has learned about the partnership dynamic
- What the aligning vision looks like today
- Writing down goals
- Why you need a board of directors
- What the experience of transitioning the business was like for Frank
- What Frank has learned from producing ventilators
- What Frank has learned from having a global mindset
- How Frank’s learned to do business in other countries without making mistakes
- How Frank moved into politics
- How Franks avoided getting too frustrated with politics
- Whether anyone can be anything they want to be
- The value of self-awareness
- Frank’s end goal
Related Links
Frank Baylis
Quotes From the Show
“We may disagree what’s a priority or where we put the emphasis, but the majority of us, we’re almost in agreement 95% of what we want to do.”
“When you become aligned and then find someone that’s aligned and wants to do the same thing you do, that’s the foundation that you build upon.”
“There’s no such thing as a self-made man.”
Today’s podcast episode guest is Jon Dwyer. Jon has a lot of experience in entrepreneurship and dealmaking. In today’s episode, Jon talks about the origin of his curiosity, why he feels able to take risks in his professional life, and why vulnerability is such an important quality. Listen in to hear what Jon has to say about the innate qualities and consistent characteristics that he’s seen among great dealmakers that he’s met along the way.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Jon’s background
- Where Jon’s curiosity comes from
- Why Jon takes risks
- What Jon thinks about innate qualities
- How to convince younger people of the value of vulnerability
- Where the motivation to come back after bad experiences come from
- Jon’s view on spreading himself too thin
- Attributes that Jon has seen consistently among great dealmakers
- Where young entrepreneurs should get started
- How Jon stays grounded
Related Links
Jon Dwyer
Jon on Twitter
Quotes From the Show
“I look at my career as being defined by a lot of the things that didn’t go right.”
“Honesty is everything in this game.”
“I’ve always had this innate need to – I don’t want to say satisfy people – but to prove to people that I was doing a good job and I was worthy.”
Today’s guest is an entrepreneur who bought a company known as CSR and later sold it to a South Korean public company. He’s currently the founder and chairman of MOB Beauty. Steve Blanchet is also a former client of Firepower.
Listen in to today’s episode to hear what Steve has to say about entrepreneurship and about his own experiences as an entrepreneur. You’ll hear Steve discuss topics like the importance of mentorship, how to foster confidence and creativity in your children, and why honesty and transparency are so important.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Steve’s background
- Being an entrepreneur at an older age
- Surrounding yourself with the right people
- Why mentorship is so important
- How to identify a bad mentor
- Trying new things
- Steve’s thoughts on nature and nurture
- Tools that parents can use to foster confidence and creativity in children
- How Steve’s earlier experiences helped him on his entrepreneurial path
- The importance of people in your organization
- The importance of transparency and honesty
- How to build and foster a good culture
- Why Steve wanted to get involved with MOB
- How important believing in your project is to long-term success
- Making changes in a company
Related Links
Steve Blanchet
MOB Beauty
Quotes From the Show
“My entrepreneurial acquisition focus – I was in my mid-fifties when that happened.”
“I guess with age and maturity goes some realization of fallibility.”
“Your people are, in my mind, a very important pillar that translates into your culture.”
Anthony Lipschitz is an entrepreneur, business leader, and company builder with a long history of experience in all stages of the business cycle. Anthony is also a Firepower Capital partner who heads up Firepower’s private equity division. Listen in to today’s episode to learn more about Anthony and his background. In today’s episode, you’ll hear about Anthony’s first sales job, why he believes strongly in the power of mentorship, and what it was like to be involved in various different business roles throughout his career.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Anthony’s background in South Africa
- Anthony’s competitive drive
- How Anthony got his college scholarship
-
Where Anthony got his risk tolerance from
-
How growing up in a single-mom household affected Anthony
- What the end of Anthony’s soccer career was like
- The importance of Anthony’s first sales job
- What people need to learn about following their passion and doing things out of necessity
-
Why mentorship is so important
-
The importance of having a supportive partner
- How your DNA determines your characteristics
- How to create the ability to work and overcome adversity in children
What role does EQ play in company culture? Do workers going through the mergers and acquisitions process experience the stages of grief? These are some of the questions that today’s guest tackles in this episode.
Jennifer Fondrevay is the Founder of Day1 Ready Consultancy. She advises forward-thinking business leaders, owners, and C-suite executives on how to prepare for the human capital challenges of mergers and acquisitions. She’s also a speaker and the author of the book Now What? A Survivor's Guide for Thriving Through Mergers & Acquisitions. Listen in to hear what Jennifer has to say about the role of EQ in a company, why Jennifer decided to give up a C-suite role and go out on her own, and what really happens inside the mergers and acquisitions process.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Jennifer’s background
- Jennifer’s education and early career
- How much of a role EQ plays in company culture
- Whether having a female perspective affects EQ
- Tools that can increase EQ
- Jennifer’s opinion on nature vs. nurture
- How Jennifer decided to venture out on her own
- What “us vs. them” means when two companies come together
- Why Jennifer works with executives in the pre-deal announcement phase
- Whether self-awareness is a skillset that can be developed
- Whether there’s a playbook for enhancing the success of mergers and acquisitions
- Key pieces of advice for young entrepreneurs
Related Links
Jennifer Fondrevay
Jennifer’s Website
Now What? A Survivor's Guide for Thriving Through Mergers & Acquisitions
Quotes From the Show
“Where I do think that females may register higher is the empathy/compassion/intuition aspect.”
“My experience is when people feel heard, and they feel that they’re able to contribute to that final solution, they’re invested in it, they want it to succeed.”
“My belief is, if you wait until the announcement, if you consider “day one” the day the deal is announced, you’re dead in the water, frankly.”
How do your habits factor into your success? How important is organization when it comes to being a leader and engaging in creative thinking? Those are some of the questions that today’s guest will discuss.
Jay Kellerman is a partner at Stikeman Elliot and one of the top mining lawyers in the world. Listen to today’s interview to hear what Jay has to say about how his upbringing influenced his career, why mentorship is so important and how to find mentors, and what his views are on how organization impacts his process.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- How Jay got into law
- What about Jay’s upbringing influenced his adult life
- Whether Jay thinks that leadership is a result of nature or nurture
- Why mentorship is important
- How to find a mentor
- How momentum and habit-building factors into Jay’s success
- Whether Jay uses a methodology for building habits
- Jay’s views on organization
- What steps Jay took in his career and what decisions led to those steps
- How listeners can find Jay
- Advice for listeners
Related Links
Jay Kellerman
Quotes From the Show
“If somebody is going to mentor you, they need to see in the protégé, your desire, your ability, your commitment to the relationship with that.”
“You’re not the first person at the dance here, there’s been a series of people already, some have done great and some have disappointed and it all comes in that natural relationship.”
“I am a big believer in habit and everybody’s habits can be different, and you’ve got to find what works for you.”
In today’s episode, you’ll hear from an entrepreneur named Clive Kinross. Clive started his career as an accountant in South Africa. But then he moved to Canada, where he eventually founded a company called Open Lane. He later sold the company and took a little time off but that wasn’t the end of his story. More recently, he founded a company called MoneyKey, which is a FinTech company based in Canada but doing business in the US.
Someone who starts out as an accountant in South Africa and ends up as a successful CEO twice over must have a lot of great experiences to share, and you’ll hear about those in today’s interview. Listen in to hear what Clive has to say about how and why he ended up in Canada, the lessons that he learned early in his career, and whether he thinks entrepreneurial qualities are a product of nature or nurture.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- How an accountant in South Africa ended up as a successful CEO in Canada
- Why Clive decided to settle in Canada
- Whether Clive has found it easy to predict what he needed to do for his career
- What it is about Clive that led him to do what he needed to do to become successful
- What helped build Clive’s confidence in the early years
- How much of Clive’s mentality comes from his upbringing and how much of it he was born with
- The key lessons Clive learned from Open Lane
- What it takes to make a good team
- Identifying your own strengths and weaknesses
- How previous experience factors into current endeavors
- Advice for young entrepreneurs
- How to find mentors
- Whether Clive attributes success in entrepreneurship to nature or nurture
Related Links
Clive Kinross
Quotes From the Show
“Lots of people speak about being driven by success, and I think about that a lot, but I think what drives me more than success is the desire not to fail.”
“There’s very few people I’ve met that are as competitive as I am.”
“If you’re playing basketball, you want Shaquille O’Neal to play center.”
Today’s guest is Jim Estill. Jim is the president and CEO of Danby Products. Jim has invested in over 150 startups. He’s also known for his philanthropy, and particularly for being a well-known advocate during the Syrian refugee crisis. In today’s episode, you’ll learn more about Jim’s background and what drives him. Listen in to hear what Jim has to say about how he became an entrepreneur, how his thinking about leadership has shifted, and why philanthropy is so important to him.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Jim’s background
- Jim’s first foray into entrepreneurship
- The power of momentum
- How Jim built his business
- Why some people can see opportunity while others don’t
- Patterns of leaders that lead to success
- Jim’s philosophy about teams
- Creating environments that encourage candid feedback
- The pros and cons of ego
- Shifts in Jim’s thinking about leadership
- The things you need to stop doing as you grow
- The value of AQ, IQ, and EQ
- Why Jim bought Danby
- The importance of the why
- Why philanthropy is important to Jim
- The secret to happiness
- Jim’s goals
- Three lessons for entrepreneurs
Related Links
Jim Estill
Quotes From the Show
“It’s just a very simple rule. Leave the room a little neater than when you came in.”
“In the computer business, you do market research for a year, you’re going to be buying ten-megabyte hard drives.”
“Your job is to take average people and make them above average.”
Mo Lidsky is the CEO of Prime Quadrant. He’s also a man of many accomplishments. Mo is an entrepreneur, but he’s also an investor, advisor, and author. In today’s episode, Mo takes the time to explain how he got to where he is today and what his views are on nature vs. nurture. Listen to the episode to hear what Mo has to say about self-awareness, inspiring children, and promoting alignment among critical people inside of an organization.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- What Mo’s early life was like
- Mo’s first business
- Mo’s view on whether success boils down to nature or nurture
- Times when some influence or shift changed Mo’s trajectory
- Mo’s views on self-awareness
- Tools that young people can use to figure out what they should be doing
- How Mo puts his ideas into practice with his children
- Tools that promote alignment among the most critical people in the organization
- How Mo got into his current business
- What Mo loves about what he does
- What is enough
- How philanthropy has influenced Mo’s non-philanthropic ventures
Related Links
Mo Lidsky
Quotes From the Show
“I could almost point to a couple instances in my life where the penny dropped, or something shifted, or somebody had some kind of influence that changed the trajectory.”
“I’ve always had the belief that what we want isn’t necessarily what we ought to be.”
“The best thing that happened in this period is that my daughter can’t hang out with her friends. So she wants to learn the piano, so we bought her a piano. In two weeks’ time, the kid has picked up how to play the piano.”
When it comes to being the type of person that becomes a successful entrepreneur, is rebelliousness part of the package? Where does work ethic factor in? In today’s episode, your host and guest Matt Wilson of BATL (The Backyard Ax-Throwing League) ponder these questions and more. Listen in to hear about Matt’s background and how he ended up founding an indoor ax-throwing league to begin with, as well as how he built BATL’s community, what things aspiring entrepreneurs need to hear, and whether it’s nature or nature that produces entrepreneurs.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- Matt’s family background
- Rebelliousness as part of the entrepreneurial spirit
- Matt’s educational background
- The characteristics that helped Matt succeed in his early jobs
- Matt’s experience managing an indoor volleyball venue
- How Matt got into comedy shows
- How Matt got interested in ax throwing
- The origin story for how Matt founded BATL
- How BATL evolved from a backyard event into a business
- How Matt started hosting events
- The importance of a work ethic
- How Matt and Ilan met up
- Where BATL is now in terms of locations, employees, and growth
- The real and perceived safety issues involved in ax throwing
- How ax-throwing has caught on and become more mainstream
- What Matt sees in the future for BATL and ax-throwing as a sport
- How much of BATL’s community-building happened naturally vs through strategy
- Important lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs
- Nature vs. nurture
- What Matt wants for his life
Related Links
BATL
Matt on Instagram
Quotes From the Show
“I’ve always been able to kind of bring people together to do things, and that certainly is a benefit in the workforce.”
“When I think something is great, I’m pretty passionate about making sure that other people around me understand how great it is.”
“You never have to jump off a cliff. You just don’t.
What makes an entrepreneur? What does it mean to be an entrepreneur? These are some of the questions this podcast will be exploring, beginning with today’s guest.
Matt Wilson is the founder and creator of BATL, which stands for Backyard Axe-Throwing League. Matt’s company is one of the first to offer an indoor ax-throwing experience. Listen to the episode to hear more about Matt’s business, as well as what Matt thinks about the qualities of an entrepreneur, what motivates and drives him, and what qualities he looks for in a leader.
Topics Discussed in This Episode
- BATL – Backyard axe-throwing league
- The origin story for how Matt founded BATL
- Persuasiveness in the DNA of an entrepreneur
- The value of resourcefulness
- When Matt labeled himself as an entrepreneur
- How many employees Matt has
- Matt’s motivations and what drives him
- Whether being an entrepreneur is part of who Matt is
- What qualities Matt looks for in a leader
- Achieving gratefulness
- How much of entrepreneurship and leadership is nature vs. nurture
- What words of advice Matt would give to his younger self
Quotes From the Show
“One of the things that brings me the most joy is the idea of sharing something that I love with someone who may not understand it.”
“I’ve always lived very much in the moment, often to a fault.”
“If you go out there and you task yourself every day to identify ten things that you’re grateful for and say it out loud to yourself, you can teach yourself to be grateful.”