Before the Business

Recorded September 2022

Starting in October each year, individuals and corporations begin thinking about surprising those close to them with holiday gifts. Recently, one of the more popular gifts has been advent calendars. By now, most of us have seen an advent calendar. Hiding behind numbered doors are treats or surprises that are only revealed when the door is opened. Traditionally, you are only allowed to open one door per day in December.

I’ve seen advent calendars promoting tea, chocolate and even whiskey. But none of these come close to accomplishing what the advent calendar from 24 Good Deeds does.

Based on an idea originating in Germany, for as little as $24, purchasing a calendar directly supports 24 charitable projects—six from each of four four key areas (health care, education, nutrition, and the environment). The charities and their projects are reviewed and approved by an independent advisory board, and must adhere to extremely high standards to be selected.

Behind every door, every day, individuals can see good deeds take place in the world.

Now that’s a holiday gift worth sharing.

24 Good Deeds Website

Recorded August 2022

One of the things that makes Before the Business a special project is being able to get to know entrepreneurs whose products I use and admire. I’m a self-proclaimed spice lover, and I always have a few different kinds of hot sauce in my fridge, including Wicked Smart’s “Calypso”.

Born in Trinidad, founder Ifoma Smart immigrated to Canada at the age of four. In his home as a child, pepper sauce was everywhere, and it was served in generous amounts with every dish. He spent countless hours watching his grandmother, mother, aunts and uncles compete amongst other family members for who had the hottest sauce. They visited West Indian markets and handpicked the freshest ingredients to replicate the flavours of the sauces from back home.

So it was only natural for Ifoma to take what he learned from his family and adapt them to fit his own recipes. When his own mother asked him for his recipe, he knew he was on to something good. He again applying his knowledge to create products that will spice up any dish.

The appeal of the sauces is that they are not ignorantly hot without flavour… at least that’s what they would say in Trinidad. While he claims that these are not Trinidadian-style hot sauces, they certain respect his origins and his roots.

Wicked Smart Hot Sauce Website

Recorded June 2022

Heavenly Hawaiian Farm on Hawaii’s “big island” has been producing award-winning Kona Coffee for over 17 years. As a coffee-drinker, if that was all they did, their blends would still be worth raving about. But they are so much more.

About five years ago — before the pandemic — they decided to refocus their business by combining superior customer service with their superior coffee blends. They no longer sell through distributors, having chosen to deal directly with their customers. They actively engage with their customers, and their doors are open for tours and visitors anxious to learn more about coffee and their business

It’s the customer engagement that really separates Heavenly Hawaiian from the competition. In addition to welcoming people to their farm, they have a volunteer work/stay program where people can join them on the farm for an immersive coffee learning experience. And, they get to enjoy everything the Big Island has to offer while they do it.

CEO Bill Myers has a unique vision for Heavenly Hawaiian. He believes that business does not have to be ruthless, and he has created an ecosystem where customers, plants, and processes are all respected and revered. It’s this love of service that produces some of the island’s finest coffee.

Heavenly Hawaiian Farm Website

Recorded June 2022

Marlene Falcon and Thuy Lam both started their entrepreneurial journey separately in the financial services business. They both came to the same conclusion — something was missing from the money-related conversations they were having with their clients. So after years of working together and talking about the change that they both felt their clients needed, they decided to embark on an entrepreneurial journey together.

Falcon Lam is a consulting firm that provides mentorship to individuals and families. They work closely with clients at the intersection of money and time, helping people focus on living their best life instead of simply maximizing the value of their investments. They believe that this heart-centred approach leads to better outcomes for their many clients.

Marlene and Thuy both live their values openly. As business owners, they certainly practice what they preach and openly discuss how their lives — health, wealth and happiness — have improved since they started the business.

Falcon Lam Website

Recorded May 2022

Like many things of beauty “It’s Souper” began as a dream and a way to find a place in a diverse community for Nigerian born, Lola Adeyemi. Today it’s more than a dream—it’s a business that brings the flavours of Africa to food lovers.

After pursuing a Bachelors Degree at the University of Winnipeg, Lola relocated to Toronto. But even in a bigger city she noticed a gap in the food market. While working as an IT Specialist, she would shop the specialty stores for ingredients to create unique Nigerian dishes to every potluck or team building event. The empty containers and rave reviews from her coworkers confirmed that the gap she had identified was real. But her co-workers didn’t have experience with the ingredients, let alone know where to find them.

In Nigeria, soup is enjoyed year-round. In Canada, she found that some of the “ready to eat” options weren’t flavourful enough, weren’t hearty enough, and we’re interesting enough to make soup an everyday meal. She always had to tweak the soups by adding more flavour and spice to them when she got home. For her, soup should be vibrant, exciting, and colourful! “Soup is an aromatic twist of flavours and textures exploding in your mouth, soup isn’t only for when its cold and dull outside, soup is for every day, soup should be food for your soul. SOUP is LIFE!!”.

With that kind of passion, it’s like she was destined to create and found It’s Souper, an Afro-fusion gourmet brand that creates soups and sauces to elevate your cooking game. #Soupislove

It's Souper Website

Recorded May 2022

After years working in the British Columbia restaurant industry, Bamba Vodka Founder, Brandon McKeachie decided to carve out his own place in the world of spirits with the goal of crafting an outstanding vodka that showcases the "spirit of BC."

As a product, Bamba was crafted to shift outdated perceptions that the best vodka was colourless, odourless, and flavourless. Instead, vodka can be delicious and complex. Bamba is a vodka that challenges the notion that vodka is a spirit that you add to other juices or sugary sodas. It is something that can be enjoyed on its own.

Bamba is crafted with 100% locally-grown organic corn from the Okanagan Valley. Add a bit of yeast, a bit of magic, and some amazing British Columbia water and the distillation process results in a complex flavour profile—vanilla and sweet corn, a fuller body, and a long smooth finish without the “eyes closed, head shaking” ethanol burn.

The name Bamba is an enigma.  We wanted to pick a name that people could create their own meaning and associations around.  If you really go looking for a meaning, Bamba can reflect advice, mastery and maybe even the need to get a little rambunctious. But it’s what it means to you that matters.

Bamba Vodka Website

Recorded April 2022

Kory Zelickson is an entrepreneur and innovator who has launched a number of successful e-commerce and technology companies.

He and his family choose to eat a plant-based diet. Although gaining in popularity, plant-based products are not as readily available through traditional grocery and retail chains. Not only do plant-based products fight for shelf space within their category, they also must compete with other products. As a result, it can be hard for customers to find all of their desired plant-based products — fish, chicken and beef to milk and egg alternatives—in one place. It can also be difficult for new start-up businesses to reach consumers, especially since many food products need to be shipped frozen to remain fresh.

To solve the problem, he created Vejii (www.shopvejii.com), an online digital marketplace that meets the needs of consumers and plant-based companies. Through an online portal, customers have access to their favourite plant-based products and are exposed to new products from emerging providers. Vejii controls a number of cold-storage distribution facilities across North America, ensuring that online orders are shipped directly to the customer exactly as the manufacturer intended.

Shop Vejii Website

Recorded April 2022

The Inuvialuit live in the western Canadian Arctic, predominantly in the coastal regions near the ocean. The landscape plays a huge role in defining the Inuvialuit style of carving, which uses natural materials — muskox horn, baleen, antler, soapstone — to represent everyday scenes. Consequently, each piece of art has a story to tell about the region, the environment, and the people.

Priscilla Boulay was born and raised in Tuktoyaktuk, NWT and is a proud third-generation carver. Her Daduck (Grandfather) was a carver, who passed the skills down to her mother, aunts and uncles, who in turned passed them down to her.

Before starting Inuvialuit Carvers, Priscilla was selling her sculptures and jewellery at local trade and craft shows. Encouraged by compliments from her customers, she eventually started Inuvialuit Carvers as a way to share her own art, art from family members, and art from other indigenous sculptors with a broader audience. Today, her work can be found in boutique galleries across Canada, but most of her business comes through the connections she makes on social media and through her website. Her artwork and her stories are worth sharing.

From her studio in Irricana, Alberta, she continues to tell stories through her carving and sculpture. Her daughters are fourth-generation carvers, and she has recently begun teaching soapstone carving classes to students across Canada, ensuring that the stories live on.

Inuvialuit Carvers Website

Recorded March 2022

I first met Belinda Aramide at a professional business networking event in 2018. At that time, she was a successful Sales Account Executive. But being a cog in a corporate machine was weighing on her. She might have been happy, but she wasn’t fulfilled. She hinted to me that she was working on something, and a short while later she launched Claim Your Space.

Claim Your Space provides business coaching and consulting for entrepreneurs and executives. Because the solutions are based on personal values instead of simply business goals, clients come away with a deeper understanding of how they can succeed in business by aligning and communicating their values to their clients. You might even consider Belinda the first client of Claim Your Space! She shares some of her wisdom on the “Claim Your Space” podcast, and is an active public speaker.

At the core, she helps executives and entrepreneurs confidently “take up space” in their industry, ensuring that their unique expertise is presented to the clients they deserve.

Claim Your Space Website

Recorded March 2022

Aline Nalbandian has always been drawn to how other cultures expressed their identity. That might because she grew up Toronto, Ontario, one of the most diverse cities in North America.

Later in life, as she began to travel with her family, she fell in love with Colombia. As a way to remember her trip, she bought a mochila bag at a local market. In Canada, she would be stopped on the street asking where she had purchased her amazing hand-made bag. This was the spark that eventually grew into A-line Wayuu Love.

In August 2021, she formally started the business with a distinct social purpose. Aline works directly with indigenous artisans of La Guajira, Colombia, eliminating the number of steps between artist and customer. This allows her to give back to the La Guarjira economy and bring awareness to the customs and tradition of some of Colombia’s indigenous people.

Each mochila bag is a function piece of hand-made art. Durable, high-quality, and definitely one-of-a-kind.

A-line Wayuu Love Website