Pamela Labelle is the Founder and President of the Business Exchange a company she started 22 years ago. She loves helping people grow their businesses and expand their franchise systems. As an industry expert, she has spent the majority of her career in the business brokerage and the franchise industry. She has extensive knowledge in areas such as driving attendees to franchise events, assisting in strategic franchise recruitment and helping both business brokers and franchisors sell their resales. Here are some insights she will be sharing:

• If looking to start or buy a business you need to identify what you are most passionate about. Working as an entrepreneur is a like a never ending workout, so it would be critical to be passionate about what you are doing. 

Andrea Garson has over 27 years of HR experience in multiple industries with organizations including Loblaws, Pepsi, Dell, Workopolis and Cardinal Health.  She is a leading authority on values based leadership, culture, engagement, and attracting and retaining key talent.  A seasoned presenter, Andrea has spoken across Canada at conferences, seminars, and has taught HR courses at Saint Mary’s, Mount Saint Vincent and York Universities.  In 2017 Andrea retired from corporate HR to start her own HR Consulting firm, Breaking Glass where she specializes in helping CEO’s “break some glass” in order to affect change in their organizations. 

Here are the key factors she believes, will help elevate your team and your company as a whole:  

• Companies too often make decisions based on the financial impact and forget about the impact these decisions have on their people,

.

• Communication and transparency: Employees need to be aware of what’s happening in the business and when they are succeeding or failing. When celebrating the successes or handling the failures in a business, employees feel like they are part of the overall process and they feel like they played a vital role.  This in turn will motivate them to contribute to the growth trajectory of the business 

Parveen Dhupar is a seasoned brand strategist, visionary, designer, serial entrepreneur, connector, public speaker, author, coach, mentor and founder of BTI Brand Innovations Inc. BTI, is a boutique creative agency offering fully integrated creative and marketing services to H2H (Human2Human) client partners. He is also a chapter president of EO Entrepreneurs’ Organization which is a global non-profit organization with over 14,000 members and whose stated mission is to "Engage leading entrepreneurs to learn and grow." 

In this episode Parveen shares his entrepreneurial insights from over 20 years of experience in the creative industry.  His guiding personal mantra: “Lovin’ it, Livin’ it,” is how he chooses to wake up and live every day of his life. Parveen started his entrepreneurial journey, with a $20,000 apple computer investment at a very young age. That investment launched his creative career including the growth of his own agency in his early 20’s. In 1999, at the age of 31, he came to an epiphany that he did not want to be that entrepreneur that wasn’t involved in their child’s life, as he was putting all his time and effort into his business. Parveen sold his shares in his agency and experienced what many would define as success at a very young age. He decided to focus his effort on a  more balanced all around success with his family, and give back to the world.

Here are the key DNA elements that have helped him achieve balance in his life and success in his work:

• Being around a like minded tribal network of individuals is critical to reinventing yourself and to continuously gain the edge while you are on the entrepreneurial journey.

Have you ever wondered what measures SEO success or how SEO actually works? E over coffee podcast guest, Jennifer Osborne, CEO of the Search Engine People (SEP) shares her insights from her highly successful SEO company.

Listen to how Search Engine People grew from 1 employee to 50 employees today. Jennifer stresses how a balanced culture of both fun and accountability is the key to creating a great tribe and positive working environment. Hiring staff members that have great attitudes and a thirst to learn was her magic formula in creating a powerhouse team. Smart engaged employees want to be part of a structured, organized company that has all their “ducks lined up” in all facets of the company. 

What is SEO? It is the process of working on your website so the search engines can crawl and index it more efficiently. Content is a critical factor in determining your SEO ranking and Jennifer educates our listeners on how google operates and how it is constantly evolving and changing.  Many companies talk about SEO as they build or design your website, but SEP are true specialists in everything SEO delivering tangible results for their clients.

If you are just starting out there are many things you can do on a small budget to improve your sites visibility and increase traffic. First off manage and set up your Google My Business Account and keep being awesome by generating positive reviews for your business or service. Spend small amounts of money on paid search on the search engine that suits your needs best and be sure to target the right demographic and geographical area. As you grow SEO should continue to be a pillar of your marketing strategy. The search algorithms change constantly and true SEO specialists are always learning making it hard for one person to manage. Working with  the right company like Search Engine People that specializes in SEO should provide a roadmap that sets measurable, predictable growth targets.  There is a reason why SEP has been named to the Profit 100 list for 7 years

Ralph Dunning 

Founder of Dunning Golf,

Founder/CEO Foreign Rider

Founder/CEO Brand Unification

Ralph Dunning is a serial entrepreneur who started Dunning Golf in the early 90’s from his basement. Ralph grew Dunning to become the #2 selling golf athletic apparel brand behind Nike.  He took guidance and technology from the cycling industry and applied the same school of thought in incorporating technology into golf apparel. He bootstrapped the business and had no knowledge or pre-conceived notions about the golf industry. Dunning Golf was an 8 person team that beat out Goliath brands such as Under Armour, Polo and Adidas. He was reminded continuously that his product wouldn’t cut it in the golf industry, but he believed in the product and educated the consumer on the power of their brands technology. Dunning Golf started out as an authentic brand with a purpose, as the company grew the brand lost its way when trying to manage the explosive growth. Ralph was tasked with bringing the authenticity back to the brand and the product. Authenticity is about identifying with what your brand stands for and what are the brands guiding principles. Why should someone choose you over your competitor? Authenticity hinges on a unified brand strategy that helps you manage the entrepreneurial journey no matter what stage you are at!

In this Episode:

• You will learn what Authenticity means to a brand.

Audrey Jamieson is the founder and president of Marketing Kitchen. An innovative and unique direct marketing production company.

Audrey learned the Direct Marketing business when she worked for her brother where he built a very successful business that was sold to a larger entity. Her brother died from Cancer soon after and Audrey continued her role in sales for the company, but couldn’t help but think there was a better way to do direct marketing. She had to make a decision to either continue in sales or consider starting her own business. She decided to put the plan in place to launch her own direct marketing business. She came across a business that was for sale, but was under performing. After digging in a little deeper Audrey felt the assets were worth buying and she reached an agreement to buy the business which ultimately became Marketing Kitchen. Today, Marketing Kitchen is committed to partnering with clients to find fresh and innovative ways to stand out in the mailbox.  Recognized by Canada Post as an expert partner Marketing Kitchen is often asked to speak at Canada Post events to share best practices and help companies optimize their direct marketing investments. Marketing Kitchen operates out of a 40,000 square foot facility reaching annual sales revenues in the 8 figure range.

In this Episode you will learn how:

• Even traditional print businesses can thrive when they create a human connection and experience.

Joey St-Aubin is the President and CEO of Canlan Ice Sports a TSX listed company. Joey grew up playing high level hockey in the OHL and also played for Team Canada. He did not realize his dream of playing in the NHL, but the experience he gained as a competitive athlete set the stage for a climb to the top. When he returned home from university he began a tournament business and one day decided to go rent ice at a new rink being built in Oshawa for his tournaments. While speaking to them he spontaneously asked if they were hiring! From this point opportunity knocked and he began managing one arena which led to eventually rising up the ranks to become President and CEO. His persistence and willingness to be in uncomfortable in new and unfamiliar situations catapulted his learning and experience. He was mentored at a young age by the then CEO of Canlan and was pulled into many situations where he felt out of his depth. He talks about his first time in a boardroom surrounded by seasoned executives and successful business people. He leveraged this opportunity by noting every word and concept he could not comprehend and then went home and researched everything that was discussed in that boardroom. Eventually this led to him being involved in the conversations to eventually leading the agendas.

Here is a snapshot on what you will hear in this episode:

• Joey tried his hand at many different jobs and side hustles gaining experiences and learning from his failures, he endured all the highs and lows but that’s the name of the game. 

Dunstan Peter immigrated to Canada at the age of 17 and he studied electrical engineering at Western University. He went on to work in the automotive industry focusing on quality assurance in electrical and software engineering. A car accident caused his life to change and within a 2 hour period his largest clients manufacturing line went down costing them hundreds of thousands of dollars in downtime. While dealing with the accident he missed 52 calls and then Dunstan was fired. This was a turning point where he began to take control of his destiny. He now has over 650 employees and 10 different companies in everything from automotive to developing the future of recreational parks. Listen to how this entrepreneur explains how to go from single to serial entrepreneur. Dunstan has won countless awards including the Walk of Fame Award from ACCES, and the RBC Immigrant Success Advantage Award, Winner of the Movimento Group supplier of the year award, Winner of CAMSC supplier of the year award given by Fiat Chrysler Automotive,  Winner of CAMSC Technology Innovation Award,  Finalist for the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2019 Awards

• Dunstan has consistent ritual work ethic that starts at 5am

Diana Demelo is a full time mother, loving wife, and ultra-successful CEO of the Delivery group, an IT Staffing Company with offices across the country with year over year growth of 30%.  Diana started her company in the basement of her house and realized as time went on that she wanted more and was capable of achieving more!  She has won awards such as, Macleans Magazine’s One of Canada’s Fastest Growing Companies and Chatelaine Magazine has named her One of the Top Female Entrepreneurs.  Diana’s biggest realization as an entrepreneur and a parent is there is no real work life balance unless you understand the importance of quality of time vs quantity of time. Listen to her valuable insights on family, life and business.

Additional Show Notes:

Here are her steps in becoming a successful entrepreneur: 

• Entrepreneurs need to have a plan and a vision with consistent discipline

• Prepare yourself for unchartered waters.

Kundan Joshi CEO of TheAppLabb, a leading app innovation firm focused on strategy, design and development of transformative experiences with Apps, Artificial Intelligence and Mixed Reality.

TheAppLabb received the 2019 & 2020 Top Mobile App Developer Award for Canada and US, as well as the 2019 Top 3 AI Developer Award by Clutch. Kundan received the 2018 RBC Entrepreneur of the Year Award and 2018 Top 25 Canadian Immigrants Award. He is also a recipient of the 2018 EY Entrepreneur of Year Finalist Award; Top 150 Extraordinary Canadians Honour; 2017 Technology Achievement Award. Kundan Joshi explains the importance of the people you connect with in your business and having empathy for the team to help them perform their best. He explains some the mistakes he made early on and his fear of failing as one of his early mistakes. Kundan is an entrepreneur who took action and bootstrapped the start of his business. As an immigrant he moonlighted to save money and identified the app opportunity while at a tradeshow more than 13 yrs ago. Today he has led and built over 500 apps for some of the world’s biggest companies. He walks through the steps in taking action when you believe you have the next big idea. What to do and how to validate through living in your customers shoes. This interview is filled with tremendous insights and comes at a pivotal time as we endure the digital transformation during the COVID pandemic.

1. Empathy for the team to perform at their best

• Produce product market validation.