The Canadian healthcare system is typically ranked as either the lowest ranked or second lowest ranked performing healthcare system of all developed world nations. Our physicians are great. Our procedures, world class. Then why such a low ranking?

According to Dr. Brett Belchetz, the reason why we are so far behind in the rankings is access.

Only about half of Canadian doctors work full-time. That is one of the main reasons why Canadians wait so long for care. The perception is that there simply are not enough doctors. In fact, it's because we're not using our doctors properly.

Dr. Brett Belchetz is trying to tackle this exact issue. He is the CEO and Co-founder of Maple, Canada’s leading virtual care provider connecting patients and healthcare providers like doctors and therapists for online medical visits in minutes. He’s also a practicing physician in Toronto, and a Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute. In addition, Brett’s passion for healthcare communication and policy have led him to work as an on-air medical expert for CTV and Global News, as well as a contributor to outlets such as the National Post. Previously, Brett worked as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company.

It is estimated that about 70% of the visits that people are making to clinics, hospitals and their family doctors can be digitized. Maple is out to enable that. As Maple continues to evolve, it is moving to a proactive model, where they can let patients know the frequency of visits that they need to have. They will tip you off when you need a screening test done or an intervention done. They will have resources available between those healthcare visits. So it's not just see a healthcare provider and you're kind of on your own until the next visit in a month or three months. It's an entire program. 

Best of all, Dr. Belchetz wants to make this made in Canada healthcare IP the basis of healthcare systems around the world.

Paul Burns is the Managing Director of Twitter Canada. Did you know that 1 in 5 North Americans use Twitter and 500 Million tweets are sent every single day? It is a platform with scale and is designed to generate conversation. As Paul states, "Twitter is look at THIS platform. It's pointing to a thing, an event, something that's happening in the world and people are talking about that thing rather than themselves." Other social platforms are designed as look at me, but not Twitter.

As brands try to figure out how to engage in the platform, the first step is for them to identify the conversations that they want to be made aware of before engaging. It is important to know that the conversational intelligence within Twitter exists on a few different dimensions, one at a brand level, one at an industry level and one at a more macro economic level. If done right, Twitter is a platform where a brand can actually become a conversational brand. 

Listen in as Paul and I discuss this opportunity to become a conversation brand, along with some other key topics, including;

• Can purpose and profit co-exist, can Twitter be a platform that actually improves the quality of public conversation in the world and generate revenue and profit?
• How can a brand become a conversational brand authentically?
• Do we honestly believe that conversation is the way to solve many of the world's problems?

Oh, and if you want to take over Twitter for a day, they have some pretty cool advertising products that allow you to essentially become the most talked about brand in the country for a day.

Consumers spent $861.12 billion online with U.S. merchants in 2020, up an incredible 44.0% year over year. That’s the highest annual U.S. ecommerce growth in 20 years and It’s also nearly triple the 15.1% jump in 2019.

With more and more people shopping online, retail media just makes sense.  But what exactly is a retail media network?

A retail media network is when retailers set up an advertising platform on their website, app, or other digital platforms within their network. This allows the store, and other brands, to advertise to customers on sites like Walmart.ca. It’s a form of in-store advertising in a digital format.

Dana Toering is a digital media and technology veteran with over 20 years of experience in high growth industries. In his current role as Vice President of Walmart Connect Canada, Dana is responsible for leading and transforming the business into the number one destination for omnichannel advertising solutions (aka Retail Media). Before being named Vice President in 2020, Dana held leadership roles in leading digital media and technology-based companies including AOL Canada, Adobe, and Accenture Interactive.  Listen in as Dana and I talk about the growth of the Walmart Connect Canada retail media network.

What is the future of loyalty?

Capturing and rewarding consumers for their time, money and thoughts.

When Derrick Fung thinks about Drop as a company, ultimately the big vision is to build both the world's most personalized rewards program and the largest transaction data set in market. To get there, one of the the biggest decisions they had to make in the early days of the company was to go directly to the consumer to get the data and not go through merchants as many other loyalty providers do.

Derrick explains that Drop's consumers, especially the younger generations, will give up everything, as long as they're getting value back.  And that's where the world of loyalty is going. Cutting the consumer in on the money, on the deal...that's the future.

Oh, and did we talk about Data?  Well as Derrick says, "I'd say data before was a good to have. Now it's a must have. You know the analogy and the saying, it used to be a vitamin and now it's a painkiller."

Derrick Fung is the CEO and co-founder of Drop, one of the largest mobile rewards products in market with 4m users, hundreds of top retailers and merchants and $40 billion+ in transaction volume. Drop was named LinkedIn's #2 top start-up in Canada, as well as a member of the Deloitte Fast 50. Oh, and Derrick and was a Forbes 30 Under 30 winner in 2014.

Your customers have so many options, so many different ways that they can relay feedback to you. Sometimes they call you, other times they fill in surveys. If you're like me, sometimes you just go to Twitter and shout it out publicly and hope that the company is monitoring it. The ways in which your customers can provide feedback has never been more complex.

Customers are communicating with businesses. They're providing unparalleled insights to inform  brands, organizations, the companies that they deal with, with all kinds of information. Now, the question is, are you as someone working in that business truly listening? Sometimes you actually think you are, but are you really? Do you really know how to listen to all of those different channels of feedback?

Shannon Katschilo is the GM and Vice-President of Medallia in Canada. She has a long career focused on all kinds of different verticals and industries where she has spent her time helping organizations understand what their customers are telling them. Shannon provides us with a great list of five things that leaders and businesses need to do to really understand their customers.

1. Listen before you lead
2. Leverage your employee insights
3. Pulse check your ego
4. Place power in the positive
5. Ask the right questions

Listen in as Shannon and I discuss what these mean and how you can apply them in your business so that you don't miss out on what your customers are trying to tell you.

Jed Schneiderman is a proven entrepreneur, and executive in the marketing, media and technology space.  When I think of Jed, I think of someone who is known for his thought leadership on topics ranging from marketing and technology, to being an entrepreneur and  building successful businesses in the mobile, streaming, broadcast and internet technology spaces, and in "connecting the dots" having been at the forefront of major consumer tech trends and events, and by leveraging strong marketing experience across multiple global brands.

Jed was the Co-Founder and President of Tapped Mobile, a leading North American mobile media company which was acquired by EQ Works in 2018 and before that, Jed was the On-Line Business Group Lead at Microsoft Canada where he was responsible for driving the business and marketing strategies for the Windows Live, Search and the Mobile Services businesses.  This is where I met him - as the lead on his agency doing a bunch of cool and innovative digital marketing campaigns...

So - the reason I asked Jed to join me today is that I find he is the most tagged LinkedIn profile I know of when people want someone's opinion on a variety of topics...and so my big theme of the day is, how is anyone expected to stay on top of all the fast moving and developing information or marketing, technology, business and digital transformation...

People always ask me, how do I seem to stay abreast of the latest and greatest...FOLLOW JED ONLINE!  Simple right....

Here are a few highlights of Jed's wisdom from our discussion and below, a list of the sources Jed referenced as his go to destinations for staying on top of our ever changing digital and marketing environments:

"We live in a world where there is so much content that at some point curation becomes one of the most important things"

"Machine learning is good for pattern recognition, but I don't think it's good for insight"

"Maintain curiosity"

 "Don't underestimate the power of asking great questions"

General
The Message  https://the-message.ca/
The Peak https://www.readthepeak.com/
Media in Canada https://mediaincanada.com/

Marketing
Mark Evans - https://www.marketingspark.co/

Tech
https://techcrunch.com/

Ad Tech
https://www.adexchanger.com/

Data / Charts
http://www.emarketer.com/
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/
https://www.chartr.co/

Fun
https://patentdrop.substack.com/ - shows new patent filings

Podcasts
How I built this - https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this
Reid Hoffman Masters of Scale - https://mastersofscale.com/
Work Life with Adam Grant - Org Culture - https://www.adamgrant.net/podcast/
Fine Tune with Corby Fine - https://www.corbyfine.com/

Newsletters
Tim Dolan Kickframe - https://www.kickframe.com/blog/
Ben Evan - https://www.ben-evans.com/
Tomasz Tunguz - SaaS focused - https://tomtunguz.com/
Daniel Eckler - Sapcecadet - Innovation and

Jeff Greenspoon thinks that the future of agencies is really in driving total customer experience.  He says that this can be accomplished by bringing together the right people at the right time to solve the right problems, while being focused on the need for speed, agility and simplification. He is passionate about being client and idea first, and an agency second. This thought leadership has given Jeff a unique role in the Canadian agency landscape. Listen in as Jeff and I discuss the role of agencies in today's ever changing landscape, and how dentsu is adjusting to meet the needs of it's clients and the market as a whole.

Jeff is currently the President of the dentsu Solutions Group in the Americas and the CEO of dentsu Canada. Previous to joining dentsu, via a merge with Isobar, Jeff was co-founder and CEO of SPOKE, a leading digital creative firm based in Canada. He has managed international campaigns for clients including Nestle Nespresso, Entertainment One, General Motors, Coca-Cola, Hilton Hotels, Disney, and LEGO. He was awarded PROFIT Magazine’s Young Entrepreneur Award and has been nominated as Canadian Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young. He is often called upon as a lecturer by the likes of Google, UofT, Ivey and several international business forums for his perspective on insight-led agency engagements and topics including Marketing, Advertising, Entrepreneurship and the Management of Professional Service Firms.

They say that lightning doesn't strike twice, but this time I think they might just have that wrong. Andrew Chau is a co-founder of SkipTheDishes, the largest food delivery network in Canada which he helped expand to over 110 markets and millions of customers, with over 2,500 employees headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Acquired by Just-Eat in 2016 for $200M and merged with Takeaway (2019) and Grubhub (2020), his startup helped to create one of the largest food delivery companies in the world.

Now, Andrew is on to his next venture, along with a strong team out of Calgary, Alberta, they are  building Neo Financial from the ground up to give Canadians the most rewarding spending and saving experience - the way it should be. Focused on client experience and solving for the technology challenges other banks have, Neo Financial is being built to solve for Canadian's most challenging issues in banking, with great features, high interest rates and amazing experiences.

Listen in as Andrew talks about his experiences as a successful entrepreneur, tackling the needs of consumers with global leading technology solutions. He discusses what it takes to be successful, and why he is doing it all over again. Maybe lightning will strike twice for this incredible entrepreneur!

Ghassan Halazon’s entrepreneurial journey started at the age of 25. Over the past decade, companies founded or acquired by Ghassan and his partners have saved Canadians close to $1 billion, hired 350 employees, and raised capital from over 150 global investors. 

Earlier in his career, Ghassan had the opportunity to sell one of his first ventures to a large Telecommunications firm, but he chose not to.  As we chat in this episode, Ghassan offers this to my listeners; "I think we should have back then, because I think every founder, when you're young and you start your first venture, if you happen to be sexy, even if it's for 30 minutes and someone gives you an outrageous offer for what you were, you should take it."

Ghassan Halazon is a serial e-commerce entrepreneur with a decade of scaling some of the
country’s most coveted digital brands. For his success, he was recently recognized as one of Canada’s Top 40 under 40 honourees for 2020, presented by BNN Bloomberg and National Post.

Ghassan is the Founder and CEO of Emerge Commerce Inc., an acquirer and operator of niche
e-commerce assets with 2 million members across North America. EMERGE has also been recognized as a winner on the Startup 50, and Canada’s Top Growing Companies by the Globe and Mail.  As Ghassan says, they ACQUIRE, INTEGRATE and ACCELERATE e-commerce brands from coast to coast.

At The Big Push, Sharon Zohar and team challenge the traditional accelerator model by tapping into a collective of business and technology executives ready to provide hands-on services and support to create actionable and measurable growth plans to help lift women-led companies to new heights.

Sharon herself is a serial entrepreneur and investor with more than twenty years experience founding, investing, advising, and operating technology, internet, and digital media companies. She is driven by her passion to identify new innovative technologies and business models that have the potential to disrupt traditional markets and are designed to improve the human condition.

As founder and CEO of the Big Push, Sharon has developed a unique “Service for Equity” business model dedicated to accelerating the growth of women-led start-ups and preparing them for Series A financing. She leads a diverse group of professionals with years of experience in the areas of finance, design, law, technology, research, sales, and marketing dedicated to supplementing women founders’ own expertise during the critical startup phase.

Sharon and I talk about the challenges facing entrepreneurs, specifically women. Sharon shares examples of pitches gone wrong, businesses who don't even know how to progress to the next level, and how her team was able to support numerous entrepreneurs to get through their biggest challenges and move forward to success.