Episode Summary: In this powerful and intimate episode, Bram speaks with Rishi Jaitley, COO of My Insurance Broker — the partner brokerage behind Maverick Insurance Brokers — to reflect on what it means to build something bold, personal, and legacy-driven.
Set against the backdrop of Toronto's Yonge-Dundas Square (on 4/16 no less — a nod to the city's area code), this conversation dives into Bram's motivations for launching publicly in such a big way, and what this milestone means for his family, his business, and his future.
They talk about entrepreneurship, identity, inner voice, and what it looks like to lead by example — for your peers, your kids, and your community.
Later in the episode, Bram's Wife Gurpreet joins the mic to share her journey of founding The Gratitude Company, how it grew from a personal healing experience into a movement, and how their family is building with purpose across multiple brands.
In This Episode, You'll Hear About:
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Why Bram chose to "plant a flag" in Toronto with a digital billboard
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How inner child healing and full-circle moments are driving his work
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The values behind Maverick and what makes the business different
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Lessons from underwriting high-net-worth clients — and how they shape Maverick & Aura Kids
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The power of faith, alignment, and creative execution
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How Gurpreet turned her postpartum journey into a gratitude-driven brand
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The family vision behind building generational impact
Key Quotes:
🗣️ "We can do anything we want — if we have the vision and the courage to act on it." — Bram Bains 🗣️ "The Gratitude Company is about giving people tangible reminders of what matters — because everyone has something to be grateful for." — Gurpreet Virdi-Bains
Mentioned in This Episode:
Connect with Bram:
WEB: www.maverickinsurance.ca INSTAGRAM: @insuringyoursuccess
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brambains/ EMAIL: [email protected]
Subscribe to Insuring Your Success Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and everywhere you get your shows. New episodes weekly.
Full Transcript
Rishi: Well, first and foremost, if I can say anything, congratulations to Bram. You'll see the signage. Maverick insurance, big launch day. Doing a lot of work over the last 12 months to bring this thing to fruition. So. Bram. Congratulations. Super proud of you. This is a big milestone. And thank you for letting me be a part of this journey, man. Honestly, we believe in you. We know that you're going to be the biggest success to come out of this camp and couldn't be prouder of what you're doing, how you're doing it, and what you're set to accomplish. Big things.
Bram: Thank you. I'm grateful.
Rishi: Can I ask you….Why? Why are you planting a flag here today at Dundas Square and doing what you're doing?
Bram: Because we can, man. Because we can we can do anything we want. I really believe that we can do anything we want if we have, you know, the vision and we actually have the courage to act on that vision. I believe we're capable of anything. And if anything, today I've got my girls here with me as well. 416, April 16th. We're in Toronto. Toronto. What are you grateful for? It's just one way of spreading positivity and and planting that flag on a special day and a special place. I was telling Andrea as well. I spent a lot of time up and around these streets growing up from a creative standpoint, doing videography, photography, and I'd always look up, but I never thought, I never thought there would come a day where I would be able to do something in this space. And here I am. I think it's a bit of a full circle moment for me. It's a nod to my inner child. And it's just paying homage to a lot of the people that I've had the privilege of growing up with and collaborating with.
Rishi: It's big man.
Bram: To me, it's normal. I'm trying to really ground myself and appreciate this as a milestone. Like looking up there and seeing that.
Rishi: That is a big milestone, my friend. That is a big milestone.
Bram: It's pretty f**king cool, man.
Rishi: Insuring your success
Bram: Insuring your success. I'm grateful man.
Rishi: God bless you man. Sky's no longer the limit.
Bram: No longer the limit. I'm here looking around at all these other billboards. And I can see a future where we take them all. We just do what Dundas Square takeover do a whole Dundas Square takeover.
Rishi: Coming soon.
Bram: We're in year two. Year ten. Maybe year five. God willing, you'll see the whole thing in our colors, in our brand. You know, we just got to champion something, do the best we can. And just live that role model for that next generation. My kids, as well as all the other young folks that come through the insurance industry.
Rishi: I think I think it's also important for us to highlight that it's leading by example. You talk about doing things for the creatives, the entrepreneurs, the people that that have a big dream and a big vision, but are, are, are maybe not as secure in themselves and taking that first step. Right. And what does that, that leap need to to be. And you've always talked about faith being a big piece of your journey. You know, speaking to those creatives, speaking to those entrepreneurs and acting by example, you know, what do you hope to inspire out of today.
Bram: Yeah, just the same thing that if you get that vision and you have the courage, you got the balls enough to follow that vision, you could do anything really and truly. And I've seen it in execution by some of the people that I'm around. So I've seen it from a unique point of view and always trying to be a student of that success and contribute to that success in whatever way, shape or form that I can. And naturally, you know, it just it just happens. I don't I don't know what else to say. It just it just kind of happens.
Rishi: The Universe speaks to to you and through you and it happens.
Bram: Yeah. It flows through you and it pulls and pushes you where you need to be. Alignment is huge. Alignment is is a large part of my journey. I've always found myself in the right place at the right time. And and I'm going to continue to follow that, that inner voice.
Rishi: So I want to kind of bring the attention to this beautiful family that you have behind the camera supports everything that you do. Tell me a little bit about Aura Kids.
Bram: You know, it started with Gurpreet. So for her, ever since I've known her when we were starting to date and things like that, vision, casting, talking about dreams and things like that, you know, is this going to be someone I want to marry?
Rishi: Yeah, right. Yeah. What are we going to do? How are you going to build a life together?
Bram: Her thing was always, I wanted to write a kids book…. before we even had kids. She just felt compelled to write books. So for me, She calls me the the genie from Aladdin, because it's like, you know, she'll tell me what she wants to do and I'll help her make it happen. Just how my brain works. It's like, what is the biggest task that we could take, right? How are we going to get there? Reverse engineer it. So for me, you know, part of the insurance side of things. Doing high net worth insurance. I had an opportunity to study the success of these entrepreneurs and business owners from a very unique point of view, because high net worth underwriting is all about who is the client. How did they accumulate their wealth? I found myself going really in depth in the story, and then using that to kind of shape some of the decisions I was making on underwriting point of view. So I say all that to say I studied how people built wealth. For me, you want to write books, okay. Instead of just writing a book, let's build a publishing company. How can we create something that will house and contain this IP that we're developing, and use this IP to potentially build wealth for ourselves, for our families.
Rishi: Now, Maybe I'm going one step too far. But I hear there's another project in the works with Aura Kids. I've seen some of the early samples. What does that look like? What's what's coming next with Aura Kids?
Bram: Two things. So Gurpreet is going to continue writing the books. So we've got the next book coming out this summer. We wanted to do something specifically for Ella. So we're using the storytelling to basically tell our story as well. Familiar faces, familiar stories, familiar places. Ella loves dinosaurs, so we're going to capture that in the next book. What I want to work on, what's exciting for me in leveraging a lot of the AI that we have now, that I can actually visually conceptualize what it's going to look like is do the cartoon. So the same thing as the books, but we're going to do cartoons and we're going to develop series'. We're going to use some of the characters that we show on the screen, familiar faces. And we're going to have a lot of fun with that, and we're going to tell some stories I want to talk about, you know, financial literacy and entrepreneurship, teaching kids about lemonade stands, just planting those seeds in early level. And we're going to use the cartoon to tell other people's stories as well. So I really want to build a team around it and just get different creatives of different backgrounds and experiences involved to kind of help steward that idea forward. So the intention there, I mean, the possibilities are endless. And that's what I love about Aura Kids, the possibilities are endless. We just create the platform and allow others to help spread something of value and positivity and and beyond that. The third thing, the third thing I'm looking to set up is the Aura Kids Foundation. Because I want to be able to use our resources, our platform, our audience, our relationships, to be able to then give something back into the community and do something for the kids as well. So a lot going on over there. Can't do it alone, man.
Rishi: I'm so proud of you, man. Just as a friend. As a brother. I can't wait to see and explore all these new horizons that you have planned, not only for yourself, but for your beautiful family. And maybe I can bring Gurpreet up here really quickly. Just because I feel like I'm the host of a show right now. So I'm going to bring on the next guest. Well, well, well. Welcome. Gurpreet. Tell me about The Gratitude Company. What is it? What's it for? What is it meant to stand for?
Gurpreet: Okay, So it really started out as just a movement to spread awareness about Gratitude. Because I feel like it's life changing. Like, for me, it started when I, after I had my first daughter, I was like really like depressed with postpartum depression. And I started to look at little things that made me really happy. And it was just like nature. That's what it started off as. So I'm like, oh my God. There's so many things that we take for granted, like the sun, and we wait until things go bad to really appreciate them. So I was like, okay, I want to teach the kids about gratitude. It's something that I want them to grow up knowing and having something they can lean on when they're having hard days. So then when we did that, we realized that it did really well with with the parents and kids. And then I feel like grown ups need it too, right? So then we're like, okay, let's, expand it to make it into The Gratitude Company. So it kind of encompasses everything like children and adults. And then we started with merchandise, just as a tangible reminder. Our sweater - It just says, what are you grateful for? It's just like reminders, right? So just tangible reminders. That's the whole purpose of the products. But in itself it's just a mission really to to spread positivity and get everyone thinking about something they're grateful for because everybody has something to be grateful for.
Rishi: Right. So. and just going back to talking about entrepreneurs, creators, people that feel like there's not enough time in the day. I want to bring everybody's attention to this little unit that you have here, because outside of being an amazing mother of two beautiful daughters and you being an incredible father, going to events and activities, I think it's really important for everybody to know that when you want to pursue something and you're dedicated to bringing it to life, that even with your inspiration by your side, you can bring anything to fruition. And I want to say to both of you guys, I'm so proud to watch you guys and see you guys do what you guys do. And you guys should be proud of yourselves too. This is a massive accomplishment. So thank you for inspiring me. Thank you for inspiring others. And Thank you for doing what you guys do. I am grateful for all of you guys and having the opportunity to be here today. Congratulations. God bless you.
