Made it Happen

Alisha Kumar is a social media and digital marketing expert living in the PNW. She has 11+ years of marketing & PR experience and is the founder of a digital marketing agency called The Social Project. Now working with some of the globe’s most innovative and forward thinking brands, Alisha helps businesses create and implement marketing strategies through social media platforms to increase both organic & paid growth, convert followers into paying customers, and by making sure their social media is on point with their brand. She is also a community architect in Seattle, WA and helps women make an impact through their entrepreneurial ventures by hosting monthly educational workshops & events for a business she co-founded called Seattle Business Babes, part of a larger community Business Babes Collective. When she’s not busy working, you can find her traveling!

We talk about how she got into the social media and marketing industry, how she got involved with the Business Babes Collective & starting her own chapter, hiring on for The Social Project & what you need to think about when bringing someone onto your team, building a community for entrepreneurs, finding clients and marketing her business, how COVID 19 had affected both of her businesses, the power of Pinterest for your business, advice for someone starting a business, challenges she's overcome, exciting projects coming up for both The Social Project and Business Babes Collective and so much more! 

WE RISE Thursday: Ola Ahmed is the founder of Kindness Café, a social enterprise in Windsor, Ontario. Ola is an international student with a graduate degree in medical biotechnology and cancer research. While growing up in Egypt, her mother cooked a lot of food for friends and family. They prepared a lot of food, ate a lot of food, but they also threw out a lot of food. They threw food out to make sure that the next meal was fresh. However, on the very same night, as Ola walked the streets of Cairo, people were eating out of the garbage. Even as a child, this didn’t sit well with her. She thought, isn’t there a better way to give people this food?.

Soon Ola’s academic journey brought her to Canada for graduate school. She was fortunate enough to get hired by a franchised coffee shop as a BARISTA during her studies. On her first night shift, her supervisor dumped a lot of food. The garbage was overflowing with display food, food from the fridge and food that was still wrapped and packaged! She realized right away that this is a problem everywhere. At this moment, Ola committed to doing something about it. She started the Kindness Café, which empowers her community through nutrition and compassion by harvesting surplus and unsold food.

Ola, owner, and founder of this food rescue program started this company because she didn’t believe that people should go hungry when perfectly good food is sent to the landfill every day. 

Kindness Cafe 

Kindness Cafe is a pop-up driven social enterprise business that rescues surpluses and unsold food from restaurants, cafes, farms, and groceries in Windsor and serve them back to the community with care and love using a Pay as You Feel (PAYF) concept.

New paying system in Windsor

What makes this program unique is that there is no price for the food that you take - instead, users are asked to “pay what you feel.” This pay it forward system allows those who have extra money to spare to “pay” for those who don’t.

A Pay As You Feel concept means that people will pay what they can afford to help the community and the environment. However, for the less fortunate we would be more than happy to put a smile on their face and fill their tummies and hearts with food and Kindness.

This pay as you feel the concept is actually a sophisticated way to ask for a donation, customers are not actually paying for the food, food is basically for free, but the customers are paying to support this movement and would love to do good for the community and our environment.

This movement promotes inclusivity and is founded on trust. Unlike other food assistance programs, everyone is welcome, no proof of ID or proof income is required. we hope that we can create a community where food donation is normalized.

Kindness café will make sure that it will minimize food waste by rescuing food and changing them into delicious and healthy food. It’s a cycle that we want to create and we want the community to help us do that. Starting from saving the food, using the food, then finally composting the unusable food and never take anything for granted.

We talk about coming up with the idea to solve the food waste problem, creating a social enterprise, why she decided to make it a "pay as you feel" business model, what resources and tools she used while creating her business, how she markets Kindness Cafe in the Community, challenges she's overcome with her business, what she has learned from running her own business, and so much more! You won't want to miss out on hearing all about the creation of this incredible organization!

This week's episode is featuring Lauren Smith, event planner and founder of Modern Collective & Toronto Business Babes! Lauren is a passionate event planner, connection creating expert, and lover of all thing’s events + travel.  Lauren helps busy entrepreneurs create in person connection with their online community so they can strengthen their relationships, provide incredible value and turn their community into raving fans. 

After starting her career in corporate and absolutely falling in love with the events + travel industry, Lauren decided to follow her entrepreneurial heart and started Modern Collective. Modern Collective was created as a creative event planning agency specializing in curating truly unique, outside of the box and memorable events. 

With over 10 years of event planning experience working with Canada’s largest financial institutions, Lauren brings countless unique and innovative ideas, and an impressive tool-box of skills to the table for her clients, spanning from an unmatched ability to pivot on the spot, to killer negotiation skills and the creative ability to think outside the box while easily landing her (and her clients!) dream event partners and sponsorships. 

We talk about what inspired her to leave the festival life and get the job of her dreams, staring the Toronto Business Babes Chapter, what made her decide to start her own business, why she surrounds herself with people like her & what qualities she looks for, advice for someone starting a business, what makes a successful event, how COVID 19 has affected her business, what attracted her to the event planning business, and so much more! 

Born and raised in Amherstburg, Ontario, Taylor's first introduction to social media was working for a few local radio stations. However, a career in marketing didn't really appeal to her, and instead, she spent three years studying accounting, believing it was best to pursue a career that would "make a lot of money." Realizing there was more to life, she followed her heart. She began pursuing opportunities in marketing that led her to land a job in Canada that allowed her to travel and teach about the power of social media in the US and Europe.

Pairing her passion for helping others and her social media knowledge, she built a business. A year and a half later, she has worked with businesses in Canada, the US and Europe, in over 25 different industries. Her goal is to amplify the voices of those who are trying to make a difference in their communities and across the planet. 

We talk about her transition from accounting to marketing, why she decided to create her own business, travelling the world teaching social media, representing brands authentically, valuing your services, overcoming imposter syndrome, and much more! 

This week's episode is featuring Danielle Weibe, founder of Business Babes Collective & Vancity Business Babes! Danielle is an entrepreneur and business strategist. She coaches women to build successful businesses and connects them through events, workshops & masterminds and coaches them to create a community, facilitate collaborations, and create partnerships that elevate their brands. Danielle’s background in business started at age 20 when she launched her first business & then went on to help her Mom build a global consulting company. In 2015 she Launched the first chapter of  Business Babes Collective, Vancity Business Babes.

We talk about Danielle's journey as an entrepreneur and the creation of the Business Babes Collective, the first business she launched while in school, how the organization has evolved over the years, pivoting events to online during COVID-19, taking risks and growing pains, learning to become a leader, being comfortable with being uncomfortable, her favourite part of running business babes collective, the benefits of having a community as an entrepreneur and so much more! 

Once an Executive Assistant with a side hustle, companies turn to Hollie when they need business strategy, human centric social media, and creative marketing solutions. Over the past six years, Hollie has built Creative Solutions to a six-figure marketing agency by bridging the gap between strategy and fulfillment in the world of marketing. She leads a bright, amazing team of creatives and delivers rock-solid strategies uniquely tailored to each client’s goals. She is a dad-joke-loving, 90's hip-hop-listening, self-proclaimed hustler with a huge heart and a work ethic to match.

We talk about how she got into marketing before she even realized, the power of relationships & strategic partnerships, what got her business to where it is today, hiring for personality instead of technical skills & one question she asks in every interview, the truth behind entrepreneurship, setting boundaries for your company, challenges she’s overcome as a female entrepreneur, hitting 6 figures with her business, what she wishes she knew when starting her business, and much more!

I have officially teamed up with RISE Windsor-Essex to bring to you stories of Windsor-Essex’s very own female entrepreneurs! Every Thursday, tune-in as I feature a new women in business in our area!

Today I welcomed Susan Anzolin, Sabrina DeMarco and Nicole Anderson from the Windsor Essex Economic Development Corporation to talk about how they are supporting women through the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy. Learn about how RISE Windsor-Essex was developed and listen to the tremendous resources that our region has to offer to support female entrepreneurs.

RISE Windsor-Essex is a network of organizations that are empowering women in entrepreneurship and women in STEM. Hear about how the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy started at WEEDC, what the tie is to the Small Business Centre, why RISE Windsor-Essex was created, what sectors are most under-represented by women, how the Small Business Centre is supporting female entrepreneurs, challenges for female entrepreneurs amidst COVID-19, how to become involved with RISE Windsor-Essex, why there is such a large gap in women entrepreneurs in the Windsor-Essex area, and much more!  

Abby is the founder of Abby White Co. and coaches her clients on how to use the power of their mind to create their dream life and achieve success. She uses her art to create online resources and guides that inspire consciousness shifting while tying in mindfulness, spirituality, and the Law of Attraction. Abby believes that the time spent here on earth should feel as fulfilling and happy as possible!  

Abby has been a self-employed photographer/videographer for the last 10 years and recently made a career shift, diving into becoming a mindset/life coach after exploring it for the last year. She shares how she got into the photography industry, how it has been transitioning careers, what inspired her to become a life/mindset coach, how she finds her clients, advice for someone starting in photography, advice as a mindset coach, and much more! Don't miss out on this inspiring episode with Abby and hear what exciting plans she has to come!

Kelly Broocks is the founder of Pretty by Her, a business in the Waterloo Region that started as a fun little side gig out of her love for creativity while she worked her other dream job as a Social Worker in the Children’s Mental Health field. In September 2018, Kelly took the leap and left her social work job to take Pretty by Her full-time. She uses Pretty by Her as a platform for helping others feel better, which has always been the main vision of the business. Every product she makes is designed with the intention to make people feel good - either through sassy humour or kind and caring words. Pretty by Her also donates a portion of every order to Mental Health and Suicide Prevention programs and services in the community.

Kelly shares her entrepreneurship journey including turning her creative hobby into a full-time business, the creation process of products, evolving her brand over time, what she learned from starting a company without a background in business, the power of a strong brand reputation, striving for progress not perfection, showing the face behind the brand, Pretty by Her's mental health campaign, and so much more!

A scientist by training and creative by nature, Katie Costa holds a BSc from the University of Guelph in Nutritional and Nutraceutical Science, and an MSc in Human Health and Nutritional Science. The Wellness Marketer is her alter-ego, and it was created as a platform to serve other health and wellness professionals and businesses to help them thrive online.

A life-long learner, Katie is constantly wrapping her head around the latest Instagram algorithm or industry trends to deliver the best results to her clients. Beyond work, Katie is an avid globe-trotter and book worm always looking for her next adventure.

We talk about how Katie got into wellness marketing, how a school project turned into a real business, the power of referral marketing, time management and taking focus to action, running a business, with a full-time job, and finishing a masters degree, what she would’ve told herself when starting as a freelancer, being the face of your own brand, changing direction in your business, staying up to date on marketing trends, and much more! This is a must-listen episode on marketing and building a business!