“Sometimes we forget and fall into our routines. And food is totally a habit. Food is a learned habit. Our diet is very much a learned skill that we build over time and we grow with. We change, and we may start cooking with new ingredients. Or maybe we have a food allergy that comes up from time to time, and then we have to start using different foods because we are consuming one thing for a long time and our body's resisting it.

There's a saying that if you find one recipe in a cookbook that you use and love, then it has been worth the purchase. Because that can be something you return to weekly. Or [maybe it’s because] you found one thing that inspired you to cook something in a new way.”

👋🏽 Welcome, Dreena! 02:00

😎 Being vegan before it was cool--it wasn't a welcoming place to be. 03:15

🍽️ Her first cookbook was released in 2001, and a second one in 2004. 04:29  

🧄 "Eat, Drink and Be Vegan" cookbook: all the different cuisines and flavor variations in veganism. 06:31

🥑 Dreena almost stopped writing but then she released "Let Them Eat Vegan" and "Plant-Powered Families"  07:12

🤔 The challenges of using a business approach when you are a creative person. 09:29

✌️ Finding the balance between a vegan life track and a vegan professional track, and what that means for building a vegan economy. 12:01

😇 Dreena has helped many families by introducing veganism and children's dishes. 13:27

👩‍🍳 Dreena’s Kind Kitchen cookbook is released in August: practical easily accessible recipes, FAQ section, nut-free recipes.16:31

💃 Eating healthfully can become part of our lives: batching, prepping, and Dreena's tips to help with everyday life are great.19:22

🍲 It’s important to shape solutions that are manageable for the everyday vegan lifestyle: not all people enjoy cooking. 21:03

🙃 The period of going from the old to new creates challenges for most people transitioning to veganism. 22:32

💎 "The only constant in life is change. We're always changing." 23:46

🤗 Cookbooks help us reconnect and look at food differently. 26:32

🥗 Food is a habit: Our family members remind us of the food traditions we have created. 27:27

❄️ Tips: freezing hummus, pasta sauce, or soups and remaking them with new flavors. 29:27

🥣 The best, most delicious meals in a bowl. 30:58

🖥️ Contact Dreena through her site. 32:25

💚 A lot of women struggle with worthiness: you really do have worthwhile gifts to share! 33:43

🤩 Seeing ourselves outside of ourselves is a great perspective for growth. 34:53

🥒Cucumbers for a snack will go great with hummus! 36:16

Thanks for listening to Pivot, our vegan business interview podcast. This is recorded as a live streaming session so I hope you’ll join us for future interviews as well! If you are feeling inspired, but wondering how to take some actionable steps to improve your business, I invite you to explore our two premium paid podcasts, Going Solo or Fix It.

When people donate they want—and deserve—to know where their money is going. They need full transparency and they need to know the impact their money is making. As many of the young people we work with put it, “What's in this for me?” Aren't we all in this together, and shouldn’t we all be able to win? I realized that the current charity model made it impossible to answer those questions. Charity has been around for 200 years and the way it is done hasn't been touched. So it's time for a change.

😇 Stephen has pivoted many times, always disrupting the giving space in a positive way--he is currently working to help solve child hunger in North America. 03:00

😎 Learn about the sustainable model Steven has created around giving: the donor gets full transparency and wins more than they put in. 04:36

💚 The Vegan Experience offers donors a discount app and buys children’s meals that go directly into charities’ hands. 07:07

🤗 Building a homeless shelter and a feeding-people-model transformed into The Vegan Experience thanks to the vegan community. 08:18

🤯 One out of five children go to school hungry in Canada and the USA. 11:35

🌞 This is a collaborative model plus charity: the idea is to feed hungry kids in North America and then use the profits to help others. 13:58

💲 How The Vegan Experience shares its profits and reinvests in the vegan community. 15:40

✨ Use The Vegan Experience app to buy a meal for kids in North America and save 15% on purchases with more than 300,000 vendors. 19:11

🥗 An eye-opening experience: vegan food is providing so much energy! 21:18

🆚 Key idea: everybody must win more than they put in.  25:21

www.theveganexperience.ca

__

Thanks for listening to Pivot, our vegan business interview podcast. This is recorded as a live streaming session so I hope you’ll join us for future interviews as well! If you are feeling inspired, but wondering how to take some actionable steps to improve your business, I invite you to explore our two premium paid podcasts, Going Solo or Fix It.

"I feel like every single decision I make is empowering me because I get to decide how I spend my money. I get to decide what businesses I'm going to support, I get to decide what kind of world I want to create. I get to do that not only with my food choices but with every single choice I make in my business. And if I don't like a company’s practices, or how they're sourcing product, I can make a decision about [how—or whether—to work with them]. And through that decision, I can influence how companies are going to move forward. Because it's all about the bottom line for them—it's about keeping a viable business. And that means gearing the business toward consumer choices." ~ Risha Walden

🤩 Vegan interior design is Risha’s passion. 02:17

🤯 The interior design industry commonly uses animal products, but as a vegan interior designer Risha has managed to align her personal ethics with her business. 03:03

💪 “Every single decision I make is empowering me because I get to decide how I spend my money.” 07:03

🤔 Being a vegan designer means asking questions about furniture not many people have asked before. 09:52

❓ The power of questions: change will not come by wagging a finger at people. 12:13

🌱 Why is it important to ask so many questions? “I’m planting a seed.” 13:38

🤷‍♀️ People warn, “You're going to alienate your clients.” But believing in my own work is more important than that risk. 16:34

😇 Risha talks about raising awareness about food to byproducts of all other animal industries. 19:52

🙌 Vegan Interior Design Week is a free panel event in November. 21:16

👍 Meeting so many people and communities online has been instrumental for Risha and her work. 25:28

👑 Risha’s advice: Don't be afraid to use the word “vegan” in your business and messaging. 27:36

💎 We can change the world and we can create the world we want through our choices. 28:57

Thanks for listening to Pivot, our vegan business interview podcast. This is recorded as a live streaming session so I hope you’ll join us for future interviews as well! If you are feeling inspired, but wondering how to take some actionable steps to improve your business, I invite you to explore our two premium paid podcasts, Going Solo or Fix It.

Louisa Nicholson is the brain behind Every Vegan Recipe, and in this episode of PIVOT she shares tips and experiences that will be invaluable to other vegans looking to start up a new online business.
 
https://www.everyveganrecipe.com

🥑 Every Vegan Recipe is a user-friendly platform and network for publishing and sharing plant-based-only recipes. 02:42

👌 The importance of making sure that the customer experience in your business is exceptional. 4:42

🗓️ How the launching of “weekly recipes” helps to bring the Every Vegan Recipe community together, and tips from Louisa on planning ahead. 6:15

🎀 The details on how a longer launch timeline gives Louisa enough time for fine-tuning. 07:24

🎯 How this feature-rich platform allows people to find out everything they need to know about the transition to vegan eating, plus how it helps recipe creators to gain needed visibility.11:01

😇 The advantage for recipe creators: no need to build and market a standalone site -- they can now submit recipes to Every Vegan Recipe! 14:17

🆚 Info on building a subscription-based business: the Bandcamp vs Spotify model. 17:06

🔎 ‘Testing the waters’: “There's nothing like actually launching and seeing what happens.” 21:33

✨ Buying the experience: why it’s important to realize that people are looking for more than just content or an item. Discussion on the fact that expectations for quality customer experience are growing. 22:22

🛣️ Why It’s important to spend your time with customers and create a two-way street in your business right from the beginning. 24:52

🤔 Figuring out the difference between what you think your customers would like and what they actually want. 26:08

🧱 Discussion on an iterative approach to building a business. 27:40

🧘‍♀️ What a day looks like for Louisa. 29:11

🤩 A caution: Resist reacting to anything instantly, especially assumptions about the news and success stories. 31:57

👉 Reframing how you think about creating your business: “Don’t wait. It will not be perfect but do it.”

__

Thanks for listening to Pivot, our vegan business interview podcast. This is recorded as a live streaming session so I hope you’ll join us for future interviews as well! If you are feeling inspired, but wondering how to take some actionable steps to improve your business, I invite you to explore our two premium paid podcasts, Going Solo or Fix It.

MEET OUR GUEST:

Originally from Catalonia, but resident in the UK for several decades, Jordi is a vegan Zoologist specialising in animal behaviour, who has been involved in different aspects of animal protection for many years. In addition to scientific research he has worked mostly as an undercover investigator, animal welfare consultant, and animal protection campaigner. 

His most notable work achievements have been his involvement with the first successful prosecutions under the Hunting Act 2004, the exposé of trail hunting as a false alibi for illegal hunters and his participation in the campaign that led to the ban of bullfighting in Catalonia. 

Under the pen name J.C. Costa, he has published a novel titled “The Demon’s Trial”, in which he explores many of the dilemmas animal protectionists face. 

He has been an ethical vegan for over 18 years and in 2020 he achieved notoriety for securing the legal protection of all ethical vegans in Great Britain from discrimination, in a landmark employment tribunal case that was discussed all over the world. 

He is also the author of the book "Ethical Vegan: a personal and political journey to change the world" to be published at the end of 2020. 

Learn more about Jordi's book (or Buy The Book): https://septemberpublishing.org/product/ethical-vegan/ 

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordi-casamitjana-36586a15 

FB: https://www.facebook.com/veganjordi 

TW: https://twitter.com/Jayseecosta 

IG: https://www.instagram.com/jayseecosta/?hl=en 

YB: https://www.youtube.com/user/Jordiwasp 

Subscribe to Pivot! A Vegan Business Interview Series on Soundwise

MEET OUR GUEST:

Gabriel Zhanay is a vegan leadership and fitness coach. An expert on mindset and leadership, his story of transformation from depressed, self-loathing man to inspired and compassionate vegan leader has touched 1000’s of lives with his daily posts. He runs his online coaching company, Vegan Fitness Redefined, with his wife Anna Zhanay - and they mold vegans into fit vegan heroes who empower and inspire others as positive examples of health, fitness, and leadership.

They both are DEEPLY committed to helping the planet and making the biggest positive impact with their lives. 

Gabriel truly believes that Veganmainstream's listeners WILL be inspired by his authentic and laid-back approach to fitness and leadership. Especially in a year when most people disconnected to their positive energy and HOPE, Gabriel's gift is being able to EMPOWER others and help them reconnect with their true potential, not only in their fitness... but in their lives! :)

Gabriel and Anna love helping their audience REALIZE that by becoming stronger, healthier, and more powerful in their mind and bodies, they’ll create the biggest IMPACT possible with their vegan businesses as leaders and positive examples as well!

FB - https://www.facebook.com/gabriel.zhanay 

IG - https://www.instagram.com/gabrielzhanay_/ 

FB group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/veganfitnessredefinedcommunity/ 

Subscribe to Pivot! A Vegan Business Interview Series on Soundwise

MEET OUR GUESTS:

An award winning business and aspiring BCorp, BReD is a 100% plant-based bakery situated in the world-class ski and bike resort of Whistler, BC, Canada. The concept is farm-to-table and seasonal, sourcing the finest ingredients as locally as possible. The only bakery you can ski to, located in the original village – Creekside.

They specialize in organic naturally-leavened sourdough loaves with an emphasis on ancient grains, and sourdough cinnamon buns, as well as a range of other sweet and savory baked treats. 

They also serve locally roasted direct trade espresso coffees and specialty beverages. They plant a tree for every coffee we sell through our partner charity, Trees for the Future.

The customers include local families buying their weekly bread but also visitors who want a grab-‘n’-go snack and coffee to fuel them on their mountain adventure.

https://edsbred.com/ 

Subscribe to Pivot! A Vegan Business Interview Series on Soundwise

MEET OUR GUEST:

Vox Vegana was founded by Aaron Abolition in January of 2020 and was initially an effort to form an all-vegan choir for live performances to raise money for animal rights. 

As a result of the lock down, Vox Vegana took the opportunity to branch out and connect with vegan musicians everywhere for the purpose of collaborating on vegan-message-specific projects. 

Over the course of the first year, collaborations have taken place between vegan musicians in Canada, India, Belgium, and the US. You can sample some of that work on their Soundcloud page.

Website: https://linktr.ee/AaronAbolition 

Subscribe to Pivot! A Vegan Business Interview Series on Soundwise

MEET OUR GUEST:

After over twenty years as a ballroom dancer Robert Schwartz took his experience of making difficult things easy and created a clean and easy to use home sprouting system, Organic Sprout Box. Sprouting is taking seeds and introducing the process of germination by adding moisture. Rehydration then takes over and the metabolic processes resume making the seed a powerhouse of nutrition. 

He personally used sprouts to lower his triglycerides from 295 to 130, the LDL from 176 to 119 and the A1C from 6.2 to 5.1 in a three month period. The environmental benefits are just as stunning. No top soil, fertilizer, or pesticides used. Greatly reduced pollution from packaging, refrigeration and transportation. Almost no food waste as the entire plant is eaten. His biggest hope is that organic sprout box kits will be in urban nutritional wastelands so the populations there can have fresh healthy organic food every day.

Subscribe to Pivot! A Vegan Business Interview Series on Soundwise

MEET OUR GUEST:

As a vegan SEO Specialist, Hartej understands what your website and business need in order to rank on the higher pages of search engines. His success with vegan businesses is just one example of how our strategies can grow your traffic month after month. His network of over 200 vegan websites, will ensure that your dominance in the market niche will be respected by Google. 

Alongside SEO, he offers Google Ads management using an algorithm which is set to learn your industry and the actions of competitors and customers. This will work to drive down your costs and increase the presence you have on the web.

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hartej-kahai/ 

IG: https://www.instagram.com/yourveganmarketer/ 

Subscribe to Pivot! A Vegan Business Interview Series on Soundwise