Ben Branson-Gateley is Founder and CEO and founder of Charlie HR. Charlie HR is a market leading Human Resources Information System (HRIS) platform for small businesses in the UK. Ben has experience building 3 companies during his working years and then started Charlie HR, alongside his 2 co-founders back in 2015.

Ben is also the host of the Culture Ops podcast where he speaks to founders, operators, heads of People and HR about their work experiences.

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Note: We will be taking the month of August off - a summer hiatus, if you will :) We will be back on September 2nd, 2021 to launch season 4 in New York City. Until then, Naomi.

By day, Dennis Mathu is a Senior Consultant at Deloitte, where he advises clients on operations, strategy, and finance transformation. By night and on weekends, he is a content creator on YouTube with his girlfriend Steph. He is your go-to for personal finance and career-related topics.

Fun fact: Back in 2013, Dennis and I actually went to the same university for our undergraduate studies. We were friends in uni, and had a couple classes together, so it’s beyond exciting to see where he has taken his passion for film and exploring what this new age of technology has to offer.

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Note: We will be taking the month of August off - a summer hiatus, if you will :) We will be back on September 2nd, 2021 to launch season 4 in New York City. Until then, Naomi.

Reagan Bradley is a brand strategist who helps businesses connect with their customers through the power of thoughtful storytelling. Her brand strategies help people market authentically online, so they can do more of what they love.

Reagan has five years of agency experience. She’s also built brands and websites for clients in the cannabis, professional education, cybersecurity, and creative industries. She is passionate about community building. In the past, Reagan founded Women Who Weed — a leadership community for pro-cannabis women. And she also helped grow Local Talks to one of most sought out professional development events for entrepreneurs in Ottawa.

As a recent Ottawa transplant living in Vancouver, Reagan spends her weekends exploring mountains and rollerblading up and down the seawall. You can follow her adventures on Instagram.

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Let’s shake things up. In this episode, Sharon Nyangweso guides us through her journey growing up with a mother in diplomacy, immigrating to Canada, and how she went from struggling university student to building a company that reflects her values and commitment to equity and justice.

Sharon Nyangweso is the brilliant Founder and CEO of QuakeLab, a full-stack inclusion and communications agency based here in Ottawa. She specializes in a radical new approach to diversity and inclusion that is measurable, strategic, and based on a strong foundation of design thinking. With this expertise, she works with leaders and organizations in the nonprofit, health research, provincial governments across the country.

Sharon is a leader in empathetic community engagement and moving inclusivity from aspiration to action, and it’s no surprise that she is called on to speak and share her expertise with the world. She is a regular contributor and panelist on CBC radio and television, Rabble.ca, Live 88.5, and CTV.

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Erin Blaskie is a fractional CMO and marketing advisor to startups and scaleups. In 2004, Erin founded one of the first virtual assistance businesses in Canada, served over 300 business across North America and entered the technology space. As a voracious learner, Erin made a name for herself in the industry, took on many challenges and built a brand as a marketing expert.

Through Erin’s interviews, articles and content, she produces stories that resonate with those consuming it. Through this episode, I realized it's because she leads with: “how can I be helpful and share information I know the next person will need".

In this episode, Erin shared what it was like starting an internet business in her early 20s, working in corporate for a few years (at an Ottawa-based B2B SaaS accelerator and at a fast-growing tech start-up) and then at the top of 2021, did her own thing in business..

Erin is featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, TechCrunch, The Wall Street Journal, The Globe & Mail, and many more publications where she shares all things marketing, storytelling, and brand strategy.

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For some folks, finances present some level of friction, sometimes even anxiety. We both believe that there is an interesting opportunity to reimagine what one’s relationship to money even looks like. In this episode, Tembeka shares how she focused on her financial goals in the face of distraction, while helping other women do the same. 

Tembeka Pratt is a lifestyle finance expert who has been in the financial services industry for over 10 years. And she currently helps Black female professionals create money systems so that they can reach “rich aunty” status with ease.

She currently has a course called financial pre-req, and you also provide 2-hour consults with folks who commit to understanding the financial situation and start thinking about systems to prioritize what’s truly important to you.

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Natasha Roy is a writer who is working towards becoming a published author. She is currently navigating the publishing field and writes mainly young adult fantasy. She has spent 10 years on her latest project.

On this episode, Natasha talks about her experience bringing her book to life, navigating the publishing industry, pitching her book, pitching agents. The whole gambit.

To those of you who are interested, the Publishing industry quite is massive – according to Business Wire, in the United States, there are over 2600 publishing houses generating over 25 Billion dollars in annual revenue. It’s quite competitive. Natasha also shares her take on what’s happening in the industry right now, Gen Z culture and their influence with regards to the types of books that they want to read.

I am so proud of how my best friend has invested in her growth and development. And also, how she has said yes to going all in on her dream.

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“If you do something for long enough, it sort of just becomes a part of who you are and what you do”. Mussie shared how growing up with compassionate, disciplinarian parents who demanded the best from you, translated to strong work ethics. Juggling multiple priorities, Mussie discussed his approach to building systems and structures in his work and life that take a long-term view.

Mussie Hailu is a young professional working in finance in Ottawa. He graduated with a degree in Commerce from the University of Ottawa in 2018 and presently works as a financial analyst at a family office. When not studying for his CFA, you can find him deep in a book or binge watching Netflix.

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Julian shared some of the important investments that he made into himself, which gave him the confidence to start a company and really tune into his why. Ultimately, this conversation is about how to create work environments where people can thrive.

Julian Cook is the co-founder and CEO of a London-based tech company called Howamigoing. They are on a mission to prevent 1 million people from having painful performance review processes. Julian and his team have developed an online platform that helps employees get better feedback, more often.

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“If I wanted to be successful and grow in the industry, I had to take matters into my own hands.”

Mari Galloway is the master of her fate. As CEO and founding board member for the Women's Society of Cyberjutsu (WSC) — one of the fastest growing non-profit communities in this space — Mari is propelling the next generation of women and girls in cyber security, helping them take the small, critical steps necessary to grow and protect their wealth along the way.

With over 11 years in Information and Technology, her experience has spanned across network design, security architecture, risk assessments, vulnerability, management and more.

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This episode is brought to you in collaboration with Invest Ottawa. Invest Ottawa supports business owners and entrepreneurs through services and programs, and recently opened applications for SheBoot, a six-week bootcamp to ensure that your business is investment ready. Visit investottawa.ca/SheBoot to learn more.