On episode 47 of the Montreal Marketeers podcast, we talk Active Listening with Skye Marok.

VentOverTea is a free service that pairs active listeners with people that need a good venting session. It was founded in 2015 by 3 McGill psychology students that wanted to increase the mental well-being of the students around them.

Skye decided to join the team after experiencing a VentOverTea session. She is now an Active Listener and a Partnerships/PR Executive for the organization.

Check out this week's episode to find out more about Skye Marok and VentOverTea!

Topics:

- Helping others by using active listening

- Raising awareness by participating in community events

- Setting aside personal beliefs in order to be more empathetic

- Recruiting through referrals

- Implementing active listening in a business environment

On episode 46 of the Montreal Marketeers podcast, we talk Ecommerce with Jeremiah Curvers.

It’s been less than 10 years since foam technology has revolutionized the mattress industry. Mattresses have now become “easy-to-ship” items that are being sold directly to consumers at a much lower retail price. Because of this, many new Ecommerce-first brands have emerged in the market.

One of these brands is Polysleep. It was founded in 2016 and is now the 3rd biggest brand of foam mattresses in Quebec. In 2018, Jeremiah left the digital agency world to focus on growing Polysleep full time.

Topics:

- Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs

- Embarking on digital transformation

- Internalizing vs outsourcing

- Improving your products through customer feedback

- Managing costs for an online Direct-to-Consumer business

- Optimizing sales through promotions, reviews and analytics

On episode 45 of the Montreal Marketeers podcast, we talk sports with Anthony Calvillo.

Anthony Calvillo is best known as the former star quarterback of the Montreal Alouettes. In his 16 years with the team, Anthony won 3 Grey Cups for the city and broke numerous CFL records. However, it’s his involvement with the community that really made him stand out as a professional athlete in a hockey driven city.

Although he retired as a player in 2013, Anthony remains very active in the Quebec football scene. As the Assistant Head Coach of the Montreal Carabins, he plays a pivotal role in molding the future generation of Canadian football players.

Check out this week's episode to find out more about Anthony Calvillo!

Topics:

- Starting your career off on the wrong foot

- Accepting mentorship from the right people

- Being prepared is the key to longevity

- Staying positive and ignoring criticism

- Growing up humble and keeping that mindset

- Focusing on your current career while preparing for future opportunities

- Starting a business venture after sports

On episode 44 of the Montreal Marketeers podcast, we talk fitness with Kareem Rawlins.

Kareem is the owner of GoodFITT personal training and wellness services. As a personal coach, his philosophy is to enable his clients to live healthier lifestyles by exercising, eating balanced diets, and focusing on mental wellness.

He started GoodFITT nearly a decade ago after experiencing his own physical transformation. After losing nearly 30 pounds of body fat and feeling as healthy as ever , he decided that he’d make a career out of helping others to achieve their own health goals.

Check out this week's episode to find out more about Kareem Rawlins and GoodFITT!

Topics:

- Following your passion

- Starting off small

- Finding your why

- Understanding the value you provide to your customers

- Standing out in a competitive environment

- Growing through Word-of-Mouth

- Setting boundaries for social media use

- Converting leads to customers

- Focusing on mental health

On episode 43 of the Montreal Marketeers podcast, we talk strategy and tactics with Brian Astl.

Brian is the president of Lind Equipment: a leader in portable electrical equipment designed for the toughest workplaces. He decided to join Lind in 2007 upon having completed his MBA at Harvard Business School. Given his talent for strategic business development, he searched for an established company that he could elevate to new heights. Lind was a perfect fit since it was a well positioned player in a growing market.

Brian started at Lind Equipment with very little category knowledge. That being said, he relied on his experience in building solid strategies to create a plan that would ensure long-term growth. He understood his company’s core companies and laid out a differentiation strategy that would focus on creating innovative products for the heavy industrial, construction, mining, and military industries.

Check out this week's episode to find out more about Brian Astl and Lind Equipment!

Topics:

- Understanding the difference between strategy and tactics

- Knowing when to say no

- Running a search fund

- Making mistakes is part of learning

- Finding passionate business partners

- Communicating directly to end-users

- Innovating to overcome commoditization

- Building brand confidence

- Determining customer needs in order to develop products

On episode 42 of the Montreal Marketeers podcast, we talk content creation with Oliver Wellington.

Oliver always knew that he was going to be an entrepreneur. Upon completing his MBA, he played a pivotal role in creating the content recommendation platform nRelate. At its peak, nRelate was able to generate over 6 billion page views a month. The platform was eventually acquired by Ask.com.

Oliver left nRelate in 2015 and founded SpareMin with some of his old business partners. SpareMin is currently focused on growing its video editing web-app Headliner. The app was designed with a simple goal in mind: help audio content creators produce videos that they can share on social media.

Check out this week's episode to find out more about Oliver Wellington and Headliner!

On episode 41 of the Montreal Marketeers podcast, we talk about enabling success with Samantha Kris.

Samantha Kris is an author, speaker, success coach, and the founder of the Bossing Up movement. If you haven’t heard of the movement, Bossing Up is all about helping people find their inner boss and enabling them to achieve their dreams of success.

After climbing the corporate ladder at a rapid pace, Samantha realized that her true strength stemmed from her ability to set goals. Being someone who loves building communities and interacting with others, she decided to become a success coach in order to help entrepreneurs build and grow their businesses.

Check out this week's episode to find out more about Samantha Kris and the Bossing Up movement!

On episode 40 of the Montreal Marketeers podcast, we talk product development and branding with Jon Kaplan.

Jon is an architect turned entrepreneur. In 2017, he took a leap of faith and started his own company: Burnbud. The Burnbud is an all-in-one smoking accessory that was designed to be sleek, compact, and convenient. What’s fascinating about Jon’s story is that he has always been involved in every aspect of his business. He worked on everything from the original product design to the current sales strategy.

Jon now spends most his time on growing the Burnbud brand through marketing. His unique approach to branding has peaked the interest of many companies that are hoping to hire him as a consultant. Using the Burnbud as his first success story, he is now working on establishing himself as a reputable brand strategist.

Check out this week's episode to find out more about Jon Kaplan and Burnbud!

On episode 39 of the Montreal Marketeers podcast, we talk ethical fashion with Kathleen Elie.

Kathleen has always been passionate about clothing. After working in fashion for many years, she began to notice that many injustices had become common place in the industry. Instead of turning a blind eye, she decided to seek and embrace brands that implemented both ethical and sustainable practices. She decided to document her journey by starting her own blog: ConsciousNChic.

Check out this week's episode to find out more about Kathleen Elie and ConsciousNChic.

On episode 38 of the Montreal Marketeers podcast, we talk entrepreneurship and growth hacking with Scott Martin.

Scott is a digital marketing specialist to the core. He has over 20 years of agency experience and has founded multiple successful businesses. His success spans from driving strategies in social media, video, and content marketing to hands on production and deployment.

Over the years Scott has built a reputation for striking a middle ground between leading-edge marketing innovation with traditional, proven approaches. Various national brands, and some of which you may be long time supporters of, consult with Scott to develop strategic marketing programs: WestJet, Canadian Tire, Hudson’s Bay Company, BestBuy, SportChek, UFA, Tourism Saskatchewan, Cadillac Fairview, Coast Hotels, among many others.

With such a busy schedule you might be wondering how he finds the time to have fun, I know we did. Work-life balance is actually critical for Scott. With a passion for the outdoors, especially being in the ocean and back-country. He applies his creative and marketing background in sharing his passion for surfing and snowboarding by using non-traditional channels such as blogging, social media, and visual content marketing.

Check out this week's episode to find out more about Scott Martin and his entrepreneurial ventures.