Do you like chocolate?

Do you like incredibly nice people who are out there hustling?

Yup, me too!

You're going to love this weeks podcast with Penny and Deb from Cabotto Chocolates on the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton Island. 

This week we are featuring our 4th instalment of the Coming Home To Hospitality Series brought to you by the awesome team over at Tourism Nova Scotia.

Thank you Penny and Deb for being such great guests and sharing so openly with myself and our listeners your stories.

Here's to shining a light on more awesome people like these two doing honest, creative and inspiring work!

Be sure to stop in and see both Penny and Deb when you find yourself on the Cabot Trail next time and tell them what an awesome job they did on the podcast!

Elizabeth Gilbert writes in her book Big Magic that "It’s a relationship, it’s a conversation, and all it wants is to be treated with respect and dignity — and it will return ten thousand times over." and what she's speaking to is inspiration.

Inspiration came up a bunch for me in this weeks podcast where I sat down with Courtney Smith of Victoria County Creates in Baddeck, NS. Courtney and her team run a shop that features well over 100 artists from just the surrounding county. The amount of talent is incredible and the amount of inspiration in Courtney's shop is the same.

Courtney is as humble as they come and was such a delight to host on the podcast and learn from.

Courtney taught me a lot about the talent in the local area as well as how she and her team thrive off of the creativity of the very artists that they feature.

This episode in itself is inspiring.

On this episode you will hear host Brad Bodnarchuk chat with creative entrepreneur and passionate Cape Breton resident Lee Fraser of Live Life In Tents. Lee was kind enough to invite me into his home for this podcast where we unpacked a lot of different topics.

Lee shares his love for all things Cape Breton and his desire to share it with others. Lee breaks down what he and his team get up to on the daily with their businesses and also tackles some important social issues in regards to respecting the land in Cape Breton.  Lee and I also discuss his successful project Northern BBQ with acclaimed Chef and Cape Breton son Bryan Picard and the power of mixing food in with experiences to create a deep and meaningful connection and impact.

I know you'll love this podcast!

Brought to you by Tourism Nova Scotia

Brought to you by Tourism Nova Scotia I am excited to rediscover the creative hospitality scene that makes up my home Province and share this series with you all.

On this weeks episode I had the pleasure of sitting down with Chef Jeremy Howell of the Inverary Resort in Baddeck, N.S.

Jeremy shares with us his story from inside the kitchen, starting out as most as a dishwasher and working his way up to the Executive Chef level at a gorgeous resort such as the Inverary in Cape Breton.

Jeremy breaks down how he leads his team after years of learning from other mentors. He shares his creative process with us as he describes how a dish goes from a vision to something actually on a plate. And he dives into why he does what he does, why he has chosen this industry and why he chooses to do it in Cape Breton.

After 19 years with RANS Director Gordon Stewart and his colleagues are faced with an extremely challenging time as they work to deal with all that this pandemic has thrown at them.

Tune in to hear Gordon break down his approach to creating positive change in our industry and why he holds time with family so high on his priority list.

This is an episode you do not want to miss.

"Sometimes you must move on, to another job or another woman. That’s fine, if it is a true movement of growth: clear, empowering, and an aspect of the ongoing giving of your gift. But, more often than not, your first impulse to move on comes when you have ceased invading the moment with your fullest capacity to give and instead are droning along, coping rather than creating."

Taken from David Deida's The Way of the Superior Man I was motivated to speak to this today as I feel like it pertains to so many in the hospitality industry and in life in general.

Host Brad Bodnarchuk asks for everyone, including himself to stop and take a look in the mirror and ask yourself honestly in this moment are you simply coping or are you creating?

A powerful reflection that perhaps more of us should take on today.

The hospitality industry has gone through so many ups and downs since the pandemic rocked the world and not unlike many other industries it is easy to understand if everyone is getting a little tired.

 

I encourage you however to dig deep and touch base with your vision for your business. Why did you even start your shop? What was it about this industry that drew you to create what you've created? When it was day #1 what was your vision.

 

Touching base with our ultimate vision in life and in business is an extremely healthy and worthwhile practice that for so many of us could rejuvenate us just enough to push through this madness that is this pandemic.

 

Tune in to the latest podcast for a quick reminder of why your vision is so crucial to any type of success that you wish to have.

It is time to take control of your reality in this industry and one of the best ways to do that while creating success is seeking discomfort every single day.

 

Tune in to hear host Brad Bodnarchuk break down the famed Ralph Waldo Emerson quote that has impacted him so greatly over the past few years.

If there was ever the time to test something out, try something new, or heck even raise your prices, the time IS NOW.

On this weeks podcast I discuss why we need to use this time right now to operate from a place of no fear, take control of the things we can control and use the power of community to help each and every one of us out.

As my good friend Danny Meyer has said (Danny Meyer actually has no idea who I am) "A rising tide lifts all ships."

The time is now to form a collective and support each other blindly especially with aspects of our industry such as pricing.

As I wrap up what has been a fun 5 weeks of sharing I am excited to share this weeks episode with you all.

This week I break down how ego and our inability to ask for help is truly holding us back.

If you haven't followed along to all 5 weeks I encourage you to go back and listen to week 1, 2, 3, and 4 as well.

Here's to changing our individual mindsets within our industry so that we can build a stronger, more enjoyable and more durable industry for us all to enjoy.