Lean InWith Casey Grey
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Emile caught the entrepreneurial spirit at the age of four, delivering papers for his older brother for ten cents and a bag of chips each week.
Over the next 40 years he turned revenue streams and profit development into an art form across a variety of industries. Emile is the founder of Collab Space, a Collaborative Business Community in the west end of Ottawa called Collab Space and believes executive knowledge should be available to all startups; not just those that can afford it. In this conversation with Casey, Emile shares some business lessons and Casey looks for some insight on how he can improve his sales process, with over 45 plus businesses started Emile has a wealth of knowledge which he shares in his role as mentor at Collab Space and he talks about their exciting 4 year anniversary they are celebrating as he says "a celebration for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs" "You actually have to budget for profit and make profit an expense, profit plus expenses equals revenue, if you don’t do that you’ll never get it." "My passion is supporting people to be successful, and what I call success is having a self sufficient business."
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Matthew Britt is an experienced entrepreneur. Matthew’s goal was always to be job free before his 30th birthday and that was successfully achieved at 29 years old when he resigned from being a personal trainer with GoodLife Fitness. After bringing a solar referral company called Powur to Canada in early 2017, Matt found that there was a need for home and business owners to take control of their energy from how it’s made to where it comes from. Matt oversees all company operations alongside COO Forrest Vetter-Wilson and utilizes his connections to continually establish partnerships.
In this conversation with Casey, Matt talks about his dad and his first taste of entrepreneurial life entering the network marketing world. He talks about a conversation with his chiropractor that inspired the "Let's hug it out" brand and his daring jump into the solar industry at at time when many in the industry were leaving and lots more great information in this podcast including Matt's audacious billion dollar plans. "Everytime a family in Ontario installs a 10kw solar array we can help roughly 25-30 families in a developing nation get power for the first time” "Nothing feels like work anymore it’s fantastic”
Daughter, gymnast, sports anchor, wife, mother, morning show host Lianne Laing was born and raised in Ottawa. She attended the University of Massachusetts/Amherst on a full NCAA gymnastics scholarship and graduated with two business degrees before spending 20 years as a television broadcaster where she worked as a sports anchor and a host for Ottawa’s CTV Morning Live. She covered everything from olympians, chefs, celebrities, community leaders and more. She reside's in Ottawa with her husband Tony and two daughters.
In this podcast Lianne shares how an early childhood gymnastic competition accident changed everything for her at the age of eleven, including her own surprise leap into broadcasting, along with her scary transition into entrepreneurial life. Lots of exciting messages including how her dad's passing continues to influence her decisions today. "I am incredibly great-full for the opportunity that athletics gave me to travel, compete in some of the most interesting places, meet amazing people and it offered me a four year education traveling the United States at a division one school and two business degrees”
Jeffrey Leiper is the current Ottawa city councillor for Kitchissippi Ward. He was first elected in the Ottawa municipal election, 2014.
Leiper was born and raised in Ottawa. He studied History and English at the University of Ottawa, and Print Journalism at Algonquin College. As a youth, Leiper was a member of the youth wing of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, though he is now a committed progressive. He has lived in Kitchissippi Ward since 1995 when he and his spouse Natalie moved into the Julian Apartments in the Wellington West area. Today, he lives in Hintonburg with Natalie and their son. In this podcast Jeff talks shares his motivations for getting into politics, what are his principles are and what it means to be courageous. He touches on how quality of life should influence policy and planning and some of the Climate initiatives including the recently declared Climate Emergency and the ongoing energy evolution and on the personal side adapting to work and life after his recent heart attack. "At the end of the day you just try to be true to a certain set of principles, and when the trolls comes out, if you’ve done your work and stayed true to your principles and been courageous in your pursuit, a lot of the negative comments will roll off. Some of it stings, everyday someone will be hypercritical of something that you are pursuing or a decision you’ve made, or a process that hasn’t turned out the way they want. But if you can go to bed, staying true to your principles, being open minded, did I do the right thing, than ultimately it will roll off, it’s a huge rollercoaster"
Kristy has been involved in the Real Estate industry for over 15 years in various levels. She started with her first home purchase at 21 by selling everything she & her boyfriend Eric (now husband) owned just to get a down payment. By 25 she started her own company transforming homes even though another ”specialist” told her not to bother she would never be successful. Over the years alongside building her business she and Eric renovated 5 homes & 1 commercial property with great success. She jokingly calls it ”Flipping up” even though she had no intention of taking on properties to “Flip” alongside her personal home for various logistic reasons.
After many moves and renovating her homes over time, she also built her Home Staging Company to #1 with an amazing team working directly with many of the top 20% real estate agents in the city of Ottawa. After a decade of building success, she made the bold decision to sell her business and focus on building relationships, understanding her clients needs and custom tailoring solutions for those needs. This is why she chose to be apart of Ottawa’s top real estate team the Ottawa Capital Group. In this podcast Kristy talks about her decision to join the Ottawa Capital Group as a licensed realtor, she talks about her plastic restaurant fiasco which inspired a major change in her life and her new Guinea Fowls she takes care of with her husband Eric at their home in Kemptville and so much more! "All I do is let them out in the morning, they run around during the day eat ticks and mosquitoes and bugs throughout my yard, and than I lock them up at night and fill up their food and water every couple of days"
Breanne Gibson is a global change leader for regeneration, speaker. She's an educator, holistic nutrition expert, and permaculture practitioner. She is the founder of Breanne Gibson LLC, a coaching and consulting company focused on helping leaders, entrepreneurs, and organizations align with the intelligence of nature for ultimate energy, health and resiliency.
Her mission is to reconnect humanity with nature and remove the gap between soil and health for both human and planet. In this podcast Breanne touches on her journey beginning in British Columbia growing up on 10 acres "in nature", to her experience in the army before branching out and creating her own coaching and consulting business. Breanne shares some insights into her own diet, how to make soil for growing your own food and so much more. Her passion and wealth of knowledge is contagious and might inspire you, if you haven't already to do some research into what your eating. After listening to this podcast make sure to visit Breanne's links for more information. "Nature never leaves herself bare only humans leave her bare" "I think for us and its evolved but we’ve always supported each other in our individual journeys there’s never been a feeling that I can’t live my life because I’m with you and vice versa and that’s been really freeing .”
Andy is a Red Seal General Carpenter, with training and experience in restoration, traditional timber framing, drafting and design, stairs, custom housing and high-performance residential construction. He was also lucky enough to teach at the Algonquin College Perth Campus for about 15 years in the Construction Carpentry Advanced Housing Program, both part-time and full time. In 2017, he trained and earned his certification as a Passive House Consultant with the Canadian Passive House Institute and after years of membership with his local Home Builders’ in Perth, Ontario, Andy worked with the Canadian Home Builders Association national office as Director of Professional Development and Manager of Association Services. Always looking for a new challenge, Andy is now working with Guides.co, an online knowledge sharing platform, as well as helping a STEM mentorship program from Nova Scotia called Techsploration with a pilot program expansion into Ontario.
Andy lives in Perth, Ontario with his wife of 24 years and their 2 teenage kids. "A classroom with a teacher talking in front of students is really cost effective, a classroom where each student has a circular saw and a whole bunch of pieces of wood in front of them, is not" “I’ve seen the lightbulbs go on with students, especially the students that were struggling and it was such a rewarding experience. I would never look back on my time and consider it a waste, it was one of the best times in my life.”
Heather graduated from the Industrial Design program at Carleton University in 2014. Failing to land a design job she decided to pursue one of her creative passions which was bringing new life to discarded materials. With her University degree and hands on experience growing up with a father in construction in her hometown of Coldwater, she took a part time job in Ottawa and in her off time focused on building her business.
She started by working in a small cellar in her apartment she often refers to as the “dungeon” and has since upgraded to a much larger shop where she does everything from sandwich boards, a giant connect 4, 7’ Tall Easter Eggs to complete redesigns for retail clients. Heather's passion for her work and the environment is on full display, in her interview with Casey. To learn more make sure to check out the links below and listen to the podcast in full. Businesses if you find that you are consistently tossing a specific material try and see if there is a way to reduce that, maybe it's wooden pallets, PVC pipe, for example the Bridgehead on Preston gives away their Hemp Coffee Bags to customers, we know it's time consuming but reach out to Re4m and maybe we can help." Make every day earth day"
"We know building our little Eco-friendly home won't have a huge impact on the environment, but we still want to do it." "Nothing great is ever accomplished alone" |
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