Before the Business

Recorded August 2022

Recorded June 2022

Recorded June 2022

Recorded May 2022 Like many things of beauty “It’s Souper” began as a dream and a way to find a place in a diverse community for Nigerian born, Lola Adeyemi. Today it’s more than a dream—it’s a business that brings the flavours of Africa to food lovers. After pursuing a Bachelors Degree at the University of Winnipeg, Lola relocated to Toronto. But even in a bigger city she noticed a gap in the food market. While working as an IT Specialist, she would shop the specialty stores for ingredients to create unique Nigerian dish to every potluck or team building event. The empty containers and rave reviews from her coworkers confirmed that the gap she had identified was real. But her co-workers didn’t have experience with the ingredients, let alone know where to find them. In Nigeria, soup is enjoyed year-round. In Canada, she found that some of the “ready to eat” options weren’t flavourful enough, weren’t hearty enough, and we’re interesting enough to make soup an everyday meal. She always had to tweak the soups by adding more flavour and spice to them when she got home. For her, soup should be vibrant, exciting, and colourful! “Soup is an aromatic twist of flavours and textures exploding in your mouth, soup isn’t only for when its cold and dull outside, soup is for every day, soup should be food for your soul. SOUP is LIFE!!”. With that kind of passion, it’s like she was destined to create and found It’s Souper, an Afro-fusion gourmet brand that creates soups and sauces to elevate your cooking game. #Soupislove

Recorded May 2022 After years working in the British Columbia restaurant industry, Bamba Vodka Founder, Brandon McKeachie decided to carve out his own place in the world of spirits with the goal of crafting an outstanding vodka that showcases the "spirit of BC." As a product, Bamba was crafted to shift outdated perceptions that the best vodka was colourless, odourless, and flavourless. Instead, vodka can be delicious and complex. Bamba is a vodka that challenges the notion that vodka is a spirit that you add to other juices or sugary sodas. It is something that can be enjoyed on its own. Bamba is crafted with 100% locally-grown organic corn from the Okanagan Valley. Add a bit of yeast, a bit of magic, and some amazing British Columbia water and the distillation process results in a complex flavour profile—vanilla and sweet corn, a fuller body, and a long smooth finish without the “eyes closed, head shaking” ethanol burn. The name Bamba is an enigma. We wanted to pick a name that people could create their own meaning and associations around. If you really go looking for a meaning, Bamba can reflect advice, mastery and maybe even the need to get a little rambunctious. But it’s what it means to you that matters.

Recorded April 2022 Kory Zelickson is an entrepreneur and innovator who has launched a number of success e-commerce and technology companies. He and his family choose to eat a plant-based diet. Although gaining in popularity, plant-based products are not as readily available through traditional grocery and retail chains. Not only do plant-based products fight for shelf space within their category, they also must compete with other products. As a result, it can be hard for customers to find all of their desired plant-based products — fish, chicken and beef to milk and egg alternatives—in one place. It can also be difficult for new start-up businesses to reach consumers, especially since many food products need to be shipped frozen to remain fresh. To solve the problem, he created Vejii (www.shopvejii.com), an online digital marketplace that meets the needs of consumers and plant-based companies. Through an online portal, customers have access to their favourite plant-based products and are exposed to new products from emerging providers. Vejii controls a number of cold-storage distribution facilities across North America, ensuring that online orders are shipped directly to the customer exactly as the manufacturer intended.

Recorded April 2022 The Inuvialuit live in the western Canadian Arctic, predominantly in the coastal regions near the ocean. The landscape plays a huge role in defining the Inuvialuit style of carving, which uses natural materials — muskox horn, baleen, antler, soapstone — to represent everyday scenes. Consequently, each piece of art has a story to tell about the region, the environment, and the people. Priscilla Boulay was born and raised in Tuktoyaktuk, NWT and is a proud third-generation carver. Her Daduck (Grandfather) was a carver, who passed the skills down to her mother, aunts and uncles, who in turned passed them down to her. Before starting Inuvialuit Carvers, Priscilla was selling her sculptures and jewellery at local trade and craft shows. Encouraged by compliments from her customers, she eventually started Inuvialuit Carvers as a way to share her own art, art from family members, and art from other indigenous sculptors with a broader audience. Today, her work can be found in boutique galleries across Canada, but most of her business comes through the connections she makes on social media and through her website. Her artwork and her stories are worth sharing. From her studio in Irricana, Alberta, she continues to tell stories through her carving and sculpture. Her daughters are fourth-generation carvers, and she has recently begun teaching soapstone carving classes to students across Canada, ensuring that the stories live on.

Recorded March 2022 I first met Belinda Aramide at a professional business networking event in 2018. At that time, she was a successful Sales Account Executive. But being a cog in a corporate machine was weighing on her. She might have been happy, but she wasn’t fulfilled. She hinted to me that she was working on something, and a short while later she launched Claim Your Space. Claim Your Space provides business coaching and consulting for entrepreneurs and executives. Because the solutions are based on personal values instead of simply business goals, clients come away with a deeper understanding of how they can succeed in business by aligning and communicating their values to their clients. You might even consider Belinda the first client of Claim Your Space! She shares some of her wisdom on the “Claim Your Space” podcast, and is an active public speaker. At the core, she helps executives and entrepreneurs confidently “take up space” in their industry, ensuring that their unique expertise is presented to the clients they deserve.

Recorded March 2022 Aline Nalbandian has always been drawn to how other cultures expressed their identity. That might because she grew up Toronto, Ontario, one of the most diverse cities in North America. Later in life, as she began to travel with her family, she fell in love with Colombia. As a way to remember her trip, she bought a mochila bag at a local market. In Canada, she would be stopped on the street asking where she had purchased her amazing hand-made bag. This was the spark that eventually grew into A-line Wayuu Love. In August 2021, she formally started the business with a distinct social purpose. Aline works directly with indigenous artisans of La Guajira, Colombia, eliminating the number of steps between artist and customer. This allows her to give back to the La Guarjira economy and bring awareness to the customs and tradition of some of Colombia’s indigenous people. Each mochila bag is a function piece of hand-made art. Durable, high-quality, and definitely one-of-a-kind.

reg Fishell is an outdoor enthusiast and owner of Fishell Paddles, North America’s premier supplier of handcrafted wood canoe paddles. Greg grew up in a canoe tripping family and spent much of his life on the water and working at summer camps as a guide. It was during his camp years in Ontario and through his father John that he developed a close relationship with master paddle maker, Ray Kettlewell. In the fall of 2013, Ray announced his retirement from paddle making to focus on building cedar strip canoes. Greg got in touch with Ray, and came to an agreement to take over his time-honoured designs, templates, and equipment. A short four months later, Fishell Paddles was launched. Working alongside Ray, Greg quickly mastered the trade by drawing on his wisdom and knowledge.