You Can Do That Here

We last talked to Jordan Strobel, way back in episode 8 with his business partner Tim Baldwin and their lifestyle brand Ebon. He’s since paired up with another friend from high school Keelan Bourdon and together they’ve launched Apex Multimedia.

Their unique video production style and fully certified drone filming are designed to generate a quick wow factor is suited perfectly for social media and their following has been growing rapidly. Their beginnings though started through a brush with the law.

Turn a childhood hobby into a business partnership with a high school friend, get awesome at drone flying, filming and editing, flirt with federal law, and turn that experience into a unique business advantage? You Can Do That Here!

For Cameron Wenaus and the team at Retreat Guru in Nelson, a fairly mundane act of renting out a spare desk in their office was the spark for a runaway wildfire of co-working success.

The concept is all the rage, a growing trend around the globe and has long been thought to be one of the key’s to unlocking the Kootenays creative, tech and knowledge based industry potential. A number of efforts around the Koots have had varying results.

With the new Jam Factory space, run by, and the home of Retreat Guru, Cam and his team have figured out the magic formula to make it work.

Start renting a spare desk in your startup’s office space, grow your tech company from 4 to 12 people, take over a massive old heritage building in downtown Nelson, renovate it into a successful co-working space and fill it with a mix of energetic and exciting small, largely tech and mindfulness based businesses, all while spawning collaboration and growth in a new industry and maybe even helping launch new start-ups from your space? You Can Do That Here!

While any strong that vibrates at 261.62 Hz, you’ll hear a middle C. In the easiest of terms, the voicebox of all of these instruments that determines what that tone sounds like, lies primarily in the wood.

The density, and flexibility of the wood affects its resonance. the sound is echoed inside guitar body and the characteristics of the wood affect the sound that is distributed outwards.

If you knew all of that, and you’ve spent your entire career working with wood in the forestry industry, you’d likely end up discovering that some of the trees that grow in abundance in the West Kootenay match the characteristics for the soundboard.

These specific mountain side sentinels, standing amongst our forest just happen to be perfect for making great sounding guitars from. Graham Heim of Fruitvale, BC figured this out while working in the logging industry for much of his career. He tested it out and his company Kootenay Tonewood has since supplied soundboards to major guitar companies around the world as well as specialty craft builders.

The next time you ear picks up the changes in air pressure we call music coming from an acoustic guitar. If you follow its sweet sounds back to their vibrating wood source, there’s a strong chance that wood previously stood on a Kootenay hillside.

Avi Phillips of Nelson, BC has gone from child actor in the big city to entrepreneurial dad as the owner of his own online marketing agency, and co-founder / developer of a new app along with his wife / business partner in the Kootenays.

Following a serendipitous path he translated his acting, writing and overall creative storytelling talents into a successful career in the SEO and online marketing world. Seeking out a more family friendly home in the Kootenays he went out on his own launching his own agency, Design For Growth, and also launched an app development startup with his wife.

Hi entrepreneurial, do it yourself spirit, paired with a genuine nice guy demeanour, technical writing skills, along with creative talent, Avi has been on both received those applause, as well as helped other companies receive them from their own customers

Over the last 150 or so years, large scale industrial logging has dominated our forest landscape and much wealth has been harvested from it. Indeed, the primary reason we harvest and process our trees has been to provide jobs, wealth and the resources needed to build and maintain our communities, and in the process to do our best to maintain the environment required for such a renewable resource to remain renewable and flourishing.

Knowing that as the base reason for why we log at all begs the question… What if there was a way to get more of what we want out of our forests? More jobs, economic growth and resources, while maintaining what we need from them, clean air, water, habitat and wild spaces? 

In the latter quarter of the 20^th century, a small community on the West Arm of Kootenay lake asked that question. They asked that question while under outside threat of industrialized logging moving into the hillsides that surround their community.

The answer was a beautiful scene that began with protests, and settled with the community coming together and self organizing themselves to pro-actively protect their community and their forests. The legacy has been the Harrop Proctor Community Forest.

Come up with a home-made solution of their own to get the most jobs, economic growth and resources out of the forest, while protecting their water, air, and the natural beauty and habitat that surrounds, all while maintaining local control, and building a stronger community together over common, shared goals? You Can Do That Here!

Let's raise a glass and celebrate 100 Episodes of the You Can Do That Here!podcast. To celebrate we flipped the seats and series producer and host Andrew Zwicker took the guest seat while Kelly Mclean took over the hosts chair.

Andrew Zwicker is a serial entrepreneur who isn't afraid to chase his dreams, take on big, audacious goals, and make them happen. From his first business in high school, through launching a popular online newspaper, publishing company, creative agency and renewable energy company among others, Andrew is a big believer in "Just starting," when you have a great idea.

Start a podcast designed to break a myth, achieve a big audience that stretches well beyond the geographic boundaries of our region, and record 100 interviews with 112 innovative and interesting guests? You Can Do That Here.

Many thanks to our awesome listeners and 100 episodes of inspiring, talented guests proving indeed that you can indeed do that here.

To learn more about AZcre8ive check out www.AZcre8ive.com

And now for something completely new!...

To kickoff the celebrations around the 100th episode of the You Can Do That Here! podcast we decided to go live, and to host the first ever You Can...Or Can't Do That Here! Gameshow.

In front of an electric crowd of 30 plus tech entrepreneurs, Andrew Zwicker hosted the show with 6 of The Kootenays most innovative minds on the panel for a fun and challenging first edition of the game.

Featuring Don Freschi of Fenix Industries, Inventor / Designer Kaj Gyr, Brent Malysh of Backroads Brewing, Charlotte Ferreux of Change by Choice, and Aerin Guy of SpaceRace Digital.

Colin grew up in "The country," in the north of Scotland, an area very much like the Kootenays. From the age of four he can recall a strong bond between himself and nature. After an injury just prior to the 1988 Calgary Olympics derailed his ski racing career, Colin put his talents towards making the world a cleaner, greener and leaner place. His noble goal was to make sure his son could grow up in a world where he could tell the seasons by the snow starting the fall and the salmon spawning up river.

He recently moved to Rossland,BC where he as co-founder he heads up sales and strategy.

Figbytes, a robust, industry leading business that is helping everyone from countries to airports to universities achieve their sustainability goal. If he is successful in that, he may just get his lifelong goal of a cleaner and still snowy planet for his son.

Dirk Lewis is the mosquito guy. He fell into the field while searching for a summer job in high school. A quarter century later he's moved up the ranks, taken over the company and moved it to Rossland. He's now putting his own spin on the company expanding it's capabilities and markets with the addition of some innovative new technology.

This episode is a beautiful example of how to take a traditional business or service business and up your game with technology while opening up new markets and moving up the value chain.

Turn a semi-random summer job into a lifelong career doing something you love, buy the company, take control and chart a new innovative course forward, all while living the dream lifestyle in small town BC? You Can Do That Here.