Before the Business

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Recorded April 2022

Kory Zelickson is an entrepreneur and innovator who has launched a number of successful 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.

Shop Vejii Website

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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.

Inuvialuit Carvers Website

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Recorded October 2022

After owning his landscape construction business for over 10 years, GoMaterials’ CEO and co-founder Marc Elliott had experienced first-hand the headaches related to poor quality materials, last minute order changes, product availability shortages, and late deliveries. He shared his experience with long-time friends, who jointly realised that if Marc had experienced those challenges, other landscape designers would as well.

They had identified a gap in the landscape construction business. GoMaterials was born out of the need to resolve these challenges for the landscaping industry.

Today, GoMaterials represents a modern way for landscape construction businesses to source wholesale plant materials for the their projects. Their unique platform and service takes on all aspects of plant procurement, from material estimation to logistics management. With GoMaterials, landscape professionals can finally experience hassle-free sourcing and plant wholesalers can sell more efficiently.

GoMaterials is at the forefront of an evolving and changing industry. Their clients are the businesses that build the green spaces that we love to enjoy — from parks and public spaces to corporate or residential sites. Behind the scenes, GoMaterials is at the forefront of making it happen.

GoMaterials Website

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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.

Claim Your Space Website

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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.

Bamba Vodka Website