The Number

For two out of three business owners, selling the company will be the largest financial transaction of their lives. Yet most have never had it valued, and many don't know where to begin. In this episode, Wendy Brookhouse and Kelsey MacAulay dig into the number 66, why business value belongs right alongside revenue and profit as a metric worth tracking, and the practical first steps owners can take...

The Canada Pension Plan comes off almost every paycheque, but most business owners never stop to ask how it works or what it means for them. In this episode, Wendy Brookhouse and Kelsey MacAulay use the average CPP payment of $925.35 a month as a way in. They explain how contributions work, why the choice between paying yourself salary or dividends has gotten closer than it used to be, when it mig...

Most business owners have run a few prompts through ChatGPT and assumed that counts as using AI. Susan Diaz, CEO and founder of Northlight AI and author of Swan Dive Backwards , joins Wendy and Kelsey to make the case for going deeper. The conversation covers why AI literacy matters more than access, how to treat AI as delegation instead of magic, and why documenting how your business actually run...

The number is 44,000:  businesses that closed in a single year, most of them not sold, just shuttered. Manja Horner, leadership strategist and founder of Boost Learning Design, joins Wendy and Kelsey to unpack why so many trades owners are walking away with no successor and no plan for the knowledge they spent decades building. The conversation looks at the hidden costs of skipping training, the b...

Money is still the number one source of stress for Canadians, and this episode gets into what the data actually shows. Wendy and Kelsey walk through the 2026 FP Canada Financial Stress Index — nine years of tracking financial anxiety across the country — and zero in on one number that tells the real story. People who work with a financial professional are 14 percentage points less likely to lose s...

The Number | Episode 004 — Long-Game Thinking Bryan Clayton built a landscaping company from a single push mower to 150 employees and eight figures in annual revenue — then sold it. Then he started over. In this episode, Bryan shares the number that guided his second act: 10. Not a revenue target or a headcount — a timeframe. He and Wendy talk through what it actually takes to build a business tha...

The Number | Episode 3 — The One Number Most people manage money reactively — checking their bank account after the fact and hoping it adds up. In this episode, Wendy and Kelsey dig into The One Number: Black Star Wealth's system for cutting through the noise of multiple accounts, competing priorities, and unconscious spending. They explain why a spending plan works better than a budget, how autom...

Got it — noted and saved. Kelsey MacAulay, and he. I'll make sure both the skill files and all future content reflect that correctly. Here are the corrected show notes: From Interested to Committed: What 500 Sessions Teaches The Number | Episode [#] — Commitment, Habits & Consistency What does it take to stop being interested in something and actually commit to it? In this episode, Wendy and K...

Twenty years.   That’s the number that launches The Number . The milestone number 20 marks Wendy’s twentieth year in the financial industry. What began as business consulting evolved into an independent financial planning practice grounded in curiosity, education, and doing what is right—not what is easy. In this first episode, Wendy Brookhouse and Kelsey MacAulay introduce the podcast and the con...

This episode takes a turn.  Wendy’s not in the host chair.  I slide in to interview her and Kelsey as we wrap up 2025 and look straight into 2026. We cover what surprised them about business owners this year, where owners are getting stuck, why so many people are tired, and why resilience and action suddenly matter more than ever. We dig into the myths that refuse to die, the habits that make a bu...

AI is showing up everywhere in business. And a lot of owners are turning it on without realizing what they just gave access to. In this episode, Wendy sits down with Darryl Cresswell, CEO and founder of myDWARE, to talk about why cybersecurity has to come before any AI rollout. They dig into real world examples entrepreneurs can actually relate to. AI agents running under owner level access. Sensi...

I invited Graham Barlow onto The Real Bottom Line because his founder journey is one of the wildest I’ve ever heard. He started out as a teenager selling virtual game items on eBay, scaled that “hobby” into almost six figures a month, and eventually went on to build and exit multiple companies. In our conversation, Graham and I dig into How he and a group of friends used bots to farm virtual curre...

FinTech leader Carrie Forbes, CEO of Rockstar Advisory, joins Wendy to unpack the shift from startup energy to running energy, the corporate habits worth keeping, and how to make AI projects succeed with tiny, low risk wins. Human skills remain the moat... and that’s the optimistic bottom line.

Wendy talks with Dr. Susan Reid, revisioning specialist, author, and keynote speaker, about designing life after work. They explore identity beyond titles, why meaning matters in retirement, and how a simple “being vision” guides the next chapter. Susan shares research, lived lessons from building and selling businesses, and practical tools like journaling push/pull factors and building a “retirem...

Episode: The Real Bottom Line with Wendy Brookhouse Guest: Jennifer Williams, Founder of Firefly Insights In this episode, I sit down with Jennifer Williams , founder and partial owner of Firefly Insights , to unpack one of the most exciting developments for Canadian entrepreneurs — Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs). If you’re a business owner starting to think about succession, exit planning, or l...

Guest: Ray Samuels, Growth Advisor and Founder, Cer Capital Episode in a sentence: Ray shares how “done beats perfect,” why relationships are the real currency, and how a simple idea plus disciplined iteration can create momentum, funding, and valuation growth. What we cover From high-school dances to London Telecom to Direct Energy: Ray’s entrepreneurial through-line The 65% rule: ship, listen, i...

In this episode, I'm joined by the incredibly insightful Lissa Daub , founder of Strong Impact Academy. We met online through a couple of mutual groups, and it was a meeting that just felt like kismet. Lissa hails from Edmonton, Alberta, and she’s a force to be reckoned with. Lissa and I dive into some of the most critical topics for business owners, from the mindset shifts of moving from corporat...

150 episodes. Honestly, when I started this podcast, I wasn’t thinking about milestones. I just wanted to have conversations with entrepreneurs and share the lessons hidden inside their journeys. And yet here we are....150 episodes later. In this solo episode, I step back from the usual interviews to reflect on what I’ve learned along the way, about business, freedom, resilience, and legacy. Here’...

Some entrepreneurs build one business and call it a day. Dalene Allen has built — and sold — more than one… and kept right on making powerful connections. In this episode of The Real Bottom Line , I sit down with Dalene to unpack her journey from direct sales leader earning pink Cadillacs, to running and selling the largest business referral network in Atlantic Canada, to launching her own network...

In a world obsessed with algorithms, trends, and going viral, what if the true key to social media success was simpler and more human? This week's guest, Ingrid Deon, founder of the organic social media agency Word-Craft, makes a powerful case for ditching the algorithm-chasing and focusing on what truly matters: authentic conversations. Ingrid shares her inspiring and unconventional path to entre...

In this episode, I chat with Gord Stevens, former owner of Uncommon Grounds, Rum Runners, Sugar, and more. Now the COO at Halifax Partnership, Gord shares what it was like to build multiple businesses with heart — and how he eventually transitioned out of ownership without losing what made those businesses meaningful. We cover: Gord’s journey from finance to food and retail Why creativity and stor...

On this episode of The Real Bottom Line , I sit down with Justin Goodbread, serial entrepreneur, value coach, and author of Your Baby’s Ugly . He’s started and sold seven companies and now helps business owners build scalable businesses that buyers actually want. We dig into what makes a business attractive to a buyer, how to mentally prepare for a sale, and why your exit should start long before...

Guest: M. Shannon Hernandez, Messaging & Marketing Strategist and Founder of Joyful Business Revolution™ Episode Summary: Feeling drained by social media? Struggling to see real business results from all your posts? You’re not alone. In this episode, I sit down with M. Shannon Hernandez to talk about a more sustainable, joyful approach to marketing—one that doesn’t leave you glued to an algori...

Your business has a story—are you telling it in a way that connects, engages, and drives sales? In this episode of The Real Bottom Line , Wendy Brookhouse sits down with Andrea Sampson , storytelling expert and CEO of Talk Boutique , to break down the art and science of storytelling in business. Whether you're pitching investors, marketing to customers, or leading a team, a compelling story can ma...

Welcome to The Real Bottom Line with Wendy Brookhouse. In this episode, Wendy sits down with April Roberts, a high-performance coach for female entrepreneurs, to explore her incredible journey from practising law to building and selling a successful financial planning business. What You’ll Learn: How April transitioned careers and built her financial planning firm from the ground up. Insights into...