This Commerce Life

Celebrating small business month, releasing a special episode with Christina Santini from CFIB.  92% Canadians said they love having small businesses in their community, but only 13% do most of their shopping at small businesses Christina Santini from Canadian Federation of Independent Business  talks about influencing goverment policy, helping small businesses  and fighting for a CEBA extension. ...

"Who the heck cuts out sugar??" This got her thinking. Alice Grey talks about finding monk fruit, and making the best chocolate she can make with monk fruit.   Find Alice at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alice-grey/ Shop for monk fruit sweetened chocolate at https://mindfulmonk.co/ thank you to Fieldagent Canada for sponsoring today's episode. check out buy and try here: https://www.fieldagentcanad...

Chocxo just won an award at BCFB. Wondering what their story is? Scott Sulz comes on to talk about great chocolate. On top of that, we spend some time talking to Scott about how you figure out how to work somewhere that you love.    You can find Scott here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-sulz-5301b967/ Check out Chocxo here: https://chocxo.com/   Interested in Fieldagent's Buy and try? hit this...

 The CEO  of Vitality, Cheryl Grant sounds the alarm on Health Canada putting more red tape on our world class supplements process.  Thank you to the Boss for telling us that we had to have Cheryl Grant on.  On a totally different note, Cheryl's decided that she's going to screw with Phil the time she sees him.    You can find Cheryl here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cherylgrant25/ check out Vital...

She inherited her dad's meat smoker and decided that she'd smoke tofu instead. Founder Miki Talebi talks about coming from public policy to slinging tofu.   find her here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miki-talebi-22587a43/?originalSubdomain=ca check out Oome here: https://www.thisisoome.com/   Thank you to Field Agent Canada for sponsoring our episodes. Check out their Ratings and Review program he...

It's a thursday, and we're talking to a functional expert you can call or ask questions of. Bryan Horsley is a CA/CPA who has an accounting background, consulting and been a retailer.    You can find Bryan in Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-horsley/ or bryan@bryanhorsley.cpa   Thank you to Fieldagent Canada for sponsoring this epsiode, you can find out more about their ratings and rev...

"People want real tangible holistic frameworks for healing" Angela and Yarrow Willard talk about Harmonic Arts, how they became a national brand, and the shift from being a small business owner to a business leader.    Find out more about Harmonic Arts here: https://harmonicarts.ca/   Find Yarrow here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yarrow-willard-b0b09839/ Find Angela here: https://www.linkedin.com/...

For every dollar they've given a company, those companies are able to attract another $64. Who is NPC? Coueslan explains. If you were at CHFA, you saw Shelley King on stage, helping Launchpad finalists, and if you walked the show, you definitely walked through innovation alley.  Find NPC here: https://www.naturalproductscanada.com/en/ Find Sue here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sue-coueslan-6864748...

Mitsoh ("Eat" in Cree Nehiyaw) was founded by Ian Gladue of Wabasca's Bigstone Cree Nation in Alberta. We talk to Ian and his partner Brandon about restoring, preserving and sharing North American Indigenous culture while bringing great products to market.   Find Brandon here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-markiw-071b0946/ Find Mitsoh here: https://www.mitsoh.com/ Be sure to sign up for CHFA...

If you had 250,000 people at your disposal what would you ask for? Jeff Doucette talks about some of the retail wishes he and Fieldagent fulfill every week for brands.   Find Jeff here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-doucette-72b3556/   Check out Fieldagent here: https://www.fieldagentcanada.com/   Make sure you sign up to CHFA Now here: https://chfa.ca/en/Events/chfa-now#upcoming

A what? A dacquoise + macaron = Dacaron. Jimmy Kim talks about their journey to bring the Dacaron to Canadian consumers.    Find wonderful Dacarons at: https://www.earthlingfoods.ca/ Talk to Jimmy here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmy-kim-8219838b/ Vote for Jimmy here: https://www.bcfbawards.com/vote Make sure you sign up for CHFA here: https://www.chfanow.ca/toronto/  

Riaz Meghji, Author of Every Conversation counts comes on to talk about conversations, journaling and connections.   Find Riaz here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/riazmeghji/ Riaz's book is here: https://riazmeghji.com/book   Make sure you sign up for CHFA here: https://chfa.ca/en/Events/chfa-now Sign up for our newsletter here: www.thiscommercelife.com    

Karen Danudjaja the founder of Blume comes by to talk about startups, not knowing retail and celebrating wins. We were pretty excited to talk to Karen - she's an incredible founder with a wonderful outlook on how she wants to approach her business.   Find Karen here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-danudjaja-8275682a/   Shop Blume here: https://itsblume.com/   Make sure you sign up for CHFA here...

We get the '101' about chocolate and social enterprises. Mara Mennicken is the 'GOOD' in the The GOOD Chocolatier.  After studying about social enterprises, she wondered why companies don't give back every step of their journey to growth.    Find Mara here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mara-mennicken-24609469/ Shop the Good Chocolatier here: https://thegoodchocolatier.com/   Make sure you sign up f...

She takes risks. She loves learning  and she's made a  habit of sharing her wins and mistakes. Bro-Dough founder Erica Rankin comes on to talk about learning CPG and selling a product that she loves.   Find Erica here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericabrodough/ Shop bro dough here: https://eatbrodough.com/     Make sure you subscribe to the This Commerce life Podcast at www.thiscommercelife.com  ...

One of his greatest fears is that he will talk without saying anything. That isn't true - while he was with us, VP Strategic Partnerships / Ethical Food Group Corwin Hiebert has a lot to say about helping brands grow.   Find out more about Ethical Food Group here: https://www.ethicalfoodgroup.com/ Check out Corwin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corwinhiebert/   Don't forget to subscribe to our...

This guy finally makes it onto the podcast. Kirk Homenick talks about getting kicked out of London Drugs in his first week, and the long hard road back to being a Canadian made, hand-crafted snack.    shop Hardbite here: https://hardbitechips.com/ Find Kirk here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirk-homenick-a19bb71/   Make sure you subscribe to the podcast newsletter here: https://www.linkedin.com/in...

Near 90 years of farming in Pitt Meadows BC, Hopcott Farms continues to thrive as a Family Farming Business.  Started by their Grandparents in the 1930's and then run by their parents Bob & Debbie, it's now been the mission and passion of the 3 siblings, Jean, Travis and Brad,  to continue and expand this family enterprise and truly become your one stop shop for locally raised meats, vegetables an...

It's not about fear, it's about being aware.  Mike Nunn from TLC Solutions walks us through the threats we face today in the world of Cybersecurity whether from a business stand point or personal.  Mike chats with the Knuckleheads and goes through how we can do a better job and make some relatively easy changes to how we view and protect our data online.   check out Mike here: https://www.linkedin...

Still hurting from a de-llsting years ago with Kenny; we catch up  with our CPG Industry Recruiting Guru, Trevor Baker.  A chat about the workplace today, post Covid, the job market now and what people are looking for in employees and employers, and we ask, and seek Trevor's wisdom, when asking the proverbial "Where has everyone gone?"  Whether you are looking for work or looking to hire, what doe...

We meet a fan, become fans. Sarah Kinlin will be a world reknowned speaker, coach and educator.  We're proud to be her first podcast.   talk to Sarah here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-kinlin-253917137/ check out Sarah's website here: https://sarahkinlin.com/pages/podcast   make sure you subscribe to our newsletter at www.thiscommercelife.com  

Mushrooms! We talk mushrooms and building a mushroom farm from scratch with Brian Thomas. Brian’s career started as a mental health and addictions counsellor working in detox facilities, treatment centres and later on adult outreach for mental health and addiction for Fraser Health. During that time his passion for supporting communities and helping people led him to start co-op food buying progra...

"It's like running up a down escalator"  CEO of BC Food and Beverage James Donaldson talks about member challenges, being a not-for-profit industry association representing food and beverage manufacturers in British Columbia.   Find James here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessdonaldson/ If you're in BC, you should be signing up to be a member of BC Food and Beverage. https://bcfb.ca/   Sign up t...

A ballet dancer, model, actress, and scuba instructor turned to beverage maker. GnuSante Chief Strategy & Ideation Officer  Autumn Kendrick  talks about making kid friendly, nutritional drinks.    Talk to Autumn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/autumn-kendrick-829015184/ Shop for Gnubees here: https://www.gnusante.com/ Make sure you subscribe to our podcast newsletter here: www.thiscommercelife.c...

Dean Yachison jumps in to talk about Health First network - the first network of independent natural food stores joined together to reduce costs and increase effectiveness of marketing and communication giving consumers greater access to the benefits of natural products in Canada.   To find Dean: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dean-yachison-63497315/ to subscribe to our newsletter: www.thiscommerceli...