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Good afternoon, good morning. Kent Beam with Nine Business Group. Welcome back to Elevate Your Business Chat. I’ve been looking forward to this interview for probably three weeks now. Kristen, welcome to the program. Please introduce yourself, your company name, and most importantly, what you guys do and what sets you apart. Kristen, welcome.

Awesome. Thanks so much for having me, Kent. I’m really excited to be here. So we’re Modern Speak. We’re a digital marketing agency based here in Calgary, and we sort of work in three different areas. One, we’re an influencer management agency. So we do work directly with TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram creators to help them manage the business side of their brand partnerships. 

And then we also work directly with clients, primarily in the tourism and hospitality space. And in that sense, we work with them on their social media and influencer campaigns. And then we also work in content production. So we help businesses build out their marketing assets from video, photo, things that they can use for all of their marketing needs.

And I would say the thing that sets us apart is probably a bit of a different answer depending on the vertical of business we’re talking about. But if we were to say in the influencer management space, I think transparency is probably the thing that sets us the most apart in this industry. It’s one of those things that’s so important, but often not always there in this industry. There’s a lot of… not always being upfront and sharing things when it comes to the amount of money and contracts and what’s going back to the creator and those types of things. 

And we’ve been really passionate about making sure that that is one of our core values as a business. And one of the things that we can promise and guarantee to our creators is that we will always be transparent in the amount of money that the business is getting paid to the amount of money that they’re getting, because it is often based off of a commission structure and that sort of thing. We’ve actually built proprietary software strictly to be able to ensure that we can show those pieces to those clients.

And then on the side of working directly with brands and specifically working in tourism hospitality brands, I think the thing that sets us apart as an agency is that I actually come from working on the brand side in tourism and hospitality. So previous to starting the agency, I worked for Tourism Calgary and Travel Alberta. And when I was in-house in those businesses, I really got to learn and understand what success looks like internally. 

So now being on the agency side, I feel like I have such a good understanding of what those clients are looking for and what their needs are and their stakeholders needs and all of those types of things. So I feel like we’re really well equipped in the area of business that we’ve gone into to be able to help those businesses be successful.

Super exciting. So you’ve been at this for a while. You’ve been in industry a long time. What is the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome since starting? How did you tackle it? How did you solve it? What does it look like today?

Yeah, I love this question because I think, quite honestly speaking, it’s me. I was sort of the biggest challenge to overcome in all of this. I sort of accidentally became a business owner when I was leaving Travel Alberta. I had actually a side business where I was selling letter boards and I was trying to get those letter boards in front of more of a U.S. audience. So I sort of turned to influencer marketing myself just as a business owner. 

And in that moment, I realized that there was all of these creators that sort of became overnight successes and had no idea how to manage the business side of what would ultimately become a business. But I don’t think they realized that at the time. And in that moment, I was like, I need to help. Specifically, a lot of them were women. I need to help them understand their worth and how to advocate for themselves, how to feel empowered to be able to ask brands for money and all these types of things.

So my letter board company, which was actually called Modern Speak, quickly overnight almost became an influencer management agency because I started helping these people and they were telling their other creative friends. And we went from having like 14 creators that we were managing sort of overnight. But with all that being said, I’d never run a business before. I had come from working on the age or on the corporate side for most of my life. And it was like becoming this accidental business owner was a really scary and intimidating experience. 

And I think a lot through a lot of this, whether it was growing the business, growing the team, getting more clients, whatever those growth moments look like. I was sort of the bottleneck in a lot of those moments because I was afraid. Do I have the leadership skills to do this? Do I have the finance understanding of what the business is doing to be able to grow and all of those things?

So I think the thing that’s really helped me actually is having really great mentors and really great coaches and people who can really show you your value and your worth and kind of build that confidence back up in you that you are able to actually do these things that maybe you don’t think that you can. And also one of the really big learnings that I had recently was being the founder of essentially a startup. It really is. You have to wear all the hats, you have to do the finance, you have to do the HR, all of the marketing, everything really. And I have an incredible team that are just phenomenal. I would not be where I am without them. 

But at the top level, you’re kind of like hands in all the pots. And I think it’s just it’s helpful to remember that you can’t successfully be the CFO, the COO, the CEO, and all of the things you really have to try and be comfortable and confident in the lane that you’re really good at. And either outsource the help for those other things or really lean on people who are strong in those spaces and not get yourself down that just because you’re not great in all the areas, it’s the business is still, you know, doing really well.

So maybe a long answer to a short question. But I think I’ve really been amazed at in the five years that we’ve been doing this, the growth that I’ve been able to experience as a business owner.

No, there’s a lot of truth there, because we all have our strengths and weaknesses. And, and to grow and scale a business, we can’t be an expert in everything we need to. And front of mind puts it this way, we’re almost better off as owners becoming generalists versus specialists. If we think about the corporate world, when we get a job, our job really is to get really good at one thing and become indispensable inside that organization. 

Well, the flip side inside of a business as an owner, the opposite is true. The less we’re good at, in a way, the more we get outsourced, the better team we get to hire so that we to your point, we’re not the bottleneck. So moving on to the next question, what is the one thing you know now that you wish you would have known five plus years ago?

I think just that it’s a lot harder than you think. And also just to like, learn to be more kind to myself throughout the journey. And just recognizing that like, around like expectations and all of those types of things that like good things take time. And that like what got you here is not going to get you there. And just remembering that like, it’s okay to grow change, you know, have to, you know, end relationships that might have really been lucrative to getting you to a certain point, but that might not be to getting you to the next point. 

And all of those, you know, hardships that we go through as business owners, but I think really like, kudos and pats on the back to everyone out there who is doing it, because as much as it, you know, gives you a lot of freedom to be your own boss and make decisions and do all these things, it really is hard to do.

It definitely has a certain learning curve to it. If there is a thief, a pirate in around your business, hacking into your computers, walking into your office, what are they stealing from you?

I think the thing that somebody would want to steal from us isn’t going to be found on a computer or hard drive. I think it’s going to be found in like the culture of our business and in who we are as a team. And I think that’s like passion. We’re all super, super passionate about what we do. We really choose to work with clients and creators that are also that same way. 

We want to have an environment where we’re constantly being inspired and this creative space. And I think like being able to jump out of bed in the morning and be excited about the people that you’re going to have to hop on a call with or be in a meeting with and surround yourself with every day is like one of the most important pieces.

And I feel like our team really has over the years, we’ve obviously gone from being a say yes to everything to now really finding our path and our way. And I think since doing that, every interaction and client and person that we get the joy of working with is it’s pure passion. We’re just so excited to be able to tell these stories and promote these people. 

And another interesting thing about our business is a lot of ways that people are our product. And so we just we get the joy of working with all different personalities and every day kind of just feels really exciting. And I think that that’s something that a lot of people would want to have and feel and maybe take into their own life.

So in five years, maybe it’s changed, maybe it’s gotten tighter. What is your definition of a successful business? What does it mean for you to be successful?

I think like all those things that I sort of just said about making sure that we’re always kind of staying in this lane of doing what we really know and understand. Success to me is that jumping out of the bed in the morning and being able to say like, this is an amazing team and company that’s been built off of passion and fun and doing the things that we know really, really well. 

I think also just being able to build a community so much of what we do is working with people who are part of this video photo community in Alberta across the world, really, because we have clients all over the world and they’re basically their audience is their community. And so we’re figuring out how to nurture all of these different communities and be able to bring a really positive impact to those spaces. 

And being a female business owner and entrepreneur, it’s really my passion to be able to mentor other female entrepreneurs in the space or other females that are coming up as creators or even just on my team. I’m really excited to sort of see how we can crush all of the things, make dreams come true. We’re just really excited about all that stuff.

Fascinating. What do you want to be known for? You look back in 10 years from now, you look back at the start, the growth, the journey. What is the one thing that you’re going to put on the tombstone saying I most want to be known for this?

I think like turning like a job into a passion and just being able to I want people to remember me for making an impact in my industry for the things like transparency, maybe like we’re working on a software right now. So being able to have the software fill some of the gaps that this industry is currently lacking, being sort of a connector. I think I really I’m the type of person who loves networking and going out and connecting other folks with other businesses and brands and figuring out how to really kind of bring that piece together. 

I think that’s something that I want to be remembered for is community and bringing people together, sparking joy, having fun, doing things that light up my life and light up a room. And yeah, I don’t want to yeah, I don’t want to ever have to be like obviously running a business goes through its ebbs and flows and has all the kinds of ups and downs. But ultimately, I just want to be remembered for mostly being happy and excited and growing something that I can feel really proud of.

And you should. Good for you. Just before we wrap up, one last question. If there’s when an influencer out there watches this and they want to run their business better and or there’s somebody that comes across this in the hospitality world, where can they find you? What is the best way for them to find you and reach out to you so they can learn how to use your services to have the impact they want to have?

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for asking that. Our website is ModernSpeak.co. You can find us there. We’re also on Instagram at Modern Speak. And we’d love to hear from you. We’re super excited to work with folks that are just really, you know, passionate about whatever their niche community is. And even though our expertise is in tourism and hospitality, we are absolutely happy to point people in the right direction. Again, making that connection to other, you know, industries or agencies in our network that might work with those folks if it’s not for a match with us.

Sounds good. Thank you very much. Your answers were great. Spot on. Appreciate the time and looking forward to hearing the rest of your story. Awesome to meet you. Take care. Bye for now.

Good afternoon and welcome. Welcome to Elevate Your Business with Kent Boehm of Nine Business Group. Today we have the joy and pleasure of hosting with us Mark Benning. Mark with Sprout Venture Capital. Welcome and please introduce yourself and what a good referral or an ideal client is for you.

Thanks Kent and thanks for having me today. For me, a good referral is to a founder of a technology startup company. We typically invest in software companies, B2B software mostly. And so a company that’s in the enterprise software space, B2B, SaaS, anything like that. And we’re pretty much industry agnostic. So, you know, across a range of different industries is fine.

Okay. I thought everything had been solved in the software business space. Is there really people making new and better ERP? I mean, I had a client who’s in the ERP space. So are there people out there looking for new and better ways of creating ERP software? I thought SAP and Acumatica had the world’s problem solved.

No, it’s actually interesting because those companies are more legacy software providers. There’s been a big shift where software has moved into the cloud. And so there are a lot of new companies that are doing cloud-based software like Snowflake. Like, I don’t know, I could name a whole bunch of them, but basically the technology has shifted. And so SAP is actually seen as a legacy player rather than a modern cloud player.

So the cloud is the focus. Talk about the ideal founder. What makes for a founder or an entrepreneur that you go, you know what, I want to talk to that person. What are you looking for in that person?

Yeah, there’s three things we look for. One is deep domain expertise. So someone who’s lived in an industry and seen a problem that hasn’t been solved by software yet, and then decides that they’re going to build a piece of software to solve that problem.

The second thing is what we call founder-market fit. That means that the founder has the right skills and the right background to build the product and to sell it to the target market.

And then the third thing is just pure grit and determination. Starting a company is really hard. There’s lots of ups and downs. And so you need someone who’s going to stick with it through the tough times.

I love it. Domain expertise, founder-market fit, and grit. So once you’ve found that person and you’ve decided to invest, what’s the process? What does Sprout do to help that company grow and scale?

Yeah, so we’re an early-stage investor. We’re typically the first institutional money into a company. And so we’re very hands-on. We help with everything from recruiting to sales and marketing strategy to fundraising. We have a network of advisors and mentors that we can tap into to help the company as well. And then we’re also very focused on the next round of funding. We want to help the company get to the point where they can raise a Series A from a larger venture capital firm.

Fascinating. So you’re almost like an incubator or an accelerator, but with a lot more money and a lot more skin in the game.

Yeah, that’s a good way to put it. We’re not an incubator in the sense that we don’t provide office space and we don’t have a set program that everyone goes through. But we are very involved in the company and we’re working with the founders on a daily or weekly basis to help them grow.

So as you look ahead, what are some of the trends that you’re seeing in the software space that you’re excited about?

Well, obviously AI is a big one. We’re seeing a lot of interesting applications of AI in B2B software. Another one is vertical SaaS. So software that’s built for a specific industry, like construction or healthcare. And then the third one is the continued move to the cloud. There’s still a lot of legacy software out there that needs to be replaced by cloud-based software.

Okay, I got to know. If there was a pirate, a thief in your business, what would they be stealing from you?

That’s a great question. I think they’d be stealing our deal flow. We spend a lot of time and effort finding the best companies to invest in. And so if someone could come in and see all the companies that we’re talking to and all the due diligence that we’ve done, that would be very valuable to them.

I love it. Deal flow. That’s a great answer. When you look ahead five years from now, 10 years from now, what does success look like for you and for Sprout?

Success for us is having a portfolio of successful companies that have gone on to do great things. We want to be known as the best early-stage investor in Western Canada. And we want to have helped build some of the next great technology companies.

Fascinating. You’re looking for, you know, summary 10 to 20% of total companies you invest in to kind of be the juggernauts, to be the trendsetters, to really go out there and make the change. So in the next decade for you, if you had 30 companies that you helped do that, would that be a great number for you?

Oh, that’d be excellent. Yeah. Yep.

Fascinating. For those who’ve made it all the way to the end, please tell the listeners where to get more information and where to find you, if you’re going to be so gracious to take all the people out there wanting to send you a pitch deck. So where can we find you?

Sure. The easiest way is go to sprout.vc. And on our website, there’s sort of an explanation of what we look for in an investment. And then you can send an email to info at sprout.vc. And that’ll go through our process where we’ll respond to you and ask you any further questions, ask you to possibly send a pitch deck to us so that we can review it. And then if all works out, make an investment.

Cool. Thank you very much, Mark. You’ve been great with your time. The explanations were clear and concise. And I’m definitely looking forward to not just sharing the video in its entirety, but there’s definitely five or six segments I think that we can cut out, if you will, and share in pieces because they stand alone by themselves. So, again, thank you very much for your time. I greatly appreciate it.

Great. Well, thanks for having me, Kent. I enjoyed it. Take care.

All right.

Good afternoon, welcome back. Kent Game with Nine Business Group at Elevate Your Business chat. We have Gray joining us today with Terrapin Geothermics. Gray, welcome to the program and start by introducing yourself, your company name, but most importantly what makes you unique and different? What sets you apart from your competition? Gray, welcome.

Yeah, thanks for having me. We’re Terrapin Geothermics or Terrapin for short. Terrapin has two verticals to our business. Everything’s focused around emission-free energy. We generate power and direct heat to offset natural gas use for industrial operators by utilizing industrial waste heat and we extract the heat from their process. We use it to generate power. We use it to redistribute heat back within their process. Alternatively, with the same technology, we also work with conventional geothermal projects. So same principle, we extract heat from the earth, we generate power and district energy networks or direct heat use opportunities with it and then we re-inject it and it’s a renewable process that just continues on.

You know, what makes us unique is, you know, power generation isn’t new, but what we do is actually we have a self-financed business model. So we’re actually going to our clients and customers, not with our handout, but actually offering them energy efficiency or emission reduction solution that they don’t have to deploy any money off their balance sheet. We’ll come in, we’ll finance it, we’ll act as the owner operator and sell them the energy or if they don’t require that energy in their process, we can sell it into the local grids. So yeah, there’s a number of competitors. There’s not as many doing what we do in kind of the geothermal and waste heat space with that self-financed business model.

I got so many questions on that. I want to go to the next one, though. How long have you been at it? In this, what has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome? And what does that look like today?

So we’ve been at this since 2016. And I mean, there was probably two, the one massive one being COVID as a startup. You know, we were just starting to get our feet under us negotiating our first projects when COVID hit. And a lot of our clients had to shift to kind of emergency operations, and they didn’t necessarily have time to develop new projects. You know, we cut costs where we could, we have a small team. And so we relied on some consulting work to get us through the government grant programs kind of got us through COVID. And just made sure to stay in contact with our clients, you know, throughout the couple year process that they needed. And now we’re back in discussions, getting contracts finalized with them. So you know, just coming back to a bit of business as usual. So it was mostly time that kind of fixed that one, obviously.

The other one was in our inception. And we actually were founded as a hardware company, we were going to develop a our own technology to basically generate power from abandoned oil and gas wells. And we hit a couple of large hurdles. One being the Valley of Death to get from a concept to commercialized technology, very expensive, very long. And when we started that in 2016, you know, the conversation around the abandoned wells around geothermal around clean energy just wasn’t as as popular as it is today.

And so we shifted our business to actually work with a more commercialized technology, somebody that’s been established since 2009. So we simply distribute their technology now. And it’s really giving us given us a large boost in credibility in the marketplace with our clients, because, you know, we can show a track record of operation, versus going to them and saying, hey, can we demonstrate with you and hope that it’s successful and scale from there.

Good credit, well done. When you look for the next 12 to 24 months, we’re kind of, it’s weird to sit here and think about in September, closing out the year, but more importantly, now planning 2024. As you set your goals towards 2024. What is the what are you looking to accomplish in the short to near term here?

Yeah, we’ve got some irons in the fire in the in the US right now, the Inflation Reduction Act that was announced gives us tax credits for waste heat to power and geothermal projects. So that market’s been a fairly good boon for us that we’re expecting some decisions on some some projects that we’ve submitted on. And actually, in in less than a month, I’ll be headed over to Europe for a month to go do some business development over there. And so we’re looking to expand our operations overseas. You know, there’s incredible opportunity over in the European market right now, just considering, you know, the bit of an energy crisis that they’re going through with with the war.

And so you know, there’s large opportunity we’re going through a program to get in over there. And so, you know, we’re hoping to kind of have some of our our first waste to power projects kind of finishing commercial due diligence. And then on the geothermal side, we have an active project here in Alberta. We recently received our drilling permit. So we’re doing some final fundraising for that project right now. And so I think our short term goal for the end of the year is to have a capital partner at the table ready to go. So when the moratorium on renewable energy projects in Alberta is lifted, we’ll be ready to move, you know, with our application to to begin drilling.

Fascinating. If there was a pirate in your business, a thief, what would they be stealing from you? What would they be stealing?

I mean, if you wanted our chief geologist brain, she’s, she’s a genius. She’s been at it for 40 years. And I tell you the amount of knowledge that woman has is amazing. Dr. Hickson. I’d say our business, you know, you need to be you need to be lean and you need to be able to act quickly. And I think one of the things we do really well is figuring out whether there’s a viable project or not, not wasting time. And we have some pretty robust economic models that we work with and technical models that we work with to qualify our geothermal and waste heat projects.

And so I think, you know, outside of our, our super awesome culture, which which we love, you know, we love working here that they might want to steal. We’ve got some serious brainpower behind our project development team that I’m sure a few people would want to lift lift the hood on their car and see what’s underneath there.

I love it. A combination of culture experience and then a little bit of intellectual property built in there. In the seven, eight years you’ve been in business. What is your definition of a successful business and has it changed over the years?

You know, the first thing is make money, right? You know, you don’t you’re not in business to not make money. So you got to make money. But I come from the startup world as well, where, you know, you’ve kind of got to get got to get your feet under you and get some traction to start being revenue positive. And so, you know, for me to be successful is loving what I do. I mean, and I love what I do now. Part two is, is, you know, we’re at breakeven, and we want to start generating serious income for our business.

But success for us is is megawatts of power and BT use of heat that we’re of emission free energy that we’re putting out and, and, you know, growing our footprint, you know, we’re we’re born here in Edmonton, Alberta. But there’s a lot of opportunity for us globally. And so we want to be a global organization that, you know, either can help teach people about the inherent value of energy transition and clean energy, or being the tip of the spear that actually gets projects funded and built and and operating and see them operate for, you know, the next 20 to 100 years in some cases. So I think long term longevity is is ultimately kind of my overall thesis of a successful business would be, you know, get your feet under you find your market traction, and then go for it for the long run and make it successful.

Good for you. No, that’s great. Not too many people answer that question. With the concept of longevity, it generally is, you know, revenue, profitability, sustainability sort of thing. I think if I’ve done 100 interviews, maybe five have kind of talked about that long term longevity of the future. So good on you for having a bigger picture, a bigger vision.

Last question, what do you want to know for when it’s all said and done five years from now? 40 years from now? What do you want to know for? Me or Terrapin? You choose. What do I want to know for?

I mean, I want to be a job creator. I like I like being a job creator, I want to create an organization that that creates jobs, and I want to create good jobs. I want to, I want to see I want to leave something better than I found it. That’s one of the reasons why I worked in oil and gas for a lot of time before transitioning into clean energy. And, and I did that because I helped build a lot of the infrastructure that was was existing. And now I want to start building some of the infrastructure that will help clean it up.

And so I ultimately want to be known as somebody who left their industry better than when they found it. And if I can walk away with with the younger generation coming in feeling like they’re in a good place, then I’ll retire happy.

Sounds great. The last most important question, who’s your ideal client? And where can they find you?

Ideal client, I mean, 60% of the energy that we produce as a global society is lost as waste heat. And some of that comes out of the tailpipe of your car. That’s not useful waste heat, but industrial operations from oil and gas, steel, cement, pulp and paper, glass, beverages, breweries, data centers, you name it, you know, you’d be surprised the amount of different companies where I found waste heat and geothermal is everywhere beneath our feet. So we’re pretty industry agnostic.

So I mean, if you’ve got an industrial process, look up Terrapin, G-O-T-E-R-R-A-P-I-N-G-E-O.com. You can find our contact form there or find me on LinkedIn, Gray Alton. And there’s not too many grays out there. So I imagine I’ll be pretty easy to find. So reach out and we’re happy to always do have a conversation and we can pretty quickly get to whether there’s a viable opportunity with a prospective client or not.

Sounds great. Good luck with your trip to Europe. There are lots of opportunities all around the world. And as they say, we’re looking forward to hearing the rest of your story. Keep up the good work.

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate this and this opportunity to spotlight Terrapin and myself and kudos to you for providing these opportunities. Really appreciate it.

You’re welcome. And thank you. Have a great week.

Thanks.

Cheers.

Good morning and welcome back. Kent Bain with Nine Business Group and Elevate Your Business chat spotlight interview. We have Jen. Jen joining us today. Jen, please introduce yourself. First and last name and more importantly your company. What you guys do and what sets you apart from your competition. Welcome.

Thank you Kent. I appreciate being on here this morning. My name is Jen Giblin. I’m the owner of Wicked Blue Owl Creative Marketing. I have the great pleasure of working with both my husband and my daughter. My husband helps set up things. He’s our systems guy. He does all things systematic for a successful business and my daughter is a huge creative mind and her job is to work in lockstep with me to make sure that our clients get the proper care that they deserve for community building and brand development.

If she doesn’t know them, I know them or if we don’t we go out and we love to meet new people. We’re meeting new people all the time. Not for the purposes of selling anybody anything but more for the purposes of better understanding business in the community and understanding what they’re trying to do with their business.

Okay two things to pick on there. Let’s start with what does it mean for you to be a community builder and can you give us some examples of why you’ve put and make that a big part of your business. Why it has been a big part of your business and why it’s still a big part of business going forward.

Well so I love to understand what a business is but really what their motivation for going into business was. Why do they do what they do every day? What makes them happy? What makes them excited to get up out of bed? In some cases when I have conversations they figure out that they maybe aren’t as happy with what they thought they were going to be doing or the transition has happened and they’re looking to do something different.

That’s always fantastic but I want to understand why a business does what it does and why why the person who started the business wanted to be part of it in the first place. So that’s always huge for me and we’re not from around here. I came out in January of 2021 from Ontario and I didn’t know anybody aside from my cousin who lived in the northwest side of the city. I didn’t know anybody and I knew when I came here that I wanted to start a business because I’d been a business owner.

We had bought, grown and sold five businesses in Ontario. I sold two of them before we came out to Alberta and I knew that I wanted to still be an entrepreneur. It’s part of my blood but I didn’t know anybody. So networking became it has always been a huge part of what we do but networking became the cornerstone of everything I do and when I network, I’m not networking so that I’ve got something to sell. I’ve got, I network so that I can better understand the people around me.

It also teaches you through networking the culture because a southwestern Ontario culture, even though we’re Canadian, is a little different than an Alberta culture and that high drive, get in your face, this is what we’re going to do, which is a little more American like, is not going to work with anyone here. Not that it should work there but they’ve got a culture that’s always the just on time, everything’s happening now, step up. Their leisure culture is very different than what happens out here.

Weekends aren’t a weekend so I needed to come in and learn the culture and not act like I knew anything because I didn’t and we wanted to make sure that Victoria, when she joined me later, she joined me actually last year and she moved out from Ontario. She wanted to better understand her cultural equals and so she got to meet a whole brand new group of people because you know, like attracts like and you attend, you seem to work with the people in your own age demographic as well as interest level.

So Victoria’s age demographic, she’s in her late 20s and her interest level, she was an actress model prior to ever coming in to work with me and she still does that. So completely different circles to run in, completely different experiences from a people perspective but culturally very similar.

Fantastic, okay so let’s go back to that, you’ve talked about the community piece, the connecting, I guess great to know your audience and understand their culture and you know effective communication. So talk a little bit more about brand development and how you do brand development, I think we get a sense of it, you’ve shared with us before we hit record on kind of the why but dig into a little more about how you do brand development and what does it mean, I guess how do you do it if you can and then also what’s the impact?

So there are very few unique industries where there’s one person in it and there’s no one else and branding in that situation is education. We have to educate everybody on what you do because they’ve never heard of it before and they wouldn’t understand what you were talking about until you get an education campaign out there. For the most part, most of us work in industries where there’s lots of other people that do what they do.

Some people define them as competitors, I define them as just other people in your talent pool because you’d be surprised when you talk to someone that you think is your competitor, what do you find out about them, about their passions in the industry and your passions in the industry and they may not mesh. So you may have gotten stuck at the very beginning with, well I can’t talk to my competitor, I cannot talk to my marketing competitor because oh my goodness we’re all trying to fight for the same person.

Actually I’m not, I know exactly who I want to talk to and when I want to help them and they may be at a completely different point and have a completely different passion for what they do. So when I talk to people about brand, I want to understand their story, I need to understand who they are, how they got here in the first place and then I help remind them that they are not their business.

Much as we all love to believe that we are our business, that business has to be a standalone entity and there has to be some planning on what you want done with that entity when you decide not to do what you’re doing anymore. And if you can put some distance and some perspective on what happens to you when you choose not to do something anymore, it stops being as much your baby and you stop taking it all as personally.

Because I can guarantee even if you are your business and you are the only portion of the service that you’re offering, that is not a hundred percent of who you are as a person. I’m sure you’re not bringing Moody Monday Jen out to talk to people when you’re doing your business. The business is something different than who you are as a 360 degree person.

So when I talk brand story, I want to know their motivations, I want to understand what brought them here, I want to understand their story, I don’t want their business plan. Their business plan is great, they can have a business plan, that’s fantastic, they should have a business plan, but I want to understand the people part of what they do.

When you look at fast food industries by way of example, people can remember three items in a vertical. So if I pick something like a hamburger place, I think McDonald’s, I think Burger King and I think Wendy’s. They are not all the same thing. They all have a brand identity and a brand story that is unique from each other, but when you look at the base thing they do, they create hamburgers in a fast food fashion.

They all have different stories, even if they’re in the same industry. So what we want to do is establish the different stories that each business has and the motivator behind why they do what they do.

Okay, I get the big business, McDonald’s versus Burger King versus Wendy’s. Let’s bring it down to a quote-unquote more local level. Can you give us an example of maybe having worked, have you had clients in the same industry and can you give us an example of how their story brand worked out different, whether it be plumbers, electricians, renovation contractors, whatever. Can you give us some example of kind of roots?

Let’s pick on realtors because there’s 7,200 of them in the city of Calgary and they’re all buying in a very, very tight market right now. Okay, there’s no, there’s no houses for sale and there’s lots of buyers. So how do you attract the person that you want to work with to sell their home and how do you get that right person in there to buy the home and how did they find you in the first place?

I’ve worked with realtors. They have to have a story. They can’t just be the bus bench, their face and their information on it because that’s great. That is great for product awareness but it doesn’t tell the consumer why they want to work with them. So I spend a lot of time asking them, well what realtor are you? What, who are you?

Are you the pet friendly realtor? Are you the dual income, no kids realtor? Are you the luxury realtor? Are you the first-time homebuyer realtor? What realtor are you? Who are you in your sphere and then who are you as a person? They need to understand who they really enjoy working with and so I want them to tell me who they don’t like to work with and that’s business owners always say, oh my goodness I’ll work with anybody.

Yeah I will too but who do you love working with? I want to understand who you love working with and when I start to have those conversations with people on a local level to say so you tell me you’re allergic to dogs and you hate cats so I would suggest that being the pet friendly realtor is not where you want to differentiate yourself or you know what you like kids but you’re not the guy who’s going to drive around with coloring in your car and markers and you want the kids to be occupied in a different fashion before you’re taking people through that means you’re probably not going to say that you’re the kid friendly realtor because the marketing doesn’t match up.

It always comes back to finding the five key characteristics that make you you in your business and working on those to highlight how you’re going to develop your business. Who’s your audience? Victoria late 20s talks and works differently than I do in my early 50s and that’s great and there’ll be times when she’ll tap me on the shoulder and say hey you know what it’s better if you work with this client because they want you to speak on at their level with them and I turn around looking and go you know what better for you to talk to this client over here because they’re looking for someone younger generally generationally that has a different perspective on things but knowing that is super helpful it means that we can bring the best opportunity to our clients all the time because we tailor our conversations the people that we’re talking to so we’re not talking to the wrong people.

Businesses spend a long time at the beginning talking to the wrong people because anybody’s the right customer.

Isn’t that the truth? So as you look back now you’ve been in Calgary three four years you got quote-unquote a business is it going concern um if there was a pirate a thief in your business what would they be stealing from you?

We tailor our time. Well if I don’t and it’s it’s my own beef if I don’t stay focused on the task at hand in 2024 I had to come to the conclusion there were two things I need to efficiently do in my business. Every time I talk to a business owner it needs to be it needs to have a purpose and a focus. It isn’t just a coffee hour there are times for coffee hours absolutely and there are times outside my business day where I talk to friends but during my business day I need to stay focused on the task at hand which is supposed to be the benefit both people at the table.

I think it’s huge I mean it’s not the first time I’ve heard that in context of the thief but I love that clarity of if I’m spending time with somebody in my business purpose and focus why are we here what are we looking to accomplish what’s that win-win so that’s a great summary.

One last question before we wrap it up you’ve been in business now you’ve had five six businesses you alluded to earlier on what does success look like for you today what is your definition of success?

Helping my clients achieve their goals fills my bucket you don’t have to be perfect if you wait till you’re perfect you’ll never do it you don’t have to be perfect you’re allowed to make mistakes learn from them but my goal is to see success tailor and shift where we need to but help the client get success and when their bucket is filled my buckets full and it makes me feel better.

Love it so in summary marketing for you comes down to one knowing your audience speaking the language of the marketplace to really understand your why why you got into business who you are how that reflects in your business number three is understand the five characteristics of who I am or who I’m going to market with my five characteristics and then lastly be intentional with purpose and focus where we spend our time.

That is the summary of me absolutely fantastic so for those realtors out there entrepreneurs out there struggling with their purpose and why where can they find you working at that more information and who should be finding you?

You know what anybody that’s in growth mode that and I don’t care where you are in that in that kind of journey but if you’re in growth mode if you really want to see something change and you’re ready to embrace change in your business you’re a driver you’re ready to move things along I’d like to sit down for a coffee with you my name is Jen Giblin I’m the owner of Wicked Blue Owl Creative Marketing you can find us at wickedblueowl.com or at 403 804 7235 and I’m always happy to chat with people.

Awesome thanks Jen love the answers looking forward to hearing the rest of your story keep up the good work.

Good afternoon, welcome back. Kent Bain with Nine Business Group and Elevate Your Business Spotlight Interview. We have O’Brien Porter with us today.

O’Brien, please introduce yourself. Most importantly, introduce your company, what you do and what sets you apart from your competition. O’Brien, welcome.

Well, thank you, appreciate that. My name is O’Brien Porter and I am the owner and managing partner of Porter John Digital. We are a tailored digital media agency where we do things a little bit differently because rather than just offering a bunch of services to these business owners, we typically take them on and see where their gaps are within their services and then make sure that we accommodate to that and also enable them to drive their results and hit whatever their goals or KPIs may be.

In addition to that, we do have a smaller division that is solely focused on small businesses and with that, it is just to also help all those smaller guys that may not be aware of what is available to them and try to develop cost-effective solutions to enable that growth.

Excellent, thank you. Is there a certain niche you work with or is it just any business that wants a better online or more effective online presence?

Well, when it comes to the smaller guys, we try to keep it broad just because you know it’s smaller to begin with and the budgets are not always the exact, not the largest, so it’s okay for us to kind of diversify whoever is in need of that but when it comes to larger guys, we do have our core six and that core six is primarily within the professional services.

We also have telehealth and medicine. We also have the construction and real estate. Then we have the institutions, educational institutions.

Then finally or actually we also have the professional, I guess you could say like the accountants and like the law, so law services. Then just to finish it off, I would say that we kind of have a division that’s more on the restaurant side like franchising specifically, so helping restaurants that have more than one location create that franchising opportunity.

That’s a pretty healthy breadth of clients you serve, so I’m assuming you didn’t cook it up overnight. How long have you been at this and how have you gone from where you started to being able to broaden out into as many sectors and in a strong way?

Great question, so it started back in 2018, so I had recently come upon graduating from university for business and I was able to get a job at Meta. Meta is the current company for Facebook and Instagram.

This was in Toronto actually and what I did was I initially started working in the client solutions department where I was focused on small business to begin with.

During that time period, for starters, I had no idea what marketing was about. I didn’t even understand how Facebook let alone made money from advertising because I was just used to going on my feeds and just kind of seeing what I would see.

I didn’t know that there was a whole other element to it, but after getting into there I started working with some of these smaller businesses and I realized how much of an impact it made for them to understand the relevance and the importance of advertising, especially across these platforms.

Eventually, I was segued to work with larger corporations and that was great as well too, but I always remembered my experiences working with small businesses. So in 2019, still working at Metta, I decided to start my own business. I solely started focusing on the small guys just because of how much I enjoyed working with that and the experiences that I was able to build and in 2020, I was able to join forces with a few other marketers and we kind of created what you’d call a bit of a partnership and we started working with significantly larger amounts of businesses, so much to a point where we I think we had touch base with almost 350 plus businesses just in the years of 2019 to 2021.

At this point, we started to kind of really build reoccurring and retention within these clients and started segwaying to larger markets. So from that time period, there was so many growing pains and just learning from just the experiences of you know wins and losses when it comes to client experiences that it kind of helped shape the way of where I wanted to take things.

Fast forward to 2023 or just towards the end of 2022, I decided that I wanted to expand things out west, but the individuals that I was working with kind of really wanted to focus on the East. So at that point, I decided that I was going to just start something new and that’s where Porter John Digital was born and as of 2023, I launched that and decided to migrate over to Calgary, that’s the western side of Canada and I’ve been looking to just grow the business along with the other subsidiaries since then and just been steady at working towards it.

So it’s really been roughly around seven or eight years of just working in the marketing and seeing all the ups and downs, the nuances, the growing pains that has allowed me to shape the kind of the idea of where I want this agency to go and where I want to be able to focus on and make an impact.

Okay, let’s let’s take some of this knowledge you’ve accumulated and share it with the world. What are the top three things that you’ve learned that you often have to solve for your new clients that if they knew they would do, not that I want to replace you, but that would improve their chances of success? So what are the top three things that you always find helping a new client do that they probably could do on their own before they find you but it would just help their marketing?

Yeah, great question. So number one would be planning. A lot of business owners, they plan everything but having a marketing strategy and in my opinion, that can be one of the most important aspects of the business in terms of growth.

So I’ll often ask and inquire about, you know, what the plan is and a lot of it is just kind of sporadic. The thing is with these digital platforms, a lot of them have rules that we don’t consciously think about.

So for example, something as simple as a reel, if the aspect ratios are off, if the color contrast is off, if the captions are not to whatever the standard is on that platform, it will reduce your reach. Like you’re not going to reach a lot of people because it doesn’t really see that video as, you know, a fit categorically to what their expectations are.

So even things as simple as that and just understanding which platforms you typically want to go on, it’s not all of them, sometimes you’re better off just streamlining on two or three and just having the right kind of message, I think that is one of the more important aspects.

Secondly, establishing a strong proposition value. I noticed that businesses sometimes they will do a lot of things except for actually sell themselves and show people why they are different and show people why, you know, their standards may be different from another individual. So having a strong proposition value to kind of really sway the audiences has also been another thing.

And then finally, I would say just execution. Often they, if they do have a plan, they typically don’t follow it. So they will just kind of, again, with the freestyling, just kind of let it be and just put something out there rather than nothing.

And sometimes I’ll have to really recircle with them and be like, hey, I know we just want to put something out there. But sometimes, even if it takes a little longer, you want to put the right thing out there so that when people do see it or when your typical target audience sees it, they perceive it in the right ways and it’s able to be something that’s measurable and potentially a conversion for you as well.

I’m going off script here, but I want to ask, you’ve been in the space for seven, eight years, you’ve spent the last two years growing and scaling your own business. Can you speak to time management? I just got off the phone with a prospect of ours who is just in over his head. You know, he’s turned down good marketing time because he’s too busy. How do you or how have you managed time? And what does it look like for you to have an effective week? And how do you say no? You know, talk to us about things you do to improve your decision making around time and being more efficient.

Well, yeah, it’s been a process through these years. But what I’ve learned to do is to number one, trust automation, trust the resources and tools that help make your life easier, especially with organizing and then having a schedule. So automation is really effective for me because now, like, for example, someone were to reach out to me. It’s not just me manually sending that sequence of conversations leading up to us meeting. I have that automated as the same thing goes for when someone is decided to onboard. Our entire onboarding process is also automated at that as well. So it really allows us to cut time and a lot of additional work by just putting those those processes in place.

And, you know, as we segue on to just kind of having a schedule prior to I would just often freestyle things. So I would try to build a schedule, but then I would just not follow it. I just do whatever. And I found that I was falling behind on a lot of tasks and a lot of important things that would keep the business, you know, effectively growing. So now I have a very firm schedule. I even schedule things as simple as the time I wake up just so that I can keep that routine because that routine builds repetition and that repetition builds you getting closer to where you want to be. A lot of it is self discipline. So to have that in place is is really effective.

And then just be embracing the innovation. Like there’s a lot of new AI tools that come out there. I used to be a little bit skeptical on that, but now I’m very open to trying it at least once just because, you know, this innovation is something you can’t run from. The same thing is digital marketing. It’s just taking over and you have to be able to embrace these tools to have them at your fingertips when that time comes, because soon you might be left behind the I assume it might be gone.

OK, I got to know if there was a pirate, a thief in your business, what would they be stealing from you?

That’s a great question. Probably the solutions. The thing is, with marketing, it’s not just a cookie cutter approach. I know sometimes people like to use the same approach each time, but each business is different. And what we do is we evaluate exactly where you are so that we can find solutions to help you at exactly where you are. Whereas, you steal that from us, that would be extremely valuable because a lot of other individuals in the space seem to kind of think they have it all figured out and just kind of try to implement a strategy that has worked in the past. But we understand that that is just because it worked on Wednesday. I’m sure you’re aware how often these digital tools update to come Friday. It could be a different game. So we try our best to ensure that these businesses are getting those tailored solutions and they’re really seeing the value from what we provide.

I love it. I love it. I love that comment around time too. Thank you for that. When you look ahead five years from now, 25 years from now, what do you want to be doing? What does success for you look like in your business and your personal life?

Yeah. So for success for me, it’s all about legacy. So the reason I got into this is I worked at Metta for five years and it was a great, great time. I learned so much from it and I saw where my potential was for the highest position I could possibly hold. And I thought to myself, what type of legacy am I really leaving behind? It’s great to be able to spend my entire career at a company like this, but at the same time, how is that going to really build that generational wealth, that motivation for the generations that are coming up, not only my children, but also other children that are often inspired by seeing other people taking risks. So for me, it’s all about the legacy, being able to make that impact on my community, make that impact just on the world, and then also to motivate those around me that taking the risk is not always easy, but sometimes it definitely does pay off. And if you really want to make that impact over the masses, it’s the best way. And yeah, it’s just about legacy building and just making an impact on my community.

Love it. Now the last, most important question is, any business owner out there, larger small, sounds like you would love to have a conversation with, you want to help them improve their impact, their reach, where can they find you?

Well, we are virtually everywhere. So we’re on all platforms. You can search us up. It’s Porter J Digital, or if you’d want to work on a smaller scale, it’s O’Brien P Consulting. But we have, you can contact us by email. We have a chat on our website, a chat box for both websites. We have all platforms, as mentioned, give us a call. So yeah, we’re virtually everywhere. You just got to search us up and you’ll find us there. We also have some great Google reviews too, if that’s, if you’re looking to just kind of see how much, what kind of impact we’ve made. But yeah, we’re everywhere.

Sounds great O’Brien. Thank you for your time. Have a great weekend.

Look forward to hearing the rest of the story in the days and weeks to come. All right. Thank you.

And I appreciated the opportunity as well.

You’re welcome.

Cheers.

Video Transcript

Good morning, Kent Feen with Nine Business Group and Elevate Your Business Chat. We have Natalie and Cole joining us today. Natalie, please introduce yourself, your company name, and what makes you guys different and unique.

Natalie, Cole, welcome. Hi, well, thanks for having me. My name is Natalie Forcier and I’m a retired military member.

I served in the military for 14 years and originally I’m from Saskatchewan, small little French community. I started in this medical field or the purchase of the clinic and building an integrated health care system. Because my experience in the military allowed me to see a different version of healthcare where the military person is not responsible totally on understanding how to navigate healthcare.

The military really provides that support and handholding that the civilian medical system doesn’t seem to provide. And so when I left the military and struggled with the transition because my entire adult life was a military led, the part where I was a struggled on the outside of it was an issue for me. And being able to continue in the healthcare system, dealing with veterans was was my life goal.

So that’s where I started working with Cole and the clinic in building this dream of providing healthcare system support for military as well as like civilians or community and hopefully across Canada. I’m super looking forward to this question because I can only imagine what in the three or four years since you both started in the original business and then expanded into more of a formal healthcare role, what has been the biggest challenge you had to overcome?

How did you resolve it? What does it look like today? I’d say like one of our biggest challenges is healthcare system itself. Understanding and navigating that because it’s ever changing COVID is like, really highlighted how there are parts of healthcare that that needs some support.

So just working with Cole, working with different community partners, a couple mentors, we’ve been able to want to understand where the system is at. And, and I’d say over the last year, we have been in here full time and been able to understand parts or little loopholes in how we do business to be able to better serve the community, bring in more support for veterans and just allowing us to grow in that respect. So what is one thing you know, now you wish you would have known three or four years ago? Oh, God.

That’s a good question. Um, I’d say for myself, I, one of the biggest things that I’ve learned is that nothing happens overnight. Like our dreams and goals and where we wanted to be this time.

Last year is not not at all where where we are at. But I can look back, we can look back and see, like, the areas of growth where you know, that didn’t what an event or specific target that we were expecting to meet didn’t happen as as intended. But the growth that we learned along the way has been helpful.

So nothing happened till we were ready to have it. So that’s very wise of you. If there was a thief, a pirate in around your business, they break in the front door, they hack into your computer system.

What are they stealing from you? Oh, God, what are they stealing? Well, they would be patient information. But we’d be in a lot of trouble. A lot.

It wouldn’t be a certain ideology, the culture, the team, it just simply is our confidential information of our clients. I guess so. I like that question, because it does help people isolate.

Because if I said to you, what’s the most important thing in your business, I don’t necessarily get that answer. So by rephrasing it from a thief, you go right to the root of the core, which is the most important thing to you that you have to protect. So I do love that question for that reason.

In this journey, looking at it today, looking back, looking forward, what is your definition of success? What is a successful business now for you guys? I think for myself, it is like the environment, like when you walk in the environment is, is one that someone feels safe and comfortable. So like the morale of the team, I think is, is probably one of my biggest goals is to make sure like everyone that works for us, and with us understands our goals and is in line with our goals. So a successful business requires a successful team from top to bottom.

I couldn’t agree more. When it’s all said and done, we fast forward 10 years from now, you accomplish everything you set out to do with your business. What’s the legacy? What do you want to be known for? I, I, with Cole alongside me, I want to be known for making the greatest impact on our healthcare system.

So how you would measure that? What would you like to see happen? Like, as Cole had mentioned, like people’s perspective on healthcare, understanding what that looks like, and it not just be your, you know, your doctor reports what your doctor tells you, but your entire socioeconomic, your socioeconomics in your life that, that also contribute to your healthcare, being able to allow society to understand the depths of healthcare and, and it is not a pill that you take that will make you feel better. It is like personal persistence and perseverance in your own healthcare realm. And being able to, like, that be the mindset in the future that healthcare is multifaceted and, and you’ve got your like spiritual side, your physical side, your family, your finances.

So that to me would be what that success would look like. Any thought on the number of people you think you can help, want to help? Like how many I want to help? Sure. I mean, you used to establish something pretty lofty in there by saying you want to change the healthcare system.

I mean, that’s a pretty broad thing. Is it establishing X number of clinics? Is it, is it I totally get I mean, I love the fact that it’s about helping people see health as more proactive. It’s more than just the family doctor.

I mean, I’m not sure if it would be measurable. But like I do know, like our clinic and what we do, it will be replicated in some way, shape or form, because that’s what happens. But we do not have, like we will never reach a point where we would have 100% of the market.

But being able to have replicated clinics that are trying to do what we do with that same focus of, you know, socioeconomics, helping the patient just beyond just their medical needs, but their spiritual socioeconomic. So it would be more of a pandemic type situation where people are starting to understand, like, what healthcare is really entailed, the definition of it, how we access it, what resources are available, and not just your doctor. Excellent.

For those in central northern Alberta, who are anywhere in Western Canada, who want to take more proactive care of themselves, where can they find you? How can they reach out to you guys? And more importantly, who should be who’s your ideal client? Um, so right now, like a huge portion of our clinic is focused on veterans. So we currently serve like we have veterans flying in from BC, we have veterans coming in from Grand Prairie. So I’m sorry, I forgot the question.

Where can people find you? If we’re making an advertisement, we got to tell them where to go.

Yes. So we are located in Fort Saskatchewan.

The address is 9368 South Ford Drive. When you come into the community, we aren’t far to find. And I would say you could locate us on Google, you can give us a call.

And we do have, we can be reached online as well. Excellent. You guys have been great guests.

Love the candor and simplicity. But more importantly, the passion is, is where it needs to be. So keep up the amazing work and keep spreading the word.

Have an amazing week.

Thanks.