Amplify Your Business

Amplify Your Business Varme Energy

For Episode 199 of Amplify Your Business, we’re joined by Sean Collins, the CEO of Varme Energy. Varme Energy develops waste energy facilities built with integrated carbon capture and storage. Essentially, large industrial process facilities that use two-stage combustion technology to combust municipal solid waste that would otherwise be going to a landfill. These facilities burn the waste, extract all of the energy out of it, and with carbon capture and storage, they capture all of the post-combustion CO2 and sequester it underground. This sustainable, environmental solution eliminates landfills long-term, recovers the energy in the waste, and puts all of the carbon underground.To learn more, visit their website at https://www.varme.ca/ 
 
00:00 - Intro
01:04 - Did people in the audience at Edmonton Unlimited’s Launch Party show any interest in your pitch?
01:49 - What are three things every entrepreneur needs to know?
04:35 - Any suggestions that you have for other entrepreneurs for turning off the entrepreneur when they get home?
06:39 - Can you tell us a little about Varme Energy?
07:44 - Why is this something that is new tech being introduced to Western Canada? 
09:11 - Why is now the right time for this kind of tech in Canada?
12:57 - How do you face the complexities that come with bringing this kind of technology into Canada as an entrepreneur?
15:49 - How did the partnership with the Norwegian company you’re working with come about?
18:09 - Could you explain what you meant by the term “venture studio” that you used during our conversation prior to recording?
20:06 - How long ago did you start your first entrepreneurial venture?
20:25 - What do you find easier now that you’ve been at this for 14 years than you did at the beginning?
23:47 - In the future, do you think the greatest opportunities for sustainability and environmental protection will be with First Nations populations?
25:35 - If you could write your younger self a letter, what would it say?
28:01 - What do you consider to be success?
30:04 - If someone in our audience wanted to connect with you, how could they do that?
30:56 - Outro

Amplify Your Business Feel Good with Good Feels

For Episode 198 of Amplify Your Business, we’re joined by Jason Reposa, the founder and CEO of Good Feels. Good Feels is a licensed cannabis operator in Massachusetts. They produce and sell cannabis beverages and beverage enhancers. Currently, they have five ready-to-drive cannabis-infused seltzers in stock. Their drinks come in a 12-ounce bottle and are made in a variety of flavours, depending on the season. Their Fall Seasonal lineup is a hit with consumers and includes flavours like Blood Orange, Grapefruit, Autumn Harvest, Black Cherry, and Raspberry Apple.To learn more, visit the Good Feels website.
 
00:00 - Intro
01:01 - What are three things that you think every entrepreneur should know?
03:33 - What is Good Feels, and what are you trying to accomplish?
04:22 - Did you get your start with ready-to-drink beverages?
 06:46 - Tell me about the journey to getting Good Feels off the ground.
10:05 - The loneliness of entrepreneurship.
11:59 - From your tech and programming background, what advantages have you been able to apply to your current role as CEO of Good Feels?
14:46 - Was it a strategic decision or a regulatory issue to remain strictly wholesale?
15:44 - Do you find that helpful in regards to pushing you to only focus on one channel?
17:18 - Is it difficult for you to wholesale into other states?
18:49 - Do you plan to expand your product line?
19:49 - Was there anything about the Pandemic that made the business easier or more difficult?
22:00 - Where do you find your inspiration, or who or what inspires you?
 24:54 - If you could write your pre-entrepreneurial self a letter, what would it say?
27:16 - What does success look like to you?
29:58 - How do you manage all of these growth ideas you have?
33:55 - If somebody wanted to connect with you, what’s the best way to do so?
34:40 - Outro

Amplify Your Business Nicole Matos of Oonnie

For Episode 197 of Amplify Your Business, we’re joined by Nicole Matos, the founder of Oonnie and CEO of Rivet Construction. Oonnie is, essentially, an online farmer’s market. Small and medium sized local food producers can join Oonnie and easily set up their own shops to get their food products online and available for customers to buy quickly, and easily. Customers can then go to a single website, Oonnie, to find all of the local food products they want to buy. The Oonnie difference is that all products can be put into one basket, even from different vendors, and checked out all at the same time. As well, unlike farmer’s markets, Oonnie is available 24/7. To learn more, visit Oonnie’s website at https://oonnie.com/. 
 
00:00 - Intro
00:52 - What are three things that you think every entrepreneur should know?
03:04 - Tell me a little bit about Oonnie.
10:18 - Can you tell me about Rivet Construction?
11:52 - What motivated you to create something completely different in Oonie than what you previously did with Rivet Construction?
14:29 - How do you balance the things that pull on your attention between the two businesses?
17:12 - The way you delegate your workload, where did you learn to do that?
18:34 - As an Indigenous woman entrepreneur, what would be more challenging, and what are some advantages that you have?
22:18 - Who or what inspires you?
25:31 - Can you share some of the things you learned with Rivet that helped shape the way you run Oonnie?
30:52 - If you were able to send a letter back in time to the pre-entrepreneurial Nicole, what would it say?
32:18 - What is the difference between personal vs. business credit?
35:05 - If any of our listeners wanted to connect with you, how could they do that?
36:34 - Outro

Amplify Your Business Signature Guest Matthew Pollard

For Episode 196 of Amplify Your Business, we’re joined by our signature guest, Matthew Pollard. Matthew is the author of the Introvert’s Edge book series and public speaker who travels the world teaching introverted people how to be successful salespeople. Matthew is also the National Brand Ambassador for BX Networking, an organization that educates small business owners on how to develop and grow their business so that they can live the life they’ve always wanted. Matthew is often called the Rapid Growth Guy because he challenges business owners to think differently and transform their businesses to be more successful.
 
A learning disability left Matthew with a sixth-grade reading level by the time he had graduated highschool. This learning disability caused Matthew to become incredibly introverted in his teen years and had caused him to lose jobs and miss out on opportunities. However, it also pushed him to do better. To overcome not only his learning disability, but also his introvertedness. This push would eventually see him become the renowned author, public speaker, and small business guru that he is today. Today, Matthew has helped transform over 3500 struggling businesses and run five multi-million dollar successful businesses of his own.To learn more, visit www.matthewpollard.com, sign up to become a BX Networking member, or register for the BX Networking Reimagined event.
 
00:00 - Intro
01:16 - Tell us a bit about BX Networking and the speaking event you’ll be doing here in Edmonton in January.
05:51 - It’s interesting to see that small business owners who’ve faced the greatest challenges often become the most resilient and successful.
08:47 - The magic ingredient.
17:24 - How do you challenge entrepreneurs or business owners to approach their businesses differently?
24:37 - Is storytelling something that you have worked at or have you always had this gift?
30:48 - The power of story.
33:41 - If you could send a letter back in time to your younger self, what would it say?
36:35 - As the ambassador of BX, can you give us a bit of a snapshot to how BX is different from other networking organizations?
41:15 - Register for BX’s Networking Reimagined event on January 24th.
42:44 - Outro

Amplify Your Business Hydrasurvey

For Episode 195 of Amplify Your Business, we’re joined by Andrew Ambrocichuk, the CEO of Hydrasurvey. Hydrasurvey provides hydrographic sludge surveys, wastewater project monitoring, and thermal tank surveys to companies undertaking wastewater projects that include lagoons and ponds to help their clients prepare for remediation. Wastewater ponds and lagoons are designed to hold a certain amount of sludge and sediment, but eventually, these ponds and lagoons need to be remediated. When that time comes, Hydrasense surveys the sludge to tell their clients how much sludge they have and what it’s made of. This allows their clients to know where the sludge can go in terms of landfills or land applications. They also act as quality control throughout the remediation project.To learn more, visit their website at https://www.hydrasurvey.ca/ 
 
00:00 - Intro
01:08 - What are three things that you think every entrepreneur should know?
04:47 - As someone with an engineering background coming into a sales position, did you struggle with learning how to sell the product as a whole rather than just the features?
08:21 - What is Hydrasurvey? What problems are you trying to solve?
09:50 - What does your client base look like? Who are your clients?
11:03 - How did you decide that there was a business opportunity in sludge surveying?
13:45 - What are some of the biggest surprises that you had when you were transitioning from working for someone else to entrepreneurship?
15:12 - How do you stay resilient through those challenges, the naysaying, and self-doubt?
18:02 - Where do you find your inspiration?
19:41 - What is your definition of freedom?
21:27 - Can you talk a little bit about Hydrasurvey’s future growth and why the US is a target market for you? What are some of the unique challenges you’re facing in doing so?
24:51 - Does your professional insurance cover you for working in the US as well as it does for work you do in Canada?
26:57 - What have you identified as being some of the biggest risks to achieving your business vision and how to you plan to overcome those risks?
31:05 - How are you keeping an eye on the cashflow aspect while still enabling the growth you want to have?
33:07 - If you could write your pre-entrepreneurial self a letter, what would it say?
35:43 - [Andrew asking Lance] What do you do to not feel overwhelmed as an entrepreneur? Is there something specific that you do?
38:13 - Outro

Amplify Your Business OSP Microcheck

For Episode 194 of Amplify Your Business, we’re joined by Virginia Wornstaff, the CEO of OSP Microcheck. OSP Microcheck is a company that specializes in microbial identification, surveillance, and mitigation in the oil and gas sector. OSP Microcheck works with the global oil and gas industry to develop solutions for the effects of water and its use, and through data-driven analysis, they help companies in the oil and gas sector decide which biocides are the right ones for their particular application.To learn more, visit the OSP Microcheck website at https://ospmicrocheck.com/ 
 
00:00 - Intro
01:06 - What do you think are three things every entrepreneur needs to know?
03:08 - What is OSP Microcheck all about?
05:22 - Do you operate globally?
08:07 - What role does your background in entrepreneurship play in regard to your work with OSP?
10:47 -Do you find your entrepreneurial mind and scientific mind are at odds at times throughout your work with OSP?
 14:59 - Are there unique challenges to coming in as an employee, then an investor, and now leading the company versus starting your own company?
20:56 - What is easier at this stage of the company’s journey to be able to allow you the opportunity to evolve and change the business?
24:52 - If you could bring another entrepreneur along on this part of your journey right now, whether someone famous or someone you know personally, who would that be and why?
26:45 - If you could write a letter to your younger self, what would it say?
28:12 - If someone in our audience wanted to contact you, how could they do that?
28:44 - Outro

Amplify Your Business Cherry Blossom CBD

For Episode 193 of Amplify Your Business, we’re joined by Derek Spruill, co-founder and director of sales for Cherry Blossom Hemp. This is the second iteration of the Cherry Blossom brand. Originally called Cherry Blossom Confections, they dealt in the edibles and marijuana candy market. The second iteration then became Cherry Blossom Hemp, and finally, after meeting with a CBD manufacturer out in Oakland, they became Cherry Blossom CBD.
 
Today, Cherry Blossom CBD delivers high-quality full-spectrum vape-able and dab-able CBD products, such as live resin, extracts, and concentrates.To learn more, visit their website https://www.cherryblossomhemp.com/ 
 
00:00 - Intro
01:07 - What are three things that you think every entrepreneur needs to know?
04:21 - Can you tell us a little bit about Cherry Blossom CBD?
10:52 - When it comes to the legalization of Cannabis across the US, has that fuelled a bigger understanding of CBD or does it distract away from it?
13:16 - What have been some of the challenges that you’ve had to overcome?
14:59 - Do you have a physical location?
15:40 - What things are easier for you now than when you started?
18:19 - At this stage, what are you doing right that’s really helping you find success?
20:42 - It sounds like you do a lot of education as part of your sales process. Is that correct?
21:48 - If an angel investor dropped $1M into your lap, what would you be doing to maximize your growth with that?
23:01 - What inspires you, as an entrepreneur?
25:33 -  How do you define success as an entrepreneur?
27:57 - If you could write your past self a letter, what would it say?
32:57 - If someone wanted to get in contact with you, how could they do that?
34:34 - Outro

Amplify Your Business NXT-GEN

For Episode 192 of Amplify Your Business, we’re joined by Colin Tran, the founder, and president of NXT-GEN at the University of Alberta. At a high level, NXT-GEN was originally founded to bring entrepreneurship to the high school level. It has since evolved into an organization that connects those students - that next generation of Edmonton entrepreneurs - with our city’s rapidly developing entrepreneurial ecosystem. This program was developed with the dream of helping to launch the next generation of young entrepreneurs into that ecosystem and get them started on their entrepreneurial journeys.To learn more, visit the NXT-GEN website at https://www.nxt-gen.biz/ 
 
00:00 - Intro
00:58 - Can you give us a rundown as to what you’re trying to do with NXT-GEN?
02:22 - Did NXT-GEN start with high schoolers because you were once a high schooler wishing for this kind of program to help you get into the entrepreneurial ecosystem?
05:06 - What are some of the gaps you’re trying to fill in terms of university courses for entrepreneurship?
07:00 - What are you finding in terms of the background of the students who are interested in NXT-GEN?
09:01 - Is NXT-GEN also focused on bridging the gap between students and industry as well?
10:58 - Are most of these students coming into NXT-GEN with a business idea or a business already started?
13:14 - Do you come from a family of entrepreneurs? Where does this passion for entrepreneurship come from?
16:57 - With the students you’re working with, do you find that there’s this extra excitement because they can take those risks right now when they’re young?
22:22 - How can our audience support NXT-GEN?
24:06 - Outro