Boiling Point Podcast

With over 200 countries and territories in the world and even more distinct cultures that make up each one, we have a near endless amount of cultural experiences powering our world. Diversity brings strength and understanding into communities that helps to break down prejudice and discrimination. Individuals who are building social enterprises that help level the playing field and promote people's talent from different cultural backgrounds should be celebrated and highlighted. Today's guests, the co-founders of Sankara Online Multicultural Marketplace, Lily Lynch and Chinweotito (Otito) Atansi, are individuals we want to celebrate and highlight.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Growing your business from a local footprint to a large regional enterprise with national and international recognition is no small feat. Many entrepreneurs, they may see that as the goal that keeps them moving forward. But our guest today, Ralph Stephen, educates us on how achieving that goal takes more than just focusing on financial and business growth.  If you are an entrepreneur currently struggling to find motivation and feel like chasing the money drives all of your choices, listen to this chat with Ralph. You'll get a perspective from a successful business leader about why we all need more values to focus on and help guide us to our goals.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Being passionate about your work, invested in your company's mission, knowing you are creating a positive impact and loving the people you work with sounds like the ultimate career, doesn't it? Well, today, we spoke with a mother-daughter team Kim Hickman and Katie Thompson, who have spent the last few years building that ultimate company. It all started with Kim asking a simple question to her daughter Katie, do you have a good backpack?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elect Handsome Dave! Wait….that doesn’t sound right? No, despite the signs that seem to continue to appear every election, Dave hasn’t decided to pursue a political path. We are fortunate to have someone that is running in the upcoming Saint John municipal election join us to share what motivated him to throw his hat in the ring, our guest Chris Daigle.  Dave and Greg have both worked with Chris in his day job at BDC and know personally the passion they all share for the city of Saint John. This episode gave Dave and Greg a chance to ask Chris about what motivates him to get involved, his views on diversity and growth for the city, and where he thinks the balance is for fiscal responsibility and quality of life. We want to wish Chris the best of luck in the election on May 10th!  An episode bonus, if you listen to the end, you might just learn the identity of the Elect Handsome Dave prankster…. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The B Corp community is full of businesses who are industry leaders while putting the idea of doing business with a purpose at the forefront of their culture. Our guest today Karen Hoskin, is a B Corp leader who, over the last 13 years, has overcome the barrier of a rum distillery not being something people expect to find in the mountains of the USA, the gender bias that comes along with being a woman in a predominantly male-dominated industry and being seen the outlier when pushing to be as sustainable as possible in all aspects of her business and life. Karen shares her story of growing a business, her views on doing business with a purpose and the wonderful feeling when finding her people in the B Corp community. Giving back to the B Corp community and mentoring other female entrepreneurs in the rum industry who are just starting on their journeys are a few different ways that Karen is taking actions that make a massive impact.  Speaking of impact, she may have also inspired Greg to figure out a plan to b

No matter what device you are using to read this right now, you couldn’t do it without electricity. But as we all try and figure out how we lessen our carbon footprint on the globe, where will we get that sustainable power from so we can keep listening to The Boiling Point Podcast? Luckily for us, folks like our guest Mark McAloon of The Smart are taking the lead on making sustainable electricity choices available to businesses in New Brunswick.  Mark gives us the rundown on how his company, The Smart Energy Company, has been working to bring solar power to New Brunswick, focusing on the B2B market. He gives us insider knowledge about how they are trying to win against their biggest competitor, The Price of Electricity. Showing off his Boiling Point Podcast knowledge, he ties back into our recent episode with Kristy O’Leary of Decade Impact to talk about how the B Corp methodology is mirrored right now in solar energy efforts. It’s about not waiting for change but being a leader and taking any step toward su

Are there some business tasks you do that drain your energy? Maybe you believe there’s a problem you can’t overcome that’s stopping you from getting away from that task? If you feel like your business is a little chaotic for you right now because of these feelings, we think you need to meet our guest who loves playing in the chaos, Dolores Hirschmann.  Dolores’ perspective has Greg and Dave, two self-proclaimed chaotic entrepreneurs, wanting to talk to her more about projects they could pursue together because what she shared with them resonated fully with their entrepreneurial experiences. The group talks about the energy and drive a startup entrepreneur full of ideas has and believes they can do it all. Over time, as they accomplish their goals, they start to develop limiting beliefs that prevent them from achieving their next stage. Whatever it is that their limiting believes are preventing them from achieving, Dolores works with people to make clarity in the most chaotic situations. Learn more about your

Sometimes there are people in your life that grow with you as you explore and find your path. Kristy O'Leary is not just one of those people for Greg, but for our podcast, as a frequent guest we love to catch up with. And catching up with Kristy means hearing all about how she is helping to lead the way in getting businesses to stop making excuses, better understand what doing business with purpose means, and help them achieve their B Corp Status.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is your value? It’s a simple but complex question all at the same time, especially for those who lean a little more on the creative side like musicians, artists and yes, entrepreneurs. Knowing your value and sticking to your narrative of what is key to you can be all the difference in making your way through the world. If you are an aspiring musician and need a little help and guidance on that path, our guest this week Steve Waxman, can help.  Steve worked his way up in the music industry from the mailroom to managing promotions for major record labels. He’s been in the room when acts like Billy Idol worked on some of their most well-known hits. Greg and Dave geeked out to some of the acts that Steve mentioned, and Greg dropped the news of his recent sighting of Maestro Fresh Wes right in the City of Saint John. Beyond the music history that Steve brings, he also brings a perspective on making it in the music industry that isn’t always about chasing fame. Instead, he talks about chasing your narrative a

If you are a listener of The Boiling Point, you know that music is a huge part of Greg’s life. You’ll also know that we are massive advocates of improving mental health. Last year we launched a partnership series, Shifting The Employee Experience, that saw Dave joined by Dr Bill to share his mental health expertise in the workplace. Today’s guest is bringing the two worlds of music and mental health together in a series of projects we couldn’t be more excited to learn about.  In his day job, he works with Deloitte Canada, but Terry Stuart co-founder of The Awesome Music Project opens our eyes to how music should help improve mental health. He and his co-founder Rob are not just putting that idea out there. They are selling a book and using other methods to raise funds to support research led by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health to get the scientific data to prove what every music lover knows. Music can evoke emotions to help us through our mental health struggles. The Awesome Music Project has even

Poverty plays a huge role in children's experiences in the arts, culture, recreation, or sports as they grow up. But as today's guest helps to explain to us, being a part of a team can help children learn the life skills needed to pull themselves out of generational poverty. Jen Brown joins us to educate Dave and Greg on the P.R.O. Kids Saint John program. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As we enter full swing into the holiday season and head towards the end of 2020, it is a time to take stock of everything that's happened this year. It's been a lot. In talking about businesses and organizations building resilience, we had to catch with our friend Alexya Heelis, Executive Director of the United Way serving Saint John, Kings and Charlotte.  Alexya shares with us how the pandemic has affected their efforts, how they've seen organizations and people shift and grow to focus on what matters most. She gives us some great ideas on how we can all contribute to our communities and non-profits.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We talk about leadership a lot in the entrepreneurship space. We talk about gaining knowledge, knowing your audience and building your presence to support your business growth. But how do you make everyone around you in any setting feel welcome? How do you build the skills to be a good host? Our guest, Laura Calder, has some ideas to share.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Entrepreneurs come from all different backgrounds. Some start with degrees in marketing and business, some start with degrees in other fields but with a natural curiosity and drive to innovate. Our guest today, Dr Ivan Zak has worked his way to fall in both camps.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Everyone has been affected by COVID-19 in one way or another, but certain businesses and industries are feeling the impact significantly. How are entrepreneurs who run businesses in these highly impacted sectors making it through these challenging times? Enter our guest John Simon, owner of Kefi Travel and Canadvac Travel Services, both companies based right here in the Maritimes but who rely on people being able to travel out of and into Canada. John shares with Dave and Greg the experience of acquiring another travel company at the start of the pandemic. He details how he has kept his focus moving forward, and his no-quit attitude approach that is helping him to adapt and pivot as the pandemic continues to impact the travel industry. We want to thank again our friends OpportunitiesNB who have been working with us to be able to highlight these great businesses stories of resilience during challenging times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are thrilled to be launching a new partnership series with a special hour-long episode today. In working with a few sponsors like Opportunities NB, we will be focusing our next few episodes on featuring New Brunswick business leaders and entrepreneurs to talk about resilience. Right now, during uncertain health, lifestyle, and economic times building resilient strategies in your business and life is key to not just surviving but thriving. Today, our guest and fellow podcaster is our good friend Matt George of Unsettled Podcast. We hear about Matt’s journey this year tackling a challenging health situation, making a significant career choice pivot to become a full-time entrepreneur and dealing with the unexpected growth of the new business while balancing health and wellbeing. Not to mention all of this happening on the backdrop of a global pandemic. Matt also uses the opportunity to flip the script and interview Greg and Dave in his podcast style to learn about their life moments that taught them resilien

The last few months of COVID-19 has seen much of the world working from home. There have been multiple reports of small falls in emissions that while a breath of fresh air, is not big enough changes to impact climate change overall. Once we move back to a new normal, how we do make sure we are more conscious of the impact the ways we travel to work has on our environment? How should employers manage the impact created by their workforce? Well, there’s an app for that, and it’s called Luum.  Kelly Hostetler, Director of Marketing, joins Greg and Dave to tell us all about how Luum is using technology to help shift the mindsets and behaviours as we all commute to work. Luum has a series of integrations like tracking when employees use a parking garage, tracking calories burned for biking to work and also giving a company an overall picture of the environmental impact their workforce is having. Luum is the type of software that could potentially change how we all think about our commutes.  Learn more about your

Do you sit down every year with your senior team and make a strategic plan? Maybe you have big plans of how you are going to grow, add more initiatives and keep building towards your next big goal. It’s great, you’re energized and excited, but as the year goes on, you find yourself slowly over time getting pulled into daily, practical tasks that need to get done. Soon, you can’t even remember your strategic goals, let alone know how you’ll achieve them. The new year hits and you repeat the same cycle again and again. Are you feeling stuck? Well, our guest today can help you Get Out Of The Weeds.  Vince Marsh has 15 years of experience helping leaders of senior teams become capable of handling any problem in a strategic way that keeps them from getting pulled too much into the weeds. He speaks to us about the common issues he has seen senior teams run into, what some solutions can be to those and share his experience in writing his book, Get Out of The Weeds. This episode is a great listen for anyone who is s

Have you built your business from referrals? Are you relying on a few major customers, but find it tricky to sell your product/services to other companies? Have you hired a 6-figure salesperson who through no fault of their own, couldn’t bring you in the sales you expected? Well, maybe it’s time for you to listen to, read a book written by or engage the services of our guest, Dan Englander.  Dan’s company, Sales Schema, helps agencies grow by doing outreach, appointment setting, outbound lead generation and support. You can be the best practitioner of your craft, but still feel kind of gross about pushing sales. But Dan talks to Dave and Greg about how sales don’t have to be a hard sale situation. In Dan’s words, “You’re selling, you’re teaching, or you’re learning every day with your market.” Listen in to hear some sales leadership tidbits sure to help your perspective on closing your next deal.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do feel like you’re an outlaw, rebel or misfit in your structured corporate career? Does innovation excite you? Do you thrive on projects that are driven by passion, that carry risks and need hard work to get the rewards? If you said yes to those questions, you might be a startup superstar just waiting to happen.  Dave and Greg were excited to learn from Steve Kahan’s decades of experience in helping startups move from early-stage to going public or being sold. While listening to his tips about what he looks for when starting to work with a company and advice he’d give young people to find the right startup career to jump into, it becomes apparent, very quickly how he helped grow 7 startups to result in over $3 billion in value. His new book that is already a best-seller on Amazon (and audiobook!) “Be A Startup Superstar” is on our must-read list. If you are an entrepreneur at any stage of your career, this episode is chock full of the information you can use.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megapho