Boiling Point Podcast

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

Featuring entrepreneurs who are making positive impacts in the world is not just the central theme of The Boiling Point Podcast, but for both Dave and Greg, it’s a personal passion. We feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to learn from our guest Shauna Cole, who we consider a friend, colleague and community leader.  With her recent Linkedin post “I Once Heard A Hiring Manager Say The N-Word” and her involvement in the Black Lives Matter march in Saint John, NB, Shauna Cole has made her voice heard, and it’s time we all listen. Shauna shares with us her experiences and the tipping point for her to make that post, change her career path and choose to help others find their best career fit with her consulting work and youtube channel, Career Interrupted.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Diversity in our communities continues to be a path to success whether it’s for economic, cultural or lifestyle purposes. Today, we’re excited to share a wonderful conversation we had with Jennifer Waldshutz and Lina Gharbiya who both work to bring and support Newcomers to the city of Saint John, NB. We even get a chance to view the Saint John is.. video completed in partnership with Hemmings House.  This conversation helps to highlight all the opportunities that exist in Saint John, NB for Newcomers, but also speaks to the bigger topic of what municipalities can do in order to encourage and support the growth and diversity of their population.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr Bill Howatt takes the guest seat in this week’s episode as Dave and Greg learn more about the release of his new book, Stop Hiding and Start Living: How to Say F-it to Fear and Develop Mental Fitness. This book which is a different style for our prolific author guest and sometimes co-host takes a look at Dr Bill’s personal life as a backdrop to talking about how to develop mental fitness to deal with life stressors.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our Shifting The Employee Experience series has allowed us to speak with some amazing guests who are all working to make mental health and mental wellbeing a widely talked about topic. We feel very fortunate to have been joined by Sheldon Kennedy, former NHL player and long time advocate of Respect in the Workplace and Respect in Sport.   Through Respect Group, he works to bring educational programs to workplaces, in sports and schools. These programs give people a baseline understanding and make it possible to build a climate of openness, so people are empowered to not only self-advocate about their mental wellbeing but to check in with others. Sheldon’s perspective that it’s not about being perfect, but being available to listen and give feedback from an honest, caring place helps to highlight how we can all play a role in making our workplaces, schools and sports teams safer for everyone.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If we don’t talk about issues that affect us all as human beings, we don’t solve them. Mark Henick joined us for this episode to share his story and perspective on mental health in the workplace, but his experience and the conversation we had goes so much further than the workplace.  Mark’s insights of encouraging everyone to start with the individual person instead of trying to push people into silos of “normal” and his lifelong perseverance to encourage people to no longer to stay quiet about their experiences with mental health, which can include thoughts or attempts of suicide, is a lesson to us all that the most important thing we can do when it comes to mental health is to talk to each other and listen to each other with no preconceptions or judgements.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever struggled with maintaining relationships at work that go beyond just professional interactions? Do you feel like you only focus on work tasks and not building personal relationships? Well, it might be time to re-evaluate the benefits that having solid relationships at work gives you.  And yeah, there’s now an app for that. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re excited to be joined by Shamini Dhana once more, and this time it’s to announce the official launch of the circular memory jacket! Through Greg becoming a model and showing off his circular memory jacket, Shamini shares the experience of working with people to preserve their memories and our environment with this zero-waste focused product. We learn about Dhana Inc’s efforts during COVID-19, plans for the circular memory jacket and other products they hope to launch soon.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today more than ever, employees are looking to their leaders for help on how to navigate COVID-19, working from home, juggling work-life balance and keeping up on their actual jobs. But as leaders, how do we do that effectively? Stuart MacLean builds on Dr Bill Howatt’s article around authentic leadership by highlighting his philosophy he’s learned over his career path of always asking yourself who have you helped be successful today? The group talks about the importance of a leader caring about the individuals working around them regardless of job function and they an honest chat about showing your vulnerability as a leader and being open to honest, direct feedback.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During this time of COVID-19, we keep hearing about getting back to our “new normal”, but Sean Ryan joins us today to discuss how as businesses we should be planning for our “next normal” instead. Dave, Greg and Sean all discuss how current circumstances are making them evaluate the ways they do business and how they realize some changes may make their business offerings stronger in the long term.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Current events with the stress and psychological impact that COVID-19 is having on workplaces is showing us that now more than ever, we need to build and maintain a positive work environment. Dave is joined once more by Dr Bill Howatt, and today we’ve decided to make this discussion a Dr Bill squared event with our guest Dr Bill Morrison.  Dr Bill Morrison discusses critical steps and behaviours we need to monitor in our workplaces to keep us aware and moving forward with our workplace psychological safety. For anyone that is struggling to highlight positive behaviours and embed these acts as second nature in your workplace culture, this episode and the resources mentioned can start you on the path of improving the overall well being in your workplace.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we have one of our favourite and frequent guests join us, Kelly VanBuskirk to have an honest discussion about some of the challenges facing both employees and employers during COVID-19. Greg, Dave and Kelly drill in on how while businesses need to stay compliant with government regulations, consumers can help by having a little bit of grace and understanding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s no handbook out there of how to get through the COVID-19 crisis as a business leader, but if we all work together and share the lessons we’re learning, we’ll undoubtedly be better off. David Savoie, CEO and President of Acadian Construction, joins Dave and Greg today to share some of the practical steps he and his employees have been taking during this time of crisis. An excellent discussion that doesn’t just focus on maintaining your business, but some tips on how to incorporate work/life balance in your planning and critical reminders about appreciating all the good moments still happening around us.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the COVID-19 crisis, it's become clear that we can only succeed if we work together. We wanted to take an episode to talk about the psychological benefit you get when you give back to your community and help others. To help us learn what's happening right now Bill and Dave are joined by Alexya Heelis of the United Way Saint John, Kings and Charlotte. Alexya tells us all about the efforts happening on the ground and how businesses and employees are taking on leadership roles with their donations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we share a special episode to help businesses dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. Our friend Matt Symes of Symplicity Designs joins us to talk through his expertise area in getting businesses through a crisis. Matt shares how to Forecast, Plan and Act to make sure you can push your business through this timeframe and come out the other side. Besides sharing fantastic information in this episode, Matt and Symplicity Designs are also offering daily webinars and other resources for free for all small and micro-businesses. If you are struggling right now, have a listen and check out what Symplicity Designs is offering our business community.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We had no idea how timely our Shifting The Employee Experience mini-series on the podcast would be right now to the current events of the world. We’ve taken a step outside of it this week to take advantage of Dr Bill’s knowledge, be very vulnerable about what we are all experiencing and talk through how we can cope with our current work and overall life experiences during COVID-19.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we talk about an area that Canada is leading the way globally in its establishment of The National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace. Sapna Mahajan, a national leader on the topic, joins us to share her insight. Using Bill’s The Chronicle Herald article “Without good workforce mental health, employers have nothing” the group discusses the progressive step forward Canada is taking by creating the standard and how business leaders can start to build it into their culture.  In facing down the current events of the world, understanding the importance of mental health in a workplace environment is becoming a more and more essential component of ensuring successful business operations.      Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode, we tackle an important topic when it comes to Shifting the Employee Experience, bullying in the workplace. Using his article “For A Respectful Workplace, Deal With Bullies” as a catalyst for the conversation, Dr Bill Howatt gives us his input on why employers and employees alike need to seriously acknowledge the mental injuries that happen from bullying in the workplace. Kelly VanBuskirk, a lawyer who specializes in Labour & Employment law, helps to enhance our conversation by providing views from a legal perspective, but also sharing the impact he has seen first hand on those who have experienced bullying in the workplace. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we are beyond excited to announce a special mini-series we will produce in partnership with UNB College of Extended Learning and Workplace Safety and Prevention Services. Greg Hemmings will be taking a break from hosting duties to run our soundboard (and get some quality time with the new addition to his family) while Dave Veale will be co-hosting with our guest host and friend Dr Bill Howatt. In today’s announcement episode, you’ll learn about why we feel the topic of Shifting the Employee Experience is such a meaningful discussion area to explore. You’ll get to know Dr. Bill’s background and his motivation for getting involved in our podcasting world and learn all about our incredible partners who are sponsoring this mini-series. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Any parent out there will tell you that when their baby isn’t sleeping, they will pay anything to anyone to make their precious bundle of joy catch a few hours of ZZZs. It’s not about the money, but about the well being of their child and themselves. Enter our guest, Stephanie Parker, the founder of Sleeping Baby, who through her own experiences with a sleepless child, was able to create a product and business that is helping other parents. Stephanie’s story reminds us once again that entrepreneurship isn’t just about making money. It’s about creating a lifestyle that works for you, has the impact you want to have in life and building communities that you support and who support you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices