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Barb 0:00Today’s guest is the head honcho of the South Saskatchewan Community Foundation. What the heck is a community foundation? You know, honestly, until I started talking to Donna and her team, I had no clue. But boy, has it been a steep learning curve for me. Barb 0:16Donna has been with the foundation for about three years. But she spent the majority of her career in either the charity or the nonprofit sector. This is a busy lady folks, the fact that we pinned her down for 25 minutes to talk to her, like, Wow, I feel so important right now. So first off, Donna, thank you so much for being here. Donna 0:37Thank you so much for having me. I’m glad to be here. Barb 0:41Absolutely. I can’t wait to learn more about you and the foundation. Now of course it is you’re such a busy lady, you are a so actively involved in the community, the coaching Federation, the Association of Fundraising Professionals, tell me a little bit about what drives you what keeps Donna going on a daily basis. Donna 1:03So really interesting, thank you for asking, I am a lifelong learner. So I like to keep up to date on what’s happening in community, what’s happening in these organizations, the ones that, you know, I find, for me personally, to be interesting along with my career. And so I’m always looking for opportunities to learn and to understand from others, and then to help others as well, if I know something that I can share with them. So I like being involved. And I, you know, I think that it’s helped me throughout my entire life. But I’ve always been like that. And I hope to pass some of that to my kids too. They become capes. Barb 1:46That is fantastic. When I read through your bio, when I was getting ready for our show today, the word that jumped out at me or the word that came to mind to describe you, you are a contributor, you look to give back to your community, I suspect your friends, your family. It’s how you’re driven, isn’t it, Donna? Donna 2:06Yes, that’s very interesting. I haven’t thought of it that way. But I do like to not just myself, but I like to offer it I have something to offer. I like to help others and help them understand help me community. It’s just the way you’re built. Sometimes I think and perhaps the way you’re brought up, or you know, so you just kind of have that innately that desire continue to pay forward. Barb 2:33Yes, absolutely. So let me ask you this question, then. How do you balance your time, because I know for people, other other friends and family than I know that direct giver by nature, you also have to find that balance so that you can recharge. So how do you do that? How do you balance? Donna 2:52Really good question Barb. And lots of times, we don’t even like to think about that. Because it actually puts you into a zone that you have to slow down and think about how you’re recharging. But what I do know is that if you do not recharge yourself, you’re not good for others. Donna 3:10And you don’t you know, you’re showing others that it’s important to take care of yourself so that you can be that person for other whether it’s community or people or family. So I really like to look at I’ve always looked at work life balance to I, you know, I like to I like work, I’ve always liked work. Donna 3:37But I know that family life is also important. And so I really try to balance those pieces. I don’t think my children would say that things are done by because it wasn’t for my husband, we’ve always made sure that we were present. Yes, one for sure. And, you know, because I have a good support system, and was able to engage in community. And that really matters as well. Donna 4:06My husband helps children all the time. And he’s coached and you know, and I was able to follow a few of my dreams, which was going back to school and work and different things. So you learn how to balance I love enacting mindfulness into my day, being grateful, you know, using a journal to to learn about yourself and the things that you’re grateful for. It completely slows down your day, especially in the morning. And it yes, it makes you more mindful of what you’re doing. Barb 4:44Yes, absolutely. I actually took a mindfulness class from from a local business here. And when I started the class, I was kind of thinking yeah, I don’t know like, but by the end, I loved Oh, Joanne did such a wonderful job in that class. And we actually did a retreat at the end at the university. And I remember walking around, and being able to enjoy kicking water in puddles. Like I hadn’t since I was a kid, like, how cool is kicking water, and I had no kids with me. So I like got tic tic. And it was awesome. Right? Donna 5:28So, you know, we don’t take enough time. We’re busy, right? That is that word. I don’t even like that word easy. But if you can press in the things that you’re doing, yes, that’s most important. And I remember once I was with somebody, and they said, I was talking to my inner function, and I said, Oh, they asked me how my week was going. And I said, this is about 10 years ago. Donna 5:54And I said, you know, I just can’t wait for the week to be done. It’s been a long week, he looked at me. And they said, Not Ever wish a moment away? Yes. Take the time you need present with it.

Barb 0:00 Our guest today is our first ever mogul to join the show. A real estate mogul. This lady knows the ins and outs of real estate investment, ownership and the rental market from having spent the last 20 years or more in the day to day hands on world. But that’s not where her story and it’s actually where it all began. Barb 0:20 This lady is the whole package boys, but she is taken. Not only is she one of Canada’s top 100 influencers in the future of Canadian real estate, she has vision, she has passion, and she excels as a leader who strives to see others succeed. Barb 0:37 Carla Browne is the president of real property management Canada, a Canadian company providing rental building and tenant tenant management and marketing services. I truly can’t do this description justice. So without further ado, welcome, Carla. Carla 0:54 Thank you so much for that Barb. Wow, I hope I can live up to all of that. Barb 0:59 You’ve already exceeded it. Carla 1:02 When people introduce me and they talk about like the 20 some years because then people are like already envisioning how old is this woman? Barb 1:10 Oh, no experience, ages just a number. But But explain this to me. So how does one business? Do all of this? Like that’s a broad product and service offering. So how does this actually work? Tell us a little bit about the company and then of course, yourself. Carla 1:29 Okay, so real property management, the company I work with the franchisor right now Real Property Management Canada as their president, I also run a franchise in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Carla 1:41 And that’s where I started with the company as I started out in the franchise world and continue to run that organization. So when I say I know the business inside and out, I definitely live and breathe it every day. Carla 1:54 And Real Property Management is the only franchise property management company in Canada, we specialize in residential single family rentals. And it is an industry that is just growing beyond belief right now across Canada, it’s it’s a super exciting time to be in any kind of real estate investment, property management, rental housing provider, any anything that’s linked to that, which is there’s so many different ways that that could actually go when you think about all the things that we need in our day to day. Carla 2:27 And what we do is we attract individuals who are looking for business opportunities, or maybe already own a property management company, or in that real estate space that see the synergy between the companies that are looking for a way to really get into this industry, but want to alleviate some of the pain points because we have figured out a lot of foolproof bulletproof processes and systems. Carla 2:51 And through the use of the technology and a lot of that proven process and marketing can make life much easier on the day to day. So when people think about property management, often often Barb they think about fixing fixing leaks and toilets and going to doors and collecting rent. Yeah. And that’s not what we do at all. We are here to proactively manage the asset for the investor and create a very safe environment for any resident or tenant who’s coming on coming on board to live with us. Barb 3:23 Wow. Okay, so you’re talking about single family homes? Ballpark, how many doors across Canada? Would you have? Carla 3:31 You’re just right now, with we have 17 offices across Canada. We’re fairly we’re fairly new. I call us an emerging franchise right now and in the Canadian Space, and we have about 3500 houses or units, townhouses, condos that we’re that we’re managing right now. Barb 3:48 Yep, that’s huge. And so what do you predict the growth will be like in the next, I don’t know, three to five years. What are you expecting? Carla 3:55 I expect that our office base this year will go from about 17 active we have more than that. But seven what I call 17 really active getting going businesses to we will double that this year. And in three years, we will be about 100 offices across Canada. Barb 4:13 Nice. And are you coast to coast right now? Are you still sort of reaching those borders? Carla 4:18 We are very present in BC, Alberta. We have the office in Saskatchewan, of course we have one office in Quebec, and we have a few offices in Ontario. So we are pretty much coast to close. But we have lots of room for expansion, lots of territories that are available for people to come into. Barb 4:34 Okay. So let me see if I can kind of paint a picture. So if I’m, maybe I even own a couple of homes that I rent out. And so I do property management as part of my service and maybe I helped a couple of other folks at the local level with their homes. Someone would reach out to you thinking Hmm, maybe I can expand my property map management portfolio, not necessarily do I need to own more homes, it’s expanding that portfolio from a service perspective to, as you say, the investor who actually owns the house, then Correct? Carla 5:15 Correct. And we do see that often where someone just really has a love for that for this industry. So they themselves are an investor. But as as an investor, as soon as you start getting a number of properties under your portfolio, it becomes, it becomes a full time job to do this properly, the tenants now tenant, the tenant profile has changed a lot over the years, their expectations have really changed. Carla 5:38 Technology has blown up this space, like it

Barb 0:00 Okay, so Wilson Acton is our guest today. And Wilson is a builder. He’s a people builder, an organization builder and a community builder. He’s been a serial entrepreneur and a four time tech startup founder. So like many of us that are here today, Wilson has many things on the go. Barb 0:21 There’s one commonality between all of the different folks that we’ve had in our programs and that we tend to work with. We all have multiple pieces on the go. So it’s actually kind of funny to watch. Wilson has an extensive background in mergers and acquisitions. And Wilson, if I remember correctly, you’re actually a lawyer by trade, correct? Wilson 0:42 That’s correct. Barb 0:43 Yeah. That’s kind of what I remembered. So you worked in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets venture building, and somewhere along the way, discovered that being an entrepreneur was much more exciting. Barb 0:55 He’s very involved in the community in Kidsport, in Calgary, and Alberta’s Internet of Things, which he’ll definitely have to tell us about. So without further ado, Wilson, please introduce yourself and just kind of give us a little bit of story. How do you go from being a lawyer wearing a suit to mergers and acquisitions to tech? Like, how the heck did that happen? Wilson 1:18 Yeah, it’s, uh, you know, much like life. It’s a winding path, you know, pleased to be here. They are me. On today. Yeah, it’s, you know, I actually recall, when I was departing my law practice so I was a, you know, a partner with one of the biggest law firms in the in the country had been there for just well, actually two weeks shy of a decade and had done all these transactions across a host of industries from infrastructure, oil, and gas, satellites, even car dealerships, you know, you kind of you name it. We bought and sold and financed it. Wilson 1:56 And, I was having a good conversation with a friend of mine, who was also a client, and it was gonna be a tough conversation to say, you know, hey, I know, we’ve worked together all these years, but I’m out, I’m leaving you. So you know, best of luck. And, and he said, Well, what took you so long? As somebody? I said, What are you talking about? Wilson 2:14 And he said, Well, the only reason we like working with you, we’re not the only reason but what the main reason was, you are an entrepreneur that just happened to be sitting in the lawyer’s chair, and you brought the legal tools to it. Wilson 2:24 And so, you know, a lot of people say, Wow, what an about shift to leave law, you know, big law, and in the end get into, you know, the entrepreneurial game, and the reality was, it was actually kind of big law. That was the odd thing out in the middle, you know, before law. Wilson 2:42 I was farming in the Moose Jaw area, my first degrees in agriculture from the U of S. You know, been, you know, grew up there and been in agriculture there on both sides of my family for I’m actually the fifth generation and through that, you know, start spun up a number of entrepreneurial ventures, including, while I was in law school, I started a construction company in Calgary, so you mentioned, you know, multiple things on the go, I was swinging a hammer in Calgary, you know, nights and between classes, you know, going to law school, at least most of the time, and still trying to farm in Moose Jaw. So we were covering some ground. Barb 3:21 Oh, no kidding. Holy. That’s a Yeah, that’s having a ton on the go. Wilson 3:26 So sucker for punishment. Barb 3:28 So okay, so you sit down with this client? And you’re like, Yeah, we’re, I’m leaving law. Did you totally leave behind? Or did you still do some practice? Are you just totally like, where did you go? When did you leave law? Wilson 3:44 So yeah, when I, when I left law, stepped into the, you know, first tech company, you know, in a, in a rapid series of four, and that business by the name of whipcord, it was in the data center space. Wilson 3:56 And so I actually joined, what were clients, they had actually a business that helped them exit a business, probably about two years earlier, and they were getting to restart. And so, you know, they were focused on data centers and, you know, a really interesting market. There’s the huge kind of Google’s telco, the telecoms and Amazons of the world. Wilson 4:20 But like, in a lot of things, there’s kind of this space in the middle, you know, the small players and and, you know, is there an opportunity to own a pretty interesting asset there and grow it and scale it and so that the goal behind that business originally, actually was to be very acquisition focused. Wilson 4:38 So buy a lot of data centers, think of it like a real estate play where, you know, people just keep buying more real estate and rent it out. It’s the same kind of premise, just our real estate was digital. Yeah. And so, you know, you never really leave the last stuff behind, you know, as part of what I’m saying is you bring those tools you bring those skills, you know, Whether it’s trying to buy and sell businesses, trying to build them, you know, form, you know, big commercial relationships. Wilson 5:06 Law is these, you know, tech law practice around m&a, you know, is really kind of strategy negotiation, you know, how do you kind of put these pieces together? How can we create wins. And so, you know, very transferable into the, into the

Barb 0:01Our guest today is a born entrepreneur, but she didn’t realize it until she was 45 years old when she took a leap and bought a failing business in an industry she knew nothing about. She turned that business around and made it profitable with her daughter as her partner. Since that time, Karen Kobussen has started three other businesses with failures and mistakes, just as common as the wins and successes, which has made it a roller coaster ride on her entrepreneurial journey. Barb 0:34It was during that time that she realized she had a family member with a serious substance abuse problem. And she became a vocal advocate for evidence-based resources that support families to move from helplessness, and hopelessness to understanding and empathy through kindness, compassion and science. Through sheer determination, and a handful of ignorant bliss, as well as a massive amount of willpower and fortitude, Karen created opportunity in every moment and tackled her life and business challenges head on, both with the wins and losses contributing to her personal growth, and the growth of her businesses. With all of that, welcome, Karen, such a pleasure to have you here. Oh, hi, Barb. Karen 1:31Thanks for having me. Barb 1:33It’s an absolute pleasure. So you do have to kind of start with the story. Three businesses since the age of 45. And because I can see you right now, but no one else can. I’m guessing that 45 was about six months ago. So you’ve been busy for the last six months. Karen 1:49Yeah. Thanks, girl. So cute. Um, yeah, no, it was a few years ago. Um, it’s actually crazy how time flies like when you just said that? And I’m like, man, it does feel like six months ago. But it and that roller coaster have been just to go on ever since. So yeah, it’s been a few years. But wow, what a ride. Barb 2:10Exactly. So tell us a little bit about each of the businesses. I of course know Kanwal because we’ve had a chance to talk about Kanwal before. But let’s give everyone else just a really broad landscape for the businesses that you’re involved with. Karen 2:23Yeah, I think so. I’ll maybe just go in chronological order. That’s kind of the easiest thing to do. Yes. So I actually used to live in Regina. I live in Saskatoon now. And I was working on a contract for a company down there back in the 2000. And aughts. I don’t know how everyone says that about 2005-2006. Okay. And a girlfriend of mine invited me out to Regina beach for the weekend, and I had never been there. And I thought, oh, man, that would be so much fun. Karen 2:50But honestly, we’re gonna get a little personal here today, Barb, I hope that’s okay. Yeah, absolutely good. And anyway, she invited me out to the beach for the weekend. And I thought, oh, man, that would be so fun. But so here I had a little problem personally, I have kind of really weird chicken skin on my legs. I’ve always called it my chicken skin. Karen 3:12Okay, and so I had a really hard time shaving my legs, even as a tean youth in a team. And I was very, very, very self conscious about that always my whole life very, very, I lacked so much confidence in my ability to wear shorts or a bathing suit, and I just almost never did. Okay, so anyway, that’s how this whole story gets started. And yep, kind of interesting. Karen 3:36So, my coworker said, Oh, my goodness, I said, I can’t go. And I sort of told her why such, you know, very sheepishly, and she said, Have you ever been sugared? And I said, I don’t even know what you’re talking about. Yeah. What is that? Yeah. And she just didn’t even let me answer. She picked up the phone. She called her girl who sugars which I had no idea. Yeah. And made me an appointment right then and there and said, basically, you’re coming with us go get go see this girl right now. Yep. Karen 4:08So I’m okay. So like half an hour later, I have this appointment, I jump in my car and drive to east Vic I get into this place. And this girl picks up this big gooey glob of paste. And she places it on my leg. And she kind of rubs it in and then she kind of pulls it off and all the hair is gone. Barb 4:30I just happened Karen 4:31It was such a cathartic moment. I almost started to cry. I was like what is happening right now and why am I just finding out about this? Yeah, now. So that was my first experience with sugaring. Karen 4:46I was so blown away and like literally the confidence in my appearance and my body came back instantly Barb it was oh, I believe it. It was bonkers. Yep, so anyways, so that was in 2006 I continue to get sugared. In Regina for a couple years, I was actually driving from Saskatoon to get sugared in Regina when I moved back because I couldn’t find anyone here. Karen 5:12So then finally I said to my girl in Regina, Hey, can you find me someone in Saskatoon that does this with this particular brand. And so she did her research and she said, yeah, here’s a girl’s number called the girl up. So now we’re in about 2008. Can I meet a girl here in Saskatoon, I start getting sugared. And then, and I’m like, her biggest fan, right? And I’m telling everyone, Italy. Yeah. And I helped, like, so I had a lot of business experience, just from my work. I was working with the industry association, membership based Industry Association. And so, um, you know, just talking to people, I’m a natural extrovert.

Barb 0:00Today’s guest helps businesses show up in search results, get more leads and sell more products with intentional Google first content. Meg Casebolt is the founder of Love at First Search, an agency devoted to helping online businesses get found in search results and turn those new readers into lead subscribers and sales. Barb 0:25Meg and her family live in Rochester, New York. And one of her family members even joins us during the podcast, her 80 pound Pitbull. She has an insatiable appetite for smores, Broadway musicals and romance novels. But it’s not a conversation we had time for. Barb 0:42Today’s episode is brought to you by my very own, Get Found Digital Marketing. If you are a local business, or nonprofit who needs to attract more customers, more support, or simply make more time. Check out Getfound.live. Now on with the show. Barb 1:02So Meg tell us a little bit about yourself and your business. Meg 1:06I am the founder of Love at First Search, which is a marketing agency. We’re really focused on helping people to show up in Google for the most part. Barb 1:16wow. Okay, so wait a second, let me get this straight, you’re not telling people that they have to do all the things on social media and they can find new clients? Meg 1:26That’s correct. I actually also have a podcast called Social Slow Down, because I think that so many of us start marketing our businesses on social media because it is free, and it has a low barrier to entry and our audience is already there. Meg 1:41And then we get dependent on those social channels, because they’re built to make us dependent on them. You know, if you set up a Facebook page, then suddenly you have to post on that Facebook page at least once a day in order to please the algorithm gods. Meg 1:57And it can be very stressful. And a lot of those decisions about whether or not what you’re creating is seen are completely out of your control. And also, I think with a lot of social media channels, people aren’t really there to make purchasing decisions. They’re there because they want to be entertained. So we can market our business on these platforms. But like, the people are there for cat videos, they’re not there to buy. Barb 2:22Exactly. And you know what, I could be wrong. But I believe every social media company, if you look at the stock exchange, is actually an entertainment company. So their goal is to entertain you and distract you. Right? And so okay, if I’m going to think about finding my customers from Google, and I want to stay away from social media, which I always like to call social media, the equivalent of junk food from a marketing perspective. Because sure, it’s fun, it tastes good at that moment, but then it’s gone, you get absolutely no nutritional value from that junk food you just consumed. How you enjoyed it in that moment while you watched your cat video, but then it’s gone. Right? And so how do we start to build long lasting content that compound value for our business? When you look at Google? Meg 3:13Well, I actually want to disagree with you respectfully about social media, okay, I don’t think that it’s necessarily like the root of all evil, and it’s not going to do us any good. And it’s just sugar and dopamine in our brains. There is, I mean, it has been documented that social media does give you that dopamine in your brain. So there is definitely a correlation there between that. Meg 3:35But I like to think of it more like social media as a place to nurture the relationships that we already have, you know, if there are people who are already in a Facebook group, or we’re connected with them on LinkedIn, or they’re following us on Instagram, whatever that connection point looks like, they already know us, that’s a great way to get to know people who are already familiar with you. Meg 3:57So whether that’s commenting on their posts, or you know, DMing them and sending them some information. It’s a good nurture space. Right? Meg 4:06I don’t think that social media is the best platform for discovery. Okay, yep. And that’s the difference that I like to put in here is people aren’t going to, you know, LinkedIn and being like, Who do I know that’s a plumber, right? Like, your basements flooded. You go to Google, and like, this happened to me, right? Barb 4:27Very top of mind. It’s very timely. Meg 4:29I wasn’t like, oh, I have two inches of water in my basement. Let me go look for a hashtag about it. So I can find someone who lives across the country right away when I have a problem. I go to Google to solve that problem. And I’m much more likely to take action on that decision because I am actively seeking out a solution to my problem by being in Google. Barb 4:53Do you think it matters what kind of business you are? Meg 4:57I think that the types of things that people want or expect to find from you are different. I do think that almost all businesses can benefit from having some search traffic. Barb 5:08Okay. Yep, I think that’s very fair. So if I look at and so let’s, let’s build on that the whole idea that you can nurture relationships. If you’re on social and your audience, you can tell in your reach and your impressions, your numbers are high. But nothing’s happening. What would you say to a client? So I’ve got all these followers and you know, my videos are being viewed, but my bank account is dry. How do you help a client with something like that? Meg 5:40I think the problem is that if you, if you are

Barb 0:01Today’s guests are solving a $121 million problem, a problem we all have and contribute to. Each year in Canada, paper receipts are used to equal 130,000 trees 130,000. That’s huge. To put that in other terms, you could wrap around the Earth 100 times, just with the amount of paper receipts that are used in Canada in a single year. Barb 0:36We all do it. We collect receipts when we go to the dollar store. When we go to Walmart, when we show up at a local retailer, there are over 15 point 1 billion receipts issued every year in Canada. Barb 0:52So our guests today are going to take us down the path for how we can stop spending that $121 million. How we can stop slaughtering, killing those 130,000 trees, how we can start to solve this problem. Barb 1:08Environmental Engineers by training Kim Baldwin and Carmen Johansen saw a huge problem with the receipt waste, the cost involved and customer tracking. How many times have you had to take something back and you’re scrounging to find that receipt, they have the solution. Barb 1:26Their company PayTrail is an electronic receipt tracking tool for customers to get the receipt jail for free, pass go on all scraps of paper that are laying around and put the power back into the customers hands for how they want to track the retail purchases. So I’ve done enough talking, I’m gonna ask Carmen to go ahead and introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about the company. Carmen 1:55Hi, Barb, thank you for having me. Barb 1:57It’s a pleasure to have you here. Carmen 1:59Yeah, my name is Carmen Johansen. A little bit about myself is I’m originally from Stockholm, Saskatchewan. I went to the University of Saskatchewan. And that’s where I obtained my environmental engineering degree. Following that, I started working and soon realized that there’s a bigger problem here that I want to focus on. And that was receipt paper. Every time I would go to a till I would say oh, no, I don’t need my receipt, thinking that it just wouldn’t be printed. But that’s simply not the case, which I realized quite quickly. Barb 2:35And then mentioned, does a retailer still print it and save it for their record? Yeah, for Carmen 2:40sure. So retailers print receipts for their own records as well as they put one for you. And when they print one for you, regardless if you want it or not. It’s still printed. Can they just crumple it up and throw it in the garbage? Barb 2:52Oh, wow. Okay, I didn’t realize that. Okay. Carmen 2:55Yeah. Yeah. And I just got tired of seeing that. And I thought this is a pattern that shouldn’t exist anymore in this day and age. So I wanted to do something about it. And that’s when we started PayTrail. And I became a co-founder with my partner, Kim. Barb 3:08Excellent. Well, Kim, on that note, let’s have you introduce yourself. Kim 3:12Yeah. Thanks so much for having us, Barb. My name is Kim Baldwin, I like Carmen, a small town in Saskatchewan. I was born in Davidson, Saskatchewan. So a little more central than Carmen was down south. I also went to the University of Saskatchewan, which is where Carmen and I first met. And then I started working. And Carmen mentioned this receipt problem that she saw a couple years ago. And she just was like, this is crazy, how don’t we have a better solution? Kim 3:47And I feel like I really resonated with that. And as soon as she mentions it, like lots of the people we talk to about this problem, as soon as you say it out loud, you start to see it all the time. And so that’s what happened to me. And that’s where we created PayTrail. Kim 4:03So paytrail is, like you said, a platform committed to eliminating receipt paper waste. We partner with stores to allow their customers to directly transfer and track their receipts from the tills to a user account that is in the version of an app on your phone. Barb 4:23So take me back to some of those early conversations that you guys had. We all tend to talk about the things that bug us. But not everyone takes the step and says okay, I’m going to start to solve this problem. So how did you guys actually sort of make that leap? Find yourself knee deep in entrepreneurship? Take me back to some of those conversations. What did that look like? Carmen 4:49For sure? This is actually I love I wish this was a meet cute, but really, it’s our idea starting cute. So, um, it’s a really funny story. Actually. I knew Kim when I had previous conversations about this issue, you know, we would talk about this issue. Carmen 5:06And I feel like every once in a while you’re surrounded by a group of friends. And you have those who have a million dollar idea who have a million dollar idea that can, you know, pay for us all to keep living and none of us, none of none of us have to work. And I always would always say, Oh, I have an idea, I have an idea. And I would always talk about this receipt one. Carmen 5:26And Kim really believed in it. And it was just these funny situations where we talk about it every once in a while. And then after, again, this problem kept becoming so regular in my life in such a constant that I could see it all the time. I started really thinking a lot more about it. Carmen 5:43And then one day, Kim and I, because we do spend a lot of time together. We were at a gin distillery, just having a drink. And we were just kind of talking about it a little bit more. And

Barb Our guest today has been working in digital marketing for about 11 years already. So I’m convinced just having had some conversations with her means she started when she was about 14. But six of those years were totally focused on paid social media advertising. And you know, if there’s one thing that we all have in common as local business owners, there’s times where you just can’t get that algorithm to work. So hopefully, Leah is going to give us some real insight today. She used to work at one of Canada’s largest Facebook advertisers, and spent her days analyzing millions of dollars in ad spend. And she also worked as the director of paid social at one of the large Toronto advertising firms. She’s got some real experience behind her in terms of what works, what doesn’t work. And I know she’s got some great information that she’s gonna share with us today, if you’re with us today. She started her own business back in 2017, and her businesses called Loop Digital. And all they do is paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram. Welcome to the show. Welcome to First Page. LeahThanks, Barb. Thanks for the great intro. I’m really happy to be here. BarbIt’s so cool to have you here. Now, I didn’t tell anyone before, but you and I have actually known each other for about let’s see my son’s 13. So about 13 years, because that’s when we first met when you’re at the university here. LeahYeah, it was a bit less than that. 2013 was when I was in your class. I checked back on the date. So yeah. Oh, really? Nine years ago? Yeah. BarbOh, so I was still teaching that. Yeah. It’s all just a blur when your kids are literal. It’s just a blur. So, let’s start with you, and Luke digital. So tell us a little bit about what you do in your business? And how do you support other businesses in growing? LeahSure. So yeah, you’re correct. The only thing that we do is paid social advertising. So we do Facebook, Instagram. And we also do Tik Tok now as well. So basically, only the paid side of those platforms, though. So we don’t do any kind of organic posting for businesses or anything like that. Just when a business is ready to put some advertising budget behind their message, we will help them with planning their campaigns, setting them up creating ads, and then monitoring and optimizing and doing all the ongoing testing that comes with that as well. BarbOkay, so I think that right away brings up the question, do Facebook ads still work? We all heard the stories after Apple made the changes to their operating system. So does it still work? And what has changed? LeahDefinitely, yeah. So most of my clients like they’re, you know, they’re all still succeeding with Facebook ads is definitely still possible. Ad costs have been rising. As long as I’ve been doing it, I think just every year more people get into it, and more people realize what a great opportunity it is. And of course, it’s an auction based system, which means that the more people there are bidding for those spots in, in, you know, in the feed and everything, the more the cost is going to go up. LeahSo, costs have been rising over time, they’re going to continue to rise. And then with iOS 14, what happened was Apple made some changes to the operating system and how they allow Facebook to track people’s behavior after they click on an ad and so that reduced Facebook’s ability to be able to track and report on the campaigns as effectively. LeahAnd so that did cause a bit of a hiccup in a lot of people’s ad campaigns. It was kind of like, you know, q3 q4. Last year, a lot of people were kind of struggling with their ad campaigns. But Facebook seems to kind of have things under control now and it seems like things are back to normal. So that’s pretty good, but costs are definitely always going up. So that is definitely a concern but they still work. BarbSo, you know, one of the things that I saw as an advertiser is the messages that I got from Facebook and Instagram were quite alarming. Like, they really wanted me to get worked up to get upset about these changes. And I mean, there’s two sides, right? Because the advertiser side, sure I was gonna be missing out on some potential customers. But then the consumer side, there was a bit of safety and security in there knowing I’m not going to be tracked and pixelated and followed everywhere I go. Right. And so what is the reaction that you’ve heard from most of your business owners or most of your clients around the changes? LeahYeah, yeah, you’re right, there’s two sides. And Apple has really kind of positioned themselves as like, you know, protecting the consumer and, and considering the privacy for, for all of its customers, but it I mean, I’m, I’m sure that Apple is going to be rolling out their own, they’ve announced they’re going to be rolling out their own advertising. So really, like, I think that they’re probably going to be using a lot of the same data that they’re restricting Facebook from tracking, I think they just kind of position it as a privacy protection for their customers. LeahBut I think it’s all just a kind of politics. But yeah, in terms of reaction. For our business owners, they’ve, you know, most of them are not super happy about it, we aren’t able to track our data as accurately in Facebook. Now, there are like, external tools that have popped up that have helped to add additional tracking for business owners. And now Facebook’s got like the conversions API, which makes things more accurate and

Barb  0:00   If you are a mom, if you have ever felt stressed out, potty training, getting groceries, cleaning the house, and literally just finding your kid sometimes. Today’s guest is going to help you find calm once again.  Barb  0:20   Our guest today is Faith Alyssa Peter, and she owns a business called Stressed Out Mama’s Subscription Box. She gives moms that gift of relaxation that we all crave. So nevermind listening to me Faith, take it away, introduce yourself and tell me all about this subscription box. I can’t wait to hear about it. Faith  0:47   Well, Barbara, I want to first start off by saying thank you so much. This is a huge, huge honor for me and my little business. Wait a second, let me cause big business. Yeah, Barb  0:57   exactly, exactly. Faith  1:00   So I started my business about 18 months ago now. And I was looking to bring mom retreats home. Because us moms, we don’t get the time to go on those five fishing trips. Like sometimes our husbands or spouses do or we don’t get to go golfing or we don’t get to do all of those things. And I was thinking to myself, I told my spouse and he was so supportive. Yeah, go out honey, go for a weekend with your friends. And I said, I don’t have any buddies. Barb  1:28   So true. That wasn’t exactly true. Faith  1:33   Right. So then I thought, Okay, well, let’s do mom retreats. And then I thought to myself, Okay, if I was to do a mom retreat, well, now I gotta check off all the boxes, the babysitter, I gotta pack. I gotta make sure everything’s together. I got to make sure the house is clean. Because when the babysitter comes over, I don’t want them to judge me. And I thought, Oh, this sounds way more stressful to get to the retreat, than it would be for any mom to actually go. Barb  1:56   Exactly, yes. And then you spend the whole retreat worrying, what if the baby is sick? What if this happens? What if the dog gets lost? Right? How is that supposed to be relaxing? Faith  2:06   Exactly. So I have the opportunity to bring it home for moms with my subscription box. It is all Canadian made products inside the box, which is super exciting to come because supporting local is a great idea. But realistically, us moms don’t have time to spend hours and hours looking for something. So not only is it a retreat package, but it’s also an everyday essential. And what I mean by that is you’re gonna get laundry. So you’re gonna get razors, you’re gonna get shampoo, conditioner, sunscreen, things that you actually need in motherhood. But then I paired it with body scrubs, bath bombs, scrunchie, earrings, jewelry, so many different items to combine motherhood essentials, but still being able to pamper and relax yourself all in one. Barb  2:53   That is so cool. The thought of not having to run around to pick up my razors and getting scrubbed, especially for this time of year because like the, like pasty white flaky skin is like coming out of the woodwork right now. Right? Yes, it is brilliant. So, like, how in the heck did this one ever come to you. Faith  3:18   Um, I have always been passionate about spoiling myself. So when I first became a mom, eight years ago, I was fortunate unfortunate to be in a very domestic violent, abusive relationship. And after that, I decided I would never be put there again. I had that will in that power in that fire. So I started to pamper myself all the time. And I started to realize other moms looked at me like I was psychotic. You bought yourself flowers. You took yourself for a date? What is wrong with you? I was like, aren’t you supposed to? I’ve got it confused. Barb  3:53   You know what I love about that, though, faith. You were empowered to look after yourself. And that’s one of the things that we’re, we’ve got busy lives, careers, kids jobs, our own businesses, whatever it is, we our own self care tends to end up at the bottom of that list. And so creating that no guilt environment where it’s like, it becomes normal to look after yourself. Like we need more of that we need more women thinking like how do I find the time? How do I make time for myself? Right, brilliant. Faith  4:35   So then when I met my current spouse, he had two sons, so I got to have two bonus boys. So I became an instant mom from a single one mom to three. Okay, and I went, Oh, this is fun. And then we decided to have one more. That turned out to be twins Barb  4:54   One more. Yep. Faith  4:56   And living out in rural Saskatchewan. I realized supporting local was extremely difficult. It wasn’t as easy as going down to the local store and picking up something local, it became very hard for me Barb  5:10   Really see and I would have thought the exact opposite. I would have thought supporting local, especially in the smaller communities would have been really? Wow. Okay, this is fascinating to me Faith  5:20   Because it’s easy to go on Amazon and buy something, have it shipped to your Pio box. It’s not easy to go on a website and say I’m looking for Canadian made laundry soap. What mom, even if you have one kid, is going to type into Google. I want to find Canadian laundry soap. So it’s on Amazon, that it ended up done. Barb  5:42   Exactly. Well. And if you’re going on Amazon, it’s like, oh, the kid needs a new bathing suit because they outgrew the fourth one this year or new shoes or? Right. Exactly.

Barb 0:00My guest today is going to tell us why pretty pictures aren’t the only thing that matters. He has spent years in the creative field working at some of the largest agencies in Saskatchewan, and for some of the largest clients are Crown corporations and our municipalities. But have you ever thought creative isn’t just pretty? There’s also a lot of strategic thinking that goes into it. Barb 0:26So I want to welcome Victor Roman to our show today. And Vic, start us off. Tell us a little bit about yourself, and how you got into creating these pretty pictures. Victor 0:37For sure. Yeah, thanks for having me, Barb. So as you mentioned, I’m Victor Roman. And I have kind of a weird history and a weird placement so I’ll kind of explain where I am right now. Victor 0:48So my primary role in my day to day job I work with the South Saskatchewan Community Foundation with their communications and marketing and their communications marketing specialists currently and by night my superhero dropped my Batman cape crusader. I run a small, very limited kind of freelance work that I call Toro Creative. Victor Toro, makes sense I’m a Taurus, got it got it got a ring in my nose. It’s, it’s a thing. Love it. Victor 1:21And and really to kind of zoom you back a long time until like, how did I get into working at Community Foundation in the nonprofit sector as well as still doing freelance creative, I’ll kind of just work your way back to when I was starting to figure out what I was going to do for university I kind of had two routes either wanted to become a social worker, and a youth worker, okay. Or I wanted to go into graphic design because I had discovered Photoshop when I was a 10 year old. I actually remember when layers were like a new thing. Yeah. Which is kind of crazy. Just as a kid, I remember thinking, oh, there’s layers. This is so cool. Barb 1:55But you know, he said, Wait a second, I have to stop you there. So 10 years old, and your parents were willing to spend the money on Photoshop? How did you do? Oh, Victor 2:04My older brother worked for a local newspaper. Oh, there we go. So I started to play with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe page mill and I would make websites that would never go online. But I started developing things just for fun, based on my hobbies. Barb 2:19Okay, I was gonna say you knew your parents buttons, if you could get them to spend that money then? Victor 2:24Oh, no, oh, no, it was, I was lucky to have it through a brother. And um, and when I, I ended up actually choosing to go to university for social work. And then getting lucky. And just based on the kind of work I had done in high school, I got to work placements here in Regina, at Squareflow New Media, when they were just a brand new company, a printing shop. Victor 2:46So I was one of their first employees. And I did that while I went to university. And what kind of happened was their company kept growing. As the years went by, and kind of by year three of university and working with them, I was at a point where I was actually making more money with him than I was going to be as a social worker. And I was about to have to take an unpaid practicum that I did not know how it was going to afford. Victor 3:09So it kind of gave me the opportunity as a kid, I’m gonna leap into this full time I started working with them full time. They kept growing and growing. Eventually, we split off into Square Flow for Web and Flowprint for print. So then I moved solely over to the print side at that point. Victor 3:26Beforehand, I was working on the front end web as well as all the print. And then after that, I became a print designer. Eventually. I think I was a manager of some sort. I came to remember my title. Yep. And then I just kind of hit a point that I took a leap of faith and I started to take on freelance work. Victor 3:47And then I did freelance work for quite a few people. That’s actually when I met Jim Aho, who I can’t remember if I did work through Brown, but I met him through that. And then I did work for Captive Audience and a few other places. And I actually ended up then working at Captive Audience for a couple of years. And for them I did graphic design and got really into branding and do a lot of really fun stuff because they do experiential marketing. So I was like, creating like custom entire custom displays for like SaskTel’s trade show booths and, and started to work on concepts for augmented reality and virtual reality kind of in collaboration. Wow, Talking Dog Studios at the time. Yeah. Barb 4:32And then that would have been one of the early sort of augmented reality studios and productions too, because yeah, yeah, so that wasn’t commonplace. Victor 4:41Yeah, it was really neat. They were kind of first on the ground Captive and Talking Dog did a lot of collaborative work for clients. It was really neat to be there. Like I remember getting the Oculus Rift set before it was released. Oh, playing with it and just like, yeah, it was really neat. Victor 4:57So I learned a ton of skills at Captive. And then after that, as I mentioned, I knew Jim Aho when at the time he was still with Brown Communications Group and he had kind of headhunted me. He had reached out a couple of times. And then finally, the timing

Hello! We’re Attract Media and it’s very nice to meet you! This is one of our first blogs so I think a little introduction is in order.  We’re a brand spanking new marketing agency from Canada with big, creative ambitions and loads of business/marketing savvy. I’m Elizabeth. A professional graphic designer, animator & illustrator. I also assist with the social media marketing aspect of what we do at Attract. I work alongside my partner Desmond (Yedersberger) who started a marketing agency called Stealth in university and grew it to make millions (If you live in Saskatchewan you might have seen the playful Cherry Insurance Billboards with mannequins hanging off, or the Cutest Pet contest that we host every spring/summer for Cherry). Ryan sold Stealth in 2018 and agreed to work there for a few years after. However, 2020 was a turbulent year for everyone and with it coming to an end, so many things in our lives have changed. With all the ups and downs, and general funk of the past year, Ryan and I wanted to create something we could be excited about. And after working from home together so often due to the pandemic, and seeing how well we work together, we got inspired to start a new business where we could put our talents together by becoming a designer/marketer duo extraordinaire. We wanted to create a different kind of marketing agency that helps businesses grow through (1) brave creative marketing techniques that get attention & (2) promote the idea of inbound (attract) marketing. Essentially promoting the idea of having people come to you instead of always going to them. So we set our sights on designing a website, creating social media pages, and registering our name. And voilà, our dreams are reality! The name of our agency became Attract Media. Coming from the age-old adage that when you focus your energy on growth, gratitude, and giving value to others, good things will be attracted back to you. Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra, and Alan Watts (to name a few) all teach this phenomenon, and why wouldn’t it apply to businesses as well? We want to veer away from the corporate, robotic lingo and templated designs, and instead, help create brands that have heart that feel genuine. We want to create ads that are entertaining instead of annoying. And we ultimately want to be the positive and uplifting side of the marketing game.  Over the years we’ve really figured out a formula that works wonders for our clients. It’s just 3 steps: (1) Be funny (2) Be self-aware & (3) Make the brand look good. With this formula as our sherpa, we craft mountains of creative stuff then utilize marketing magic to get it looked at. Our areas of expertise are (1) Branding (2) Web Design (3) Illustration (4) Animation (5) Videography & Photography (6) Social Media (7) Search Engine Optimization & (8) Campaigns. I wanted this blog to be an homage to our name. And to show why focusing on gratitude to attract good things to us seems so obvious and simple (you get what you give), yet it can be so easily forgotten. In the blink of an eye, the swirling vortex of negative thoughts can rip through your mind and make you forget everything that is good. And this is something that happens to everybody with a beating heart. But, especially with the crazy events the world is going through today, it’s important to cut out the noise, focus on what we all still have, and try to make the world a better place. In 2021, let’s all ATTRACT great things together.