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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_01: It's VanCouver's podcast on the Canada's podcast network.
[00:12] SPEAKER_01: Hello everyone, I'm Angela Faye, Hub Builder and co-host of British Columbia's Podcasts.
[00:19] SPEAKER_01: Part of the Canada's podcast network, your source for great insights from entrepreneurs
[00:23] SPEAKER_01: from across Canada.
[00:25] SPEAKER_01: We talked entrepreneurs who are making it happen here so you can listen, discover and engage.
[00:31] SPEAKER_01: Today we're talking to Yuri, former, a little bit about Yuri.
[00:36] SPEAKER_01: He's a serial entrepreneur who arrived in VanCouver from Inc. Australia as a teenager and
[00:42] SPEAKER_01: he rose from being an A&W attendant in 1997 to owning a $60 million restaurant portfolio
[00:48] SPEAKER_01: within seven years.
[00:49] SPEAKER_01: This included seven A&W franchises.
[00:53] SPEAKER_01: Twenty-seven pizza huts, I just got to read this list, it's pretty crazy.
[00:56] SPEAKER_01: In both BC and Alberta, including Mr. Mike's and of our chain.
[01:00] SPEAKER_01: So pretty exciting stuff in the hospitality field.
[01:04] SPEAKER_01: Yuri then sold off his restaurant portfolio to start former capital partners in 2010.
[01:10] SPEAKER_01: So since then he's had many successes investing in small-amid businesses and helping them
[01:15] SPEAKER_01: grow.
[01:16] SPEAKER_01: But of course giving back to his community has always been a big part of Yuri's life.
[01:20] SPEAKER_01: Some of his accomplishments, which is pretty crazy, but I've got to read off a couple because
[01:24] SPEAKER_01: they're pretty impressive.
[01:26] SPEAKER_01: He has received Canada's top 40 under 40 award in 2010.
[01:31] SPEAKER_01: Yuri has received BC's Community Achievement Award, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal,
[01:37] SPEAKER_01: and the Order of British Columbia.
[01:39] SPEAKER_01: It's pretty impressive, but I think you'll agree with me when you read for somebody who's
[01:44] SPEAKER_01: so accomplished.
[01:45] SPEAKER_01: Yuri's pretty down to her.
[01:46] SPEAKER_01: It's so great to meet you.
[01:47] SPEAKER_01: You're welcome to Canada's podcast.
[01:49] SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
[01:50] SPEAKER_01: So just to kick off today's conversation, just tell me a little bit about your entrepreneur
[01:54] SPEAKER_01: and journey and how you arrived here.
[01:56] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was a total accident launcher printer, right?
[01:59] SPEAKER_00: I was actually working for A&W, trying to build a corporate career.
[02:03] SPEAKER_00: I was thinking maybe one day I'd be the vice president of something somewhere.
[02:08] SPEAKER_00: And then A&W went through a restructuring, so they decided to franchise a bunch of their
[02:12] SPEAKER_00: corporate restaurants.
[02:13] SPEAKER_00: I would have been out of a job where I got the chance to buy an A&W.
[02:18] SPEAKER_00: So never, never occurred to me.
[02:21] SPEAKER_00: Went home to the bank of my mom and really, really, really can't see it.
[02:25] SPEAKER_00: Put your life savings on the line for me.
[02:28] SPEAKER_00: And crazily enough, she teed.
[02:30] SPEAKER_00: So between that, my severance package, a bit of a bank loan and the beloved bank of
[02:35] SPEAKER_00: mom.
[02:36] SPEAKER_00: Borderless A&W in US means to BC and all of us wearing polyester on the first day and
[02:42] SPEAKER_00: like other team burgers and french fries.
[02:44] SPEAKER_00: And the rest kind of came from there, but yet total accident launcher printer, no entrepreneurial
[02:49] SPEAKER_00: background at all.
[02:50] SPEAKER_00: Never thought of it.
[02:51] SPEAKER_00: Never occurred to me until somebody gave me a big shove.
[02:55] SPEAKER_01: Well, and it sounded like, I mean, a little shove to get to a $60 million restaurant portfolio.
[03:00] SPEAKER_01: How did you go from one to the big portfolio?
[03:03] SPEAKER_00: It was crazy.
[03:04] SPEAKER_00: So one to two was okay.
[03:07] SPEAKER_00: Then we went from two to three and then three to four and then four to seven and then seven to 42.
[03:15] Speaker UNKNOWN:
[03:16] SPEAKER_00: 42 to 50.
[03:18] SPEAKER_00: And I got to tell you the wheels come off the bus.
[03:20] SPEAKER_00: We were ending so fast.
[03:23] SPEAKER_00: You're adding office staff.
[03:25] SPEAKER_00: You're adding a lot of debt.
[03:27] SPEAKER_00: About a year and a half that I think I worked about 100 hours a week.
[03:32] SPEAKER_00: 52 weeks of the year.
[03:33] SPEAKER_00: I was on the road.
[03:35] SPEAKER_00: I actually counted 249s one year.
[03:39] SPEAKER_00: And that was just to keep the wheels on the bus.
[03:41] SPEAKER_00: I'd love to say that was to make something wildly successful.
[03:45] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[03:45] SPEAKER_00: You expanded way too fast and without the infrastructure.
[03:48] SPEAKER_00: And we just had to.
[03:50] SPEAKER_00: I was grateful to have a great team at the time, but we were just running the catch up.
[03:53] SPEAKER_01: Right.
[03:54] SPEAKER_01: And now you did say we expanded.
[03:56] SPEAKER_01: That was you and the team.
[03:57] SPEAKER_00: Me and a team was pretty well the same team right through all that expansion.
[04:03] SPEAKER_00: I'd work in folks.
[04:05] SPEAKER_00: You know, we just all knew we had to knuckle down.
[04:07] SPEAKER_00: There was no limit to the amount of work that had to be done in a day.
[04:11] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[04:11] SPEAKER_00: Yes.
[04:12] SPEAKER_00: The limit to the number of mistakes that we all made.
[04:15] SPEAKER_00: Whether you're cleaning up your own mistakes or cleaning up the person next year's mistakes.
[04:19] SPEAKER_00: You know, you spent the first half of the day cleaning up yesterday.
[04:22] SPEAKER_00: Second half of the day trying to get something done.
[04:25] SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
[04:26] SPEAKER_00: You make it through right.
[04:27] SPEAKER_00: Everybody posted is.
[04:28] SPEAKER_00: Make it through and suddenly you got a decent business that seems to be running okay.
[04:35] SPEAKER_00: And then you said we can improve on it.
[04:37] SPEAKER_01: And I'm curious on the kind of timeline where you felt like you were not scrambling so much.
[04:43] SPEAKER_01: Was it kind of three to four years into the into the flow of growth or what was that kind of milestone?
[04:49] SPEAKER_00: So I think every entrepreneur has a different story for me.
[04:53] SPEAKER_00: It was a bit of a decision.
[04:54] SPEAKER_00: You know, I was probably 50 pounds overweight.
[04:58] SPEAKER_00: You know, unfit, unhealthy, sleeping badly.
[05:02] SPEAKER_00: You know, you wake up in the morning, you're tired.
[05:04] SPEAKER_00: You're tired all day.
[05:05] SPEAKER_00: You've got a bed tired.
[05:07] SPEAKER_00: You know, you're eating badly.
[05:09] SPEAKER_00: You know, you're probably drinking a little bit more than you should.
[05:12] SPEAKER_00: So for me, I hit 242 pounds and said I can't keep doing this.
[05:16] SPEAKER_02: Right.
[05:17] SPEAKER_00: So for me, it was a life choice.
[05:18] SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a, oh, you know, great.
[05:20] SPEAKER_00: The business is at a place where I can change my tune.
[05:23] SPEAKER_00: It was my health is now at a place where I don't have a choice.
[05:26] SPEAKER_00: You know, you can only go and buy a bigger pair of pants so many times and say, well, one day I'll take care of this.
[05:33] SPEAKER_00: Don't worry.
[05:33] SPEAKER_00: Like next time I'll take care of it.
[05:35] SPEAKER_00: You know, I think I went from a 34 to a 44 over the course of about two years and said I just can't keep doing this.
[05:43] SPEAKER_00: I went to you wake up and say, you know, I actually want to be alive to enjoy what success might come.
[05:51] SPEAKER_00: And for me, that was sort of get back in and change your approach here.
[05:55] SPEAKER_00: And then you realize you need to do all about it.
[05:57] SPEAKER_00: You know, do we all have to work hard for sure we did?
[06:00] SPEAKER_00: Do we all have to work as hard as we did?
[06:02] SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
[06:03] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[06:03] SPEAKER_00: You know, we were working at all that age that we were working hard, not smart.
[06:08] SPEAKER_00: I think it was probably true.
[06:10] SPEAKER_00: You know, we didn't know.
[06:11] SPEAKER_00: We didn't know.
[06:12] SPEAKER_00: And I didn't know what I didn't know.
[06:14] SPEAKER_00: You're trying to grow this thing and you don't see the path out until something comes along and says, you need to think about this different.
[06:21] SPEAKER_00: For me, it was it was way to hell.
[06:24] SPEAKER_01: Well, and now that leads me to ask a question that's a little scripted here, but ironically scaling back sometimes can be one of the biggest entrepreneurial challenges, right?
[06:35] SPEAKER_01: You've created this kind of monster with momentum.
[06:39] SPEAKER_01: I mean, how did you go from then having this big portfolio and that kind of hours to going back to the, you know, the portfolio or the lifestyle where you are now?
[06:49] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, I think every entrepreneur has a different story and you know, when I talk to groups of especially younger entrepreneurs, you know, you go into your own business because you want your own business.
[07:00] SPEAKER_00: And you want to do that to do it the way you want to do it.
[07:02] SPEAKER_00: So if work in a gigillion hours and you know, work in three vacations, if that does it for you and that gets you going, then that's what you should do.
[07:11] SPEAKER_00: Don't live in your life.
[07:12] SPEAKER_00: Leave the life that makes you happy.
[07:14] SPEAKER_00: If that doesn't make you happy, then change it.
[07:17] SPEAKER_00: And that's something, you know, you're not it.
[07:18] SPEAKER_00: If you don't like where you are, change it.
[07:20] SPEAKER_00: You're not a tree.
[07:21] SPEAKER_00: You can move.
[07:22] SPEAKER_00: So, you know, for me, the things that I learned I didn't enjoy doing was I didn't enjoy having a lot of people reporting.
[07:30] SPEAKER_00: I didn't enjoy that.
[07:32] SPEAKER_00: I didn't enjoy having a job where people relied on me showing up in the morning to provide leadership.
[07:38] SPEAKER_00: Some people thrive on that.
[07:39] SPEAKER_00: That's great.
[07:39] SPEAKER_00: I don't.
[07:41] SPEAKER_00: So I sort of had to make that transition to say, what is it that I think I might be good at?
[07:46] SPEAKER_00: So you make that list.
[07:47] SPEAKER_00: You make the list of the all the things you suck at.
[07:50] SPEAKER_00: And that's usually a much longer list.
[07:52] SPEAKER_00: You know, then you make the list of the things that you enjoy doing.
[07:55] SPEAKER_00: Usually a short list.
[07:56] SPEAKER_00: And then you make the list of things you hate doing, which is usually a longer list.
[08:00] SPEAKER_00: You put those four lists on the table and then you say, well, what is that equal?
[08:03] SPEAKER_00: What's the what's the job in that or what's the business in that?
[08:07] SPEAKER_00: When I looked at the things I like doing, like I like working on the strategy of business.
[08:12] SPEAKER_00: Like I like trying to envisage where a business could be and how it could grow and where it could end up.
[08:18] SPEAKER_00: Love working with motivated entrepreneurs, like folks who love their business,
[08:23] SPEAKER_00: are passionate about their product or service and want to grow it.
[08:26] SPEAKER_00: I love working with folks like that.
[08:28] SPEAKER_00: And I hate it when people come and tell me the photocopies broken because I just don't care.
[08:33] SPEAKER_00: So, you know, now what do I do?
[08:35] SPEAKER_00: Right?
[08:35] SPEAKER_00: So that was for me in 2010 when I said, what I want to do is invest in great entrepreneurs and great business leaders
[08:42] SPEAKER_00: who want to build something really cool.
[08:45] SPEAKER_00: And I'd like to help with the strategy.
[08:47] SPEAKER_00: So that's sort of morphed into from running this big thing with thousands of employees
[08:52] SPEAKER_00: that all sort of seem to have to report to me eventually to doing what I do now,
[08:57] SPEAKER_00: which is helping investing in businesses, investing in entrepreneurs, helping them grow their business,
[09:02] SPEAKER_00: helping the strategy of their business, helping them with the capital structure behind their business.
[09:07] SPEAKER_00: So they've got the money to grow.
[09:09] SPEAKER_00: And then just watching them blossom and watching people do their thing.
[09:12] SPEAKER_00: I don't have to show up at seven in the morning to do that, right?
[09:15] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[09:15] SPEAKER_00: So that's one of the things I'm not good at is showing up at the seven in the morning and holding a chair down.
[09:20] SPEAKER_00: And it allows me to do the things I like.
[09:23] SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
[09:23] SPEAKER_01: So tell me let's launch into a little bit of what Fulmer Capital does.
[09:28] SPEAKER_01: What's your ideal market segment?
[09:30] SPEAKER_01: I mean, you've described it as far as entrepreneurs doing great things,
[09:33] SPEAKER_01: but if you could be a little bit more specific.
[09:36] SPEAKER_01: And what's the actual service that you provide?
[09:40] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so we do, we do sort of look to two different types of businesses.
[09:43] SPEAKER_00: One, we do what people would call venture capital, which is your interest in early stage companies.
[09:49] SPEAKER_00: It's usually a great entrepreneur who has a good idea for a product or service and they've gone partway.
[09:57] SPEAKER_00: So they may be fairly really stage in it.
[09:59] SPEAKER_00: Maybe they've got some customers already.
[10:01] SPEAKER_00: Maybe they're almost ready to have some customers, but they've got a great business, a great business plan.
[10:06] SPEAKER_00: They've got a trajectory.
[10:07] SPEAKER_00: They've got an idea.
[10:08] SPEAKER_00: They know how to build out their team and they're saying, we either need money to do that.
[10:12] SPEAKER_00: We need a little bit more know how to do that.
[10:15] SPEAKER_00: As we've got both money and we can help them assemble and know how.
[10:18] SPEAKER_00: If we've got sometimes we've got a bit of the know how in house,
[10:21] SPEAKER_00: but we can usually find people, whether they need board members or they need advisors or to round out their executive team,
[10:28] SPEAKER_00: we can help with those.
[10:30] SPEAKER_00: That's sort of one piece.
[10:31] SPEAKER_00: The other side is the equity investment where we buy small mid-sized companies.
[10:35] SPEAKER_00: So companies that have established, they've got a great track record, it's a good business.
[10:40] SPEAKER_00: They understand their product or service, they understand who their customers are.
[10:44] SPEAKER_00: They've got a good leadership team and we'd acquire almost all of that business,
[10:48] SPEAKER_00: usually in partnership with members of the management team who would own a piece of the business.
[10:54] SPEAKER_00: And those are businesses we're lo and forever.
[10:55] SPEAKER_00: So good cash flow producing businesses.
[10:58] SPEAKER_00: So maybe it's somebody selling their business.
[11:01] SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's somebody who wants to transition their business to the management team.
[11:05] SPEAKER_00: But the management team doesn't have enough money.
[11:07] SPEAKER_00: We're finding a lot of great businesses out there with owners who are in their 60s, 70s now.
[11:15] SPEAKER_00: Maybe hope that the business would go to their kids and the kids might not be as interested as they thought they were.
[11:21] SPEAKER_00: They're sitting there saying, I know I've built this really neat business and I feel great about it.
[11:25] SPEAKER_00: I kind of don't want to run it anymore.
[11:27] SPEAKER_00: I can hold, want to retire, want to enjoy life, want to go to Palm Springs, whatever it is.
[11:32] SPEAKER_00: Now what?
[11:32] SPEAKER_00: And we're able to come in there at those points and often keep their management together
[11:37] SPEAKER_00: and make their management team owners as well and then help that business continue to grow.
[11:42] SPEAKER_01: How do you find clients, Yuri?
[11:44] SPEAKER_00: It's pretty old fashioned to be honest.
[11:47] SPEAKER_00: That old school networking stuff that they taught us 20 years ago,
[11:51] SPEAKER_00: you know, staying in touch with people and inviting people to things
[11:54] SPEAKER_00: and clipping articles that they might be interested in.
[11:57] SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can do that digitally now, but it's the same idea.
[12:00] SPEAKER_00: Picking up the phone.
[12:02] SPEAKER_00: And worst case, you know, if I see a business that I think is interesting,
[12:06] SPEAKER_00: I had no trouble picking up the phone and finding out who the owner is and getting in touch with them.
[12:11] SPEAKER_00: I'm patient, you know, we had quite a business last year where I met the owner about eight years ago.
[12:16] SPEAKER_00: We just stayed in touch and eventually she was ready to settle.
[12:20] SPEAKER_00: We're no rush here, so happy to.
[12:23] SPEAKER_01: And how big is your team now?
[12:24] SPEAKER_01: I know you said you didn't want to hold Waka people in order to.
[12:27] SPEAKER_00: The team here is five.
[12:29] SPEAKER_00: It's probably never going to be much more than five if the business needs more people than that.
[12:33] SPEAKER_00: It's probably going to have been grown too big at that point.
[12:37] SPEAKER_01: Right. And I guess that is.
[12:38] SPEAKER_01: So what is the vision for sort of five, ten years down the track for you in with former capital?
[12:43] SPEAKER_00: Keep doing what we're doing.
[12:44] SPEAKER_00: Some of the ventures side, you know, love to find more entrepreneurs who have great ideas
[12:48] SPEAKER_00: and want to build businesses.
[12:50] SPEAKER_00: We just we would keep doing that.
[12:52] SPEAKER_00: And that doesn't take a lot of resources from us.
[12:54] SPEAKER_00: You know, usually those entrepreneurs know what they need to do and they just need a bit of money and a little bit of help.
[12:59] SPEAKER_00: So they're after the races, so to speak.
[13:02] SPEAKER_00: And on the equity side, we probably we've got four businesses today.
[13:05] SPEAKER_00: We'd probably max at six.
[13:08] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[13:08] SPEAKER_00: The handle.
[13:09] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[13:10] SPEAKER_00: We would look to continue to grow the existing businesses that we're excited about.
[13:14] SPEAKER_00: And we're on the lookout for one or two more.
[13:16] SPEAKER_00: I have to be the right fit for us.
[13:19] SPEAKER_01: And if you could wave a magic wand and add two more to your portfolio, what would they be?
[13:25] SPEAKER_00: You know, I'd love to do something in manufacturing just because I haven't before.
[13:30] SPEAKER_00: So I think that would be interesting.
[13:31] SPEAKER_00: And love to do something in the financial sector because I haven't before.
[13:35] SPEAKER_00: And I'm kind of, you know, really nosy and curious.
[13:38] SPEAKER_00: I like to learn things that I haven't learned before.
[13:41] SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I've had some corporate board experience in those sectors that I'd love to bring to bear for a business that was looking for growth.
[13:49] SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
[13:50] SPEAKER_01: Now you talked to your in Vancouver.
[13:52] SPEAKER_01: Most of your clients are in Vancouver.
[13:55] SPEAKER_00: You know, so all of our businesses ahead quartered in Vancouver.
[13:58] SPEAKER_00: A number of business nationally and globally.
[14:00] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[14:01] SPEAKER_00: We sort of made a, I made a decision that I didn't want to do as much travel.
[14:06] SPEAKER_00: Businesses sort of, I would go as far as Toronto, I think.
[14:09] SPEAKER_00: So we've invested in some companies that I had quoted outside of Vancouver.
[14:13] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[14:13] SPEAKER_00: But the businesses on the equity side, they're all headquartered here.
[14:16] SPEAKER_01: Gotcha.
[14:17] SPEAKER_01: So you would have some pretty good insight on the doing business in Vancouver.
[14:21] SPEAKER_01: So can you provide some insight of one of the biggest opportunities and perhaps the biggest challenges of having a headquarter in Vancouver?
[14:29] SPEAKER_00: So I think one of the, it's both an opportunity and a challenge Vancouver is a really small business community.
[14:34] SPEAKER_00: You know, everybody knows everybody.
[14:37] SPEAKER_00: It's, you know, you bump into the same folks.
[14:40] SPEAKER_00: If you can build a reputation for being a straight shooter and pretty honorable and have an integrity and doing what you say you'll do.
[14:48] SPEAKER_00: I think you can do really well here.
[14:50] SPEAKER_00: Like Ramadhe used to tell me if you're blood your copy book or make, make too many enemies.
[14:55] SPEAKER_00: That gets out pretty quick too.
[14:58] SPEAKER_01: There'll be an Australian interpretation after the show.
[15:02] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[15:02] SPEAKER_00: You got subtitles.
[15:04] SPEAKER_01: But, uh, you have terms.
[15:06] SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
[15:07] SPEAKER_00: I'll throw another shrimp on the barbie at some point.
[15:09] SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
[15:11] SPEAKER_00: But, you know, I think if you make, if you make too many mistakes, you may not recover from the meat either.
[15:17] SPEAKER_01: If you describe say two or three key resources that either you use now in your business networking or you're an essential business resource.
[15:27] SPEAKER_01: That might be a, you know, professional group or a conference or an event series that you attend or a particular business resource,
[15:39] SPEAKER_01: periodical, what would be two or three things that you would recommend business owners in Vancouver take advantage of.
[15:56] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[15:57] SPEAKER_00: When you don't know, when most business folks are trying to be super men and super women and struggle through.
[16:04] SPEAKER_00: So they'll try and find the answer themselves.
[16:06] SPEAKER_00: When somebody else has had that experience before, right?
[16:10] SPEAKER_00: Somebody has gone through that.
[16:11] SPEAKER_00: They know exactly what you're going through and they can tell you what worked or didn't work for them.
[16:16] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[16:16] SPEAKER_00: And ask it is a small town here.
[16:19] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[16:20] SPEAKER_00: You know, most people answer their own phones.
[16:23] SPEAKER_00: And if you phone or email somebody and say, would you mind if I took 10 minutes of your time to ask you a question.
[16:29] SPEAKER_00: There are really few people who want to keep you that.
[16:31] SPEAKER_02: Right.
[16:33] SPEAKER_00: Take people up on that build that network of folks who know more than you.
[16:37] SPEAKER_00: And then tap them on the shoulder politely for advice.
[16:40] SPEAKER_00: You know, when you need it and have the humility to say, I don't know the answer.
[16:43] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[16:44] SPEAKER_00: Or I'm lost or I'm confused or I worried I just made a huge mistake.
[16:48] SPEAKER_00: But have some humility.
[16:50] SPEAKER_00: You know, when people see that you have that humility, they're really willing to help.
[16:54] SPEAKER_02: Right.
[16:54] SPEAKER_00: When you phone people and tell them, I have the right answer.
[16:56] SPEAKER_00: Can you please confirm that I'm as smart as I think I am?
[16:59] SPEAKER_00: You don't get as much cooperation.
[17:01] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[17:01] SPEAKER_00: When you have as they look, I'm actually good vulnerable.
[17:03] SPEAKER_00: I don't think I know what to do.
[17:05] SPEAKER_00: And would you give me some guidance?
[17:07] SPEAKER_00: People are really willing to help.
[17:09] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[17:09] SPEAKER_00: So that would be sort of number one.
[17:11] SPEAKER_00: Number two would be to build.
[17:12] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there are a lot of great sort of CEO, peer forums.
[17:17] SPEAKER_00: And there's some of free programs and some are not for profit.
[17:20] SPEAKER_00: And I'm part of YPO, which is a young president's organization.
[17:23] SPEAKER_00: And I certainly have lent on a lot of people in that organization over the time.
[17:28] SPEAKER_00: But whether it's one of those or whether you just build your own network of folks that, you know,
[17:34] SPEAKER_00: you build a relationship of trust with where there's some reciprocity.
[17:37] SPEAKER_00: So if you're always leaning on them and you're not available when they need to lean on you,
[17:41] SPEAKER_00: it's probably not going to work out for a long.
[17:43] SPEAKER_00: But where, you know, you have folks that whether you go for a deal with them or meet them for lunch
[17:48] SPEAKER_00: or go for a walk on the seawall and just spend that time chatting about business.
[17:54] SPEAKER_00: And again, I'd say that the key in that is to be vulnerable as well.
[17:58] SPEAKER_00: If you want to show up to lunches or CEO, peer forums and tell people how smart you are,
[18:05] SPEAKER_00: and how great your business is, you're going to get exactly zero value out of that.
[18:09] SPEAKER_00: You want to show up and talk about what you don't know.
[18:12] SPEAKER_00: That's when people can help you.
[18:14] SPEAKER_01: And is there any other, so why P.O. was a particular network you're involved in?
[18:19] SPEAKER_01: Are there any other sort of key resources you say to somebody starting out of a business?
[18:24] SPEAKER_01: Oh, you've got to call these people or you've got to be at this event.
[18:29] SPEAKER_00: I'm a terrible networker. I hate going to those events where people, you know,
[18:33] SPEAKER_00: I come home with 20 business cards and I can't remember who any of these 20 people were.
[18:37] SPEAKER_00: And I get called the next day for people trying to sell me copiers and insurance.
[18:41] SPEAKER_00: I hate those things.
[18:43] SPEAKER_00: They show up to places where the kind of people you want to hang with hang out.
[18:50] SPEAKER_00: And you show up with them to click.
[18:52] SPEAKER_00: But for me, it's not the reason I volunteer in the community.
[18:56] SPEAKER_00: But a lot of the people who are now friends and business colleagues and business acquaintances,
[19:01] SPEAKER_00: I met while I was volunteering.
[19:03] SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
[19:03] SPEAKER_01: Okay, well, let's just segue into that a little bit.
[19:06] SPEAKER_01: Tell me what your most time or not comes to be.
[19:11] SPEAKER_01: What volunteer gigs are you doing right now?
[19:14] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I chair the Board of United Way, Sontrade Canada and Sontrade is United Way in the province of Quebec.
[19:20] SPEAKER_00: It's the National umbrella organization that helps the 82 United Way since Sontrade
[19:26] SPEAKER_00: that exists across Canada from coast to coast.
[19:29] SPEAKER_00: As a collective, we raised $560 million last year to help make Canada a better place for Canadians.
[19:37] SPEAKER_00: So that's sort of, yeah, and you know, being a Western Canadian on a national board had put it in Ottawa.
[19:43] SPEAKER_00: It's automatically a bigger time commitment than that for a central Canadian.
[19:48] SPEAKER_00: But I'm passionate about the work.
[19:49] SPEAKER_00: I'm passionate about the organization.
[19:51] SPEAKER_00: And you know, the nice thing about volunteering is you get to meet people being the best they can be.
[19:57] SPEAKER_00: In your normal day, you meet people, some of their best, some of their worst, some haven't a good day, some haven't a bad day,
[20:03] SPEAKER_00: some people have pissed off, happy mad sad glad, all of those things, right?
[20:07] SPEAKER_00: But when you're shopped to volunteer, you're buying and large the best version of yourself.
[20:11] SPEAKER_00: You're committed to helping others, you're being altruistic, you feel good about yourself.
[20:16] SPEAKER_00: That's the best version of yourself.
[20:18] SPEAKER_00: So you shop as the best version of yourself.
[20:20] SPEAKER_00: It's surrounded by a room full of people being the best versions of themselves.
[20:24] SPEAKER_00: It's actually a really positive environment.
[20:27] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
[20:28] SPEAKER_00: It allows other people to see you at your best.
[20:30] SPEAKER_00: So, you know, as I said, the people I've met in Vancouver and nationally,
[20:36] SPEAKER_00: some of the best business relationships I've made have been through volunteering.
[20:41] SPEAKER_00: Because we're all there, motivated to help people.
[20:44] SPEAKER_00: And we're all being the best we can be.
[20:46] SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot of output of energy you're giving to companies,
[20:52] SPEAKER_01: you're giving to United Way.
[20:55] SPEAKER_01: How do you recharge?
[20:56] SPEAKER_01: What's your what's your voltage meter?
[20:59] SPEAKER_01: How do you charge it up?
[21:00] SPEAKER_00: I was going to jokingly say I drink, but that's, that's not.
[21:04] SPEAKER_01: We get our private conversation about that later.
[21:06] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like doing everybody likes a good glass of wine.
[21:08] SPEAKER_00: It's like that's kind of mandatory.
[21:11] SPEAKER_00: You know, for me, I actually find the community worker recharged.
[21:16] SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I find showing up to do good with a group of people doing good.
[21:21] SPEAKER_00: I find that gives me a lot of energy.
[21:23] SPEAKER_00: So those things that say don't drain me, I'd actually say those fill the tank.
[21:27] SPEAKER_00: On the personal side, you know, I have a cottage on Vancouver Island,
[21:30] SPEAKER_00: but I absolutely adore it's my happy place.
[21:34] SPEAKER_00: At the second I touched a door knob, I relax.
[21:36] SPEAKER_00: You know, I know the spatula is in the drawer, it just feels relaxing.
[21:40] SPEAKER_00: And I love it.
[21:41] SPEAKER_00: I love to fish.
[21:43] SPEAKER_00: You know, one of the beautiful things about Vancouver is the outdoors is so close and so accessible.
[21:48] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[21:48] SPEAKER_00: So I love the backcountry, whether it's hiking, climbing, fishing,
[21:53] SPEAKER_00: love to sort of, you know, be part of not the city if that makes sense.
[21:58] SPEAKER_01: Absolutely. Get into it.
[21:59] SPEAKER_01: It's so approximate, right?
[22:00] SPEAKER_01: That we're bold fortunate.
[22:02] SPEAKER_01: Really across BC to have the outdoors rated our back.
[22:06] Speaker UNKNOWN: So it's so much more than just a little bit of a job, right?
[22:06] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[22:07] SPEAKER_00: I've been blessed to travel every corner of this province.
[22:10] SPEAKER_00: There's no part that's not absolutely stunning.
[22:14] SPEAKER_01: When you talked a lot about about travel before, what is your day today?
[22:17] SPEAKER_01: Look like now.
[22:18] SPEAKER_01: Do you live close to work, close to where you live?
[22:21] SPEAKER_01: Do you, is your team all together in an office?
[22:23] SPEAKER_01: What is your environment look like?
[22:26] SPEAKER_00: So I live about 22 minutes from work and yes, I do time it.
[22:31] SPEAKER_00: It's 22 minutes in about 25 minutes home.
[22:34] SPEAKER_00: And you know, everybody, people criticize commuting.
[22:37] SPEAKER_00: I actually really enjoy it.
[22:39] SPEAKER_00: It's my time to get my thoughts assembled for work on my way home.
[22:43] SPEAKER_00: I either return calls or it's that time to sort of put work behind you
[22:49] SPEAKER_00: and be ready to be with your family and to actually really be with your family.
[22:52] SPEAKER_00: Rather than in the door, I'm still sort of be debriefing the day in your head.
[22:56] SPEAKER_00: I'm a bit of a late work starter.
[22:58] SPEAKER_00: I 930 sort of feels about right.
[23:01] SPEAKER_00: And to get to the office.
[23:04] SPEAKER_00: So I'm generally the last person here.
[23:07] SPEAKER_00: And I kind of think unless you've got something like an event in the evening or a business.
[23:14] SPEAKER_00: I sort of think five o'clock sounds about right in the day.
[23:19] SPEAKER_00: You know, I have a seven year old stepdaughter at home.
[23:22] SPEAKER_00: So being home in time for dinner is pretty important to me.
[23:25] SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
[23:27] SPEAKER_00: In terms of the office, I'm an old school guy.
[23:29] SPEAKER_00: I like to actually have an office.
[23:31] SPEAKER_00: And I like to have the team who works together, try and be around.
[23:35] SPEAKER_00: As folks do work from on some days of the week that everybody has a desk and a chair.
[23:40] SPEAKER_00: And you know, I'd say most of us say he and most of the time unless we're actually traveling.
[23:44] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[23:44] SPEAKER_00: We're grateful for volunteerism.
[23:46] SPEAKER_00: So I just like the ability to, you know, we're in a bit in the ideas generation business.
[23:52] SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when you have an idea, you know, if you have sort of a hundred ideas a day and you operate on the basis that 98 of them is stupid.
[23:58] SPEAKER_00: And two of them are really good.
[24:00] SPEAKER_00: You need to bounce the 98 off somebody else.
[24:03] SPEAKER_00: But they're completely stupid.
[24:04] SPEAKER_00: Otherwise you'll chase 100 ideas.
[24:07] SPEAKER_00: You know, and if you work for me, if I work from home, I'd be chasing 100 ideas.
[24:11] SPEAKER_00: If I work here, people will actually slap me and tell me, no, no, no, 98 of those are really dumb.
[24:16] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because I'm so sorry.
[24:18] SPEAKER_00: That's pretty good to you, Marklin.
[24:19] SPEAKER_00: That does make sense.
[24:22] SPEAKER_01: What is what's on your bucket list either personally or professionally in the next 12 months?
[24:28] SPEAKER_00: A couple of so a bunch of travels on my bucket list.
[24:32] SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a place I've been lucky to do a lot of travel, especially when I was young, you know, being Australian every Australian kid goes for walk about.
[24:39] SPEAKER_00: You can put a little subtitle.
[24:41] SPEAKER_01: That's in the glossary.
[24:43] SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
[24:44] SPEAKER_00: But you know, when you come from an island, you kind of got to get off.
[24:47] SPEAKER_00: So I went traveling for about a year and a half before I got to Vancouver.
[24:51] SPEAKER_00: I was supposed to be here for three weeks.
[24:52] SPEAKER_00: It's been 25 years.
[24:53] SPEAKER_00: Good story.
[24:54] SPEAKER_00: A couple of places in the world I definitely want to go from Antarctica to Safari to my wife is Ukrainian originally.
[25:05] SPEAKER_00: So we'd love to see that part of the world too.
[25:08] SPEAKER_00: So travel definitely is exciting.
[25:11] SPEAKER_00: You know, my wife and I are expecting a child.
[25:13] SPEAKER_00: So congratulations.
[25:15] SPEAKER_00: So we're expecting in December.
[25:16] SPEAKER_00: So for us, that's going to be a really big.
[25:19] SPEAKER_00: You know, and then we have an older dad.
[25:21] SPEAKER_00: I just turned 45.
[25:23] SPEAKER_00: So you know, it's sort of been something I've been looking forward to for a long time.
[25:26] SPEAKER_00: So I'm excited to do that.
[25:29] SPEAKER_00: That's been on my bucket list for a while.
[25:31] SPEAKER_00: So that's.
[25:31] SPEAKER_01: And so this is your your first.
[25:34] SPEAKER_01: This is my first daughter and then first by legit.
[25:37] SPEAKER_01: Okay, awesome.
[25:38] SPEAKER_01: Congratulations dad.
[25:39] SPEAKER_01: Okay.
[25:40] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[25:40] SPEAKER_01: Exciting.
[25:41] SPEAKER_01: We'll have to at some point cross paths as you come over to the island and it's little blah blah.
[25:46] SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
[25:47] SPEAKER_00: So we can show me how to change a diaper.
[25:50] SPEAKER_01: I'll leave that's the one part of being an auntie that you just don't have to do.
[25:53] SPEAKER_01: It's right.
[25:54] SPEAKER_00: At the end of the packet.
[25:56] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you can walk me through it from the door.
[25:57] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's right.
[25:59] SPEAKER_01: So if you fun, rapid fire questions, you're what?
[26:02] SPEAKER_01: So we can get to know a little bit more about you and what inspires you.
[26:05] SPEAKER_01: What what book is sitting on your shelf as a must read for fellow entrepreneurs?
[26:11] SPEAKER_00: So I'm actually the one reading right now is it doesn't have to be crazy at work.
[26:19] SPEAKER_00: And somebody gave it to me and like I honestly don't read a lot of business books.
[26:23] SPEAKER_00: I'm a real fiction reader.
[26:25] SPEAKER_00: But this one.
[26:27] SPEAKER_00: I'm actually so I read it.
[26:29] SPEAKER_00: I started reading it a bit grudgingly because somebody gave it to me.
[26:32] SPEAKER_00: I showed it in my bag.
[26:33] SPEAKER_00: I got on a ferry to go to the island.
[26:35] SPEAKER_00: And I had nothing else to read.
[26:37] SPEAKER_00: So I thought, oh, well, I'll suck it up and read this book that somebody gave me.
[26:40] SPEAKER_00: And I actually really enjoying it.
[26:43] SPEAKER_00: You know, I think it's a bit of an extreme case study.
[26:45] SPEAKER_00: It's the book about the folks who founded Basecamp, the software company.
[26:49] SPEAKER_00: Yes.
[26:50] SPEAKER_00: I've taken sort of a really extreme view of how to run a business.
[26:56] SPEAKER_00: But there's something to learn from that.
[26:57] SPEAKER_00: So I don't get up to carbon copy it.
[26:59] SPEAKER_00: But I think there's something to learn from that.
[27:01] SPEAKER_00: So I was always enjoying challenge by ideas that are so different from mine.
[27:05] SPEAKER_00: But then you sort of think, well, there's got to be something I can take from that.
[27:08] SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
[27:09] SPEAKER_01: Where is your favorite place to go for a quintessential glass of wine?
[27:16] SPEAKER_00: So my patio and my cottage in Paulic and Beijing.
[27:21] SPEAKER_01: Okay.
[27:21] SPEAKER_01: Well, since I'm just can't just introduce, like, invite myself there all the time.
[27:25] SPEAKER_01: If you were to pick a commercial venue, what would be your favorite spot?
[27:30] SPEAKER_00: For a glass of wine in Vancouver, in summer, it would be a restaurant called Lift in Colhapa.
[27:36] SPEAKER_01: Okay.
[27:36] SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
[27:36] SPEAKER_00: Yes, patio in the city.
[27:38] SPEAKER_01: And you are well traveled, which is very privileged.
[27:42] SPEAKER_01: What's your favorite place in the world outside of Vancouver and why?
[27:46] SPEAKER_00: The greatest city in the world is Paris.
[27:49] SPEAKER_00: It's Paris number one, and then there's a huge gap.
[27:52] SPEAKER_00: And then there's a whole bunch of other great cities in the world.
[27:55] SPEAKER_00: But the way Prisians live and the look of the city and the lifestyle and how people dress
[28:02] SPEAKER_00: and how people care about how they show up just makes it the greatest place on us.
[28:07] SPEAKER_01: Wow.
[28:07] SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
[28:08] SPEAKER_01: What are two or three non-negotiables as part of your morning or evening routine?
[28:13] SPEAKER_00: I have to eat breakfast.
[28:15] SPEAKER_00: If I don't get breakfast by about 10 billion rated eat people.
[28:20] SPEAKER_00: My team will throw food in the door and then close the door and hold it shut until I've eaten it so that I'm back from normal.
[28:27] SPEAKER_00: So absolutely mandatory.
[28:29] SPEAKER_00: I like to exercise in the morning.
[28:31] SPEAKER_00: If I don't exercise before work, it'll never get tough.
[28:34] SPEAKER_00: And I'm a seven really to bad guy.
[28:37] SPEAKER_01: Well, and this is a little bit of a fun question.
[28:41] SPEAKER_01: If you were stuck on a tropical island, I'm starting to get to know you well enough that I think I know the answer.
[28:45] SPEAKER_01: But I'm going to let you answer it yourself.
[28:47] SPEAKER_01: You were stuck in a tropical island to the middle of the ocean.
[28:50] SPEAKER_01: No cell phone, no internet connection.
[28:52] SPEAKER_01: You had a phone booth where you could make one call.
[28:55] SPEAKER_01: How long would you last on the island?
[28:57] Speaker UNKNOWN: I'm a lot of friends.
[28:58] SPEAKER_01: And what would you do when you were there?
[29:00] SPEAKER_00: So I'm on my own on this island.
[29:02] SPEAKER_00: You are on your own?
[29:03] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, see I don't.
[29:05] SPEAKER_00: I'm a real people person.
[29:07] SPEAKER_00: So being on my own, I'd probably give it a couple of solid hours.
[29:11] SPEAKER_00: I'd give it a few of the women's have a way.
[29:13] SPEAKER_01: And so you make a phone call.
[29:15] SPEAKER_01: Who do you call and would it be to join you or would it be to get hell off the island?
[29:20] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, can I call a helicopter to get me off the island?
[29:22] SPEAKER_01: That's possible.
[29:23] SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
[29:24] SPEAKER_01: That's so awesome.
[29:25] SPEAKER_01: Yari, how can people get a hold of you post podcasts?
[29:29] SPEAKER_01: What's the best means of it?
[29:30] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if you go to our website, it's formaroundco.com.
[29:35] SPEAKER_00: There's my direct email and my direct phone number there.
[29:37] SPEAKER_00: I answer my own email.
[29:38] SPEAKER_00: I answer my own calls.
[29:40] SPEAKER_00: I get back to anybody who, if I'm not on vacation,
[29:43] SPEAKER_00: I'll get back to you within 24 hours.
[29:45] SPEAKER_00: It's my commitment.
[29:46] SPEAKER_00: And I just love meeting entrepreneurs so whether I can help or whether I can help you find
[29:51] SPEAKER_00: what you need somewhere else.
[29:52] SPEAKER_00: It'd be my pleasure to just to have a chat.
[29:56] SPEAKER_01: Hey there.
[29:57] SPEAKER_01: Thanks for taking the time today to listen to British Columbia's podcast on the Canada's
[30:02] SPEAKER_01: podcast network.
[30:03] SPEAKER_01: We hope you enjoyed the show today.
[30:05] SPEAKER_01: Make sure you sign up for our newsletters and write a review for us on iTunes.
[30:09] SPEAKER_01: Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or at Canada'spodcast.com.
[30:16] SPEAKER_01: You can check out what other entrepreneurs are doing across the country.
[30:19] SPEAKER_01: I'm Angela Faye.
[30:20] SPEAKER_01: See you next time.
