Lessons learned from ten small business heroes Chatter that Matters

Meet the Heroes of Small Business Matters Series One.
Each week, during the darkest days of COVID-19, we produced a podcast featuring a small business owner, and three thought leaders who help them get to where they need and deserve to go. All made possible through the incredible support of RBC. We went remotely across Canada to explore many sectors of our economy. We talked to startups, established businesses, first-generation Canadians to family-owned companies that spanned decades. Every one of them inspired me with their resilience, resolve, and ability to reinvent.
In this podcast, I revisit each one to pay tribute to these heroes and to share what I learned along the way.
Small Business Matters series, presented by RBC.

Traci Shepheard (01:41)
Traci Shepheard's lifelong dream was to be an entrepreneur building a health and wellness business. She invested her savings and purchased an Airstream Trailer, retrofitting it to create a 'rock star' experience. MeditationWorks is launched. As she starts the ignition, her wheels fall off when COVID-19 stops everything in their tracks, especially a studio where people meditate inside a trailer, even one as beautiful as Traci’s.
Paul Hemburrow (04:14)
Paul and his partner buy a profitable business that rents TV sets to patients in hospitals and then reinvents it to offer a suite of innovative tools that patients can access at their bedside while benefiting the hospital and healthcare. Health Hub Solutions finally get the breakthrough they need but COVID-19 arrives and no one is focused on the future, just surviving the day.
Lisa Taylor (06:08)
A powerful insight leads Lisa Taylor to reinvent the future of work. Many people were satisfied at work, but not fulfilled. Lisa left the security of a great job to launch the Challenge Factory, a research-based, process-driven consultancy that helps companies create productive cultures where people work with a higher purpose. She moves from the uncertainty of a startup to the complexities of leading a growing business, only to have today's economic uncertainty, turn her business upside down.
Joe O'Brien (09:11)
Joe O'Brien is a gifted entrepreneur operating his tourism business, O'Brien Boat Tours, from St John's Newfoundland. He captains his guests to the edge of the world, with whale watching, giant icebergs, and a wild bird sanctuary, mixed in with the songs and spirit of Newfoundland and Labrador. are on offer. Joe shares his story of growing up in a fishing village and having to reinvent when the Cod disappeared. COVID-19, requires Joe to reinvent once again.
Kristi Knowles (11:01)
Kristi knows that the company needs a rebrand if they are going to battle international food giants for market share.  Mother Raw is born, and the legacy of the Founder, and her mission of 'Good on Good'  is woven across every consumer, retailer, and employee touchpoint. Manufacturing in Canada and in 5000 locations, can Kristi finance this growth and get the attention she feels Mother Raw deserves?
Carly Shuler (12:49)
After a five-year stint with Sesame Streets Labs in New York, and getting her Masters in Education at Harvard, Carly returns to Canada and creates Hootreading.com. Why? Carly knows that kids who love to read will spend a lifetime loving to learn. Hootreading matches students with real teachers, and with Carly's proprietary technology and teaching methods, her business takes off. Her concern is that she might draw the attention of multinationals who will go after her market share with their deeper pockets.
Jennifer Menard (14:29)
Jennifer Menard’s life has been about reinvention, regardless of her circumstance, openly sharing her life story growing up in a broken home, but persevering to become a successful entrepreneur. Finding her path through a mentor who employed her and then subsequently encouraged her to buy the business she helped build. Jennifer rebrands, brings in a partner and Staff Shop is born, st