The Loew Down

Cassidy Loewen
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  • Entrepreneurship

The Loew Down is the podcast where Hamilton's small business community tells its own story — origin stories, pivots, hard lessons and the real advice that only comes from someone who's actually been through it. 

  1. 2d ago

    Katie’s Story: Building a Business When Your Brain Won’t Quiet Down

    Send us Fan Mail Our season finale, and what a conversation to close on. Katie from Cake & Kale is a Hamilton-based custom cake and wedding cake artist, a mom of two boys with a third on the way, and someone who has spent years being radically honest about mental health while building a business that runs entirely on precision and detail. She lives with OCD, anxiety, and depression. And she makes wedding cakes for a living. She went full-time in 2022 and has been figuring it out, out loud ever since. In this conversation we get into what Pure O OCD actually looks like when you're mid-build on a wedding cake, the summer before her wedding when a panic attack brought her to the darkest thought she'd ever had, and the cat named Butters who somehow showed up at exactly the right moment. We also talk about what it looks like to run a business at 60% capacity, why she made hiring decisions before she needed them, and the guilt of not enjoying pregnancy when you're expected to love every second. Find Katie at @cakeandkale on Instagram and at cakeandkale.ca. Because your story matters. 🎙️

  2. Jul 23

    Ayaan's Story: Time Is Tissue. What Cheap Botox Really Costs.

    Send us Fan Mail Ayaan Ali built Fiore Med Spa in Westdale Village, Hamilton and she did it her way. Two and a half years in, she has a team of five, a waitlist of clients who found her after something went wrong somewhere else, and almost nine years of experience in a field where a weekend course is still considered the gold standard.   In this conversation we get into what it takes to hold a premium position in a market flooded with discount Botox ads, what a vascular occlusion is and why it matters, the green flags and red flags every client should know, how she built and trains a team she trusts with her name and her patients, and why she started offering GLP-1 weight-loss injections and exactly how she does it differently.   She said three words in this episode I have not stopped thinking about: time is tissue.   Find Ayaan at fioremedspa.com or https://fioremedspa.janeapp.com/ and on Instagram at @fiore.medspa Because your story matters.

  3. Jul 16

    Elizabeth’s Story: Her Biggest Legacy

    Send us Fan Mail Elizabeth Den Hollander was six months into her career as a registered massage therapist when her mom was diagnosed with stage 3 cervical cancer. That same day, she took over the clinic. She kept it running for nine years, treating clients, building a practice, and navigating grief in the in-between, while her mom fought. A year after losing her, Elizabeth opened Painted Brick Wellness: a multidisciplinary wellness collective in downtown Hamilton, Ontario, where six independent practitioners each run their own business under one roof. In this conversation, we get into what it looked like to hold a business together while saying goodbye to the person who built it. Elizabeth talks about the Coco framework of grief and what it means that her mom’s clients are still receiving care. We talk about the collective model, what she calls a path that was chosen, and why she built something bigger instead of carrying on alone. We close with the question we ask every guest: what do you want to be recognized for in your community? Find the Painted Brick collective at @paintedbrickwellness and paintedbrickwellness.com. The practitioners: @rmtelizabeth, @rmtzoe, @inertia.pw, @msmith.osteo, @urbanholisitichamilton, @myocaresolutions. And Elizabeth co-runs @outdoorsypals — free community hikes and coffee around Hamilton, open to everyone. Because your story matters.

  4. Jul 9

    Alex's Story: Stardust With Belly Buttons. Why Rejection Built Her Business.

    Send us Fan Mail She walked into rooms nobody invited her to. Cold called every single day selling a technology most people had never seen. Heard no more times than she can count. And kept going anyway. Alex Graham is the founder of Me-Tour, a Hamilton company building 3D virtual tours for businesses, schools, and healthcare spaces. Think Google Street View, but for the inside of a building. She started it during COVID with no marketing background, no social media, and no blueprint. Just a stubborn belief that this technology mattered and that accessibility is a standard, not a feature. She auditioned for Dragon’s Den, two days after catching the stomach flu from her toddler, and kept going when it didn’t pan out. Then she landed Mohawk College. All four campuses. With a popped rib. We talk about what it actually takes to sell something nobody understands yet, why she cold calls every single day, and what she told a room full of business owners about networking that I haven’t stopped thinking about since. Find Alex at @me_tour_inc and me-tour.ca. Because your story matters. 🎙️

  5. Jul 2

    Michelle's Story: Twenty Years in the Trenches, Still Proving It

    Send us Fan Mail She's spent two decades in pediatric medical and mental health and she still has to convince parents she's worth paying for. Michelle McVittie is a certified child life specialist and parenting coach behind Mom the Manager, and the recurring parenting expert on CHCH Morning Live. She works with families navigating ADHD, anxiety, and strong-willed kids — the ones therapy waitlists can't always reach fast enough. We get into the real gap nobody talks about: she's not covered by insurance, even though a therapist with a fraction of her experience often is. We talk about the shame that keeps parents from picking up the phone in the first place, and the thirty-second introduction she's built so specific that people remember her name in a room of strangers. We also ask her the question we ask everyone — if she started over tomorrow, what would she do differently. Find Michelle at momthemanager.ca and on Instagram @momthemanager. Because your story matters.

  6. Jun 25

    Amanda's Story: She Built the Space She Always Needed

    Send us Fan Mail Amanda Gurman spent years being the person other women called when they finally had something they needed to say out loud. She's the host of the Honest as a Mother podcast, a three-time bestselling co-author, and the founder of Her Truth Press — a publishing house she built from scratch in Hamilton, Ontario for women who have been carrying a story they were told to keep quiet. In this conversation we get into all of it. How she went from suffering through postpartum depression in silence to building a platform that has given hundreds of women permission to tell the truth. Why she walked away from the self-publishing model she'd used for three books and built her own company instead. The moment she stopped calling her identity crisis a midlife crisis and renamed it a breakthrough. And how she gets women to share their most vulnerable stories in print — with their real names on the cover — just by showing up as herself. We close with the question we ask every guest on The Loew Down: what do you want to be remembered for in your community? Her answer is eight words. And it's the whole episode. Find Amanda at @amanda.gurman and Her Truth Press at @hertruthpress. Because your story matters.

  7. Jun 18

    Matus’s Story: The Bed Bug Guy Nobody Talks About. Until They Have To.

    Send us Fan Mail Matus Baran has been the guy nobody calls unless they have to — and he’s completely fine with that. He runs Green Heat Bed Bugs Exterminators out of Hamilton, Ontario, doing 100% chemical-free heat treatment for bed bug infestations across Hamilton, Niagara, and the surrounding area. He bought the business from a guy he met in Cuba, built it from the ground up, and has been doing it for a decade. In this conversation, we get into the stigma nobody talks about — why people panic, why they beg him to drive an unmarked truck, and why bed bugs have nothing to do with how clean you are. We talk about the families in tears when he walks through the door, why heat treatment beats chemicals every single time, and what it’s like to build a business in an industry where word of mouth is almost impossible. And we close with Matus’s first Father’s Day coming up and what he wants his son to one day understand about this work. Find Matus at bedbugsexterminators.ca or on Instagram @greenheatbedbugs. Because your story matters.

  8. Jun 11

    Safiya's Story: She Almost Gave Up. Then the Space Appeared.

    Send us Fan Mail Safiya didn't plan to open a clay studio. She planned to take a break. After 15 years in higher education, teaching, research, coaching, she quit her job, moved to Ancaster, and picked up pottery as a hobby. Something just for her. Then the job market dried up. Then she couldn't find a studio space. Then she gave herself six months, and she almost ran out of time. In this episode, Safiya gets into the full story: growing up in Dubai, starting a dessert subscription box business before moving to Canada, the long search for a space, and what it actually felt like to open a creative studio six months ago with no roadmap and a lot of faith. Safiya talks pricing, pivots, building community from scratch, the tension between keeping things affordable and running a real business, and why pottery and small business have more in common than you think. Safiya also shares a moment from her studio that stopped the conversation cold — a story about a family, a funeral, and what healing with your hands actually looks like. Find Safiya at @kreativeklay.ca on Instagram and at kreativeklay.ca Because your story matters.

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About

The Loew Down is the podcast where Hamilton's small business community tells its own story — origin stories, pivots, hard lessons and the real advice that only comes from someone who's actually been through it. 

Information

  • Creator
    Cassidy Loewen
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Loew Down
  • Show Website
    The Loew Down