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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Canada's Entrepreneur, where we talk to the entrepreneurs who are making it happen
[00:05] SPEAKER_02: across Canada and deliver the news, trends, knowledge and opinions from entrepreneurs and business
[00:13] SPEAKER_02: influences across the country.
[00:26] SPEAKER_02: Hey everyone, I'm Phil Bliss, Founder and CEO of Canada's Entrepreneur,
[00:31] SPEAKER_02: coming to you today from Alberta. Nicholas gives the Founder and Chief Executive Officer at
[00:37] SPEAKER_02: Elson. Nicholas was passionate about programming from a very young age and he's launched a series
[00:43] SPEAKER_02: of companies including a web design firm, a 3D sales platform and a local social media website.
[00:51] SPEAKER_02: Before turning his attention to his idea of an online credit card processing company
[00:56] SPEAKER_02: with a built-in shopping cart, his goal is to deliver a better payment experience and better tools
[01:03] SPEAKER_02: to merchants who just want to run their business. Today, Helson serves thousands of merchants
[01:10] SPEAKER_02: in Canada and the United States and has built a reputation for being a friendly and transparent
[01:18] SPEAKER_02: payment processor. Nicholas was the lead developer on the company's first software launch,
[01:24] SPEAKER_02: Helson Commerce. He has been recognised for his contributions to the payment industry and technology
[01:31] SPEAKER_02: as the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Prairies Technology Overall category winner in 2018
[01:39] SPEAKER_02: and is a member of the Avenue Calgary Top 40 Under 40 Class of 2019.
[01:48] SPEAKER_02: So Nick, welcome to Canada's Entrepreneur, great to see you and as I normally do
[01:56] SPEAKER_02: before we get too deep into the conversation, why don't you tell everyone a little bit about yourself,
[02:03] SPEAKER_02: what you do, how you got here and why you founded Helson?
[02:10] SPEAKER_00: It's well thanks for having me on the podcast. I mean a quick thing on the personal side for myself.
[02:15] SPEAKER_00: I was born in Texas but I moved to Montreal and I was one year old so I really grew up French and
[02:22] SPEAKER_00: Quebec and then I moved to the Prairies and I was 12 so I like to say I'm a Texas French Canadian
[02:28] SPEAKER_02: which is just a mix of this. You know, you're Canadian is well from both sides so Quebec and
[02:37] SPEAKER_00: I love it, that's kind of cool. Yeah, we've kind of seen kind of the triangle of North America.
[02:44] SPEAKER_00: In terms of the business, I mean I've always been into computers, self-talk computer programmer,
[02:49] SPEAKER_00: just kind of fell in love with computers, fell in love with building things. I was always like a
[02:55] SPEAKER_00: big Lego nerd growing up, I still am and kind of fell in love with small business and you kind of
[03:01] SPEAKER_00: put those things together and somehow I ended up in the payments industry but it's kind of like
[03:06] SPEAKER_00: the some of the early things that got me there. Okay, well you know what's so special about the
[03:19] SPEAKER_02: maybe change to it, but you know why did you build it? I mean there's gotta be something that
[03:24] SPEAKER_02: you see that other things don't have kind of thing. I mean we certainly, I mean we're a technology
[03:31] SPEAKER_00: company, you know, taking a step back at our core health service payments company. So we allow
[03:36] SPEAKER_00: small businesses of all sizes to be able to accept, accept payments, you know, we compete with
[03:42] SPEAKER_00: some big names like whether that's square or minairs or stripe and some of the big companies out
[03:47] SPEAKER_00: there. We can talk about the technology but ultimately, you know, our mission is to be the world's
[03:51] SPEAKER_00: most loved payments company and it's really at the core of why people switch to us. So yes, we're
[03:58] SPEAKER_00: super proud of the technology we built and you know our smart terminals and our affordable pricing
[04:03] SPEAKER_00: and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. You really like, you know, those are super important
[04:07] SPEAKER_00: as why people switch to us, but I think at the very core who we are as a as a company, it's that
[04:12] SPEAKER_00: is that mission to be the world's most loved and it's a noxie moron in the payment space like nobody
[04:18] SPEAKER_00: loves their payments company. It's like a necessary kind of evil that you have to have, but
[04:24] SPEAKER_00: and we were really trying to, you know, flip that on its head and be like, what if what if your
[04:28] SPEAKER_00: payments partner was somebody that, you know, was one of your favorite providers and really somebody
[04:33] SPEAKER_00: that you trusted and you could get great service from and had great technology and you know,
[04:38] SPEAKER_00: what would it mean for small businesses if that's the kind of relationship they had with their
[04:41] SPEAKER_00: payments company and that's really the root of it. So we can talk about everything else, but
[04:46] SPEAKER_00: that's the core of who we are as a company and why people switch to us.
[04:50] SPEAKER_02: That's cool. So I got to mention it, where are you with tariffs and how does it affect things for
[04:59] SPEAKER_00: you for the for this segment of the business? Yeah, I mean, the madness that is happening with
[05:06] SPEAKER_00: this trade war and tariffs. I mean, we, for the most part because we're a financial service
[05:12] SPEAKER_00: and we're technology business, you know, we're not going to be as impacted as some of our small
[05:16] SPEAKER_00: business customers. I mean, we have we have hardware, we have our smart terminal, for example,
[05:21] SPEAKER_00: so we do, that's manufactured by a great partner of ours in Taiwan. So, you know, we won't
[05:26] SPEAKER_00: impact the KM market, but a big part of our market sells in the US market and bringing that
[05:31] SPEAKER_00: hardware into the markets is going to be more expensive and that's unfortunate. It's going to
[05:35] SPEAKER_00: impact all of our competitors, whether if you're buying a machine from Square or Clover or
[05:38] SPEAKER_00: Halesom, all prices for hardware in the US is going to go up. I think we'll be able to manage.
[05:46] SPEAKER_00: I feel a lot more pain for so many small businesses that are a lot more reliant on selling goods
[05:54] SPEAKER_00: and international manufacturing and they're going to feel the pain of this. I, you know, in my
[06:00] SPEAKER_00: opinion, it doesn't really, you know, tariffs and small portions can have their place in the economy,
[06:06] SPEAKER_00: but at this scale and at this speed of rollout, I don't think it's helping anyone and I don't think
[06:11] SPEAKER_00: anybody is cheering up and down and happy about what's happening right now. Another thing is, you know,
[06:18] SPEAKER_02: why did you, I mean, why did you develop it and I'll bud, I mean, you are an Alberta, but, you know,
[06:26] SPEAKER_02: you've, you've, you've, you know, lived across Canada, you've lived in the states. Why, why,
[06:36] SPEAKER_02: why not go to, you know, California or, or did that, did that, did that, to do this? Why, why, why, why stay in
[06:46] SPEAKER_00: Calgary? I mean, the very easy answer is that it's all. So, I mean, everybody wants to support
[06:52] SPEAKER_00: their hometown. Everybody wants to build something great where they live. I've learned to actually see
[06:58] SPEAKER_00: that Calgary actually has like both Canada and Calgary have some amazing advantages that, that allow
[07:05] SPEAKER_00: you to be even more competitive. I mean, for, for example, like Calgary is got the youngest, it's the
[07:12] SPEAKER_00: youngest population in a major city in Canada. The highest stem concentration and highest engineering
[07:19] SPEAKER_00: in Canada, you have, so you have a ton of young talented people that are looking for opportunity.
[07:25] SPEAKER_00: And Calgary's tech scene is growing quite a bit, but it's still not where it needs to be. It's still,
[07:30] SPEAKER_00: you know, like, five, eight years behind Toronto. So, they're, you know, these young people are
[07:35] SPEAKER_00: looking for opportunities and we really wanted to create a company that would give them those
[07:39] SPEAKER_00: opportunities. Like the median age at our company is 29 years old. So, I feel like I walk around with,
[07:44] SPEAKER_00: a great beard and I'm like the grandfather. I guess I shouldn't be here on this town. So, it's
[07:53] SPEAKER_00: a wonderful place to build a business. There's 160 of us. I hope we get to a thousand and beyond.
[08:01] SPEAKER_00: So, I don't think it started from, let's see, from a strategic place. I've learned to discover
[08:05] SPEAKER_00: the strategy behind it. It really started from just its home and we want to do something great for
[08:09] SPEAKER_02: city. The good reason, the good reason. Yeah, I think so. So, you know, what's the three most important
[08:16] SPEAKER_02: steps in your journey, your entrepreneurial journey with Haleson so far? You know, you know,
[08:23] SPEAKER_02: I mean, you've built a building, a pretty decent organization at this point.
[08:29] SPEAKER_00: You know, maybe on the personal style of entrepreneurial side, I mean, you have to really look
[08:34] SPEAKER_00: back at some early steps. I mean, when I moved from, you know, that packed up the family and said,
[08:41] SPEAKER_00: we're moving to Alberta for work and I was 12 years old and part of the, I want to say the
[08:48] SPEAKER_00: negotiation, but no 12 year old negotiates. It's the smorgas, like in my head there was a negotiation
[08:52] SPEAKER_00: and it was like you get a computer. And so, we'll move here. You know, it's a new place, new
[08:58] SPEAKER_00: language, but I got a computer and I really got into computers, you know, really started. I started
[09:03] SPEAKER_00: coding, self-talk programming and that was probably the first kind of major step towards an
[09:08] SPEAKER_00: entrepreneurial journey is getting that computer and really getting into software development.
[09:13] SPEAKER_00: Number two, you know, that led me to starting to build. This is like the, you know, late 90s,
[09:18] SPEAKER_00: early 2000s and you know, building websites is what you did, right? So I'm 15 years old and that was
[09:24] SPEAKER_00: my first kind of step in charge of entrepreneurship and I would go to the small, I would go to my
[09:29] SPEAKER_00: my barber shop and the gym and the computer store that I would frequent and just go to them and be
[09:34] SPEAKER_00: like, hey, you have no website can I build you a website? And to my surprise, they would say yes.
[09:39] SPEAKER_00: And sometimes on the spot, you'd walk away with like a $500 check and it's like,
[09:43] SPEAKER_00: build me a website. And I mean, as a 15 year old, you felt so empowered.
[09:49] SPEAKER_00: And that's part of, you know, that was probably the second step towards entrepreneurial journey.
[09:53] SPEAKER_00: And it's also where I start falling in love with small business because they were risk takers and
[09:58] SPEAKER_00: they were willing, if you're willing to just give $500 check to a 15 year old kid that walk since
[10:03] SPEAKER_00: as I'm going to make you a website. And like, these are my people and I'm so grateful. And,
[10:07] SPEAKER_00: you know, I just felt like I'm camaraderie, right? And then this, though, down that business kind of
[10:14] SPEAKER_00: led to somehow payments where I built a me commerce website. They didn't know how to put payments
[10:19] SPEAKER_00: in there and then you kind of saw an opportunity. So I think that would probably be like the third step in
[10:25] SPEAKER_00: the journey that is me as an entrepreneur that ultimately, you know, you look back 20 plus years
[10:31] SPEAKER_00: and go, oh yeah, that's probably probably where the critical moments that somehow made it happen.
[10:38] SPEAKER_02: So, you know, you said about the service thing, but, you know,
[10:43] SPEAKER_02: I just want to kind of cover this a little bit earlier, but I want a little bit more clarity on it.
[10:49] SPEAKER_02: Why are retailers choosing health and you're in a growth period.
[10:57] SPEAKER_02: And you know, you said, is it the customer service and things like that that you said was so
[11:03] SPEAKER_02: downed important or the product? Well, what mean? Yeah, I think I glossed over a little earlier.
[11:13] SPEAKER_00: So I mean, just giving you the, we have three core pillars to our brand and why people switch to us.
[11:20] SPEAKER_00: Pricing transparency. It's really what we've learned is that yes, we have pricing affordability,
[11:25] SPEAKER_00: we have great rates, but it's really about the transparency because the industry is notorious
[11:29] SPEAKER_00: for hidden fees. It's again, like nobody loves their payments companies. It's a, you know,
[11:34] SPEAKER_00: there's a lot of maybe not so honest sales practices that happen. Everybody's kind of feeling stuck
[11:39] SPEAKER_00: in a contract with the bank and so on. So our first pillar is like, let's just make it as transparent
[11:43] SPEAKER_00: and honest as we can and be the good guys in the not so great industry, right? That's the first
[11:50] SPEAKER_00: pillar. That's a big reason why people like build that trust and switch to us. The second one is
[11:54] SPEAKER_00: about human customer service. So again, I think that if this is your payment processing is your
[12:00] SPEAKER_00: cash flow, it's really important to if you're a dental clinic or an auto mechanic or a niche
[12:05] SPEAKER_00: vac install, it doesn't matter. Like that credit card that you run or that bank deposit you took,
[12:11] SPEAKER_00: like you, it matters to you. It's your cash flow. It's the heart of your business. And if there's
[12:15] SPEAKER_00: a problem or something you don't understand or something that needs to be fixed, you want to pick
[12:19] SPEAKER_00: up the phone and talk to somebody real and it's unbelievable in the payments world that you have
[12:24] SPEAKER_00: companies that have such terrible customer service and they almost forget, you know, you see that
[12:31] SPEAKER_00: a little bit with technology companies, but it's like, ah, companies customer service is like a
[12:35] SPEAKER_00: a nuisance to their scaling. And it's like, no, no, this is people's cash flow. This, this matters.
[12:40] SPEAKER_00: Like if you're going to build long term trust, you know, you really got invested. So we invest in it.
[12:44] SPEAKER_00: We're super proud of it. We have an amazing reputation for it. And then the third pillar is really
[12:49] SPEAKER_00: about a great easy to use technology. So that's where kind of like the technology tech piece of our
[12:55] SPEAKER_00: company comes in where it's like, it's easy to sign up. There's no paperwork. There's lots of
[13:00] SPEAKER_00: great software built into the experience. We make it feel really seamless. So you combine those
[13:05] SPEAKER_00: three things and it sounds obvious. You know, pricing transparency, great customer service,
[13:10] SPEAKER_00: and an easy use of a technology. And you're like, well, yeah, of course. And it's like, well, that
[13:14] SPEAKER_00: wasn't that obvious in the payments world apparently. We just put those three things together.
[13:20] SPEAKER_00: You know, we service over 20,000 merchants. We're, we're signing up thousands a month. And it,
[13:25] SPEAKER_00: it's really, it doesn't sound like that secret of a formula, but, you know, putting those three
[13:30] SPEAKER_00: things together is hard and it made it work.
[13:42] SPEAKER_02: What, what do you, what's best about being an entrepreneur versus being an employee?
[13:50] SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's, it's funny as I think my answer, you know, some years ago would have been like
[13:56] SPEAKER_00: not having a boss and, and you know, like the, the, the, the freedom that comes with it.
[14:01] SPEAKER_00: Now that we're a much more serious business, we have a board of directors, we have large investors.
[14:06] SPEAKER_00: I very much feel like I have bosses. So I think that that that that has left. I think that the
[14:15] SPEAKER_00: ability to create and how you know, you come up with an idea, not just the founding idea for your
[14:20] SPEAKER_00: business, but an idea about a new go-to-market strategy or an idea about a product or an idea about
[14:24] SPEAKER_00: a campaign or whatever is the, the idea of the data comes up and then sit down with the team and
[14:29] SPEAKER_00: say like, what do you guys think and, you know, what, what's your idea on this and, and then make
[14:34] SPEAKER_00: something happen from nothing. And, and that short, that short cycle and that short amount of
[14:39] SPEAKER_00: barrier to that kind of creation process is something that is really precious and not everybody gets
[14:46] SPEAKER_00: to have on their day to day. And if it's somebody, if you're somebody that thrives and, you know,
[14:51] SPEAKER_00: being a builder and being creative, it's the only way to, to live. So, yeah, that's really good.
[14:58] SPEAKER_02: I like that. What, what, what's the key ingredient that makes it happen?
[15:05] SPEAKER_00: I mean, the, I think it's funny as an entrepreneur, I think you have to have,
[15:14] SPEAKER_00: there has to be enough confidence and I'm almost like, audacity to think that somehow you can
[15:20] SPEAKER_00: do things differently. And, you know, fearlessness to actually like take that, that leap. But it's
[15:29] SPEAKER_00: almost like, you know, those sounds like great traits, but they also have to come with almost like,
[15:35] SPEAKER_00: a, a, I don't want to say a lack of judgment. That's probably the wrong terminology. But a,
[15:41] SPEAKER_00: a, a, you know, an unrealistic look at like risk. And so, you know, I think people look up to
[15:49] SPEAKER_00: entrepreneurs sometimes say like, oh, wow, like, you know, like look at the risk that they're taking.
[15:53] SPEAKER_00: I actually think that that's, you know, is that a bug or a feature? Like, it's, I think that there's,
[15:56] SPEAKER_00: there's something a little bit, you know, tweaked in the brain that goes like, oh, no,
[16:00] SPEAKER_00: it's doable. And of course, we could do it. And, and, and sometimes it becomes, you know,
[16:05] SPEAKER_00: a, you know, a flaming failure. And a more rational person would say like, why would you do that?
[16:11] SPEAKER_00: This is obviously a terrible idea. And you obviously didn't have the means to go and achieve it.
[16:15] SPEAKER_00: So it takes, it takes a little bit of a tweak in the brain to be able to both have the guts to do
[16:21] SPEAKER_00: it, but also almost like have a misunderstanding of, of certain risks. But then it ultimately allows
[16:27] SPEAKER_02: you to take those risks. So, you know, coming back to the, the retail side of things, you know,
[16:36] SPEAKER_02: and with AI and all this kind of thing, where do you see retail technology, which is you really,
[16:43] SPEAKER_02: on the payments side in the next five years? I mean, it's interesting. So what's amazing about
[16:50] SPEAKER_00: being a payments company. So I don't know, I don't go many cocktails party. But let's just say I go
[16:54] SPEAKER_00: to a cocktail party and I say I work in payments. And you know, I think people I think might like roll
[16:58] SPEAKER_00: their eyes and be like, oh, that sounds boring. But I think what's amazing about being in payments
[17:03] SPEAKER_00: is that you really get a front row seat at the world of business and the world of commerce, right?
[17:08] SPEAKER_00: You, you, we get to deal with anything from a tire manufacturer to a baker to a restaurant to
[17:14] SPEAKER_00: everything in between. And it's an amazing position of privilege. And what's also really unique about
[17:19] SPEAKER_00: that position is you get to be because everybody needs payments and everybody needs a great, whether
[17:25] SPEAKER_00: it's a web based solution or a smart terminal or that piece of hardware, you kind of get to be that
[17:29] SPEAKER_00: catalyst into helping them digitize the rest of their business. So, you know, everybody needs
[17:36] SPEAKER_00: that terminal, that smart terminal at their desk. And all of a sudden, you can start introducing a
[17:40] SPEAKER_00: lot of technology to these businesses to make them more efficient and higher producing. And I
[17:48] SPEAKER_00: think AI is going to be only, it's in general, it's only going to accelerate that in business,
[17:53] SPEAKER_00: but I actually think payment companies are really privileged and well positioned to be able to
[17:57] SPEAKER_00: introduce that to small business owners and be like, look, you know, you're already dealing with
[18:03] SPEAKER_00: invoicing workflow and creating customers and creating campaigns like we can all, you can
[18:07] SPEAKER_00: already do a lot of things with our tools. What if we put a new eye layer on top of that to,
[18:12] SPEAKER_00: you know, help you accelerate those tasks and make some things automated? So I'm super excited
[18:16] SPEAKER_00: for what it means and to be the one of the companies that can bring that to small business owners
[18:20] SPEAKER_02: because they need, they need a champion. So moving up the challenge side because we're
[18:26] SPEAKER_02: as an entrepreneur, that's a big part of it. What's the greatest challenge you've faced
[18:34] SPEAKER_00: today in the business today? I mean, there's, there's certainly a lot, maybe a more immediate
[18:40] SPEAKER_00: or fairly recent examples. A few years back, we, you know, we, part of the service that we
[18:48] SPEAKER_00: offer is we bring hardware, right? So you think about like a terminal, the front desk,
[18:51] SPEAKER_00: except payments and so on. And we have found this good manufacturer in Hong Kong. They are
[18:55] SPEAKER_00: a great partner. We had worked with them and we were working with them on our next generation
[19:00] SPEAKER_00: hardware, which was going to be their smart terminal. We hadn't brought out the market and
[19:04] SPEAKER_00: we were pretty far down the process. And then we stopped, we lost communication with our key
[19:09] SPEAKER_00: manufacturing. We're like, what is going on? Right? And, you know, we were in the middle of this
[19:15] SPEAKER_00: big project and it turns out we, you know, we got notification shortly after that one of our
[19:20] SPEAKER_00: biggest competitors in the world, which is Stripe, which people know in California, had bought that
[19:25] SPEAKER_00: manufacturer and instructed that manufacturer to no longer do business with us. So that was
[19:32] SPEAKER_00: definitely like a, and all my time at this company, that was probably one that left the pretty
[19:36] SPEAKER_00: big scar, both in terms of like being keenly aware of, you know, our competitors and it's not always
[19:43] SPEAKER_00: it's not always a, it's definitely going to be a knife fight. And also just the the sheer importance
[19:51] SPEAKER_00: that you can have on certain vendors and to take those seriously. So ultimately, you know,
[19:56] SPEAKER_00: that sent us in a pretty good of a spin to try to find a new partner. We kind of went around the
[20:00] SPEAKER_00: world, we ended up finding an amazing partner in Taiwan. We learned our lessons in terms of having
[20:06] SPEAKER_00: better, better contracts and relationships and structures in place to make sure that, you know,
[20:11] SPEAKER_00: events like this don't happen. And ultimately, I think we landed on a, on a better partner. So
[20:15] SPEAKER_00: worked out, but that was one of those, you know, key moments that really kind of, that certainly
[20:20] SPEAKER_00: keep you up at night as an entrepreneur. And I'm, there's so many other entrepreneurs that've had
[20:24] SPEAKER_00: similar stories like that. It's just like these near death experiences where you really learn
[20:28] SPEAKER_00: the lesson and you're lucky to get to the other side. Yeah, and you keep learning them. I can tell you
[20:36] SPEAKER_02: speak about lessons, I mean, mentorship, you know, what's the best piece of advice that you've
[20:44] SPEAKER_02: received that you know, you carry around in your pocket kind of thing that it's always there.
[20:52] SPEAKER_00: There's a, it's, it's, so one of them that really sticks with me, it's a mentor of mine. His name is
[20:58] SPEAKER_00: Dave McJennet. He's a, can you even expect that now works in Silicon Valley? And great advice he gave us
[21:05] SPEAKER_00: was your job is to identify what stage your businesses in. And for example, you'll be reading,
[21:15] SPEAKER_00: you know, you'll be reading a book about Google and the management techniques. You're like, that's
[21:18] SPEAKER_00: amazing. You try to implement that. And it fails. And you're like, but it's sound it's so good. What
[21:23] SPEAKER_00: and you know, it comes down to like right advice wrong phase. So you really have to like constantly
[21:32] SPEAKER_00: look at your business be like, what phase am I in? And then what advice applies to that phase?
[21:38] SPEAKER_00: Because there's everybody's got advice out there. Everybody's got, you know, you're reading books.
[21:41] SPEAKER_00: There's so many frameworks. There's so many ways that you can operate your business. But you really
[21:45] SPEAKER_00: have to match it to the phase of your business. And then when you have a mismatch, that's when things
[21:50] SPEAKER_00: you're either too early or too late. And it doesn't line up. So I think that's something that
[21:54] SPEAKER_00: that I think it's like advice on top of advice that I've carried with me because it really allows
[21:58] SPEAKER_02: you to operate I think in a better way. I really really like that. You know, let's let's have some fun
[22:05] SPEAKER_02: because we've been that that's that's wouldn't be lots of good stuff in there for people to listen to.
[22:14] SPEAKER_02: Let's just ask you some rap what we term rapid fire questions. All right. I'm ready.
[22:19] SPEAKER_02: We can see back at me. If you weren't doing what you're doing now, what would you be doing instead?
[22:27] SPEAKER_00: That one's pretty easy. I'd be woodworking. And I still I do it. I do it in my spare time when I have
[22:32] SPEAKER_00: some just making furniture and I'd love building things with wood.
[22:37] SPEAKER_02: Yes, good. What book are you currently reading? And what would you recommend the audience to read,
[22:45] SPEAKER_02: listen to? You know, it could be a podcast as well. I mean, so actually I'm going through a book
[22:51] SPEAKER_00: right now called Bird by Bird by Ann Lamot. I think it's a famous. It was written in the early 90s.
[22:58] SPEAKER_00: It's one of the most famous books for how to be a good writer. And she is, you know, hilarious
[23:07] SPEAKER_00: and amazing. And it's just like I'm just like devouring it. It's amazing.
[23:14] SPEAKER_00: Are you a morning or a night person? Very much a night for them. A night owl through and through.
[23:19] SPEAKER_02: You're a night owl. You know, that's that's that's that much smaller. It's about everyone's
[23:27] SPEAKER_00: a morning person. It's kind of I'm I'm the creative brain at like 10 o'clock that just when you
[23:33] SPEAKER_00: wanted like your brain to go to to quiet down so you can get rid of your bed, that's when
[23:37] SPEAKER_00: everything fires and all the ideas come out and I'm just trying to keep up with it.
[23:41] SPEAKER_02: If you had to pick one word to describe yourself, what would it be and why would you choose it?
[23:50] SPEAKER_00: I think it would be builder. I think it's like whether I'm building a business, I'm building code,
[23:54] SPEAKER_00: I'm building Lego, I'm building wood, I just I just love building. Yeah, that's cool.
[24:00] SPEAKER_00: What's keeping you up at night? Right now my 11 month old son.
[24:08] SPEAKER_01: I'm a new father and I'm loving every moment of it but the sleep is definitely an interesting
[24:15] SPEAKER_02: challenge. You know, it's been a lot of fun Nick. That was a really good session. A lot
[24:23] SPEAKER_02: lots to learn about Alsem and about yourself. It's been really really interesting. Thanks for
[24:30] SPEAKER_00: coming on for Canada's entrepreneur. Excuse me. Thanks for having me celebrate. Appreciate it.
[24:36] SPEAKER_02: Wow, what a super session with Nick. I learned a lot about the payments business and I
[24:42] SPEAKER_02: loved his entrepreneurial drive. You know, that's what it's really all about. I'm Fulblis.
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