Karen Barry, Founder/CEO of the Beltline Cannabis Retail Store and Owner of Barry Commercial Real Estate

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[00:00] SPEAKER_02: It's Calgary's podcast on the Canada's podcast network.
[00:04] SPEAKER_00: Hello, this is Mario Toneguci coming to you today with Calgary's podcast, a member of
[00:09] SPEAKER_00: Canada's podcast network.
[00:12] SPEAKER_00: Where we talk to the entrepreneurs who are making it happen in Calgary, Alberta, so you
[00:17] SPEAKER_00: can listen, discover and engage.
[00:20] SPEAKER_00: Today's guest is Karen Berry, who owns a commercial real estate company in Calgary, as well as
[00:27] SPEAKER_00: being an owner of a belt line cannabis also in the city.
[00:31] SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us today, Karen.
[00:32] SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Mario.
[00:34] SPEAKER_00: Let's talk, first of all, Karen, about the commercial real estate market in Calgary.
[00:42] SPEAKER_00: You've been part of that for many years.
[00:44] SPEAKER_00: This the worst you have ever seen it.
[00:48] SPEAKER_02: Certainly, it's some challenging times in commercial real estate.
[00:51] SPEAKER_02: There's no doubt about it.
[00:53] SPEAKER_02: I think that generally speaking, everybody is trying to hang on with their fingernails
[00:57] SPEAKER_02: and hope that we get some positive changes in terms of the political landscape that
[01:05] SPEAKER_02: we've got.
[01:06] SPEAKER_00: What do you mean by that?
[01:07] SPEAKER_00: Maybe explore that?
[01:11] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I just saw your post this morning, three recessions in ten years, and oil is obviously
[01:18] SPEAKER_02: not the darling of Canada anymore.
[01:20] SPEAKER_02: Alberta has been just slammed.
[01:22] SPEAKER_02: It has been very, very difficult to make a living here for your family.
[01:28] SPEAKER_02: While we did have a boom market for some 20 years prior to last ten, the last ten have
[01:33] SPEAKER_02: been very, very challenging.
[01:37] SPEAKER_00: What are you hearing on the street when you're talking to fellow entrepreneurs and how they're
[01:42] SPEAKER_00: feeling these days?
[01:44] SPEAKER_02: Well, let's just say that there's a big divide between the haves and the have-nots.
[01:47] SPEAKER_02: I think similar to anyone operating in business these days, we are in business.
[01:52] SPEAKER_02: I'm incredibly grateful at Beltline Cannabis, which is the daily operating company that
[01:57] SPEAKER_02: I'm involved with right now.
[01:59] SPEAKER_02: Very commercial real estate, for the most part, has almost dialed down to virtually nothing
[02:05] SPEAKER_02: in terms of doing deals.
[02:08] SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's talk about Beltline Cannabis.
[02:12] SPEAKER_00: Tell me how you got involved with that and why?
[02:16] SPEAKER_02: Well, originally I purchased a building very old 1908 house effectively.
[02:21] SPEAKER_02: It was commercially owned for our boutique investment shop called Very Commercial Real
[02:27] SPEAKER_02: Estate.
[02:28] SPEAKER_02: Then, as we, I think, turned through the second recession, I ended up moving the company
[02:34] SPEAKER_02: and then rented the space out to sort of a live-work play lady.
[02:38] SPEAKER_02: The lease happened to coincide with right-of-open time legalization came forward.
[02:44] SPEAKER_02: I went to lease the building out to a third-party operator.
[02:47] SPEAKER_02: At the end of the day, I asked the looking at the financials of the various people that
[02:51] SPEAKER_02: were interested.
[02:53] SPEAKER_02: I kind of stood back and said, hey, if that's what the financials are to get up and going,
[02:59] SPEAKER_02: I think I can put this over the bull line myself.
[03:02] SPEAKER_00: Okay, now, refresh my memory, but you were one of the first retail stores in Calgary,
[03:09] SPEAKER_00: right?
[03:10] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, to my knowledge, Mario, we got the first fully licensed and compliant license.
[03:16] SPEAKER_02: I think maybe even Alberta.
[03:17] SPEAKER_02: I know for sure it was Calgary because I had it videotards.
[03:21] SPEAKER_02: I was walking up the steps and I was like, okay, what license are we getting today?
[03:26] SPEAKER_02: And he said, well, this is the first one I've even had.
[03:28] SPEAKER_02: So, coming from commercial real estate, there's no prize for second place.
[03:33] SPEAKER_02: So I was very focused on getting in and getting in fast and making it happen.
[03:39] SPEAKER_00: What has business been like for you and the cannabis side in the year or so, year and
[03:45] SPEAKER_00: a half, I guess, now that legalization has taken place?
[03:50] SPEAKER_02: Well, we certainly benefited from being early adopters, no doubt about that.
[03:56] SPEAKER_02: Subsequent to that, we now have competition everywhere.
[04:01] SPEAKER_02: So we have within, you know, very small radius, probably six or seven stores.
[04:06] SPEAKER_02: So it's leveled on to be what you would expect for a typical retail business.
[04:13] SPEAKER_02: It's a working business.
[04:13] SPEAKER_02: It's not a license to print money.
[04:16] SPEAKER_02: Certainly, there's lots of expenses involved, but it's a solid business.
[04:21] SPEAKER_02: And right now, quite frankly, I am, as I said, incredibly grateful,
[04:26] SPEAKER_02: that A, that we've got it and that B, that we were deemed an essential service.
[04:31] SPEAKER_02: And well, we've got frontline workers, our volunteers are the best.
[04:35] SPEAKER_02: And just incredibly grateful.
[04:38] SPEAKER_00: One of the things that I heard about over the last year is some concerns
[04:44] SPEAKER_00: that there may be an oversaturation of cannabis stores in the market,
[04:50] SPEAKER_00: especially like in urban markets.
[04:52] SPEAKER_00: And you did make reference to all those stores nearby you.
[04:56] SPEAKER_00: Like, do you think that there's the danger of being oversaturated?
[05:01] SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm a full capitalist when it comes to competition and again,
[05:06] SPEAKER_02: running down the street.
[05:08] SPEAKER_02: In terms of saturation, I've been asked, or people have reference belt lines.
[05:13] SPEAKER_02: And all of a sudden, you're doing so well that you're going to first end.
[05:16] SPEAKER_02: Sure, at the beginning, that was an advantage.
[05:19] SPEAKER_02: I truly think now being anchored, we're right behind a safe way.
[05:25] SPEAKER_02: So effectively, we're the shadow anchor to a safe way.
[05:28] SPEAKER_02: And that, I've got to tell you, has just saved our bacon.
[05:30] SPEAKER_02: In addition to that, the belt line is the highest density neighborhood in all of Caldery.
[05:35] SPEAKER_02: So our drawing power is very high.
[05:38] SPEAKER_02: However, the three C's of cannabis purchasing is convenience cost culture.
[05:43] SPEAKER_02: So it's convenience first, cost second and culture third.
[05:47] SPEAKER_02: And I'm hoping the belt line continues to hit on all three.
[05:50] SPEAKER_00: Okay, super.
[05:51] SPEAKER_00: Let's talk a little bit about being an entrepreneur, Karen.
[05:55] SPEAKER_00: You've been an entrepreneur for quite some time.
[05:57] SPEAKER_00: Tell me a little bit about what you see as the highlights of being an entrepreneur.
[06:03] SPEAKER_00: What you like about it.
[06:06] SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you for the question.
[06:08] SPEAKER_02: I've done a lot of work on leadership.
[06:11] SPEAKER_02: And I've had the opportunity to run from a Canadian standpoint, groups of people.
[06:17] SPEAKER_02: And in that study of leadership, there was a specific guy that I studied, Peter Drucker.
[06:23] SPEAKER_02: He's sort of the forefather of leadership.
[06:26] SPEAKER_02: And in there, he has a little book, I think it's a hard-priced business review.
[06:30] SPEAKER_02: And it's knowing oneself.
[06:32] SPEAKER_02: So one day, I didn't have much to do.
[06:34] SPEAKER_02: I read this and in knowing oneself, you can pinpoint a little closer to what you're really good at.
[06:42] SPEAKER_02: And I guess when I wish like back on it, that what I'm very good at doing is starting companies.
[06:49] SPEAKER_02: At this point in time, there was nobody that I could go to as a mentor when I started the first one,
[06:55] SPEAKER_02: the second one, the third one, or the fourth one.
[06:56] SPEAKER_02: And so now I've helped a couple of other people get off the grounds with their businesses
[07:02] SPEAKER_02: because let's face it, people are going to have to rethink their lives.
[07:07] SPEAKER_00: So what is the key then to starting up companies?
[07:11] SPEAKER_02: Well, instead of the hunting pet, which is what I went through, for me, it's very easy
[07:16] SPEAKER_02: because you just go, you know, initially you get your domain name, whatever that might be,
[07:21] SPEAKER_02: whatever thing jazzes you.
[07:22] SPEAKER_02: And then you go further, you get a logo, you can source that out through offshore,
[07:28] SPEAKER_02: you can source that locally, then you can get a website, you can do that fairly easily right now through GoDaddy
[07:34] SPEAKER_02: or even if you wanted to go and I'm just saying GoDaddy, but it could be any provider.
[07:39] SPEAKER_02: And then from there, once you get sort of a place marker in the world on the net,
[07:45] SPEAKER_02: walk into our registry office and for $300, you can be a president of a company.
[07:51] SPEAKER_02: That, Mario, I will tell you, was it turning point for me at the right page of 42
[07:57] SPEAKER_02: when I started my first company?
[07:58] SPEAKER_02: I couldn't believe that I had been fighting that glass ceiling to just get advice from president title.
[08:05] SPEAKER_02: That's for so many years. And then I walked in and for $300, I ended up as a president.
[08:10] SPEAKER_02: In fact, I was, I think I was laughing and crying at the lawyers office at the same time
[08:14] SPEAKER_02: because I had had a parting of the ways over titling at the previous job that I had been asked.
[08:20] SPEAKER_02: So I clearly hit the glass ceiling and I just needed to move out of the way.
[08:24] SPEAKER_00: It kind of gives you a nice feeling having that title for yourself.
[08:28] SPEAKER_00: Is it like the bit of a validation for what you are, I guess?
[08:34] SPEAKER_02: Well, somebody told me really early on in commercial real estate, fake it until you make it.
[08:39] SPEAKER_02: And rest assured that the market will let you, I sort of say, you know, roll around the round file for a while
[08:47] SPEAKER_02: to make sure that you can cut the mustard.
[08:49] SPEAKER_02: Yeah. My first year in real estate with my own company, I think I had three lawsuits.
[08:55] SPEAKER_02: And my lawyer had said, you're getting the lawsuits because you're busier than other people.
[09:00] SPEAKER_02: Meanwhile, I had been 19 years without any lawsuits.
[09:03] SPEAKER_02: And I came just to the conclusion, some you win, some you lose, some you settle.
[09:08] SPEAKER_02: In that specific instance, we won all three.
[09:11] SPEAKER_02: So it was, well, truthfully, we settled one.
[09:14] SPEAKER_02: I should have won it, but anyway.
[09:16] SPEAKER_02: But that's the way it goes.
[09:18] SPEAKER_02: Some you win, some you lose, and some you settle.
[09:20] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
[09:22] SPEAKER_00: So what have they been the biggest challenges for you for being an entrepreneur?
[09:28] SPEAKER_02: I think knowing where to go.
[09:31] SPEAKER_02: So it's a trial and error.
[09:33] SPEAKER_02: Once you get someone into your stable, you're going to go back to them.
[09:37] SPEAKER_02: Being an entrepreneur, you always have to be on.
[09:39] SPEAKER_02: There is never an off day.
[09:41] SPEAKER_02: And you always have to be upbeat.
[09:42] SPEAKER_02: And sometimes that's challenging, especially when you have to be the cook, the chef, the crack guy, the waiter, the, you know, whatever that business is, you, you touch every element of it.
[09:57] SPEAKER_02: There isn't a thing that you cannot take responsibility for.
[10:02] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
[10:03] SPEAKER_00: You know, you know who Jim Gray is, right?
[10:06] SPEAKER_00: Yes, I do.
[10:06] SPEAKER_00: Okay, so for our listeners out there who don't Jim Gray is an icon in Calgary veteran business man in the city.
[10:14] SPEAKER_00: Well, attached to the oil and gas industry and also a philanthropist, but I remember a couple years ago, there was a videographer in Calgary, Jeff Brett Shaw, who put together his website.
[10:28] SPEAKER_00: And it was called, I think it was called in it together.
[10:31] SPEAKER_00: And it was about dealing with the recession.
[10:35] SPEAKER_00: And so he had a bunch of these little video clips of prominent people, politicians and business leaders talking about the recession and dealing with it.
[10:48] SPEAKER_00: For some reason, Jim Gray's little spot kind of resonated with me and sticks to me to this day. And basically what Jim Gray said was in some sometimes recessions aren't bad.
[11:01] SPEAKER_00: And the reason he said that is because it helps people and businesses focus on their business and what they're doing to take a real critical look at their business model, a look at their spending and costs, etc.
[11:18] SPEAKER_00: And so I always resonated with me. And so I'm noting from your perspective, what do you think businesses are going to learn from this current recession?
[11:31] SPEAKER_02: Opportunity reveals the self at the time that you least expect.
[11:36] SPEAKER_02: The only thing you need to be doing is paying attention.
[11:39] SPEAKER_02: So I challenge everyone out there. Certainly when things have come my way, I look at a friend of mine that wrote a book and just in conversation, we came up with the name for his book.
[11:53] SPEAKER_02: I look at others, my sister, who started a company just 18 months ago and now she's into the six figures in terms of top line revenue.
[12:03] SPEAKER_02: Runaroundtown.ca in Toronto. It's cleaning. Now who knew that with COVID, we were going to lean into cleaning.
[12:10] SPEAKER_02: What's so remarkable is that when you can find the opportunity and something and I'll use my sister as an example.
[12:18] SPEAKER_02: So she has cleaners and she ran a special cleaning. How do you clean your oven?
[12:23] SPEAKER_02: So she went from $99 to $79 and then she sat every one of her cleaners down and they watched a YouTube video on how to clean another.
[12:33] SPEAKER_02: It was great.
[12:34] SPEAKER_00: Yeah. Okay. So now as you look forward, you know, where do you see things going?
[12:43] SPEAKER_00: You know, once we get through this COVID reality, you know, where do you see things going for businesses out there?
[12:51] SPEAKER_02: I think that businesses are going to have to re-engineer. I really do. And I also think that people in that middle age bracket are going to have to re-engineer.
[13:03] SPEAKER_02: I think the reality is that the jobs will not be there. We've now changed our habits.
[13:10] SPEAKER_02: So our habit isn't necessarily to go out and drop by on somebody.
[13:15] SPEAKER_02: So we've now made this shift in our habits. But yet our minds haven't quite gotten to.
[13:22] SPEAKER_02: I was used to making this. Now I believe in all of them. I'm going to have a job.
[13:27] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[13:27] SPEAKER_02: So it's going to take people to listen.
[13:31] SPEAKER_02: Life isn't a straight road. Nobody said it is.
[13:35] SPEAKER_02: So with these curve balls, we have to first look at ourselves.
[13:40] SPEAKER_02: Then we have to look at our families. Then we have to look at our businesses.
[13:44] SPEAKER_02: And then the common denominator on all of this stuff, whether it's business or social or political is community.
[13:53] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[13:54] SPEAKER_02: We think that vertical of community. We all have to find a new place.
[13:59] SPEAKER_00: So you're obviously two businesses on the go, the commercial real estate and the cannabis companies.
[14:08] SPEAKER_00: Obviously very busy as an entrepreneur. How do you find that work life balance to keep you sane?
[14:18] SPEAKER_02: Yeah. Well, first I thank you for saying I'm sane. That's awesome.
[14:24] SPEAKER_02: That's a good one for me.
[14:26] SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I get called a little colorful.
[14:29] SPEAKER_02: And I think that's probably part of the DNA of an entrepreneur.
[14:33] SPEAKER_02: As far as what's next, I am completely open.
[14:37] SPEAKER_02: Every day I am looking for opportunities. I see an opportunity.
[14:41] SPEAKER_02: I right now I have some vacant space in one of the buildings that I have.
[14:45] SPEAKER_02: And I have said to my kids, one of them just graduated.
[14:49] SPEAKER_02: I said, hang up a shingle. We've got a whiteboard.
[14:53] SPEAKER_02: And I don't care what the business is.
[14:55] SPEAKER_02: Now is the time for both youth and middle age and towards the end to start looking at these things that maybe how passion when you were younger and then you just kind of gone a job or I mean, I'm not saying it's going to be an easy road.
[15:12] SPEAKER_02: So it's not.
[15:13] SPEAKER_02: But with tenacity and perseverance and conviction of purpose, there's success at the end of that stick.
[15:22] SPEAKER_00: So how do you get beyond, I guess, that fear? How do you get beyond fear of change, a fear of taking a risk of doing something different?
[15:33] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I've really started listening to my intuition and I know for some people that might be a little out there.
[15:42] SPEAKER_02: But the interesting thing is and I start listening to your words.
[15:47] SPEAKER_02: So one of the things that I had said to my business partner was, you know, what we're all going to have to do things that we don't want to do.
[15:54] SPEAKER_02: And I kept on hammering this to him.
[15:56] SPEAKER_02: And then I turned around and thought, you know, within my own basket of things, I can call and get myself prepared for what is to come next.
[16:07] SPEAKER_02: So as a result, I ended up getting rid of some real estate that I own and now I'm ready for that next step.
[16:14] SPEAKER_02: So, but I'm still sitting on vacancy.
[16:15] SPEAKER_02: I've got the whiteboard with my daughter and we're just, we're going to full steam ahead with something.
[16:22] SPEAKER_02: I don't know what it is. Just hang up a shingle, go to the registry office, spend $300, become a president and make it happen.
[16:31] SPEAKER_00: Okay, super. Thanks for joining us today, Karen, on Calgary's podcast.
[16:35] SPEAKER_02: Thank you very much, my name.
[16:37] SPEAKER_00: Thanks for taking the time today to listen to Calgary's podcast on Canada's podcast network.
[16:44] SPEAKER_00: We hope you enjoyed the show today.
[16:46] SPEAKER_00: Make sure you sign up for our newsletters and write a review for us on iTunes and then connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn at Canada's podcast.
[16:58] SPEAKER_00: You can also check out what other entrepreneurs are doing across the country.
[17:03] SPEAKER_00: See you next time.