Invest in yourself to become an entrepreneur

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[00:00] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Canada's Podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_00: Hey everyone, I'm Phil Bliss.
[00:08] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Canada's Podcast.
[00:10] SPEAKER_00: I'm a business visionary
[00:12] SPEAKER_00: and I'm coming to you today from Toronto.
[00:15] SPEAKER_00: The Canada's Podcast we talked to entrepreneurs
[00:18] SPEAKER_00: who are making it happen across Canada.
[00:22] SPEAKER_00: But today we're with Vanessa Loroci,
[00:25] SPEAKER_00: who's a CPA and a CA.
[00:27] SPEAKER_00: Today, Vanessa is an authentic and energetic leader
[00:31] SPEAKER_00: who's known for her passion, for education and innovation,
[00:35] SPEAKER_00: which she brings to her current role,
[00:37] SPEAKER_00: the CEO and co-owner of BrainBot.
[00:41] SPEAKER_00: So Vanessa, welcome to Canada's Podcast.
[00:44] SPEAKER_00: Really nice to meet you.
[00:46] SPEAKER_00: As I normally do, what I'm going to ask you in three to five minutes,
[00:52] SPEAKER_00: this tells us more about your entrepreneurial journey,
[00:57] SPEAKER_00: why you started it, and where it is today,
[01:01] SPEAKER_00: and maybe without giving anything away,
[01:05] SPEAKER_00: what it future might be basically.
[01:07] SPEAKER_00: Sure.
[01:08] SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure about that last one,
[01:10] SPEAKER_02: but I can give her a shot.
[01:13] SPEAKER_02: Sure. So, you know, like most entrepreneurs,
[01:16] SPEAKER_02: I didn't necessarily jump right into entrepreneurship.
[01:21] SPEAKER_02: As a young person at a school,
[01:25] SPEAKER_02: I had a much more traditional path.
[01:27] SPEAKER_02: I was a chartered accountant.
[01:28] SPEAKER_02: I spent almost two decades at a large consulting firm
[01:33] SPEAKER_02: and a large bank.
[01:35] SPEAKER_02: So, about as conservative and structured as you can get,
[01:39] SPEAKER_02: I always did though,
[01:42] SPEAKER_02: it's just scratchers that related to building new things.
[01:46] SPEAKER_02: So, even within those jobs,
[01:48] SPEAKER_02: I was the person that always wanted to put my hand up
[01:51] SPEAKER_02: to start something new, try something different,
[01:54] SPEAKER_02: maybe take a risk on a new division or geography or product.
[01:59] SPEAKER_02: And I realized I really liked the opportunity to set a vision
[02:03] SPEAKER_02: and then a path to achieve that vision.
[02:07] SPEAKER_02: And started exploring a few entrepreneurial opportunities
[02:11] SPEAKER_02: in the start of world,
[02:14] SPEAKER_02: and probably around 2015-2016.
[02:18] SPEAKER_02: And then opportunistically,
[02:20] SPEAKER_02: one of my former clients from my M&A days approached me
[02:26] SPEAKER_02: because the business we sold at the time was an apparel business.
[02:32] SPEAKER_02: We had sold it in 2008.
[02:34] SPEAKER_02: I was the advisor.
[02:35] SPEAKER_02: The buyer had run into some troubles.
[02:38] SPEAKER_02: So, the original founding family wanted to reacquire the business,
[02:41] SPEAKER_02: but wanted to turn around CEO.
[02:43] SPEAKER_02: And so, I thought, this is a great way to actually finally
[02:46] SPEAKER_02: just jump in.
[02:48] SPEAKER_02: And so, I left Bastery and took on the wild task
[02:55] SPEAKER_02: of turning around an insulvent uniform company,
[02:59] SPEAKER_02: which wasn't tech,
[03:02] SPEAKER_02: it wasn't an exponential growth industry,
[03:05] SPEAKER_02: but certainly over the five years that I was leading
[03:10] SPEAKER_02: that turn around, I learned a heck of a lot.
[03:14] SPEAKER_02: I realized I really loved running a business,
[03:17] SPEAKER_02: motivating people, all that good stuff.
[03:20] SPEAKER_02: And so, when that exit was complete in June,
[03:25] SPEAKER_02: I knew right away that I wanted to find my next venture.
[03:30] SPEAKER_02: And again, I mean, this is life, perhaps I'm really lucky.
[03:34] SPEAKER_02: I, through my personal network,
[03:36] SPEAKER_02: was introduced to the search fund structure,
[03:40] SPEAKER_02: which is a funding structure available to entrepreneurs
[03:44] SPEAKER_02: interested in acquiring and running businesses,
[03:46] SPEAKER_02: but also being meaningful co-owners.
[03:49] SPEAKER_02: So, I had a few conversations with Sage Capital,
[03:53] SPEAKER_02: Glen Slavestri, and he agreed to do a search
[03:57] SPEAKER_02: and support me on an acquisition.
[04:00] SPEAKER_02: To be honest, normally this type of process takes one or two years,
[04:04] SPEAKER_02: and I have to say we were fairly fortunate
[04:10] SPEAKER_02: because within six months we had sourced and negotiated
[04:13] SPEAKER_02: and closed the acquisition of Brainpower and Richmond programs,
[04:17] SPEAKER_02: which unlike my last acquisition was in a sector
[04:21] SPEAKER_02: that I was really excited about, that being education.
[04:25] SPEAKER_01: Okay.
[04:27] SPEAKER_02: So, those are the brass tax.
[04:29] SPEAKER_02: I'm just sorry.
[04:30] SPEAKER_00: No, you had financing in there and the position
[04:34] SPEAKER_00: and things like that.
[04:37] SPEAKER_00: And I think everyone needs some kind of financing
[04:40] SPEAKER_00: to start a company, whether it's self-funded,
[04:44] SPEAKER_00: whether it is.
[04:45] SPEAKER_00: Whatever.
[04:46] SPEAKER_00: And you have a lot of knowledge in that area.
[04:51] SPEAKER_00: I guess one of the things is,
[04:53] SPEAKER_00: what would you say the key elements were attracting
[04:57] SPEAKER_00: and winning the confidence of investors?
[05:02] SPEAKER_02: That's a great question.
[05:03] SPEAKER_02: I was really fascinated, actually, by my experience
[05:08] SPEAKER_02: as the person raising the capital versus the person advising,
[05:13] SPEAKER_02: the person raising the capital.
[05:15] SPEAKER_02: I would say, you know, as an advisor,
[05:18] SPEAKER_02: you know, you certainly craft a story,
[05:21] SPEAKER_02: you have a model, you know,
[05:23] SPEAKER_02: there's all those things you need to have done, right?
[05:25] SPEAKER_02: A business case, a really sound vision
[05:30] SPEAKER_02: of where is this business going and what are the unit economics
[05:34] SPEAKER_02: and what's it all going to look like?
[05:36] SPEAKER_02: And you know, those are all the technical things.
[05:38] SPEAKER_02: But I would say when you're dealing with private investors
[05:42] SPEAKER_02: and writing a check, I found what they were most interested in
[05:45] SPEAKER_02: is actually getting to know me.
[05:47] SPEAKER_02: Who am I?
[05:48] SPEAKER_02: What makes me tech?
[05:49] SPEAKER_02: Am I going to be able to deal with the ups and downs
[05:52] SPEAKER_02: of being an entrepreneur?
[05:53] SPEAKER_02: Have I faced hardship?
[05:55] SPEAKER_02: You know, am I going to be able to pick myself up
[05:57] SPEAKER_02: when things go sideways?
[05:58] SPEAKER_02: Those are the sort of qualitative questions
[06:01] SPEAKER_02: that investors may not have asked directly.
[06:04] SPEAKER_02: But certainly in our conversations,
[06:06] SPEAKER_02: those are the things they were probing for.
[06:09] SPEAKER_02: You know, can you, are you actually going to be able
[06:12] SPEAKER_02: to stand up and get this done knowing it's going to be pretty hard?
[06:15] SPEAKER_00: So is it, is it, you know,
[06:18] SPEAKER_00: is it less about the pitch deck and more about the people?
[06:24] SPEAKER_02: I thought so.
[06:25] SPEAKER_02: Yes.
[06:26] SPEAKER_02: And that's a very different answer than I would have given
[06:29] SPEAKER_02: as an advisor, right, where I was, you know,
[06:33] SPEAKER_02: I would have thought it's all about the pitch deck
[06:34] SPEAKER_02: and the story.
[06:35] SPEAKER_02: And that's certainly table stakes.
[06:38] SPEAKER_02: You need to have that.
[06:39] SPEAKER_02: So if you don't have that, forget it.
[06:41] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[06:42] SPEAKER_02: But if you have that and you cannot connect with an investor
[06:45] SPEAKER_02: and win their confidence,
[06:48] SPEAKER_02: you're probably not going to be able to raise capital.
[06:50] SPEAKER_02: And there's all kinds of things that play into winning an investor's confidence.
[06:54] SPEAKER_02: It's not just the numbers in the story.
[06:57] SPEAKER_02: It's, it's about who you are.
[06:59] SPEAKER_02: And, you know, you get into a relationship with investors.
[07:01] SPEAKER_02: You're in a relationship for five, six years.
[07:03] SPEAKER_02: Like you really, like you actually want to like the people.
[07:06] SPEAKER_02: You want to be able to have a coffee with Tham.
[07:08] SPEAKER_02: And, you know, have effective board meetings.
[07:10] SPEAKER_02: And generally know that it's a good human sitting across from you.
[07:15] SPEAKER_02: The table because your partners.
[07:19] SPEAKER_00: So, you know, you've got kids.
[07:24] SPEAKER_00: I do.
[07:24] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[07:25] SPEAKER_00: What does a typical day look like for you?
[07:28] SPEAKER_00: You know, your high power running business or go on with it.
[07:34] SPEAKER_00: You know, how do you maintain the kind of focus that you,
[07:37] SPEAKER_00: you got to have that kind of focus to succeed.
[07:40] SPEAKER_00: You know, and, and also have fun in the business as well.
[07:44] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's, I'm not going to lie.
[07:46] SPEAKER_02: It's hard.
[07:47] SPEAKER_02: And, you know, my son is 15 now.
[07:50] SPEAKER_02: And I have to be honest that this would have been much harder.
[07:54] SPEAKER_02: If, if he was back in his toddler days.
[07:57] SPEAKER_02: He's fairly independent.
[07:58] SPEAKER_02: But I would say I do try to make a part of the journey.
[08:03] SPEAKER_02: And what I mean by that is one thing about being a CEO and business owner is you do have flexibility
[08:09] SPEAKER_02: and how and when you get your work done.
[08:12] SPEAKER_02: And so it's not unusual for me to bring my son to work to help me with something.
[08:17] SPEAKER_02: This summer we did a lot of outdoor marketing activities and he was my right hand.
[08:22] SPEAKER_02: And so I would say that my days are really long, especially given that brain power runs after school weekend enrichment programs.
[08:31] SPEAKER_02: There's really no off switch because I'm doing all the stuff you need to do to run the business during the day.
[08:35] SPEAKER_02: And then all sorts of things happen evenings and weekends that need my attention.
[08:40] SPEAKER_02: And so it is always on for sure.
[08:43] SPEAKER_02: But I've tried to integrate him into that and take the approach that is a really unique experience for a teenager to be part of the, you know, inner circle of this business.
[08:57] SPEAKER_02: I certainly didn't have that kind of exposure experience when I was a teenager.
[09:01] SPEAKER_00: So, I was a entrepreneur.
[09:07] SPEAKER_00: You basically turned around one business and bought into a growing another business, which is a little, right.
[09:19] SPEAKER_00: You know, you were the founder in the, right.
[09:23] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[09:26] SPEAKER_00: But that's fairly common way into entrepreneurship, especially, you know, for someone that you said got a, got a solid career before and.
[09:38] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[09:39] SPEAKER_00: I mean, what's the most important items because you're, you know, you're on your second journey on this kind of thing?
[09:49] SPEAKER_00: What's the most important items?
[09:51] SPEAKER_00: I mean, what do you do when you go into these things and say, OK, I've got to do you look and you say this, this, this, this, those top three or four things.
[10:01] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think well, I think the most important thing for someone like me and my shoe stepping into a founder or family led business is.
[10:10] SPEAKER_02: You really don't know anything on day one.
[10:14] SPEAKER_02: I might have all kinds of credentials and experience, but in a business is a living, breathing organism.
[10:21] SPEAKER_02: And I think the most important thing for a new CEO or new co owner to do is really to observe and listen to understand what is it.
[10:30] SPEAKER_02: What is the magic of this business? What has made it successful?
[10:35] SPEAKER_02: What makes the people tick?
[10:37] SPEAKER_02: And I can share, you know, in my first venture, which was manufacturing and retail.
[10:44] SPEAKER_02: Completely different employee profile than my current team, where folks are PhD academics.
[10:50] SPEAKER_02: And so I could, I probably could have got to more opposite group people to lead.
[10:54] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so really observing and understanding, because if I had taken the playbook from the bank and applied it to McCarthy uniforms, I would have failed.
[11:05] SPEAKER_02: And if I'd taken my playbook from McCarthy uniforms and applied it at brain power, I would, I would be failing right now.
[11:11] SPEAKER_02: And so I generally take the approach to zip it and really observe, listen.
[11:15] SPEAKER_02: And when the confidence of the team for the first four to six months and then make them part of their revision and exercise to say, I think the first six months of a CEO transition is a little bit like flying a stunt plane.
[11:31] SPEAKER_02: You know, you got this transition, you're moving from this, you know, family style of management, which is unique to a family's goals and preferences that it might not always be aligned with what a PE backed growth business would do.
[11:45] SPEAKER_02: So you have to change all that and, you know, you first have to make sure that the baton is passed.
[11:52] SPEAKER_02: And you can actually run with it because there is a risk.
[11:57] SPEAKER_02: If you start running too fast on day two, you can blow the whole thing up. And this happens all the time with with trend. I see that, you know, when I worked in the M&A, I just saw this all the time, like goodness.
[12:09] SPEAKER_02: So, and I think that's a hard thing because the type of person who wants to do a growth PE backs CEO gig probably also isn't the most patient person myself being one of them.
[12:23] SPEAKER_02: And so it takes a lot of discipline to zip it and say, I'm just going to, I'm going to watch to see how this plays out because I really need to understand the process and what's going on here before I change it.
[12:35] SPEAKER_00: So, you know, you had a really good career on the right, the right three or anything and stuff like that, but an excellent career.
[12:45] SPEAKER_00: Are you like that our entrepreneurs will be weird, will we wired?
[12:52] SPEAKER_02: I think so. I do. I often say, gosh, my life and my family's life would be so much easier.
[12:59] SPEAKER_02: You know, if I had stayed a PWC and, you know, I probably would have been a partner by now, you know, I would have been 25 years in, I would have had a decent pension, you know, same thing with the bank.
[13:13] SPEAKER_02: And yeah, I think that there is something about the intrinsic motivation of building a business and taking a risk that drives entrepreneurs and that drives drowns out all other logical reasoning because it is very high risk and it's hard.
[13:35] SPEAKER_02: You know, it's really hard. It's not a sharing story with one of my friends who's thinking of doing a search and, you know, last week on Thursday night, I was on a panel at the Rotman School and I woke up to all these lovely emails about, well, second time CEO, this is so inspirational. And then I went to work and no one had taken the garbage out. So there was like, mess all over the floor. There was, you know, just a disaster and I, you know, I had to wash the floor.
[14:07] SPEAKER_02: I had to put the garbage in my car and drive the garbage to my house. And that was my morning. And so those are the highs and lows when you're running a mid market business. And that's the reality. If you don't want to stand at a booth or take out the garbage, this isn't for you.
[14:23] SPEAKER_00: If you could go back in time was, you know, what advice would you give yourself maybe, you know, 15 years ago?
[14:35] SPEAKER_02: Probably to trust my instinct a bit more because if I trace back, I was almost going to start a business or almost going to join the startup.
[14:47] SPEAKER_02: So many times in my 20s and early 30s and, you know, it was the advice of friends and family regarding you spent so much time building your career. You make it money. You know, don't be insane.
[15:02] SPEAKER_02: And, you know, I took their advice and it was good advice. And as a result, I have a decent safety net. So that's good. But the desire to do this didn't go away.
[15:12] SPEAKER_02: And so I wish I had just trusted in myself a little more because when I did finally take the leap and started spending a lot more time with entrepreneurs, you start realizing, well, I'm really investing in myself when I'm an entrepreneur and taking a bet on myself, which I should be comfortable to do.
[15:33] SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I would just listen to myself a little more rather than all the voices around me.
[15:39] SPEAKER_00: Big new advice, you know, mentors are so down the point in our lives. You know, what's that, what's the best piece of advice that you've received?
[15:47] SPEAKER_00: The kind of piece that you, you know, you carry around with you, you never, you know, it's always there. You know, you can reach somehow or at least I have two or three things that I have that are constants.
[16:04] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, one piece of advice regarding running a private business, I would say it hurt us from lots of entrepreneurs, not just one is leave your ego at the door.
[16:14] SPEAKER_02: For sure. And when you're this CEO of a smaller business, you're not the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. So you have to be willing to roll up your sleeves and really communicating connect with people on various different levels.
[16:30] SPEAKER_02: That's so important. Businesses all about people to leave you go at the doors is for sure one that's important.
[16:37] SPEAKER_02: And one that strangely many, many CEOs miss, especially coming from corporate where you're coming from a world where there was, you know, someone that picked out a piece of art for your office and you had an assistant and someone that gave your schedule every day.
[16:51] SPEAKER_02: Like none of that exists in the world of small private businesses.
[16:55] SPEAKER_02: So that's that's very, very important, I think.
[17:00] SPEAKER_02: You know, I think the other piece of advice I got from an entrepreneur many years ago, just was this concept that, you know, you're always going to be juggling many, many things as an entrepreneur, but know which of the balls you're juggling our glass and which I rubber.
[17:16] SPEAKER_02: Because the reality is you're going to drop some balls running a business. There's just too many things constantly going on.
[17:24] SPEAKER_02: And if you focus on the rubber balls and so the glass ones, you know, obviously follow the metaphor. It's not good outcome.
[17:32] SPEAKER_02: Yeah. And so sometimes I say to myself, you know, that's a rubber ball. You know, my website, it needs a bit of updating in one of these sections that really no one looks at that's a rubber ball.
[17:42] SPEAKER_02: It shouldn't be on the first thing on my to do list, you know, the parent that emailed me this morning with it, you know, a concern.
[17:49] SPEAKER_02: That's a glass ball. You know, if I set her, she can withdraw, she can leave it bad Google review, she can tell all her friends. And so, you know, that's what I'm going to focus on versus this other less important thing.
[18:01] SPEAKER_02: And that skill, I don't know what that's called. It's just it's a form of juggling.
[18:07] SPEAKER_02: But you know, you're constantly juggling and reprioritizing. So I had a T du list for today. And I'd say 50% of it's already been a consequence based on just reprioritizing.
[18:17] SPEAKER_00: As long as it is a rubber ball keeps bouncing back to you.
[18:21] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[18:22] SPEAKER_00: I just think you got me going there.
[18:24] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[18:25] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[18:25] SPEAKER_00: You know, so you've lived a corporate life, you're living the entrepreneurial life.
[18:31] SPEAKER_00: What's the best thing about being an entrepreneur versus being a corporate person? Or is it the same room? I don't mean that.
[18:42] SPEAKER_02: Yeah. Yeah. No. I mean, I think this is very personal.
[18:47] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[18:47] SPEAKER_02: So for me, the, you know, people are driven by different things. I'm really motivated by the idea that I can set like a creative vision and target and go after it.
[19:02] SPEAKER_02: I'm not afraid of the hard work to get there. And I'm not afraid of, you know, planting a flag in the ground that I want to hit a goal.
[19:10] SPEAKER_02: And so that's very motivating for me, the ability to set my course.
[19:15] SPEAKER_02: That's also very scary and not at all what corporate life is because the definition of corporate life is you're literally following someone else's course.
[19:22] SPEAKER_02: So, you know, I think that's one of the different insulators of entrepreneurial life. But for me, that's a variable wording.
[19:29] SPEAKER_02: You know, to be able to, I was working on my strategic plan on the weekend. You know, I had my coffee. You know, I was like, maybe I should take the business this way. Maybe I should take it that way.
[19:38] SPEAKER_02: And I just, I felt happy doing that.
[19:40] SPEAKER_02: Whereas someone else that could cause them a lot of stress. I've certainly seen it in team members. You know, there's, there's people on my team that much prefer.
[19:49] SPEAKER_02: You know, here's where we're going. And here are the things you have to do. And I'll just measure you on these tasks versus blue sky.
[19:57] SPEAKER_02: Where do you think we should go? That's, that's a scary question for a lot of people.
[20:01] SPEAKER_00: What book are you reading now or listening to or, you know, what podcasts do you, of course, listen to kind of canvas podcast.
[20:13] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, this is a great podcast.
[20:15] SPEAKER_00: What podcast do you do? We all do read listen to books, listen to podcasts. I mean, that's that if you're that kind of person, that's what we do.
[20:27] SPEAKER_00: What, what, what, what to be listened to read recently that's, that's impacted you.
[20:35] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I'm in a phase where, and I think this is, given where I'm at, and I'm six months into this venture, I would say, MPR, how I built this is a podcast where Guy Razz interviews entrepreneurs about their journey from startup to scale up.
[20:53] SPEAKER_02: And I find that like a very comforting and rewarding podcast to listen to because I got lots of good advice.
[21:03] SPEAKER_02: But be sort of, you know, find comfort in knowing their steps and downs. And none of these great businesses, you know, is just listening to the NPR podcast about SoulCycle and some of the ups and downs from that business, which had some parallels to my current business.
[21:21] SPEAKER_02: It's a service business big market.
[21:24] SPEAKER_02: You know, differentiating based on a premium experience and, and listening to that, like I got so many good ideas, but I also just felt like, okay, it's supposed to go like this.
[21:34] SPEAKER_02: They're supposed to be good days and bad days.
[21:35] SPEAKER_02: So I love that podcast.
[21:38] SPEAKER_02: I also love Masters of Scale by Reed Hoffman. Same reason. I think it's because it's so relevant to where I'm at right now.
[21:45] SPEAKER_02: And so those are two of my favorites.
[21:48] SPEAKER_02: I am trying to read right now outside of business interests.
[21:55] SPEAKER_02: And so because I'm running a business, yeah.
[22:00] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[22:03] SPEAKER_00: You know, if you had to pick one word to describe yourself, what would it be?
[22:10] SPEAKER_00: Restless.
[22:11] SPEAKER_00: Restless.
[22:12] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[22:13] SPEAKER_00: New one.
[22:16] SPEAKER_02: Oh gosh.
[22:17] SPEAKER_02: I had to write, I had to write an article for about brain power.
[22:23] SPEAKER_02: And I had to, the reason I answered so quickly is I had to pick a word to describe myself often.
[22:28] SPEAKER_02: I think I picked, yeah, I did pick a restless.
[22:30] SPEAKER_02: And, and yeah, I think that that's part of the nature of, you know, people that are doing the kind of thing I'm putting right now.
[22:36] SPEAKER_02: I mean, I closed a great exit in June.
[22:40] SPEAKER_02: I had nothing but a summer of sunshine to contemplate last June.
[22:44] SPEAKER_02: And instead, I did this crazy thing again of going and raising capital and buying a scale up that was even smaller than my first business.
[22:54] SPEAKER_02: So, you know, the smaller the starting point, the messier the scaling process for sure.
[22:59] SPEAKER_02: Even though that first business was insolvent and that had its own challenges, it had a little more scale.
[23:05] SPEAKER_02: Like it had a team that finance department, like I'm sort of in the, in the build mode right, right from the get go on this one.
[23:13] SPEAKER_00: Are you a morning or a night person?
[23:15] SPEAKER_00: I ask everybody that.
[23:18] SPEAKER_02: I'm sadly for my current life.
[23:20] SPEAKER_02: I'm a morning person.
[23:21] SPEAKER_02: And so my business is a night business.
[23:24] SPEAKER_02: So that's been interesting.
[23:25] SPEAKER_02: That's made me a little tired, all admit.
[23:26] SPEAKER_02: And I'm just adjusting to how do I set boundaries and and actually accept that I'm just never going to be fully functioning really late at night.
[23:36] SPEAKER_02: So I need to have a team that compensates for that.
[23:40] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[23:41] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[23:42] Speaker UNKNOWN: 
[23:43] SPEAKER_00: What kind of job would you not like to do?
[23:46] SPEAKER_00: I wish you enjoyed.
[23:47] SPEAKER_00: I know.
[23:50] SPEAKER_00: Fun.
[23:51] SPEAKER_02: The funny answer.
[23:53] SPEAKER_02: Seeing as I'm an accountant, but I really didn't like being a accountant.
[23:57] SPEAKER_02: So I can say with great confidence.
[23:59] SPEAKER_02: When I was an auditor, you know, and gosh, this is the value of really exploring what you study in school because I mean I spent all this time.
[24:07] SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm stressed getting through the accounting exams and getting my designation and anyone who's been through a can tell you like it's really has to go through the ringer.
[24:17] SPEAKER_02: And started auditing and I remember thinking, oh, I really don't like that.
[24:22] SPEAKER_02: Like I hate it.
[24:24] SPEAKER_02: It's been on this.
[24:25] SPEAKER_02: It's very detail oriented.
[24:27] SPEAKER_02: It's rigid.
[24:29] SPEAKER_01: And those are all the things that don't bring me any kind of joy at all.
[24:36] SPEAKER_01: You know, what do you mean you're you're fairly new into this business?
[24:44] SPEAKER_00: What are you most excited about in the business?
[24:49] SPEAKER_00: You know, for over the next 12 to 18 months.
[24:53] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[24:54] SPEAKER_02: So good question.
[24:56] SPEAKER_02: I think this is the first time I am so excited about the impact we create at brain power.
[25:01] SPEAKER_02: We are connecting these amazing brilliant faculty with high potential kids.
[25:10] SPEAKER_02: And when you facilitate that connection, it's so fantastic to see the outcome.
[25:16] SPEAKER_02: But these kids are just incredible.
[25:17] SPEAKER_02: They just blow my mind and being part of that and seeing that that is the outcome of my work is so rewarding.
[25:25] SPEAKER_02: And not that other businesses I worked with weren't rewarding.
[25:28] SPEAKER_02: But this one's particularly purpose driven.
[25:31] SPEAKER_02: And so I think I like hit the balance of, you know, doing work that I really love and I'm passionate about is also a great business because it's a huge market and gosh, there's there's so much demand.
[25:44] SPEAKER_02: I mean, every child in the world could could use more education really.
[25:50] SPEAKER_02: And that that's a pretty darn big market.
[25:56] SPEAKER_00: So I'm just looking at my 30 minutes.
[26:02] SPEAKER_00: So how can people get a hold of you?
[26:05] SPEAKER_00: Is there something they want to talk to you about?
[26:08] SPEAKER_02: That looks easy.
[26:12] SPEAKER_02: I'm a brain power enrichment program.
[26:15] SPEAKER_02: My email is Vanessa V a N Esa at brainpower dot C a.
[26:21] SPEAKER_02: That's pretty easy.
[26:23] SPEAKER_02: You can also check out our website brain power or brain power dot C a or Instagram handle same name.
[26:30] SPEAKER_02: And we have programs for kids ranging grade one to grade 12.
[26:36] SPEAKER_02: And some pretty exciting summer and seasonal programs is in addition to our core annual programs.
[26:42] SPEAKER_02: So for anyone listening that is looking for enrichment programming, visit us at brain power.
[26:48] SPEAKER_02: Or if you just want some advice, I'm also a fairly active mentor in the entrepreneurial community, not just to mentor other people because I learn just as much from these conversations myself.
[27:05] SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
[27:07] SPEAKER_01: Fantastic meeting you.
[27:08] Speaker UNKNOWN: 
[27:10] SPEAKER_01: Vanessa, thanks again.
[27:11] SPEAKER_01: Been great meeting you.