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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_00: It's VanCoovers Podcast on the Canada's Podcast Network.
[00:27] SPEAKER_01: Hello, this is Robert Smigel coming to today with VanCoovers Podcast, a member of the Canada's Podcast Network,
[00:33] SPEAKER_01: where we talk to the entrepreneurs who are making it happen here in Vancouver, British Columbia.
[00:38] SPEAKER_01: Christian Hayward has been educating children and adults for over 40 years.
[00:44] SPEAKER_01: She established her unique parent and youth book clubs in 1996 and founded the LICYM in 2007,
[00:51] SPEAKER_01: where she now facilitates 11 book clubs, seven writers workshops and literature and art classes for young children with her talented staff.
[01:00] SPEAKER_01: The LICYM's unique and specialized learning environment is designed to bring out the best in all program participants.
[01:07] SPEAKER_01: She is committed to building community and inspiring a sense of social responsibility and those that she engages with.
[01:16] SPEAKER_01: Well, Christian, welcome to the show. Thanks for taking the time today to be here for all our listeners.
[01:21] SPEAKER_02: Thanks very much for having me, Robert.
[01:23] SPEAKER_01: Okay, I want you to tell us a little bit more about yourself, where you're from and give us the details on your current business.
[01:31] SPEAKER_02: Sure, I'll try to keep it short. I was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and eventually my parents made it out to Edmonton, where they had my four brothers.
[01:43] SPEAKER_02: So I four younger brothers. My parents who are of modest means, both of them worked.
[01:50] SPEAKER_02: All five of us children went to public school and all five of us have gone on to do postdocs because our parents were both very keen on education.
[02:04] SPEAKER_02: They both came from families that put a lot of importance on education.
[02:09] SPEAKER_02: And remarkably, it wasn't just the schooling education.
[02:14] SPEAKER_02: When we each turned 18, we were given, we were matched in whatever money we had made by them.
[02:22] SPEAKER_02: We were given a match to travel across Canada because it was requirement that we saw a Canada to know where we came from before we traveled to Europe.
[02:32] SPEAKER_02: And then all of us have traveled Europe and traveled the world.
[02:35] SPEAKER_02: And I think that was a really big part of my parents belief in building that humble nature, but also just educating you on how you fit into the larger pond, not just the small pond.
[02:52] SPEAKER_02: My four brothers, I have a lawyer, a doctor, a philosopher, physicist, and an engineer. They all have bust the millionaire dollar value.
[03:07] SPEAKER_02: And then there's the eldest sister.
[03:10] SPEAKER_02: I've done my doctorate in education and done a postdoctorate in education again.
[03:17] SPEAKER_02: And in that, we don't put a lot of money into education.
[03:24] SPEAKER_02: So I have not bust the millionaire.
[03:27] SPEAKER_02: But I do feel that somewhat better about it when I was chatting with my brother who's a prominent lawyer and Vancouver.
[03:37] SPEAKER_02: I was chatting with him and saying, you know, as a businesswoman, how do you see me?
[03:41] SPEAKER_02: Because when I started the Lycium in 2007, I broke from teaching at universities and teaching in the school environment.
[03:55] SPEAKER_02: I broke from that into setting up the Lycium where I could bring my philosophies about co-constructing curriculum and into a business.
[04:09] SPEAKER_02: I had fought my professor in Britain, dying at when he wrote to me from Nottingham.
[04:17] SPEAKER_02: He was the...
[04:20] SPEAKER_02: In education, we need to learn the language of business.
[04:25] SPEAKER_02: And I had always said, no, business and education can never meet. Education cannot be run as a business.
[04:34] SPEAKER_02: I have had much opportunity to rethink that because running a business makes education sharper.
[04:44] SPEAKER_02: Whenever you have someone else covering your accountability, you can get a little bit lazy.
[04:54] SPEAKER_02: You lose some of your sharpness where having...
[04:58] SPEAKER_02: And my business, I have to be clear, is not a profitable business.
[05:04] SPEAKER_02: I call my business a social entrepreneurship if it's under the triple C that we have recognized in British Columbia as a business that is sustainable.
[05:16] SPEAKER_02: But it... everything goes back into the community.
[05:22] SPEAKER_02: So there's... I'm not making any money out of this.
[05:26] SPEAKER_02: But as my brother Ian said to me, he said that when you put the four of us together and you look at what investment you have made in community,
[05:38] SPEAKER_02: and the dividends that you have set out with the children and the adults that you touch every day of your life, you have outrun us tenfold.
[05:52] SPEAKER_02: And that was a little bit... it warned me out a little bit because I often feel somewhat humbled in that I'm not the money maker of the family.
[06:03] SPEAKER_02: But I do run a sustainable business. It's been here since 2007.
[06:09] SPEAKER_02: It warms my years when I hear children run down the street saying we're going to the LICM.
[06:15] SPEAKER_02: And it used to be just a fluently in my head. And here it is.
[06:20] SPEAKER_02: A place that runs and that is part of their community.
[06:24] SPEAKER_02: When I welcome in the open micers that come from the each side, all the way out to the west side to perform once a month on Friday evenings or the youth that come in here.
[06:38] SPEAKER_02: Because we go from the youngest member of our community is a year. We started a year.
[06:46] SPEAKER_02: And the eldest member that we've had is 99. So we cover the whole age range.
[06:51] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Now, did you need financing to start your company? How do you currently make money in your business now?
[06:58] SPEAKER_02: Okay. Well, to start off finding anywhere in Vancouver as a place to start up is very expensive.
[07:08] SPEAKER_02: I'm sure you have heard from all your other podcasters.
[07:13] SPEAKER_02: We found a place and it needed a lot of interior work.
[07:20] SPEAKER_02: And so my one brother said, Christian, I believe in you, you've always had this dream.
[07:27] SPEAKER_02: He said, I will give you 100,000 to play with. And that's it.
[07:32] SPEAKER_02: So with that 100,000, it took us about 50,000 to do the interior stuff that we had to do because you have there's rules.
[07:46] SPEAKER_02: You have to have the two washrooms, etc, etc. And so it took us about 50,000.
[07:52] SPEAKER_02: And then the rest went into getting us started up because there's a fairly large investment from by my standards, not by, you know, a different type of business.
[08:06] SPEAKER_02: But by my standards, there's a fairly big investment as far as in your computer wear and your just the materials that you need to generate curriculum.
[08:17] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Now what is the long term vision and what will your company look like in the future? Do you see the company expanding into other areas and where beyond Vancouver, BC or even Canada?
[08:30] SPEAKER_02: Well, when I have first started, I had thought about setting up pods, you know, in other areas, in other cities.
[08:40] SPEAKER_02: But with it, I see them the way it runs. It takes, well, we run seven days a week. We're open seven days a week. We open at eight and we close somewhere around 10 or 11 at night.
[08:52] SPEAKER_02: And so that doesn't leave a lot of possibility to expand just because to pay the overhead, both for staffing and for the building costs in Vancouver, it's not really feasible to do an expansion.
[09:12] SPEAKER_02: However, of late, I have been thinking that where I am directing my future is to we are moving towards a better place now where I think I can look at succession and and move my way into setting up a pod on Saturn Island where anytime I get off from here, I'm on Saturn.
[09:41] SPEAKER_02: I'm on Saturn, it's where my mother lives. I am well in sconce in that community. And I would like to set up a sort of a retreat center that would run some of the programs that we run here.
[09:56] SPEAKER_01: Okay. We've learned a little bit about you and we've learned a little bit about your company, but we want to talk about Vancouver now.
[10:02] SPEAKER_01: What are the biggest benefits for you and being an entrepreneur in Vancouver, BC? I want you to give us some of the good points about starting a company here, but I also want you to give us some of the tough things or challenges for our listeners so they can keep it out for them.
[10:18] SPEAKER_02: Vancouver, NBC in fact, is a great place for looking at alternative ways of doing things.
[10:26] SPEAKER_02: It's a west coast where people are open minded. It's a place where you can take risks.
[10:38] SPEAKER_02: I find that there I can talk to other people who have done alternative business models that look at education differently, for instance, I mean, home schooling.
[10:52] SPEAKER_02: We are one of the biggest homeschool populations in the country. And so there's alternative ways of doing things. When I teach at university, I'm not the students that come through here.
[11:06] SPEAKER_02: They have another way of looking at education that isn't locked up in schooling, that it's locked up or it's more visioned as lifelong learning.
[11:16] SPEAKER_02: And so I think that there is that environment in BC. They're open thinkers, by and large.
[11:27] SPEAKER_02: The top part is I think like you're hearing all the time. I hate that I lose some of our very best customers to Victoria, wherever it's cheaper to live for people with a middle income.
[11:43] SPEAKER_02: It's hard to pay the property taxes in Vancouver. I mean, this is a message that we hear over and over.
[11:53] SPEAKER_02: I definitely think it is worth it. I think it's worth it because of the immediacy of our environment. We get to see the sustainability of the environment, which is exactly how I think we need to look at the way we run business.
[12:08] SPEAKER_02: Instead of looking at profit, profit always means it's made on someone else's back. When we're looking at sustainability, it's like the same sustainability that we look at in the environment.
[12:20] SPEAKER_02: And I think that we have that rate ready for us. I would like to see that there is some sort of a little bit of a gift given to the landowners that are renting out.
[12:38] SPEAKER_02: To people in the arts or in because I see the arts as education. And I think that there was a little break in the property taxes that would make a difference.
[12:53] SPEAKER_02: And I mean, I've seen that in other provinces where there is a greater investment in the arts.
[12:59] SPEAKER_01: Okay, now we do some of our best work outside the office. Is there a place in the lower mainline close to where you live or work, where you like to go recharge or get inspired with ideas or just think about your business?
[13:10] SPEAKER_01: And does it change with the season, considering all the rain we get here?
[13:15] SPEAKER_02: I'm very lucky because the way that this business runs is it is integrated so that
[13:25] SPEAKER_02: when we're studying a particular maybe we're studying something with the environment or we're doing writing outside the lines, we will go and write down, we'll try to catch the flagger of five different beaches, having the beach right there such as a gift.
[13:46] SPEAKER_02: And so for me recharging is usually while like for instance, let me just tell you quickly about this past weekend, we had a Sherlock Holmes camp.
[13:58] SPEAKER_02: It was a sleepover, so we had a murder mystery. I've always been able to cross over my personal and private life so that they inform each other.
[14:08] SPEAKER_02: And I don't feel that divide that so many entrepreneurs feel that there's work and there's private mine inform each other.
[14:16] SPEAKER_02: And I think when I was able to bring those together, it just really freed me and freed both private and home life.
[14:26] SPEAKER_02: But so the murder scene was set at home so my son's partner became there she is lying down on the floor with rips and her shirt blood stands all over, lock it all the clues we need for the Sherlock Holmes camp.
[14:41] SPEAKER_02: And you know that was bringing my home and they really enjoyed it.
[14:48] SPEAKER_02: Then we have the sleep over here, they solve the mystery. And then the next night I've got a, we do a fundraiser each year for scholarships so that we can broaden our community.
[15:01] SPEAKER_02: And the one of the scholarship items is an evening with Christian and remarkably it seems to go well each year. It's one of our top items.
[15:11] SPEAKER_02: And so this year it was to a family that had two teen girls. And I was thinking, oh my gosh, what do I do with two teen girls. I was so tired from the sleepover.
[15:23] SPEAKER_02: And I thought what are teens well grants and wishes. So the lotus floating candle was born and I looked it up on Google. We found these incredible handles that we could make from folded papers.
[15:40] SPEAKER_02: Wax papers all that can go into the environment naturally put our rants and our wishes around the candles go down to Jericho.
[15:50] SPEAKER_02: This is at 11 30 on Sunday night. Go down to the the warmth there. And there's all these fishermen for Chinese heritage, these old men that are out there.
[16:01] SPEAKER_02: They're getting what they can for whatever. And we light these two girls and I light these six candles and float them out onto the water with these beautiful lotus lit up.
[16:14] SPEAKER_02: It was incredible. And this one man came up and he had his thumbs in the air and he went, she she she. And he tried, he didn't speak English.
[16:24] SPEAKER_02: First he tried to communicate that when he was a little boy, he had done such a thing. It brought together girls of a more affluent community with another community, a community they wouldn't normally see.
[16:39] SPEAKER_02: I get to watch that. I get to watch these candles go out into the night at midnight. That recharges me. I've got what it takes to meet Monday morning.
[16:50] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Now we have a lot of international listeners. So this next question I want you to speak to them. If you were to start all over again and you just moved here to Vancouver BC, but this time you don't know anyone knowing what you know now, what would you do? And how would you go about starting all over again as an entrepreneur?
[17:13] SPEAKER_02: Being able to ask a good question is key and not being afraid to go out and meet people. You've got to put yourself out there. I had my father, he always told me that the world is made a pessimist Christian.
[17:32] SPEAKER_02: You can choose to be an optimist. My mother always said it is more important to ask a good question and to nurture a sense of curiosity than knowing.
[17:46] SPEAKER_02: And I think when you're going to new place, if you go with that open mind, my mother said, if you have the question, you find possibility. It's more important than knowing.
[17:57] SPEAKER_02: If you already have preconceived ideas of what you will find here, then you have end places. It gives a sense of end rather than possibility.
[18:09] SPEAKER_02: So I think that if I was speaking to your international community, Vancouver has incredible possibilities. It's a matter of making those connections, talking to people.
[18:22] SPEAKER_02: And it's so much easier. I mean, the big thing for us and the success of our company, as you've heard, was on modest means. And yet it's very much a part of the community has been through communications.
[18:37] SPEAKER_02: We use our social media. We make sure that we're keeping up to date with whether it's now Snapchat instead of Instagram.
[18:47] SPEAKER_02: Making sure that we're up to date with that Facebook. We only meet a certain group with Facebook. You've got to have your website and things that are
[19:01] SPEAKER_02: setting up those platforms where there's something people get out of looking at your website. There is when we send out our newsletters, it's not just a newsletter about come and see the ICM or register your children there.
[19:15] SPEAKER_02: We take the time to give something back to the community. And when you go with that idea of you've got something to give and you're bringing to give to this community, you will find that there are many to that will be willing to share with you.
[19:33] SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's talk a little bit about your routine. What does the first hour look like for you when you get up in the morning, do a specific routine or a ritual that helps you get motivated to start your day?
[19:43] SPEAKER_02: I'm a night owl and an early riser. So I've never had trouble getting up. I really enjoy the birds in the morning and I enjoy the quiet.
[19:56] SPEAKER_02: As a single parent, late nights was when I could get my work done. And early mornings was that little bit of peace to myself. I am a coffee drinker.
[20:07] SPEAKER_02: So my day really takes its first kick off when I brew that cup of coffee. I also really believe in making your bed.
[20:18] SPEAKER_02: I think that that's the only thing to say, but getting up and the first thing I do is make my bed and then I've already done one job.
[20:27] SPEAKER_02: I've completed something because my day, the thing that I love about my work is that it's a challenge. I think I would really have trouble if I didn't have challenge in my life.
[20:43] SPEAKER_02: So I have really busy days and to start with accomplishing something as simple as my bed is made.
[20:51] SPEAKER_02: And then I go down and get the coffee and I tackle. It depends on how challenging things are. I tried to tackle at least two of the tough emails or tough situations I need to do that day because I'm fresh in the morning.
[21:07] SPEAKER_02: And they always seem more doable early in the morning. I find then late at night, the demons come in and it becomes tougher to do stuff.
[21:20] SPEAKER_02: I find that first thing in the morning, if I sit with that coffee, then I do those two tough emails. Then on the way into work, I try to, if I, you know, early enough that I can walk into work, I take in that beautiful ocean walk.
[21:36] SPEAKER_02: If not, I always make sure to look right as I'm driving along Cornwall and take in that incredible place that we live.
[21:46] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Do you think entrepreneurs have to be weird or unique in a positive way or wired differently?
[21:58] SPEAKER_02: I don't know. I think that we've come to a place in our lives and our time where entrepreneurship is much more than norm.
[22:09] SPEAKER_02: I don't see it as something odd. When I'm talking to the teens or working with the teens here at the LICM, most of them are going to be starting some small sideline business maybe to go along with what they work.
[22:29] SPEAKER_02: But a lot of people are looking at entrepreneurship from their homes and trying to balance that. I mean, one of the things in BC that's also a distraction is just all there is to do the scheme and the sports and just there's so much to do here.
[22:48] SPEAKER_02: We have this incredible festival scene. And so to be able to partake in that, it's if you can be more in charge of your time and how you do things.
[23:04] SPEAKER_02: I mean, that may sound a little idealistic, but I was listening to one of your podcasts and they said that being the entrepreneur is really different. And that's not my experience.
[23:17] SPEAKER_02: I'm finding the entrepreneur is something much more accessible. And people are sort of blending entrepreneurship and employee. And I think that's kind of cool.
[23:32] SPEAKER_01: Do you think that's a necessity in Vancouver because a lot of people have their regular paychecks and so forth, but they need to have a side hustle just kind of to pay bills and therefore being entrepreneurs just kind of a natural blend with everyday life for them.
[23:45] SPEAKER_02: Yeah. Yeah. I was thinking of it more, I guess, romantically, but I think yet that's probably the truth. It is more of a necessity. And so learning how to set up a small business.
[23:58] SPEAKER_02: I mean, we have such wonderful tools today at our fingertips. You can't go into a bookstore without finding many, many titles or are googling.
[24:08] SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's so much help out there for you want to self publish because we have authors that come in here on authors night out.
[24:17] SPEAKER_02: How to self publish how to put yourself out there on a platform, how to get set up with your website.
[24:24] SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of help out there. And so yes, it probably is a sad reflection of affording to live here that you do have to have something to supplement another income.
[24:36] SPEAKER_01: Okay. What books are you reading now and why are even audio books and can you recommend any books for listeners who are also aspiring entrepreneurs?
[24:45] SPEAKER_02: To be honest, in my line of business, there isn't a lot out there on your social entrepreneurship that isn't online.
[24:58] SPEAKER_02: So I tend to try to track what's the latest and Jacqueline Kerner, who's a local businesswoman in British Columbia.
[25:13] SPEAKER_02: I guess she got me started on triple C. And so I tried to, you know, bookmark articles that are coming up. So I do that.
[25:23] SPEAKER_02: I guess if I were to say the downside in Vancouver or really, I guess anywhere is finding those colleagues that are into social entrepreneurship.
[25:35] SPEAKER_02: For me, when you ask what I'm reading, that's kind of a chuckle because you are not able to visualize the liceum. But if you could, it has a very extensive library.
[25:48] SPEAKER_02: And well, it has three libraries. And it is, I have to read 48 novels a month because I present those to my book clubs.
[26:02] SPEAKER_02: So I'm reading all the time. I'm not necessarily reading on the entrepreneurship, but the reading that I find most helpful for me is keeping up with who's sweet.
[26:14] SPEAKER_02: Keeping up with what are going to be like documentation, documenting our programs so that I can make transparent to the customer the value in what I am giving to them.
[26:27] SPEAKER_02: My dream is for the everyday person to understand what the value like you pay for what you get in education.
[26:36] SPEAKER_02: And that is not something we're used to understanding. That's something attached to our taxes and not, I mean, in BC, we do have the private schooling system.
[26:48] SPEAKER_02: But we see that as something that's for the affluent, rather than education is something you get what you pay for and for businesses investing in education efforts.
[27:02] SPEAKER_02: I think it's something that increases their long term dividends and brings those employees to them because I hear non-stop about the fickle employee of today's world.
[27:19] SPEAKER_02: And if we don't invest in our youth, we can't expect anything else.
[27:23] SPEAKER_01: Any online or offline tools that you use on a daily basis?
[27:28] SPEAKER_02: Well, I mean, they're on a daily basis.
[27:36] SPEAKER_02: We find QuickBooks works really well for us. I'm not sure that it is the, when I'm thinking about your listeners, it might not be the admin program for everyone.
[27:50] SPEAKER_02: But for us, it is the best program and it allows us to do our financials and to run our reports. We run reports every day or there is no way we would keep this business afloat.
[28:05] SPEAKER_02: We have to know where we are every single day.
[28:08] SPEAKER_02: We, of course, you have our website. We every day, every program that we do it is documented.
[28:17] SPEAKER_02: So we've sent emails and photographs.
[28:20] SPEAKER_02: Our, all of our computers have to be saved so that the photographs that are loaded on one go to all of our computers so that we can send out the photographs immediately that day so that parents can visualize what their children were doing and what their experience was like.
[28:42] SPEAKER_02: Because, you know, pictures and the words that accompany that help to create that transparency about what it is that we do.
[28:52] SPEAKER_02: And if we can't talk about what we do in a business, that's what I love about business is that you are forced to be accountable.
[29:00] SPEAKER_02: And if you're not afraid of accountability and you're not afraid to what I would say to anyone, if you've made a mistake, own up to it.
[29:09] SPEAKER_02: Own up to it. People are willing to forgive if you honestly say how you came about it.
[29:17] SPEAKER_02: I mean, if you're operating, like QuickBooks keeps us on track with the government.
[29:24] SPEAKER_02: And then, I mean, the only other thing I would say to any future business owners is backup, backup, backup.
[29:32] SPEAKER_02: We have had, we've had some tragedies with our time capsules crashing out and luckily our synology, I would say go with synology and have a backup of the synology.
[29:47] SPEAKER_01: Okay. If you weren't doing what you do now, what would you like to do for a profession?
[29:56] SPEAKER_02: Robert, I'm doing exactly what I want to do. If I wasn't doing exactly what I want to do, there is no way I would do this.
[30:05] SPEAKER_02: There is no one who would do this. People look at me and say, you are so young. You can't possibly, I'm 61 Robert.
[30:13] SPEAKER_02: And people say, you are so young. The way I'm young is because I've never figured it out.
[30:21] SPEAKER_02: I've never figured it out. Every day is an adventure. Every day, I'm got problems in front of me.
[30:28] SPEAKER_02: And that's what I love. I love the problem. I love the chase. I love the, you know, the, the high that you get,
[30:39] SPEAKER_02: not quite like when you are embracing, co-constructing the curriculum, you don't necessarily know how it's going.
[30:46] SPEAKER_02: You have to be very well-prapped. You have to have a huge resource behind you.
[30:50] SPEAKER_02: But that excitement of making magic happen and not jumping into the abyss and finding your wings, I get to do that every day of my life.
[31:02] SPEAKER_02: And so I've never figured it out. I don't have a chance to be sitting there and think I know what's going on in the world.
[31:10] SPEAKER_02: I'm constantly seeking. And so I can't imagine doing anything else.
[31:15] SPEAKER_01: Okay. What kind of a job would you not like to do? Couldn't do it.
[31:21] SPEAKER_02: Something where it was the same thing every day. And I can't imagine I would ever be in that situation.
[31:27] SPEAKER_02: But it would be where I had to sit in an office. That's one of the things that's so great about the ICM is we're out and about.
[31:38] SPEAKER_02: I mean, we have eight community gardens. We do murals in the community where, where we're out.
[31:47] SPEAKER_02: I think being changed to an office, although I mean, I know that works for a lot of people.
[31:54] SPEAKER_02: I'm not saying that's not a good thing for other people. But for me, that would not work.
[32:00] SPEAKER_02: And having to do the same thing every day would be a death sentence.
[32:05] SPEAKER_01: In business, what is your favorite word quote or sentence that you like to use?
[32:11] SPEAKER_02: Well, while people hear me often say we choose the stories we tell.
[32:20] SPEAKER_02: And I stole that from a very famous news reporter, author Lisa Bernie.
[32:31] SPEAKER_02: And she inspired me greatly, both as a business person in her own right as an author.
[32:40] SPEAKER_02: And as a, just what she did in the world as a reporter and just as a human being.
[32:48] SPEAKER_02: And she said that we choose the stories we tell.
[32:53] SPEAKER_02: And I think that if we weave possibility, it's and and look at problems and hurdles and roadblocks as opportunities to learn as gifts to make us.
[33:09] SPEAKER_02: Think and to find pathways that inform us in the future through gifts.
[33:16] SPEAKER_02: If you look at it as.
[33:19] SPEAKER_02: This is the end rather than this is a gift to find a new pathway.
[33:25] SPEAKER_02: And I think if you how you look at things is so very important to what is the next outcome and how it works.
[33:35] SPEAKER_02: Like even if it is going to be tough, it'll be less tough with how you look at it.
[33:41] SPEAKER_02: And then I'm always quoted as saying a love of learning is caught not taught.
[33:47] SPEAKER_02: So I can't tell you, you know, love setting up your new business.
[33:53] SPEAKER_02: If you feel my passion, if you come and experience the lacing him with me, you can't think of anything else.
[34:02] SPEAKER_02: Because that that passion is contagious.
[34:06] SPEAKER_02: And when you've lost your passion, well, do something else.
[34:12] SPEAKER_01: What's your least favorite word or sentence you don't like to hear?
[34:18] SPEAKER_02: Yes, but I hate that.
[34:22] SPEAKER_02: Yes, but.
[34:23] SPEAKER_02: And.
[34:28] SPEAKER_02: I guess.
[34:31] SPEAKER_02: You don't understand.
[34:35] SPEAKER_02: You don't.
[34:36] SPEAKER_02: Because I think that if I don't understand, then let's look at other pathways to create understanding together.
[34:44] SPEAKER_02: I just can't find it such a shutdown and to or to say I can't do it.
[34:54] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think really seeing difficulties as possibility is is.
[35:05] SPEAKER_02: And the other that I really find difficult is the yes, but yes, but.
[35:10] SPEAKER_01: If you had to pick one or two words to describe yourself, what would it be and why?
[35:20] SPEAKER_02: I'm probably as a keen observer.
[35:27] SPEAKER_02: I'm my mother's daughter in that I'm very curious.
[35:31] SPEAKER_02: And so.
[35:34] SPEAKER_02: And I think that has really informed how I live my life and how I run my business is that.
[35:44] SPEAKER_02: I am an observer.
[35:46] SPEAKER_02: And so.
[35:48] SPEAKER_02: When you're an observer, you are an artist and you're a scientist because that's how we hypothesize is we have to observe things.
[35:57] SPEAKER_02: We have to see what doesn't fit in what's the anomaly what.
[36:01] SPEAKER_02: And what are the patterns and so I'm a pattern seeker.
[36:06] SPEAKER_02: I'm a problem solver.
[36:08] SPEAKER_02: I'm definitely.
[36:11] SPEAKER_02: I guess that the people who love me would say that.
[36:15] SPEAKER_02: I have a soft touch.
[36:17] SPEAKER_02: I like to help everyone.
[36:21] Speaker UNKNOWN:
[36:22] SPEAKER_01: Okay.
[36:23] SPEAKER_01: What keeps you up at night if anything.
[36:28] SPEAKER_02: Well, probably.
[36:32] SPEAKER_02: If anything keeps me up, it would be worrying.
[36:36] SPEAKER_02: Maybe about my sons and.
[36:41] SPEAKER_02: Just making sure that I've got enough to look after my employees.
[36:47] SPEAKER_02: My employees are my family.
[36:50] SPEAKER_02: And making sure I've got enough to look after them.
[36:53] SPEAKER_01: Okay. I want you to give us the top three things on your inspired lifeless.
[36:57] SPEAKER_01: This could be whether you want to write a book, whether you want to do a TEDx talk.
[37:01] SPEAKER_01: Do you want to travel more philanthropy, anything like that?
[37:06] SPEAKER_02: Definitely.
[37:07] SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's a self-suffering.
[37:09] SPEAKER_02: I want to do a TED talk.
[37:12] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'd really like to do a TED talk.
[37:16] SPEAKER_02: I guess because I think I come to a point in my life where I've learned something.
[37:23] SPEAKER_02: And I'd like to share it.
[37:25] SPEAKER_02: I'd like to inspire others.
[37:27] SPEAKER_02: I've learned something about education.
[37:30] SPEAKER_02: And I really like to share that.
[37:34] SPEAKER_02: The other thing I'd like to do is.
[37:37] SPEAKER_02: I'd, number two, I would like to write a book of the stories of the Lyceum.
[37:43] SPEAKER_02: There are so many incredible stories that happen every single day.
[37:47] SPEAKER_02: And one of the things that the children love to do, the adults love to do when they come in is,
[37:52] SPEAKER_02: what's the story of this?
[37:54] SPEAKER_02: What's the story of that?
[37:55] SPEAKER_02: Because it's a storied place.
[37:57] SPEAKER_02: And I'd like to capture the stories.
[38:00] SPEAKER_02: So that would be another thing.
[38:04] SPEAKER_02: To actually take the time and publish that.
[38:07] SPEAKER_02: And I guess bring a section of the Lyceum to Saterna.
[38:15] SPEAKER_02: And if I'm really selfish, one more thing.
[38:18] SPEAKER_02: More time hiking this beautiful province of ours.
[38:23] SPEAKER_02: I love the world.
[38:25] SPEAKER_02: I guess at one point I wanted to go to India that's one of the only places I haven't been.
[38:30] SPEAKER_02: I really love to go to.
[38:32] SPEAKER_02: Because my children are half Indian.
[38:36] SPEAKER_02: But if I don't get to go anywhere besides BC, I'm happy to not increase my carbon imprint.
[38:45] SPEAKER_02: And just spend time hiking this coastline with my boys and partners.
[38:50] SPEAKER_01: Okay. Do you have any advice that you may have received that you can pass on to entrepreneurs throughout BC?
[39:02] SPEAKER_02: I guess to believe in yourself.
[39:09] SPEAKER_02: And to know that there are people out there to help.
[39:14] SPEAKER_02: I mean, I was told, no, I can't tell you how many times Robert I was told no about the Lyceum.
[39:20] SPEAKER_02: And I mean, I will never forget Tom Martin who owns the building.
[39:25] SPEAKER_02: He actually is the architect who built this building.
[39:29] SPEAKER_02: Who, you know, he wanted, he wanted to lease this place to me.
[39:34] SPEAKER_02: He desperate. He fell in love with my vision.
[39:37] SPEAKER_02: But he financially also had to make it work.
[39:41] SPEAKER_02: And the city just was no, no, no, no, no.
[39:46] SPEAKER_02: Now at that time, the mayor was a customer at Kinsbots where I worked part-time.
[39:53] SPEAKER_02: I always work at Kinsbots to keep myself sharp.
[39:57] SPEAKER_02: You keep the, you get the newest books.
[39:59] SPEAKER_02: And also, it doesn't matter why I worked there.
[40:03] SPEAKER_02: But it was a great place.
[40:04] SPEAKER_02: But I helped the mayor, Sam Sullivan at that time.
[40:09] SPEAKER_02: I helped him choose his Christmas gifts for his staff.
[40:13] SPEAKER_02: And the incredible care that he put in to describing to me what he needed.
[40:21] SPEAKER_02: And the love that I put in to making sure he got exactly what he needed.
[40:26] SPEAKER_02: I had a little in there.
[40:27] SPEAKER_02: So when all was lost and I had already told a reporter I was leaving for Alberta.
[40:33] SPEAKER_02: This province didn't deserve what I had to give.
[40:36] SPEAKER_02: I was going back to Alberta.
[40:38] SPEAKER_02: I did one last thing.
[40:40] SPEAKER_02: I picked up the phone and I called the mayor.
[40:44] SPEAKER_02: And I said, you don't maybe know me.
[40:47] SPEAKER_02: I'm just another citizen.
[40:51] SPEAKER_02: You might know me.
[40:52] SPEAKER_02: I'm from the person that helped you choose your Christmas Kinsbots.
[40:55] SPEAKER_02: But I want to tell you what I'm facing.
[41:00] SPEAKER_02: Now, I don't know if Sam Sullivan broke a rule or if he just believes in education or he took a risk.
[41:08] SPEAKER_02: But the next day we had the papers.
[41:11] SPEAKER_02: I came back to Tom Morton here saying that we had the papers that we could go ahead with the building and the lease.
[41:21] SPEAKER_02: He looked at me and he said, I have been in this business because this is what he does for a long time.
[41:29] SPEAKER_02: Did you sleep with someone?
[41:34] SPEAKER_02: No, I called the mayor.
[41:37] SPEAKER_02: So never said they accept no.
[41:39] SPEAKER_02: There's always a way.
[41:42] SPEAKER_02: My mother said, the question, be curious and ask the question.
[41:48] SPEAKER_02: You can always look at the king.
[41:51] SPEAKER_02: It never hurts to ask the question.
[41:54] SPEAKER_02: We are all humans on the serve.
[41:56] SPEAKER_02: No one greater or less than anyone else asked the question.
[42:01] SPEAKER_02: And that's how I got the license.
[42:03] SPEAKER_01: Okay, interesting story.
[42:05] SPEAKER_01: Okay, Christian, are you ready?
[42:07] SPEAKER_01: Do you have some fun?
[42:08] SPEAKER_02: Yes, sure.
[42:09] SPEAKER_01: Okay, great.
[42:10] SPEAKER_01: Well, as an entrepreneur, we are all very busy.
[42:13] SPEAKER_01: People were always connected working long hours and we're always online most of the time.
[42:18] SPEAKER_01: We're going to take you away from all that.
[42:20] SPEAKER_01: There's a small tropical island just off of Fiji.
[42:22] SPEAKER_01: It only has one phone booth there.
[42:24] SPEAKER_01: There is no internet.
[42:25] SPEAKER_01: This place does exist.
[42:27] SPEAKER_01: We're going to drop you off there.
[42:29] SPEAKER_01: You won't have a computer or a smartphone or tablet.
[42:31] SPEAKER_01: You can use the phone booth located there any time to call the boat.
[42:34] SPEAKER_01: We'll come pick you up.
[42:36] SPEAKER_01: How long would you last before you made that call?
[42:39] SPEAKER_01: And what would you do while you were there?
[42:43] SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
[42:44] SPEAKER_02: This is a dream.
[42:46] SPEAKER_02: So somewhere on a TG and Island?
[42:48] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's just off of Fiji.
[42:51] SPEAKER_02: Well, how many books I've read about this?
[42:53] SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
[42:55] SPEAKER_02: A very long time.
[42:57] SPEAKER_02: A very long time.
[43:00] SPEAKER_02: Because I love the problem solving.
[43:02] SPEAKER_02: So first I would have to find a way to sustain myself, to get food, to get shelter,
[43:08] SPEAKER_02: and then a way to express my creativity, to be able to make things.
[43:14] SPEAKER_02: So I guess I would be like Robinson Crusoe.
[43:19] SPEAKER_02: I would be there.
[43:20] SPEAKER_02: I would set up my place.
[43:24] SPEAKER_02: Eventually, eventually.
[43:26] SPEAKER_02: I would have to call my sons.
[43:31] SPEAKER_02: I would have to call my sons and invite them to come and spend some time or bring their children
[43:38] SPEAKER_02: if they have children at that time to come and visit me.
[43:41] SPEAKER_02: But I wouldn't leave.
[43:43] SPEAKER_02: I don't think.
[43:45] SPEAKER_01: So the boat could be there for quite some time.
[43:48] SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
[43:49] SPEAKER_02: I would set up some sort of business with the local islands.
[43:53] SPEAKER_02: I would find a way.
[43:54] SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
[43:54] SPEAKER_02: That is a dream come true.
[43:56] SPEAKER_02: Are you really sending me there?
[43:58] SPEAKER_01: Well, we're just saying hypothetically just to see how we could react to a situation like that.
[44:05] SPEAKER_01: But never leaving.
[44:07] SPEAKER_01: I've never heard that one before.
[44:09] SPEAKER_02: Well, because it would allow me to use my creativity.
[44:11] SPEAKER_02: I would have to find a way to communicate.
[44:14] SPEAKER_02: I would have to find a way to find the next island to set up a way of sharing and learning
[44:23] SPEAKER_02: and sharing what I learned.
[44:25] SPEAKER_02: And there would be a business because I'd have to set up a way of trade.
[44:32] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, it'd be fun.
[44:34] SPEAKER_01: Okay, good.
[44:34] SPEAKER_01: We're going to wrap things up here.
[44:36] SPEAKER_01: How can our listeners get whole of you?
[44:37] SPEAKER_01: And is there anything you'd like to add before you leave us today?
[44:44] SPEAKER_02: Listeners can get hold of us at the LICM.
[44:46] SPEAKER_02: You just have to type in the word Christian.
[44:49] SPEAKER_02: And it comes up as Christians LICM of literature and art.
[44:54] SPEAKER_02: You can also get us at our phone number, 604, 7331, 356.
[45:02] SPEAKER_02: We are really good at answering our emails.
[45:05] SPEAKER_02: And you can contact us through the website as well.
[45:08] SPEAKER_02: Our Facebook page.
[45:09] SPEAKER_02: There's lots of ways to contact us, our Instagram, whatever.
[45:14] SPEAKER_02: As far as words for your listeners is, I guess to believe in yourself
[45:20] SPEAKER_02: and to seek possibility.
[45:23] SPEAKER_02: I think we have a rare opportunity on this Earth to deal with the challenges that we have.
[45:31] SPEAKER_02: We don't have forever.
[45:33] SPEAKER_02: And it's finding the way to be graceful in the way we live our lives
[45:40] SPEAKER_02: and the way we interact with others and take and give back.
[45:47] SPEAKER_01: Great. Okay. Christian, thank you for coming on the show.
[45:51] SPEAKER_01: I've learned a lot about you and I'm sure our listeners have as well.
[45:54] SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you very much.
[45:57] SPEAKER_01: Great. Okay. We'll see you next time.
[45:59] SPEAKER_02: Cheers.
[46:02] SPEAKER_00: Hey there. Thanks for taking the time today to listen to Vancouver's podcast on the Canada's podcast network.
[46:08] SPEAKER_00: We hope you enjoyed this shorty day.
[46:09] SPEAKER_00: Make sure you sign up for our new letters and write a review for us on iTunes.
[46:13] SPEAKER_00: And then connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, app and its podcast.
[46:19] SPEAKER_00: You can also check out what other entrepreneurs are doing across the country.
[46:23] SPEAKER_00: See you next time.
[46:45] Speaker UNKNOWN: You
