Entrepreneurs Require a Sense of Audacity. Do You Have What It Takes?

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[00:00] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_00: So, Graham, welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:07] SPEAKER_00: Great to see you.
[00:09] SPEAKER_00: Great to be here.
[00:11] SPEAKER_00: Before we go much further, I'll do my usual thing,
[00:14] SPEAKER_00: because nobody knows who the heck you are.
[00:16] SPEAKER_00: I've seen me a little bit, but tell us a little bit about your,
[00:21] SPEAKER_00: you know, your journey so far, why you started it,
[00:24] SPEAKER_00: and where you are today, you know,
[00:27] SPEAKER_00: what that lovely painting is behind you, you know,
[00:32] SPEAKER_00: what is it about?
[00:34] SPEAKER_00: You know, what's the space thing that you're living in?
[00:38] SPEAKER_00: That might give you a little lead in terms of promotion as well,
[00:41] SPEAKER_00: so that's fine.
[00:43] SPEAKER_00: Off you go.
[00:45] SPEAKER_01: So, the journey, I come from a marketing background in advertising as,
[00:51] SPEAKER_01: as, as, you know, very similar to space, the space you're in,
[00:56] SPEAKER_01: or you're familiar with.
[00:59] SPEAKER_01: And when I ran my agency, one thing that I recognized was that
[01:04] SPEAKER_01: about 95% of the time I was never in the office,
[01:06] SPEAKER_01: we were always going to see clients,
[01:08] SPEAKER_01: and that sort of planted the seed that, you know,
[01:11] SPEAKER_01: the office was probably not truly necessary for many people.
[01:17] SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's definitely has its value for people to be there,
[01:20] SPEAKER_01: at certain points, but not necessarily 100% of the time.
[01:24] SPEAKER_01: And then when you're on the road meeting clients,
[01:26] SPEAKER_01: finding a convenient place to meet somewhere that's professional,
[01:30] SPEAKER_01: somewhere that, you know, you're not tied to in terms of a long-term
[01:34] SPEAKER_01: lease or contract, that's not readily available.
[01:37] SPEAKER_01: You know, you find yourself in a Starbucks or a hotel lobby,
[01:40] SPEAKER_01: or, you know, by the airport gate, trying to get some more gunnerd,
[01:45] SPEAKER_01: or trying to do a video call, right?
[01:47] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, it kept growing over the years,
[01:52] SPEAKER_01: and then, you know, when I closed the agency,
[01:55] SPEAKER_01: and I was just into consulting,
[01:57] SPEAKER_01: it really accelerated the need for figuring this out.
[02:00] SPEAKER_01: And, you know, we also, you know, five years ago,
[02:04] SPEAKER_01: I was looking at technology platforms like Uber,
[02:08] SPEAKER_01: Airbnb, the on-demand economy, and I said,
[02:11] SPEAKER_01: you know, there's probably this really great opportunity
[02:13] SPEAKER_01: to create space that's on demand.
[02:17] SPEAKER_01: So, can you find something that's convenient, consistent,
[02:21] SPEAKER_01: and professional in between the destination office and the home?
[02:25] SPEAKER_01: And can you make it as seamless and easy as ordering food for Uber Eats?
[02:30] SPEAKER_01: You know, you can order, you can rent a desk by the hour,
[02:33] SPEAKER_01: or you can rent an office by the hour.
[02:34] SPEAKER_01: So, that's where the impetus started.
[02:36] SPEAKER_01: That's when we started, and been building it for the last five years.
[02:43] SPEAKER_01: And, you know, it's really accelerated.
[02:46] SPEAKER_01: COVID really sort of kicked it into high gear for us, you know?
[02:51] SPEAKER_00: So, let's go back to the source, Lily, feel like.
[02:54] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[02:56] SPEAKER_00: What motivated you, I mean, part of the show is,
[03:01] SPEAKER_00: you know, why are you an entrepreneur?
[03:03] SPEAKER_00: What motivated you?
[03:05] SPEAKER_00: You know, into it.
[03:06] SPEAKER_00: You know, it's not the most common route.
[03:12] Speaker UNKNOWN: 
[03:12] SPEAKER_00: So, no.
[03:14] SPEAKER_00: And I'm always interested to say, you know, why the heck did you go down this road, basically?
[03:21] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I, and that's a great question.
[03:24] SPEAKER_01: And I think every entrepreneur probably, at some point,
[03:28] SPEAKER_01: they do some sort of self-reflection in the assailant themselves,
[03:32] SPEAKER_01: and something must be wrong with me,
[03:33] SPEAKER_01: because you have to be wired to do it or you're not.
[03:37] SPEAKER_01: And it actually traces back to, you know, when I, when I was a kid.
[03:43] SPEAKER_01: We immigrated to Canada in 1978.
[03:46] SPEAKER_01: You know, as you're growing up in a new country, as you are, you know,
[03:52] SPEAKER_01: learning just some of the nuances of how to adapt and how to become part of
[03:59] SPEAKER_01: the new system that you're in,
[04:01] SPEAKER_01: you're faced with some realities, like you're faced with the realities that you are starting from scratch in many ways.
[04:08] SPEAKER_01: And so that's, that's part of the experience.
[04:11] SPEAKER_01: And then as you're growing up as a, as a kid,
[04:14] SPEAKER_01: you are looking at certain realities and you're saying, well, how do I make this happen?
[04:19] SPEAKER_01: How do I, you know, like what is, where are my opportunities going to come?
[04:24] SPEAKER_01: I don't have a template.
[04:25] SPEAKER_01: I don't have a mentorship.
[04:26] SPEAKER_01: I don't have, you know, I didn't have sort of the large networks of insight that I could pull on.
[04:35] SPEAKER_01: And so much of what I did, I had to just figure out, you know, like that's just,
[04:41] SPEAKER_01: I think that's where a lot of entrepreneurs start.
[04:44] SPEAKER_01: You could say, hey, there's a problem or there's a challenge.
[04:47] SPEAKER_01: And then I don't have anyone to ask.
[04:49] SPEAKER_01: So I got to figure out how to do this.
[04:51] SPEAKER_01: And opportunities usually fall out of that challenge, right?
[04:55] SPEAKER_01: Trying to figure things out.
[04:56] SPEAKER_01: So I've always been worried to do this.
[04:58] SPEAKER_01: My brother and I used to, you know, do lemonade stands, three paper routes,
[05:03] SPEAKER_01: anything to sort of move the needle.
[05:07] SPEAKER_01: You know, I remember starting, you know, a retail clothing line when it was in university.
[05:13] SPEAKER_01: And we had, we had a store downtown.
[05:16] SPEAKER_01: I remember when I, before getting into advertising grade 10,
[05:21] SPEAKER_01: someone coming to a marketing class and talking about the industry.
[05:25] SPEAKER_01: And I said, I'm going to have an agency one day.
[05:29] SPEAKER_01: You know, so I think you're just wired, wired for it.
[05:32] SPEAKER_00: You know, yeah, I think it's a good deal of truth.
[05:35] SPEAKER_00: And then my father was, was it entrepreneur?
[05:37] SPEAKER_00: And yeah, so you just, you just, so sorry, I didn't tell enough.
[05:46] SPEAKER_02: That went wrong.
[05:48] SPEAKER_02: It was me.
[05:51] SPEAKER_02: The beauty, this is the beauty of it.
[05:58] SPEAKER_02: So.
[06:01] SPEAKER_02: So.
[06:02] SPEAKER_02: Just like me.
[06:04] SPEAKER_02: So.
[06:05] SPEAKER_02: This is going to.
[06:08] SPEAKER_00: So, you know.
[06:10] SPEAKER_00: But a lot of the audience is sort of interested to find out.
[06:15] SPEAKER_00: Yes, you're wired for it.
[06:17] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[06:18] SPEAKER_02: But, you know, what does it need.
[06:22] SPEAKER_02: You know.
[06:25] SPEAKER_02: To make it happen.
[06:27] SPEAKER_00: You know, money, energy, that kind of focus on building from an idea.
[06:34] SPEAKER_00: And to, you know, you've got to decide business now.
[06:39] SPEAKER_00: What, what does it, what does it take?
[06:41] SPEAKER_00: I mean, what is that, what is that focus thing that, you know, it doesn't necessarily.
[06:50] SPEAKER_00: Result in success all the time for entrepreneurs.
[06:53] SPEAKER_00: There is, there is a process, but it's not the same in everybody.
[06:57] SPEAKER_00: You know, how do you get your focus?
[07:00] SPEAKER_00: How do you get that.
[07:03] Speaker UNKNOWN: Progression.
[07:05] SPEAKER_02: So.
[07:07] SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's a, that's a very good question.
[07:10] SPEAKER_01: I'm always questioning.
[07:13] SPEAKER_01: How, how you keep moving forward, you know, step by step.
[07:18] SPEAKER_01: I probably distill it down to one word and that's, I think, the audacity.
[07:24] SPEAKER_01: I think entrepreneurs require a sense of audacity.
[07:27] SPEAKER_01: Like the, the willingness to look at something.
[07:30] SPEAKER_01: And even if people are telling you know, even if the odd seem stacked against you.
[07:36] SPEAKER_01: Leave in your own creativity.
[07:38] SPEAKER_01: You say I can make it happen.
[07:41] SPEAKER_01: Some people might say that's resilience.
[07:44] SPEAKER_01: You know, you know, having resilience, having, you know, a tough skin.
[07:48] SPEAKER_01: But I think first and foremost as an entrepreneur is you know that.
[07:53] SPEAKER_01: And accept that there's going to be pain.
[07:56] SPEAKER_01: Accept that there are going to be challenges.
[07:59] SPEAKER_02: Lean into them.
[08:02] SPEAKER_02: And.
[08:03] SPEAKER_01: Know that and trust in your own creativity to overcome it.
[08:09] SPEAKER_01: Right.
[08:10] SPEAKER_01: And I, I don't know.
[08:11] SPEAKER_01: I may sound very philosophical, but I think it's true because I think, you know, there have been.
[08:17] SPEAKER_01: Any entrepreneur that tells you it's been easy.
[08:19] SPEAKER_01: And that there haven't been challenges.
[08:22] SPEAKER_01: Probably doesn't really.
[08:25] SPEAKER_01: Understand their business fully in terms of having a real, a very real picture of it.
[08:29] SPEAKER_01: Right.
[08:30] SPEAKER_01: Because every business faces challenges.
[08:32] SPEAKER_01: And I think it's how you cope with those challenges.
[08:35] SPEAKER_00: But that challenge is, do you have a challenge process that said so, you know, how do you get round the wall?
[08:42] SPEAKER_00: I mean, that, that, that we all hit walls.
[08:46] SPEAKER_00: Yes.
[08:47] SPEAKER_00: How do you keep, how do you get rounded?
[08:48] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[08:49] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, that, that, okay, another great question.
[08:53] SPEAKER_01: You have so many great questions.
[08:55] SPEAKER_01: From, for me anyway, and for us as a, as a team, one thing that we have is when we do hit the wall.
[09:02] SPEAKER_01: I really ask myself one question.
[09:05] SPEAKER_01: Is this the day I want to stop?
[09:07] SPEAKER_01: Is this it?
[09:08] SPEAKER_01: Because that's the choice.
[09:10] SPEAKER_01: Not to try to get it on the wall.
[09:13] SPEAKER_01: You say, the option is, don't do it.
[09:17] SPEAKER_01: I stop.
[09:18] SPEAKER_01: And am I okay with that?
[09:20] SPEAKER_01: And if you're an entrepreneur and you're wired for, you know, the, sort of the, the, the hustle and, and pushing forward.
[09:30] SPEAKER_01: It's rare that that wall will make you stop.
[09:33] SPEAKER_01: And if it does make you stop, then, you know, it's, it's not that, you know, and you don't learn from it.
[09:40] SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, you're, you're probably not wired for entrepreneurship, right?
[09:47] SPEAKER_01: And it sounds very simple, but it's the truth.
[09:50] SPEAKER_01: It's like you have two choices of life.
[09:52] SPEAKER_01: Either you move forward or you don't.
[09:53] SPEAKER_01: And I think entrepreneurs face that on a daily basis almost.
[09:56] SPEAKER_01: I think so many business owners have probably faced it multiple times through the last two years, where they had points where they said, why am I doing this?
[10:05] SPEAKER_01: And it's either you stop or you don't.
[10:10] SPEAKER_00: Mentorship has been very, very important to me.
[10:16] SPEAKER_00: You know, what's the best piece of advice you've received?
[10:22] SPEAKER_00: And that you keep on using, you know, that, that, I think it's, again, it's kind of, is there a little gem in the background that just doesn't go away?
[10:35] SPEAKER_00: The may not be.
[10:36] SPEAKER_01: No, there is.
[10:38] SPEAKER_01: So he happens to be one of our very first investor.
[10:45] SPEAKER_01: He actually, you know, I pitched the loft idea to him.
[10:51] SPEAKER_01: I consider him a mentor.
[10:52] SPEAKER_01: He's, he's a business partner in a way on a few other initiatives, but his name is Dean Hanish.
[10:58] SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to put the name up there.
[11:00] SPEAKER_01: He's a very great guy.
[11:03] SPEAKER_01: But he's from Ottawa and he told me once and we know each other or our parents know each other or moms know each other from high school.
[11:11] SPEAKER_01: And he came into the agency when I had urban DNA or my old ad agency.
[11:17] SPEAKER_01: And we were talking about business and he said to me once, he said, you know, the realities that no one in life, nobody owes you anything.
[11:26] SPEAKER_01: They don't.
[11:27] SPEAKER_01: And the moment you believe that somebody owes you something or an investor owes you this or a client owes you this, you're lost.
[11:36] SPEAKER_01: Because the reality is that if you deliver your product or you push forward or you build your business and your, your, you know, your tenacity takes you forward, the results will bring in everything else.
[11:49] SPEAKER_01: So it's, it's really based on your actions.
[11:52] SPEAKER_01: And I, and I think that really stuck with me and, you know, even in the challenging times, you know, where you might say, oh, you know, the, you know, this is because of this or this is because of that.
[12:03] SPEAKER_01: Understanding that no one owes you anything and it's all you has really got me through a lot of things.
[12:10] SPEAKER_01: I don't know if that answers it, but that's the piece of it.
[12:12] SPEAKER_00: So if you had to pick one word to describe Graham, what would it be?
[12:19] SPEAKER_02: Hmm. And why?
[12:24] Speaker UNKNOWN: Hmm.
[12:26] SPEAKER_02: That's a great.
[12:28] SPEAKER_02: Well, it's about six great questions back to back.
[12:31] SPEAKER_02: We try.
[12:37] SPEAKER_02: I, I would say.
[12:41] SPEAKER_02: I would say I'm creative.
[12:44] SPEAKER_01: Not not only because I, I'm very passionate about creativity.
[12:49] SPEAKER_01: I'm, I'm, I'm passionate about, you know, looking at systems, understanding why they work and understanding how to create.
[12:58] SPEAKER_01: You know, meaning from things coming together. So, you know, I love history or I love philosophy and I love understanding concepts.
[13:08] SPEAKER_01: So that I can create the narrative or the story that makes it crystal clear for people.
[13:15] SPEAKER_01: My father was an education, my mother, my aunt, and so I think that.
[13:21] SPEAKER_01: And I was an advertising. Right. So it was all about storytelling, right?
[13:25] SPEAKER_01: Right. Love being able to create and put the pieces together and present it.
[13:31] SPEAKER_01: And I think, you know, nothing, I don't, I feel very good about being able to put a narrative out there and someone saying, oh, that makes a lot of sense.
[13:44] SPEAKER_01: Oh, I never looked at it like that or, you know, the perspective. And I think even building businesses, creating a story in a narrative, right?
[13:51] SPEAKER_01: So, so creative.
[13:54] SPEAKER_00: Speaking about stories, let's get a little, there's, there's going to be some fairly deep questions I would ask you there.
[13:59] SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you down with.
[14:03] SPEAKER_00: What books are you reading now? You know, listening to whatever that or is there something that you could recommend that really affected you in the last couple of years that you.
[14:18] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, I would say in the last year, September of 2020.
[14:25] SPEAKER_01: Oh, my gosh, no, yeah. So the September of 2020, we're now in 2022. It's crazy.
[14:32] SPEAKER_01: I'll tell you as well. But almost in the, the, the second phase of the pandemic, as a company, we got into the entrepreneurial entrepreneurial operating system, EOS.
[14:45] SPEAKER_01: And we had a facilitator and returner. I'll drop another name, amazing facilitator, but fundamentally changed the way I looked at business and I, you know, the book traction, get a grip.
[15:00] SPEAKER_01: These were books that I really got into. Do you know, Whitman, but really got into these books because what it really did for us is it helped us remove a lot of the fluff in our business and really just.
[15:13] SPEAKER_01: Focus on the reality of the day. The ability. The good and the bad and really work through that. And so in the last year that has been fairly impactful to the business and to myself.
[15:32] SPEAKER_00: What's the best thing about, you know, being an entrepreneur just to be a business side of it. But what's the best thing about being an entrepreneur versus, you know, working for enterprise somewhere.
[15:45] SPEAKER_01: I think, you know, it's, it's, it'll sound cliché. It's not that it's, it's not like saying, hey, I have no limit on what I can earn, right? I think it's a creativity, right? I write in a book once where they said that, you know, entrepreneurs are one of the only groups in society that create.
[16:09] SPEAKER_01: And really, if you think about it, an entrepreneur might say, I think a building could be here. And that building will hire construction workers, it'll hire people that will actually create, you know, part of the economy.
[16:23] SPEAKER_01: Entrepreneurs create retail opportunities and people will be able to buy food and sort of the transactions. And if without entrepreneurship, you really don't have a functioning society in a way, right? Like you don't.
[16:35] SPEAKER_01: I mean, you don't have taxes being given, you don't have a lot of things happening. You don't have unemployment. So being part of that community that creates and helps to, you know, create opportunities, provide, I mean, like that's, that's a great feeling.
[16:53] SPEAKER_01: So for me, that's what entrepreneurship is.
[16:55] SPEAKER_00: Let's be very specific about your business, co-work, what the current word is, but, you know, what are you most excited about in your business at the moment?
[17:10] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for us, you know, five years ago, when we started our approach to co-working and we're putting that category, but, you know, I would say that we're not a co-working space.
[17:24] SPEAKER_01: We're really a work, an experience, a spatial experience, you know.
[17:28] SPEAKER_01: But the reason for that is because we don't have contracts, we don't have, you know, a membership fee. It really is pay as you go.
[17:38] SPEAKER_01: You needed hour, you need two hours, you need a boardroom, you need to desk, everything is on demand. It's all technology driven. And what I like to say is if LinkedIn can tell you who you work for, our goal is to understand how you work and then wrap the tools and services around that experience.
[17:53] SPEAKER_01: Whether that is you're working at a loft in Burlington Center and you want a coffee delivered to you, we want to bundle that. If you want curbside pickup, you should be able to put everything together, right?
[18:04] SPEAKER_01: So our approach to this space has always been about, and you'll see it on our site, we say we're the work life freedom company.
[18:13] SPEAKER_01: It's about putting work as close to your life as possible so that you don't compromise your life. And, you know, one thing that came out of COVID, if you think about the one and a half hour commute that people were doing every day, what happened is a lot of life got put to the side.
[18:33] SPEAKER_01: You know, you couldn't be there for your kid's soccer game or you couldn't be there, you know, and that changed. And so it's not that you have to, you know, you need, you may need the separation between work and life, but it's not that you need work to be an hour away.
[18:50] SPEAKER_01: You may just need it around the corner. And I think, you know, one thing that we like about our business is our goal is to build this network of touch points, you know, be the Starbucks of space, right?
[19:01] SPEAKER_01: So you need consistent professional everywhere. People can access it when they want, when wherever they want.
[19:08] SPEAKER_01: That's pretty powerful. That's that's what I love about our business. And I love that, you know, with the audacity, I'll say that we're going to change the way.
[19:20] SPEAKER_00: People work globally, you know, so it's just a couple of fun ones that you're mourning or a night person.
[19:31] SPEAKER_01: I'm always on person. So there isn't a preference of the morning or the night.
[19:35] SPEAKER_01: You know, if it's green the morning and I have a phone and I need to get something done, I'm going to do it. If it's, if it's, you know, five o'clock in the morning, I need to be up, I'll be up.
[19:47] SPEAKER_01: My, my challenge, even though we say we're the work life freedom company internally and personally, my work life freedom probably has more to do with just working and passionately getting whatever's in my head out.
[20:02] SPEAKER_01: And it, and I satisfy both sides. So.
[20:04] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
[20:06] SPEAKER_00: In business, this is, I love words. So, I go through this one and in business, what's your favorite word?
[20:16] SPEAKER_02: Accountability.
[20:18] SPEAKER_02: What you least, what's your least favorite word?
[20:21] SPEAKER_02: My least favorite word.
[20:28] SPEAKER_02: We should.
[20:29] SPEAKER_02: Should.
[20:33] SPEAKER_00: Let's just do it.
[20:36] SPEAKER_00: That's really good.
[20:38] SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm just looking at my timing.
[20:42] SPEAKER_00: We're coming to the end of our 2025 business session. It just flew by. It's been great.
[20:47] SPEAKER_00: It really has been terrific.
[20:52] SPEAKER_00: And I always like people to be able to get a hold of you. So how can our listeners viewers get a hold of you?
[20:59] SPEAKER_00: And have I missed any one add anything before we wind it up?
[21:05] SPEAKER_01: I mean, I, I, I certainly am not adverse to giving my email. It's g.long w o and g.
[21:12] Speaker UNKNOWN: 
[21:13] SPEAKER_01: At loft.
[21:14] SPEAKER_01: L. U. F. T dot work.
[21:16] SPEAKER_01: W. R. K.
[21:19] SPEAKER_01: Or you can visit our site at loft.work and and take a look and someone will get in touch with me.
[21:25] SPEAKER_01: If you need to get in touch with me, but reach out to me directly.
[21:28] SPEAKER_01: But anyone on our team is passionate about it. I'm so proud to have the team that we have.
[21:33] SPEAKER_00: Teams are everything.
[21:35] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[21:36] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[21:36] SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks again for coming on campus podcast. We'd fun.
[21:41] SPEAKER_00: Thanks for the.
[21:42] SPEAKER_00: It's been a lot of fun.