Jim Estill, President and CEO of Danby Appliances, Discusses the Appliance Industry and Dealing with the Unknown as an Entrepreneur During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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[00:00] SPEAKER_00: It's Toronto's podcast on the Canada's podcast network.
[00:05] SPEAKER_00: Hi everyone, I'm Phil Bliss, a business visionary and welcome to Toronto's podcast.
[00:10] SPEAKER_00: Part of the Canada's podcast network, your source of the great insights from entrepreneurs
[00:15] SPEAKER_00: across Canada.
[00:17] SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to meet with Jim Estor, who's currently CEO of both Dambiate Sciences
[00:23] SPEAKER_00: in shop at the...
[00:25] SPEAKER_00: Jim has been an entrepreneur for quite some time.
[00:27] SPEAKER_00: I first met him when he was a very successful entrepreneur in the technology business.
[00:32] SPEAKER_00: So Jim, welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:36] SPEAKER_00: So Jim, why don't you dive in and let everyone know a little bit about yourself and what
[00:41] SPEAKER_00: you're doing today.
[00:43] SPEAKER_00: Maybe a part of history of the last 30 years, similar to me, Canada, I think.
[00:49] SPEAKER_01: Sure.
[00:50] SPEAKER_01: So when I was in university, I wanted to be a circuit board designer.
[00:55] SPEAKER_01: I needed a computer, got a better deal of I bought two of them.
[00:58] SPEAKER_01: So I bought two and sold one and bought another two and sold them.
[01:01] SPEAKER_01: And then bought some printers.
[01:02] SPEAKER_01: And next thing, I'm buying and selling computer hardware software peripherals.
[01:06] SPEAKER_01: And that was a business that I crossed paths with you.
[01:09] SPEAKER_01: And I built that business from the trunk of my car to two billion in sales.
[01:15] SPEAKER_01: I then retired, moved to New York for five years.
[01:18] SPEAKER_01: I was doing some board work, some angel, venture capital.
[01:22] SPEAKER_01: I sat on the board of Dan B appliances, the CEO resigned and I said, oh, I'll go in and
[01:26] SPEAKER_01: run that.
[01:26] SPEAKER_01: And then they said to me, oh, they want me to sell the business.
[01:28] SPEAKER_01: And I said, oh, great, how much for them?
[01:30] SPEAKER_01: They told me and I said, hey, I'll take the business.
[01:32] SPEAKER_01: So that's how I ended up owning and running Dan B appliances.
[01:36] SPEAKER_01: So that's my journey where I am.
[01:38] SPEAKER_00: So you couldn't stay out of it basically.
[01:41] SPEAKER_00: Is what you're telling me?
[01:42] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, you like wanting to hands on again.
[01:46] SPEAKER_01: That's exactly right.
[01:47] SPEAKER_01: So having a stint where I was not operating, I was still doing some, you know,
[01:51] SPEAKER_01: a little bit of board working and salting and angel investing stuff like that.
[01:55] SPEAKER_01: But I didn't find it gave me the same juices running a business.
[01:58] SPEAKER_01: So I had an opportunity to run a business again.
[02:00] SPEAKER_01: That's what I like doing.
[02:01] SPEAKER_01: That's where I get my most juice and leverage.
[02:04] SPEAKER_01: So that's why I came back to running a client's company.
[02:07] SPEAKER_00: So you know, you're very well known entrepreneur.
[02:11] SPEAKER_00: And I asked this of everyone.
[02:13] SPEAKER_00: And I kind of know the answer is, we wire differently.
[02:18] SPEAKER_00: You're entrepreneurs wire differently.
[02:19] SPEAKER_00: Or we just normal.
[02:21] SPEAKER_01: Well, we're certainly not normal.
[02:23] SPEAKER_01: We're eccentric.
[02:23] SPEAKER_01: And I'm certainly very eccentric.
[02:25] SPEAKER_01: It's a matter of fact, because I worked for myself for so long, I don't think I could work for anybody.
[02:29] SPEAKER_01: So when you offer me a job, I just don't know whether I can do a job because I'd
[02:33] SPEAKER_01: be too used to running it myself, doing it myself, you know, marching to the beat of my own drummer and whatnot.
[02:38] SPEAKER_01: So I do think there's a difference.
[02:41] SPEAKER_01: And I think the longer you're an entrepreneur, the less likely you are to be an employee.
[02:45] SPEAKER_01: Now, when I sold my business though, I did run the company that bought mine
[02:48] SPEAKER_01: for five years.
[02:49] SPEAKER_01: So I did work in a corporate gig, so to speak, for five years.
[02:54] SPEAKER_01: But I kind of did that just to prove that I could do it.
[02:57] SPEAKER_01: And just for my own interest in education, but my advice to any of your listeners is probably
[03:02] SPEAKER_01: don't hire me.
[03:03] SPEAKER_01: I'm just not a good employee.
[03:04] SPEAKER_00: I was arguing that the most successful entrepreneurs get there because they're unemployable.
[03:09] SPEAKER_01: That's right.
[03:10] SPEAKER_01: That's me.
[03:12] SPEAKER_00: So you said you started from university, selling stuff out of the trunk of your car.
[03:20] SPEAKER_00: Didn't you not have any kind of day-to-day jobs after university that was at?
[03:26] SPEAKER_00: I jumped to another job or was that it?
[03:30] SPEAKER_01: No, I started selling computers when I was in fourth year engineering at University
[03:34] SPEAKER_01: Waterloo.
[03:35] SPEAKER_01: And I never went and got a job.
[03:37] SPEAKER_01: I started to, I set that up and that became my job.
[03:41] SPEAKER_01: Although I will say my mother particularly wasn't thrilled with me going into business.
[03:46] SPEAKER_01: And my father either.
[03:47] SPEAKER_01: But he said, oh, you're an engineer, that's great.
[03:49] SPEAKER_01: So when you fail, you can go get a job.
[03:51] SPEAKER_01: And I came back to Christmas three or four years later, and my mom said to me, so, Jim,
[03:57] SPEAKER_01: if you got a job yet, like, and of course, at that time, I was working 80 hours a week,
[04:01] SPEAKER_01: selling computers and installing them and servicing them.
[04:04] SPEAKER_01: And she says, how have I got a job?
[04:07] SPEAKER_00: You've, you know, you've went to school in Waterloo, you're in, in Guelph now.
[04:13] SPEAKER_00: You've been in, you know, that sort of Southwest GTA kind of area the same as me.
[04:21] SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's Hamilton Valley.
[04:23] SPEAKER_00: One of the benefits of, I'm not going to say Toronto, doing business in this area because
[04:28] SPEAKER_00: I look at it like an area.
[04:30] SPEAKER_00: I do mean business all over it, but it's a definite area, you know, London through, through
[04:36] SPEAKER_00: to sort of Toronto down down to the niche for wealth that I developed.
[04:44] SPEAKER_00: It's quite a quite a distinct area.
[04:47] SPEAKER_01: So one advantage I had locating my business in Guelph was overheads are lowering wealth
[04:51] SPEAKER_01: than Toronto.
[04:53] SPEAKER_01: So I needed that competitive advantage because I was in a very competitive business.
[04:57] SPEAKER_01: So that's always served me well.
[04:59] SPEAKER_01: And I like the lifestyle of living in a smallish center where my drive to works 11 minutes
[05:06] SPEAKER_01: and whatnot.
[05:07] SPEAKER_01: And I actually think COVID is going to drive people to home working.
[05:11] SPEAKER_01: And I think it's going to be the satellite communities to Toronto that boom as a result
[05:16] SPEAKER_01: because people don't necessarily need to have the expense of living in downtown Toronto
[05:21] SPEAKER_01: and, and they like having a little bit more space and why not so downtown Toronto may
[05:26] SPEAKER_01: have a little less attraction than place like Hamilton or 12.
[05:31] SPEAKER_00: So I mean, you're running basically down boots as an appliance company.
[05:36] SPEAKER_00: What do you see as a future of that business?
[05:39] SPEAKER_01: People always ask me because of my technology background, I'm bringing technology to it.
[05:43] SPEAKER_01: And yes, we'll have the internet of things around appliances.
[05:47] SPEAKER_01: COVID has made great an explosion in freezers and freezer sale and even refrigeration at
[05:54] SPEAKER_01: home.
[05:54] SPEAKER_01: Because people only want to go to the grocery store every three weeks in which case they
[05:58] SPEAKER_01: need more refrigerator space.
[06:00] SPEAKER_01: People are feeling food insecurity and worry about meat shortages.
[06:05] SPEAKER_01: So they buy freezers.
[06:06] SPEAKER_01: So that's created a big uptick in that.
[06:08] SPEAKER_01: And what's gone down is nobody wants to buy wine coolers because they're an optional
[06:11] SPEAKER_01: purchase.
[06:12] SPEAKER_01: So they go down in this time and it also is fairly tough.
[06:16] SPEAKER_01: There's changes in channel.
[06:18] SPEAKER_01: We used to sell a lot to hotels and motels.
[06:21] SPEAKER_01: Well, hotels and motels are not thriving now.
[06:23] SPEAKER_01: But when you work at home, now you need a bar for it.
[06:26] SPEAKER_01: So that sales just moved from direct sale to a hotel to going through Costco or Amazon
[06:33] SPEAKER_00: or home depot or volume is changing just just the.
[06:38] SPEAKER_00: And I was curious because I thought with just what you said with hotels and various
[06:43] SPEAKER_00: other places just being completely flattened in the moment.
[06:48] SPEAKER_00: But you're getting what's going down you're getting another kind of pushing up.
[06:53] SPEAKER_01: That's exactly right.
[06:54] SPEAKER_01: So it's not fall off a cliff or anything.
[06:57] SPEAKER_01: So we're doing okay.
[06:58] SPEAKER_01: What I worry about is when we open up more how bad is the economy?
[07:04] SPEAKER_01: And when the economy is bad, people get nervous.
[07:06] SPEAKER_01: People don't spend money.
[07:07] SPEAKER_01: They don't have money to spend.
[07:08] SPEAKER_01: Right now we're showing up the economy with a lot of government money,
[07:12] SPEAKER_01: which is going direct to the people who are unemployed.
[07:14] SPEAKER_01: But it's also going to companies who are hiring people on.
[07:17] SPEAKER_01: But that's not going to go on forever.
[07:19] SPEAKER_01: So we're going to open up.
[07:20] SPEAKER_01: I'm going to say 15% down or 20% down.
[07:23] SPEAKER_01: And that could impact sales because that's the normal recession.
[07:27] SPEAKER_00: One of the big things I think that's happened is, you know, online sales,
[07:31] SPEAKER_00: which were strong anyway, have gone through the roof.
[07:36] SPEAKER_00: Are we going to see retailers in the appliance business like they'd be?
[07:40] SPEAKER_00: I mean, is that something of the past?
[07:45] SPEAKER_01: Well, I think absolutely retail is challenged.
[07:48] SPEAKER_01: And we see that with JC pennies and Nordstrom and, you know,
[07:51] SPEAKER_01: these big macy's probably isn't trouble.
[07:54] SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's lots of big department store type places that are in trouble.
[07:57] SPEAKER_01: So yes, there's a shift in retail.
[07:59] SPEAKER_01: And it is going online as far as the appliance retailers go to the event.
[08:02] SPEAKER_01: If they have as appliances are big.
[08:04] SPEAKER_01: And so they don't necessarily ship as well to your front door.
[08:08] SPEAKER_01: You know, you actually like having someone roll it in on a dolly and put it in
[08:13] SPEAKER_01: place because it's kind of big to put it in a box.
[08:17] SPEAKER_00: Is it more of the same over the next five years?
[08:20] SPEAKER_00: Is there a big opportunity?
[08:22] SPEAKER_01: Well, the big opportunity freezers is currently 38% of the people have a stand
[08:26] SPEAKER_01: loan freezer.
[08:27] SPEAKER_01: And I think that's going to 50%.
[08:29] SPEAKER_01: And that's going to stay just as reality that we're worried about food security.
[08:33] SPEAKER_01: We're worried about there's a little hoarding and people want to have freezers.
[08:36] SPEAKER_01: So that moves up permanently.
[08:38] SPEAKER_01: I think people are going to want to improve their living space.
[08:42] SPEAKER_01: There's going to be more entertain at home.
[08:44] SPEAKER_01: That means more bar fridge is more wineclar.
[08:46] SPEAKER_01: So it's not at all status quo.
[08:48] SPEAKER_01: And as you point out, the channel has changed.
[08:50] SPEAKER_01: People will buy a lot more online, not going to be as much of a retail browsing thing.
[08:56] SPEAKER_01: The idea thing is when there's change, there's opportunity in the risk change.
[09:00] SPEAKER_01: So therefore, there's opportunity.
[09:02] SPEAKER_01: Just as much we don't have to take what is your opportunity.
[09:05] SPEAKER_00: What's the best thing about being an entrepreneur that you over the last 25 years?
[09:10] SPEAKER_00: What would be the best thing?
[09:12] SPEAKER_01: Well, I believe that you are most powerful and most inspired when you're working in your
[09:18] SPEAKER_01: passion.
[09:19] SPEAKER_01: And when you're an entrepreneur, you can choose to go wherever you want.
[09:22] SPEAKER_01: So you get to work in your passion.
[09:24] SPEAKER_01: I would normally say money is a side effect.
[09:26] SPEAKER_01: If you do and run a good business, the money comes along.
[09:29] SPEAKER_01: Anyone I've ever met who works and says, oh, I'm in it for the money.
[09:33] SPEAKER_01: They'll go bankrupt.
[09:35] SPEAKER_01: The money is a side effect.
[09:36] SPEAKER_01: It's not the thing.
[09:38] SPEAKER_01: People say, oh, yeah, I want to work for myself so that I can set my own hours and do what I want to do.
[09:43] SPEAKER_01: My experience is if you want a job that is easier than get a job working for someone else.
[09:49] SPEAKER_01: When you work for yourself, your days don't end and your weekends aren't yours.
[09:53] SPEAKER_01: But there's an excitement about it.
[09:54] SPEAKER_01: I get it's exciting thrilling.
[09:57] SPEAKER_01: I mean, I love it personally.
[09:59] SPEAKER_00: Okay.
[10:00] SPEAKER_00: Let's move on to some lessons if you like.
[10:04] SPEAKER_00: One of the most important things that you would have liked to have known 25 years ago when you were starting out.
[10:12] SPEAKER_01: Well, the interesting thing is I believe I'm successful because I didn't know things when I started out.
[10:16] SPEAKER_01: If I knew how tough it was going to be when I started out, I probably wouldn't have started it out.
[10:20] SPEAKER_01: But because I didn't know that I was too naive and young to know better.
[10:25] SPEAKER_01: I went and I did it anyways.
[10:27] SPEAKER_01: One suggestion would be I say fail off and fail fast, fail cheap or having a failure does not make you a failure.
[10:33] SPEAKER_01: When I look at successful entrepreneurs, they tend to have more failures than people who don't.
[10:37] SPEAKER_01: It's like.
[10:38] SPEAKER_01: The failures are kind of learning experience, learning experience, but it's also don't dwell on your failure.
[10:44] SPEAKER_01: I mean, you had a failure, a big deal.
[10:47] SPEAKER_01: It's good that you tried, right?
[10:49] SPEAKER_00: Well, what's been the greatest challenge you've faced in any of the businesses today?
[10:54] SPEAKER_01: The greatest challenge is there for an entrepreneur, there really is no road map to know exactly what to do.
[11:02] SPEAKER_01: And Kobe is a perfect example.
[11:04] SPEAKER_01: What's the road map to navigate COVID successfully?
[11:07] SPEAKER_01: We don't know.
[11:08] SPEAKER_01: So the greatest challenge is the uncertainty right now.
[11:11] SPEAKER_01: And that's the uncertainty that I feel on the stress that I feel every day.
[11:16] SPEAKER_00: If it could go back in time, what advice would you give?
[11:20] SPEAKER_00: You're 20 year-old self.
[11:22] SPEAKER_00: So I haven't quite graduated yet.
[11:24] SPEAKER_00: You're 20 year-old self.
[11:26] SPEAKER_01: You know, I really wouldn't do things any different than I did, but I will say that when you're young, you tend to fight nature.
[11:34] SPEAKER_01: I like to garden and I use that gardening analogy.
[11:37] SPEAKER_01: Gardening is you're just trying to help the good plants and get rid of some of the bad ones.
[11:40] SPEAKER_01: And you just do a little bit to help along and the garden will do fine,
[11:44] SPEAKER_01: where when you're really starting out, you're 20 years old, you think you're going to make everything perfect.
[11:48] SPEAKER_01: So a little less perfectionism.
[11:50] SPEAKER_01: And the other thing is I am old now and I am very much a health person.
[11:56] SPEAKER_01: So I believe you should look after your health and your multi-dimensional person.
[12:00] SPEAKER_01: And health trumps wealth every day of the week.
[12:02] SPEAKER_01: And it's a lot easier when you're 20 to stick with the push-ups than when you wake up when you're...
[12:09] SPEAKER_01: You can tell you that.
[12:11] SPEAKER_01: And you haven't done any push-ups for a long time.
[12:14] SPEAKER_00: You've had some good mentors, I'm sure.
[12:17] SPEAKER_00: And I always like asking this question.
[12:20] SPEAKER_00: What's the best piece of advice that you've received from somebody else on your journey?
[12:27] SPEAKER_01: So the best piece of advice is to understand the difference between conditions and things you can change.
[12:33] SPEAKER_01: A condition is something that is.
[12:35] SPEAKER_01: COVID is.
[12:36] SPEAKER_01: It just is, I can't cure it.
[12:37] SPEAKER_01: I can't solve it.
[12:38] SPEAKER_01: I can't do it.
[12:39] SPEAKER_01: The exchange rate.
[12:40] SPEAKER_01: I can't change a tinder.
[12:41] SPEAKER_01: I can't even change the inflation rate.
[12:43] SPEAKER_01: I can't change recession.
[12:45] SPEAKER_01: So those are conditions.
[12:46] SPEAKER_01: When you have a condition accepted,
[12:48] SPEAKER_01: if you're on how you navigate around whatever that condition is,
[12:52] SPEAKER_01: when you're two naive, you don't understand the different conditions.
[12:56] SPEAKER_01: And you start to try to change conditions.
[12:58] SPEAKER_01: I'd love to change the exchange rate, but I can't change the exchange rate.
[13:01] SPEAKER_01: I can't change duty rates.
[13:02] SPEAKER_01: I can't change COVID.
[13:05] SPEAKER_01: What I can do is say, okay, what's COVID doing?
[13:07] SPEAKER_01: How does that change the world?
[13:08] SPEAKER_01: How do I respond to that change in the world?
[13:11] SPEAKER_00: So just some quick question from Robert Farber.
[13:14] SPEAKER_00: If you were doing what you were doing now,
[13:18] SPEAKER_00: what would you be doing instead?
[13:20] SPEAKER_00: Probably the gardener or a cook.
[13:22] SPEAKER_00: You know you did it.
[13:23] SPEAKER_00: Did engineering at school?
[13:24] SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm actually a very bad engineer.
[13:26] SPEAKER_01: See, I became an engineer because my father was an engineer.
[13:31] SPEAKER_01: And because I thought I should be an engineer,
[13:33] SPEAKER_01: I never practiced engineering much.
[13:35] SPEAKER_01: I mean, I did some, but I didn't really enjoy it.
[13:37] SPEAKER_01: It wasn't very good at it.
[13:38] SPEAKER_01: So no, I don't think I would be a hard-core design engineer.
[13:42] SPEAKER_01: I'm actually more of a marketing guy like you are.
[13:45] SPEAKER_01: I'm more creative.
[13:48] SPEAKER_01: And I like psychology.
[13:50] SPEAKER_01: I like the statistics around marketing.
[13:52] SPEAKER_01: I like all of that stuff.
[13:53] SPEAKER_01: So I'm not a marketing worker.
[13:54] SPEAKER_01: So I guess I wasn't doing that.
[13:55] SPEAKER_01: I might be doing your job, Phil.
[13:57] SPEAKER_00: Creative creativity is a big deal in entrepreneurship.
[14:02] SPEAKER_00: So what book are you currently reading?
[14:04] SPEAKER_00: Or listen to from the last decade.
[14:07] SPEAKER_01: One of my favorite books is Factfulness is a recent one.
[14:11] SPEAKER_01: Sapiens is another one.
[14:13] SPEAKER_01: Both those are both the excellent books.
[14:16] SPEAKER_01: Power of moments.
[14:17] SPEAKER_01: I like all chip and Dan Heath stuff.
[14:21] SPEAKER_01: You would like that one because that one's a...
[14:23] SPEAKER_01: You would like that one.
[14:24] SPEAKER_01: I am an execution guy.
[14:27] SPEAKER_01: So I like the four disciplines of execution.
[14:30] SPEAKER_01: You probably like contagious.
[14:32] SPEAKER_01: This is another pretty good one.
[14:33] SPEAKER_01: Another one I like is Darwin Comes to Town.
[14:36] SPEAKER_01: I guess you can tell I'm pretty broadly read on a lot of things.
[14:41] SPEAKER_01: I like uninhabitable Earth.
[14:43] SPEAKER_01: And that's sort of a plug for the environment.
[14:45] SPEAKER_01: It just explains what's going on in the world.
[14:47] SPEAKER_01: I think everyone should read that one.
[14:49] SPEAKER_00: Environmentally, you know,
[14:51] SPEAKER_00: this last three months have been brilliant for the environment.
[14:55] SPEAKER_01: Oh, there's nothing we could have done to clear the air this much.
[14:58] SPEAKER_01: Totally.
[14:59] SPEAKER_00: So, you know, another question I love to ask,
[15:03] SPEAKER_00: are you a morning or a night person?
[15:05] SPEAKER_00: I'm a morning person by far.
[15:08] SPEAKER_00: I do think there is a definite proponents,
[15:10] SPEAKER_00: but there are some night entrepreneurs as well.
[15:13] SPEAKER_00: And if you had to say one word to describe yourself,
[15:16] SPEAKER_00: what would it be?
[15:18] SPEAKER_00: What a plywood to describe yourself, you know.
[15:20] SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm content.
[15:21] SPEAKER_01: I'm content.
[15:22] SPEAKER_01: I'm happy and I enjoy what I'm doing.
[15:25] SPEAKER_01: Is there anything keeping you up at night?
[15:27] SPEAKER_01: Oh, sure.
[15:28] SPEAKER_01: I mean, I've got a business.
[15:28] SPEAKER_01: Everything keeps me up at night.
[15:30] SPEAKER_01: That's just normal.
[15:31] SPEAKER_01: I am stressed a little by the current state of the world.
[15:34] SPEAKER_01: I like, I'm not a real big extrovert,
[15:37] SPEAKER_01: but I would like to get out more and I would like to see people.
[15:41] SPEAKER_01: When you run a business,
[15:41] SPEAKER_01: I'm also kind of a wander around type manager.
[15:44] SPEAKER_01: And I'm really like walking through and saying hi to my people and whatnot.
[15:48] SPEAKER_01: Now all the office people are at home and the factory people I don't even walk through
[15:52] SPEAKER_01: because you're not supposed to and whatnot, right?
[15:55] SPEAKER_01: It's a...
[15:55] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that's the, I mean, we are social animals.
[16:00] SPEAKER_00: I think we're all beginning to kind of...
[16:03] SPEAKER_00: This is great, you know, but we're all beginning to miss those close-up kind of
[16:10] SPEAKER_00: discussions that one has.
[16:13] SPEAKER_00: I'm going to ask you to describe some of the great things you've done outside of work
[16:19] SPEAKER_00: and why you're so driven to work with others to improve their lives.
[16:27] SPEAKER_00: What drives you on that?
[16:30] SPEAKER_01: You see, when I was young, I thought my goal in life was to start a business, build a tool
[16:34] SPEAKER_01: and sell it for a lot of money.
[16:37] SPEAKER_01: And that was when I would arrive, that success.
[16:40] SPEAKER_01: And then I did that and I found out, hey, that's pretty hollow.
[16:43] SPEAKER_01: I then changed my goal.
[16:44] SPEAKER_01: I'm basically trying to save the world.
[16:46] SPEAKER_01: So some of the more public things I've done,
[16:48] SPEAKER_01: I sponsored 50 Syrian refugee families to come to Canada.
[16:52] SPEAKER_01: And it's now I'm sponsoring them ongoing.
[16:54] SPEAKER_01: I'm well over 100 families right now.
[16:57] SPEAKER_01: It's on hold because of COVID.
[16:59] SPEAKER_01: But that has been...
[17:01] SPEAKER_01: I've been sort of became the poster child of refugee recently.
[17:03] SPEAKER_00: You did, you did, yeah.
[17:05] SPEAKER_01: And then when COVID happened, I said,
[17:08] SPEAKER_01: what can I contribute or what can we do?
[17:10] SPEAKER_01: And that's when we decided we would make ventilators.
[17:13] SPEAKER_01: So we're helping make ventilators, joint ventures.
[17:16] SPEAKER_01: So our original plan was we'll design it and make it and we'll send the designer.
[17:21] SPEAKER_01: And the engineers opt to design it.
[17:22] SPEAKER_01: They came back and say, hey, we can't do this.
[17:24] SPEAKER_01: We need other partners.
[17:25] SPEAKER_01: So we got ABS friction and JMP solutions and crystal fountain and bailless medical
[17:30] SPEAKER_01: and we're largely providing the labor to make 10,000 ventilators.
[17:35] SPEAKER_01: Along that path, we came up with a air purifying respirator,
[17:41] SPEAKER_01: which is a protective piece of protective equipment.
[17:44] SPEAKER_01: So we're not a medical device company,
[17:47] SPEAKER_01: but we designed that ourselves.
[17:50] SPEAKER_01: We're basically making those products.
[17:53] SPEAKER_00: Apart from, well, what's your most favorite place in the world?
[17:59] SPEAKER_01: You know, I really like Northern Ontario.
[18:02] SPEAKER_01: And there's one lake up there that I particularly like.
[18:04] SPEAKER_01: And there's just nothing more tranquil than sitting on the rocks by a beach,
[18:09] SPEAKER_01: or not by a beach, sitting by the rocks by a lake in Northern Ontario.
[18:13] SPEAKER_01: That to me is pure tranquility.
[18:16] SPEAKER_01: That's, I love that.
[18:18] SPEAKER_00: What are your three non-negotiables in terms of your,
[18:21] SPEAKER_00: your morning routine, because you're a morning person.
[18:25] SPEAKER_00: You know, most of us, if we're morning or evening,
[18:27] SPEAKER_00: they're certain processes we go through.
[18:30] SPEAKER_01: So I always plan the day the night before,
[18:33] SPEAKER_01: but one non-negotiable in the morning,
[18:36] SPEAKER_01: I review and modify and plan the day.
[18:39] SPEAKER_01: So that planning, if I don't plan the day,
[18:41] SPEAKER_01: I don't end up being productive that day.
[18:42] SPEAKER_01: I don't end up being happy that day.
[18:44] SPEAKER_01: It doesn't tend to go well.
[18:46] SPEAKER_01: So that's the planning time of the morning.
[18:49] SPEAKER_01: I'm also a health guy.
[18:50] SPEAKER_01: Nothing starts to stay better than a good workout,
[18:53] SPEAKER_01: even if it's a depressed walk.
[18:55] SPEAKER_01: Another concept I have on working out is it's a useful workout.
[18:59] SPEAKER_01: A useful workout for me would be cleaning the eavesdrop and
[19:02] SPEAKER_01: planning the garden or digging the garden.
[19:04] SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's, it's just physical,
[19:08] SPEAKER_01: what not.
[19:09] SPEAKER_01: The other thing I like to do,
[19:10] SPEAKER_01: but I don't do this really first thing in the morning is I meditate.
[19:15] SPEAKER_01: And I find that that's a way to sort of center and level my day.
[19:19] SPEAKER_00: This was a good question, but it's not so good during COVID times,
[19:23] SPEAKER_00: because no one wants to be by themselves.
[19:26] SPEAKER_00: But we'll stay with the tropical island and say, you know,
[19:30] SPEAKER_00: so there's a tropical island in the middle of the ocean
[19:33] SPEAKER_00: with one phone booth,
[19:34] SPEAKER_00: knowing today.
[19:36] SPEAKER_00: We drop you off there with no technology, nothing.
[19:40] SPEAKER_00: You can use the phone to cause at any time
[19:44] SPEAKER_00: to come and pick you up.
[19:46] SPEAKER_00: But that's all you can do.
[19:48] SPEAKER_00: How long do you last?
[19:50] SPEAKER_01: That is a really good question.
[19:52] SPEAKER_01: You know, I would probably last for a month,
[19:55] SPEAKER_01: and I would probably quite enjoy it,
[19:57] SPEAKER_01: although I'm finding COVID my months up now.
[19:59] SPEAKER_01: And I really want to get back and out and around.
[20:02] SPEAKER_01: So, and of course, I'm not in complete.
[20:04] SPEAKER_01: I am in isolation, but I'm not in complete isolation when I,
[20:07] SPEAKER_01: you know, go over get groceries, I've stopped in the office.
[20:09] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're not in that stuff, right?
[20:11] SPEAKER_00: But we'll come to the end of the interview.
[20:13] SPEAKER_00: There are any, I mean, have I missed any insights
[20:17] SPEAKER_00: that you would throw at people that are, you know,
[20:21] SPEAKER_00: either just starting out or have, you know,
[20:24] SPEAKER_00: hit a wall like we sometimes do,
[20:26] SPEAKER_00: is there some kind of exercise or activity to get you there?
[20:32] SPEAKER_00: You would say energy, I know that.
[20:35] SPEAKER_01: So, I am big on gratitude.
[20:37] SPEAKER_01: And what I learned from the Syrian refugees is secret to happiness.
[20:41] SPEAKER_01: The secret to happiness is being grateful for what you have,
[20:44] SPEAKER_01: not ungrateful for what you lost,
[20:46] SPEAKER_01: not ungrateful for what other people have.
[20:49] SPEAKER_01: And whenever I speak to anyone who is in angst or stressed
[20:52] SPEAKER_01: or has an issue, I'm telling you, 98% of the time,
[20:55] SPEAKER_01: it's pretty well first world problems.
[20:58] SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, we didn't hit ourselves numbers
[20:59] SPEAKER_01: in our margins too low and, oh, you know, whatever, right?
[21:03] SPEAKER_01: But at the end of the day, we have a lot to be grateful for.
[21:08] SPEAKER_01: The more gratitude you have, it really can be your happiness.
[21:12] SPEAKER_01: And you do every one of your listeners has a lot of reasons to be grateful.
[21:16] SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for coming on the Canada spot, guest.
[21:20] SPEAKER_00: You know, lots of people hear this and they like to contact people.
[21:24] SPEAKER_00: Don't mean given your personal contacts.
[21:27] SPEAKER_00: But is there any way that listeners can find you online?
[21:30] SPEAKER_01: Of course, I have a simple test.
[21:31] SPEAKER_01: If you can't find me online, you probably don't deserve to contact me
[21:34] SPEAKER_01: because I'm quite Googleable.
[21:37] SPEAKER_01: But it is dambiapliances or dambi.com.
[21:40] SPEAKER_01: I've got to blog it www.gmesto.com.
[21:43] SPEAKER_01: And of course, I'm on LinkedIn, which is a great platform that I believe in,
[21:47] SPEAKER_01: because it means you keep your own contact information.
[21:51] SPEAKER_01: So just reach out in any of those ways.
[21:53] SPEAKER_00: Jim, thanks very much.
[21:55] SPEAKER_00: Really appreciate it.
[21:57] SPEAKER_00: Hope to talk to you again soon.
[21:58] SPEAKER_00: We're talking again.
[21:59] SPEAKER_00: Thanks everyone for taking the time today to listen to Toronto's podcast
[22:03] SPEAKER_00: on the Canada's podcast network.
[22:05] SPEAKER_00: I hope you enjoyed the podcast today.
[22:08] SPEAKER_00: Make sure you sign up for a newsletters or write a review for us on iTunes.
[22:13] SPEAKER_00: You can connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn,
[22:16] SPEAKER_00: or at canterspodcast.com where you can listen, discover and engage.
[22:22] SPEAKER_00: You can also check out what other entrepreneurs are doing across the country.
[22:26] SPEAKER_00: We'll see you next time.