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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_01: This podcast is brought to you by Shaw Business.
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[00:18] SPEAKER_01: It reaches all corners of your business.
[00:20] SPEAKER_01: So whether you're at your desk or in a meeting room,
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[00:26] SPEAKER_01: Smart Wi-Fi is one way that Shaw Business is powering the entrepreneur.
[00:33] SPEAKER_00: It's Calgary's podcast on the Canada's podcast network.
[00:50] SPEAKER_01: Hello, this is Mario Toneguzi coming to you today with Calgary's podcast.
[00:54] SPEAKER_01: A member of Canada's podcast network where we talk to the entrepreneurs
[00:59] SPEAKER_01: who are making it happen here in the city of Calgary, Alberta.
[01:04] SPEAKER_01: Mike Morrison is the founder of Mike's Blogity Blog,
[01:08] SPEAKER_01: a blog which this year celebrates its 13th anniversary.
[01:13] SPEAKER_01: The blog covers all things pop culture here in Calgary and across Canada.
[01:19] SPEAKER_01: Morrison also runs a series of digital marketing events,
[01:22] SPEAKER_01: including social east and Halifax, next big thing,
[01:27] SPEAKER_01: and social west, which is now the largest digital marketing conference in Western Canada.
[01:34] SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the show, Mike, and thanks for taking the time today to be here for our listeners.
[01:39] SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Mario. How are you?
[01:41] SPEAKER_01: I am great. Tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're from,
[01:44] SPEAKER_01: and what your business is all about.
[01:47] SPEAKER_02: Well, like most people that live in Calgary, I'm from Atlanta, Canada.
[01:51] SPEAKER_02: I moved here 12, I guess 13 years ago, which is incredible.
[01:57] SPEAKER_02: It's just gone flying by.
[01:58] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I run my blog, the blog, which started as just a hobby,
[02:03] SPEAKER_02: just like any other blog, just writing, and it's almost,
[02:06] SPEAKER_02: I mean, looking back at all the things that has happened with it.
[02:09] SPEAKER_02: It's almost incredible to believe that that's my life.
[02:12] SPEAKER_02: You know, that now the blog is my full-time job,
[02:15] SPEAKER_02: and I actually just hired my first full-time employee this week.
[02:18] SPEAKER_02: So that's very exciting.
[02:20] SPEAKER_02: And then I've sort of spun that out into different things.
[02:23] SPEAKER_02: So the conference is social, west, social, east, next big thing.
[02:27] SPEAKER_02: And I do also write a Calgary by bike, which is sort of a bike guide to Calgary.
[02:32] SPEAKER_02: And so it's been a busy few years, but an awesome few years.
[02:36] SPEAKER_01: Now, did you need financing to start what you're doing?
[02:40] SPEAKER_02: No, I didn't know. I've never, I mean, besides just using personal line,
[02:44] SPEAKER_02: a credit, personal credit cards, which I think a lot of people do,
[02:46] SPEAKER_02: when they're getting started out, especially the conferences.
[02:50] SPEAKER_02: You know, you have to put so much up front, you have to pay so many deposits
[02:53] SPEAKER_02: before the ticket sales start rolling in.
[02:56] SPEAKER_02: So no, I've never, I've never gone into, you know, financing necessarily.
[03:01] SPEAKER_02: But definitely now that I have an employee,
[03:03] SPEAKER_02: and we have grander ambitions, it's something that I have to take a bit more seriously.
[03:08] SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about those grander ambitions.
[03:10] SPEAKER_01: What is your long-term vision for what you're doing and your plans for expansion?
[03:16] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's tricky to say because when I left my job,
[03:19] SPEAKER_02: I was a producer of breakfast television, actually, which was like my last full-time job
[03:24] SPEAKER_02: before I left to do the blog full-time.
[03:26] SPEAKER_02: And, you know, I thought I'd be a professional writer, pitching stories, and things like that.
[03:31] SPEAKER_02: And I quickly moved on from that.
[03:32] SPEAKER_02: That is a hard, hard way to make a living.
[03:35] SPEAKER_02: And I have so much respect for people who make writing their full-time job.
[03:40] SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, it's, we want, well, we want to keep growing social west.
[03:45] SPEAKER_02: It's very exciting.
[03:47] SPEAKER_02: And I think doing social west and social east in cities that people don't expect.
[03:51] SPEAKER_02: And so, you wouldn't expect that Calgary has the largest digital marketing conference.
[03:55] SPEAKER_02: And you wouldn't expect, you know, when we, when we decided to do a second event,
[03:58] SPEAKER_02: everyone sort of assumed Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver.
[04:01] SPEAKER_02: You know, but I wanted to go home.
[04:03] SPEAKER_02: I wanted to do it in Atlanta, Canada, because to me, the internet is the great equalizer.
[04:07] SPEAKER_02: And you can live in Nunavit or live in Vancouver, live in Toronto, or Halifax, wherever,
[04:12] SPEAKER_02: and run really successful businesses using digital marketing and the internet.
[04:17] SPEAKER_02: And so, I wanted to expand, you know, go home a bit more.
[04:21] SPEAKER_02: So that's nice. I get to go home and write an office and expense now, which is great.
[04:26] SPEAKER_02: And just, you know, it's keep growing that stuff and seeing.
[04:30] SPEAKER_02: Before I had the employee, it felt sort of, I was doing everything, but now already a few days it,
[04:37] SPEAKER_02: I realized how little, how many opportunities I was missing and how many, you know,
[04:41] SPEAKER_02: maybe I was actually only going at 60% on any one thing.
[04:45] SPEAKER_02: And so now that there's two of us, it feels that we can go full steam ahead and really expand the business.
[04:51] SPEAKER_01: What are the biggest benefits for you being an entrepreneur in Calgary?
[04:55] SPEAKER_01: What are some of the good points of doing business here?
[04:59] SPEAKER_01: And maybe some of the tough things or challenges that you face that you, that would be helpful for entrepreneurs to know about.
[05:05] SPEAKER_02: I would say challenges is sort of that perception of Calgary.
[05:10] SPEAKER_02: And so I think, especially with social West, you know, we're going to have 700 people this year, which is,
[05:16] SPEAKER_02: we were only 300 about three years ago. So it's really exploded.
[05:20] SPEAKER_02: And I think a lot of people don't expect a conference, the caliber of social West to be in Calgary,
[05:27] SPEAKER_02: to, you know, do an event that has nothing to do with oil and gas or, you know, Western heritage or things like that.
[05:33] SPEAKER_02: You know, so I think that's, that's the way perception is convincing people in Toronto and Vancouver that we're doing super cool things here.
[05:41] SPEAKER_02: And it's really exciting here.
[05:42] SPEAKER_02: But once they come, they get it and the word about gets out and it's a lot easier.
[05:47] SPEAKER_02: But when I'm working with bigger brands to bring in, they're always a bit skeptical because the perception of Calgary is not the reality.
[05:55] SPEAKER_02: But that reality, talking about the good stuff, is this city is an incredible place to do business in terms of money.
[06:04] SPEAKER_02: There's lots of money here. There's lots of people willing to spend money and work on projects.
[06:09] SPEAKER_02: And I've always found the cool thing about Calgary is it feels like no one's from here.
[06:15] SPEAKER_02: I know that there's lots of people from here, but, you know, and so no one ever asks,
[06:20] SPEAKER_02: like, where are you into school or who your parents are, how much money you have.
[06:24] SPEAKER_02: It really is just, you know, do you do good work and can you prove it?
[06:28] SPEAKER_02: And I think, you know, for me, my parents and still the really crazy work ethic in me, maybe too much of a work ethic.
[06:36] SPEAKER_02: I really love working and I'm seeing the results of hard work.
[06:40] SPEAKER_02: And the people I know that are doing the same, you know, this city rewards hard work.
[06:46] SPEAKER_02: Any industry will tell you that here, especially entrepreneurs.
[06:50] SPEAKER_02: It's a really exciting time as we move away from really being a city that's focused on one or two industries
[06:56] SPEAKER_02: to saying what else is out there? What else can Calgary be?
[07:00] SPEAKER_02: Because other major cities like Toronto and Vancouver, like we get to compare ourselves to,
[07:04] SPEAKER_02: they don't go through the booms and busts that Calgary tends to go through.
[07:08] SPEAKER_02: And so I think anyone would like to get away from that model.
[07:12] SPEAKER_02: And so I think the entrepreneurs and the small businesses are the way of growing that modern Calgary that we all want.
[07:20] SPEAKER_01: Now we do some of our best work outside the office.
[07:23] SPEAKER_01: For yourself personally, is there a place in Calgary either close to where you live or work that,
[07:29] SPEAKER_01: where you'd like to go to recharge, get inspired, maybe just even think about your business?
[07:35] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, I spend a lot of time downtown. I live just outside of the downtown core.
[07:40] SPEAKER_02: And I think for me, it makes me feel like a more of a real worker when I'm surrounded by people and things like that.
[07:46] SPEAKER_02: And so there's certainly coffee shops and coffee areas.
[07:50] SPEAKER_02: My favorite lobby to work out of is Aitdaft Place, the Plus 15 Starbucks is really good.
[07:56] SPEAKER_02: The Husky Tower has a really great lobby with high desks that you can work in.
[08:01] SPEAKER_02: And for a while, I've worked at a few of the co-working spaces.
[08:05] SPEAKER_02: And those are really fantastic.
[08:07] SPEAKER_02: Most recently I was at work nicer and I just loved that experience.
[08:11] SPEAKER_02: I found I was home a lot and just being able to bounce ideas off people.
[08:18] SPEAKER_02: I'm sort of an introvert, I always say I'm an introvert trapped in an extrovert's career.
[08:22] SPEAKER_02: So my career dictates that I have to be out there and loud and vocal.
[08:27] SPEAKER_02: But my natural state is at home quite, but that's not necessarily always good to be as an entrepreneur.
[08:33] SPEAKER_02: So the co-share offices, I've also started working up Mobsquad Cafe,
[08:37] SPEAKER_02: which is this super cool coffee shop on the 21st floor of the Edison.
[08:42] SPEAKER_02: And it's open to the public.
[08:45] SPEAKER_02: And so that space is incredible because it overlooks the city and the mountains.
[08:49] SPEAKER_02: And it's just a different opportunity.
[08:52] SPEAKER_01: Hypothetical question for you.
[08:54] SPEAKER_01: Imagine if you were to start all over again.
[08:56] SPEAKER_01: You just moved to Calgary, but this time you don't know anyone.
[08:59] SPEAKER_01: Knowing what you know now, what would you do and how would you do it to start all over again as an entrepreneur?
[09:05] SPEAKER_02: Well, I always tell every entrepreneur to the first thing they should do is get someone taking care of their book.
[09:11] SPEAKER_02: So whether it's a bookkeeper or accountant, that's the biggest mistake I made for sure.
[09:17] SPEAKER_02: Your inclination is to say, well, I don't have money to hire someone.
[09:22] SPEAKER_02: You know, and you can get a good bookkeeper.
[09:24] SPEAKER_02: It's an investment because I waited way too long.
[09:27] SPEAKER_02: I only started working with bookkeepers and count like two or three years ago.
[09:30] SPEAKER_02: And one of the first things they did was show me all the money I had wasted.
[09:34] SPEAKER_02: By not claiming things, by not keeping track of things, invoices that I hadn't followed up on, things like that.
[09:41] SPEAKER_02: And that harsh reality, you know, scared the crap out of me.
[09:45] SPEAKER_02: And I'm still scared of it to this day because here I was thinking I wasn't making enough to afford a bookkeeper, but in reality I was losing thousands and thousands of dollars a year because I didn't have one.
[09:57] SPEAKER_02: And so that would be my first thing and also just be a bit malleable.
[10:01] SPEAKER_02: So have your idea of what you want to do, but sometimes, yeah, every now and then they're going to take a job that isn't super interesting, but it might pay the bills that month, but make sure you stay on track towards your goal of what you want to do.
[10:12] SPEAKER_02: What you want to do might not necessarily be what you end up doing. So enjoy the ride.
[10:18] SPEAKER_01: What is the first hour of your day look like when you get up in the morning, like do you have a specific ritual routine to get you motivated to start your day?
[10:27] SPEAKER_02: Oh, no, not it's funny. I really don't. I'm very lucky I sort of get to sleep in a bit, but I always say that I work later as well.
[10:36] SPEAKER_02: So sure sometimes in getting up eight or nine, but I'm usually working till about midnight. So no, it's, you know, just get coffee and play with my cat and yeah, it's a pretty boring routine.
[10:46] SPEAKER_02: I probably should work out or something, but I don't.
[10:51] SPEAKER_01: Do you think entrepreneurs have to be weird or unique in a sort of positive way, I guess, or just wired differently?
[10:59] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, that's interesting. I don't, I don't know if like everyone can be an entrepreneur or not. I mean, I never would have thought like my dad says he has four kids and the one to become like the business owner would have been me.
[11:14] SPEAKER_02: I would have been the last one on that list. You know, I, there was nothing about my life that indicated that I would be running businesses and running conferences and hiring people and things like that.
[11:24] SPEAKER_02: So I do think that's part of Calgary. I think that changed me, you know, seeing the opportunities and when I look around, when I go to say something like market collective, which is an artisan sphayer here in the city, you know, and there's 200 local makers there.
[11:38] SPEAKER_02: You know, I look around at that and I think how can I do that? What can I do? And that's that was sort of the origins of Calgary by bike was I think I might like working at festivals and selling stuff turns out I don't, but it was neat.
[11:50] SPEAKER_02: It was neat to try it and I loved Calgary by bike, but instead we just sell it in stores now as opposed to going to markets and stuff.
[11:57] SPEAKER_02: I think being surrounded by people doing different things here has been really, really helpful. It's a different track than I thought, but it's an awesome one, but I think having confidence, but like you don't have to be born confident, you know, just being confident in what you're doing is right.
[12:15] SPEAKER_02: One of the things I'm really proud of is so all of my conferences from day one, we've always paid people every speaker, every photographer, every person involved gets paid.
[12:25] SPEAKER_02: And that is actually shockingly very, very rare. Did I pay them as much as I wanted to the first second years? Absolutely not. Every year I try to, you know, increase what people are getting paid and things like that.
[12:38] SPEAKER_02: And that, so that's something I'm really, that puts wind in my sales because I know that I'm paying people who deserve to be paid, but also I know that they're going to make the events better because I don't know what you, but if I'm being paid to do something, I do a lot better job than if I do a year for free.
[12:56] SPEAKER_02: So, you know, so knowing that the attendees are going to come and get something really amazing out of the events is something that I'm very proud of.
[13:03] SPEAKER_01: What books are you currently reading and are there any books that you would recommend on to printer should read?
[13:10] SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's a good one. Oh my god, I'm a terrible person. I don't read a lot. Do you know where I do a lot of my reading?
[13:17] SPEAKER_02: So I obviously am interested in digital marketing. And so I always tell people who sweet, which is a fantastic Canadian company out of Vancouver.
[13:25] SPEAKER_02: You know, they have a social media management platform, but they also have really great blogs and help small businesses and entrepreneurs tackle digital marketing problems from beginner to advanced.
[13:37] SPEAKER_02: They're all free. You don't have to be a member or anything like that. And they really break it down for you. So I do spend lots of time on there.
[13:43] SPEAKER_02: And then I honestly just read like local books. If there's a book with a wizard in it, I'm probably reading that. But one of the things I'm looking forward to doing now that I have someone helping me grow the company is a lot of things that I'm looking forward to.
[13:55] SPEAKER_02: And I'm just spending a bit more time developing a business strategy. It sort of feels like I've just been rolling with the, not rolling with the punches because the punches have been good.
[14:05] SPEAKER_02: But going with the flow and taking the opportunities as they come. But now that I'm going to have a schedule and now that I have, you know, I'm setting myself up with payroll, which I've never done before.
[14:15] SPEAKER_02: Like I honestly have no idea how much money I make because I've always just moved money around. And so this year is really going to make me feel like a business owner. And then I hope that comes time to find more books and find things that I do find inspired the podcast of my choices.
[14:33] SPEAKER_02: I think a lot of people is as Terry O'Reilly's under the influence. And one of the reasons I like that is because it's about the history of marketing. And that's I can, I don't get inspired by much. There's not much that I'm marketing guru can tell me to inspire me my mortgage inspires me. So, so, but I love Terry's podcast because it's the history of marketing and explain to my companies did things and what worked and what didn't.
[14:57] SPEAKER_02: And that to me is incredibly helpful and really sort of fills my creative tank and and experimenting with my business.
[15:04] SPEAKER_01: What online or offline tools do you use on a daily basis?
[15:09] SPEAKER_02: So I'm like a weirdo in the digital marketing world. So I use like all the native apps. So I use like Twitter.com and Facebook.com and things like that.
[15:18] SPEAKER_02: I don't go far without my phone. I really like taking camera photos and so I'm always taking photos.
[15:24] SPEAKER_02: I don't know like I think sometimes maybe entrepreneurs get bogged down with I need this and need that to get my business going and all those sorts of things.
[15:32] SPEAKER_02: And I don't I don't really rely on too much.
[15:35] SPEAKER_02: You know, I I need my computer and I need to put money in my bank account. And so whatever I can do to do that is what motivates is what motivates me.
[15:44] SPEAKER_02: I don't yeah, it's interesting.
[15:47] SPEAKER_01: How do you balance work and you're busy, you know, your busy work and time and your personal life and how do you relax, not think about work or their favorite things you'd like to do in Calgary?
[16:00] SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah. So my biggest problem is I turn everything into a job. So anything I like doing I'm like, how can I make money doing this? You know, Calgary by bike or you know, I like talking to people about digital marketing.
[16:12] SPEAKER_02: So I created socials. And so that's my biggest fault. So the one thing I found has been a nice reprieve from working all the time is the dodgeball. I actually played dodgeball every Monday night.
[16:23] SPEAKER_02: And it always surprises people because I'm by nature not enough like person. But there's something about it so cathartic and it's sweaty and it's has nothing to do with my business.
[16:34] SPEAKER_02: And no one there is asking me about my business just like I'm not asking about their businesses. And I really found that and I've always been a bit of an old soul. I love going for walks. I tend to go for walk every night.
[16:47] SPEAKER_02: 10 o'clock or so, you know, just just listening to the sounds of the city. I'm from I'm from Fredrickton, which is a small city in New Brunswick.
[16:55] SPEAKER_02: And I'm still 12 13 years later. I love big city lights. I love the sounds. And so listening to all that stuff is where I find, you know, peace and relaxation.
[17:05] SPEAKER_01: So if you weren't doing what you're doing now, what would you like to do for a profession or as a career?
[17:13] SPEAKER_02: That's a good one. I mean, because I'm not doing what I thought I would be doing is it's so different. You know, I actually have a degree. I'm an education degree and I have a degree in Spanish, which is very strange and different.
[17:26] SPEAKER_02: I graduated with a class of university from a class of six people is Spanish degrees.
[17:32] SPEAKER_02: So I honestly don't know because this is this is I'm loving this so much. I really, you know, every day is super fun that it would be weird to think about doing anything else.
[17:43] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's it's tricky. I actually honestly never think about what I'd be doing. What I'd be doing if I wasn't doing this.
[17:49] SPEAKER_01: What about a job you wouldn't want to do?
[17:52] SPEAKER_02: Oh, I mean, basically anything. You know, you know, one of the things I think when I started being an entrepreneur started thinking about it was that guilt, you know, I'd get up and be like, oh, I have to get up at seven and I have to work from eight to five because that's what a normal person does.
[18:08] SPEAKER_02: That's what a real worker does because I didn't feel like a real worker. But that nine to five life. And I look back at my jobs and I mean any boss that I have to tell you this, like there was something in my DNA that I cannot work nine to five.
[18:21] SPEAKER_02: Like I just when someone says like when my work is done for the day, I don't understand why I have to keep sitting there, you know, like it's very strange to me.
[18:31] SPEAKER_02: And maybe that's the later millennial in me. But, you know, my works tends to always be done. It's just at different times. And so that that sort of that nine to five. And I get the people have to do it. And it's it's great. And they love it. But there's something in me that I just never could do it.
[18:49] SPEAKER_01: In business, is there a favorite word quote or phrase that you like to use?
[18:56] SPEAKER_02: That's a good one.
[18:59] SPEAKER_02: This is I'm so bad. I'm not inspired by anything. I'm just like working all the time. I think this is terrible. I don't have one off off the top of my head. I'm sorry.
[19:08] SPEAKER_01: No worries. What about one that that is the least favorite?
[19:12] SPEAKER_02: I hate the word inspiration. I've sort of hidden it that so much like come, come here. This inspiring talk come here. Come be inspired by this person blah, blah, blah, like that inspirational talking. And I get it for some people.
[19:26] SPEAKER_02: I just, if I'm going to spend four or five hundred dollars on a ticket, I need to learn to do something better tomorrow or today on my computer.
[19:37] SPEAKER_02: I'm not super interested in hearing, you know, these inspirational quotes, those kind of things. They don't they don't do much for me. And of course, the word in my industry right now is influencer and influencer marketing.
[19:49] SPEAKER_02: It's a buzz word and it drives me nuts and I certainly get called technically what I do is influencer marketing. But I always say that anyone that's an actual, anyone with actual influence is not calling themselves an influencer.
[20:01] SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm not going around being like, Hey, I want to be an influencer and I was getting my beard trim today. I was talking to the guy that does it. He said, Yeah, he's like people call and say, I'm an influencer. Will you do cut my hair for free and things like that.
[20:15] SPEAKER_02: I mean, he's savvy enough to know that no one good is doing properly calling around doing that. But there's so many businesses that hear, you know, all you have to work with influencers and then someone calls and says they're an influencer.
[20:29] SPEAKER_02: They tend to not know that that's not real. And so that influencer marketing thing is certainly tricky for me.
[20:35] SPEAKER_01: If you had to pick one or two words to describe yourself, what would they be and why?
[20:42] SPEAKER_02: I would say to Nacious, you know, and probably it's stubborn. You know, I really love working. I really, I'll die on many hills, probably too many hills. I often say, you know, like my body is scattered among like 20 hills and Calgary right now, because there's so much.
[21:03] SPEAKER_02: I do care about a lot of things, you know, I'm a unique type of business where I am very vocal about politics and I'm very.
[21:12] SPEAKER_02: My name is my business, which is always very tricky, you know, when I'm saying things politically or saying things about other issues that are sort of hot topic issues. It's very risky.
[21:22] SPEAKER_02: But there's something about me where I just can't not do it. So I'm definitely stubborn and tenacious is it's, you know, I have to find every morning.
[21:32] SPEAKER_02: I don't necessarily know how I'm making money, you know, I could hear from a PR agency that wants to work with me on an influencer campaign. And that's great.
[21:41] SPEAKER_02: Or I could not hear from one for two months and I have to figure something else out. And so it's scrappy and it's it's figuring out how now how I pay a second person on top of me, which is incredibly exciting and terrifying.
[21:54] SPEAKER_01: Is there anything that keeps you up at night?
[21:57] SPEAKER_02: Everything.
[21:59] SPEAKER_02: You know, last year, you know, three or four months before the conference, you know, my line of credit was maxed, my visa was maxed because I was paying for the conference and you know, waiting for ticket sales to come in and that's that's terrifying when you don't have money to come through, you know, but you have to
[22:15] SPEAKER_02: do like shake yourself off. You have to look at your track record and you have to believe that it's going to be okay. And so that the money is as a small business definitely gets really scary, especially in terms of running events, you know, social
[22:27] SPEAKER_02: West costs me about $180,000 before I make a penny. And so when I think of that, especially with my East Coast lens on where $100,000 is a lot of money, you know, and that's all coming in and out of my bank account. That's that's pretty scary.
[22:42] SPEAKER_02: You know, but luckily as things have been going, it's getting a bit more stable, but definitely I think any business has been kept up thinking about money.
[22:52] SPEAKER_01: Okay, everybody's got a bucket list these days. What's yours?
[22:56] SPEAKER_02: I think I think what my goal this year so far and I'm doing okay is you know, is making sure that maybe I don't spend as much money on eating out and I spend that money on making sure that my life is full.
[23:09] SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, my nephew and I and his girlfriend and my boyfriend were going over going to Rome in a few months.
[23:16] SPEAKER_02: And I think hiring someone was a really big item list for me. It makes me feel like a real business person. And so that's been really thrilling.
[23:26] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and so just making sure I'm spending money on on experiences and making sure that my life isn't just work, but hopefully using that work to increase experiences that I can that I can have.
[23:37] SPEAKER_01: Now, do you have any advice that you may have received over the years from others that you can pass on to entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs?
[23:47] SPEAKER_02: Well, I mean, one of the great entrepreneurs in Calgary is Jim Button, who helped create Village Brewery. And years ago, he would always say like, don't say you're busy. Don't say you're busy.
[23:58] SPEAKER_02: And so him and I actually go back on fourth on that because sometimes as an entrepreneur, it's good to say you're busy. It means people are working with you. And so it's a bit of a marketing thing. And so to me, it's a bit, you know, celebrating that you're working and when you're not working because there's definitely going to be times where it's really slow.
[24:17] SPEAKER_02: So if that happens, sometimes check your Gmail filters. One of the first mistakes I made when I started out, I was like, oh, I'm going to get organized on Gmail. And I set up all these filters.
[24:26] SPEAKER_02: And I didn't honestly didn't get a single response from anyone in like three weeks. I was really down on myself. And I was like, oh, my God, I screwed up. I should have gone. And then it just occurred to me. I was like, hey, wait a minute. I haven't gotten an email since the day I did my filters.
[24:39] SPEAKER_02: And I looked in like there was I missed a press trip to Mexico. I missed all these amazing opportunities. And so try not to get bogged down. You know, so you know, Jim will say don't say you're busy. But I like to say that you're I'm busy. But like that's a good thing. I'm happy to be busy and happy to be working.
[24:55] SPEAKER_01: Now I got a strange different question for you. There's a tropical island just off of Fiji that only has one phone booth there with no internet.
[25:06] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, drop you off there and you won't have a computer, smartphone tablet, et cetera.
[25:11] SPEAKER_02: This sounds like heaven.
[25:14] SPEAKER_01: Okay, you can use the phone booth located there any time to call the boat and will come pick you up. How long would you last before you made that phone call? And what would you do while you were there?
[25:26] SPEAKER_02: Well, it's tricky because my entire life is the internet. Like so. But whenever I do those, you know, I think I think around the holidays. I noticed this particular year.
[25:36] SPEAKER_02: I noticed this year in particular that it's getting a lot easier to sort of sign off for a bit around the holidays because I think everyone is doing it. And so when I'm on a vacation, say take a few days off.
[25:48] SPEAKER_02: It's I still always feel that guilt because everyone else is working in the world is still moving. I'm the only one that's stocked. But the holiday seems to be that time where almost everyone is stopped. And so I know it always takes me a few days to come down from being like, oh, I need to be online. I need to be doing stuff.
[26:02] SPEAKER_02: But once I once I'm off, then it's hard to get me back. So I probably enjoyed a bit. I think I'm taking this answer very seriously. Sorry.
[26:13] SPEAKER_02: Then they for me because my whole world is the internet and social media can pull you in a million directions. One of the reasons I go for walks is because I need to give my brain a break from the constant inundation that working online gives you. And so sometimes I'll think my to do list is done. And I went it out on my camera to go for a walk.
[26:33] SPEAKER_02: And they'll think of like five more things while I was on that walk. I was like, oh, yeah, this email that thing. And so I would I would try to enjoy it. But I mean, I couldn't take too long off. Probably like a I'd like to say a week, but I don't know if I can make it a week would be nice. Yeah.
[26:50] SPEAKER_01: Mike, how can our listeners get a hold of you? And is there anything you'd like to add before you leave us today?
[26:56] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, the other thing I forgot to mention my intro. Sometimes I forget all the things I have, but I also have a podcast and it's called I quit and it's about entrepreneurs answering that question. Like, should I quit my job to become an entrepreneur? And so what I do on it is interview entrepreneurs who quit their jobs, how they did it.
[27:17] SPEAKER_02: And I asked them those questions. I got what about money and what about kids and what about all those things that all these reasons on people don't give themselves all these excuses to not quit their jobs. You know, I'm so I you know if you're asking around if you're looking if you're thinking about being an entrepreneur.
[27:33] SPEAKER_02: You know, price it out and see what the bare minimum you need to make is and see how long you can go and then then you just work hard, you know, if you need to make $5,000 a month for you and your family to live.
[27:46] SPEAKER_02: You need to figure out how to make $5,000 and sometimes it's making it's doing projects you don't want to do, but I think once that once you have an entrepreneurial bug, it's in it's in your blood and it's hard to shake.
[27:58] SPEAKER_02: Okay, and is there a way people can get in touch with? Oh, yeah, sorry. Yeah, I mean literally anyway besides like writing in the sky. I guess so like my ex blog, we blog.com is the blog and then I'm on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook at my ex blog.
[28:11] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and sometimes in the newspaper. Yeah, so it's it's anyway, people want to reach out to me.
[28:19] SPEAKER_01: Well, thanks Mike for being our guest on Calgary's podcast. I've learned a lot about you, your business and I'm sure our listeners have as well.
[28:27] SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Mario.
[28:30] SPEAKER_01: Hey there. Thanks for taking the time today to listen to Calgary's podcast on Canada's podcast network.
[28:37] SPEAKER_01: We hope you enjoyed the show today. Make sure you sign up for our newsletters and write a review for us on iTunes and then connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn at Canada's podcast.
[28:53] SPEAKER_01: You can also check out what other entrepreneurs are doing across the country. See you next time.
