Women’s Entrepreneurship Day with Milena Radakovic

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[00:00] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_00: Hi, this is Celine Williams hosting for Montereo for Canada's podcast. My guest today is Malena Radikovic, Canada Ambassador of Women's Entrepreneurship Day Organization, or we do, and also President and owner of Nexus Exhibits.
[00:21] SPEAKER_00: She has won various awards for her business leadership and volunteer work in supporting women's initiatives and the community at large. Welcome to the show.
[00:31] SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much for having me, Celine.
[00:33] SPEAKER_00: I'm happy to have you here.
[00:36] SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk a lot about we do and what that is, but before we get there because you are also an entrepreneur, I'm going to ask the question, can you tell us a little bit about your journey as an entrepreneur and what got you to being involved with with we do?
[00:52] SPEAKER_01: Sure.
[00:54] SPEAKER_01: I think deep down, I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur. So when I was in my corporate world and in my education, I always wanted to make sure that I could support small and medium sized businesses.
[01:07] SPEAKER_01: So I'm sure that I got my MBA because when you're competing in the consulting world, against men, you've got to make sure you've got the big titles in behind your name.
[01:20] SPEAKER_01: So I first started my consulting firm. I was doing marketing strategies for small and medium sized companies who could initially afford like a C-Mole or a VP of marketing after I did my corporate world.
[01:33] SPEAKER_01: And then I had the opportunity to join Nexus exhibits in 2010 as an employee. And I had used Nexus exhibits for about 20 years with my corporate world and my consulting world.
[01:46] SPEAKER_01: I love the organization. I love the culture. And when I joined, I fell in love with it. And I asked for first right of refusal and that I acquired the company in 2013.
[01:57] SPEAKER_01: And just it's been an amazing experience. I love driving my team, motivating them in a really giving an open environment. And as we were as building the company, I was very passionate about supporting women and leaderships.
[02:18] SPEAKER_01: So I started volunteering at different women organizations, really supporting women because I've had really good mentors in my life in my corporate world. So I was trying to help women as a progress in their leadership.
[02:32] SPEAKER_01: And then I joined EO Entrepreneurs Organization on the chapter board. And now I'm on actually the Global Subcommittee. And I was just always passionate about entrepreneurs and women initiative. And then in 2019, I got nominated to originally be the Alberta ambassador of we do.
[02:53] SPEAKER_01: And then through the interview process, they said, I had done so much experience and help community in the women's and entrepreneurship side that they asked me to be the regional ambassador for Canada.
[03:08] SPEAKER_01: So then I became the ambassador for Canada. And this is my third year now. And I'm so excited. We created a nonprofit. We do Canada. And now we're working towards our charity status.
[03:22] SPEAKER_00: Very cool. I'm I and congratulations on on, you know, getting this role as Canada ambassador. It's always a, you know, an exciting and exciting moment and a privilege when you're recognizing that way. So congratulations on that.
[03:38] SPEAKER_00: And for those of us who are not familiar with we do or we do Canada, can you tell us a little bit about what it is besides, you know, women's entrepreneur entrepreneurship day organization because it sounds like it's more than just a day specifically.
[03:56] SPEAKER_01: You know, we do it's an international campaign as well as hashtag choose woman. We are the largest non governmental volunteer organization. So we are literally across 144 countries. We're celebrated annually at the United Nations across 65 universities and colleges internationally.
[04:22] SPEAKER_01: So since we have started, we have created a powerful network of over four billion unique women across the pan across the planet. So what we want to do is we really want to empower the next generation and really drive woman entrepreneurs across the world.
[04:42] SPEAKER_01: So we have ambassadors across the world and we have a movement of how can we empower the next generation to become the female to become entrepreneurs because we believe by empowering women to become their own business owners. We can leave a poverty across the world.
[05:02] SPEAKER_00: So can you talk a little bit more about that and why it's so important for women to get involved in entrepreneurship specifically and you know, because clearly there is a link to alleviating poverty and the change from that perspective.
[05:19] SPEAKER_01: So sadly, it's sadly, but yet it's also good. So women across the world are the most responsible borrowers. So for instance, if a woman entrepreneurs goes to a VC versus the male, I'm going to give you an example here.
[05:33] SPEAKER_01: We are extremely conservative in our business plans. So in other words, when we do our business projections, we're very concerned. We want to say, can we get this like we will not add another number or anything.
[05:50] SPEAKER_01: So in the beginning, it's studies have shown against men entrepreneurs and we pay back about 90% of the money within the timeframe that we wanted to.
[06:02] SPEAKER_01: So and one of the things that we have tested through our mission is that we were paying back micro loans. So we were giving across the developing countries. So that's how it all started started in 2013, a social entrepreneur and a humanitarian Wendy diamond.
[06:19] SPEAKER_01: She started this whole movement because she believed that and she tested it that women are the most responsible borers. So she was part of a mission that gave back created micro loans.
[06:33] SPEAKER_01: And then when they came back to the world and did a studies 97% of them returned it and 90% of the money that they earned was used to educate their children and to provide for their families and communities.
[06:49] SPEAKER_01: So it was shown that when women created a business, they then hired their own family, women members, the cousins, the grandmothers, their kids, and then they started spreading to the other woman, a large in the communities.
[07:05] SPEAKER_01: So in the towns and the cities, because a lot of the developing countries, it was mostly the men who went and got the jobs and worked while the women stayed home.
[07:15] SPEAKER_01: So it was so impactful for her to see this that she wanted to create this world movement because of only 10% of the world's income at the same time is earned by women.
[07:31] SPEAKER_01: However, women consume 85% of the purchases and they control $20 trillion of the world wild spending.
[07:43] SPEAKER_01: So this is why we find that it's so important to empower the next generation of women entrepreneurs.
[07:49] SPEAKER_01: So here in Canada, we want to support the aspiring female entrepreneurs.
[07:56] SPEAKER_01: We want to give them as much tools as we can.
[08:00] SPEAKER_01: And this is why in Canada, we have created a national scholarship partnership program.
[08:05] SPEAKER_01: So last year alone in our summit, because that's one of the things that we do is, as you mentioned, November 19th, we're trying to proclaim November 19th in our cities and our provinces and federally.
[08:19] SPEAKER_01: So we've got the proclamation in the last year, we got in both BC and Alberta, we've got it in the cities here in Calgary and in Edmonton.
[08:30] SPEAKER_01: I have been trying to work with our federal government in the last three years to proclaim November 19th.
[08:35] SPEAKER_01: And then the other thing we do is we create a summit.
[08:37] SPEAKER_01: And we want to really educate the next so we create an educational summit for aspiring women entrepreneurs, as well as entrepreneurs want to learn from other entrepreneurs.
[08:50] SPEAKER_01: So here are the stories of what other women entrepreneurs have to share.
[08:54] SPEAKER_01: We want to invite change makers, government officials to see what the power of having women entrepreneurs is to have it in Canada as well.
[09:05] SPEAKER_00: I'm curious what the, and this may completely be an ignorant question, I'll fully own it, but what the benefit of having it proclaimed by the federal government or by the provincial government or wherever it is as a day, right as women's entrepreneurship day, is there, is there a, is there a specific benefit of it or is it more just to have it recognized as you promote it?
[09:33] SPEAKER_00: And, and get people involved in the in the scholarship opportunities?
[09:39] SPEAKER_01: It's, well, it's the both, right, because across the world, not all the countries recognize women entrepreneurs.
[09:50] SPEAKER_01: So the more that we could get them recognized as women owned businesses and how powerful the community is and what it does for the community will make a big impact here in Canada.
[10:06] SPEAKER_01: The biggest impact that we can't make is for the next generation.
[10:11] SPEAKER_01: And this is why, for instance, we have that $25 million foundation for women entrepreneurs or the federal government.
[10:21] SPEAKER_01: We really want to tie that in with the day.
[10:23] SPEAKER_01: I would love the federal government to see the value and keep it going.
[10:29] SPEAKER_01: So it's not a one time, for instance, grab to us, to women existing businesses.
[10:36] SPEAKER_01: This is why we do Canada here. Our foundation is we want to really get the next generation of aspiring women entrepreneurs.
[10:45] SPEAKER_01: So we believe that if we can make the impact through the proclamation, then we can have more additional resources for those aspiring women.
[10:55] SPEAKER_00: That makes total sense.
[10:58] SPEAKER_00: I'm curious. So let's say there's someone who's listening to the podcast who is an aspiring entrepreneur and identifies as female.
[11:08] SPEAKER_00: And they think, oh, that might be an interesting scholarship. I wonder what that looks like or what I would need to do to even apply or how this works.
[11:18] SPEAKER_00: Could you tell us a little bit about that because there may be people who are thinking, ooh, that's up my alley as well as people who are thinking, how do I donate or contribute to this?
[11:29] SPEAKER_01: So right now we are working with both secondary universities who have either a STEM, a business program.
[11:43] SPEAKER_01: And if they have some kind of a women's initiative program within their post-secondary.
[11:48] SPEAKER_01: And right now we are taking applications from both the universities as well as looking for corporate funding for a three year commitment.
[12:01] SPEAKER_01: Because we really want to not just do this one year out of time.
[12:05] SPEAKER_01: So last year we had some amazing sponsors and we gave out six scholarships of $2,500 each to aspiring female from across Canada.
[12:18] SPEAKER_01: We had from an old college to Quebec University, sort of Queens University.
[12:25] SPEAKER_01: So right now we're creating a short list of both the institutions and corporations to do this.
[12:34] SPEAKER_01: And then once that's done, we're going to be having information on our website, who the partnering universities are and who the foundations are.
[12:44] SPEAKER_01: So we're going to be the founders, the scholarships will be we do Canada scholarship by and will be the name of the corporations that sponsoring it.
[12:54] SPEAKER_01: And the nice thing about it is the corporations can reach out to me up through LinkedIn or through info at wedoCanada.com.
[13:03] SPEAKER_01: And I could send all information about the scholarships that with the universities and that we have on our short list right now because we had some six universities last year.
[13:15] SPEAKER_01: But for the corporations, they are going to have the ability to help us pick out the universities and pick out the areas that they want to promote their involvement as well.
[13:29] SPEAKER_01: So it's a really good opportunity for the corporations to reach to get on board right away because then we can help shape the scholarships as they were.
[13:40] SPEAKER_01: So we have some requirements for the scholarships, but we want to work with our partners both on the, on the post secondary and with the corporations to really build a movement and something different that nobody else has seen.
[13:53] SPEAKER_01: We've done our research and there really has not been a single scholarship for women entrepreneurs, unfortunately in Canada.
[14:03] SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, I wish I could say that was surprising, but it's not super surprising.
[14:10] SPEAKER_00: I am curious and this is I'm going to play devil's advocate for a second here a little bit.
[14:18] SPEAKER_00: And I mean this in a, I think it's an interesting thought experiment way.
[14:27] SPEAKER_00: If the scholarship is meant to encourage women to be entrepreneurs and it is, you know, presumably a, like a corporate sponsor is funding it or donating to it or whatever the case may be in the hopes that that person might work for them in the future or what is the specific what would be the reason that someone might want to fund it because an entrepreneur is not going to be able to do that.
[14:55] SPEAKER_00: So, I think that the entrepreneur is not going to ideally want to be working for a big organization in the future.
[15:01] SPEAKER_01: Not necessarily so two things one, my daughter is currently university and she's studying business administration with a major in entrepreneurship and innovation.
[15:13] SPEAKER_01: One of the things I actually told her is you can start a business at university because that's that's one of the requisites that we have.
[15:22] SPEAKER_01: But I also believe experience in the corporate world and that's something that I had is so the knowledge that you get from there, complemented with the education and your startup experience will mix you a really well rounded person.
[15:40] SPEAKER_01: Also corporations love the mentality of having entrepreneurs it's called entrepreneurship right so a lot of companies have a culture of entrepreneurship they want to now hire the next generation of their team to have that entrepreneurial mindset.
[16:00] SPEAKER_01: How do you make your corporations better so two things by having this scholarships you could have potential of hiring these these amazing women.
[16:11] SPEAKER_01: The second is that the business that the women start could be one of your suppliers or vendors.
[16:19] SPEAKER_01: And there is an organization that I'm actually a member of it's called we connect international I'm a certified we be a women owned business.
[16:30] SPEAKER_01: There is a mandate with organizations across the world to do a certain amount of business with women own businesses.
[16:39] SPEAKER_01: So this also gives the corporations to tap into the future female entrepreneurs to be their vendors and suppliers.
[16:46] SPEAKER_01: So it's really a win win for the corporations they get the knowledge of this amazing entrepreneurial culture from these students and a possible new vendor.
[17:01] SPEAKER_00: Thank you I appreciate that I'm curious what what is the future of we do in general but we do Canada specifically what is the future hold for the organization.
[17:13] SPEAKER_01: Well we're working towards our charity status what we'd like to it's as we're all volunteer based right now all our funding right now comes from the partnership and from the sponsorship for our events and
[17:29] SPEAKER_01: take its sales and the fundraising of the different things that we're selling ultimately we really want to grow our pot for the scholarships and having a charity status we can then have people who want to say donate and get a taxable slip for it.
[17:49] SPEAKER_01: So and then we also want to apply for grants federal provincial grants to help us grow the organization and ultimately I would love to have an executive director to help us grow our organization.
[18:03] SPEAKER_01: So currently we are also looking for ambassadors across Canada so we do have an ambassador in Alberta and one in Ontario but we have a lot of other provinces and so we really want to reach across the whole Canada to really have these amazing ambassadors help promote our vision and our mission and help us get the proclamations across it.
[18:32] SPEAKER_01: And then help us distribute the scholarships across the country.
[18:37] SPEAKER_00: So if there's someone listening who might be interested in one of those ambassador roles and who feels you know who's really fired up and excited about the mission of the organization can they reach out at we do Canada dot com is that the best place for them to reach out and say put their hand up and say I might be a fit for this.
[18:54] SPEAKER_01: That's right and if you are listening and you want to nominate someone there is a button on our website too that you can nominate a great woman who's really passionate like myself and like all the other ambassadors and volunteers that we have and it could even be to if they don't want to be an ambassador but maybe they want to volunteer for our organization.
[19:19] SPEAKER_01: So each ambassador has their own advisory committee and advisory board and then they have committee members so for instance to put on the event to do social media to do communications to do even like administration work.
[19:37] SPEAKER_01: It's a great opportunity to be part of the next generation I call it a sparring woman and to really learn for instance we've had last year we had an amazing we had over 25 university students volunteer for our cause and quite a bit of them are coming back because they're like I want to fit this in with my studies because I love what you're doing.
[20:02] SPEAKER_01: And it's a great opportunity also to put on their resume on their CVs to show the tools that they learned from being part of a team work and making an impact for Canada.
[20:17] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think I will have the link to the website in the in the show notes as well for people to go and check it out.
[20:28] SPEAKER_00: But before we wrap up is there anything that we didn't get to that you wanted to make sure that you leave our listeners and our viewers with or that you want to emphasize before we wrap the conversation up.
[20:42] SPEAKER_01: The other things so as I mentioned we're looking for like national scholarship partners we're looking for ambassadors but in also we're also looking for qualified speakers who are there to help us educate the next so the next generation of female entrepreneurs so we're going to have summits we do summits around the week of November 19 so they're going to be across Canada.
[21:08] SPEAKER_01: And if you've got a presentation a story tidbits as an entrepreneur that you want to share with our community please reach out to me or to info at we do Canada calm because we're creating we're starting to work on our next summits and we really want to hear from you and we really want to showcase the amazing women entrepreneurs across the country and all of the different industries that we have out here.
[21:39] SPEAKER_00: Perfect thank you very much for taking the time to talk with me today it was a pleasure getting speak with you and to learn a little bit about we do Canada because it sounds like you're up to some pretty amazing things and you know hopefully this continues in the same direction you get lots of people jumping in who have listened to the show and I really appreciate you sharing the mission and your passion about it with us.
[22:03] SPEAKER_01: Thank you so one thing I forgot is I have a big behead and for people who are not in business it's like the big carrier dishes goal for we do Canada we want to give away a million dollars worth of scholarship so you can help us with our movement we would gladly love to work with you.
[22:24] SPEAKER_00: Amazing so thank you and the listener thanks for listening to Canada's podcast like comment and subscribe to all our channels to get the latest podcasts from entrepreneurs across Canada.