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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Canada's Podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_02: Hi everyone, I'm Phil Bliss, Founder of Canada's Podcast.
[00:09] SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Canada's Podcast, the leading podcast for entrepreneurs in Canada.
[00:14] SPEAKER_02: Today we're going to meet Theo Theo, who's CEO of Alpha batteries Inc.
[00:19] SPEAKER_02: Alpha batteries provide customers with the comfort of knowing their phone will always be fully charged wherever they may be.
[00:27] SPEAKER_02: Their battery towers are in businesses across the GTA, so be in the lookout for one that might be nearby.
[00:34] SPEAKER_02: Theo's passion for business comes from his experience working in the families restaurant, plus a solid background in education.
[00:45] SPEAKER_02: So Theo, who by the way everybody is in Paris, but you know, Toronto boy, as I do at the beginning of every session,
[00:59] SPEAKER_02: tell us a little tell everyone a little bit about yourself, what you do, how you got here, you know, that kind of stuff, the quick three to five minute, you know, overview, actually.
[01:13] SPEAKER_00: Sure, sure, just a little bit about myself born in recent Toronto.
[01:22] SPEAKER_00: I got an I started my career in education. I did that for about nine years abroad, working South Korea, working China.
[01:33] SPEAKER_00: And that was kind of my career that I had chosen for myself. I was going to do law, but you know, I didn't really melt with my classmates and I still wanted to affect change in a broader spectrum in society rather than just focusing on law.
[01:53] SPEAKER_00: So I decided to go into education and I did that for all for a long time and while living abroad in Asia, specifically engaging actually came across this kind of service they have.
[02:10] SPEAKER_00: And you know, things in East Asia that are doing what more technology advanced than we are in Toronto.
[02:16] SPEAKER_00: I don't need to get political here, but I remember that like in Toronto, before I left to go abroad, we were still using like tokens and take us to use it to me.
[02:26] SPEAKER_00: They want to go to broadly data. They're already have an NFC network everywhere to you. So I was, so these kind of things are already established. So technology over there is a lot better than when we were we have.
[02:40] SPEAKER_00: And using this kind of certain battery sharing service that they had in Beijing was a life easier for me on so many occasions. So I decided just to bring that to my hometown. I mean, Toronto's multicultural city where you've been bringing the best of culture here. So I decided to be that kind of conduit to bring something great that I saw abroad into the city.
[03:04] SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
[03:07] SPEAKER_02: And you know, you had education. What made you want to become an entrepreneur? You mean you had a career in education? You know, you liked it.
[03:20] SPEAKER_02: What sparked this like I'm going to pack all that in and jump on the entrepreneurial bandwagon.
[03:29] SPEAKER_00: I wanted there's what honestly speaking, being a foreigner or a broad, there's a very, there's a blast ceiling. You can't really go farther than a certain point being a foreigner or a guy.
[03:41] SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to do something bigger and better not only for myself, but I wanted to do something that.
[03:52] SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of altruistic in that sense. I want to do something that's going to help a lot of people. But like I kind of alluded to before when I'm talking about when I switch from law to education.
[04:04] SPEAKER_00: When I was in law because I really believe in the philosophy of law. I wanted to help people. I wanted to either die that people called a three a year to be a public defender.
[04:15] SPEAKER_00: That's what I wanted to be. But my, again, I guess my class is kind of, is pollution lead from that night, switch to education because I wanted to do something that.
[04:26] SPEAKER_00: And inflict just that much more amount of change in the world as I would do as a lawyer. So I thought education would be for me.
[04:34] SPEAKER_00: And when I hit this limit as an educator abroad and they couldn't go high, I thought myself, okay, this battery business is going to be the thing that's going to push me to that next spread of change in my life where I can affect a lot more change and a lot more positive change on people than I would.
[04:58] SPEAKER_00: That's working at a school abroad.
[05:01] SPEAKER_02: So you're still in the early days of entrepreneurship. Is that trying to stay? Yeah, you know, what do you, what do you like you most about it?
[05:17] SPEAKER_00: I, honestly, I really like being people's faces when I tell them about this new idea that I'm breaking forward because as a teacher, as an educator in my past, I'm supposed to be a problem identifier in a problem solving.
[05:36] SPEAKER_00: So if I see a student in my class who has learning learning difficulties, I'm supposed to identify that and solve that.
[05:43] SPEAKER_00: If there's a student that has difficulty of hearing that picture that I have that microphone that I have systems in place so that you're going to have a good time in my class.
[05:55] SPEAKER_00: And now as an entrepreneur, I really like seeing this kind of like, oh, wow moment when I talk to people about this great new thing that I can bring to them.
[06:05] SPEAKER_00: Oh, really like, how can I say when we go up, we always have this voice in the back of our head.
[06:13] SPEAKER_00: Thinking about, was my phone good at that? Should I chart it now when I'm home on my before I go up, I know I'm going to be out for a while. Maybe I should bring my phone cord with me so I can plug it into an update.
[06:24] SPEAKER_00: There's always this little voice at the back of our head annoying us and causing us stress and not a problem in this new digital.
[06:31] SPEAKER_00: And in person, I have identified that problem and when I tell people, hey, I can solve that problem for you.
[06:36] SPEAKER_00: And I can solve this in this great, cool new way and that kind of, oh, wow, looking their eyes and man, it's such a great idea.
[06:43] SPEAKER_00: That really really inspires me out of entrepreneur and makes me want to continue going forward and pushing through all the difficulties forward.
[06:53] SPEAKER_02: So, I mean, you're raising money. Is that the greatest challenge you've faced in business today or in this new business today or is there been other challenges that you could talk about?
[07:08] SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, for sure. Honestly, the biggest challenges for me is not, it's not even the fundraising, it's not even the finances or marketing or anything that I'm a lifelong learner.
[07:21] SPEAKER_00: You have to be kind of a lifelong learner to be an educator. You always have to be adapting and you always have to be, be willing and able to absorb information from multiple channels and be paying time with both businesses and approach situations.
[07:34] SPEAKER_00: And I feel like again, that's useful for being an entrepreneur.
[07:38] SPEAKER_00: So, learning how to fundraise, learning about social media, what it takes to be, have a presence there, learning about told the following finances and that's fine for me.
[07:47] SPEAKER_00: The biggest challenge for me is personally, and that's kind of the advice I will give to anyone initially coming into being an entrepreneur is to really, really pick a look at yourself personally before you jump into this adventure.
[08:05] SPEAKER_00: Everything is fine. If you're educated and smart, all the challenges on paper, that's going to figure itself out, you're going to figure it out.
[08:13] SPEAKER_00: As a person going into entrepreneurship, you really have to understand yourself first. You really have to understand your own strengths and weaknesses.
[08:25] SPEAKER_00: If I have to just run myself, I would say, I'm an eternal optimist. I'm a dreamer. I always have these types. I'm not put out by any of them.
[08:34] SPEAKER_00: Students have difficulties. They're sad about themselves. I'm there to give them that motivation. I want to prop them up. I'm always an optimist.
[08:44] SPEAKER_00: But that's good. There's also a bad side to that. Where reality kicks in at someone.
[08:52] SPEAKER_00: I like it to being a boxer, a new boxer. You can study all the tape you want. You can buy the best equipment. You can have the best trainers. You can be able to pull it all these inspirational people.
[09:09] SPEAKER_00: But then when you get into that ring, you're going to need to know who you are yourself. And you endure multiple blows, punches to your stomach on a daily basis.
[09:21] SPEAKER_00: They'll have that inner strength to get up and continue on. And that's something that I find challenging in my situation. I have no for myself.
[09:32] SPEAKER_00: That's what I face every day. That's what I'm going to counterponerge is going to miss that.
[09:38] SPEAKER_00: Sturge for constant endurance and that constant willingness to get up after multiple bad days in a row, both on the personal end of the business and just to get to that point where you can continue going forward on this.
[09:55] SPEAKER_00: That's been the biggest challenge for me. It's really getting into this.
[10:00] SPEAKER_02: Interesting. That's some interesting stuff there.
[10:05] SPEAKER_02: I mean, you talk about challenges and, you know, constantly fighting and being optimistic.
[10:15] SPEAKER_02: But you have to overcome them. Okay. And you can only fight so much. So how do you typically, you know, overcome those unexpected challenges?
[10:31] SPEAKER_02: Some challenges we expect and you expect them. So therefore you can, you can, you know, plan your fight or whatever.
[10:39] SPEAKER_02: But it's the ones that you don't expect.
[10:45] SPEAKER_02: How do you manage those?
[10:49] SPEAKER_00: It's a mix of prioritizing and just personal sheer will.
[10:54] SPEAKER_00: You know, like real magic formula other than that, you really just have to pick up the bootstraps and no matter how you're feeling, no matter what's going on.
[11:06] SPEAKER_00: You got to put that to the side a little bit and get this stuff up and you have to prioritize and like, can you like this big problem that you have?
[11:15] SPEAKER_00: Is this something that has to be done right now? Or can you put it to the side and deal with it later here in a better mental state or better move to get us done?
[11:25] SPEAKER_00: Because after getting a big fund through the gut, maybe you're not in the right state of mind to write that big email or to go ahead with this new to making up.
[11:35] SPEAKER_00: So I would say to get over these problems, you have to just, I would just pull up the bootstraps, suck it in and then try to get into a logical mindset.
[11:47] SPEAKER_00: This is only to be solved right now and if it does, can I pull it together with finishing or can I put it aside for the moment, put myself together and take a little break for myself to get it emotionally and then try to figure out which method to better one to take.
[12:06] SPEAKER_01: You know, what's the best piece of advice that you've received from someone else that you use in your processes, if you want.
[12:26] SPEAKER_00: The best piece of advice I can say and I've gotten it not even from a professional financeer or someone in the entrepreneur, if you like, the best advice that I've ever gotten is from my immediate group of friends and they always tell me the same kind of thing that like, this is, this is going to be me.
[12:51] SPEAKER_00: I am, I am the business, I am regardless of how many employees I have, regardless of thing, I am the face of that business and it's my vision that goes in.
[13:00] SPEAKER_00: It's, I have to make sure that when I do this project, it's my face going forward, I'm the one strategizing, I need to make sure that I have confidence and that I'm putting the effort forward to make sure everything gets done.
[13:19] SPEAKER_00: Because I can't really depend on other people to give their best if I can see, if I can be on, even if I'm paying someone well, you know, other than being over them 24 hours a day watching them, I can't really make sure that they're going to be doing things to the best of their ability.
[13:38] SPEAKER_00: So I need to make sure that I'm, for me and for myself, I'm setting that trend and I'm putting myself out there and I'm working my best to get to move it.
[13:48] SPEAKER_02: So you were teaching for a decade, I mean, do you, do you kick yourself that you didn't jump into entrepreneurship a decade ago kind of thing?
[13:58] SPEAKER_00: Pretty, pretty, pretty much, yeah, I would say, because the ideas are out there and people, I don't know, people are saying, well, if I just had this one idea, if you could figure out, if I just did this one thing and can make it.
[14:12] SPEAKER_00: And that is really, really through this battery sharing business that we have, this is being out there in Asia for ages, ages.
[14:24] SPEAKER_00: And I was using it for ages before I even thought about it and now that I've got this business going, I should have done this way more in that.
[14:33] SPEAKER_00: This is something that, there's something that really spurred my interest and really gets my juices flowing as an entrepreneur.
[14:47] SPEAKER_01: I wanted, I should have gotten ahead of this, ahead of this curve, it's, how can I say?
[14:56] SPEAKER_01: I lost my China thought.
[14:59] SPEAKER_02: Okay, let's sort of move away from these reflective things because they're very interesting, but this has some sort of fun things here.
[15:08] SPEAKER_02: You know, I always ask people, you were mourning overnight person.
[15:14] SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm personally a night person, but I have to, for myself, into a morning person is working because everything's happening.
[15:22] SPEAKER_00: Everything happens in meetings, banks, everything's something during the cold calling.
[15:28] SPEAKER_00: So I'm a night person and I do my best work at night, but I have to turn myself into a morning person.
[15:33] SPEAKER_02: And to be an educator, I have to do that too.
[15:36] SPEAKER_02: It's interesting, you know what I mean?
[15:37] SPEAKER_02: I think we do have a few night people, but mourning people and mourning an entrepreneurship, do seem to go hand in hand.
[15:45] SPEAKER_02: It's got to come on.
[15:48] SPEAKER_00: Typically, when I work the outhandle, I do all my social things in the morning where I have to call, I have to live in, I have to do this or any virtual meetings, anything like that.
[15:57] SPEAKER_00: And then I do call my personal work later at night when I'm more focused and I'm, I'm, I'm a lot more energy to dedicate to it, like website building or design either brochure or what script to have for the cold calls that.
[16:13] SPEAKER_02: You know, you're in Paris today, I know that.
[16:19] SPEAKER_02: And you know, you've been in Asia for what the past decade, but then back and back to Canada.
[16:26] SPEAKER_02: You know, I have to ask you, you know, what's the most favorite place you have to do business in?
[16:36] SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's a tough question.
[16:41] SPEAKER_00: I would have to say, Rhea and China are my favorite places to do business in, because everyone's interested in everyone wants to do business with each other.
[16:52] SPEAKER_00: And like you get business requests and people who want to meet you, the unsolicited or, and you know all these connections to people and everybody knows the business.
[17:04] SPEAKER_00: I've found everyone knows it and someone who can connect you to something else and everyone's still really enthusiastic to do business with not only each other, but international companies.
[17:14] SPEAKER_00: Everyone did that game in in Beijing or Korea, really specifically.
[17:20] SPEAKER_00: And just the, their enthusiasm over there really makes doing this a lot of fun and being in these kind of personal meetings with them when you go over there.
[17:30] SPEAKER_00: I mean, like I said before, I'm a dreamer. I'm an optimist. So when they, when we start bringing someone up about what we can do together and what they can bring to the table, what I can bring to the table and how we're going to do this together.
[17:41] SPEAKER_00: It just gets me really excited and gets me thinking about all the possibilities that we can do and I can do together what I can do for them and what they can do for me and what we can do together.
[17:50] SPEAKER_00: And it just looks like a new business over there and it does a lot more if I can say additional conservative in that sense.
[18:02] Speaker UNKNOWN: Okay.
[18:04] SPEAKER_00: Because I remember someone else, and it's on the podcast that you have and it really is really, really true that you know, you put on your partnership on your resume and someone say, oh, you're not working for that time.
[18:16] SPEAKER_00: It's just weird to stop.
[18:19] SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm doing stuff. I'm building myself. I'm establishing.
[18:24] SPEAKER_00: I'm a stability routine. I'm a strategy policy. I'm setting strategic outcomes up. You know, they don't see that.
[18:31] SPEAKER_00: But in Asia, in Asia, they really like that kind of establishment of yourself.
[18:39] SPEAKER_02: Yes. I know.
[18:42] SPEAKER_01: So what's keeping you up at night on the business front?
[18:49] SPEAKER_00: In the future.
[18:51] SPEAKER_00: If I can say that.
[18:52] SPEAKER_00: You know, like we, this company just started out. We are just establishing ourselves and establishing our routines and our strategies how we want to move forward.
[19:06] SPEAKER_00: And as passionate as I am and my employees are about this business, you know, we need to like, I know the future as much as bright as we see it.
[19:18] SPEAKER_00: We have a way of getting back against us.
[19:24] SPEAKER_00: So I worry about the future. I don't know where the company is going to be at in six months time.
[19:31] SPEAKER_00: I have no idea.
[19:33] SPEAKER_00: But you know, that kind of stress is also connected to my experience as a teacher.
[19:38] SPEAKER_00: So I don't know if it's just me as an entrepreneur.
[19:41] SPEAKER_00: This is pressing you out at night time. Or if it just has a teacher.
[19:45] SPEAKER_00: Because as an educator, I'm supposed to be preparing students for a future five, six years, 10 years from now, I don't even know what's going to happen next month.
[19:54] SPEAKER_00: But they're going to look like.
[19:55] SPEAKER_00: And I'm supposed to be giving these students tools from success.
[19:59] SPEAKER_00: And as an entrepreneur, I have the same press.
[20:01] SPEAKER_00: How much time establishing these cool routines.
[20:04] SPEAKER_00: We're going to do this and have all these dreams. Yeah, we're going to do that. That's a great deal.
[20:08] SPEAKER_00: How's it going to look like in six months?
[20:09] SPEAKER_00: What's going to look like in the year as you're going to work? Is it not going to work?
[20:12] SPEAKER_00: Is something going to feel so spectacularly that it's going to destroy the business?
[20:16] SPEAKER_00: Am I going to learn people to learn lessons and apply them somewhere else? I don't know.
[20:21] SPEAKER_00: And I just have to wake up every day.
[20:23] SPEAKER_00: Hoping and being an optimist and let's try this out and let's see what happens and let's just keep going.
[20:32] SPEAKER_02: So if you had to be one word to describe yourself, would it be optimistic? What would it be?
[20:38] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I still go. I know it's kind of repeating trends here, but I definitely go with optimists.
[20:45] SPEAKER_00: I don't know. Maybe it's from my mom who my mom's always been my greatest supporter.
[20:50] SPEAKER_00: And my dad has been there supporting me as well. And my dad's kind of the real list.
[20:59] SPEAKER_00: And my brother kind of real list.
[21:00] SPEAKER_00: And my mom is always the the internal optimist and always tell me not to be okay.
[21:08] SPEAKER_00: Everything's going to be fine. Just keep going, keep pushing. Everything's going to be fine.
[21:13] SPEAKER_00: And I kind of rub with that. So I kind of just engraved into me to always look for the best, the best thing is into there.
[21:21] SPEAKER_00: Maybe things aren't working out right now, but you're learning your lesson.
[21:25] SPEAKER_00: You're going through and you're going to keep going. You're going to apply to somewhere else and everything's going to be fine later.
[21:30] SPEAKER_00: Just keep plugging in. Don't give up.
[21:34] SPEAKER_02: You said you were a lifelong learner. What book do you currently reading or what book would you recommend to the audience?
[21:43] SPEAKER_02: I mean, you know, in things that things that that something you read recently that really impacts impact to you.
[21:55] SPEAKER_00: Well, honestly, I wouldn't say if I'm going to give that kind of that kind of like personal agenda to someone, I would say keep reading as a personal fun activity to do for yourself.
[22:11] SPEAKER_00: Rather than be it specifically for business because you're going to be learning all day, you're going to be everything's online anyway.
[22:20] SPEAKER_00: You're going to be learning through things, reading this, look at this article, analyze this information, do that.
[22:25] SPEAKER_02: And reading is fun. Reading should be.
[22:28] SPEAKER_02: Absolutely. I'm a big reader. So yes.
[22:31] SPEAKER_02: And I mix. Okay, I do about three novels to one sort of nonfiction basically.
[22:40] SPEAKER_00: Right. Yeah.
[22:41] SPEAKER_00: And I would say, you know what? Just save all that fun stuff for later. Like, you're finally good book reader for fun when it days or you have a good podcast.
[22:52] SPEAKER_00: Sure. You sure listen to the finance podcast or the
[22:55] SPEAKER_00: entrepreneurship podcast, right? But you know, save some fun stuff for later because you're going to definitely need after working a 14 hour day where multiple hats doing multiple things, getting punched in the gut.
[23:07] SPEAKER_00: You time.
[23:08] SPEAKER_00: You want to sit down with a good book to see how that is. If you want to sit down with a good podcast, just do have that your last day for yourself.
[23:15] SPEAKER_00: Get orders and order some food, sit down with that book.
[23:18] SPEAKER_00: Do you want a specific book? What I was reading recently was dance dance, dance by Rukimura Kami.
[23:28] SPEAKER_00: That's been really, that's been a real page turner for myself.
[23:32] SPEAKER_00: When it comes to podcasts, because I know there's some obviously work part of the podcast that we're talking about on the events.
[23:39] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[23:41] SPEAKER_00: Other than other than this podcast, obviously.
[23:44] SPEAKER_00: I would listen to this podcast called Taste of Us. I don't know if you've heard about that one.
[23:52] SPEAKER_00: Oh, you have good. That's my favorite one to see. For example, those who haven't spread of it is just a podcast where these two comedians, they debate.
[24:03] SPEAKER_00: So is it antics or waffles, which ones better? Hope or Pepsi?
[24:09] SPEAKER_00: Stuff like that and they get these heated debates and that's just after a day of business and seriousness and living in the fear of the future for your business and doing all these cold call, getting rejected, having good news.
[24:27] SPEAKER_00: And just being in a whole peyotic world with of your business, Dave, for 14 hours.
[24:33] SPEAKER_00: It's so good to see with a good book or say with a nice podcast, if you just let it out for an hour or two.
[24:39] SPEAKER_00: So keep reading for, I would say keep reading for fun and just pick a nice book for yourself at the end of the day.
[24:46] SPEAKER_02: Cool. Okay. So, you know, it's been great meeting you.
[24:51] SPEAKER_02: I wish you could have done it in person in Paris, but that's fine.
[24:56] SPEAKER_02: How can people get a hold of you if they've heard something they like and they want to fall off with you? What's the best way?
[25:06] SPEAKER_00: The best way to do a podcast is through our website, alpha battery, dot net.
[25:13] SPEAKER_00: And from there, you can have access to all of our social media accounts where you can get into contact with us, whether it's Twitter, Instagram.
[25:21] SPEAKER_00: Or you can actually on our website, there's a forum at the bottom, so you can submit and we can contact us directly through there.
[25:29] SPEAKER_00: So any, any all portals to contact with us, done for a website, alpha battery, dot net.
[25:36] SPEAKER_02: Okay. Well, thank you for coming on, Canada's podcast. It's been, it's been really good meeting you.
[25:41] SPEAKER_02: Thank you. Thank you so much. Nice to be here.
