March 20, 2025 • 34 mins
What if the challenges life throws at you aren’t roadblocks but stepping stones to something greater?
Born almost blind, Jennie Coleman never saw the world like others until a miraculous surgery at 13 changed everything. But that was just the beginning. She built a trailblazing career at Bombardier, specializing in corporate strategy and travelling between Montreal, Zurich, Berlin, and Beijing. Then, life threw her another challenge: her daughter Laura, born with an ultra-rare genetic mutation, forever needed care. Jennie could have retreated, but instead, she redefined success.
Jennie left the corporate world, took a leap of faith, and bought a business she knew nothing about—Equifruit, a Fairtrade banana company. And with the same resilience that carried her through every chapter of her life, she turned it into a force for good, fighting for fair wages, sustainability, and ethical trade.
Jennie's journey—from corporate warrior to purpose-driven entrepreneur—earned her the title of RBC Momentum Award Winner. The Harvard Business School has published a case on her accomplishments, and Jennie has been named Canada's Most Admired CEO by Waterson Human Capital.
But her story isn’t just about business. It’s about family, and humanity, and someone who sees beyond profit to a higher purpose.
To learn more about Equifruit, https://equifruit.com/en/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
When I was a young boy, we used to visit a farm near
Hawkesbury, Ontario, a town where my dad grew up.
I got to camp there one night with my dad, and it's one of the
most magical memories I have. That's the story I'll save for
another day. But I do remember there was more than one family
living there. They're all brothers and sisters, and they worked hard
(00:26):
in the barns and the fields, and maybe that's where my respect,
admiration, and gratitude for farmers began. Today, I
think we all know that food means the world to us, and it's because of
farmers, those next door, and those across the world,
we get to taste it all and often at such affordable
prices. I think every bite we take
(00:48):
has a story, many stories behind it. Today, I wanna share a story about
Jennie Coleman, someone who almost lost her most important sense
and today, lets her see with empathy and heart. I didn't know
how limited I was. I knew there were things that were difficult, but
mostly, I didn't know what I was missing. A mother has three
children, but one who is 17 and still needs to be cared for like a
(01:10):
baby. Part of my sadness sometimes is about her, you
know, the limitations of her life.
And bananas. Yes. Bananas. Her bananas that
serve a greater purpose than being baked into bread or served on top of
cereal.
(01:30):
Hi. It's Tony Chapman. Thank you for listening to Chatter That Matters presented
by RBC. If you can, please subscribe to the podcast. And
ratings and reviews, well, they're always welcome, and they're always appreciated.
Jennie Coleman, welcome to Chatter That Matters. Thank
you, Tony. It's wonderful to be here. When I read your
(01:52):
backstory, my heart went out to you because up until age
13, you're almost blind. I started
off with this challenge, but I think the
wonderful thing is that children don't see challenges
like adults do. And if you've never seen properly, you
don't know what you're you're missing. So by the
(02:15):
time I was 13, my vision was so limited that I
had cataracts. We decided, let's give this a go. The doctors
told my parents that though the operation technically might
be a success because my brain hadn't learned to see, I might
not see. And yet I do. It was just a complete
miracle for me. I know you didn't know better, but as you get
(02:37):
older, you're realizing that obviously there's limitations
when you're not with sight. How did you cope then? And how did you
feel after? I had a lot of help at
school, for example. And I did activities. Like,
obviously I wasn't on the softball team, but
I did a lot of activity. I did a lot of music. You know, I
(03:00):
had developed a very good ear. I didn't know how
limited I was. I knew there were things that were difficult, but mostly,
I didn't know what I was missing. So I had this surgery and it took
a while for the eyes to heal. I remember getting that first
set of contacts and just being amazed
by the world around me. You know, I still wear
(03:23):
contacts and I put them in every morning. And honestly, this
sounds over the top, but it's just true that every single day I
feel grateful. Now I've had guests in my show that have
knocked at death's door. They find their way back and
it's such a gift because they have an appreciation for life and every
breath we often take for granted. I wanna move it into your
(03:45):
career because obviously whether you had a sense for just
music and you could suddenly your superpower in your eyes, but you had a very
successful career. One of the ones I'm citing is obviously Bombardier. I
mean, this is a fairly young woman. You're between Montreal, Zurich,
Berlin, and Beijing, back to Berlin. I mean, this is quite an exciting life that
you have going on. Yeah. I had a great career with
(04:07):
Bombardier. They were a fantastic company. I joined them
in 02/2002, started in the
corporate office and a strategy role. And
within a few months moved into operations, into the
locomotives business unit at the time was essentially planes
and trains. So I was in Zurich, working on
(04:28):
strategy and market analysis on locomotives. At one point, I could
tell you anything about any locomotive fleet, anywhere in the
world. The rail division headquarters were in Berlin.
I moved there principally because I'd met somebody who was,
who was working there and we got married and together we moved
to to Beijing. That's where our first baby was born and
(04:51):
back to Berlin and then back to Canada. And I
stayed with Bon Bardier until the arrival of baby
number three. At which point I just thought, oh, I can't do this
corporate job anymore. Can we talk a little bit about your first
born, Laura, because that turned your life upside down. I mean,
up till now, you both had, you know, this mad love affair. You've both got
(05:14):
great careers. You're you know, people must be just living vicariously
through through you. What do you mean you're in Beijing? But Laura's born
and she wasn't healthy, I guess, is the best way to say it. We didn't
know at her birth. At the beginning, everybody said to us, oh, every
baby's different, and they develop at their own
rate. She was born just at the end of our time in Beijing. We moved
(05:36):
back to Berlin, and we saw a doctor for just a
standard checkup around the time she was about six months. The doctor
said, yeah. If she's not turning over, rolling over by the time
she's eight months, come back and see me. And she Laura wasn't. The
doctor then said, oh, you know what? I think this is just hypotonia.
That means low muscle tone. We'll do physio, and by the time
(05:59):
she's two, she'll have caught up. She'll be indistinguishable from other
kids. So we started doing physios three times a week and
we went back for another checkup when Laura was about a year. And at that
stage, Laura could still not roll over.
I don't think she recognized me. She was making no sounds.
I was back at work and I picked up Laura and I'd come to this
(06:22):
appointment wearing a suit. And I said, you know, I just can't understand. She's
not doing anything. And the doctor said, well, you know, look at you.
You're just a yuppie, and you just want your child to be first
in class. It's like, no, I don't. So we go back to the
we go back to the, physiotherapist and
she says, so how is the appointment? And I said, well,
(06:44):
apparently, I'm the problem. And the physiotherapist said, no, no,
no. When I work with babies, usually there's a rattle or
something and they're motivated by that sound to roll over and make
something. And Laura was just flatlining. We
went and got a second opinion and that doctor, she put
her hand on my arm. I'll never, I can still feel her hand
(07:06):
there. And she said, you are right to worry. That
was the start of, you know, understanding that we had a
serious problem. We saw every doctor, we did every test and
we only got a diagnosis for Laura when she was about 13. I
guess this was right at the beginning of the pandemic. We'd done another swath of
genetic testing and there it is. Laura's disability is
(07:29):
caused by a spontaneous genetic mutation.
It's ultra rare because it's not something that is
hereditary. It's just something that happens. But
the effect of that is that Laurie is
my eternal baby. As you said, Tony, she she needs help
for everything. She needs to be bathed and dressed and
(07:51):
fed and given to drink, and she's in diapers,
and she doesn't walk, and she doesn't talk, and she doesn't
understand language. Wow. She's also a very happy
little person. She's unaware of her disability and therefore not
frustrated by it. And and though her world is
small, in her world, she is fine.
(08:13):
And my husband said, you know what? We're sad, but
Laura's not. We've kinda tried to have that
be our guiding philosophy. I'm not saying it's easy. It's not always
easy. But what has really helped in
a way is that we didn't have a diagnosis for Lauren, we waited a little
while before having more children. My husband said, let's roll the
(08:35):
dice. And we had this little baby who immediately, we knew
she was different. The last two, they're just 16 apart
and they've given us back our smiles and they transformed us from a,
a couple with a disabled child to a family. And it allows
us in a way to let go of all of the sadness
and and disappointment that comes from a child when you realize
(08:58):
that you're never gonna hear mommy from them. You've got
these three children and you come to the
realization that the corporate life as it often
happens, sadly with a woman who's even though as successful as you are,
you're shouldering a lot of the care. You come to say, I can't do this
anymore, but fast forward, you become RBC's woman entrepreneur
(09:20):
momentum winner. We're about to now talk
about how you go bananas with your life. So
take me through that time period and how this all unfolded
and why maybe you needed this as something that you could
identify with versus just identifying as someone that was
forever gonna be Laura's mother. I had had an entrepreneurial
(09:42):
itch for a long, long time. It was almost a game
that at dinner, I would say to my husband, hey, do you wanna do you
wanna hear my latest idea? And a lot of them were just absolutely
cookie, you know, but it seemed to me, maybe this is the moment
where I start something on my own
and have more control over my schedule. And then I came
(10:04):
upon an ad posted by a small business broker here in
Montreal. Didn't give very much information, but that said, you know,
at a small company with high ethical standards
suitable for somebody needing a flexible work or something.
And I thought, oh, this sounds intriguing. Called the broker and
we met. We're sitting at a great big board table and he has a
(10:27):
Manila folder that he slides across the table. And
there it was. I open it and it is this fruit business, this
Fairtrade fruit business. What made you actually think
this was possible? It's a lovely story, but it's not
like if you did a proper strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, it
probably wouldn't scream buy this business. I don't know. I think I was a
(10:49):
little bit kooky. Maybe I was sleep deprived. I don't I was
very naive. I mean, why do we do things in life? I did,
what I thought at the time was a due diligence on the business. And now
if I ever buy another business, I'm telling you I could ask a whole
lot more questions. I was just really yearning
for some kind of external stimulation and
(11:12):
it just seemed like the right thing then. And there were a
whole lot of moments in the, certainly the first year where I
just thought, have, have I lost my mind? Did, did I,
did somebody drop me on my head Because this
is insane. What I've just got myself into, but
you weather those storms. Fortunately, I started
(11:34):
to attract good people to come and work with me
Bit by bit, we built the business and we got ourselves out
of that very difficult first year. What advice can you give? There's a lot of
people that, you know, the entrepreneurial dream and this
sort of are gonna be the next Zuckerberg just sounds so
wonderful. But the reality is it's one of the toughest gauntlets to
(11:57):
run because there's no playbook. It's very lonely because
if things are going to chaos, you really can't show that to your other
employees. How did you come to terms with it and not feel
like you're an absolute imposter? It's a category you knew nothing about. Talk
to me about how it must have felt like running a cement the first year
and how did you find a way to keep going? Something that's overlooked
(12:19):
for younger or starting entrepreneurs is the
idea of buying somebody else's business. When you do
that, when you're a repreneur, you know, a takeover
entrepreneur, you sort of have to get up in the morning, keep
something that was running, running. You know, if I had had
to start, in fact, from scratch, I'm sure there would have
(12:42):
been a lot of days where the children's needs
or my tiredness would have made me say, we'll
get to that at some other point. And I'm not sure whether I would have
ever found the time to dedicate to getting a
business off the ground from zero. Whereas when you buy a business,
you know, you do so because you see an opportunity for improvement. You
(13:05):
see untapped markets. You think there's a way that you can add value to this
business. But the fact is that there is a running business
with existing customers. There is cashflow.
You must work because the business must keep running. Then you do keep
working at it. If there's anyone listening here thinking about entrepreneurship,
I think it's a great way to get started. The
(13:28):
person that sold it has he or she followed your success with this?
The company was founded in 02/2006 by a mother daughter
team, and they've been really sweet, especially the mom. I
hardly know the daughter. The mom every once in a while sends
me pictures of our bananas in stores that we weren't
in when she sold me the business. And, she liked me.
(13:51):
And I think she could imagine I think many entrepreneurs think of their
business as a as a baby and wanna hand it over to somebody
who's gonna make that baby grow. Though my bid
wasn't the highest. How much of the times when that business was tough
did you say that person had faith in me, therefore,
I wanna honor that faith? I think it was less about honoring
(14:15):
her as much as being able to
look my husband in the eyes and tell him I
hadn't taken all of our savings and just flushed
them down the toilet.
After my three takeaways, I just gonna close my show with sharing a little
story about how chat of the matter started. But when we
(14:37):
return, Jennie and I venture into her world, and the
hidden cost of cheap bananas, and why she's chosen to take on a
few giants to make thousands of lives better.
Hi. It's Tony Chapman. I wanna give a big shout out to RBC for everything
they do to support small business owners across Canada.
(14:58):
Starting and growing a business is tough, especially in today's world of
uncertainty. But when I had the idea to launch Chatter AI, I
turned to RBC. They didn't just open an account for me. They sat down,
they listened, and gave me the guidance and tools I need to turn my
vision into reality. Today, I rely on RBC small business solutions
to navigate the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. Whether it's banking,
(15:20):
financing, or expert advice, they're there every step of the way.
Because ideas happen at RBC and small business matters to you
and me. Visit rbc.com/smallbusiness, and turn
your dreams into reality. What we wanna
do is to change the banana industry, and we want
our competitors to be on board with this too. We want them all
(15:43):
giving the same message. That hundred year
era, that's done. Let's try a new
version of this banana business model. Today,
my special guest is Jennie Coleman. She is being acknowledged and
decorated by so many associations and for so many
reasons. Her faith in humanity, fair trade, her
(16:04):
talents as an entrepreneur, and just her positivity
and sense of possibility.
I love the way you frame, compress ideas to the
point that it creates a niche, and I wanna hear more. One of them was
the hidden cost to cheap bananas. Talk to me
(16:25):
about what is the hidden cost to cheap bananas, and
why are you on a cause to, to expose it? Bananas
are the cheapest fruit in our
basket, probably propound the cheapest item at the
grocery store. And if we look at banana
data going back to January of nineteen ninety five,
(16:47):
bananas then were being sold at an average price of
59¢ per pound. You can still find bananas at
59¢ per pound in discount banners in
Ontario, at least. Doesn't make any sense. Nothing else
is a that cheap to begin with and
b, you know, as cheap as it was nearly thirty years
(17:09):
ago. The problem with that cheap price is that that is
not a sustainable price. That is not a price that reflects
the hard work that goes into growing bananas. And so if
we we consider what would be a sustainable price
versus what we see in grocery stores, we can thank
small growers and plantation workers for
(17:31):
essentially subsidizing our favorite fruit
through low wages, poor working conditions,
and living the effect of toxic
environmental practices which have been implemented to increase
production and cut costs. And it's just
not right. There are costs
(17:54):
to that business model. There are, of course, the workers and the small
growers that we've just talked about, but there are broader
issues that stem from unequal supply
chains. You know, we see a migration crisis on the
Southern US border. In the top five source countries for
those migrants is Guatemala. Two Thousand And One
(18:16):
report on the state of labor in the Guatemalan banana industry,
we find that 85% of Guatemalan production
is on non unionized farms. Those workers are
earning on average a dollar 5 US an hour for
average sixty eight hour work weeks.
(18:36):
This is poverty wages under very
difficult conditions. So why hasn't that come out? I mean, the sweat factories
made major brands wake up and
do something different. Sure. Why is it you peeling back the story, if
I can use a horrible pun, and we haven't heard more about it? I want
everybody to talk about this. You know, I'm not sure if this is a good
(18:58):
news, bad news story. Obviously, it's a bad news story, but in June,
a Florida court found Takeda
liable in the deaths of eight banana workers
who were killed by a paramilitary
organization that Takeda had funded between
1997 and 02/2004. It's taken this long
(19:21):
for that case to be tried and for them to be found liable.
That has generated a lot just in these last few months,
a lot of articles, a lot of coverage. There was
a op ed, a guest essay in the New York Times just
yesterday. Let's hope that the more
consciousness there is about bananas, the better.
(19:44):
Part of the trouble is that the market is very,
very controlled, monopolized by a few big
companies who own the whole supply chain. And so
a buyer, a retail buyer here in North America,
we've met people who've been buying bananas for forty years and have never set
foot on a plantation. Out of sight, out of mind,
(20:07):
bananas have been sort of perpetually cheap. Equifruit
obviously is your company. You're changing that. From what I understand,
you charge a good premium on your bananas, but part of that money goes
back to lifting and improving the life of the people that work on those
plantations. That might make you popular with them. It certainly
is popular with a lot of consumers that have a consciousness,
(20:29):
but I have to believe that's brought you offside with the two or three companies
that control over there. We are a % fair
trade company. It's our brand promise. Everything we're gonna bring in is certified
by fair trade international. And to gain that certification,
our growers have to respect certain standards on sustainable
production, sustainable economically, socially, and
(20:52):
environmentally. We too pay a
fair price for them, respecting those standards.
We respect a minimum price, a price that
is set to represent the cost of that sustainable production.
So production where there have been, you know, living wages paid,
where there's been no child or forced labor, where there's environmental
(21:14):
stewardship, if it's our conventional bananas or, you know, most
of our volume is organic fair trade bananas. And then
you're right. There's an additional amount, which is called the
fair trade social premium, which is 1 US
dollar per 40 pound case. That social premium
is used either by small growers or workers on a
(21:36):
plantation for a a whole host of different
projects, most often used to
improve production, reduce water usage, their carbon
footprint. Plantation workers are really the
most dispossessed in this chain, and and they will
use it generally for improvements in basic housing
(22:00):
or furniture or school uniforms,
school fees for their children. So, Jennie, if I have my math
right, you talk about a dollar every 40 pounds, and some people say,
oh, so what's a couple hundred dollars? You've given
around $3,000,000 back to improve
life and livelihood. That has to be one of the things you
(22:23):
feel the proud most proud about. We feel very excited about that. We
know that there's a reason for our work. But I
would argue that even more important
than that social premium is ensuring that you're
paying price that covers sustainable production.
You know, that you're not cutting corners, that the social premium doesn't
(22:45):
end up being a token charity amount. At
the anchor of the system is making sure that you're
paying a fair price per case. That's what a a
farmer can rely on. You know, when we work with
cooperatives as small growers and they are each of
them a business person with their own land, if
(23:06):
they wanna make improvements and they wanna go to the bank, for example,
they can say, well, we we're in contracts with Equifruit that is going
to, pay us this price that includes a small margin. You know,
it's not it's business. You know, the way Equifruit might go to
the bank seeking a loan, that small grower might go and get the
loan they need to expand their farm. That fair trade
(23:29):
minimum price, because it reflects a
budget for fair labor, guess what? It means that they can
send their own children to school. You know, small growers are not gonna
be reliant on their children to provide the labour on their
on their farm. They can go out and get adults who
are consenting to work on that farm. In a world where there's a a
(23:51):
stampede to value, Even, you know, the largest grocery
stores talking about yet another format that's gonna strip out all the
frills. You realise that there's a higher purpose than profit.
You're seeing the value of that circle economy happening
with, with free trade. How do you convince consumers that that
banana's worth a little bit more? This is the main challenge
(24:13):
we face, but it isn't actually with consumers. It's
with retail buyers. They are really the
narrow part of that hourglass because
bananas are not something that we can set up an e commerce site and to
ship out to whoever wants them. We really need them
as the distributor to consumers. If they
(24:35):
decide that they are gonna take a responsible procurement
approach, then consumers have that choice. But if they decide
this is not something that they feel their consumers
are interested in, then we are locked out. It's
not like a CPG product where essentially, you know,
you charm the buyer, but you're also buying shelf
(24:58):
space. And as long as your product turns, you
will be allowed to keep your product on the shelf space.
So we focus most of our attention right now
on retail buyers. And what we tell them is that it is
time for a reset in the banana industry.
We've all had a terrific deal on bananas
(25:21):
for the last hundred years. It's time for a
reset that, ensures a more
fair distribution of value along the supply chain. In the
cases that we've managed to convince that buyer,
our sales growth is testament to the fact that
consumers are behind us. We're growing,
(25:42):
and we don't do that without, in the end, customer support.
And the thing that we've gotta remember is that even if our bananas
sell at a premium, and they do, there's a difference between
percentage increase and absolute increase.
So let's take the example of Longo's in the Toronto
(26:03):
area. Longo's in 02/2001,
we had worked with them for a long time on fair trade organic bananas. But
in 02/2001, they switched out their non fair
trade conventional bananas for aquafruit fair
trade conventional bananas. And at the time, they
were charging 69¢ per pound for
(26:25):
conventional bananas. When they made the switch to
fair trade, because they were respecting through Equifruit,
this cost structure, they raised the price from 69¢ to
99¢ a pound. Percentage wise, you know, heads
explode. And there was a lot of nervousness. You
know, the factor that was gonna determine the success of the program was
(26:48):
that there was no lost tonnage. There has been
no lost tonnage. The average Canadian
eats about 15 kilos of bananas per year. That's
about 33 pounds. That 69
to 99¢ difference is
30¢. 30 cents hangs 33
(27:10):
pounds works out to less than 10 Canadian
dollars per year on our grocery bill.
We have a a campaign that just kicked off on
LinkedIn today where we, you know, as you alluded to, our marketing
is all is a little bit crazy. And we have these memes of
ourselves and we say we've spent more on and then some
(27:32):
ridiculous thing like sour wine or
breath mints or, you know, the riding the mall
stuffies, then it would cost you to switch
to Equifruit Fairtrade Bananas in a year.
Nobody likes a price increase, but this is
almost negligible for most Canadians. And I
(27:56):
don't mean to disrespect those who are living with
food insecurity, and I understand that. And I have
enormous empathy for that swath. But right
now, Fairtrade Bananas hold only about a 2% market
share in Canada, and it's not
98% of us who are food insecure.
(28:18):
People don't ask about the food insecurity of those workers at the
beginning of the chain. I wanna just bring it back to you now. I mean,
you've built this business. It certainly has its own complexities
and challenges, but you sound like you still love it. You're a
mother, you've got a partnership, you've got three children, one that's always gonna
be your baby. There's a social justice element coming to
(28:40):
you that says this is gonna extend beyond bananas. Just curious, how
do you find time to do everything? I just have a great team. We have
a lot of fun together. We're very committed to our mission. We run
a very human company. And part of that is that
my team understands that I am facing a
challenge in the person of my Laura that is out of the
(29:02):
ordinary. They've been very, very supportive. It
continues to allow me the flexibility to blend
my family responsibilities with my work responsibilities.
And I would be remiss if I didn't say that for the last
two years now, we've gotten home care
support through what we call here in Quebec, the
(29:25):
CLSC, our local health care center. And Laura's health. I
mean, when I was reading the notes, you almost lost her.
Yeah. Well, she's a mystery. That's what she is. There are only
about two hundred identified cases of this
genetic, mutation that she has. And most of them are
children. There may be more out in the universe, but it you know, genetic
(29:48):
testing is expensive. It means that we don't really know what's
ahead. Yeah. There have been tough moments and
sometimes I can't spend too much time thinking about the future because I don't know
what that is. And it's this may sound terrible, but in a way,
neither scenario is all that appealing. You know,
losing her would be terrible,
(30:10):
but having her survive us, it's our biggest concern.
You know, Jennie, I always end my shows with my three takeaways.
And the first one is when that second doctor in Berlin touched your
arm and said, you have the right to worry. You realize that your
life, you probably knew it, but you knew then that
your life would ever change. And that question would always
(30:33):
be in front of you. What happens if she outlives us? The
second thing is when your husband said, we're sad, but she's not.
It also brought back when you said kids with disabilities
don't really realize they have disabilities. Maybe those two are
very connected and the empathy and care and
giving is really something that kind of went from you to her in some
(30:56):
ways. And just in the sense that neither one of you really knew what you
were dealing with. It's wonderful. She's alive and she's part of the family. And then
the third thing is how honest you are and
how you have to come to terms with it. You know, one kid's a little
bit more empathetic than the other. Sometimes they just want to be a family again.
Sometimes we just want to go on a vacation and not have to be held
(31:18):
back. That alone has to be something that
would consume most people's entire life because you're trying to
dance across the thinnest wire, trying to make it all work. And the
fact that you did this and you bought a business that you know nothing about
and that you, you know, you launched this crusade that I'm
taking on now. And we'll talk about on television when I do
(31:40):
my weekly shows, bring one of your bananas on TV and
just let people know that if we can afford to do that,
there's so much more than immediate gratification that goes into the choices we
make. I hope that more and more the choices go towards
Equifruit, organizations like yours, and people like you
that are behind it. So for all of that and more, thank you for joining
(32:01):
me in Chatter That Matters. Thank you so much, Tony. That was lovely.
I'm touched.
I don't know how far you go back as a listener to Chatter That Matters.
I'll share a quick story that this began at the early days of
COVID. I had this tiny little podcast and I approached
RBC and I said, you know, it's, it's in all our collective interest
(32:24):
to really support small business owners. They're the heart of our
economy, and we all have to do our part to keep those
hearts beating strong. The idea was that each week I'd
share a story of a small business warrior, the headphones they're facing now
that COVID hit. And I'd invite people in from my
network. Some of the smartest people I've ever met, Jeanne Beckers
(32:46):
and Arlene Dickinsons and Joe Mimrands and Beverly Hammonds and
just so many more. The idea that they would take the
time and invest the time to help that individual owner get to where
they need, want, and deserve to go. That carnival
idea obviously blossomed into something much bigger, and the lens of the
podcast got much wider. It wasn't just small business owners. It was people that
(33:09):
overcame circumstances, chased their dreams, chased their world, and
ours for the better. And we brought in world renowned thinkers,
thought leaders, award winners, and of course stories
of people you might never have heard of, but once you did, you realize that
within all of us, there lies the ability to reinvent,
to have resilience. So it was wonderful today to
(33:32):
share with you Jennie Coleman, get back to our roots. And
I'm such a fan of how Jennie has approached her business, that there's
a much higher purpose than profit. I'm so proud of RBC because
I've been working with this brand for five years now. They go
way beyond banking, and their intent truly is to help people
thrive and communities prosper. And they're so open to
(33:54):
people walking in their doors with their ideas and their dreams and
trying to find a way to make things happen. So here's to all
the small business warriors. Here's to all my guests. Here's to
all of you, and here's to RBC
because those are the pillars by which we build chatter that batters every
week. It's Tony Chapman. Thanks for listening,
(34:17):
and let's chat soon.
When I was a young boy, we used to visit a farm near
Hawkesbury, Ontario, a town where my dad grew up.
I got to camp there one night with my dad, and it's one of the
most magical memories I have. That's the story I'll save for
another day. But I do remember there was more than one family
living there. They're all brothers and sisters, and they worked hard
(00:26):
in the barns and the fields, and maybe that's where my respect,
admiration, and gratitude for farmers began. Today, I
think we all know that food means the world to us, and it's because of
farmers, those next door, and those across the world,
we get to taste it all and often at such affordable
prices. I think every bite we take
(00:48):
has a story, many stories behind it. Today, I wanna share a story about
Jennie Coleman, someone who almost lost her most important sense
and today, lets her see with empathy and heart. I didn't know
how limited I was. I knew there were things that were difficult, but
mostly, I didn't know what I was missing. A mother has three
children, but one who is 17 and still needs to be cared for like a
(01:10):
baby. Part of my sadness sometimes is about her, you
know, the limitations of her life.
And bananas. Yes. Bananas. Her bananas that
serve a greater purpose than being baked into bread or served on top of
cereal.
(01:30):
Hi. It's Tony Chapman. Thank you for listening to Chatter That Matters presented
by RBC. If you can, please subscribe to the podcast. And
ratings and reviews, well, they're always welcome, and they're always appreciated.
Jennie Coleman, welcome to Chatter That Matters. Thank
you, Tony. It's wonderful to be here. When I read your
(01:52):
backstory, my heart went out to you because up until age
13, you're almost blind. I started
off with this challenge, but I think the
wonderful thing is that children don't see challenges
like adults do. And if you've never seen properly, you
don't know what you're you're missing. So by the
(02:15):
time I was 13, my vision was so limited that I
had cataracts. We decided, let's give this a go. The doctors
told my parents that though the operation technically might
be a success because my brain hadn't learned to see, I might
not see. And yet I do. It was just a complete
miracle for me. I know you didn't know better, but as you get
(02:37):
older, you're realizing that obviously there's limitations
when you're not with sight. How did you cope then? And how did you
feel after? I had a lot of help at
school, for example. And I did activities. Like,
obviously I wasn't on the softball team, but
I did a lot of activity. I did a lot of music. You know, I
(03:00):
had developed a very good ear. I didn't know how
limited I was. I knew there were things that were difficult, but mostly,
I didn't know what I was missing. So I had this surgery and it took
a while for the eyes to heal. I remember getting that first
set of contacts and just being amazed
by the world around me. You know, I still wear
(03:23):
contacts and I put them in every morning. And honestly, this
sounds over the top, but it's just true that every single day I
feel grateful. Now I've had guests in my show that have
knocked at death's door. They find their way back and
it's such a gift because they have an appreciation for life and every
breath we often take for granted. I wanna move it into your
(03:45):
career because obviously whether you had a sense for just
music and you could suddenly your superpower in your eyes, but you had a very
successful career. One of the ones I'm citing is obviously Bombardier. I
mean, this is a fairly young woman. You're between Montreal, Zurich,
Berlin, and Beijing, back to Berlin. I mean, this is quite an exciting life that
you have going on. Yeah. I had a great career with
(04:07):
Bombardier. They were a fantastic company. I joined them
in 02/2002, started in the
corporate office and a strategy role. And
within a few months moved into operations, into the
locomotives business unit at the time was essentially planes
and trains. So I was in Zurich, working on
(04:28):
strategy and market analysis on locomotives. At one point, I could
tell you anything about any locomotive fleet, anywhere in the
world. The rail division headquarters were in Berlin.
I moved there principally because I'd met somebody who was,
who was working there and we got married and together we moved
to to Beijing. That's where our first baby was born and
(04:51):
back to Berlin and then back to Canada. And I
stayed with Bon Bardier until the arrival of baby
number three. At which point I just thought, oh, I can't do this
corporate job anymore. Can we talk a little bit about your first
born, Laura, because that turned your life upside down. I mean,
up till now, you both had, you know, this mad love affair. You've both got
(05:14):
great careers. You're you know, people must be just living vicariously
through through you. What do you mean you're in Beijing? But Laura's born
and she wasn't healthy, I guess, is the best way to say it. We didn't
know at her birth. At the beginning, everybody said to us, oh, every
baby's different, and they develop at their own
rate. She was born just at the end of our time in Beijing. We moved
(05:36):
back to Berlin, and we saw a doctor for just a
standard checkup around the time she was about six months. The doctor
said, yeah. If she's not turning over, rolling over by the time
she's eight months, come back and see me. And she Laura wasn't. The
doctor then said, oh, you know what? I think this is just hypotonia.
That means low muscle tone. We'll do physio, and by the time
(05:59):
she's two, she'll have caught up. She'll be indistinguishable from other
kids. So we started doing physios three times a week and
we went back for another checkup when Laura was about a year. And at that
stage, Laura could still not roll over.
I don't think she recognized me. She was making no sounds.
I was back at work and I picked up Laura and I'd come to this
(06:22):
appointment wearing a suit. And I said, you know, I just can't understand. She's
not doing anything. And the doctor said, well, you know, look at you.
You're just a yuppie, and you just want your child to be first
in class. It's like, no, I don't. So we go back to the
we go back to the, physiotherapist and
she says, so how is the appointment? And I said, well,
(06:44):
apparently, I'm the problem. And the physiotherapist said, no, no,
no. When I work with babies, usually there's a rattle or
something and they're motivated by that sound to roll over and make
something. And Laura was just flatlining. We
went and got a second opinion and that doctor, she put
her hand on my arm. I'll never, I can still feel her hand
(07:06):
there. And she said, you are right to worry. That
was the start of, you know, understanding that we had a
serious problem. We saw every doctor, we did every test and
we only got a diagnosis for Laura when she was about 13. I
guess this was right at the beginning of the pandemic. We'd done another swath of
genetic testing and there it is. Laura's disability is
(07:29):
caused by a spontaneous genetic mutation.
It's ultra rare because it's not something that is
hereditary. It's just something that happens. But
the effect of that is that Laurie is
my eternal baby. As you said, Tony, she she needs help
for everything. She needs to be bathed and dressed and
(07:51):
fed and given to drink, and she's in diapers,
and she doesn't walk, and she doesn't talk, and she doesn't
understand language. Wow. She's also a very happy
little person. She's unaware of her disability and therefore not
frustrated by it. And and though her world is
small, in her world, she is fine.
(08:13):
And my husband said, you know what? We're sad, but
Laura's not. We've kinda tried to have that
be our guiding philosophy. I'm not saying it's easy. It's not always
easy. But what has really helped in
a way is that we didn't have a diagnosis for Lauren, we waited a little
while before having more children. My husband said, let's roll the
(08:35):
dice. And we had this little baby who immediately, we knew
she was different. The last two, they're just 16 apart
and they've given us back our smiles and they transformed us from a,
a couple with a disabled child to a family. And it allows
us in a way to let go of all of the sadness
and and disappointment that comes from a child when you realize
(08:58):
that you're never gonna hear mommy from them. You've got
these three children and you come to the
realization that the corporate life as it often
happens, sadly with a woman who's even though as successful as you are,
you're shouldering a lot of the care. You come to say, I can't do this
anymore, but fast forward, you become RBC's woman entrepreneur
(09:20):
momentum winner. We're about to now talk
about how you go bananas with your life. So
take me through that time period and how this all unfolded
and why maybe you needed this as something that you could
identify with versus just identifying as someone that was
forever gonna be Laura's mother. I had had an entrepreneurial
(09:42):
itch for a long, long time. It was almost a game
that at dinner, I would say to my husband, hey, do you wanna do you
wanna hear my latest idea? And a lot of them were just absolutely
cookie, you know, but it seemed to me, maybe this is the moment
where I start something on my own
and have more control over my schedule. And then I came
(10:04):
upon an ad posted by a small business broker here in
Montreal. Didn't give very much information, but that said, you know,
at a small company with high ethical standards
suitable for somebody needing a flexible work or something.
And I thought, oh, this sounds intriguing. Called the broker and
we met. We're sitting at a great big board table and he has a
(10:27):
Manila folder that he slides across the table. And
there it was. I open it and it is this fruit business, this
Fairtrade fruit business. What made you actually think
this was possible? It's a lovely story, but it's not
like if you did a proper strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, it
probably wouldn't scream buy this business. I don't know. I think I was a
(10:49):
little bit kooky. Maybe I was sleep deprived. I don't I was
very naive. I mean, why do we do things in life? I did,
what I thought at the time was a due diligence on the business. And now
if I ever buy another business, I'm telling you I could ask a whole
lot more questions. I was just really yearning
for some kind of external stimulation and
(11:12):
it just seemed like the right thing then. And there were a
whole lot of moments in the, certainly the first year where I
just thought, have, have I lost my mind? Did, did I,
did somebody drop me on my head Because this
is insane. What I've just got myself into, but
you weather those storms. Fortunately, I started
(11:34):
to attract good people to come and work with me
Bit by bit, we built the business and we got ourselves out
of that very difficult first year. What advice can you give? There's a lot of
people that, you know, the entrepreneurial dream and this
sort of are gonna be the next Zuckerberg just sounds so
wonderful. But the reality is it's one of the toughest gauntlets to
(11:57):
run because there's no playbook. It's very lonely because
if things are going to chaos, you really can't show that to your other
employees. How did you come to terms with it and not feel
like you're an absolute imposter? It's a category you knew nothing about. Talk
to me about how it must have felt like running a cement the first year
and how did you find a way to keep going? Something that's overlooked
(12:19):
for younger or starting entrepreneurs is the
idea of buying somebody else's business. When you do
that, when you're a repreneur, you know, a takeover
entrepreneur, you sort of have to get up in the morning, keep
something that was running, running. You know, if I had had
to start, in fact, from scratch, I'm sure there would have
(12:42):
been a lot of days where the children's needs
or my tiredness would have made me say, we'll
get to that at some other point. And I'm not sure whether I would have
ever found the time to dedicate to getting a
business off the ground from zero. Whereas when you buy a business,
you know, you do so because you see an opportunity for improvement. You
(13:05):
see untapped markets. You think there's a way that you can add value to this
business. But the fact is that there is a running business
with existing customers. There is cashflow.
You must work because the business must keep running. Then you do keep
working at it. If there's anyone listening here thinking about entrepreneurship,
I think it's a great way to get started. The
(13:28):
person that sold it has he or she followed your success with this?
The company was founded in 02/2006 by a mother daughter
team, and they've been really sweet, especially the mom. I
hardly know the daughter. The mom every once in a while sends
me pictures of our bananas in stores that we weren't
in when she sold me the business. And, she liked me.
(13:51):
And I think she could imagine I think many entrepreneurs think of their
business as a as a baby and wanna hand it over to somebody
who's gonna make that baby grow. Though my bid
wasn't the highest. How much of the times when that business was tough
did you say that person had faith in me, therefore,
I wanna honor that faith? I think it was less about honoring
(14:15):
her as much as being able to
look my husband in the eyes and tell him I
hadn't taken all of our savings and just flushed
them down the toilet.
After my three takeaways, I just gonna close my show with sharing a little
story about how chat of the matter started. But when we
(14:37):
return, Jennie and I venture into her world, and the
hidden cost of cheap bananas, and why she's chosen to take on a
few giants to make thousands of lives better.
Hi. It's Tony Chapman. I wanna give a big shout out to RBC for everything
they do to support small business owners across Canada.
(14:58):
Starting and growing a business is tough, especially in today's world of
uncertainty. But when I had the idea to launch Chatter AI, I
turned to RBC. They didn't just open an account for me. They sat down,
they listened, and gave me the guidance and tools I need to turn my
vision into reality. Today, I rely on RBC small business solutions
to navigate the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. Whether it's banking,
(15:20):
financing, or expert advice, they're there every step of the way.
Because ideas happen at RBC and small business matters to you
and me. Visit rbc.com/smallbusiness, and turn
your dreams into reality. What we wanna
do is to change the banana industry, and we want
our competitors to be on board with this too. We want them all
(15:43):
giving the same message. That hundred year
era, that's done. Let's try a new
version of this banana business model. Today,
my special guest is Jennie Coleman. She is being acknowledged and
decorated by so many associations and for so many
reasons. Her faith in humanity, fair trade, her
(16:04):
talents as an entrepreneur, and just her positivity
and sense of possibility.
I love the way you frame, compress ideas to the
point that it creates a niche, and I wanna hear more. One of them was
the hidden cost to cheap bananas. Talk to me
(16:25):
about what is the hidden cost to cheap bananas, and
why are you on a cause to, to expose it? Bananas
are the cheapest fruit in our
basket, probably propound the cheapest item at the
grocery store. And if we look at banana
data going back to January of nineteen ninety five,
(16:47):
bananas then were being sold at an average price of
59¢ per pound. You can still find bananas at
59¢ per pound in discount banners in
Ontario, at least. Doesn't make any sense. Nothing else
is a that cheap to begin with and
b, you know, as cheap as it was nearly thirty years
(17:09):
ago. The problem with that cheap price is that that is
not a sustainable price. That is not a price that reflects
the hard work that goes into growing bananas. And so if
we we consider what would be a sustainable price
versus what we see in grocery stores, we can thank
small growers and plantation workers for
(17:31):
essentially subsidizing our favorite fruit
through low wages, poor working conditions,
and living the effect of toxic
environmental practices which have been implemented to increase
production and cut costs. And it's just
not right. There are costs
(17:54):
to that business model. There are, of course, the workers and the small
growers that we've just talked about, but there are broader
issues that stem from unequal supply
chains. You know, we see a migration crisis on the
Southern US border. In the top five source countries for
those migrants is Guatemala. Two Thousand And One
(18:16):
report on the state of labor in the Guatemalan banana industry,
we find that 85% of Guatemalan production
is on non unionized farms. Those workers are
earning on average a dollar 5 US an hour for
average sixty eight hour work weeks.
(18:36):
This is poverty wages under very
difficult conditions. So why hasn't that come out? I mean, the sweat factories
made major brands wake up and
do something different. Sure. Why is it you peeling back the story, if
I can use a horrible pun, and we haven't heard more about it? I want
everybody to talk about this. You know, I'm not sure if this is a good
(18:58):
news, bad news story. Obviously, it's a bad news story, but in June,
a Florida court found Takeda
liable in the deaths of eight banana workers
who were killed by a paramilitary
organization that Takeda had funded between
1997 and 02/2004. It's taken this long
(19:21):
for that case to be tried and for them to be found liable.
That has generated a lot just in these last few months,
a lot of articles, a lot of coverage. There was
a op ed, a guest essay in the New York Times just
yesterday. Let's hope that the more
consciousness there is about bananas, the better.
(19:44):
Part of the trouble is that the market is very,
very controlled, monopolized by a few big
companies who own the whole supply chain. And so
a buyer, a retail buyer here in North America,
we've met people who've been buying bananas for forty years and have never set
foot on a plantation. Out of sight, out of mind,
(20:07):
bananas have been sort of perpetually cheap. Equifruit
obviously is your company. You're changing that. From what I understand,
you charge a good premium on your bananas, but part of that money goes
back to lifting and improving the life of the people that work on those
plantations. That might make you popular with them. It certainly
is popular with a lot of consumers that have a consciousness,
(20:29):
but I have to believe that's brought you offside with the two or three companies
that control over there. We are a % fair
trade company. It's our brand promise. Everything we're gonna bring in is certified
by fair trade international. And to gain that certification,
our growers have to respect certain standards on sustainable
production, sustainable economically, socially, and
(20:52):
environmentally. We too pay a
fair price for them, respecting those standards.
We respect a minimum price, a price that
is set to represent the cost of that sustainable production.
So production where there have been, you know, living wages paid,
where there's been no child or forced labor, where there's environmental
(21:14):
stewardship, if it's our conventional bananas or, you know, most
of our volume is organic fair trade bananas. And then
you're right. There's an additional amount, which is called the
fair trade social premium, which is 1 US
dollar per 40 pound case. That social premium
is used either by small growers or workers on a
(21:36):
plantation for a a whole host of different
projects, most often used to
improve production, reduce water usage, their carbon
footprint. Plantation workers are really the
most dispossessed in this chain, and and they will
use it generally for improvements in basic housing
(22:00):
or furniture or school uniforms,
school fees for their children. So, Jennie, if I have my math
right, you talk about a dollar every 40 pounds, and some people say,
oh, so what's a couple hundred dollars? You've given
around $3,000,000 back to improve
life and livelihood. That has to be one of the things you
(22:23):
feel the proud most proud about. We feel very excited about that. We
know that there's a reason for our work. But I
would argue that even more important
than that social premium is ensuring that you're
paying price that covers sustainable production.
You know, that you're not cutting corners, that the social premium doesn't
(22:45):
end up being a token charity amount. At
the anchor of the system is making sure that you're
paying a fair price per case. That's what a a
farmer can rely on. You know, when we work with
cooperatives as small growers and they are each of
them a business person with their own land, if
(23:06):
they wanna make improvements and they wanna go to the bank, for example,
they can say, well, we we're in contracts with Equifruit that is going
to, pay us this price that includes a small margin. You know,
it's not it's business. You know, the way Equifruit might go to
the bank seeking a loan, that small grower might go and get the
loan they need to expand their farm. That fair trade
(23:29):
minimum price, because it reflects a
budget for fair labor, guess what? It means that they can
send their own children to school. You know, small growers are not gonna
be reliant on their children to provide the labour on their
on their farm. They can go out and get adults who
are consenting to work on that farm. In a world where there's a a
(23:51):
stampede to value, Even, you know, the largest grocery
stores talking about yet another format that's gonna strip out all the
frills. You realise that there's a higher purpose than profit.
You're seeing the value of that circle economy happening
with, with free trade. How do you convince consumers that that
banana's worth a little bit more? This is the main challenge
(24:13):
we face, but it isn't actually with consumers. It's
with retail buyers. They are really the
narrow part of that hourglass because
bananas are not something that we can set up an e commerce site and to
ship out to whoever wants them. We really need them
as the distributor to consumers. If they
(24:35):
decide that they are gonna take a responsible procurement
approach, then consumers have that choice. But if they decide
this is not something that they feel their consumers
are interested in, then we are locked out. It's
not like a CPG product where essentially, you know,
you charm the buyer, but you're also buying shelf
(24:58):
space. And as long as your product turns, you
will be allowed to keep your product on the shelf space.
So we focus most of our attention right now
on retail buyers. And what we tell them is that it is
time for a reset in the banana industry.
We've all had a terrific deal on bananas
(25:21):
for the last hundred years. It's time for a
reset that, ensures a more
fair distribution of value along the supply chain. In the
cases that we've managed to convince that buyer,
our sales growth is testament to the fact that
consumers are behind us. We're growing,
(25:42):
and we don't do that without, in the end, customer support.
And the thing that we've gotta remember is that even if our bananas
sell at a premium, and they do, there's a difference between
percentage increase and absolute increase.
So let's take the example of Longo's in the Toronto
(26:03):
area. Longo's in 02/2001,
we had worked with them for a long time on fair trade organic bananas. But
in 02/2001, they switched out their non fair
trade conventional bananas for aquafruit fair
trade conventional bananas. And at the time, they
were charging 69¢ per pound for
(26:25):
conventional bananas. When they made the switch to
fair trade, because they were respecting through Equifruit,
this cost structure, they raised the price from 69¢ to
99¢ a pound. Percentage wise, you know, heads
explode. And there was a lot of nervousness. You
know, the factor that was gonna determine the success of the program was
(26:48):
that there was no lost tonnage. There has been
no lost tonnage. The average Canadian
eats about 15 kilos of bananas per year. That's
about 33 pounds. That 69
to 99¢ difference is
30¢. 30 cents hangs 33
(27:10):
pounds works out to less than 10 Canadian
dollars per year on our grocery bill.
We have a a campaign that just kicked off on
LinkedIn today where we, you know, as you alluded to, our marketing
is all is a little bit crazy. And we have these memes of
ourselves and we say we've spent more on and then some
(27:32):
ridiculous thing like sour wine or
breath mints or, you know, the riding the mall
stuffies, then it would cost you to switch
to Equifruit Fairtrade Bananas in a year.
Nobody likes a price increase, but this is
almost negligible for most Canadians. And I
(27:56):
don't mean to disrespect those who are living with
food insecurity, and I understand that. And I have
enormous empathy for that swath. But right
now, Fairtrade Bananas hold only about a 2% market
share in Canada, and it's not
98% of us who are food insecure.
(28:18):
People don't ask about the food insecurity of those workers at the
beginning of the chain. I wanna just bring it back to you now. I mean,
you've built this business. It certainly has its own complexities
and challenges, but you sound like you still love it. You're a
mother, you've got a partnership, you've got three children, one that's always gonna
be your baby. There's a social justice element coming to
(28:40):
you that says this is gonna extend beyond bananas. Just curious, how
do you find time to do everything? I just have a great team. We have
a lot of fun together. We're very committed to our mission. We run
a very human company. And part of that is that
my team understands that I am facing a
challenge in the person of my Laura that is out of the
(29:02):
ordinary. They've been very, very supportive. It
continues to allow me the flexibility to blend
my family responsibilities with my work responsibilities.
And I would be remiss if I didn't say that for the last
two years now, we've gotten home care
support through what we call here in Quebec, the
(29:25):
CLSC, our local health care center. And Laura's health. I
mean, when I was reading the notes, you almost lost her.
Yeah. Well, she's a mystery. That's what she is. There are only
about two hundred identified cases of this
genetic, mutation that she has. And most of them are
children. There may be more out in the universe, but it you know, genetic
(29:48):
testing is expensive. It means that we don't really know what's
ahead. Yeah. There have been tough moments and
sometimes I can't spend too much time thinking about the future because I don't know
what that is. And it's this may sound terrible, but in a way,
neither scenario is all that appealing. You know,
losing her would be terrible,
(30:10):
but having her survive us, it's our biggest concern.
You know, Jennie, I always end my shows with my three takeaways.
And the first one is when that second doctor in Berlin touched your
arm and said, you have the right to worry. You realize that your
life, you probably knew it, but you knew then that
your life would ever change. And that question would always
(30:33):
be in front of you. What happens if she outlives us? The
second thing is when your husband said, we're sad, but she's not.
It also brought back when you said kids with disabilities
don't really realize they have disabilities. Maybe those two are
very connected and the empathy and care and
giving is really something that kind of went from you to her in some
(30:56):
ways. And just in the sense that neither one of you really knew what you
were dealing with. It's wonderful. She's alive and she's part of the family. And then
the third thing is how honest you are and
how you have to come to terms with it. You know, one kid's a little
bit more empathetic than the other. Sometimes they just want to be a family again.
Sometimes we just want to go on a vacation and not have to be held
(31:18):
back. That alone has to be something that
would consume most people's entire life because you're trying to
dance across the thinnest wire, trying to make it all work. And the
fact that you did this and you bought a business that you know nothing about
and that you, you know, you launched this crusade that I'm
taking on now. And we'll talk about on television when I do
(31:40):
my weekly shows, bring one of your bananas on TV and
just let people know that if we can afford to do that,
there's so much more than immediate gratification that goes into the choices we
make. I hope that more and more the choices go towards
Equifruit, organizations like yours, and people like you
that are behind it. So for all of that and more, thank you for joining
(32:01):
me in Chatter That Matters. Thank you so much, Tony. That was lovely.
I'm touched.
I don't know how far you go back as a listener to Chatter That Matters.
I'll share a quick story that this began at the early days of
COVID. I had this tiny little podcast and I approached
RBC and I said, you know, it's, it's in all our collective interest
(32:24):
to really support small business owners. They're the heart of our
economy, and we all have to do our part to keep those
hearts beating strong. The idea was that each week I'd
share a story of a small business warrior, the headphones they're facing now
that COVID hit. And I'd invite people in from my
network. Some of the smartest people I've ever met, Jeanne Beckers
(32:46):
and Arlene Dickinsons and Joe Mimrands and Beverly Hammonds and
just so many more. The idea that they would take the
time and invest the time to help that individual owner get to where
they need, want, and deserve to go. That carnival
idea obviously blossomed into something much bigger, and the lens of the
podcast got much wider. It wasn't just small business owners. It was people that
(33:09):
overcame circumstances, chased their dreams, chased their world, and
ours for the better. And we brought in world renowned thinkers,
thought leaders, award winners, and of course stories
of people you might never have heard of, but once you did, you realize that
within all of us, there lies the ability to reinvent,
to have resilience. So it was wonderful today to
(33:32):
share with you Jennie Coleman, get back to our roots. And
I'm such a fan of how Jennie has approached her business, that there's
a much higher purpose than profit. I'm so proud of RBC because
I've been working with this brand for five years now. They go
way beyond banking, and their intent truly is to help people
thrive and communities prosper. And they're so open to
(33:54):
people walking in their doors with their ideas and their dreams and
trying to find a way to make things happen. So here's to all
the small business warriors. Here's to all my guests. Here's to
all of you, and here's to RBC
because those are the pillars by which we build chatter that batters every
week. It's Tony Chapman. Thanks for listening,
(34:17):
and let's chat soon.
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.