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Amplify Canada is an initiative created by Pattison Media designed to celebrate and elevate small businesses, the backbone of our economy. Thousands of small businesses, groups, family organizations and individuals are showcased on Pattison Media radio stations from Winnipeg to Vancouver throughout the year. Every month we go deeper and share the incredible journey of a few that have made an impact on their community. Some have flourished, others may need a little extra love and support. These are their stories…welcome to Amplify Canada.
Amplified Canada is a Pattison Media initiative celebrating and elevating small businesses, the backbone of our economy. When the world changed in 2020, Amplified Canada highlighted the strength, determination, and generosity of small businesses across the country. Through uncertainty, closures, supply chain disruptions, and unprecedented challenges, these small business owners found ways to adapt support their communities and keep moving forward. Just keep trying and don't give up. Try not to dwell on the bad stuff because that's the only thing we can do. My parents always taught me don't give up. Because if you give up, you lose everything, right? You lose your hope and well what am I doing this for? Sticking through to what you really need.
Especially in difficult times. You can be pulled in different situations and different ways, but essentially, you know, you have to do what is right for you. Those are the voices of small business owners who persevered and had hope. In this third season of Amplify Canada, we return to those businesses and entrepreneurs whose stories inspired Canadians during the pandemic.
And go deeper into the economic pressures facing small businesses and the country today. In this episode, we're capturing the entrepreneurial spirit of perseverance and hope. How small businesses through the ups and downs keep moving forward. Even though news agencies like CTV are speaking to the financial and emotional toll the economy is having on this sector.
“Small business owners are experiencing a resurgence in uncertainty, and just how bad it is getting is detailed in a new report.” “Small business owners aren't just stressed financially about their businesses. But what we're finding is that there's more of an emotional burden or tax that's being placed on these small business owners, where in the sense that they can't switch it off.”
So, before we go back to the business owners who showed us resiliency, perseverance, and hope, and who helped tell this story the first time, we wanted to understand the bigger picture. So we connected with economist David Williams. David is Vice President of Policy with the Business Council of British Columbia and is a senior leader in public policy research, developing analysis and advice on the Canadian and BC economies, productivity, innovation.
Technology, taxation, and human capital. We asked David to start with his perspective on Canada's economy.
Well, if I had to go to a desert island and I had to choose one economic indicator to take with me, it would probably be GDP per capita. It would be the amount of output divided by the population. That's the economic pie we all would get to share. Now, that's not the end story on our standard of living. It's very, very important. I mean it's actually the thing that we can control.
The thing to remember is that Canada had three big booms that were taking place over the last ten years. we had a boom in government spending, we had a boom in credit growth, and then we had a boom in population growth as the federal government ramped up immigration. As those three booms came to an end, the fog has cleared and we've realized that the underlying foundations of Canada's economy aren't that strong. And I think most people on the ground iIf you talk to business owners or you talk to households, they'll say that they feel like they're working hard, but they're going sideways to a large extent. What businesses have been seeing is a very difficult domestic condition, and now layering on top of that, we've got the additional pressures from President Trump's approach to trade.
“About an hour north of Toronto, a small Canadian manufacturer grapples with the latest tariff threats from the US President. Canada Docks makes aluminum docks designed to be bolted together. In 20 years in business, the company's products have caught on in Canada and in the US and elsewhere. But when Donald Trump put tariffs on aluminum, it had an immediate effect.”
“We are no longer competitive with other U.S. companies, so yeah, that portion of business halted overnight.”
As we just heard in the global news report, businesses are feeling the pressure. Small business owners will tell you the same thing. Costs are up and they're not likely coming back down. And they're not wrong.
According to the Canadian Survey on Business conducted this year - nationally, nearly two-thirds of small businesses with one to nineteen employees expect at least one cost-related obstacle in the next three months: rising inflation, rising transportation costs, and the pressure to pay more. It's a trickle-down effect that hits at all levels. Some of the hardest hit are the small local businesses run by hardworking Canadians like Rosa Matice.
We first met Rosa near the middle of the pandemic as things were just opening up again in a small Saskatchewan town called Birch Hills, where she had taken on ownership of KG Bar and Grill.
“We came here in nineteen seventy seven from Chile with my parents and my siblings. They had choices where to go and my dad picked Canada and we're so grateful. I would never live anywhere else 'cause I love it here. It's cool. But I love it. Made a lot of friends. Have a lot of family here now. I was working for the previous owner of Rosisky Bayer, which used to be called King George Hotel. And then when the pandemic happened, we had to close down. And then when it was time for us to open up again, he offered me the business and of course I said yes. We opened up July sixth, over a year ago. That's when everything was slow. But we kept going.”
So when we caught up with Rosa again, we wanted to know how things look now from behind the bar in a small town pub.
Rosa, it's so nice to connect with you again after I guess almost five years. How are you doing? we were doing okay for a long time. And now it's been really slow for the last year or so. You know, with everything being expensive. Yeah. You gotta be really careful.
Over the last year, of course, you're dealing with inflation and tariffs and transportation. Ever like everything's gone up. So as a small business owner in the restaurant industry, you're gonna feel the effects of that. yeah. Most small business sure feel that. How has it been for getting employees? It was hard for the longest time. But I have a cook, I have somebody that helps in the front. And then my daughters will help me out. And my husband helps whenever he can.
He tries to help quite a bit actually. At least I have that backup. What keeps you sticking with it? I l I like it. I like to be there. I see a lot of the people that I known before that I met to the bar that lives in town, the older crowd. You know, it's nice to hear their stories. Yeah, that community connection, right? Yeah. Well, and it's interesting because when we spoke before, you said that you never thought you would work in the bar business.
Then you end up taking over this business and you've persevered through so much. How do you stay positive as a business owner with all the things that you have to go through? Well, I have my up and downs. I tried to be positive. We always try to be courteous to our customers, to be upbeat, have fun. I'm usually making my customer laugh or smile, you know, with something goofy I say. What gives you hope to keep small businesses like yourself going? What's the hope for the future?
Well, hopefully I'll grow and it'll get better. That year and a half now, if have it been the greatest because of everything going on, right? Hopefully it'll get better and we can go ahead and keep going and have fun with it. And it's tough for small businesses in this country sometimes. If you take a look at the bigger picture, can you speak to f just from your perspective, the importance of supporting the businesses within your community of supporting the country? We have to support each other.
In Canada. It's a great country and we should just support Canada. I've been here for a long time. I love it. I'm grateful to be here. It's wonderful to hear you speak of being proud to be in Canada and be a Canadian. I mean you were a refugee that came to this country. I think it was back with your family in was it nineteen seventy seven? Yeah, forty nine years ago. We're grateful to be here, for sure. I wouldn't change it for nothing. Like I know it's hard right now, but hopefully we can
Keep going and just keep trying your best and that's all you can do. And I appreciate you thinking of me to for me to do this. It's really wonderful to check back in and see how you're doing and to know that you're still standing, Rosa, because not all the businesses that we spoke to during the run of Amplified Canada made it through. So congratulations on that and for still showing up for persevering, for being hopeful. And having still an optimistic perspective and outlook on being a small business owner in Canada.
Well, thank you so much. I appreciate that.
Rosa's story isn't the exception. It's the pattern. Statistics Canada's own numbers back it up. Over a third of small businesses expect their profitability to shrink in the months ahead. And unlike larger companies whose outlook has actually been improving, that number for small businesses.
hasn't moved in a year. Add tariffs into the mix, nearly a third of small businesses say they've already felt the sting, and hiring has all but stalled, with only one in ten planning to grow their team. On paper, that's a business climate that should be breaking people. And yet, it isn't. Talk to the people actually behind the counter, behind the ideas, and the story isn't about collapse. It's the same word we keep coming back to. Perseverance.
Let's go back to economist David Williams, where I asked him, what does perseverance actually cost a business owner that doesn't show up in any of the economic data? Two things that always stand out that determine success is the ability to work well with others and grit, meaning the ability to stay with a task even when it becomes difficult. Even though things are very tough in Canada's economy right now, the ability to see things through, to remain open and think of new ways, innovative ways to change your business and maintain a competitive advantage, that will see a business through. Businesses develop their relationships with their customers over time. It's part of their brand and they build up what economists call social capital, which is like an enduring relationship and reputation in the marketplace. And that can be a competitive advantage.
Grit, it's a good word. And the importance of relationships, such a key to success. That ability to see things through even when it's hard. David's talking about businesses, but he could just as easily be talking about a person. Jessica Jaboult doesn't just give advice. She's lived the before and after. A former addict and mental health survivor, Jessica has been to the bottom and back. She's now an entrepreneur, life coach,
Podcaster and speaker on a mission to hand other people the tools she's built for herself. She's the founder of A Sober Girls Guide, a community built for women in recovery. And she wrote the book on it, literally. It's called Save Your Own Damn Life. Because if anyone can tell you how, it's Jessica. We first met her back in 2020. I was about 29 at this time.
And I was really disappointed in my life. And to be honest with you, I had to come to terms with actually being depressed. Which was really hard because I'd look around and be like, I have all the things that most people want. I'm living in LA, I'm this DJ, like very successful, traveling all over the world, doing what I supposedly love, quotation marks.
But was so lonely. It was just a very toxic environment. I was drinking a lot, I was using drugs to kind of cope with and try and convince myself to fall in love with my life. I just didn't align with it. Small business owners will tell you it's not that simple to separate the business from the person running it. The Business Development Bank of Canada surveys entrepreneurs on exactly that every year.
And this year's numbers are sobering. More than a third of business owners say mental health challenges interfere with their ability to work at least once a week. For entrepreneurs under 40, it's three in five. Economic and political uncertainty, the very forces David's been describing, are two of the fastest growing stressors business owners report. Put plainly, the economic pressure isn't just squeezing the bottom line, it's landing on the person behind it.
Which is exactly why our conversation with Jessica belongs here. Because if perseverance has a cost, it also has a face and a comeback. Jessica Jaboult doesn't just give advice. As mentioned earlier, her business accomplishments consist of the development of a space for those struggling, an incredible coaching career, and as we'll hear later, a new business that can change the mental health landscape. So if anyone can tell you how to persevere,
And still find hope on the other side, it's her.
When we spoke, Jessica, you were doing some coaching and speaking, and you had created your online web business. So let's talk about that first. Where I started from a business perspective nine years ago now, I was helping women change their relationship with alcohol. So I was doing that through coaching programs online. I was servicing women all over the world, which was very incredible.
Very amazing, life-changing for myself and my clients. The biggest thing was the pandemic hit and for myself and my business personally, my business skyrocketed. It really took off and I was not prepared for it. I'm only one person. That is when I pivoted my business and opened it up. I had to hire five coaches. Well, first of all, I had to train.
Five coaches. So basically making carbon copies of myself and my process. And that process has kept me now sober, just celebrated over nine years in March. I had to really pivot very fast. The pandemic felt like a pressure cooker situation. And I didn't want to leave anyone behind. And when it comes to to business, was there one thing that you had to
unlearn and relearn about perseverance during that time. I've always kind of been at the forefront of trends. I was sober before sobriety was cool. And that's a kind of lonely place to be. But if you hang on long enough, you see the trend. And I think in the beginning it's harder to persevere because you're the only one doing it. But I just kind of doubled down.
I had this instinct when no one else really did. And trust me, people told me, that sounds pretty lame. But I really believed in myself. It wasn't for anyone. I wasn't out to prove anyone wrong. I am sober myself. I needed this for me. If there wasn't a cool space, heck, I'm gonna create it. So I had to double down and make more of me to spread the wealth, if you will.
How have you been able to stay on track and continue that growth? I want to be like very transparent. I don't have kids. I'm single. I do what I want when I want. And I really, really, truly enjoy my work. And I think that's what really makes the difference. I wouldn't probably have lasted this long if I didn't love it. It started with me literally documenting.
Things on my own journey, being a full-time DJ, being literally paid to party, and then deciding, I don't want to do that anymore. That's like a pretty deep hole to kind of dig yourself out of. And you started the community and now you've found this app. So tell us that. This is a really cool story of entrepreneurship that I'm sure you didn't even know you had. gosh, Linda.
It's been a wild couple of months. You're literally catching me at probably like the weirdest time in my life. Truly. This is living perseverance, okay? I love that I work with women, but I kept getting questions like, what can my husband use? What can my brother use? How can I help everyone? You know, over my like eight and a half years of being in this space and coaching thousands and thousands of women.
I kind of noticed a pattern, like a system. There was a lot of support communities, a lot of the aftermath, but there's nothing in the preventative space. And your body is a really good indicator of when you're going to reach for those habits. But we can predict when these cravings and when these triggers are more likely to occur. And then interrupt that pattern.
I'm just over nine years sober now. At the time when I was testing the app, I was eight and a half years sober.
And I unexpectedly lost my mother. On Christmas Day. I have goosebumps. It was horrible. She had a blood vessel burst in her brain. no. And gone. There was nothing that could have prepared any of us for that. Nothing that we could have done. During this and grieving and going through this whole thing. I was beta testing the app.
And I found because you have to do a daily check-in, asking yourself, who am I doing this for? Having that slight pause before those knee jerk reactions. I never thought in at eight and a half years that I would ever want to drink or have anything that could derail me. Losing my mother was the hardest, the most hard.
Horrible thing I've ever gone through. So when I say this app works, it works. From someone who is eight and a half years sober, you never know what life is gonna throw at you. And you never know how you're gonna react or what you're gonna need to just pull you through each day. And so going through grief and testing the app, I was able to.
really pull myself out of every day. I needed something simple to just check in with myself and where I was at and kind of give me the grace to not be a crazy overproducer workaholic. I just needed that permission and to just say that like, okay, I'm I'm not okay, but I can be okay with not being okay.
It just really worked because it was just very simple. And I think when you're making changes in your life, you need something simple. It is absolutely incredible that something you created saved you. The app was there for you. These things just happen at such incredible moments and then they work. And I think a lot of that has to do with your outlook and that perseverance and hope that you've always
Carried along your journey, which is really remarkable to see you expand your business out of such a hard time for so many people. But it was that hard time, I think, that really catapulted you and your perseverance in your own personal hope through your journey to where you are today.
Podcast is about is that perseverance and hope. What could you say to other businesses, entrepreneurs who might be a bit struggling? Don't listen to anyone else. If you truly have a feeling and a vision and a gut feeling, you already know the answer. If you get really quiet with yourself, lock yourself in your bedroom and really ask yourself: like, do I need to hold on?
Or is this something that I need to let go of? Because you're gonna get the answer. And if it's something you should hold on to, run with it. Put your head down, just go. It's gonna be hard. It's hard. Everything in life is hard. But you also get to choose your own kind of hard, right? Because not doing it is also hard, if not harder. But if it's let it go, let it go. And that's okay. It's not a failure.
Some things are meant to transition. And I can tell you that because a sober girl's guide is in a major transition right now. I am focused more on best day. Maybe like reinvention is a good way of putting it. But I needed to have that kind of heart to heart with myself of literally opening my hand and letting something go. Because when you open your hand.
Your head is also open to receiving. It's not a failure, it's a something to transform and turn into something else. I think what you're doing is incredible. Thank you. You've come up with some really creative ideas. And I think why it's done so well is because you've lived this. And you did this because you wanted to help others who were experiencing the life that you had experienced. And
I think that being that genuine in anything that you do will make you successful. Thank you. I appreciate that. You could choose your own kind of hard. Jessica wasn't talking about the economy when she said that, but it turns out a lot of small businesses across the country are living that out. Because when you zoom out from one entrepreneur's story to the data on all of them, the picture looks a lot like Jessica's. Not easy, but not broken either.
Statistics Canada's most recent numbers on small business confidence tell a version of the same story we just heard. Nearly two-thirds of small businesses, 65%, say they're optimistic about the next 12 months. Not blind optimism, not denial, the same clear-eyed kind Jessica talked about. Choosing the hard thing anyway because you believe it's still worth building. And it's showing up in how they're actually running their businesses.
Nearly a quarter are raising prices, but they're not panicking, not slashing services, just quietly adjusting to stay standing. And on the labor side, where bigger companies are struggling to find and keep people, small businesses are holding steadier than expected. Economist David Williams has been watching those businesses from the data side for years. And when we sat down with him, he put it in terms that echo everything Jessica just told us.
I'm hopeful in a way that I haven't been for a number of years because I think that the country is much more focused now on its economic security and national security in a way that I haven't seen in the time that I've lived in Canada. So I think the country is changing in its priorities and that makes me hopeful. We've got a lot of work to do because we've had economic drift in the country for more than a decade, and other countries haven't been drifting like that. They've moved ahead. So I'm optimistic.
Optimism is one thing, but David's quick to point out that hope on its own isn't a strategy. It has to be paired with what's actually in our control. I think we have to stop thinking about Mr. Trump as much as we do, and we have to grasp the nettle ourselves. We have a lot within our own control. We control our own tax system, we control our own public finances, we control the regulation of our product markets, our competition act and so forth. There's a lot we can do
To improve the structure of Canada's economy, whatever may happen with external events. There's a lot we can do here, but we've had a long period of economic policy drift, and I feel optimistic that we're starting to turn the corner in recognizing that we can't continue as we have. So maybe that's the through line of this whole episode. Perseverance doesn't look like certainty. It looks like showing up anyway. Whether that's one woman rebuilding her business.
Or three hundred thousand small businesses quietly adjusting their prices and betting on next year.
A special thank you to David Williams, Vice President of Policy with the Business Council of British Columbia. He brings extensive international experience in policy advising, research and teaching, with particular expertise in macroeconomics, productivity, monetary policy, housing and mortgage markets, business surveys, tax reform, and transport policy.
David holds a DPhil and a MPhil in Economics from Oxford University. He's the past president of the Association of Professional Economists of British Columbia and a past national director of the Canadian Association of Business Economics.
You've been listening to Amplify Canada, an initiative powered by Pattison Media, designed to support local businesses and promote shopping Canadian.
Amplify Canada was created for Pattison Media and produced by Everything Podcasts.
Hosted, produced, and written by me, Linda Freeman, showrunner Kat Cullen, Sound Engineer Producer John Masecar, Executive Producer Jennifer Smith, production support Eric Chapman, video producer Jordan Wong.
For more information on this program, go to PattisonMedia.com. All references throughout the podcast will be included in the show notes.
Another Everything Podcasts production. Visit EverythingPodcasts.com, a division of Pattison Media. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.