Voices of Leadership: Insights and Inspirations from Women Leaders

A Journey from Co-Founder to Mentor: Entrepreneurial Insights with Tricia Mumby

• Bespoke Projects • Season 1 • Episode 3

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Welcome to today's episode! We are thrilled to have Tricia Mumby as our guest. Tricia is an accomplished entrepreneur, co-founder of Mabel's Labels, and guiding force in the business world. During our conversation, Tricia shared her passion for buying URLs, her current interest in Bleisure travel, and her business book club.

We also get an exclusive look behind the scenes of Mabel's Labels, where Tricia reveals the story of its genesis, growth, and eventual acquisition by Avery, the world's largest printing company.

Since then, Tricia hasn’t slowed down, and we talk about what she’s up to now, including her work as a core mentor at the Accelerator Centre in Waterloo, where she advises and guides start-ups as they work to build and grow their own businesses.

Thank you for joining us today, and we hope you enjoy this insightful conversation with Tricia Mumby.

Other Episodes You’ll Enjoy:

Tricia talks about Ginny’s involvement and contribution to her business book club. Learn more about Ginny’s story in this episode:

Luminary Leadership with Ginny Dybenko
Voices of Leadership: Insights and Inspirations from Women Leaders

Triaica mentions Jane as she was the person who introduced Tricia to IWF. Learn more about Jane in this episode:

Lessons In Leadership: Showing Up and Asking Questions with Jane Klugman
Voices of Leadership: Insights and Inspirations from Women Leaders


Resources:

Mable’s Labels
Accelerator Centre
Innovation Guelph
Limitless Expanded Edition: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life, by Jim Kwik

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Tricia:

Keep fighting the fight. Be visible, include yourself, invite yourself, speak when you do go to something, speak up. Giving women a platform is essential, and these incubators are doing an excellent job at that. ["te.

Amy:

Welcome to Voices of Leadership, the podcast that shines a spotlight on the remarkable women of the International Women's Forum who are reshaping industries, defying norms and being instigators of change. I'm your host, amy, and I'm inviting you on a journey through the minds of trailblazers. On today's episode, we welcome Trisha Mumbi. Trisha is an entrepreneur, co-founder of Mabel's Labels and a guiding force in the world of business. Join us as we talk about Trisha's love of buying URLs, her current interest in Belizeur Travel and her business book club. Trisha also takes us behind the scenes of Mabel's Labels. As a co-founder, she helped grow the company from its humble beginnings in a basement in Hamilton to an award-winning company. Learn about the highs, lows and pivotal moments that led to the acquisition by Avery, the world's largest printing company. Trisha hasn't slowed down and we delve into what she's up to now, including her work as a core mentor at the Accelerator Center in Waterloo, where she advises and guides startups as they work to build and grow their own businesses.

Amy:

Hi, Trisha, welcome. Hello. Thank you for having me. I am so excited for you to be here. I am fascinated by your story, but also we don't know each other that well and I'm really interested in getting to know you better. Oh, thanks. So you and I recently met through IWF and we also have a labels connection because you worked with Karma Ingle, who now is the general manager at Mabel's Labels, and we know each other because our kids went to school together. That's right. I think one of the last times that we ran into each other was at Canada Connects, the IWF National Conference. We hosted it here in Waterloo and I know you were part of the planning committee. What was that experience like?

Tricia:

It was a lot of fun. I haven't been all that involved I'm. You know we did just go through a pandemic I suppose, but it was kind of forcing myself to get involved with. That forced me to get to know a lot of really great people and I'm so glad I know. And when you're working together and working on a project you really get to know people and it was wonderful and they're all great and it's much different than just going to a meeting here and there, going to a dine-around and sitting beside someone for a short period. So it was excellent.

Amy:

Who actually introduced you to IWF.

Tricia:

Jane. Jane Klugman Messaged me many times over the years. I don't know if it was because they were trying to get more entrepreneurs or what it was, but I just never had time. Our business was based in Hamilton, so I drove from Kitchener to Hamilton every day for 16 years.

Amy:

Oh, I didn't know all the a lot more since. So you're mostly based here. I didn't know that. Yeah, I live in Kitchener.

Tricia:

So I just really never had time to get involved in KW things, and when I left the business I dove headfirst into all kinds of Waterloo Region things.

Amy:

What else are you involved with in Waterloo Region?

Tricia:

I'm a mentor at the Accelerator Center yes, and that's wonderful, and also Innovation Guelph, which is in Waterloo Region, but it's just down the road A mentor at a couple other places, but also I just got involved with some other small businesses in town that I knew of that I felt like I could make an impact with as a mentor, or I've also had some consulting gigs. Honestly, as soon as I put on my LinkedIn that I'd left my business and was open to other experiences, I just immediately was contacted by interesting businesses that I decided I wanted to work with, and a lot of them were local. It's very important for me to be local now after all those years of commuting. I haven't been to Toronto since 2020, and now I'm like I wonder how long I can make that last.

Amy:

Oh, I agree, it's a difficult it is it's a difficult, difficult go. So you mentioned the Accelerator Center First. Can you explain what it means to be a mentor at the Accelerator Center?

Tricia:

Well, it means all sorts of things. Typically, you have a specialty, and so they have a broad range of mentors that have different specialties. So my specialty is direct to consumer e-commerce, but because I was a founder and I had an exit, I often get pulled into meetings about that and because I worked in e-commerce, you naturally have a lot of knowledge around UX, even if it isn't a direct to consumer e-commerce business. I seem to find myself talking to brands just about their websites, even if they're not direct to consumer. One of the other things I have got myself involved with over the years is a community tech pitch competitions here and there, and so I do like to help people prepare for their pitches. I'm not a professional communicator, but I certainly understand what the deck should look like and give some tips there. So I feel like as an entrepreneur. I am titled an e-commerce direct to consumer expert, but really, as you know, when you run a business, you involve yourself in absolutely everything.

Amy:

Yes, you usually have some experience with all aspects of the business In general? What are your thoughts on? Why is mentorship important?

Tricia:

Oh, it's so amazing and it's mentorship is important, and that I knew always and so I always took it, from the very first days of Mabel, my partners and I my business Mabel's labels. So my partners and I looked at who we knew and what we could knock on their door for, and we sought out mentorship, which is very awkward, yes, you know, I showed up at office hours at my old economics professor, lined up with the students to say hi, I don't know if you remember me, but I was your student in 1992. And I have got some questions. He is still a mentor. I'm having lunch with him next week.

Amy:

Love him.

Tricia:

But that is an awkward way to find a mentor. And now with these accelerators and incubators, it's amazing. Any startup that is not part of an incubator? I don't know why. Some of them are free, some of them are very inexpensive, some of them you can get grants for. They'll actually give you a grant for your business plus not charging for the mentorship. It's just a no-brainer and it takes away all of that awkwardness of going out and finding hey, I'm just wondering if you would meet with me once in a while. If you do seek that, if you want to be mentored by someone who is not part of a mentorship program, I really encourage you just to ask, because it's flattering.

Amy:

If they've got time, they're going to Of course, most people want to share what they know and pass it along to the next generation.

Tricia:

Yeah, and help people learn from their mistakes. Help people like, honestly, our kids don't want to hear our business stories anymore. And so a lot of sun-setting entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs with a big, vast library of stories. They look forward to having somebody who's genuinely interested in their mistakes and their wins. And also people like that typically are sharers and networkers. So if they can help you by introducing you to someone that's useful to you, they take a lot of pride in that. We take a lot of pride in that. So just ask.

Amy:

Yes, and I think that you touched on something too, that mentorship isn't just about working with a company. Necessarily Connecting people and introducing someone to someone is also a form of mentorship.

Tricia:

It really is and it is To go beyond that. Sometimes I feel like a bit of a therapist, a wildly, wildly unqualified therapist. But sometimes you just need someone to talk to. That's been there when you're at your last rope, where you don't know if you can make payroll next month, if you don't know some disappointment has happened or you're struggling to understand something with your business partner, with a supplier, and you just need somebody to talk to. And if you are a solo entrepreneur and you don't have a network which I would also encourage people to find of other entrepreneurs you can lean on it's very lonely. So, taking advantage of someone that's willing to talk to you and understand you and is genuinely interested, I don't know why you wouldn't.

Amy:

So you have worked with a variety. You have worked with a variety of entrepreneurs at the Accelerator Center. Can you share with us some experiences you've had as a mentor?

Tricia:

Oh gosh, so many. I had some very exciting times in the when was it? I guess it was in the spring. We had a couple of companies at the Accelerator suddenly get a knock on the door Well, a knock on their phone that they were invited to audition for Dragonstone.

Amy:

That's exciting.

Tricia:

And so that was just like a really flurry of exciting. Those are the most exciting things when you're strolling along as a mentor and maybe you get the odd meeting on your calendar here and there, but suddenly you get urgent, urgent. We need to talk what, what's happening. It's almost always good news when it's urgent, urgent. Well, that's not true, but those are the things I remember. So that was exciting.

Tricia:

Last month it was a weekend, I remember, and I got this urgent text from one of my clients. They had a Facebook post go very, very viral and they had no idea why, and I looked at it and honestly, I had no idea why either, but it was so exciting, they gained so many followers and we actually have a meeting about it this afternoon to try and figure out what it was and how can we recreate it. So those are the things I remember is when they really want to share their news and their stories. And, like I said, you can only tell your friends over wine about stuff going on in your business so many times before they are bored to death.

Tricia:

But, mentors want to hear it.

Amy:

Right, so let's talk labels. You are one of four co-founders that started Babels Labels back in 2003. Is that correct?

Tricia:

Sure yes. I always say 2002, because I don't think we counted our messy messy. Six months of startup before we turned a printer on.

Amy:

And for those who don't know, babels Labels sells durable personalized labels, tags and more for kids. It's pretty much everything you need for kids and families to stay organized, which I should know because I'm a customer. The concept of personalized labels and the technology that you used really disrupted the label market. Not everyone gets an opportunity to disrupt like that. What was that experience like?

Tricia:

Well, it's wonderful and awful, so there really wasn't a label market.

Tricia:

People weren't buying labels for their kids stuff. We were first to market. So first to market can either be a disaster in an uphill battle, because you have to educate the market, you have to create need, you have to convince people that they've got a problem, and so that can be a real struggle for a lot of businesses. But it can also be amazing, because it's Greenfield and it's new and the press only wants to talk about what's new and in 2003, 2004, press was important and that's it.

Amy:

It was probably printed on a newspaper? Was it Newspapers, magazines?

Tricia:

and influencers like mommy bloggers were coming up Social was new.

Tricia:

So having something new and genuinely new is a great place to be. If you can build that space, we were very lucky. I always say if I were to start another business, it would only be a business directed at moms. If you create a product that genuinely does what it says and makes moms life easier, they will tell their friends, they will buy it, they will tell their friends, they will force it on their friends, they will forward your emails, they will share coupon codes and that's what happened. It was just we got over that awful part of bringing something new to market and creating a need fairly easily because of our audience.

Amy:

Yes, I would agree. I think I probably heard it from a mom too, and you really did the online consumer part quite well. I think back then it wasn't as easy to buy things online. It was challenging sometimes.

Tricia:

It was and, yeah, our website was very simple. One thing that is still true today that I mentor all my clients on, is trust signals making sure the website has a lot of trust signals. We promise you this. We promise you that we are Canadian moms Show our faces. All of the things that make people comfortable were very, very important in 2003, but they're still very, very important.

Amy:

What markets do you think are ready for disruption today?

Tricia:

Oh, so many. I really think that there's still a lot of room in decision making. I recently saw a business that helps women in particular choose the right vehicle for them.

Amy:

Oh, there you go.

Tricia:

And I thought that was interesting, because there's a real loss of trust. Nobody can trust anything. You see some car you're like I'm looking at that and I think that's the car for me. Well, suddenly your TikTok is filled with crash tests showing how you're going to die in that car and we have so much information that I feel like there is room for. We are all stricken with decision paralysis. So services and websites and businesses that make decisions easier. I'm very currently interested in the swiping exhaustion. Everyone who is dating is absolutely sick of swiping and I can tell you right now there's no other great solutions. Those are two spaces that I feel.

Amy:

Yeah, feeling a need or recognizing fatigue, maybe in the way something currently is. Yeah, let's talk about Mabel's labels and leadership. So startups, even if they have multiple founders, generally only have one or two of the founders that are fully involved in the day to day. That's a generalization, but that's normally how it is. My understanding is that was not the case with you guys. Everybody was involved. So how did you make that dynamic work, both on a day to day basis and from a leadership perspective?

Tricia:

Well, very early on we realized it was not scalable to have us all involved in everything. While we were raising Mabel, we were also raising 11 kids between us, so it was kind of crazy, and so we pretty quickly realized we had to divide and conquer and so we split the business up and sometimes we shuffled the plates, but typically I was marketing and e-commerce, julie Ellis was finance, cynthia was always production, because she wanted production in her house and then in her bigger house and then around the corner from where she lived, and Julie was PR. So we all had staff that we managed and we all had decisions that we made and we would come together weekly typically, sometimes constantly by text.

Tricia:

Yeah, we had to. I don't really understand. I see businesses making that mistake, trying to do everything hand in hand, and I kind of tried to nudge them and try to envision how this is going to work in the future. And I tell them a story that is very true. When Mabel was growing up, we went to these trade shows with other mom-based businesses, largely because when the maternity leave switched from six months to one year I think that was 2002, there was a huge influx of women starting small businesses, because I feel like that six months to a year difference gave women a taste for a different life and they really didn't want to go back to work, which is my partner Cynthia's story. She really didn't want to go back to work. She was the first person I knew to take the full year. So there were all these women at these little trade shows and we became very good friends with them.

Tricia:

We're still friends with these women that started hat companies and blanket companies and Erica M from Yummy Mummy Club she was one of them at that time and we kind of made this little group that followed each other around for years and years and everyone, as we grew, everyone said you're so lucky that there's four of you, that's why you're doing so much better than us.

Amy:

And.

Tricia:

I don't know if that's why we were doing seemed bigger than them or whatever, but it is absolutely true. If you can make a four person partnership work, you are so much more powerful. The key is making a four person partnership work. Open any business book and the first page is usually partnerships are a terrible idea. Partnerships where people are related is a super terrible idea, and we did all that I can maybe agree with that.

Amy:

So when you were dividing it up, was that an easy process? Did everyone have already sort of a section they were interested in, or was it a negotiation?

Tricia:

We did definitely have our own niches, and so it was easy, I'll say, though, as the business grew, it became less simple. Sometimes marketing seemed very glamorous. I was traveling all over, I was doing interesting things. Julie Cole goes to parties and wears pretty dresses and gets her makeup professionally done for some things, and you can see how that might seem like the better deal. So we would swap things off from time to time, and that just takes open communication. I remember some of us saying at some point I need to learn to be a public speaker. This is not going to be here forever. I need to get a profile for myself. So we would help each other out where we could. But we also had to face some truths. Julie Cole is much, much better at a 5,000 person room than I am, and I am better at going to China and looking at a factory because I understand manufacturing. Even though the trip to China may have sounded glamorous, it wasn't. We had to face some just core competency realities.

Amy:

So I'm very interested in your transition out of Maple's labels. Your company was acquired by Avery, which my understanding is the world's largest label company.

Tricia:

Yes, well, avery is owned by CCL Industries. There we go. That is a Canadian company traded on the TSX, and they are the world's largest label company. Everything, there are things in here yes.

Amy:

These are made by everything, so people exit companies and they get bought out all the time, but I feel like this was on a whole different level. I'd really like to hear a little bit about that story.

Tricia:

Well, it wasn't bought in a whole different level.

Amy:

financially it's a rather but the components I mean. Often it's a little company that gets sort of acquired by a larger company before it's fully scaled off, and that's where we live in Waterloo.

Tricia:

We hear a lot of those stories.

Amy:

So I mean, that's my personal experience with knowing people or being involved. I'd be just curious how it all started. Who did they approach? How did the four of you decide that, yes, you wanted to pursue this idea, and how long did it take and where were your challenges?

Tricia:

Okay, Well, typically you even consider it if you have kind of hit the end of the road or a wall. And we were maybe I guess we were 10 or 11 or 12 years old and it was difficult. We got it to a certain point. We had a lot of big wins. We had just launched into Walmart, target, h-e-b and Meyer in the US and Amazon, and I think that's what caught Avery's attention. We were taking shelf space for them. They will not admit that. I've asked. They say they followed us for a decade but it came out absolutely nowhere. But we never thought we would be bought. We used to say advisors and mentors would say what's your exit strategy? Well, someday I plan to die. That's my exit strategy. I have no idea who on earth would ever want to buy this business. We promised our customers, within 24 hours of putting your credit card in our website, they'll be in the mail. That is a pain in the ass business. I always felt like that guy in the old Dunkin Donuts commercials.

Amy:

Every day. We just had to get up and make the labels.

Tricia:

Somebody was sick, somebody couldn't come, somebody's kids were sick, oh God. So it felt hard, not hard, it was enjoyable, but it was work. We weren't automating and we weren't outsourcing, everything was done in our building, and so we just never thought anyone would buy us. And we had advisors kind of tell us that too, that this would be a difficult thing to sell. And because we live in Waterloo Region, we do just hear that People buy ideas. They had to buy a whole bunch of staff and equipment and processes.

Tricia:

So one, I guess July 2015, somebody just left a voicemail Hi, my name is So-and-So from Avery and we're wondering if you're for sale. And I remember I was listening to it on speakerphone. I just remember standing at my desk and nobody was around. It was a July long weekend, I think, and I just listened to it over and over and I called all my partners separately because I didn't know how to make a group phone call. And they're like oh my God, I guess we got to get together.

Tricia:

So the next week are we for sale? And we had an advisor that we were working with at the time that kind of sat on our board and gave us sage business advice and he walked us through the process of thinking about it and we were going to explore it and we thought we had some negotiating skill but some negotiating room. But really, when a big big company is buying you, as we were negotiating, it finally came down to this Well, we know about all of your competitors and we're going to buy one of you and this is true we have to make this deal close by December. So if this can't close in six months, it's dead. I don't know if that was true, but now I understand that big big companies do have a goal so that person who's doing the acquisition. Her goal was to make an acquisition by that fiscal year end, so I don't know how much room we had.

Tricia:

We did have some room in price. We did have some room in what we wanted out of it and it was all good. They said they bought us because they didn't have any direct to consumer businesses and they wanted to understand direct to consumer. I don't know how much of that was true. They've been since in a bolt-on acquisition phase. They bolt on companies and just peel away the profit and put against theirs, which is fine and legit. Yeah, I don't know how much of it really was to learn from us. Right, I stayed on for four years after the acquisition?

Amy:

Oh, you did. Okay, that was my next question. So your personally, your exit was you stayed on for four years and in the marketing part of it, or something like that, as a general manager. As a general manager.

Tricia:

Yeah, so that was part of the deal. One of us had to stay and run it Okay. So three of us technically stayed, but one left within three or four months. It just didn't fit Right and that was fine. We didn't have an earn out and Julie Cole and I stayed and Julie did her marketing, her PR thing, and I what's a general manager, and it was okay, although I had to learn a whole bunch of skills that I did not have and I was very open with them too. I was like, if you want a financial manager.

Tricia:

You probably want so and so that's not me, right, but I had fronted the deal. So one of the decisions we made during the acquisition and I encourage everyone pursuing an acquisition to do this that I pulled out of the business more or less and only did the acquisition Because, had we all needed to have our heads down inside the acquisition, it would have been very disruptive and because a publicly traded company was buying us, we could not breathe a word of this. We couldn't tell anyone. Wow, we didn't tell our husbands until maybe two months before. Really, we didn't tell our parents until two days before. Wow, I didn't tell anyone because they said it would die, it would just die, and we believed them, maybe it would have.

Tricia:

So we really didn't tell anyone and so I had to, just quietly, because I always lived in Kitchener. I was always a little disconnected, like I came and went. I didn't keep regular office hours, so no one missed me, no one noticed I was missing and I ran the acquisition. So I think Avery got to know me the best and so maybe that's why. But so, yeah, I stayed on as a GM and it was good for a while, and then, when COVID hit, it was not good. No, and it just about ended me, so I ended it before.

Amy:

So was it because people weren't buying labels?

Tricia:

or was it because Well, people weren't buying labels. They had no back to school.

Amy:

Yes, I didn't lose anything for a while. It was great.

Tricia:

So kids didn't go back to school for March break. So that was the first panic. Okay, people are going to travel over March and April. Americans buy a lot of labels for their spring breaks in April. Okay. And then, when it went on a bit, we're like what's going to happen to summer camp, our second biggest season? Are you kidding me? There's no back to school. This has got to be a joke.

Tricia:

We were still busy enough, though, that it became an issue and we very, very quickly pivoted to making our equipment could also make you know the distance markers for floors, signage for walls. The adrenaline of COVID starting and us having to pivot actually was an exciting time for me. I loved it. We were able to source the plastic that could make the shields and we found a company in Kitchener that could make the foam and we had to source elastic. And then we found a company in Hamilton that could make children size masks because they had been making gym clothes. That was kind of exciting, but staffing the place was an absolute nightmare.

Tricia:

And then, when summer came and we were busy, you know all the students, many of the students that we had hired summer after summer were like I don't know Trudeau's going to give me sir to play Game Boy, so I'm going to do that. We also relied heavily on temp agencies, which already is a troublesome pool. It became. I thought I was on TV. I thought this was a reality show that no one told me about. It was brutal.

Amy:

Four years wasn't a time for you had to be there, no, no. So you just stayed, and then, when it wasn't right anymore, you were able to leave.

Tricia:

Also like during the four years before COVID, ccl was an amazing company to work for. I mean, I traveled all over the world. I got into factories. I never, I had no idea. It was like walking through the polka dot door.

Amy:

This is how you make Advil bottles.

Tricia:

Like amazing, amazing things that I never would have seen and as a print nerd, it was really exciting. And because they acquire companies as a strategy, I met and they typically keep the founders on I met some amazing entrepreneurs that sold their businesses to CCL and we would get together at these big annual meetings. And I mean some of them sold their businesses for astronomical amounts and have stayed on and are just really interesting people. So all of that was fun. The perks were great. But when COVID hit, there are no perks, no, no, they all kind of go away.

Amy:

I was running a laminator because I couldn't find a student to do it. Now were you still there when we did all go back to school, I mean had to label everything. No, actually it's a year, it's three years today.

Tricia:

November 1st was my last day?

Amy:

Oh, congratulations. Did you then transition karma into your?

Tricia:

job.

Amy:

Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah.

Tricia:

So we I mean we talked about it with Avery and they knew karma very well because marketing is just integral and really it could have gone either way, like the two things that are most important to a company like that is the marketing and the IT. But I mean Karma's just the leader she was. Everyone likes her and it was just a natural fit and she's willing to do it. Honestly, I give her some warning.

Amy:

She's very driven and because she lives here too and does the commute right, she does so you decide to leave, and then you transition to Karma. And then what did you do right after? Did you take some time or did you jump right into something else?

Tricia:

I said I was going to have a gap year, I was going to do nothing.

Amy:

Good for you. That did not happen. No, because you're an entrepreneur, that doesn't happen.

Tricia:

Yeah, so then I think within a month I accidentally had a customer. I've got this problem where, if I see a business that's just doing something wrong my favorite tool on the planet is Vidyard software that was created by one of the region founders and if I just see something doing something wrong in their business, I can't help myself. I send them a Vidyard and just say hi, I use your product all the time. Or I read this article about you and here's what I just see this on your website. I don't see dead people, I see bad hero images and no calls to action, and so I send a few of those out just because I can't help myself and, honestly, I probably ate out of 10. I end up either being friends with or working for or something.

Tricia:

So I found some clients but I was very choosy, I didn't work too too hard and I called the accelerator center right away. I said I've always wanted to be a part of this. How do I get in? They didn't have any direct-to-consumer clients at the time, but then, as they brought some in, they called me. So it's just been gradual.

Amy:

So you've been doing that, and then, in my research, of course, on your LinkedIn profile, it says you're looking for startup adventures with interesting people, which, by the way, I think is a fabulous job description it is. So, on that vein, what is next for you? I?

Tricia:

have no idea. I haven't changed that. In the three years that I've been fun employed because I do get the funniest little pings from people on LinkedIn I've had many people approach me to be a co-founder.

Amy:

Oh, wow.

Tricia:

You didn't actually co-found the business, but you can become a co-founder.

Amy:

Seems to be a thing I did not know about. There's a market we can disrupt.

Tricia:

Yeah, or just I do just meet interesting people and I don't know what's next. I still haven't found. I mean, I buy about two URLs a week. I can't help myself, oh wow.

Amy:

I've got a problem. Yes, I love doing that too. I don't buy them, but I love thinking about them.

Tricia:

Oh, I think you've got to buy them. What's one that you bought, I can't tell you you can't tell me you own it so it's fine, I guess. Ok, so disrupting. So I've got this idea. Maybe we can start this. Ok, somebody recently said the word um bleager to me, bleager, bleager, and I was like what are you talking about? Well, it's when you go on a business trip and you turn it into a bit of a leisure trip. You have a few days on.

Amy:

That happens all the time.

Tricia:

Everybody does that, I thought he was just making that up and I googled it. It's a thing, it's a thing, so I might have bought some URLs around that.

Amy:

I love that idea. We can get a tax accountant as part of it to tell you how to pull it off correctly.

Tricia:

Yeah Well, I've got a friend in the travel world that I've talked to or talked to her about it. I don't know. I have far too many ideas. It's kind of a problem I had to get. I started a Notion account and a whole. Notion set up just for to keep my ideas straight.

Amy:

I love it.

Tricia:

That's great, that I may never do anything with no, but I think that's great, you go back or I think ideas are great.

Amy:

You never know what will come of something at some point.

Tricia:

I don't know that I have. I don't know that I have it in me.

Amy:

And I know that I'm a partnership person.

Tricia:

I really I know and I've said this from the beginning with Mabel's labels If I didn't have them that I was accountable to, if I didn't have my partners that I owed something to, I would have just watched TV and thought about it. I think accountability in a partnership is probably key to success. So I don't know, we'll see. I did start, I have actually made a start on a couple Good, and then I don't know, I'm still not there.

Amy:

Yes, once you do it to go back, it's like school Once you do school, to go back is difficult. I think once you do something from ground up and successfully going back is challenging. It is.

Tricia:

And I haven't personally felt this, or maybe I'm in denial about it, but I know a lot of people in my position that are afraid to start because they're afraid to fail. To have a big success and not be successful. I don't think that's my problem. I think it's just motivation and maybe not finding the right partner or the right push. But we'll see.

Amy:

Now I do know about one of your ideas. Talking to Ginny, your business book club oh, Because she was talking about the book you were doing and I know it's not a monetized idea as of yet. But tell me a little bit about that I'll just buy that it's there you go.

Amy:

Hold on, we have to pause. You need to buy that URL. I thought it was a great idea. I mean, there's a lot of book clubs here and there, but A there's not a lot of accountability and not everyone always likes the subject. I'm thinking this sounds like more of a cohesive group, so tell us a little bit more about your business book club.

Tricia:

Well, it's not my idea. So the book we read is called Limitless, by Jim Quick, and in the first chapter. So somebody that we know recommended it to me and said Sharon Vanstone said you should read this.

Tricia:

We read it as a company and I thought, ok, I'll read it. I just bought it for myself. But chapter one says stop, find a book club, oh, no way. He says you should find 15 people, one for every chapter, and everyone should treat the chapter like they're giving a TED talk. They have to prepare a presentation for it. So I put it out to about 20 people, seeing if I could drum up 15. I got 15 immediately, although many dropped out. We're down to a few and it's been great. It's been really great. I think I would do it again. I've got a couple of books in mind and I've never read a book so slowly, like really it's like a bit of homework. You don't just sit down and read the book, you read the first chapter, you read the chapter and then you don't read ahead.

Amy:

Oh so then you wait and wait for the presentation, and then you do the presentation.

Tricia:

Yeah, so you watch someone's presentation and we have great conversations. I really purposely put together some funny people, some people. That one person who I'd really admire, who's stuck with Avery, kind of is a upper middle manager but he's a company guy but he's not a company thinker. I wish he would leave Somebody. That, a really young guy that I met through Avery, who worked at Google and Microsoft and he's really bright and he's just starting a startup. And then Ginny DeBanco and I thought of Tracy from the October Fest Committee because she's just made a huge transition in her career.

Amy:

Yes, she is.

Tricia:

I also thought about people that are indifferent stages of their careers. I know woman who, a very young woman who's not going back to work after a second mat leave, and so that reminded me, and so she's starting her own thing.

Amy:

okay, and yeah, like I love the concept of Presenting a chapter, jenny was telling us. You know hers is on fitness of the brain and that's a passion of hers and you know she was excited to do it and seem very animated about it.

Tricia:

So it's very good way to read a book like that and I think other books that lend themselves to that, like atomic habits, I think would. It's because if you do just sit down and read the book, you probably don't give yourself the time to stop and actually pay attention to the exercises they recommend. Do the exercises they recommend answer.

Amy:

You're not accountable to answer questions to anyone, so I think it's been really good I'm reading the fun habit and I'm finding that right now that would be another one I think would work, because it's hard. Not that it's hard to get through, but there's so much I want to do with all of the information that I I start a book.

Amy:

Yeah, okay, well, that Because that, that that maybe think of that when I'm having it's a challenge to get through it, because I want to do everything but I don't make the time to do it and so you have to, because you have to show up on wednesday night at seven and I think that that's. And tell people that you did accountability in general seems to be something that makes things successful in general, that's very true, that seems to be a theme today so what is next for women in leadership, do you think?

Tricia:

Keep fighting the fight you know, it's it's exhausting. It's amazing that we still have to work this hard and that people still don't understand. You know, I recently had a conversation Was that dinner with some very powerful women, very smart, educated women, and we're all talking about the Barbie movie and how excellent it was, and this one woman said it was terrible. So why was it terrible? Like I thought maybe she didn't like right or.

Tricia:

Said it was just so, we don't need this. And it was just. They made men look stupid and it was, it was mean to the men. Okay, that's Interesting. And I said, but don't you think we do need that? No, we don't. We are like, we're there, is like really, let's look at board numbers. Yeah, and she said where I it's fifty, fifty, I feel like it's fifty, fifty. I said do you feel that or do you know that? And maybe in her bubble she's in downtown Toronto. She's probably working with very woke companies, although I can't imagine so I had to interrupt dinner and google it. And then everyone else started to go and everyone started shouting five percent, twenty percent, twenty one percent on the industry. Yes, she's like, okay, fine, like I can't even believe we still have to have that conversation.

Tricia:

Yes, so keep fighting the fight, be visible, include yourself, invite yourself, speak when you do go to something, speak up. Doing this, interviewing each other. Giving, giving women a platform Is essential and these incubators are doing an excellent job of that. You know, innovation, wealth. They have this rise program for women entrepreneurs. That is exceptional and some really exceptional Women entrepreneurs are going through that program. These businesses are really gonna be something. I think that there is still a need to have Mentorship and and a different channel for women entrepreneurs to go through and women leaders to go through, and that's probably why I wf exists yes, everything.

Amy:

So are you seeing More women in the acceleration come through the accelerator center program or do you think that the startup space, especially sometimes in tech, is still a bit not enough women?

Tricia:

startup is and tech probably is still. I mean, it does skew. You need to look at the. You know students like student ratios. But it's not all tech there. No, it's not, and at least you know. I see a lot of groups where women engineers are sitting on the founder table or like in the ellen winters example we were talking about earlier. You know she was her idea, it's her baby. She engaged with the tech Company to make it come to life. So as long as women will still continue to pursue the idea and find the right teams, it's sticking with the idea, not thinking well, I'm not a tech person so I can't do it if it isn't core to your being but it's core to your business, find a solution and still lead the company.

Amy:

I think that's very good advice. In your work with the accelerator center, do you see different leadership styles between men and women in the startup space?

Tricia:

I do. I think I see it in my real life to you know, an example actually, going back to book club of the, of the twenty people I send it out to, I did ten women, ten men. I was very surprised how quickly the women came back and women that I really thought would join said I'm just too busy right now, I can't, I've got the, I can't, I can't, I can't. Women, I think generally and I hope this isn't true, this is my impression are less likely to invest in themselves and less likely to go down this path and and say I'm carving out this amount of time for my startup, for my book club, for me, for whatever, for my health.

Tricia:

Men say I've joined this accelerator, I'm giving it twenty hours a week, whatever has to happen, make room. And so the women that do join the other very focused and very while they're at it. But I do think they have a lot more to juggle. They have a lot more to think about. They are very open to asking for help. They're engaged with it, but they're less aggressive about, you know, booking the meetings and and and asking for emergency help, and I've got this thing. They don't interrupt their very polite that, whereas I find that I don't know the general community here and that your experience is.

Tricia:

Yeah, they're a little bolder about asking, getting on the calendar and asking specifically for what they need and and speaking up and challenging. You know, and we talk about women and imposter syndrome. We talk about that all the time, yes, we do. And you know from time to time just this week, and a man will tell me that he has imposter syndrome and it's so less obvious, or they don't bring it up. You know where's when will be like, oh my god, there's my imposter syndrome and I don't know. I think I do see differences, but there are no less likely to be successful and they're known. They're no less likely to be involved in the general business escape. I mean, tech is a different story.

Amy:

You mentioned imposter syndrome. Actually, I'm curious what are your thoughts on a the concept of imposter syndrome, and have you ever experienced it yourself?

Tricia:

Of course I have, but I think it's it's. It's actually mentioned in this book limitless, which we keep talking about.

Tricia:

It's really just that little voice in your head and the things you tell yourself for, the things you hear from your third grade teacher over and over still, and so just knowing what they are, writing them down, knowing what they are, it's not a syndrome, it's a thing, it's a sentence, it's a thing. You can face it if you can Be aware of it. I think calling it a syndrome and making it this big bag of crap that you carry around and talking about it, I think it's you're giving it too much power.

Amy:

I agree that's very good advice. I think that's a great place to stop. Thank you, trisha, for joining us on our podcast. This has been such an engaging conversation and I really, really love your story, all your stories. But your story, your arc, your journey, it's, it's really admirable. Thank you, I've got more what you have to come back when one of the url's has turned into something. I want to hear all about it, okay.

Tricia:

Okay, well, thank you. This has been great, and I look forward to listening to the first one that downloads lands today today where does it where's going to be?

Amy:

everywhere, anywhere you listen to podcasts. Excellent. Jiddy debanko is our inaugural episode, as she is the founder of our chapter. So, yes, download, listen, like, share. I will Thank you, trisha. Thank you, thank you for listening today. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to rate and subscribe to our podcast. When you do, this helps to raise our podcast profile so more leaders can find us Inspired by the stories our voices of leadership have to share. If you would like to connect with us, please visit the voices of leadership website. The link can be found in our show notes, available wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Amy Schlueter

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