Best of 2024: What it Will Take for Businesses and Leaders to be Resilient Going Forward

Welcome back everyone! Today is an extra special “Best of 2024” episode of The Resilience Report. For our regular listeners, you know that we like to end every episode with the same question, which is “What do you think it will take for businesses and leaders to be resilient going forward?” Not an easy question to tackle, but this did not stop our brilliant business leaders and ecopreneurs from sharing their actionable tips and tricks.

This episode will be going live on Christmas day 2024, which is kind of perfect given that each and every one of these conversations has been a gift in my life this past year!

This episode is a heartfelt thank you to all of our listeners and guests for being part of The Resilience Report this past year. Your support, feedback and desire for positive impact have been like nothing I have ever experienced before. We already have some amazing content lined up for this coming year based on your messages, and I cannot wait to share more with you over the coming weeks! 

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To kick things off, this first group make up our most popular podcast category in 2024. In 2023, our top topic was the aviation sector. This year: finance. Interest in this sector seems to be at an all-time high, and our guests certainly delivered on sharing incredible insights on where we are going. Here is what Lauren Ott, Senior Director, Strategic Partnerships @ Impact Genome, Milla Craig, Founder & CEO @ Millani Inc., Pierre-Laurent Macridis, Senior Associate - Private Investment Research @ Rally Assets, and Abby Massey, Vice President of Energy Incentives @ TaxTaker had to say:

Lauren Ott, Senior Director, Strategic Partnerships @ Impact Genome

Resiliency is such an important piece of so much of the work that's happening, and think for me, what I think is necessary in order for business leaders, in order for anyone who's in this sector of social impact to be able to move forward with resiliency, I think it's going to be an openness to change, an openness to innovation, and a piece of humble pie in understanding that we haven't solved these issues, so perhaps we should pivot and take a new lens in being able to apply what's worked elsewhere to the sector as well. So, it's an exciting time.

Milla Craig, Founder & CEO @ Millani Inc.

I think we need to be open-minded. There is a lot of change going on right now. And I think you need to have a strategy for your individual self and or for your business. And that's really as we think of— I know I keep coming back to climate change—but you know, climate change is here already. We're just starting to feel the implications on policies and all of these other elements surrounding not just the physical impacts, right? So, you know, you need to stop and think, "What is my strategy on this? How am I going to manage my business? Do I need to pivot? Do I need to do something?" We also need to think about AI, you know, artificial intelligence. It too is here as is income inequality. It's dividing society.

So these are some of the issues that I think leaders really need to be considering, and if you're not, then you are not going to be resilient in the next 10 years. So, really having a strategy on how you're going to manage these types of issues is key. And then you need to have the courage to move on that strategy as well. That would probably be my biggest thing is we are on the cusp of a very significant shift in markets, in clients, in demand, etc., and you need to be well-prepared for that transition.

Pierre-Laurent Macridis, Senior Associate - Private Investment Research @ Rally Assets

I think the answer to that question is a proverb: "If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together." Oftentimes, you see business leaders so focused on their day-to-day and their own business and their own world that they end up kind of isolating themselves, right? If you really want to be resilient, you need to be exposed to other ways of thinking, you need to be exposed to other trends that you might not be able to see in your own, let's say, industry or bubble. And so, speaking with other people, collaborating with other people, even if it's not just for a business transaction, just getting to know other people in the space who are thinking about similar things, and more importantly, also, the diversity of thought is the most important part of that equation.

So don't just go to your local industry group and meet with other executives in the exact same field, dealing with the exact same stuff as you. Go to other executives in completely different fields, right? Talk with them about what challenges they are facing, understand their world, their view on the world, what's happening, what are macroeconomic trends that might affect you, how do you manage them, right? And those are the best opportunities to learn. So even as an investor, that's something, in my previous job at Fondaction, that invested in kind of across industries, across asset classes, across Quebec, that was something I think that they did really well, was just kind of bringing together these CEOs, etc., from completely different industries, bringing them together, you know, once or twice a year, just to have these conversations. And that was something that we always found incredibly rewarding, and we always got very good feedback. So if you don't have the privilege of having an investor that does that for you, go out there and do that proactively yourself. You will be much the wiser and much more resilient in your work that you do as a result.

Abby Massey, Vice President of Energy Incentives @ TaxTaker

I think that for any businesses, it's important that leadership set the vision and mission for everybody else to follow it. Resiliency is important and if you've got a strong leader who is setting that vision and getting the leadership team on board to charge towards that goal, I think you'll see a lot of success. So, you know, I'm interested to see how that all fits into the energy efficiency space in the next few years. I think people are really starting to shift their minds and I'm excited to see where the industry goes.

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I have said it before, and I will say it again: I have a passion for fashion AND beauty.  Two of these guests are responsible for at least half of my clothing and beauty products at home: Jenn Harper, Founder and CEO @Cheekbone Beauty and Annette Nguyen, Founder @ Shwap Club. I also discovered, alongside our listeners, two phenomenal brands and their leaders: Mireille "Dr. Mimi" Vega, Founder @ VGAM Biome and the dynamic duo of Elaine Kim Smith & Leslie Hoolaeff, Co-Owners @ Lover's Tempo!

Jenn Harper, Founder and CEO @Cheekbone Beauty

My answer is always consistency. I feel I don't have any like super skills. I've gotten to this point in life where I'm just very consistent. So, you know, every day for the last seven years I have done something to work on Cheekbone to like move the brand forward. So, consistency is always my answer in that world: if you're consistent and you don't give up, then whatever you're working on it can't fail.

Annette Nguyen, Founder @ Shwap Club

I would say community is what is going to get you where you need to be. It can’t just be profit. I mean, it’s easy to say profit, planet, people, but I think my focus has been on people and community. I think that when times are rough, or when COVID happens, or yeah, when you need to make difficult decisions, if you have a community that is behind you, that understands — that community understands your mission, understands what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, they will get you where you need to go. So, I trust community a lot in the process.

Mireille "Dr. Mimi" Vega, Founder @ VGAM Biome

Protect, restore, adapt. You know, like, that formula, I, I don't want to be cheesy, but, you know, like, we got to protect what we have, restore what we lost, and adapt, adapt, adapt to the evolving world. Obviously, there are various priorities. We are so fortunate to live in this country and to have the environment as a priority. Let's make it a priority. Some other parts of the world just can't afford to have that, you know, like in their priorities. It's still there, but, you know, they do different things. So, I do believe, I trust the process as well. There are some regulations. I don't think it's going to help as much as really owning that planet of ours and protecting it, basically.

Elaine Kim Smith & Leslie Hoolaeff, Co-Owners, Lover's Tempo

If you’re talking about resilience in the collective resilience of humanity, I think one of the big pieces of the puzzle that’s missing, to be frank, is accountability for larger corporations. I think we see small businesses being resilient all the time, especially over the last four years. I mean, it’s been curveball after curveball after curveball. I don’t feel like... I think that all of the small businesses that I know are being resilient every single day, and I would love to see the consequences and the accountability for larger corporations be more.

Yeah, I think I agree. You know, I think the last four years have been so hard on small businesses, and we’ve seen the stories recently. Actually, just last week, we know that about the wildfires in Jasper. We had one of our small retailers there just email us a story that they lost every single thing that they owned through the fires, and their email to us was talking about how their business was still standing, their main priority is to open their doors, and to ensure us that they were going to pay their bills. And for us, it’s like, if that doesn’t show resilience, I don’t know what does. So, I think from a small business level, we see that resilience of small business owners getting up and opening their doors and doing what it takes to make it happen. We really just need to see change on a larger scale—some support at the government level, larger corporations, you know, to kind of boost our morale because we’re doing it every day.

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They say that, each day, you have three votes to change the food system. If you snack as much as I do, that number only increases! Which is why I was so excited to grow the Food & Beverage section of The Resilience Report this past year. In 2024, you loved hearing from our next guests, Missy Schaaphok, Director of Global Nutrition & Sustainability @ Taco Bell, David Cote, Co-Founder and Superhero@ LOOP Mission, Kim Chackal, Co-Owner and Director of Sales and Marketing @ Equifruit, and Jonathan Defoy, Founder & CEO @ FoodHero. 

Missy Schaaphok, Director of Global Nutrition & Sustainability @ Taco Bell

I would say it's really the fundamental work that keeps the business going that cannot be forgotten while trying to stand out and be different, right? Regulations and laws will always exist, and they're expanding at unprecedented levels. It's important work and a lot of work, but you have to focus because you can't do it all. Focus on what truly makes a difference and on what can be measured and reported because what gets measured gets managed. As long as you can track what you're doing, that's important. Be authentic in your storytelling because people really appreciate that.

David Cote, Co-Founder and Superhero@ LOOP Mission

I think it's to slow down a little bit. When you have a business, you often forget why you started it. You often don't realize all the collateral impact that you have by creating that product or offering that service. Sometimes you need to take time a little bit and distance yourself from your daily job or daily life or daily business to really look at where the holes are. What are we wasting here? It might not just be product, it might be time, it might be space. You might realize that your space has never been used, or your office is always empty, so someone is there next door that can actually use it and spend less money on it. Is there time from someone that you realize you could save by doing something else? 

Circular economy is in everything. Circularity is in everything. It's to take time to look at all that waste that's not only material and to try to use it at its most. This is what we've always done as a civilization, we just forgot about it.

Kim Chackal, Co-Owner and Director of Sales and Marketing @ Equifruit

I think that bravery and resilience go hand in hand, and that would be the first word that comes to mind. You know, the tough decisions require bravery, whether that's going out on a limb because you think that this is the right thing to do, or saying the thing that nobody else is comfortable saying. Just call it out so that you can just kickstart that change. Bravery is part of business in a big way. I think the most successful entrepreneurs were really brave, and especially in those early years. Just being an entrepreneur waking up in the morning and deciding that they're going to just follow their dream, that requires bravery. So bring other people in your circle that can support you in that.

Jonathan Defoy, Founder & CEO @ FoodHero

So, I'm going to try to come up with original answers here because I already touched on staying healthy mentally, physically, and emotionally. So, my recommendation is to learn about human nature, study human nature. That's something I've been doing recently, and I wish I would have done that 20 years ago. So, I'm reading psychology books now, skimming through psychology books, using ChatGPT to ask questions on that topic because it refers also to social media that I mentioned.

It's ridiculous how human beings can be manipulated, but when you understand how it works first, you're going to be protecting yourself. Number two, you will be more successful in your adventures because at the end of the day, commercial enterprises are successful when they answer human needs and they understand all human brains are bringing. So, understanding human nature as a general topic is very important."

I'm referring to things about biases, you know, not like necessarily like the super heavy expert type of stuff, just the basic stuff. So, that's one. And two, I mentioned it earlier, be very careful to not expose yourself to negative stuff, like as much as you can. If you need to be like me, I still need to be aware of what's going on in the world, but I'm giving myself some sort of space where, you know, just allowing a couple of minutes a day or so because like right now, I think it's a big, big, big competitive advantage, a big differentiator if you stay in a positive mindset and you're exposing yourself to positive stuff as opposed to the contrary. You will be living a much better life, and you will be performing much more as well. Like, you'll be more resilient, for sure. 

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The next section of our “Best of 2024” is that of Corporate Culture & Strategy – arguably what will make this all possible for businesses and leaders going forward. Our featured guests include Dr Marie-Helene Pelletier, Author of The Resilience Plan: A Strategic Approach to Optimize Your Work and Health and Lori Saitz, Founder & CEO, Zen Rabbit.

Dr Marie-Helene Pelletier, Author of The Resilience Plan: A Strategic Approach to Optimize Your Work and Health.

Well, I'm going to say, it will take for them to think strategically about their resilience, talk strategically about it, and then implement behaviors that are strategic, all three. Think that way, talk that way, and behave that way. 

Lori Saitz, Founder & CEO, Zen Rabbit

It will take personal responsibility for doing whatever you got to do in terms of building your resilience. And I say resilience because typically, I think it's applied to managing challenging work situations, but I'm talking about resilience in every aspect. Going back to the first, how do you define well-being? Every aspect—resilience of your immune system, resilience for emotional balance—resilience in every aspect. And you're the only one who has the ability to affect that. And so, that's what it's going to take, is that—learning those tools and whatever techniques—the ones we've talked about, there are plenty more out there. But finding what works for you, that's really the key. There's not one thing that fits all, but what works for you, and figuring out what that is.

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And finally, we are rounding things out with an area close to my heart: manufacturers. With global supply chain issues, inflation and more, being a leader in this space is not always easy! Our next guests show us how it is done with integrity and compassion: Christian Schmidt, Owner @ Black Sheep Mattress Co., Tamara Mekler, Co-Founder & COO @ Nutshell Coolers and Jeff White and Carman Pirie, Co-Founders @ Kula Partners. Bonus points? Jeff, Carman and I are now all part of Manucast, the manufacturing podcast collective!

Christian Schmidt, Owner @ Black Sheep Mattress Co.

There’s so much to do in the sustainability space and making our systems resilient. There’s a lot of change coming. Lately, I keep coming back to doing the right thing. We all know what that is, and sometimes it means self-sacrifice or changing the business model. It’s hard on the ego, but it's a North Star for a lot of people. I wouldn’t do it for money or other reasons – I don’t think that is sustainable (in both senses of the word). There's a lot of opportunity. It’s exciting because there's so much to be done, whether you're an existing business or starting new.

Tamara Mekler, Co-Founder & COO @ Nutshell Coolers

I think from my experience building Nutshell, I think deep empathy is key. When we approach problems, I think we need to think about the full system and all the people involved and really work together to create solutions that stand to benefit all. That means taking the time to understand the perspectives and needs of all stakeholders, from your employees to your customers to partners and the environment. And yeah, I think and I found that this process of deep empathy leads to key insights that allow us to make better decisions, build stronger partnerships, prepare for challenges, and I think that's what it means to be resilient.

I think there are a lot of great examples of that in the circular economy, where stakeholders, including the planet, are brought together and all benefit from a solution and are motivated to make it work. I think circular solutions are efficient, innovative, and very attuned to local communities, and they literally keep resources in a continuous loop, which I think is just being resilient by design. So I think paying more attention to those kinds of solutions and really focusing on building empathy with all the stakeholders.

Jeff White and Carman Pirie, Co-Founders @ Kula Partners

It's weird because, like, the minute you start blending these things, you could easily sound like a conspiracy theorist. I don't want to get there. But you say about uncertain times. And, of course, part of what you're saying there, you know, there's the climate change component to that is obviously massive. And then the political environment that seems to be just unfolding almost regardless of jurisdiction. I mean, easy for Canadians up here to make fun of our American friends. But, man, it's not just there, as we talked about before. And I kind of wonder how much longer we can ignore it. Like I feel like in some ways, businesses and leaders have been able, as I mentioned before, like, okay, we're at the adult table, we're at the kid table. But, you know, once all the food ends up on your lap, I'm not sure it matters. Like somebody needs to deal with it. So, I guess I would just say I think maybe what we need, what they're going to need for resilience is maybe an openness to reimagining how they engage with the world and how broad their engagement in the world is. It's a really broad answer.

I think to that point, an awful lot of us could do well with listening more and asking questions and not assuming we have the answers. You know, really being considerate of the things we hear and then processing that and trying to understand how to leverage what you've learned. There's no question, you know, better off with the input of others. 

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And that’s a wrap on our “Best of 2024” episode! Thank you to every single person who has listened in this past year, and for proactively choosing to show up and make room for those businesses and leaders trying to make a positive change. Keep on being that lighthouse, and I cannot wait to see what 2025 has in store for our Resilience Reporters. I love you all so very much, and wish you and your loved ones a very happy holiday season.