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The Amy Criss Report on #WeAreYQQ Winter Party, featuring Dr. Sean Wise

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[ Amy Criss is a Social Media Intern with LIFT. You’ll find her posts on Twitter and on Instagram. This is her first blog post for us.
-hpm ]

Lead + Inspire. Fuel Talent. #WeAreYQQ Winter Party

How incredible.

On January 25, 2017 I was part of #WeAreYQQ Winter Party. This was a two-part fundraising event for Startup Comox Valley, hosted by LIFT. The first part happened at NIC’s Stan Hagen Theatre. The headliner: Dr. Sean Wise venture capitalist, university professor, entrepreneur guru, past Dragons Den Advisor, and Startup Canada Fellow. He was on Vancouver Island as part of a tour he’s doing of startup communities in Canada, organized by Startup Canada.

Part 1: Dr. Sean Wise at NIC

7PM: the show starts. Bob Wells, aka @ComoxValleyBob on Twitter, gave a quick intro about Startup Canada and Startup Comox Valley. Then Sean Wise took the stage.

Dr. Wise gave the room such motivation! The world of building a business has changed. We now know the steps to success. “If you don’t know how to do something – Google it.” If you really want to grow a business he offered the “100 Steps to Success” pathway. He invited everyone to hand him a business card so that he and his team can help Comox Valley entrepreneurs start their businesses right. “If you … would like more information, please visit us online (www.100Steps2Startup.com) or send us an email (sales@100Steps2Startup.com). We’d love to hear from you.”

He was so right: there is no better time than now to be your own boss, start you own wave. And if by chance the wave takes awhile or crashes, dust off your surf board and hit the next one! The time is now. The Internet has made anything available. Don’t be lazy, work hard!

Part 2: The After Party

Our next stop was Prime Chop House in Courtenay. Talk about a wave. They had the lounge prepared for a crew full of zest to arrive, but there were about 70 in the wave that arrived!

The atmosphere was fantastic! DJ Adil kept the vibes going with some awesome jams. Quickly after the group was settled, a few guest speaks by Leif Jason and Vivian Vaillant uplifted and motivated the gang even more. Throw in a couple networking games by Leanne Zdebiak-Eni and Annie L Danko, and boom! a room full of new friends exchanging names, numbers and businesses. 

One thing that Dr. Sean Wise emphasized for those who are just starting out their journey: Join your entrepreneur community, find a mentor. That is exactly what LIFT Comox Valley accomplished at this after party.

Being a LIFT Social Media Intern

I feel so incredibly lucky to have had #WeAreYQQ Winter Party as my first engagement with LIFT. I know friends who are involved. But I had no idea it was this big. To discover that there is a unique group of individuals whose common goal is to “LIFT” the local economy and support entrepreneurs is astounding.  

I’ll be reporting on lots more LIFT events over the coming weeks and months. Search for the #WeAreYQQ tag and you’ll find my posts, and posts about lots of makers, creatives, and entrepreneurs who are “making shift happen” in our communities.

Take a look at what’s coming up via the online events listings at https://liftstartup.wpengine.com/events/.
In the meantime: Think Bigger! Think Brighter. LIFT!

by Amy Criss
@amycriss88 on Twitter and Instagram

Giving the gift of LIFT

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I’m off to YEG Thursday to spend Christmas with Jenny and her family. A big change for me. I’ve been hosting a very full-on family Christmas Eve for over 15 years, and it’s been the high point of my year. So a change. Edmonton will be fun. Cold, but fun. I hope that you get to spend special time with family and friends. That’s what this season is all about for me.

Now: to business! Thanks to LIFT VIP Steve Morgan for suggesting I start with a bullet list of key points in my posts and emails. (LIFT VIPs are the people who sponsor, partner, and subscribe to what we’re doing with LIFT Comox Valley. Besides being called VIPs they get lots of benefits and perks. More on being a VIP here.) The key points:

  • Some gift ideas from LIFT Comox Valley: Event tickets and gift subscriptions. Practical. Fun. Super easy to add to a stocking.
  • Re-investing in our communities: We’re putting 20% of our subscriber income back into our communities in 2017. Send your referrals here and let’s get started!
  • Upcoming events in January and February.
  • Watch for typos etc. If you find one and let me know, you’re in to win a free workshop and/or a coffee/beer/wine date with me at Atlas Cafe or Gladstone Brewing (both of whom are LIFT Community Partners, by the way).

🎁 Giving the gift of LIFT

What do you give the person in your life who has enough stuff, who’s got lots of great ideas, who wants (needs!) to grow a business? A LIFT workshop or subscription is affordable and ripples through its way through your friends’ lives and into the community.

Let’s start with LIFT workshops and events. They’re fun. They’re super practical. They get people collaborating, sharing ideas and insights. They’re growing businesses – like Ivan’s Truffles, Lil Worker Safety Gear, Wags Doggy Bags, and more (34 this year alone!). Gifting an event ticket to your favourite creative or entrepreneur is an easy way to help them make shift happen with their business.

For someone who’s ready to grow their business, a LIFT subscription will be a big boost. With lots of marketing and business development perks and benefits (and discounts on Ivan’s Truffles – yum!), they’re full of value. Take a look.

Additional incentives for signing up in December (either yourself or a friend):

  • You’re in to win a short video with social media video star and Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce “Young Entrepreneur” nominee Kayla McDonald Video Productions.
  • You’ll have access to free LIFT VIP tickets for our January 25 #WeAreYQQ Winter Party with Startup Comox Valley (free to LIFT VIPs – sponsors, partners, subscribers – until December 31).
  • As a LIFT VIP, you get a 15% discount on the February 2017 Panacea Costa Rica Women’s Wellness Retreat, thanks to LIFT VIP Panacea Massage Therapy.

You can also gift the gift of LIFT by encouraging your entrepreneur friends to put their businesses “on deck.” We’re a supportive community, and we have an impact. Give your friends this link – http://j.mp/ONDECK – to get them “on deck” and on their way to growing their business.

🎁 Re-investing in our communities: Fundraising with LIFT

We recently launched a referral program. Every subscriber who successfully refers 5+ other businesses will get a Festive Bonus cheque next December for up to 20% of the value of these successful referrals.

But then I had a conversation with LIFT VIP Allyson Hamilton. A 20% commission wasn’t a big deal for her, she said. But what about using this as a way to fundraise for community groups?

On Allyson’s suggestion, we’ve now made it an easy for you to fundraise for your favourite community group: refer others to subscribe to LIFT. That means next December we can write a cheque to EDAS, YANA, the Comox Valley Land Trust, or whichever organisation you want to support. If you successfully refer five Ambassador subscribers that’s up to $200. If you successfully refer 10 Champion subscribers that’ll be $800 you’ve raised!

Your referrals are helping fund goodness in our community, growing businesses, and sustaining our LIFT initiative. That’s a win-win-win trifecta and I’m really looking forward to writing some big cheques December 2017. Help me get there by signing up and/or referring today!

🗓 What’s coming up in January and February?

Most months we’ll have a Show & Tell event and 1-2 BizOnDeck workshops. Pretty much every quarter we have a special event. Here’s the list of currently-scheduled events (watch this space for updates):

  • January 6: Show & Tell with Nazaneen Dizai, talking about her business, 50th Parallel PR, with a focus on her work with First Nations. Tickets here.
  • January 18: BizOnDeck with Annie Danko and Wayward Kin Apparel, and Paul Hansen and Local Photo Adventures. Tickets here.
  • January 25: #WeAreYQQ Winter Party with Dr. Sean Wise and DJ Adil, a fundraiser for Startup Comox Valley. Tickets here.
  • February 3: Show & Tell TBA
  • February 6: BizOnDeck workshop with Jabin Postal Films and TBA
  • February 15: LIFT BizOnDeck workshop with TBA
  • February 24: Starting and Running a Home-based Business with Dyan Spink. Tickets here.

Finally, thanks – and best wishes for the season!

We’re having an impact – thanks to your interest and support. 34 businesses and projects have been “on deck” in 2016. Four entrepreneurs demonstrated their smarts at our Show & Tell events. Eight entrepreneurs pitched for $5000 in prizes PitchFest. We raised well over $3000 in cash and services to support EDAS at Festive Cheer. We’ve got almost 70 businesses engaged in our community. A number of them have been recognised via their nominations for various Community Awards thanks to the Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce’s efforts. People like Dave and Andrea at Wayward Distillation House, Karen McKinnon of McKinnon Photography, Kayla McDonald of Kayla McDonald Video Productions, and Sandra Viney and Trent McIntyre of Atlas Cafe. Anyone else? Please let me know. I feel very proud to be working with these folks.

Let’s keep this up. Let’s make 2017 the year when LIFT businesses really make shift happen in our region!

In the meantime, for a couple of weeks at least, I’m going to spend time with friends and family, taking some much-needed walks in the woods. I wish the same for you during this beautiful season.

🎄 Cheers,

hpm
@hanspetermeyer on Twitter

The #WeAreYQQ brand: From the Comox Valley and proud of it!

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Where is here? Here is the Comox Valley. Who is here? Talent.

On July 20-22, 2016 the Comox Valley Art Gallery hosted the Where is Here? symposium. The symposium focussed on the issue of defining where we are, and who “we” are in this place. CVAG’s Sharon Karsten says this is an important part of community economic development. I agree. That’s why branding our emerging talent economy is so important: because our individual talents (in business, the arts, and more) are the building blocks for the emerging economy that will take us beyond our current economic challenges.

Branding talent economies

How do we brand talent economies? Here’s an example from Vancouver. WeAreYVR was launched several years ago to brand and map Vancouver’s emerging tech talent sector. I like the WeAreYVR example. It’s strong. It provokes curiosity. It’s inclusive. It’s geo-locatable, and distinct.

Following suit, I created #WeAreYQQ to brand our Comox Valley talent economy. #WeAreYQQ  tells the world, “From the Comox Valley and proud of it!” It’s a tool, generated to serve our talent economy. Here’s how it works.

Provocative / clickable

Love them or hate them, hashtags are provocative. They make people stop and think. Using a hashtag also means the brand is searchable (clickable) on most social networks, making it easy to see who’s doing what. #WeAreYQQ also raises questions like: Who is “we?” What is “YQQ?”

Inclusive

As a search term, #WeAreYQQ can’t belong to any one person, business, or agency. It belongs to everyone who uses it. The “we” of #WeAreYQQ is anyone who wants to use the brand to attach to their work – or to the work of people and organizations who are doing good stuff in our region. I routinely tag people doing good stuff with the phrase “#WeAreYQQ ★.” It’s my way of saying “heroes of the Comox Valley” – but in a concise, branded, and collaborative way that works well on social media.

Geo-locatable and distinct

#WeAreYQQ uses the IATA code for Comox Airport (YQQ). IATA codes are often used by businesses and organizations in other locales because they’re short, distinct markers that cannot be confused with other locales. (For example, the “CV” brand is great for locals. For the rest of the world, the people we’re branding for, it most often means “curriculum vitae” – or more close to home, Cowichan Valley.) IATA codes only point to distinct locales. Just as WeAreYVR = Vancouver and WeAreYEG = Edmonton, WeAreYQQ = Comox Valley.

Is it working?

Search via Google, Twitter, Facebook – and especially Instagram. #WeAreYQQ is being used by all manner of creatives and entrepreneurs – painters, musicians, fish charter operators, bakeries, blacksmiths, and more. They’re using #WeAreYQQ to brand what they’re doing in and beyond the Comox Valley. By using it, they’re inviting others to click through to discover a community of creatives and entrepreneurs in the Comox Valley.

Collaboration and competition

Generating a talent economy is about collaboration. It’s also about competition. We compete with other regions endowed with natural and cultural amenities, relatively “affordable” housing, etc. Having a brand helps differentiate us. It also shows that we’re serious about supporting our talent economy.

How we provide support is by growing and sustaining trust and grassroots collaboration. This is already part of the culture of some organizations and businesses in the Comox Valley. Elevate the Arts Festival is one of my favourite examples. Having an inclusive brand like #WeAreYQQ makes collaboration easier. Here’s what I mean:

Whenever anyone uses the #WeAreYQQ tag they are identifying with and amplifying our talent economy. By following, retweeting, commenting on, and reposting #WeAreYQQ stories – in any media – people are extending the impact of the brand, and the reach or visibility of our Comox Valley talent economy. When we support businesses, organizations, and artists that are self-identifying with our Comox Valley talent economy, we are directly helping to grow the local talent economy.

Growing our talent economy

Macro level support from agencies and institutions is a positive when it comes to growing a talent economy, and it’s great to see movement after the pot got stirred a couple of summers back. Our small tech talent pool now is on the radar. But our talent pool is much larger than our tech sector, and the evidence of decades of community economic development, and more recent examples of “startup communities,” is that what’s most important is an abundance of diverse grassroots, micro-level activities – across all sectors. For the Comox Valley, that means we need to grow our capacity to support entrepreneurs in the arts and in food, big time.

At LIFT Comox Valley (formerly the #WeAreYQQ Project) we launched the #WeAreYQQ brand as a tool for grassroots creatives and entrepreneurs to use. It’s your brand, not ours. You are the people creating the home-grown economy reflecting the values and aspirations of the people who live here. By using the brand you’re making this place – this “here” – visible as an emerging talent-driven economy. Let us know how we can help. That’s what LIFT Comox Valley is all about: Leading, Inspiring, and Fuelling Talent to grow a new economy in the Comox Valley.

Let’s make this shift happen!

hpm
for LIFT Comox Valley

@WeAreYQQ on Twitter

Kitty asks HPM: What is the goal of the #WeAreYQQ / LIFT Project?

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Odd Rockers is Kitty the barber’s exploration of musical oddities and obsessions, aired weekly on 98.9 The GOAT radio. She also interviews local personalities. In June she interviewed me, Hans Peter Meyer (aka HPM), lead of the #WeAreYQQ / LIFT Project. Among other things, Kitty asked me about the “goal” of this project. Tell me what you think of these goals.

FMI

About Odd Rockers? Follow Kitty on Twitter at @oddrockers.

About 98.9 The GOAT? As well as hosting Odd Rockers, they’re a #WeAreYQQ / LIFT Project Solution Sponsor. Listen for regular updates and interviews with me – HPM – at 98.9FM in the Comox Valley region. Follow “the Goat” on Twitter at @989theGOAT.

hpm
for Team #WeAreYQQ and the LIFT Project
@WeAreYQQ on Twitter

LIFT: Leading, Inspiring, and Fueling Talent in business, the arts, and more! 

We’re building an entrepreneurial culture in the Comox Valley. Join us this summer and win! You’ll get perks that’ll grow your business. Sign up here

What’s up in May! Lotsa shift

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April was fun! May looks even better – because even more Comox Valley entrepreneurs and business owners are getting on board the collaboration train. That means more businesses attending workshops and events, more business people like you putting your smarts to work to help other create success – at the same as they’re upgrading their path to success. It’s not about competing with each other to grow this Comox Valley economy; it’s about finding ways we can support each other to think BIGger about our markets and opportunities.

What’s up for May?


We’re still focused on helping Matthew Black and Anotiv Team in their bid to represent Canada and the Comox Valley at Global Finals in Knoxville. We raised money in April, and we’ll keep doing that in May. We’re committing 50% of the first month from every new Champion subscriber to this bid. There are more good reasons to become a #WeAreYQQ Champion, but I think this is the coolest. Join us here.

We’re also putting the Anotiv Team “on deck” today, Monday May 2 to help them get more exposure, more support in their bid to represent our region. Sharing the bill is Luciano Rollin and Aero Art Screen Printing. Want to help business grow? We’ve still got a couple of seats. Sign up now.

On May 9 it’s the third in Nazaneen Dizai’s Social Media for Professionals and Business series, this time focused on Pinterest. Only 5 seats left. Register here.

Note: If you’re a #WeAreYQQ Champion you get one workshop or event no charge per month, but you’ll have to register early as there are a limited number of seats for all these events.

May 18 we’re going to be workshopping two more Comox Valley businesses. More details coming soon, but for now know that local food entrepreneur Nancy Farey and Dr. David Milanovich are wanting to grow their businesses BIGger – and you can help make that happen.

May 27 it’s the second #WeAreYQQ lunch time Show & Tell at the White Whale. This time we’ve got Leif Jason showing what he does with SEO and online marketing. Details and registration coming soon on our events page..

June 1 we’re doing our first ever collaboration with the creative entrepreneurs at CVCollective. This is part of the Elevate the Arts Festival that rocks downtown Courtenay June 1-4. CVC will lead with Comox Valley Voices: a panel of local creatives and entrepreneurs who are living local while serving bigger markets. (You may have noticed a theme for us at Team #WeAreYQQ; we like it when people “punch above their weight” – and we want to help make that shift happen!) We’ll follow Comox Valley Voices with another #WeAreYQQ After Party – at Gladstone Brewing. We’re ticketing these events “by donation,” all proceeds going to feed more Elevate the Arts community economic development activities. Fun! FMI about Elevate the Arts Festival see elevatethearts.com


Work locally, think BIGger!

About this theme… One of my mentors, Jayesh Parmar, is working hard on creating YVR’s next billion dollar company with Picatic. You can read about that here. That’s cool, and I’m doing my small part on the Picatic team to make that shift happen.

I love working with Jay. But I don’t have that kind of ambition or energy. However, I do take his advice to heart: Whatever you’re doing, think BIGger! If you think the Comox Valley is your market, think Vancouver Island. If Vancouver Island is your market, think BC. If BC is your market, think Canada, North America, the world. And, at the same time, respect and feed your community, the businesses that feed your local economy.

The #WeAreYQQ Project is about helping Comox Valley businesses get better and bigger at what we’re doing. Our focus: grassroots collaborations, punching above our weight. Your business is an important part of the mix. Sign up for a workshop or event. Join us as a #WeAreYQQ Champion (cool and useful perks!). Whatever. We’re growing businesses, making shift happen, and you’re invited to play.

C’mon peeps: Let’s get this shift done!

hpm

ps. A reminder: we’re dedicating 50% of first month subscriptions from every new subscriber in May to helping Anotiv Team get to Global Finals. The first 30 new subscribers get a $10 gift card to Atlas Cafe, and you’re entered to win new subscriber prizes – like a $100 gift card to Atlas Cafe or a $400-700 travel voucher for two from Pacific Coastal Airlines. It’s a good time to join the team!

pps. We get to do because of support from some great Comox Valley businesses and individuals. See the (always growing) list of #WeAreYQQ Solution Sponsors, Community Partners, Champions, and Ambassadors below.

SOLUTION SPONSORS
Comox Valley Record, Finneron Hyundai, hanspetermeyer.com, Mastermynde Strategy, Sure Copy Courtenay – and now 98.9 The GOAT!

COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Atlas Cafe, Hansen & Hansen Painting, Island Word, My Tech Guys, Ron Pogue Photography, McKinnon Photography

CHAMPIONS & AMBASSADORS
Eatmore Sprouts, Sonya Marie Jenssen, David Frisch, Red Toque Creative, Lil Worker Safety Gear, Jace Pierson, Mike Templeton, Steve Morgan, Lucky Village Enterprises, Ivan’s Truffles, Studio IPF, Kayla McDonald Productions, Modern Rocket Media, Rattan Plus Home & Patio, Ben-zion Eni, Brooke Ferguson, Pacific Coastal Airlines, Speedibin Composters, Aero Art, Ansley and Company, and John Bonner Photography.

Is talent the future of business in the Comox Valley?

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IMG_5202

Two items in this post about the Comox Valley’s economy. First item: In January the Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce hosted the “Eyes on the Future” luncheon. MNP Senior Economist Susan Mowbray referenced three growth opportunities for the Comox Valley. Two were old school (recreation, retirement services). The third: the “knowledge sector.”

Item two: Mowbray said the Comox Valley is growing faster than anticipated. But we’re getting older. And research by the Comox Valley Social Planning Society says we lost about 200 young families last year. Our 3Rs economy (retail, retirement, recreation) isn’t generating the jobs and incomes to hold young families.

Beyond a cottage economy

The Comox Valley has been attracting a lot of smart, creative people for a long time. They’re the keys to any knowledge sector we may eventually create.

Many of us in this talent pool have created thriving businesses. The problem is that most of the businesses we’ve created are what I call “cottage businesses.” Take me for example. My business supports me and my family (now just a cat and a few birds in the yard). But I’m not employing any of my kids (caveat: I do hire my daughter to do contract design work, but that’s hardly going to provide a living for her). I’m not hiring the young talent that’s moving into the Valley. And I see my cottage business mirrored all over the Valley. Nice lifestyle. Not much of a job generator. Still, I’m part of the “knowledge sector.” We do have a knowledge industry here in the Comox Valley. Unfortunately, most of us in are content to tend to our cottage businesses, This is not enough. Our bona fide knowledge sector is not big enough to attract or retain significant numbers of young people. Yet.

We used to be hewers of wood and fishers of fish. Our resources were an endless sea of trees and finny creatures. We thought. We depleted those resources, and we’ve built a 3Rs replacement. It’s not. My belief is that we have what it takes for a new economy, built on knowledge. But for a knowledge industry to grow and thrive, we need to cultivate our new “greatest resource” – our local talent pool. That means, we need to start investing in our creatives and entrepreneurs.

IMG_5333
That’s Sonya Marie Jenssen, an international water expert from Norway, and Olya Grab, a NIC business student from the Ukraine. They’re at the #WeAreYQQ Winter Launch Party. Sonya sponsored a student.That student turned out to be Olya.These are young talents being attracted to the Comox Valley. What are we doing to nourish these talents, to help them flourish here?

Imagining a talent-driven economy (hint: it takes a community)

In 2015, with the help of the Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce and a number of local businesses, I launched the #WeAreYQQ Project. We hosted public events, and lots of workshops. The most exciting part? To see that, a year later, it’s actually working. We’re growing entrepreneurs and startup businesses.

How? By emphasizing collaboration and common interest. Mutual aid for entrepreneurs. Sharing of information – and excitement.

It’s not new. And we didn’t invent it. Some things we thought we invented. Somethings we did invent. But the ethos of sharing and collaboration is endemic to what are called “startup communities.” Entrepreneurs benefit from being part of a supportive community – one that, ironically, helps us become more competitive by emphasizing collaboration.

Entrepreneur take risks. Having a community of support makes it easier to live with the “fail fast, learn fast” attitude it takes to succeed. A community that supports experimentation helps us to think BIGger. And thinking – and doing! – BIGger is very important if we’re to get past the problem of the 3R economy in the Comox Valley. (BTW thanks to Jayesh Parmar, CEO of Picatic and entrepreneur enthusiast for the “think BIGger” thing – it works!)

Punching above our weight

Mowbray is very interested in what we’re up to. She’s not alone. Collaboration is seen by many as the key to growing small economies and sectors. It’s what one of our 2015 speakers, Boris Mann, identified as a way that we, as small businesses and as a small community, could “punch above our weight.” By teaming up. Sharing. Mutual aid.

We’ll keep doing what’s working – hosting collaborative business development and marketing workshops. We’ll keep learning from other startup communities, fostering community and collaboration. And, we’ll keep trying new things as we play our part in making shift happen, a shift towards a talent-driven, or knowledge-based, economy. And yes, we’ll throw a few parties along the way. Because parties are important ways to get to know who we really are. It’s not all about work. Especially in a beautiful place like the Comox Valley.

If you’ve got a business you want to grow in the Comox Valley, you’re invited to join us. See weareyqq.ca/events for upcoming workshops and events. The only requirement? A willingness to be part of the solution – and an ethos of sharing your knowledge to help grow our entrepreneurial community.

FMI about what we’re up to, see makingshifthappencomoxvalley.ca or contact me directly.

hpm
@hanspetermeyer on Twitter

ps. If you’re interested in what we’re up to, join the mailing list here. If you really like what we’re doing, join us as a Champion or Ambassador here. This is a grassroots initiative supported by Comox Valley business people who want to see our economy and our community thrive. We’re making shift happen, and we invite you to be part of the fun!