Calgary Business Podcast

In a rare in person podcast session, I traveled to the storage warehouse of Olympia ATM to chat with President, Jim Wilson and Account Manager, Cam McIntosh.  There is a lot to unpack in this episode as we talked “all things cash” and ATM’s (or automated teller machines). In no particular order we bantered about: Foreign exchange options (USD, Mexican PESO, EUROs) with ATM’s situated at Alberta Motor Association (AMA) to correspond with travel bookings One of the original ATM machines: the “Triton 9600” Cryptocurrency and Repairs & maintenance due to “bad” cash being inserted into the ATMs (tape, staples, greasy hands Casinos and VLTs (video lottery terminals) Sensor technology inside the ATM’s used to accept or reject the bills AGLC this is the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission (AGLC) is an agency of the government of Alberta §§§ “Cash is King” is a common expression that we brought up during our discussion.  Google and Wikipedia revealed: “...the origin of ‘cash i

This is the 4th episode of the Crypto Market update with Mark Magliocco, co-founder of Crypto528 DAO, covering the week of 22 August to 28 August 2022.   CAUTIONARY NOTE: **** All discussions in this episode are for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services **** §§§ Episode 4 focused on several articles featured in the “Crypto Press” including: 1st | MakerDAO and $100m loan to Huntingdon Valley Bank in Philadelphia | Blockworks article:  https://bit.ly/3e6aQEc 2nd | Maker DAO “Emergency Shutdown” measures | The Defiant article:  https://bit.ly/3ctueea 3rd | “Missing Persons” on the blockchain | Tweet from “@watcherGuru”:  https://bit.ly/3QZ5mKi 4th | “Binance users and regulatory fra

This is the fourth (4th) episode of “Crypto Coach”, a series dedicated to providing practical guidance on navigating the emerging technologies surrounding blockchain, crypto currency, digital assets and Web 3.0 This episode primarily focused on “What is Blockchain?”. §§§ To learn more about the Crypto528 DAO team, in which both Mark and Debbie are co-founders, click on one or more of the following links: Deborah (Akiara) Mamuzo LinkedIn profile | https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-akiara-ab55051a8/ Instagram | @mamuzzo_ Twitter | @mamuzzo_ §§§ Mark Magliocco LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-magliocco-51185b69/ Twitter | @Nomadicsesh §§§ CRYPTO528 DAO Website | https://crypto528.com LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/company/84091402 Twitter | @crypto528DAO Instagram | @crypto528DAO Facebook | @crypto528DAO §§§ web3 | Web 3.0 | Metaverse | Innovation | Technology | Marketplace Community | DAO | Decentralized Assets | Decentralized Finance | Decentralized Autonomous Organization | Digital

This is the 3rd episode of the Crypto Market update with Mark Magliocco covering the week of 8 August to 21 August 2022.  All discussions in this episode are for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services §§ This session was quite heavy with discussions around: 1st | The tweet Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance (or “CZ” as he is known on Twitter).  The tweet in question was “They are silently in Crypto” and the screen shot from the article “Top 100 Public Companies Investing in Blockchain & Crypto Companies” | Click on the link here to access the full article:  https://bit.ly/3AaDThw § 2nd | Blackrock and their investment in Circle, the creator of the stable coin, USD Coin or USDC.  Giv

In this episode,  Justin Fox, the CEO and Founder of Backers Network Inc., introduces new platform, a regulated portal allowing startups and small-businesses to raise funding from both accredited and non-accredited investors by utilizing the crowd-funding regulations issued by the Ontario Securities Commission and affiliated commissions across Canada. §§§ Some highlights of our discussion included: 1st |  30-second and 3-minute introduction to the Backers network 2nd | Regulatory framework.  The primary guidance in Canada stems from National Instrument 45-110 “Start-up Crowdfunding Registration and Prospectus Exemptions” as issued by the Ontario Securities Commission. The Ontario Securities Act and Regulation requirements, and other policies and instruments can be found on the OSC’s website at www.osc.gov.on.ca 3rd | Issuers.  These are the employer and non-employer businesses across Canada that could potential benefit from the Backers platform.  According to a Statistics Canada

This is the 6th episode in the “Errol’s Eye On” series dedicated to Errol Vas providing practical marketing and business advice to startups, small to medium-sized enterprises and large multi-national corporations. §§§ Today, Errol narrowed in on the use of Linkedin by corporations (and individuals) who are simply using it as an advertising platform or “Corporate Foghorn”.  Focused on me or us: “This is what we are doing!” Errol referred to employees being “Wi-Fi extenders” for their companies rather than seeking to add value to others. Errol recommends that companies should treat LinkedIn as an “Online corporate networking event” and find a way to add value to others.  This is similar to the principles outlined in the Dale Carnegie book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People” Errol provided an example of a company, Seismic, and its employees that never just advertise the company in their posts.  They genuinely engage and provide value to others in each and every post.  Since Seismic i

This episode follows on from Calgary Business Podcast episode 347 on 28 July 2022, whereby  Sean Crump introduced listeners to his accident that left him a quadriplegic at the age of 19.  In this episode, Sean went into great detail around the origin story of his business, Included by Design. Key companies and relevant links discussed in this episode include: City of Calgary, Advisory Committee on Accessibility.  Sean served on the sub-committee “Access Design Committee” initially as a “Contributor”; eventually he moved to working on a similar committee at the Canadian Federal level | Follow this link to learn more about the City of Calgary work in this area: https://bit.ly/3zXTEZ0 TedTalk. On 4 October  2021, Sean was a guest speaker at the TedX YYC event under the title “You’re Only Temporarily-Able Bodied” | click on this link: https://bit.ly/3zVOA7i Thin Air Labs.  Sean and his team are working with Thin Air Labs to help scale the Included by Design platform.  As subscrib

This is the 3rd episode with an entrepreneur from the DriverSeat Inc franchise group.  The first was Rahul Kumar, franchise owner of Driverseat Calgary (episode 120 on 14 April 2020); the second was with Brian Bazely, the CEO and co-founder of DriverSeat Inc. based out of Kitchener, Ontario (episode 123 on 15 April 2020 ) Nasir Awan is the franchise owner of Driverseat Ottawa and as of recording this podcast, he continues to receive training and guidance for operating  his recently obtained franchise operation.  Given his entrepreneurial background in travel and tourism and the restaurant industry, it will not be long before Nasir is featured in a local newspaper for his innovative ideas and positive contribution to the Ottawa community. There is an open invitation for Nasir to re-join the podcast in the future, particularly after he has had a chance to “move out of the passenger seat” and “explore” creative ways to share his business “recipes” with customers in the capital region. §§§ To lea

I was joined on this episode by long time TEC chair, Doug Bouey and we focused on his book, “Fixing Fractures: Restoring Shattered Relations in Business and In Life”.  As Doug so correctly highlighted during our chat, “…virtually everyone will be directly impacted by such relationship fractures in both their personal and work lives…” Doug took inspiration to write this book from a presentation made by John Konstanturos, a former police supervisor that developed a methodology around dispute resolution stemming from his experience with managing riots in the streets of Los Angeles. Combining his many years working with senior executives from businesses across Canada and the United States, Doug compiled this book to provide a methodology to mend and rebuild trust in broken relationships that many deemed unrepairable. §§§ To learn more about Doug and his book, click on one or more of the following links: Doug Bouey on LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougbouey/ Website | https://dougbouey.com Amazon |

This is the 2nd crypto market update by the team at Crypto528, a web3 startup that is building a Crypto DAO Republik. This market update was provided by Crypto528 co-founder, Mark Magliocco. §§§ The key items discussed during this update included: 1st | Tornado Cash.  US Treasury blacklist due to excessive bad actors Link to CNBC article | https://cnb.cx/3dyAbq4 Link to The Hill article | https://bit.ly/3AoJpOZ § 2nd | Spammers vs Scammers?  With the increased activity of the Crypto528 account on Twitter, there are daily direct messages from individuals seeking to “unlock” their USDT with our assistance.  They even go as far as providing their private keys to their crypto wallet and full details of their 20-word recovery phrase.   Imagine how productive these individuals would be if they focused their energy and effort on building a real business? § 3rd | Bitcoin technical trading analysis. Once again, Mark provided a brief summary of the technical trading analysis available for

This is the third (3rd) episode of “Crypto Coach”, a series dedicated to providing practical guidance on navigating the emerging technologies surrounding blockchain, crypto currency, digital assets and Web 3.0 §§§ In this episode, Debbie shares her own story of not only paying for courses to learn about blockchain and crypto currencies, but also devoting significant time and effort to conduct her own research through reading books and other literature available on-line from: Binance Academy | https://academy.binance.com/en Coinbase | https://www.coinbase.com/learn Ethereum Foundation | https://ethereum.org/en/foundation/ This episode also featured two snippets from an interview Debbie had in 2021 with a technical mobile phone engineer while in Kingston, Jamaica. §§§ To learn more about the Crypto Coach – aka Debbie Mamuzo – and her work with the Crypto528 DAO team, click on one or more of the following links: Deborah (Akiara) Mamuzo LinkedIn profile | https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-akiara-ab55051a8/

This is the 1st crypto market update by the team at Crypto528, a web3 startup that is building a Crypto DAO Republik. This market update was provided by Crypto528 co-founder, Mark Magliocco. §§§ The key items discussed during this update included: 1st | The Nomad Bridge hack with links to several articles mentioned during the episode: Nomad Cross-Chain Bridge hack (Bitcoin.com, 3 August 2022) | https://bit.ly/3zHnLni Ronin Network Hack (BBC News, 30 March 2022) | https://bbc.in/3P1cR1z Poly Network Attack (CNBC, 17 August 2021) | https://cnb.cx/3Q9Ig31 §§§ 2nd | Layoffs at Coinbase.  Some relevant links related to Coinbase, specifically, and layoffs across various crypto companies: Coinbase Layoffs (NY Times, 5 August 2022) | https://nyti.ms/3p4O3uZ| Crypto Layoffs (Coindesk, 1 August 2022) | https://bit.ly/3diKNcU §§§ 3rd | Bitcoin technical trading analysis.  Mark provided a brief summary of the technical trading analysis available for free from Yahoo Finance.  This summary focused on

This is the 2nd episode of “All Psyched Up About”, a series dedicated to the work of clinical psychologist, Dan McMillan, whereby he will seek to highlight a variety of issues and topics around mental health. In episode 2, Daniel focuses on the role core emotions play in our day to day interactions with others and provides some ideas on how we can take responsibility to notice such emotions, managing our reactions to core and secondary emotions and seeking to express how such emotions make us feel. §§§ To learn more about Daniel McMillan and his work, click on one or more of the following links: Daniel McMillan LinkedIn profile | https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-mcmillan-946775aa/ Assured Psychology Website | https://www.assuredpsychology.com Facebook | @assuredpsych or https://www.facebook.com/assuredpsych/ Instagram | @assuredpsychology §§§ Mental Health | Psychology | Psychologist | Health Clinic | Counselling | Counseling | Mental Well Being | Therapy | Community Support | Shame | Compassion | Menta

This is the 5th episode of “Errol’s Eye on”, a series dedicated to Errol Vas providing practical marketing and business advice to startups, small to medium-sized enterprises and large multi-national corporations. §§§ Errol stresses the importance of building trust for companies that conduct business on-line and he highlighted 4 ways in which such trust can be built: 1st | “Trust indicators” – include forming or fostering partnerships with other credible parties 2nd | “SEO” – an expansion of the “Search Engine Optimization” approach by seeking to get mentions in 3rd party publications 3rd | Podcasts – hosting or being a guest. A quick Google search reveals that in 2020, there were 850,000 active podcasts 4th | Social Media – LinkedIn is best for “Business-focused” (B2B) transactions. Finally, Errol recommended Buzz Sumo for tracking “what others are saying about” you or your product / service on the internet | https://buzzsumo.com §§§ To learn more about Errol Vas and his work, click on one or more of the fo

It is not often that an introduction via email will literally blow me away.  This is one of those occasions!  I had no idea what to expect prior to my introductory chat with Sean Crump and I suspect most of my listeners will feel the same way after listening to the incredible back story to Sean’s business, “Included by Design”. Sean shared an inspiring and heart felt story around becoming a quadriplegic at the age of 19 while on a camping trip in May 2004.  Not only did Sean manage to overcome the mental challenges faced with being bound in a wheelchair and being fully dependent upon others, he managed to persevere and succeed in the startup business world -- not once but twice!!  That success provides a terrific backdrop to a new podcast series titled “A Step Forward”.  Stay tuned! §§§ To learn more about Sean and his work to improve the accessibility for the disabled in all aspects of their lives, click on one or more of the links below: §§§ Sean Crump on LinkedIn | https://www.link

This is the second episode of “Crypto Coach”, a series dedicated to providing practical guidance on navigating the emerging technologies surrounding blockchain, crypto currency, digital assets and Web 3.0 In this episode, the primary recommendation is for newcomers (or “Noobies” or “Noobs”) to turn to the “Google of Crypto” otherwise known as “CoinMarketCap.com”. With over 20,000 coins (tokens) available on the public market and 500 exchanges (centralized and decentralized) in which such coins trade, it can be overwhelming for anyone – most importantly for that “NOOB” that enters crypto for the first time when they get a “BUY” recommendation from a friend or neighbor. Thanks Crypto Coach, for a most valuable resource! Click on this link to get you started in your research: https://coinmarketcap.com §§§ To learn more about the Crypto Coach – aka Debbie Mamuzo – and her work with the Crypto528 DAO team, click on one or more of the following links: Deborah (Akiara) Mamuzo LinkedIn profile | https://www.linked

This is the second episode of a new series titled “Judith’s Journals On” whereby Judith Virag, the CEO and founder of Clean Club Calgary, will seek to share her practical advice and suggestions around managing a small business. Episode 2 is focused on Talent Management and is a direct extension of the topic of Customer Reviews from episode 1 (released on 8 July 2022). Digging deep into Judith’s Journals revealed her thoughts on 7 key components to Talent Management: 1 | Strategic Employee Planning 2 | Talent acquisition and retention 3 | Performance Management 4 | Learning and Motivation 5 | Compensations 6 | Career development 7 |  Succession Planning §§§ The tech tools used by Judith and her team to manage the Clean Club Calgary talent include: Hiring – Ziprecruiter (https://www.ziprecruiter.com) and Indeed (https://ca.indeed.com) Onboarding staff – Backcheck.net (http://www.backcheck.net/authenticate/) Payroll – Quickbooks (https://quickbooks.intuit.com) Performance management  -  Bamboo H

This is the first episode of “Crypto Coach”, a new series dedicated to providing practical guidance on navigating the emerging technologies surrounding blockchain, crypto currency, digital assets and Web 3.0 To learn more about the Crypto Coach – AKA Debbie Mamuzo – and her work with the Crypto528 DAO team, click on one or more of the following links: §§§ Deborah (Akiara) Mamuzo LinkedIn profile | https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-akiara-ab55051a8/ Instagram | @mamuzzo_ Twitter | @mamuzzo_ §§§ CRYPTO528 DAO Website | https://crypto528.com LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/company/84091402 Twitter | @crypto528DAO Instagram | @crypto528DAO Facebook | @crypto528DAO §§§ web3 | Web 3.0 | Metaverse | Innovation | Technology | Marketplace Community | DAO | Decentralized Assets | Decentralized Finance | Decentralized Autonomous Organization | Digital Assets Crypto Assets | Blockchain | Token Economy | Digital Business | Business transformation | Future Ready | New Economy | Disruption --- Send in a voice

This is the 4th episode of “Errol’s Eye on”, a series dedicated to Errol Vas providing practical marketing and business advice to startups, small to medium-sized enterprises and large multi-national corporations. §§§ Episode 4 of "Errol's Eye On" focused on "Offloading cognition: how using it can keep you ahead in business management and in life".  Errol provided his eye on: What is cognitive offloading? Benefits and disadvantages of cognitive offloading How to use it in both your personal and business life Examples of technological tools to help with cognitive offloading §§§ The following companies were mentioned during this episode: Loom | https://www.loom.com Monday.com | https://monday.com HubSpot | https://www.hubspot.com §§§ To learn more about Errol Vas and his work, click on one or more of the following links: Errol Vas Business Website | https://errolvas.com Errol Vas Business LinkedIn profile | https://www.linkedin.com/company/errol-vas-com/ Errol Vas Personal LinkedIn profile | http

This is the first episode of a new series titled “Judith’s Journals On” whereby Judith Virag, the CEO and founder of Clean Club Calgary,  will seek to share her practical advice and suggestions around managing a small business.  In fact, the focus on Customer Reviews outlined suggestions that could apply to virtually every small business, including: Importance of focusing on core values Try for volume (many reviews) Use of Google reviews in combination with an automation software tool Use of Slack to share customer reviews with staff Expect that you WILL get negative reviews When it comes to negative reviews, “Don’t make excuses; accept responsibility” To find out more about Judith Virag and her business, Clean Club Calgary, click on one or more of the links below: §§§ Clean Club Calgary Website | https://www.cleanclubcalgary.com/ Instagram | @cleanclubcalgary Facebook | @cleanclubcalgary or via this link: https://www.facebook.com/cleanclubcalgary §§§ Judith Virag on LInkedIn | http