Jeffery:
Well, Jade, just like we do in this fashion, we just like to jump right in and, and just kind of keep going. Right. So, I want to thank you for joining us. Pretty excited to chat with you today because so much of what you guys are doing in in the Alberta space is really kind of how the rest of the world really needs to look at how to work with and engage with startups in that early community. And it really uh, sits home with us well, because these are the kinds of things that we’re working on, so maybe to start off, we can get you to give us a little bit more of a background from your beginnings, where you came from, what you’ve been up to, what you’re doing today, and then kind of looking at where you’re going and then if you can share one thing about you that nobody would know.

Jade:
Well, good question. And uh, and I really excited to be here, Jeffrey, thanks for having me. And um, I mean, you know, we connected via linkedin and I think you and I are both kind of social media networking, tycoon, typhoons. So, uh, I’m glad we were able to connect and, and, and I agree with you and I guess I always tell people I’m just a small town cool guy that kind of, uh, I don’t even know how I got here and my journeys all over the map. But Um, I was always in sales and I was always a really good sales rep and I had a chance to become an entrepreneur. 15 or so years ago with my partners. Um, we purchased the rights to Nathan’s famous hot dogs in Canada, grew up to a brand exited it.

And since then I’ve been helping small businesses grow scale and exit through a purpose before profit mode. That really focuses on companies scaling, growing exiting, but not focusing on how much they have to pay you. So we really believe in that purpose before profit. And um, and then again, it really hits close to home and I’ve seen too many people getting taken advantage of.

So that, that is something that we’re really passionate about and, and uh, and it is working here in the Alberta ecosystem and I guess the one thing hmm that people really don’t know about me is I swam escape from Alcatraz.

Jeffery:
Say that again?

Jade:
I swam escape from Alcatraz. Yeah, I jump in, jump in, swim around the island. Come on back. Didn’t get eaten by a great white. So I’m here to tell the story still.

Jeffery:
So you swam around the island, you didn’t actually swim to the mainland from there, did you?

Jade:
You, there’s two way to, uh, when you jump off at the island and then you swim back and the other one is where you go start and go around and then finish back on land. So.

Jeffery:
Okay so how did it? That sounds pretty exciting. I need to explore this. I haven’t been to the Alcatraz but my brother did go and found it pretty fascinating. I had no idea you could swim from Alcatraz I guess back to mainland. Is that the idea?

Jade:
Yeah. Yeah it was actually it was — like all good ideas, it started with a few whiskeys and uh we ended up having to lie through our teeth. I don’t condone about lying but we couldn’t find anybody. We needed a US Open water swimming association number and couldn’t find it. And then found a private club in San Fran.

And he said yeah yeah well as long as you pay your 150 bucks and just send me the last five races you swam in and I don’t know you know I’m at the lake, I swim in our lake and and I just picked five lakes in Saskatchewan and wrote open behind him and he accepted our application and away we went.

Jeffery:
That’s awesome. How long did it take?

Jade:
Well yeah, you thought it would take long. But literally it was like from the island to the that that time was 33 minutes. Like I just sat there and floated and took my time and relaxed and backstroke and it was pretty easy swim. They got away

Jeffery:
All the documentaries, they always made it out like this was the most worst swim in the world. The waves were huge, the sharks would get you. There’s no way anybody would ever try to escape and you’re like floating down lazy river with a beer on your stomach, getting to the other end and you’re like, I don’t know what they’re talking about.

Jade:
Yeah, they got away. There’s no doubt in my mind after watching that. I wasn’t swimming for my life either or freedom.

Jeffery:
And I feel like I’ve been totally taken on this whole thing. I’m like, I can’t believe they made it. These guys are amazing. Meanwhile 10 minutes swimming, it was only knee deep water.

Jade:
Yeah, we were yeah, we jumped off, you know, we’re we were done by breakfast time and sitting there and having breakfast in the bay and by 8 A. M.

Jeffery:
That’s amazing. Now I’ve got a good story to tell everybody that this is they were all making it up. Uh It was all the movies that just made you feel like it was crazy.

Jade:
Absolutely

Jeffery:
unbelievable. I feel like I honestly, I feel like I’ve been lying to my whole life. Geez. Oh good. Uh so I wanted to touch base a little bit, I guess on when you were, when you bought the hot dogs and you really built this brand up.

I really find that a lot of things that we do in our past really define what we do in our future and I’d love to learn a bit more about how Nathan’s one when you started this, what got you involved? How did you find out about Nathan’s and what got you in behind the brand? And then when you guys started to build this up, was there a few things that you guys had the hurdles that you had to get through in order to really make this brand stand out and then what were those learnings that you were able to take that and say, you know what, we did such a good job here and I love this, interacting with early stage in this whole space and it kind of just help perpetuate you into the rest of this networking and being part of this whole ecosystem.

Jade:
Yeah, I was always a great networker and you know obviously being in sales, I could I could talk and you know playing ho