A Journey Through Resilience and Growth with Jesse Kerr

A Journey Through Resilience and Growth with Jesse Kerr

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to episode 128 of the business development podcast. And on today's episode, we are exploring another ecosystem. This time it's Ontario's Sandbox Center with Jesse Kerr. Stay with us. This is a really fun episode.

Intro: The Great Mark Cuban once said business happens over years and years value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal.

And we couldn't agree more. This is the business development podcast based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and broadcasting to the world. You'll get expert business development, advice, tips, and experiences. And you'll hear interviews with business owners. CEOs and business development reps, you'll get actionable advice on how to grow business.

Brought to you by Capital Business Development, CapitalBD.ca. Let's do it. Welcome to the Business Development Podcast, and now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to Episode 128 of the Business Development Podcast. We have an absolutely amazing expert guest for you today. I would love to introduce to you, Jesse Kerr.

A dynamic communicator whose magnetic personality and animated presence I've earned him the endearing moniker of the show pony with a career rooted in relationship management and strategic focus on value creation, implementation and partnership activation. Jesse is a force to be reckoned with both in person and on camera.

His high I. D. Personality, as indicated by the Wiley Disc Assessments, underscores his ability to lead with charm while providing unwavering support along the way. Currently, Jesse is deeply involved in the Central Ontario Regional Ecosystem, serving as the head camper at the Reignite Conference and taking the helm as the lead facilitator for Recon, the regional ecosystem for Collaborative Ontario.

Additionally, Jesse plays a pivotal role at the Sandbox Centre. Situated at the heart of Barrie, Ontario, where he leverages his experience to foster innovation and collaboration with a knack for leaving no stone unturned, Jesse is committed to uncovering opportunities and forging connections that drive growth and success within the community.

Get ready to experience Jesse Kerr, a true connector and a catalyst for change, ready to make waves and ignite inspiration wherever he goes. This is Jesse. It's an honour to have you.

Jesse Kerr: Kelly, excuse me, Kelly. I got to say, I think just listening to that introduction, I, I might be too busy to do this right now.

I gotta, I gotta run. Thanks for having me, man. You know, when you frame it up like that.

Kelly Kennedy: No pressure, no pressure.

Jesse Kerr: I mean. I hope we can get through all of that here today. And I do want to thank you. It's been fantastic getting to work with you and getting to know you. And I know we finished on that note there with a bit about kind of being a connector.

And I really have to say the same rings true for you through our conversations and through connections you've made. You've really helped me. From my seat here in Barrie, Ontario connecting to, you know, the Alberta ecosystem as well. And so just a quick plug to you on that one.

Kelly Kennedy: Oh, dude, I appreciate it.

I've absolutely enjoyed every conversation we've had, and we've had multiple at this point. We actually connected back in July of like 2023. We got introduced through Aaron Haberman, who's a mutual kind of friend of both of us. He's been a longtime listener of the show and a good friend of you. And so I've really appreciated that.

So I just want to give a little shout out to Aaron. I know he listens and I really appreciated this connection Aaron.

Jesse Kerr: Habermeister. Well done, sir. See you soon.

Kelly Kennedy: So, Jesse, you know, you are a pivotal member in the Ontario Ecosystem with regards to any type of entrepreneurship, startups, things along those lines.

You know, and it's absolutely right. Your energy is amazing. I absolutely love every time that we chat. I love who you are as a person and I just really look forward in this interview today to getting to know you and better introducing the Sandbox Center and you know, the various the various things that are available to entrepreneurs in the Ontario.

Jesse Kerr: Hey, Kelly, we'll definitely get into that. I totally agree that. Well, I, I just want to preface this one for anybody in the ecosystem that is listening. Certainly I have been now just coming up on about six years within the ecosystem, and we can touch a little bit more on that because I'll definitely take you back to how did we get here?

But really what I found was it's such a vast and really expansive business services and business support entity here that we have in Ontario. And as I mentioned, clearly in Alberta as well, that I definitely am looking to continue to grow my presence. And I think that here in central Ontario, Definitely in Barrie and Simcoe County and Muskoka regions.

It's been great really being able to connect with everybody and grow that presence that I have. So if there are any connections I can make to anybody who may be listening as we go through this and you hear something that makes sense, by all means you know, I know we'll have the connect with me at the end, but just keep that in mind as we kind of go through this conversation.

Kelly Kennedy: Absolutely. Absolutely. But you know, Jesse, I'm going to take you back to the beginning, my friend. How did you end up on this journey? You know, take me back to being a kid. Who is Jesse Kerr? How did you end up the man you are today?

Jesse Kerr: Fair. Fair. Kelly, I'll, I'll tell you I can see my mother in my mind right now, actually.

And there's For sure. I'm a great blend of both my parents and they were both fairly animated communicators. And so from a young age, I've always been an animated communicator. I think that might be one way I would put that. No shortage of ideas or opinions. And I think that. I was on many different teams as in my youth, you know, I played a lot of soccer and a lot of hockey and was fortunate enough to experience, you know, a fairly robust childhood with a lot of different friends and a lot of different sports.

And this was back in the day where, you know, we used to ride our bike across town and go out to a field and we were always outdoors and always, you know, I was, I was quite social and through all of that. You know, and throughout this story, I'll tell you here, it's really been the accumulation of all of the people that I've experienced.

And I like to think that there's just a little bit of of every one of them in me in, in who I am and who I've become. So as I go through this, also keep that one in mind. It's kind of like what was that movie? So the talented Mr. Ripley, I think that might've been the name of the movie where he just kind of picked out pieces of individuals that he saw to be successful and then he saw to work and really resonated with, and I think that's kind of how I've developed myself along with, you know, good parenting and good mentorship throughout, but I was really honestly, Kelly provided an opportunity to express myself by some of my early managers you know, working in my retail days.

I also had a lot of great coworkers to learn and grow from through my late teens and my early twenties. And gotta put a shout out in here to my former team members from the now defunct White Rose Brand. It was this I don't know if White Rose was I don't think it was a national organization.

But definitely in Ontario, White Rose was kind of a blend between a garden greenhouse and like a craft store all in one. They were quite popular through here and so shout out to everyone there and that was really where I kind of. Was able to take those childhood animated communications and, and they started to help me kind of, you need to hone this one down for the general public, right?

We gotta, we gotta put this into a business basic. We can't just be all over the map. Although there, as you'll hear that still exists. And I think that is definitely core to, to who I am, but It was in that kind of timeframe, you know, really in my late teens, early twenties kind of finished, you know, the, the awkward high school and the teenage years.

And as I look back on those, I mean, they were definitely influential. And this is where I started to develop the confidence to be able to share my ideas. So there was a lot of great management and a lot of people who really helped to kind of focus me in. And I found myself often near the front of a lot of conversations, if not leading them.

Eventually. I wanted to see things done in a certain way, right? And for me, that meant taking the lead. So I started planning various social events and fundraisers, whether it was, you know, the group of friends New Year's party where I always, you know, I always like to incorporate as many people as I can into everything I do because I believe in the experience you know, that I see as being really a positive one for everybody.

And the more people who are involved, the better that will be. So I, I really started in kind of in the planning and that. Really kind of create more social interaction and opportunity just for people to, to be able to connect. And I actually, in my early twenties, I somewhat fell backwards into working for a major American corporation.

I was actually working in house at the time. I had I just finished up kind of my schooling in Toronto. And I went to school for, you know, one of my passions at that time. Which was music, even though I play zero instruments and I failed the, the ability to, you know, read music in my college classes, but I did pass that with some focus work and I eventually had an audio engineering and record production certificate, or I don't even know if it qualifies as a degree from a vocational college, but there I was and what that meant, Kelly, in 2000.

In 2001 was I made some really great ringtones .

Kelly Kennedy: Well, in 2001, that was awesome.

Jesse Kerr: Right, it was totally awesome. I was, you know, I, and of course I like to share that skill with everybody. I mean, I remember my Samsung Razor back then, and you could, you know, back when you could text someone and see what they were listening to as you texted them.

Yeah. Yeah. So I, I finished doing that. I picked up a gig while I was down there. It wasn't in what I wanted to be doing. And so I kind of retreated back to my hometown of Newmarket, Ontario, and a good friend of mine who played a fairly pivotal role in my growth and development as well, he said, Hey, well, why don't we move out together, you know, around town and I work at this place and you can come get a job there too.

We're working the graveyard shift together. But what a life we lived, right? We weren't living at home. Yeah. Just two guys there with a place to be anytime, doing whatever they wanted to do, getting paid, life was good. And then one day it was early in the morning and a couple of my buddies from high school walked through the door and they said, you work here?

And I said, you guys work here? They said, why don't you come work with us in the front end of the building instead of in the back end of the building? And so I ended up taking a role as a sales and service representative running a route. I pile into my big truck every morning and I go out to see my customer base.

And when I you know, I first started, that could be anywhere from 200 to 250 people a week. I was going out to deal with, and this really is where who I am now started to really take form. So this particular organization has an excellent and renowned sales training program. And I was with them for 10 years, operating in various front facing roles, where there was a very clearly defined set of KPIs with lucrative bonus structures.

And I was first introduced to the concept of an NPS score and an NPS rating. And those targets were very clear too. So. For me at that time, I, I was really just vaulted into this. I, they needed they had a, a seat that they needed filled. And so I was the cold body that went in that warm seat, basically threw me to the wolves, gave me one week of, okay, here's where you need to go.

Here's what you need to do. Away you go, right? Yeah, that was the way they did it back then though. Just trial by fire. Full trial by fire, right? And so I mean, honestly, this is where I really cut my teeth, right? I was failing and I failed daily. Sometimes dozens of times a day, hundreds of times a week in the beginning years where I was not Being successful in my endeavors, right?

I would be out in the field and I'm just going to say it. I was getting owned by my customers, you know, to the point that like my book of business was running me, I was not running the book of business and it really took a few years of training and mentorship not only from my managers, but again, more so from my peers, my brothers and sisters in arms.

You know, we had a great culture of sharing and support. With a healthy dose of competition to have something to aspire to it. And this is how, you know, I was really learning through that trial by fire. So, I mean, I've never been one to chase a carrot. In fact, Kelly, I hate the carrot. I'd happily take the stick before I'd been in need of the carrot, you know?

So, I don't know if it's foolishness. I don't know if it's pride, it's somewhere ingrained in me. I still have it to a degree this day. I can mute it a little bit more. Now that I have a different skillset

in order to manage that kind of piece, but through a fairly natural cycle of resentment, complacency, and maybe even a little bit of fatigue from being owned day in and day out, you know, the switch flipped for me one day.

And I started to take things a little more seriously, and I began to hone those sales craft that I saw others succeed with, right? And I did that, really, from the help of a lot of the veterans from inside our organization. They saw that I was taking things more seriously, so their support for me would grow.

My management team then started to see, you know, that I was taking things more seriously through several conversations. And they provided me greater opportunity where I was able to actually ascend through the ranks and carve out a great living where I was finally running the business over and above target.

So, I mean, this is a very dialed organization that I'm ingrained in there as well, right? Where, you know, we have year over year growth and sales targets and they were ratcheting up. And it was a fairly cutthroat industry. I have to say, I mean, there, you know, there are certain realities Versus the expectation.

There are fiscal limitations, you know, for what it is that can be achieved. And as an example, I'll give you Kelly We had KPIs and, you know, in, in year, I'll call it, let's start in year two, right? Those KPIs may have been something like your retention for your business is 90%. Wow. Guess what your freeze was?

90, 95. 91, 92, 93. There's a runway here, right? There's a runway. You know, so I mean, things started became coming a little from my perspective anyway, you know, unattainable and there were a couple of negative impacts on earning potential that started to pop up and you know, the mental well being of trying to manage this.

So, you know, I started to look around at what else I might do, what might be next, right? I mean, what I do love and I will always look back fondly on and speak highly of, and I'll talk a little bit more about this too, as we carry on here is we developed through that training and through that trial by fire and through that camaraderie and that, that pure sharing and peer learning very measurable set of transferable skills for any front facing role, right?

I found an opportunity then that would allow me to kind of slow down that, you know, hectic pace and Also provided Inability to, you know, earn escalating income industry that wasn't so cannibalistic with a lot of cool fringe benefits that I thought at the time I really liked, like, you know, tickets to hockey games and, you know, you can afford a nicer car, you know, Fun things like that.

All the important things in life. Right? You know, especially, I was right around 30, 30 or so at this point in time and so these things seem cool and important to me and so yeah, I, you know what, I'll, I'll tell you a really quick story about that.

Kelly Kennedy: You know what, Jesse, I want to hear it. But I also want to pause you just for a second because you touched on something that I think is super critical that I have, like, we've had, you know, probably like 55, 60 interviews at this point.

I have not had one person yet talk about unrealistic KPIs and what that does. to an employee. And I absolutely am thrilled that you went there. Because I think it's absolutely critical. There is nothing more demoralizing than giving your employee an unrealistic KPI set, and then just expecting him to somehow pull it out of his hat.

Jesse Kerr: You know, you may have heard there that the one, one of the roles I didn't take from that whole carrot and stick scenario was ever as the sales manager or the manager role, I've never really wanted to be the manager because those are the people who get to enforce the unrealistic KPIs and I fully appreciate that there's someone higher up the chain going, squeeze that dime a little bit tighter, you know, and I just.

There are realities that need to be there. And there are only so much potential earning that one can achieve. And so when you, you know, from, from my lens of not being the sales manager and never having to have dealt with that intentionally, I just think that it, it isn't a healthy culture and I don't.

I have a lot of feelings on what that could look like or should look like. And, and what is, it's no longer about attainable for me. And it's, it's, I think it needs to become sustainable work. Yes. Sustainable. Yes. You

Kelly Kennedy: know, I hope that that is something that changes moving forward. You know, especially with, with organizations like the one that you're speaking about, it's ultimately, we worked in a time, me and you both grew up in that time.

I was doing sales in that time too. And so I totally remember what it was like. It was just like, aim higher, aim higher. Do better, do better. You could have had an amazing month, but then the carrot moves, right? And suddenly you're chasing something completely different, and it just never ended. And I hope that one of the takeaways that we learn from this time in business is that if you just set realistic goals and have somebody who hits those goals consistently and sustainably, that is always going to be better for everybody involved over the long term, including your employee who is no longer demotivated and going to quit or get stressed out or have to take a sick leave because they just can't keep up with that stress.

Jesse Kerr: Kelly, you are entirely right and we could probably do a whole separate podcast on the opportunities in which to change that framework.

Kelly Kennedy: Absolutely. Absolutely. It's, it's so funny. It's, I honestly can't believe that's never come up, Jesse, but that has never came up not in any of my interviews so far. But I think that that has been a systemic problem in the sales world for a very, very long time.

And what we need to do better as managers, as people managing projects and, and people's frankly, KPIs and performance. Is to set them realistic goals, hold them, hold them accountable. Absolutely to the realistic goals, but you know, have a good understanding yourself about what is realistic before you set those goals.

Know what it actually takes before you ask somebody to do that work. I think that's really what it came down to is they had no idea what it took. They just set the KPI and said, We're aiming for this. It's going to take these people doing this much work to make it happen, make it happen without ever actually seeing if that was a realistic ask.

Jesse Kerr: Kelly, I have another anecdote for you around that one too. There's a, there's an, the opposite frightening side of that equation that exists as well. But I, I am with you and I, there are a number of ways, I mean, this particular organization, their solution of course was Change the comp plan, which everyone, everyone on here who has been through that knows that's what always was coming.

Once you get to the unrealistic goal. Ah, let's just restructure that and start back again at 90.

Kelly Kennedy: I paused you, Jesse. I just you touched on something that I absolutely wanted to go back on. So I apologize for stopping you. Please do continue with your story. I'm sorry that I paused you, but it was, I think it's critical.

I think it's something that's so funny that just hasn't come up yet.

Jesse Kerr: Not in the least, Kelly. I mean, it's I have a squirrel mindset at times, so I appreciate you picking out on that one. And I totally agree. And so I'll get to that one in a sec, but I, I just, I really, this was a very pivotal moment moment for me as well, actually.

So. As I'm looking around, I'm going, I got these great transferable skills. I can stand and take fire from anybody at this point in time, because I know how to manage, you know, I know how to deal. I can overcome anything you want to bring to me and I can create value for you and show you value in those moments.

I'm going out on the market. So I find this place through a friend of mine. Actually, he mentioned that there was some opportunity coming up in his organization. And so I went, that's great. Can you, you know, give me an introduction? And he did. I get the interview. Right. This is back around maybe 2015 or so, 2014, you know, when you used to actually go in and then they'd sit you down at the desktop computer and you'd knock out your aptitude test or whatever their personality test was.

Remember that?

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, I do.

Jesse Kerr: Right. So, you know, as the kind lady said, she said, you know don't, you don't have to speed through. We don't expect anyone to finish it. Da da da da da. And I'm going like, like, heck. I am going to nail this, right? I think I broke their timing record, Kelly. I nailed the character analysis.

You learn to see through the questions and learn how to answer it. So you're like, yes, I am the exact person you were looking for based on this test. You learned them. They weren't as complex as they are today right?

Kelly Kennedy: I remember sitting down for a really similar interview, but it was in person and they like started busting out like memory tests.

And all this other stuff. And I was like, how is this relevant to the job?

Jesse Kerr: Someone came in and sold them that package that said, this is how you hire. And this is a whole other podcast about, you know, hiring. And I mean, that's not an easy task either. So I appreciate that someone somewhere was like, look, here's at least a litmus test of something versus no benchmark. Right. So, I mean, I get into tier one hiring manager, tier one hiring manager loves me.

I get to tier two hiring manager. I'm on a roll. Then I get through, you know, the panel, the tier three manager, plus the first two managers. They're all loving it. The president's in the house. They get me into the president. The president brings in the guy who brought me in. We're sitting in the boardroom on the top floor.

He has some conversation with me, gives me the golden handshake. And he says, you know what? I think you're the right fit for us. This is going to be great. We're going to put an offer in your hands. I'm just going on vacation right now, back home to India for two weeks. When I come back, we'll get the offer in your hand.

One amazing. I can't believe it. I'm upwardly mobile. I've just now ascended to the next echelon of my pay tier. I'm going to have tickets to hockey games, going to get a new car. I'm going back to my old job and I'm put in my two weeks. Yeah, so I did went in and they went. Are you sure? What's your next job?

I said, well, this is where I'm going to go. This is why I'm going right. They did their very formal organization. We had an exit interview that actually occurred. Yeah, and everything. And so I wrote my 2 weeks out. Final day was up. It was March the 27th, as I recall, because I didn't get my next position that I had to scramble for until I think September, because the president who gave me the golden handshake.

Passed away on the vacation. Oh my gosh. One week goes by, two weeks go by. I'm tapping my buddy. Hey, do you, do you know what three weeks go by, you know? And then the fourth week he says the president died. All hiring is on hold. They really want to bring you on. We don't know the timing. So I'm going, okay, guess I'll bide my time.

You know, wow. It never, ever came to be Kelly. And so that put me right back into the job market. You know, I've got a young family at this time, what am I going to do? So of course, I'm going to defer back to my sales skills and go take a rep job working in sales. And so the plan was derailed, sir. Out of a job.

I could have gone back. I could have gone back. They would have taken me back to, and they said, you can come back. It was your pride. You're like, no, I can't do this. Well, There was that combination of that and also, you know, I knew going forward was the only way there was a reason why I was looking right.

And so to go back would have been minorly soul crushing. And I'll use the example all the time to people when I, I kind of Recall this period in my life where I say, you know, I just, I got so tired of coming back every day and signing off on some other form or, you know, some other policy that essentially said, you know, we recognize because this organization, their, their mantra was all about, you know, creating shareholder value.

And I don't remember the rest of the value statement anymore, thankfully, but shareholder value is number one. And that meant if you can take four less steps, five more breaths and blink twice more, we could squeeze one 57th of a penny. Per day. Do you know what that looks like over a year? Right. But Kelly, this brings me to that, you know, as you said, like what was actually more frightening to me was I had a brief stint working for a mom and pop shop.

How little they knew about what was happening in their own business. They had no visibility into so many factors affecting their profitability, their growth potential, and even the, like the sustainability or viability of the business they were in that I was an employee of going. Wow, now I understand why this massive of corporation has all of these processes, optimizations and training like they really have it nailed.

And they are one of the most cash rich organizations in the United States to today. And so, I mean, it was great for me personally to see the disparity between this one juggernaut that I grew to despise because of, you know, you. Their ability to squeeze a dime and understand profitability. And then the mom and pop shop really had no clue.

And I was wondering, like, are you going to survive? So, I mean, at this point you know, I, I had to take that job. It was a sales role, knocking on going door to door. Hey, Do you have 20, 000 you'd like to spend on a point of sale system? No? Okay. Hey, you modern pop restaurant, do you have 45, 000 you'd like to spend on this system?

And this was at the precipice of the cloud systems that had come out too. So here I am knocking on doors trying to sell hardware to somebody, while software and apps are taking over the market, right? Yeah. Fortunately, I was able to find a new way forward there and ended up working for an American startup, which is where kind of the consulted seaside of the equation started to begin.

But what I also recognized at that time was I didn't want to be siloed solely in kind of the, the biz dev or the sales, you know, I started to branch out probably to the detriment of my career into other facets of what the organization offered from my biz dev sales role, I really branched more into the customer service side of the equation because again, like I wanted things done a certain way and the way I wanted them done.

And I, this is the responsibility. I like if anyone's going to do it, it was going to have to be me if it's going to get done to the degree. I want it to be done. So I started to take on all of these pieces. I started doing, you know, consulting on implementation on the it, so it can be better, you know, I got into technical sales and then it was into the operations of how can we improve the technical sale and the customer experience and the journey mapping and all of these different parts.

And then that company got sold to a bigger company and I was out of a job again. Oh boy. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, and. In transparency, you know, and I want to share this next bit. This is, you know, to some people, maybe a bit more of a personal aspect again. Now, my family's a little bit older. At this point, I was really on a consultancy opportunity, which is why it was so easy to let me go as they got bought out and they downsized all of the kind of the higher end earners.

And then I was sitting there again with, you know, what is it that I want to do? Where do I want to go? Unfortunately at that time, and the first time I moved from the large corporation and the president passed away, I actually had a profit sharing plan. So I had a couple grand, you know, sitting behind me bank where I could afford the lifestyle that we lived and pay the bills.

This time as a consultant, I actually had to make a decision because I was getting paid in USD, but I also had to save a whole bunch of money for tax to pay to our friends at the CRA. So I had again, you know, tens of thousands of dollars in my back pocket waiting to pay the CRA come tax time, right around the time I got fired.

And so now I had to look at who's getting paid here. My bills or the government?

Kelly Kennedy: Hopefully the government, because it's way worse than the bills.

Jesse Kerr: So I'll tell you what, you know, the bills started to pile up too, and the government started to pile up and eventually the government came knocking and so did everybody else.

And I got myself into a position where. I could look for a consumer proposal or I was going to claim bankruptcy. And so I went and looked for a consumer proposal to make everything work out. And I've learned a whole bunch about what that actually looks like through my experience. And I really had a lot of free time, Kelly.

So I dug deep to figure out what, what this all meant and what it looked like. And I ended up, you know, getting rejected by the government and one of the credit card companies. And if two of the people on your proposal rejected, that means you're, you're up the creek and your only option is either. Pay it all back.

And the government fines, my friend, as you alluded to, they amounted to more than 50 grand on top of what it was I owed. So it was almost a hundred grand and I've only got about 20 in my pocket. So I had to make the decision to hammer the bankruptcy button. My God. And I mentioned this to you all because if anybody ever wants to know about bankruptcy or what a an L I T, which is a designation here in Canada who are supposed to help manage you through the bankruptcy process.

I tell you right now, they are not your friend friends. They may appear to be your friends. They may be some nicer than others, but they actually get paid by how much you pay them. And so Anyway, needless to say, now we're bankrupt and without a job. How's that, huh?

Kelly Kennedy: In that moment, like, you know, you've been so successful, Jesse.

What was that, you know, I think that's every entrepreneur's worst nightmare. How, how, how did you pick yourself back up from this? Like, I think most people that would, you know, like you alluded to, it's soul crushing. Like, most people in this situation, I don't think that they recover. At least not, not the way that you have.

And so I would love to, like, learn, you know, what was your mindset in that time? How were you able to stay motivated and look to a positive future in such a challenging moment?

Jesse Kerr: You know, Kelly, this one probably has to go back all the way to the beginning to, as I mentioned my parents and the way that, you know, we were raised.

I did have a lot of great individual success through sport and with teams. I always scored well on, you know, testing. I had fairly decent aptitude. And so I had a good amount of, you know, self belief and self worth that things were going to work out. But I also had the foolish belief that got me into this position that, you know, money grows on trees and I can always make more, right?

We're having this degree of success. There's always more to come. And I don't know if it's. Through practice of what I did, divine intervention or a combination of both, that everything right at the last minute in the 11th hour as the last penny was spent, the opportunity arose and it was there for me to take and I went after it and it worked out.

They weren't always shiny. Like when I mentioned that first time where I was out at work and I had to take that role knocking on doors, selling, you know, 35, 000 POS systems to people who couldn't afford it, it was not a high paying job, but it was enough that it got it done on the home front. It was allowed me to sustain and it provided future.

Upward growth or even just a hold for this point in time. Right. So I think that there's a bit of a mentality piece that needs to exist there as you've alluded to. And I think that having successes in times where it may not be certain whether that was. Back in a sports field or domain or other areas that, you know, people will have different pressures that they need to manage.

I think it really comes from the practice of that and being able to believe in yourself that you can pull through and you can achieve. And even in the last moment, I've got to tell you, this story works out again for me, where I, this brings us right into kind of the sandbox center, this crazy job.

Description. I saw that, you know, sent all the squirrels in my head, running in all directions, thinking that that sounds just about perfect. But I mean, it wasn't easy. There wasn't it wasn't peaceful times on the home front. We've got three. I'm in a blended family. We've got three kids, you know, we got all the bills stacking up on the backside.

I mean, I turned around to my better half too. And, you know, it's going, maybe we need to be living a little leaner than we are right now, you know, and try telling Okay. Yeah. Try, try telling your wife who's in her dream house that she had before you came along that this isn't the way we need to be doing things because we need to tighten the purse strings and she's holding up her end and it's you that needs to make the changes.

So, I mean, you know, it isn't easy, right? It isn't easy. And I, I would just want to put out there to anybody who may. Find themselves either once, twice repeatedly, or be staring down that right now that it is the perseverance and it is the just keep going. Right. I was going to pull this one from Nemo, right?

Just keep swimming, swimming. You just got to, you just have to keep going. And I would suggest that most people who have that sales mentality and have had to have been through the unrealistic KPIs of life that get put on you. Just keep going.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Yeah. I would argue that you're absolutely right actually.

I think salespeople make really good entrepreneurs for that very reason. We're so used to just being like, okay, that sucked. Let's keep going, , and yet that's really the mentality that you need, right? Yeah. It, it just happens to be the mentality that you need to be successful because it really is the stubbornness of just being like, that sucked.

I'm going to keep going though that that leads to success over time.

Jesse Kerr: And with any hope at all, and this is one of the things I hope to be instilling in my own children through the resiliency pieces that you learn from that you don't keep committing the same mistake over again, we take a look at, you know, let's look inwards first.

Let's not look at where to blame everything else that was happening. Look, What could I have done differently? What should I do differently? How do I position myself better for the next time until you run into the next series of roadblocks that you just didn't see coming? Because not everybody can see everything all the time, which we'll touch on later too.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, yeah, no, you, you nailed it, right? It's like the only person who you can change in the world is you. Right? You can't, you can't influence like, sure, I guess maybe you can influence outside stuff. But if some, if something's going to happen to you, that's an external thing. There's not a lot that you can do about that action or that person.

But there's a lot about what you can do internally with yourself, about how you respond to that situation, the choices that you make. The only person you ever control is you. So you need to, you really need to look inwards and ask yourself, you know, what can I do as opposed to, you know, you know, letting other people control you.

Jesse Kerr: If that is the only thing anybody hears us talk about today, I would say that would make it feel successful to me. That is exactly it. And then there's the process of getting better at being able to do that. You know, being honest with yourself about you know, who you are, what you're doing. I, I don't enjoy people who seek to blame others.

There are always going to be factors. That you may not have control over, but at the end of all of this, it's all about how you acted in that moment, or you reacted in that moment, or how you plan to be in that moment, how you showed up in that moment, all the different things you can do in that moment.

And then also, please remember that it's just a moment, right? You may find yourself in a terrible spot. You're out of work. Your wife's angry. You got some kids you need to feed. In that moment, it's not the defining portion about your whole life, which is why I, I always tell the story of the bankruptcy piece to, you know, anyone that it makes sense for and even in the recap of who I am and where I've been, because it happened, right?

1. Failed to avoid that outcome through all of the previous steps that I had taken, or I didn't plan properly and that was me. It wasn't somebody else that like put this on me. I mean, obviously things happen outside of my control and then there's the government. That's a 10 other episodes. We'll skip that one for today.

Kelly Kennedy: But But, it led you down this amazing journey to the Sandbox Center and the man you are today. And let's get into it. What is the Sandbox Center? How did you end up here?

Jesse Kerr: So there I was, unemployed, bankrupt, just hit the bankruptcy button. And I'll spare the rest of that part of that story because there's a little intricacy in there that comes into play, but it was June of 2020.

19, 2018, it was June of 2018. And I'm looking around and now I've got the opportunity to kind of change what I want to do next. I didn't want to go back and do a sales and biz dev role. I had spent a bunch of time kind of cross training myself within some of my other roles. Oh, That sound that you just heard there is the only time my phone makes noise.

And that was my wife. She's probably going to be there. Stop telling the bankruptcy story.

Kelly Kennedy: I have not heard Sega in I can't even tell you how long. That brings back memories. I'm so glad. I'm literally leaving that in just to make people's day. You haven't heard that in forever.

Jesse Kerr: That's awesome. I'm so glad you picked that up.

That's my ringtone. Hey, that ringtone put me out of business. Back in the day, right? So I'm looking around, what can I do? And I'm at this point in time in my cross training of myself, I thought, you know, I'd really actually like to maybe get more of the marketing side of the equation. Let's get a little bit more marketing experience.

And so I see this job ad. On one of the boards and it doesn't say what it is, what the company is, what it's for, but I'm able to put some of the pieces of the puzzle together from some clippings that I maybe picked up on LinkedIn and on some local publications over the time to think, I think this is that sandbox center thing.

Which I didn't entirely understand, which is also fair because what is the sandbox center, man, that was the question for still to today for a lot of many people by like for everybody for at least the first three or four years we've been in business and as of I guess, April of this year, the doors opened here, April of 2019 I started labor day 2018 through this, there's this great hiring story too, but we can, we can touch on that one another time, but what the sandbox center is, and it's been said that we do a lot of things and you're going to get a roundabout answer here, but I will sum it up at the end.

And so, because it's been said, we do so many things and through that, it's often been really unclear what we do as a startup ourselves, we had a founding board. We had a founder they worked. Within the immediate business community in the city of Barrie, because we're here in Barrie, Ontario. They got a vision for this organization and this organization.

It's going to act like the front door to the regional business ecosystem. We're going to have the ability to triage entrepreneurs and startups themselves to the service providers and the different resources that they need, and they may not know exist, right? We got a 10, 000 square foot space that I'm sitting in right now.

It was meant to spark face to face, random collisions between businesses at any stage across any industry. All here together, same place, same time. And they're going to share knowledge. We're going to break down barriers by providing this place. That created access to the different individuals that could help you grow and accelerate your business and it's all under one roof, right?

So it really just wasn't clear to anybody exactly what that meant though. There are other organizations that kind of do some of these things.

Kelly Kennedy: I don't want you to feel bad about that though because I think a lot of these entrepreneurial accelerator like support companies And they do struggle to like really clarify what it is a big like a big part of my journey here at the business development podcast has been to shine a big light and get clear on what it is they do so that other people in the ecosystem other businesses can actually understand them because I think if more businesses really understood what they did, they could truly reap the benefits.

And it's just the fact that They don't know what they do. And so a big part of what we have done has been to shine a light on like Alberta Innovates and Edmonton Unlimited and, you know, the Business Development Bank of Canada, right? And now oh, goodness. Now the Sandbox Center, right? We're trying to like get an idea of how these businesses actually work, who they support.

And so I think that's why these things are really beneficial.

Jesse Kerr: Okay. And so I agree with you. And If we have time near the end, I'll, I'll touch on something that one of my other things that I like to do. So the Sandbox Center is my, my full time realm at this point. I mean, we've had several iterations of, you know, what that means here over our almost six years in existence now or five and change.

And you know, Keep in mind, right, we didn't even finish our first year with the doors open. We opened April the 19th, I think, 2019. And then I don't know, March, 2020, the world kind of shuts down. And it was actually a bit of a blessing for us. We had. 10, 000 people come through the sandbox and those opening 11 months for the various events and workshops, right.

Keeping in mind, it's like a 10, 000 square foot, very open space. There's programming, social gatherings. It was really hard to work on the business because we were so caught up in the weeds of working in the business and the you know, the pandemic for whatever it is or isn't to anybody. It allowed us to slow way down, reflect and like redefine our offering.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. So at that time, I mean, due to the strength of the team, we had the team has changed in different iterations. I am currently as old as the furniture here and the oldest remaining member of the original team and the oldest member of the team as a matter of fact, you know, but with the team we had, we were able, we were actually excellent.

And we pivoted To the online zoom world and became a go to distributor of information and content. We ended up partnering with a couple of national organizations to deliver some of their programming across Canada, right from here out of the sandbox. And we got really polished at that, right?

So. The other thing that happened to, though, on the backside of all that was because we have this great big space it allowed for all kind of comfort levels to reemerge from their houses back into the face to face public domain as as the mania wound down during the pandemic. The sandbox got to pause.

What is it that we, like the crazy race that we just ran where, you know, it's brand new out of the gate. Our founder did an unbelievable job of getting three year commitments from all of our sponsors and the partners. Many of, you know, he, he has multiple businesses that he runs in and around here, a couple of them are international and he spent a lot of time investing in other local founders and people that he's worked with.

It's still invested in those businesses. What do we mean to them and what difference can we actually make in their life? Right? We still have this ability now today. One of the functions we do have is that ability to pull people together. And I'm staring as I look to my right here, I see two people who've only met each other maybe a week and a half ago.

That now I've been in this 45 minute conversation. One of the guys has helped two companies exit and he's now a VC through all the money. He's got the other is in one of the programs that's run out of here by one of our partners at Georgia college. And they've just been going on about who knows what for the past 45 minutes, right?

But we have that ability. So that happens here, that check mark, we got that. The ability to triage people through the ecosystem, right? So I'll often explain to people who walk up and they, you know, you do not expect this facility. When and maybe we'll be able to get a video or something associated to the so people can see when you walk in off the street down here in downtown Barry, you know, which isn't very big, but it's downtown Barry and we're on the 2nd floor of the bus terminal.

1982 bus terminal or something, I think it is, and you walk up here into this bright open space. There's only we have 3 fairly large boardrooms with retractable whiteboard walls. It can open up into different configurations. And it's basically a big oval with a big patio on the front of it that stares out on the beautiful Kemp and Felt Bay at the big spirit catcher.

That came to us, I believe from France with the McLaren art gallery. And it does not represent what's down on the floor here in downtown. So they come up and they're kind of going, what is this? You know, what is this place? And One of the easiest ways I can explain it to them is, we can help you know, who are you now?

We're going to do a little triage. Who are you? What is it that you want to be doing? What's your understanding of what you want to do? Where, what do you think you need next? Who else have you talked to? So that I can get a sense of, What is a good next step for you and I can even let you know, here are likely the next two steps I will personally introduce you to that.

I'm not just giving you a business card or a website and say, thanks for coming. Go figure it out because I hold the relationships with all of these people. So we, we do that, right? I can triage you to the next best thing and even explain to you what it might be. So you can feel like if it's a good fit, give you the information, make the direct connection.

And now, cool. You have a way forward. You walk in here going, I think I need some help. I don't know what I don't know. So we serve those people. So we're also about what you don't know store. That's kind of one of the other things we do then because we still have to operate. We are a not for profit organization.

We still need to keep the lights on. Jesse does like getting paid, you know, he's into that.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, kind of important, especially given the story.

Jesse Kerr: We like that to do that. So we have a membership model here, right? So as a not for profit organization one of the things that our founder says we haven't. Found this to not be true yet is we are one of the only, if not the only I guess community hub or business resource center in Canada that has zero government funding.

We are entirely funded through our members and our, and our partners and our sponsors. So, We need to provide value, right? So we have a membership model and the membership model is, is really inexpensive to it's essentially around a hundred bucks a month at the time of this podcast, and for that, you get access to the use of space.

So it's not, it is not, and I repeat this intentionally, it is not a coworking space. But we do have drop in space that functions very similarly, right, to that. We have the access for the members to just drop in. And so the two that I was alluding to are kind of sitting over at what I call the fourplex desks.

And they're gonna drop in here to do work because they prefer to be here than sitting at home by themselves. We have the boardrooms that I'm sitting in that I alluded to, and so our members have, you know, benefit access to that, right? They've got a deep discount if they want to book space in the boardroom, but as part of their membership, they just get drop and use of space that comes with all of the different I like to call them activations.

Some people call them workshops. Some people call them programs. I'm just going to call them activations. So we have yeah. Peer circles or a peer group, as they would traditionally be known as part of the membership. We have our social networking that we run every Thursday from four to six. And so at the core of the membership, what I'm going to say to sum it up would be really what we're offering is different ways for entrepreneurs and businesses to really.

Have a way to come together and connect and share as is happening out there right now, then we have our sponsors because that's, they're the nut of, you know, how we keep the lights on here and what happens. So really the beauty of them is they all have intrinsic values and there's a bunch of, you know, names on the wall.

But what we like to do with them more so is really pull out the intricate values that they offer that people aren't aware of that are the differentiators. In their business success, right? These businesses are in business and offering this value prop because it brings value, it makes change. It's something that's needed.

And so for us, what we look to do there is really create trust, right? We create this place of trust and here at the sandbox, Kelly, what is important is it's a no selling zone, people do not lead with business cards here. You're not coming here to get your next client. You're not coming here to drum up business.

You come here to share. And through that sharing, as the old for proverb says, you will receive. And so that's what we facilitate. That is the culture that we have here.

Kelly Kennedy: Amazing. Amazing. But it, it ultimately does support business growth at the end of the day, but it's a different way of going about it.

Jesse Kerr: Here's the sale tagline on it. I'll pull it all together. So what is the Sandbox Center today, right? We're a hub for the regional business community. We're a not for profit organization that creates opportunities for entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, which is actually in the official Sandbox Center name, and businesses of all sizes, stages, and industries to be better than they are today.

And I mean, Sandbox is many things to many people. So summarily What is the Sandbox Center? The Sandbox Center is a business super connector. Like Bismarck E, because I know you know this one. We got what you need.

Kelly Kennedy: Amazing. Amazing. And, let's say that we're talking to entrepreneurs in the area. You know, what is the service area, first off?

And if they're hearing this, you know, what might be one of the reasons that you would give them, or how about this? What might be some of the problems that a company might be experiencing that a membership with the Sandbox Center could help them fix?

Jesse Kerr: Kelly, do you ever feel alone in business? Do you ever have questions?

That you'd like to get answers to, but when you go home at the end of the day, you don't feel, really feel like you can get them. Maybe your circle of influence doesn't have what you need, like Bismarck. Here at the Sandbox Center, we have like minded individuals who are also on that same journey at that same place as you.

But more so, we also have people who have come before you who are looking to help you accelerate your business by making you better than you were today. Come to the Sandbox Center where you'll connect with, you know, right? When is the commercial coming out? Yeah, I mean we have a lot of programs and people who come through here and I am on the radio and to answer your question, what is the service area we refer to it generally as Central Ontario.

And so by that, I would say we're kind of York region, Simcoe County and Muskoka. The pandemic obviously offered opportunities for people to stretch beyond. But I would say that the majority of those that we see regularly are going to be in the Simcoe County area with a helping of those kind of on the immediate borders because A lot of what the offer is here, as you may have heard me say several times at this point, is it's really about that face to face connection and that sharing opportunity, which the space was created for.

But we do have virtual settings where we connect people as well. And actually, part of what we're doing right now is, you know, really, Yeah. Again, trying to understand because we went from in person to online only to hybrid to let's not ever do hybrid again in person to what's the virtual element going to look like.

Right. So we're, we are building that out at this very moment. Hopefully trying to work if Colin Christensen, are you listening? He probably is. He's got some great solutions that you know, in amongst things like he's offering with the ability to kind of virtually connect and virtually mentor and virtually impart wisdom, share knowledge, break down barriers.

That's really what we want to do because we have a great formula for that in person. And so. That is really who we're serving at this point, and then for some of the other things that I love to do as well, kind of once we get off the sandbox idea, we really look to serve there too. Amazing.

Kelly Kennedy: And one of your titles is one of the most interesting titles I think I've come across on this show, and that is the Head Camper of the Reignite Conference.

What is the head camper? What is that responsibility?

Jesse Kerr: That is also evolving daily. I asked myself, does head camper really encompass what it is you do? And it does well, we're at camp. And so the reignite conference was born of. The desire to really expand the community of practice of entrepreneurs and business people and entrepreneurs who are just looking to better themselves.

And the founder gentleman by the name of Chris Adams, who holds far more interesting titles than I do, he's been around for many more years than I have. I maybe one day, if he's listening, I aspire to be more Chris Adams every day. Although I'm sure he aspires to be more me too at times, but what he did with some of the other.

Leaders within our community in year one was say, you know what? Let's have an adult business camp. Let's go away like we did. And so we go up to this camp called Olympia sports camp in Huntsville. It's a very prominent kids sports camp in Ontario. They got a great layout. It's nestled between two lakes, big property, old buildings.

The the founder of it created in the style of the Of Nordic Kings property, I guess is the way I would put it with all these interesting wood outbuildings. And it's a great space. And what we look to do there was bring together more knowledge and also some fun. So the founder, he is very, very passionate about music and Canadian music.

So we've hosted some interesting bands there. I think I can't remember now year one. It might've been Sloan. I think it might have been Sloan and somebody else. And so we have we've had some interesting acts. And so Kelly to put the reignite conference together for what it is today and what it is for 2024.

I will still use the tag of adult business camp just to kind of frame it. But when I'm out there and I'm talking about it, what we're really focused on more is putting founders. And funders together. And so the main audience that we speak to in this is really kind of the incubators and accelerators who have founders that they are working with.

And then what we look to do through our vast network as well is to bring in a bunch of funders, whether those are angel investors, private equity, or VCs, funders. For varying things, we put them together for essentially 48 hours over three days. So this year's reignite conference is September 19th to the 21st at Olympia sports camp, and we're going to have four keynotes.

We have four focus, what we call camps. And so really these are panel discussions. And then after the panel discussion, we have breakouts, right? And we call those pop ups. So this year I can tell you that the Thursday kicks off with something new and for us, that is a med tech and life sciences, maybe biotech panel discussion, along with a couple of pop ups after that, then we'll go into dinner and then we'll hit a keynote.

And after the keynote, I'm not going to let you know who those are yet, but after the keynote, we'll have a band kind of come on and so it's this broad experience and Does that make sense then when I say like adult business?

Kelly Kennedy: Yes, yes. Very much so. It sounds very amazing actually. Are Westerners welcome to this adult business camp?

Jesse Kerr: You know, they are in fact, welcome to this adult business camp. And I got to tell you that it may be of key interest to someone who has a, the business development podcast that day too, the two camps are going to be focused focused more on revenue generation. So I think the morning camp is more of a, we call it scale up and then it's a more rev gen focused. And then the second iteration is going to be more funding aspects. And so that may devolve more into, you know, the concept of the investor side. They have the money and everybody knows the money is. Uber tight right now within the industry as to what they will invest in and what they won't invest in and what that needs to look like.

And so just for, you know, those, those individuals who are out there, you know, seeking either their first round or their next round, or they got a vision towards what that could look like down the road. I mean, we pull all of these people in and they are at the camp and you get to spend 48 hours with them.

The other beauty of this is it's a, it's not 48 hours of, you know, you being on, you're not, you're a, you know, they're getting to know you, which is why the funders side of the equation really like this because prior to that, you know, they may only have a few interactions. They have to judge you by your pitch and, you know, for the founder, you're like, Oh, no, my picture didn't go right.

They didn't really hear me. Yeah. Well, guess what? They're really going to come to know you and hear you when you spend 48 hours with them getting to know each other. Right. I'm so that is. At the core, and then we have a keynote speaking to, and I'll tell you last year we have this great photo. It was remarkable weather.

We got 26 degrees in late September all weekend. The first year we did not. We had 18 degrees. It never rained on us, but it was gray and overcast. 26 degrees. I mentioned there's two lakes on either side of the camp. And so, cool. We also have, we have fun. There's a, there was a band, there was a DJ. Suddenly the DJ decided he wanted to DJ down by the beach.

Then people started to want to play volleyball. Some people stopped going to the pop ups. All of a sudden there was a doc party and the doc party started to grow. It's all inclusive, by the way, of everything you can have. So all the food and drink was there. And then all of a sudden we're going. We got Bruce Croxon as our keynote this year.

Bruce is on in the hall, which is not at the beach, and I'm looking around and I said to DJ Casey, I said, DJ Casey, how long is that microphone cable you got there? And he said, that's about 50 feet. I paced off 50 feet and look at that. It was right onto the beach, right in front of the doc, Kelly. So we have this great photo and I actually have even a personal photo.

I love of the huge smile on Bruce's face because I was in the water. I'm just wearing a towel and I'm walking up to him to shake his hand at the end of it, and I fling off my towel and it's kind of like a Roman Cape in the wind behind me. And Bruce has got this huge grin on his face, smiling at me.

So he delivers the keynote Kelly from the beach in 26 degrees to our campers. There was about 140 people or so on the dock. What an experience, right? Like, and then he stuck around all weekend too, right? You want to roll up to the Bruce at dinner, hang out. You want to hang Bruce at the fire, hang out. So we're back at that again this year.

And so we got a scale up on day two and then day three is kind of a half, maybe a Two thirds day and we got our AI camp that runs on that day as well, along with a whole bunch of pop ups.

Kelly Kennedy: So dude, that's awesome. I gotta say, that sounds like any entrepreneurs listening. If you got nothing to do, or even if you do have something to do, you should definitely check this out.

Jesse Kerr: The connections that were made You know, in the follow on survey and even beyond at this point, I mean, as we, it started in year one, it was 80 people and it was kind of that, you know friends, family and fools crowd. And largely it was made up of kind of the sandbox ecosystem. And then year two, as we expanded the conversation, we got to, we were looking for 125 and we got to almost 140.

Great partners of ours that a bunch of different accelerators showed out to anyone who is engaged in DMZ. We had a massive faction of DMZ come up with us to the the burgeoning tree frog accelerator in Newmarket, Ontario actually was a, was a big piece of it as well. We, we had a lot of great partners who pulled in and then an extraordinary amount.

Of really heartfelt offerings, all of our keynotes that showed up to, they just showed up to give because they thought this is a great experience. I'm actually going to get to hang out. Be me. It's no pressure, right? No one's pitching you. No one's there to sell you on a deck. I mean, some of the founders get a little eager when you get around the money and they, you know, you really want to have the combo, but it quickly divulges into just a Let's get to know each other.

Who are you right? And that just opens that door to maybe knock on their door again at a time when you're ready. I really understand because you're going to get to talk with them. They can spell out for you like this is what I'm looking for. Truly. Where are you now? Sounds like maybe these are some of the things that could change.

Where I see what you're saying, here's some great opportunity or great connection.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, yeah. And you nailed it too. Like I always tell people, business isn't done at the conference, it's done after. And so what you need to do at any conference is make connections, be a human, be yourself, build a relationship, and you can always go to that business later.

We get so many people that they just rush into it. They just jump right into trying to, you know, slam a pitch down somebody's throat. And it's like, That's not the time, right? Conferences are not the time.

Jesse Kerr: It is not the time. And so it's great because everybody, the culture of it is there. And I mean, it's not just for founders and funders too, right?

There is the knock on effect of just individuals who are like, they could be solopreneurs. They're not really looking to scale to a massive, you know, international organization. They just. It's a lifestyle business. They've carved out a path for themselves. Maybe they're looking to do a little bit better.

Maybe they just want to broaden their network. So we also have a healthy number of, you know, of exactly that. Those individuals, the entrepreneurs, even who are looking, you know, to be surrounded in a community of practice again, because if you think about. The people who are there and what they focus on in the day and like what they live and breathe, it's very infectious culture.

Right? So even if you're just looking to again, reignite right yourself and your passion and what it is you're looking to do, you never know exactly the spark that you'll catch or that you'll give. I take such pride in it because of the experience. And so as the head camper, which is, I think how we started this diatribe, you know, my role is I lead the conversation throughout the weekend.

Right. So you'll hear a lot of my voice come, come the final keynote last year which was, I don't know if it was solely because, and I explained this on stage, I was like, I feel like. An overtired toddler, and you know what? I am raw. I am. I've got nothing more on the tank, but I am here for you all.

And then our keynote, she went completely raw on her journey, and I'm almost going to cry. Now. She had me in tears. She had everyone in tears, which is. The pure emotion and and it really spoke to and this is the last time I'm going to beat this horse. It really spoke to the sense of community that was there that she went way off script and just started sharing the reality of her experience that she did scale.

She was a single mom who was looking to create a healthier food offer option for her children and like. The craft dinner style brand and she created this thing called chickpea pasta. She almost got me there again to choking on myself. She Shelby Taylor went, went so raw with her experience that you know, you asked me earlier, you know, what does that look like when you're down, you're knocked down and what, you know, how do you, how do you manage, how do you come through?

Like what she has had to manage and I'm not even going to try it because I will ruin the story. Well, what she had to manage all the pressures of me is growing and scaling global business, home life, personal matters. Compounding on top of each other. It you know, it's just so rare. You're not going to get that glimpse from her or anybody else just an interaction at a conference or at an event.

It takes something like this where you truly find a community. And that's what people kept saying is I found my people. You found my people. That's why I take such pride in the experience.

Kelly Kennedy: Absolutely. So find your people. Get in touch with Jesse about how the heck you guys get to the reignite conference in 2024.

That sounds like a good place to be.

Jesse Kerr: It'll be going to market soon. We're just having the conversations with everyone from last year and then our returning campers. And then in April, you'll start to see us come out. The early bird tickets will be on sale to save anybody any potential sticker shock.

Again, it's three days, four keynotes, four camps. We're looking at 175 campers this year. So the experience for the ticket in the early bird is around 1, 200. When you consider a stay at Muskoka itself is about 500 a night. And that's before you eat anything, you got the upgraded menu, the all inclusive heated cabins and all that.

So just to give you a sense of the regular price ticket will be about 1, 500. By the time we get to August. So when you see it coming out, we'd love to have you guys there. And actually one of the other opportunities, and I'll just mention this for, for the people who are listening, like if you, you end up.

Having a conglomerate that wants to come from Alberta. We want to have you guys there. And we recognize that there is an additional expense for the travel aspects too. So if we can help you out with that, we certainly want to have you, we want to expand, so we're always open to other opportunities and like I mentioned the DMZ, right.

They. You know, they had a great model where they kind of supported the ability for their founders to go, but still wanted them to put some skin in the game to to make sure that, you know, they saw the experience and they, they grabbed full value. So we're open to conversation and the doors will be open for business come April, but we would really love to have, have everybody from Alberta show up, you know, especially you, we may have something special for you.

Kelly Kennedy: Okay. Well, let's, let's have a conversation. Jesse, this has taken us to the end of our show today. It's been absolutely amazing having you, you know, I wanted you to take just two minutes here before we closed off and touch on recon.

Jesse Kerr: Absolutely. So this is where what. I saw through conversations that happened internally here in in kind of our region was that we kept talking to each other and we kept telling each other what it was we were going to do. And we kept trying to find ways to work together, but everybody has their own KPIs and things they need to report on.

And, you know, working together didn't always quite work. We'd love to. And we tried. So I said, why don't we keep, you know, for two years, we've been talking to each other and going nowhere. Why don't we start talking to other people? In other ecosystems, right? So this is the concept of recon, the acronym being regional ecosystem collaborative.

Ontario. And so we, we just, I set up a little tour across Ontario. I started knocking on doors of some of my some of my connections saying, Hey, you know, I'd love to bring some people from here and invite people from any of the other regions into, you know, we went to McMaster Innovation Park last January.

Jonathan Hunt and the team out there hosted us. Jonathan, what is it? The ecosystem and Hamilton look like and they are extremely well established. They are a mature ecosystem. They've got great funding. They've got a university, the college and incubator and accelerator, their active team works well together.

And so for everybody who came to visit, and this is the purpose of recon and a nutshell is it was really benchmarking. Where you are, what you have and how it works against what exists in other ecosystems, how they have and how they're working to see like, are there new ways that either we can do what we do here better, or can we work with somebody else, what is the path forward?

So we can just improve our own business ecosystem. And so last year, what that looked like Kelly was a tour. We made believe 10 stops, including one that the reignite conference conveniently just before it kicked off with our friends in Muskoka. And we have that again this year as well. And conveniently also that day will be focused on med tech and life size.

So interesting that that's what the reignited. And so for this year, I think what the change is going to become is it's going to become a more focused, maybe more of a conference style this year. I hope to put we already have the one that's going to happen in on September the 19th in Muskoka.

I was looking to get one in a region a little bit closer to Toronto, potentially in Canada. June or july, june being the collision conference. So maybe we go to july or maybe it happens during collision. Who knows? But it will be more focused on the big difference there who comes to the table to answer the question.

The biggest change is you bring all of the business supports together. So, you know, the academia and what I like to call agency. But the big change and the big thing that needs to happen is you need Yeah. The municipal and provincial level government there, because a lot of the resources that they put in place don't always work, the boxes can't always be checked to actually create impact.

And so recon is going to be that opportunity to come together in a conference format to again, just hear about how are other ecosystems doing it. And we had some success on this level on a smaller scale at a few of our stops, specifically the ones in Collingwood, Muskoka, where it was an opportunity for the government bodies to really hear what are the innovators doing.

What do they actually need from us versus how it works and what we're doing? Because the biggest one piece to finish this out is entrepreneurs don't see municipal or provincial borders. That's true. Other than when we're forced into the box in order to receive any kind of support by way of granting or funding opportunities.

Right. So. We want to try and break that down. That's going to be the core focus of recon for 2024.

Kelly Kennedy: Amazing. Amazing. And you know what? I'm going to make a pitch for you. The Sandbox Center is doing amazing, amazing things in central Ontario. They are not government funded. They are not for profit. They are funded by donations.

By memberships by just people who want to support the Ontario business community. And this doesn't have to come from within Ontario. I'm talking to Canada as a whole. We have a lot of listeners across this country. If you guys, you know, love what they're doing here, and you want to get behind this organization, they need your support.

So Jesse, how do they get ahold of you? How do we do this?

Jesse Kerr: Kelly, I appreciate the Canada wide call out and sandboxcenter. com is our website. We just flipped it over so it is under some work, but sandboxcenter. com is there. Reach out to me personally, my name Jesse, J E S S E, last name Kerr, K E R R, if you type that in and with the word Sandbox into LinkedIn, you'll surely find me.

We're also on LinkedIn and all the socials at Sandbox Center, that's the C E N T R E spelling. And you know what? We just want to have connection to whether or not it works out that it makes sense for you from that support lens, which we would love if we know you, then it broadens our ability to serve the people in our region and that we come across.

Right? So sandbox is a super connector. We want to know as many people as we can and understand what you do so that we can connect people into you. That's at the heart of all of it. So yeah. Whether it's one way or a two way street, we appreciate knowing more and more of you and Kelly, thank you so much for giving us the forum and the opportunity and me the forum and the opportunity today too, sir.

Truly appreciate it.

Kelly Kennedy: Jesse, it's been an honor. This has been Episode 128 of the Business Development Podcast. This has been with Jesse Kerr. He is the Senior Ecosystem Manager at the Sandbox Center, the Head Camper at Reignite Conference, and the Lead Facilitator at Recon. It's been an absolute honor. We look forward to our next conversation, Jesse, and we will catch you on the flip side.

Intro: This has been the business development podcast with Kelly Kennedy has 15 years in sales and business development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry and founded his own business development firm in 2020 his passion and his specialization is in customer relationship generation and business development.

The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development, your Business Development Specialists. For more, we invite you to the website @ www.capitalbd.ca. See you next time on the Business Development Podcast.