Revolutionizing Women’s Entrepreneurship and Access to Capital with Marcela Mandeville

Revolutionizing Women’s Entrepreneurship and Access to Capital with Marcela Mandeville

Kelly Kennedy: Hello, welcome to episode 208 of the business development podcast. And today it is my absolute pleasure to bring you Marcela Mandeville, CEO of Alberta Women Entrepreneurs, a woman on a mission to build an organization aiming to be. The best place for women to grow successful businesses in the world.

Stick with us. This is a really eye opening and incredible episode.

Intro: 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: Hello, welcome to episode 208 of the business development podcast. We are coming to the end of the new year. And today I bring you an absolute rockstar expert guest, Marcela Mandeville. Marcela is a dynamic leader whose career and personal journey have been deeply influenced by a rich cultural heritage and a passion for business and community development.

Growing up with a father from Salt River First Nation and a mother from Mexico City in a small Francophone community, Marcela learned to adapt quickly and navigate a mixture of cultures and ideas, fostering a belief that anything is possible. This belief propelled her to pursue an international business degree with a focus on marketing, earning her a designation as a certified international trade professional and an MBA.

With over 15 years of global experience in business strategy, marketing, communications, and project management, Marcela has excelled as an entrepreneur, team member, and team leader. Her journey began with her first business venture in elementary school, an exclusive Snoopy snow cone experience, showcasing her early knack for innovative thinking and entrepreneurship.

A career highlight for Marcela has been her leadership roles at Alberta Women Entrepreneurs A. W. E. where she spearheaded initiatives that significantly advanced A. W. E. 's vision. Under her guidance, the organization saw a 50 percent increase in revenue and tripled its customer reach through new programs tailored for women entrepreneurs.

Marcela 's commitment to community extends beyond her professional endeavors as she actively shares her stories and insights through various speaking engagements. and supports organizations that make a difference. Her ability to connect strategy to purpose, combined with her relentless drive to turn valuable ideas into reality, cements her reputation as a transformative leader dedicated to empowering others and fostering sustainable growth.

Marcela , it's an honor to have you on the show today.

Marcela Mandeville: Oh my gosh, thank you.

Kelly Kennedy: Thank you. I've been wanting to have this conversation with you for so long. My gosh, like it's been months since we talked last, but I kind of started out this show in Edmonton, really trying to kind of inspire Edmonton entrepreneurs, bring them on the show, highlight them, and then that turned into obviously a much wider reach across Canada and now completely around the world.

But I still love to highlight Edmonton. It's my home city. I grew up here. And, you know, we have an entrepreneurship community like no other. And that that doesn't change with Alberta Women Entrepreneurs. And we are going to get into that today. And obviously we've kind of done some other highlights.

We've had the Edmonton chamber of commerce. We've had the business development bank of Canada. We've had Alberta innovates Edmonton, unlimited prairies, economic development. But. I have not yet been able to have Alberta Women Entrepreneurs and that has been a goal because you are doing incredibly meaningful work in the community.

And so I just wanted to say before we get started, thank you for the work that you've done and it's an honour to have you on today.

Marcela Mandeville: Thank you. Well, it's my pleasure and an honour to be here as well and an honour to do the work that we do at AWA every single day.

Kelly Kennedy: Absolutely. Absolutely. So first off. Who is Marcela Mandeville?

How did you end up on this entrepreneurial journey?

Marcela Mandeville: Yeah, well, I mean, it's I've been told I can go very far back into my history. So, you know, a big part of it was the way I was brought up. So you've mentioned it. My father was from Salt River First Nation, from the Northwest Territories. Up in the Hay River, Yellow Knife area was where he'd spent most of his life and until he met my mom, and my mom is from Mexico City and they fell in love and wanted to start a life and wanted to start a life in Canada.

So she, my mom moved to Yellowknife when she was you know, when, as soon as she could, after they got married and even that, you know, my mom doesn't consider herself an entrepreneur, but I think that idea of like taking risks. And anyone who has been through an immigrant journey has taken a risk.

And so we were immediately brought up with that, with that with that kind of experience of having a parent who took a very big risk to come to a brand new place and build a brand new one with, with big aspirations and that you can describe any entrepreneur with with that same kind of definition.

So that was the very beginning. And so we grew up and we, my parents decided to move us to Beaumont when my brother was about to be born, my younger brother and Beaumont back then. So this would have been the late seventies. Was, you know, a very small farming, a francophone community. It's not, I mean, it's always kind of considered a bedroom community because it's close to Edmonton, close to Nisku.

But it was, it had its own distinct culture. It was its own distinct place. And we We're different than the city. We still call it the city. We'll still say, you know, like, Oh, I'm going to come out. I'm driving in from the city or when I'm in Beaumont, I'll say I'm heading back into the city. Because it's not, people view it as one in the same, but it's not.

And so it was a small town. And so that idea too, though, of those, there were so many businesses that were foundational to making our small, our small town run. And even something like a farmer's market. On a Tuesday night when I would very excitedly get my puff wheat square after helping my mom do all of like the vegetable shopping at the farmer's market.

Those were business people too, but it wasn't until later in life that there was this definition of entrepreneurship, but I started, I always liked to make a little bit of extra money. I was like to save money. I didn't really want to spend my money. I wanted to save my money. And then we'd go to Mexico City to visit my grandparents and I would give all my money away.

So that was always how I wanted to be helpful in the world. But basically I started doing side, side gigs, right? So, you know, I'm in grade five, I'm in grade six and I'm you know, I've got my, or maybe younger, even the Snoopy snow cone, everyone's doing lemonade stands. Well, that's boring. So why not do something different?

So I pulled up the Snoopy snow cone machine and we had some food coloring. And I mean, it's just. Shaved ice. It's just ice, but it was different. It was the experience of having the snow cone machine itself. So I'm pretty sure that machine paid for itself. And then for extra money, you can pet the neighbor's dog.

And we had like, we had value added add on we were upselling before it was upselling. And so it was great fun, but you know, in cleaning people's lockers and organizing their binders doing things like that, which I just naturally enjoyed doing and people would pay me to do it, finding lost items.

I have my own little detective agency. I was a big Nancy Dew fan and I just, you know, I love the idea of, of, of sleuthing. So finding lost winter boots or finding a lost library book or something like that. So it was, I mean, it was always in good fun. And it was it really wasn't out of necessity. It was out of opportunity, which is we see that difference in entrepreneurship to people decide to pursue it.

But that's always just been who I am as a person. And and then when I studied, when I started to go to university, I studied business. I fell in love with business. I love international business being from a mixture of culture spending. A lot of my growing up in, in Mexico city with my Mexican family.

Also going to school in French, going to Quebec, you know, really understanding the French part of Canadian culture, like that variety of things I think gave my brother and I both just a fantastic perspective on the world. And so I wanted to be part, part of the world in business. But I also wanted that development piece.

I want to be doing something that made a difference that had purpose. It wasn't just about making money. It wasn't just about globalization. It had to be about something more. So then I ended up trying to go the corporate route. It was not for me. I worked a short stint in the energy sector. I love many people who work in the energy sector.

They were wonderful coworkers. It just was not the experience that I was looking for. And then I got offered a job with a small startup company out of Edmonton. And I moved back from Calgary to Edmonton and I fell in love with it. I fell in love with. The excitement and I, I mean, I wasn't taking the risk like the owner of the business was taking the risk and I'm sure he cried himself to sleep a lot of days wondering about how he was going to pay me, you know, pay me and the other staff person.

But but I think like learned a lot of valuable lessons because, and because it was, we all have to do this work to get things done in a small business. I was able to exponentially develop my skills. In and my, my boss at the time, the owner of the company was an exceptional, he, he, he was exceptional at developing relationships.

I'm making everyone feel valued around him. And so I learned so much from him in that. And that was my job was to expand us into other markets, which is exactly what I wanted to be doing, making connections. And then I went out on my own for a short amount of time and, and because of personal circumstances, I was not able to grow my business the way I wanted to and put the effort in.

And so I ended up back in Edmonton. I was in Calgary. I ended up back in Edmonton after separating from my husband, my now ex-husband. And and I was trying to figure out what to do and I reconnect, or I connected with the current c the, the time, at the time the current CEO of a WE and was talking about some of the things I'd love to work on.

And she said, I have these opportunities like trying to get, do some business development. That's totally up your alley. Yeah, and it's around building programs for indigenous women. It's around building programs for international expansion and global reach for our businesses. Would you like to come in and, and maybe help do some development of operative financial opportunities for the organization?

And that was a hundred percent, a beautiful fit for me. And then as soon as I was able to bring the money in, there was an opportunity to actually build. The programs and manage the projects and do that work. And so that's how I started. And, you know, I, I technically left for a couple of years, but I was still doing contract work.

And as soon as I was interested in moving, I was in California for a while. As soon as I was interested in moving back to Edmonton for family reasons right there, there was an opportunity to come back to AWE and help grow the organization and jump into a really exciting phase. of, of new opportunity for AWE at the time, but this would have been like 2015 and then in 2016, our, the CEO left the organization, had another opportunity and I took over as CEO in August of 2016.

And it has been a wild ride ever, ever since, but I would say it's been in my blood forever. My having also, you know the indigenous part of who I am and who my family is, there is always a spirit of entrepreneurship, whether you're self employed, employed by someone else. There's always this piece of, I think this this interest in, in doing something more, finding a different solution, you know, being creative with ideas.

in a different way than than what you would see in like mainstream business and mainstream culture, which I think is amazing. And yeah, so it's been a wild ride. I have my dad was a civil engineer and he had his own business for a while. My mom is an accountant and she's, and she's had her own bookkeeping business now since she retired.

Many years ago, and she, she will not stop. And I hope she doesn't because she's who I go to, to talk about tax things and tax questions. And, and she is sharp as a tack and I really appreciate even that. And I don't think she'd call herself an entrepreneur, but I think she absolutely has that spirit in her.

Kelly Kennedy: I love that. My my sister helps me with my accounting. So,

Marcela Mandeville: I mean, I can do a lot of things. But there, there were some people like, I just, I, I need a second set of eyes, like per, you know, my personal taxes or I'm doing, you know, I'm making some financial decisions by investments. Yeah. And my mom is absolutely a go to for that because I cannot believe how she managed.

To build such a, like, really, she managed the money in our family. She was the, she's the money brain. And what kind of life they were able to provide for us. With, you know, with what, what they were working with at the time. They had good jobs, but, you know, salaries weren't high and inflation was crazy 18%. They managed to build a really great life for us. So I have big respect for my mom in that particular. And she's just an incredibly graceful, beautiful human who people love to connect with. So so she's she's, I believe that if she put her, if she, she has select clients for bookkeeping now, but I believe if she put it out there, she'd have a roster full of clients.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes. Yes. Yeah, it's you know, I mean, it was a different time, a different world. I, I've talked to so many amazing people and, you know, one of the people that I've talked to kind of regarding the old career things was Liz Ryan who is, you know, a world renowned HR coach. And you know, the big thing that she was saying was that world is dead.

You know, the 30 year career and the gold watch and the, the parachute retirement, whatever. That is long, long gone and the whole world is still playing catch up to what that really means for individuals. But I think what it really means for individuals is the power's back in your hands, people. Like, it is your world.

Be the entrepreneur that you were born to be. What is your take on that?

Marcela Mandeville: I mean, I agree. I honestly like I, I guess technically I've been around AWE for 15 years, which is a long time. And I never would have foresaw that, you know, I didn't see nonprofit was not something we talked about in business school when I was doing my undergraduate.

It was talked about more when I did my MBA, which was later, I graduated in 2014. But it really was, you know, not a thing and, but what an incredible opportunity to, you know, flex skills and build connections with purpose. And so I think part of it is yeah, you may not have 30 year career and you may see different like things ebb and flow, but I also find this type of environment.

It's always changing. There's never a dull moment. And so that makes it a little easier. But I think this reliance on staying in one place, like, you know, for sure it's a choice. I choose. To stay in this place and continue to do this work because it's meaningful because I am making a difference and the moment that that's not happening anymore than it would be time to exit.

I think sometimes in other careers, people do a job to do a job that that idea of the 30 years of just doing a job to do a job, you know, getting along. Is different now and people are seeking different kinds of fulfillment. Entrepreneurship is a tough journey too, right? It is not, it got quite sexy for a while.

And you know, there was a lot of interesting stories about unicorns and all these things. Which is great, but it, it really is a lot of hard work. It is a lot of sleepless nights. It is depending on the type of business, right? And the kind of risk that people are taking. So, you know, big respect for, obviously, for entrepreneurs.

And that's why I, I continue to do the work that I do and why we have such a passionate team at AWE doing the work that we do together because we understand it. Many of us have lived it. And we know how valuable that is, but yeah, I totally, I agree. It's a different world now. It is. You can't, and also you can't buy a house for 60, 000 anymore.

Kelly Kennedy: That's right. I remember, you know, I was just thinking back to like, to when I started my company and like how scary it was for me to take that jump. You know, I mean, I, mine came from a conversation with my boss. I'd been there for 10 years and he goes, Kelly, like we're in COVID. Things are crazy. I don't know what the next couple of years look like.

And do you have another plan? And at the time I was like, Oh, well, I did, but I was afraid to like, take that jump. But that was really the like, kickstart. And you know, I mean, I owe that man a lot of A lot of praise for, you know, he did everything right. He gave me a great severance. Not only did he give me a great severance.

He said, I'm going to hire you back on contracts. I know you want to start your own business development firm. I'll hire you back on contract for six months to give you your first start. And so, like I said, like most people do not do that, that I owe, you know, his name is Selva Nadar, he runs Angrity Inspection in the city.

I owe him, you know, frankly, my career, because that was where the whole thing came from. But you know, not everybody's that lucky and gets that help. But, you know, just from that, it was very scary, but I'm incredibly thankful to this day. Like none of this would have happened. None of this. Would have happened without that little kick in the butt to do it.

And, you know, for me, it took a kick in the butt for other people, you know, they, they are ambitious and they really want to just do that jump on their own. But whatever your reasoning is, let me let you know that. Yeah. Entrepreneurship. It's not, it's not for the faint hearted, but you know what? Neither is employment.

Like let's get real. You're no safer as an employee. Then you are as an entrepreneur. And I would argue that as an entrepreneur, you have more ability to protect yourself than you ever would as an employee.

Marcela Mandeville: That's a fair point. You are charting your own destiny, right? You are, it's your own path and you are making your own choices, right?

And you have to live with the consequences of those choices. Sometimes as an employee, choices are being made for you. You're not, you're not getting a chance to be part of those decisions. I mean, part of it too, I'm an employee of a non profit, but I'm really making key decisions. I'm generally, I'm going to say probably not a great employee.

So I really hats off to my board. I, I, I am a fiercely independent. I, from when I was little, I did not want people to force me to hold their hands across the street, do things myself. And so that's been. You know, it's a blessing and a curse. And I do think that that piece of it is, makes a difference to that.

I'm in a, I'm in the type of position where I am making decisions and I do have influence over the direction of my work and the work of others, but I think it's, it's very different. And so when I was working in the big corporation, I really had no. You know, we were actually going to be going through a well, nically, I think it was actually an acquisition, but you know an M& A experience with another company and there was no say in, in how things were changing. And it, it was so much anxiety for people that were so reliant and, and. Didn't know if there was someplace else for them to go.

And they thought I was insane for leaving that corporate environment to go with a small startup where I might not have a job in three months. Like I had to make my own job. I had to make the money for my own job. So I, but I love, I thought, well, what's the harm? How I'm only going to be this age. It was, you know, I was in my mid twenties.

I'm only going to be this age now. And I have no other commitments at this point in time. Why wouldn't I take the risk now? Because I will learn so much from this experience, good and bad. I'm sure. But I would say like, you know, this idea that this idea that I, you know, even the, the, some of the advice that I got when I was trying to make my decision between the two job offers, one with the corporation, because I had just been there on a contract and then one with the small business.

And I was really leaning towards the small business. I just, I just, it was a gut feeling, a gut decision on paper, the pros and cons were the pros were not really there for the small business. But, but it just something felt right about that. And I'm so glad that I trusted my gut. Same with my gut, you know, starting to work with AWE.

It was a very foreign environment for me. I had come from international trade been doing a lot of like market development and other markets for small business. And it really was, you know, building programs was not my wheelhouse. Working in a non profit was not my wheelhouse. But I just had a gut feeling this was the right place for me to be.

And this was tied into my purpose and what I needed to be doing with my life. And I'm just so glad to have listened to those, to that inner voice in those, in those times when people were telling me, Really? Is this the right move for you? Yeah, it actually was.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, yeah, well, and you hit the nail on the head with the purpose side, right?

I think that's something that's really come up, like, and I want to say this, like, this sounds kind of horrible, but I think the whole idea of, like, working and living your purpose is a very, very new concept, right? Like, when I went into the job market as a kid, it was Find a job that pays well, don't, don't care whether it necessarily is what you love to do, as long as it makes you money.

And I think what we're starting to realize is, well, we love our jobs in our lives a lot more if we're doing work that we actually can get behind.

Marcela Mandeville: It makes a world of difference. It really makes, it makes the bad days, doesn't make them less difficult. But it makes Getting up the next day a little bit easier.

I would say. And, and every there's always even in a, you know, nonprofit and we, you know, there's difficult situations that arise all of the time because we're dealing with humans and there's always going to be complexity and difficulty with, with humans. But I feel like that's, that's something where not every task has to be like an aha moment, you know, entering data into our CRM. Does it, does it give me aha moment? No, it does not give me an aha moment. It's a necessary part of what we're trying to do in our, in our work, but it's at the end of the day, do I feel like I've done something to make a difference to someone else and even just made a difference to myself and how I feel like I've done something that made me feel good.

Yeah, and so that's really valuable and I, it doesn't have to be that you don't have to jump to job, job to job, to job, to job or whatever because you're not feeling a sense of purpose in every activity. But I think generally having this sense of purpose or being part of something that's aligned with really who you are, you know, at your core makes I think it makes us.

More productive and makes us happier. I wish it was a world where we didn't have to work. Like, you know, we could do all these things for free and money did exist, didn't exist and all these things. But the reality is, is we do have to work generally to put a roof over our heads and, and, and keep the lights on.

But I feel like those things are really if it's, if it's tied into who you are, really. Then, then the work is good and you're, you're generally satisfied with the work part of your life because it's such a big part of our lives. Like it or not.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah.

Marcela Mandeville: Yeah. I work long days. I work a lot of hours.

Kelly Kennedy: Hey, but you're passionate.

Marcela Mandeville: Very much though.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, that's the difference, right? It's like if you are passionate about what you do The time doesn't matter the effort doesn't matter because you care about the outcome you care about the success But if you are not passionate if you are not working in doing something that you feel valuable to the world or that you can get behind, you are unwilling to put in the effort it takes to get true success.

And I think, I think all organizations have to think about this and think about this in the, in the way that they put employees in different positions. Don't just put an employee in a position because you think they might be good at it. Make sure that they are actually passionate about doing that. And you will get 10 times the output that you, that you, then you even planned.

Right. But, I think the future of management is really going to be making sure that we are selecting people who are passionate about a certain thing and putting them on that thing. And we need, it's going to be up to employers to identify what their passions really are.

Marcela Mandeville: Yeah. Well, I think it's a lot of times we, you know, traditionally it was technical ability first.

And then, you know, then it's, you know, secondary would be, are you passionate? Are you interested in this? Is this, you know, the willingness to do it? But I do think it's starting to flip a little bit too, because we also are attaining much higher education levels. Generally in the population, especially in a place like Alberta, we're extremely well educated.

As a population. And so that technical ability is there's it's not as much of a differentiator either. But I think this ability like if you if you are genuinely interested, if you're if you are a learner, if you're if you're a person who is seeking continuous improvement, even if you don't have all the technical abilities.

You can learn those with the right guidance and be open to the guidance and the feedback and the coaching as well, super important, but passion and purpose. Number one, if you are not, especially in an organization like ours, for example, that is fundamental to to, I think to being a part of our team.

And so you, you find that in anybody in our organization, whether they're client facing or not any level of the organization, you would see that they're very passionate about the work that we do.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes. Yes. And let's just lead into that. What is the work that you do? What is Alberta Women Entrepreneurs?

Marcela Mandeville: So Alberta Women Entrepreneurs, AWE. is a not for profit association. We have been around Alberta. We've been around since 1995. So we'll be celebrating our 25th anniversary in 2025. We focus in on three main things. You know, we are focused on access to capital connections and capacity and how we do that shifts over time.

Depending on the needs of the entrepreneurs we serve. So we work with women at all stages of business, all industries and sectors, all demographics. And we are mainly focused on getting the money into the hands of women. Providing wraparound services and programs that support not only our clients that are getting AWE loans.

But also and also other ways of getting capital that we're supporting them in, but also anyone else out there. So we are really looking at providing programs and services that meet the needs of women specifically in the province of Alberta to help them grow their entrepreneurial ventures and reach their aspirations, whatever those aspirations are, because those are individual.

We can't beat every entrepreneur with the same brush. And we realized that. So we've been doing this now for almost 30 years and we have seen all the, a lot of, you know, the economic shifts, the ebbs and flows of, of, of the popularity of entrepreneurship. We definitely see peaks and valleys depending on our economic circumstances, but we've also seen this evolution in the, the view of entrepreneurship.

And. You know, 30 years ago, you might not be able to say, Oh, you might be able to count the number of entrepreneurs you can think of off the top of your head. On one hand, now it's multiples and multiples and multiples. And so I think even just the recognition of what is entrepreneurship and who is out there in entrepreneurial community has grown exponentially in the 15 years that I've been around A. W. E. So at the heart of it, we are working with women, entrepreneurial women who are trying to build growing scalable businesses in many cases, and not everybody wants to scale. We get it. Mhm. But if there's an opportunity, we want to be able to support women in doing that as well. So it's start up all the way to exit that we're providing services and programs.

Kelly Kennedy: Amazing, amazing. And I know like when we first started talking, I was a little bit blown away because you guys are completely self sufficient for the most part, right? Like, I think people look at organizations like AWE and think that you are getting a whole bunch of funding and that just has not been the case.

Marcela Mandeville: Well, we do get, I mean, we get primarily federal funding. So we have had a long standing relationship with what was Western economic diversification. Now, Prairie's Economic Development Canada, Prairie's Can. So, AWE was actually formed as part of a collective, a Pan West collective, to address women not getting capital for their businesses in the mid 90s.

Okay. So, so that the federal government has been on board from the beginning. They actually were the ones that propelled the development of AWE along with our sister organizations in BC, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, where it has, you know, and we got a certain amount of core, what we call core funding to be able to support our loan program in particular, plus any wraparound services and programs.

That funding hasn't changed, so we're very grateful for the funding we've gotten, but that funding hasn't changed in 30 years. We received a 5 million loan fund along, each of us in the West got 5 million, so 20 million total. And then we took that 5 million and we've been revolving it for the past almost 30 years.

Right. So, and then we get some funding to support the operations, but a lot of the work we do, we have to go out and really leverage. Our existing resources into new projects into new programs, bring in sponsors. You know, we do have to collect fees on on our programs, depending on the cost of delivering the programs and developing them.

So, we've been very, very fortunate that we've gotten good project funding. But this is a really tricky area for non profits is the cycles of project funding and you get one year funding, you get two year funding. For sustainability and for long term planning, it's really, really challenging. And so we, you know, we've, and this is not new news.

This is, this is information that's really widely known, but this idea of actually creating sustainability. Has been very, very challenging for organizations like us that have been evolving and changing what we do. If you look at what was delivered by A. W. E. In 1995 versus what's delivered by A. W. E.

Now it's really, really different. And the resources that have to go into building these programs, providing these services, getting the level of talent, just the cost of talent the salary costs and, and professional fees, because we want to pay people fairly for the work that they're doing for us is, is tremendously different than it was in 1995.

So we're trying to deal with a lot of those changes a lot of inflationary changes and we have not, you know, we, we've worked with what we've had for a long time, but we do also have to go out and do a lot of, of searching for other sources of revenue and support for the organization on a more consistent basis.

But it's a challenging environment for sure. It keeps us on our toes.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, I bet. You know, like you've been with the organization yourself for like 15 years. What you know, what is what have you seen change in that time? Right? Like, you mentioned just a minute ago that the organization was formed to help women entrepreneurs who simply weren't getting funding.

Can we talk about that?

Marcela Mandeville: Yeah, I mean, it's, it's It's, you know, hard to believe that in 19, in the 1990s, right, and if we were, you know, if we were around in the 1990s, obviously I was you know, I graduated university in 1996 and it didn't feel like we were progressive as a place. But we, you know, the fact that a woman still couldn't go in and get a loan, a business loan without having a husband or someone, you know, someone who is a man to co sign on that loan was a significant issue.

And it was holding back businesses from starting and growing. And so that was actually the, one of the main reasons why the women's enterprise initiative of which we were part of the, with the four partners in the West was born. So, but then you fast forward, it still happens. We hear stories all of the time of women that have gone in to get, you know, expansion loans or you know, they want to, they want to create a new line of business, whatever it is, an existing business, not to mention a startup.

That's a whole different thing, but they're still being asked, well, how's your husband involved in the business? And you know, what's, you know, basically saying that if the husband's not involved in the business that it's, you know, they're not going to be able to get this, this financing or this money from from whoever they're asking it from.

And it's very, it's, it's deflating. It's a deflating experience. And, but it's still happening and it's 2024. So back in 1996, it's like, Oh, 1995. Like, why do we, you know, I'm sure there were questions. I don't know. Cause I wasn't part of the, the organization then. I'm sure there were questions like, why do we need this?

It's 1995, you know, women have all the rights and women are in the workforce and women can have it all. Nd I remember that I remember a lot of that terminology when even when I was in university about having it all, especially at the age of thinking about getting married and having a family and being it's very formative years.

This idea that, you know we've made, we, we had made all this progress, but we, we hadn't obviously an organization like AWE was, was built because. There was something, a missing piece and really meeting the needs of women where they are. And so that fundamentally has not changed for us. That still is a very important part of who we are and what we do, what we're offering, the types of learning, the types of wraparound services, the types of advice that we have to provide to support women is very different.

It's a different world. The technology shifts, the economic shifts, cultural shifts even just a lot of the change changes in social norms. That we've even experienced since during and since COVID was at its, at its peak big, big changes and shifts that women entrepreneurs have to adapt to like everyone else, but there might be some additional challenges for those women, depending on what they need and what they're doing and what markets they're in, what industries they're in, because there are still industries and sectors.

Where it's not traditional for women to have businesses and they are excluded. They are excluded from the networking mix. They are excluded from the decisions and they want to be able to be a significant part of that, that industry or sector. So how do they get there? And it's a lot of times there's a discussion.

It's a women's fault. It's not the women's fault. It's a systemic issue that needs to be resolved.

Kelly Kennedy: Honestly, I'm still stuck on the fact that you couldn't get a loan without a man co signing in 1996. Like, I can't even believe that. That blows, I had no idea. To me, that's just like, how is that even possible?

Marcela Mandeville: Yeah, I know. I mean, technically, legally, it wasn't a requirement.

But they weren't, this is what was happening. And so, so women were being turned down to being deemed too high risk for being on in business on their own and and, and, and very challenging, right? Like to be able to say, and it still happens, it's happened through the years.

And when I was in business and, and getting separated from my husband, same thing. Like I, you know, wanted to, I was looking for a loan. I, first of all, I need to get a mortgage. And then I was looking for a loan for my business to say, and it was make or break it. If I can get a loan, I can actually maybe make this thing work and and be able to get, you know, these bid on these bigger contracts that I need to cash flow in advance until I get paid by the client.

My soon to be ex husband was not going to be co signing a business loan for me. And I certainly wasn't going to ask my father who was running his own business. And I'm pretty sure my mom would have, that would have been a hard no to, to co sign on something else related to entrepreneurship. And also just the, the, the point of it, the point of having to have that made me bristle.

And I, I didn't even think of AWE at the time. You know, that's one thing, like a big lesson learned. If I'd known there was an AWE, if I'd really thought about it, that would have been of the first place I should go and talk to them. But I didn't know about it. There wasn't that awareness. My head down, my head was in my business.

I was also dealing with a lot of emotional, personal things. I just was not. My head was not in the game, you know, properly, of course, but of course this was, it was so defeating to have the bank say , you know, well it, it maybe, you know and it wasn't an exorbitant amount of money, but maybe, you know, if your husband would cosign on it or someone else would co-sign on, a co-sign on it.

And that was just I think personally it just felt like, wow, you're not enough. Yeah. We don't believe in you.

Kelly Kennedy: How do you feel like today? Like, obviously it looks, if I was to look around from, from, you know, a man's perspective and I get it, like I'm not a woman, I'm not going to remotely say that I have a, I have an eye or a pulse on this at all.

I would say that the world seems to be evolving, you know, has there been meaningful change from 1995 to today?

Marcela Mandeville: Well, I think there is meaningful change. I mean, there are definitely, there has been progress. Does it feel like we're doing two steps forward and three steps back sometimes? Yes. We have made progress in bringing awareness to the inequities that are out there.

So, you know, really understanding what is happening, what's the truth out there. But that's just. At one level, we are. We don't have. We don't even have desegregated data, meaning we don't have data that really differentiates how women are getting money, how they're getting business loans from banks versus men.

We don't have data around like really deep data. around entrepreneurship, women's involvement in entrepreneurship versus men's involvement in entrepreneurship and all of the different factors that go into being successful as an entrepreneur. Now, there's some studies that have emerged in the last five years, seven years.

Let's see the first, maybe 10 years ago now. But it's, it's not like we have 50 years of data that we've had before where everybody was lumped in together and there's no intersectionality. So that's one area where. We've seen some progress, but unless you know baseline, like you, unless you know what you're starting from, it's really hard to measure progress.

Of course. So data makes a huge difference. Good data makes a huge difference. We can see the progress. We actually, you know, what, what we've observed too is through the 5 million, you know, revolving that over time and ending up now lending 30. Now we've lent 35 million from that 5 million original investment from the federal government.

We've been turning it over. And as women pay us back, we put more money into the hands of women. That's a 35 million, just, just straight out lending out into the community. And you know, evaluation of like, what difference does that make in the economy? It's 11 to one. So the impact, and that's a conservative number, 11 to one.

So we're into like, you know, the 400 million in, in economic impact in Alberta, that over time makes a difference in. the perceived value of entrepreneurs, the perceived value of women entrepreneurs, what kind of businesses they can open, what kind of businesses they can grow. So seeing that evolve over time has been fantastic.

And that's just a small piece, but that's just our loans. That's not even our advising, not related to loans or programs or services, but we've seen this evolution of, you know, being more open to inclusion, having more conversations about. Having women at the table, so to speak, or having women in decisions where we are still struggling and we have a great startup.

You know, the barriers to entry for entrepreneurship for small business in Alberta are very low and there's many supports to start a business here, which is fantastic. The on the other side of it to grow and scale and expand a business is extremely difficult still. And women are facing some unique challenges in that in particular around the Capitol to do that.

And the, the networks and the connections into decision making and procurement, for example, that is needed to actually grow and scale.

Kelly Kennedy: You have an insight that I would say nobody else has. Like nobody else has the insight into women entrepreneurship, the way that Alberta Women Entrepreneurs does and you specifically.

Today, what are, what are the challenges you are seeing coming through your office on a daily, weekly, yearly basis? What are the biggest challenges that women entrepreneurs are facing in Alberta today?

Marcela Mandeville: Biggest, biggest challenges is still money, money, the money that they need when they need it. And and this is something we've been talking about, too, is how do we provide, like, fast, responsible capital?

Can we, can we streamline, speed up some of these processes? And when we talk about access to capital, it's not just about other people's money being invested or borrowing other people's money. It's also about revenue generation. That's a key component of any plan around your money in your business. And so how are we helping them build revenue too?

That's a big piece. That's a big question mark right now. And we are seeing like really rapid technology shifts that are changing our access to global markets. And that's also changing their global markets access to us. Here as well. And so we can't rely on sort of traditionally like I've only done business in Alberta.

I only have locations in Alberta that becomes more difficult. To sustain over time, so businesses that are growing and scaling, it's looking at, like, where, where else can I go? What else can I do? What can I use technology for a eyes come up a lot? What can I do to build more value? In my company so that we can, whatever, whatever the goals are, you know, whether we want to sell more products or sell more services or, you know, we want to have more partnerships.

We want to build strategic alliances in particular in other markets. How do we do that? How do we do that safely? D with taking the right amount of risk, there's always this thing about women being risk averse, completely disagree. I think it's a personality thing. I've met many, many men who are risk averse.

It is not a gender thing. I think women are, women entrepreneurs that we work with in particular are take strategic risk. And that's a, that's a whole different way of looking at risk and it's for. Long term benefit, not only to themselves. But to the employees, to the communities they serve, to their clients, to their customers.

So all of those pieces come in together and a lot of women owned businesses are very involved in community and charity and giving back in so many ways. So I think all those things, you know, those have certainly been challenges. There's always opportunity on the other side of challenge, but that's the big thing, right?

Is like revenue generation, finding the markets, accessing markets that they want to reach. And then the other side of it is, I mean, there's always the HR side of it. It's the talent piece of it. It's navigating technology and talent. And then it's money. How to do, like, where am I going to get the money to do the things that I need to do to get my business where I want it to be?

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, yeah. Like, 35 million, I'm sure to a lot of people, seems like a lot, but in the grand scheme, my gosh, like, you are limited to how many people you can help.

Marcela Mandeville: Yeah, we have, I mean, we have much bigger aspirations than that. This is great. I mean, we, we actually in 2020, we were given what's called the regional relief and recovery fund.

So we put out 5. 2 million similar to SIBA loans that the banks were doing. We had our own type of fund through the federal government, which as that gets repaid, we can determine how we want to lend that out back into the community. And then we also received some funds from the provincial government, which was the first time ever we had received loan funds from the provincial government.

We've received many grants and, and program project related supports through the years, but this was an actual loan fund. So we now have grown our loan assets to be Around 14 million, just shy of 15 million. And that's a huge jump from an original 5 million to now, you know, tripled that pretty much, but we want to do more.

We know, and it doesn't have to just be debt. We want to figure out the right way to convene capital for women. That's a big focus for us as AWE going into the future. How do we work with others? To be able to help women not have to navigate so many difficult places to, to get the money that they need.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes. Yes, and like that should just be a no brainer like to me that just seems like everyone should be doing this like like you said It's 50 percent of the population.

Marcela Mandeville: Think about the number of businesses that are owned or co owned by women and You're right. I mean like even you know, 35 million over this many years is is is is Has made a difference.

I mean, we've made, we've made a lot of difference with that original 5 million investment, but it is relatively small to our economy in the province. And we would love more. I mean, we would, we would love more flexible, interesting, innovative ways to get money into the hands of women in particular, women entrepreneurs.

Who have been on the fringes, you know, with that intersectional lens where they just haven't fit the traditional criteria have been deemed too risky for what in one person's eyes or many people's eyes for one reason or another, how do we get money into their hands? Because that is actually what will create exponential growth for and productivity for the province.

Kelly Kennedy: You had mentioned, like, obviously, creative partnerships. What, what type of partners are you looking for? Let's talk about that.

Marcela Mandeville: Well, we're looking for all, I mean, we're looking for, obviously, responsible and, you know, vetted partners out there. But we're looking for partners who are like minded in Our three C's, you know, capacity, capital connections in the, on the capital side of things.

We are looking, I mean, it doesn't just have to be debt financing, right? We, we have specialized in debt financing by the nature of the funds that we have received and we do it well. And we do debt financing like our partner organizations. And I'm on the board of an organization called the women's enterprise organizations of Canada that has a national loan fund of which AWE is a loan partner.

Those kinds of initiatives that are women focused, doing lending without bias for women is extremely unique. And it is something I know a lot of other organizations that have not traditionally served only women are still trying to understand how to take the bias out of their systems. They have, they need systemic change.

It's already built into our systems, it's baked into who we are as an organization. So it's, it would be easy for us to exponentially grow with more funds. So we're looking for partners of that like mindedness. We are okay with partners who are understanding the system that they're within and trying to make change.

But we really are looking for people that are going to approach it without bias. That are going to partner with us wholeheartedly in our purpose as an organization and, and hopefully our, you know, their purpose is aligned with ours. And we're looking for partners that genuinely want to expand the potential of women in, in our province and in our country.

So it's not limited to Alberta only either. And, you know, we might have to even start looking outside our Canadian borders as well, but innovative, thoughtful, creative we don't need more of the same of what we're doing necessarily, but I mean, we welcome, it's always, it's easy, right, to bring in partners that do things exactly like you do it or very similarly.

But that forward thinking like fit me and people in like exploring more FinTech opportunities, you know, really getting into where are the entrepreneurs and how can we best serve them? So partners that can help us more deeply understand that to better meet those needs and to really want to collaborate with us and build something better and bigger for the future.

Kelly Kennedy: Amazing. Amazing. And you know what? You are talking to a worldwide audience. So who knows? Maybe someone is listening that that believes in your mission and is willing to help. And if you are, you know, we'll give you all the contact details at the end of this. But Marcela , I know we have lots of people listening right now lots of women listening right now who maybe are looking for support and they're thinking, would I even qualify for something like this?

Marcela Mandeville: Our doors are open to anyone. Everyone is welcome. You know, our lending is one piece of it, and we have criteria around that, but we have programs. We have our digital transformation programs that have gone national now, so we actually have national cohorts happening in both in English, and we're Launching our eight.

We just launched our asynchronous learning in English. Are we launching in the fall in French for our strategic edge and bold leadership program? So just even to get involved in those, it's a great peer community, lots of experts, good advice around strategic growth of your business. Our bold leadership is more focused on Digital, the digital optimization of business, the strategic edge is more focused on the bigger growth plan and how data and technology can fit into that they go hand in hand as programs, but those kinds of things.

There's great ways to get involved with us. That is it. It's not just about the lending, but but we also and which is way more flexible. And we also have advising. You know, we have different kinds of programs. We have our AWE network, which right now, you know, you can get a year long subscription.

It's got great content. It's got a great community of mentors of other entrepreneurs to connect with and a great resources. So we're, we're, again, we're working on some different ways to connect into the community, but there's so many entry points. To connect with us and get nominated for an award join us at our summit event in Calgary in September to just join in, talk, talk.

We're going to be the focus is about money. So come in and talk about money and find a find our community. So those there's so many points that. People can get involved. And it's it. We'd love more people to take advantage of our access to capital as an organization if they're if there's something they're interested in.

And it's the right fit. But it's we're way more. We're way more than that as an organization.

Kelly Kennedy: Amazing. Marcela , you're talking to a lot of people on the fence, probably a lot of women on the fence. Maybe they're working a job and they want to do something different, but they just They've been afraid.

They've been afraid to take that jump. Do you have a bit of motivation as a 25 year, frankly, I think the longest running Alberta entrepreneur that I've had on this show yet. Can you inspire them today?

Marcela Mandeville: Yeah.

Kelly Kennedy: Let them know they're enough. They can do this.

Marcela Mandeville: Absolutely. There are first of all, kudos. Kudos for having an idea and having a dream.

And being even on the fence about thinking about moving in that direction, there are so many supports like A. W. E. We're here to listen. We're here to help. We're here to support. We have wonderful programs about building business plans and just exploring what the opportunity might be. We wouldn't be the place we are without people exploring the opportunity.

And it can seem very challenging, very risky. Absolutely. But there will be a community to support you. And that's one of the reasons I have left Alberta and come back and, and left Edmonton and come back many times for my family. But also because this community wants to help, wants you to be successful.

In however you want to be successful in particular in entrepreneurship. So if you're, if you've got one foot off the fence and you're ready to take, you're ready and you're, you really have those pieces around you to support you in the ways that you need it. And we're here as AWE to help you explore. If you have those pieces ready, we are fully here to bring you into a community that is going to help you be successful.

Kelly Kennedy: Marcela , this has been awesome. Thank you so much for coming on today. I really, really enjoyed chatting AWE with you and learning your journey. And I just wanted to say, you know, thank you for the incredibly hard work you have put into our community. My gosh, like, 96. Like, that's just, that's wild. Like, it's almost hard to believe sometimes.

Like, I was born in 88. So.

Marcela Mandeville: Yeah, I'm definitely, I'm giving away my age now, but but yeah, I think it's been, it's been wonderful. Like I can't imagine doing anything else. Over these past, you know, 20 years in my entrepreneurship journey and joining A. W. E. It is the most fantastic place to build a business and one of, you know, my dreams and our vision, you know, in A. W. E. Is really to be to be a leader in in promoting and supporting women's entrepreneurship. And personally, I would like us to be the best place for women to grow successful businesses in the world. And we have the ability to do that.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, I think you'll accomplish it. I think you will.

Marcela Mandeville: I'll try. I'll try in my lifetime.

Kelly Kennedy: You got this. You got this. Until next time, this has been episode 208 of the Business Development Podcast. We will catch you on the flip side.

Outro : This has been the business development podcast with Kelly Kennedy. Kelly 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.