Investment

A trailblazer as a financial professional

Filomena May, a native Calgarian, Senior Wealth Advisor and Chartered Investment Manager, international speaker, entrepreneur, mother, and founder of Filo Financial Solutions of Raymond James Ltd. Filomena operates across Canada, helping clients turn investments into successful portfolios. Her secret? Filomena is not only passionate about building wealth, but also educates on how to strategically protect it. Using a customized approach with attention to detail, she creates a unique financial roadmap for her clients based on their values and goals, while providing ease of mind and balance along the way.

Filomena began her career in 2002 at age 24 and beat the odds in an industry where only 5% of women were advisors at the time. Filomena is a trailblazer and sought out financial professional in her industry. She’s a contributing author of two amazon best sellers, podcast speaker, has appeared on BNN, CTV and “The Wealthy Life” show, and is in The KNOW Calgary volume three and Best of The KNOW Global. She is also President of her Italian Cultural Society “Calgary Calabrese Cultural Society” and enjoys the community work that she does in the city.

Watch our first interview with Filomena here.


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You are who you surround yourself with

Cordell Jacks is CEO, co-founder, and General Partner at Regenerative Capital Group (RCG).

Prior to launching in 2022 with his business partner Mike Miller, Cordell was an executive at several cleantech companies focused on global circular economy initiatives. He was also Founder & Global Director of an international NGO initiative focused on market-development programs. He’s spent the majority of his career creating innovative social finance mechanisms for environmental and social impact.

Cordell is the recipient of several international accomplishment awards, including the Dubai International Award for Best Practices, INDEX: Design to Improve Life Award, and The Lipman Family Prize. He’s based on Vancouver Island.


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Starting up… get some great insights from a start-up master

Matthew von Teichman is a serial entrepreneur and one of the country’s biggest leaders in the Natural Products category (founder of Spore Wellness, GreenSpace brands, Life Choices, among just a few). He’s started 9 companies and it’s obvious he loves the energy and innovation of a startup! and he’s made his entrepreneurial drive pay off. He’s now going back to his roots and doing startups in the e-commerce and food space, as well as helping entrepreneurs with their businesses as an investor, mentor, and advocate to help them avoid some of the many mistakes I’ve made. Check out his latest venture at Purplesful.


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Innovative leadership style and strong entrepreneurial spirit

With an innovative leadership style and a strong entrepreneurial spirit, David Wallach has expanded Barclay Street Real Estate from a small local establishment with a handful of brokers to one of the most prominent and respected commercial real estate brokerages in Alberta.

David’s career started over 30 years ago in Israel where he owned a successful insurance brokerage and was President and GM of a professional basketball team. However, David saw bigger opportunities in his future when he, his wife and three children immigrated to Canada in 1999.

In 2000, David began his career in Canadian commercial real estate and was later invited to join a group of senior negotiators who bought an established real estate firm in 2001. In 2003, David assumed the leadership role of President with a rigorous business growth plan in mind, and in 2004 the brokerage was rebranded under the name Barclay Street Real Estate.

In a few short years, David has made strides in growing Barclay Street locally and internationally. In 2007, David added Property Management to Barclay Street’s portfolio of services and the division has grown dramatically in the last few years with properties throughout Alberta, managing today over four million square feet.

To expand Barclay’s national and global reach, David formed a partnership in 2011 with TCN Worldwide, a real estate services organization that serves more than 200 markets globally. As a member of TCN Worldwide, Barclay Street has the ability to service their customers on a local and international level through a network of over 1200 commercial real estate firms. Since 2012, David brings his commercial real estate knowledge to the international stage as a board member on the TCN Worldwide Board and as the Regional Vice President of the Canadian Region.

On April 2013 David received his CCIM – Certified Commercial Investment Member designation.

In June 2014 David launched a new venture, Triumph Real Estate Investment Trust. A private REIT focused on acquiring revenue-producing properties in defined markets both in Canada and the U.S.A. David is the founder and president and is responsible for all real estate matters of the Trust as well as involved in raising funds for Triumph.

David holds a strong belief that a company and individual are only as strong as the community and clients they serve. With that in mind, Barclay Street takes part in many community initiatives including sponsoring local music festivals.

With the leadership philosophy of “leading by example”, David has created a culture of mutual respect and care for his employees that transcends beyond the office wall so every client receives top-quality service and should not expect less when dealing with a Barclay Street employee. With family-centric ideals, David ensures Barclay Street employees and clients feel like they are dealing with family, not just coworkers or a commercial real estate broker.


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Simplifying accounting and bookkeeping for small businesses

Rob Boynes is the co-founder of huumans, Canada’s first modern accounting and bookkeeping company aimed entirely at small businesses. Built by the people behind Wagepoint, huumans is focused on helping to make running a successful small business as accessible to as many people as possible through the democratization of data and knowledge. A recent resident of Nova Scotia, Rob’s career has been based predominately in product-first, early-stage technology start-ups throughout Europe and the US, with an earlier foundation in media, broadcast and brand.


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Invest in yourself to become an entrepreneur

Vanessa Iarocci CPA, CA, is an authentic and energetic leader known for her passion for education and innovation, which she brings to her role as CEO and co-owner at Brain Power! Vanessa earned her Bachelor of Commerce, CPA designation and was selected to complete a post-graduate certificate in innovation at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Following this, Vanessa spent over two decades in increasingly senior positions at PwC and TD Bank Financial Group. She then honed her entrepreneurial skills as the CEO of a national school apparel company, where she led an innovative turnaround and growth strategy. Drawing on her 20 years of experience at some of the world’s leading firms and as a CEO, Vanessa has already lead instruction in exciting new courses at Brain Power that expose students to cutting edge business and investing concepts, including preparing them for the prestigious Wharton Investment Competition.


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How to sell your company for $20 Million

Having started 11 companies to date, Scott Duke is a lifetime entrepreneur. Most recently, Scott founded OpnRoad, an M&A advisory firm based out of Revelstoke, British Columbia that assists business owners across North America sell or purchase companies within the $2M – $20M in revenue range.

You can find out more about OpnRoad and its services here.

In addition, Scott serves as the VP of sales for Capitaliz, a SaaS company servicing the exit planning industry, and as the managing broker of a chain of property management companies across British Columbia.


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Wes Hall of Dragons’ Den invites you to submit your pitch and gives some helpful tips

Dragons’ Den and Canada’s Podcast have partnered to give away 3 golden tickets to pitch to the dragons! Get your golden ticket to Dragons’ Den today by uploading your 60-second video pitch to our entry page at https://canadaspodcast.com/dragonsden. The best 3 elevator pitches will get a golden ticket to audition to the Dragons’ Den producers.

Wes Hall is Executive Chairman and Founder of Kingsdale Advisors. He is the newest Dragon to the Den – Canada’s first Black Dragon. He has been married for 30 years and is father of five kids. Wes was originally from St. Thomas, Jamaica and he immigrated to Canada at 16 years old. Raised by his grandmother in a tin shack with 13 siblings and no running water, Wes is truly a self-made Canadian dream success story. His favourite sports team: the Toronto Raptors. Wes is very into fitness (yoga, pilates, peloton, treadmill, weights, all sports). Wes is known for his generosity, leveraging his business success to benefit others with a number of impactful charitable initiatives, and serves as a Board Member of the SickKids Foundation, Pathways to Education, Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and The Black Academy. He is also a Member of the Board of Governors at Huron University College. Wes is Founder and Chairman of The Canadian Council of Business Leaders Against Anti-Black Systemic Racism and the BlackNorth Initiative, committed to the removal of anti-Black systemic barriers negatively affecting the lives of Black Canadians. He has also changed the lives of thousands of children in the Caribbean and Canada, donating both his money and time. In 2015, Wes was the recipient of the Vice Chancellor’s Award and in 2017 received an Honorary Doctorate, both from the University of the West Indies.

Maybe you can join him and begin your success journey. Take a listen to the podcast. Give us your 60-second video pitch and who knows, you might get to meet the Dragons. The best 3 elevator pitches will get a golden ticket to audition to the Dragons’ Den producers. Go to https://canadaspodcast.com/dragonsden and make your pitch.

Finding the pain in serving financial investments clients

James Rockwood is the Co-Founder and CEO of CapIntel, a financial technology company that supports financial advisors in their day-to-day workflow to deliver top-tier client service. In building CapIntel, James has been a part of two leading Canadian accelerator programs: Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) and Next Founder. The CapIntel platform now serves over 10,000 financial advisors across the country through partnerships with established financial service firms such as IG Wealth Management, Canada Life, and Equitable Life.


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Justin Hartzman of CoinSmart returns to talk about the future of crypto, NFTs and the digital world

Justin Hartzman is returning to Canada’s Podcast to give us an interesting update on his entrepreneurial journey. And seeing as he snow now running CoinSmart a public company in the cryptocurrency sector — he is going to give us insights on the crypto market as well.

Justin Hartzman is the CEO and Co-founder of CoinSmart, a crypto asset trading platform exchange based in Toronto that simplifies cryptocurrency investing for participants of all experience levels through a simple interface, education and customer support. Justin founded CoinSmart on the basis of making cryptocurrency accessible to all. Justin strongly believes in the promising future cryptocurrency has to offer and the importance of it being a part of any well balanced portfolio of investments. As a seasoned business leader and entrepreneur, Justin has led numerous companies from start-up to successful exit. His proven track record of entrepreneurial success includes founding the first website brokerage exclusively serving online businesses, pioneering the industry and achieving over $100M in transactions to Fortune 1000 companies, PE firms, family offices, and venture funds.


Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on FacebookInstagramLinkedIn and Twitter.

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