It isn't always roses: new Yellowknife podcast tells stories from women entrepreneurs

There's no time like the present (read: pandemic) to start a podcast.

Even if (especially if?) it's not about COVID-19.

Just ask Yellowknife entrepreneur Maureen Van Overliw. In the current crisis, she saw an opportunity, specifically, to promote other women entrepreneurs in Yellowknife.

Some of these women have more availability at the moment, she said, so now seemed like a good time "to get their voices and their stories out there" — and a podcast seemed like a good platform upon which to do it.

"I really wanted to a) showcase the amazing talents that we have in the North from an entrepreneurship perspective with women, but also provide some role models," said Van Overliw.

"So if there are other women who are listening to these podcasts, it may inspire them to say, 'Oh, OK, so-and-so can do it and it wasn't actually all roses and easy for them, but they found ways through it.'" 

Passion over profit

There are eight episodes planned for the first season of The Intrepids: Stories of entrepreneurial women, and four interviews have been released so far. 

Van Overliw said some of the women she interviewed "fell into entrepreneurship almost by accident, just because of a market demand for something that they were doing for themselves, like Kerri Nolting," of home accessories business The Farmhouse by Kerri's Kreations. 

I thought if I could get more than three [episodes] out there, then I'm in that 30 per cent, and that's a good goal for me, and I've hit it.- Maureen Van Overliw, host of The Intrepids: Stories of entrepreneurial women

Nolting, said Van Overliw, wanted to decorate her living room so she made a sign, and then she made a welcome sign to put outside her house, "and all of a sudden her neighbours were asking for the signs."

On the other end of this enterprising spectrum, she said, is Janet Pacey, who's "always had some level of entrepreneurship running through her blood."

Though each story is different, said Van Overliw, certain themes have emerged: women driven by passion over profit, themes of collaboration, community support and resiliency — "when they've been knocked down, how they've overcome that."

And given these pandemic times, Van Overliw added, there are also themes of flexibility and adaptability.  

"We do talk about how COVID-19 has affected their business," she said.

Some, she went on, have successfully pivoted and may keep certain adaptations to their businesses post-COVID-19, while others, "are really, really suffering right now."

What women are up against

Van Overliw, the founder of Leadership Lab Consulting and the mother of two children and two dogs, chose to focus on women entrepreneurs, in part, to illuminate what they're up against. 

Women are usually saddled with more domestic responsibilities, she said. Also, she said studies have shown that they tend to wait for "perfection, whether it's timing, or opportunity, or their own skill set, before leaping into things, more so than men will."

In short, women may be more hesitant to start a business.

Van Overliw herself, however, was not so hesitant to start her own podcast.

She attended a webinar, asked friends for advice, and accepted that she would learn as she goes.

"In the webinar, the person was explaining that on iTunes [Apple] Podcasts there's over a million podcasts … but 70 per cent of those million podcasts have only up to three episodes," she said. 

"I thought if I could get more than three out there, then I'm in that 30 per cent, and that's a good goal for me, and I've hit it and that's got me really excited." 

Van Overliw's already looking toward a second season, one that will break with the binary (women vs. men) formula and explore "different types of intersectionality," she said.

"It could be potentially Indigenous women. It could be, you know, more from the LGBTQ2S+ community," she said.

"There could be lots of different opportunities to explore how else different struggles may arise for different women starting businesses."