After years in the financial sector, Suzanne Cody and Gwyneth James are taking their clients beyond the basics with a goal to connect clients to a higher level of financial management.

“Our plan is to add controllership functions to our suite of accounting services,” Gwyneth explains. “It is a level of expertise that smaller businesses find impossible to staff in-house.”

Controllers go beyond simple bookkeeping by providing reports, analysis, and advice. They not only prepare financial reports, they also interpret these reports and turn these observations into advice — something that all businesses need to survive and grow.

“Our staff are good at analysis and systems,” Suzanne says. “It’s hard for smaller businesses to afford someone to do this in-house. Sometimes they will have the same person who answers their phone doing their books and they may be missing out on important financial and business support.”

This is the big gap that Cody & James Chartered Professional Accountants (CPAs) are looking to bridge.

Clients who receive this controllership support have a better handle on when to expand, when to make big purchases, whether to buy a company car or enter into a lease, and whether to increase prices.

These are the additional pieces Cody & James CPAs want to offer to more businesses and, as a result, more businesses should do better in our community.

Cody & James CPAs are now offering this higher-level support to clients on an hourly basis, saving smaller businesses the financial burden of a full-time controller.

“There are lots of people who are good at data entry or people who use on-line bookkeeping but then they’re not looking back at the numbers,” Gwyneth says, “whereas our team has really good controller instincts.”

These instincts include understanding what the numbers are saying, being able to ask the right questions, and having the confidence to offer advice that can save a business from a long list of potential vulnerabilities.

Gwyneth explains that the numbers tell the story but unless you speak the language well, unless you have spoken the financial language well for many years — you’re not doing the best you can with your business.

“We do this because we care about our clients,” Gwyneth says. “Working with our team, your company will do better.”

The growing firm in the north end of Peterborough offers a full suite of accounting services — everything from financial statements, corporate and personal tax returns, bookkeeping, and payroll — in their personable, approachable manner and in a language the clients can easily understand.

Through their membership in Porter Hétu International they offer assurance engagements (reviews and audits) to clients. This association also provides research, support, and shared resources through fellow accounting firms.

The Porter Hétu connection aside, Cody & James have earned their local reputation for excellence in their services to small business and a long list of local not for profits — something that comes from the partners’ dedication to volunteerism. Both Suzanne and Gwyneth volunteer with different community organizations and not for profits and this hands-on experience is translated into more support for their clients.

Both partners love the company they have built, and the satisfaction that comes from supporting such a diverse client list. They have attracted a solid team of professionals and they look forward to taking the business in a direction that will create a climate of success for all the individuals and businesses they support across the region.

Cody & James CPAs is located at 260 Milroy Dr. #1 in Peterborough. For more information, call 705-876-6011 (toll free at 1-888-511-2791), email info@codyandjames.ca, or visit www.codyandjames.ca. You can also find Cody & James CPAs on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

You can also follow Gwyneth James on Twitter at @ghj_cpa and connect with her on LinkedIn. You can connect with Suzanne Cody on LinkedIn.

Growing up in outport Newfoundland, Paula Kehoe was surrounded by storytellers — spirited talkers telling tales of life’s quirks and absurdities. So it’s no surprise she would develop the storytelling technique and aesthetic.

Paula has woven storytelling with her communications expertise and journalism background to meet the new needs in digital and print marketing.

“Storytelling is an art form,” Paula says. “It’s very much about sharing and connecting with people. When you’re telling a story or listening to a story, you’re all in that moment together.”

The owner of Red Rock Communications now uses a form of storytelling to get people talking about a product or service: brand storytelling, as Paula calls it.

“It’s one of the most powerful tools in your selling toolbox,” she explains.

“If you’re trying to get customers to buy your product or pitch your company to investors, for example, your success will be dictated by your ability to influence, persuade, and seal the deal.”

For three years, the Peterborough-based copywriter has been offering writing services to companies, creative agencies, and startups.

She creates content and turns ideas into words for the use of promotion through website pages, articles, publications, advertorials, marketing brochures, press releases, ad campaigns, and long sales copy.

While working with clients, Paula’s role is quite expansive. She writes and edits copy, ensures clients’ messages are properly delivered, discusses marketing methods, develops new concepts, ensures budgets and schedules are adhered to, and uses search engine optimization (SEO) techniques.

“Before I start writing, I research a client’s business and brand and how they stand out from their competition. I work with the client to identify any pain points and potential solutions.”

She then carefully chooses words crafted with precision. The end result is high-quality content that communicates value, connects with the needs of customers, and inspires them to take action.

For businesses struggling to retain customers or make sales, Paula says it could be that their digital copy isn’t written well, doesn’t resonate with their target audience, or isn’t optimized to get noticed by search engines.

“Design, content marketing, and SEO are all parts of a good digital marketing plan, but copywriting is the glue that ties it all together. It’s a game changer for almost any business.”

Born and raised in Newfoundland, Paula completed a bachelor’s degree in sociology and political science and a post-graduate diploma in journalism. Her writing and communications consulting work took her from her home in a tiny fishing village to the Grenadine Islands and from the east coast of Canada to the west, before she firmly settled in Peterborough with her husband and their two children in 2015.

The impetus to dabble in entrepreneurship started in 2016 when Paula started her boutique communications company Red Rock Communications. She made the decision to work for herself so she could be present for her young boys.

For many, raising a young family and running a business seems like a daunting task. However, Paula says she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I didn’t know a single person in Peterborough when I moved here, and in a few short years, I’m proud to say that I’ve built a supportive network of friends, and a long list of grateful clients and unexpected business opportunities.”

Her projects are many and her clients are diverse. She works with creative agencies and corporations in team environments and supports individual clients while keeping an eye for opportunities — which is how she became the co-founder and VP of marketing and communications for virtual reality startup SoftCoverVR.

SoftCoverVR works with the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries to produce immersive experiences for marketing, training, and educational purposes.

“It’s an exciting opportunity,” Paula says. “I’m fascinated about the intersection of art and technology, and how we can tell better stories in this medium that are impactful and emotional.”

Although running two businesses adds to her plate, Paula continues to pursue her volunteer interests. Nowadays, she’s busy in her role on the Women’s Business Network of Peterborough’s board of directors. As 2019-20 Awards Director, she’s responsible for organizing the Women In Business Award and Judy Heffernan Award event in 2020.

Being front and centre inspires Paula to keep discovering the passion behind what people do — and transforming that passion into an equally compelling story.

“Stories are written to be shared,” she says. “To recognize the power of people’s stories and then tell them on their behalf is an absolute pleasure.”

Red Rock Communications is located in Peterborough. For more information, email paula@redrockcommunications.ca or visit redrockcommunications.ca. You can also connect with Red Rock Communications on Twitter and Instagram.

Finding success and happiness by doing work that matters are words that Kim Appleton truly lives by. So it was to no one’s surprise when Kim took home the 2019 Judy Heffernan Award at the Women In Business Awards gala last spring.

The award, named in honour of Heffernan, a well-respected leader of the local business community who passed away in 2013, recognizes a female entrepreneur, mentor, or student who embodies her legacy of humbly helping others succeed.

“Winning that award holds a special place in my heart,” says Kim, who was a mentee of the late Heffernan. “I feel blessed and grateful. It was a nice reminder of how others view my contributions to our community.”

As a business owner, mentor, and volunteer, Kim takes great pride in helping others reach their full potential through sharing her knowledge and experience and by mentoring business professionals.

Kim is the co-founder, president, and CAO of Peterborough-based technology company Emmatt Digital Solutions. For over 20 years, the company has provided support to businesses across North America — including government healthcare agencies, manufacturers, small businesses, and not-for-profits — to modernize and expand their digital presence, with everything from document scanning to web development.

In 1998, Kim launched Emmatt Digital Solutions with fellow Fleming College classmate, Chris Calbury, not long after they both graduated from the Business Administration program, specializing in Information Technology. Kim handles the finances, administration, and human resources, while Chris manages sales and client projects.

Starting out, the partners successfully tapped into the then-new disruptor of microfilm and fiche: document imaging, which quickly became the flagship of the company.

It has remained lucrative to this day, Kim explains, due to the fact that in areas such as healthcare, records must be kept for decades, and scanned files are much more efficient to store and retrieve when necessary. Plus, attempts at making offices paperless have just not fully materialized.

“We recently finished a scanning project that was close to 300 boxes and took nearly 2,000 hours to complete,” Kim points out.

Since its humble beginnings, Emmatt has moved with the times and evolved to offer website design and custom development services, which put it in a great position to begin offering search engine optimization, web hosting, cloud-application development, and e-commerce systems.

VIDEO: Emmatt Digital Solutions Inc. – Full-Service Web Agency

Emmatt also offers unique custom platforms, including a specialized e-commerce payment solution, an online e-learning management system, a digital signage communication system called BallyhooTV, membership management platforms, and a customer relationship management and call-centre management system for real estate sales professionals.

Looking back, Kim recalls how so much has changed in the technology and marketing landscape. When they started the business, there was no such thing as Google.

“Back in our early days, which was before Google, we used to teach people what a search was and how to do it,” she says, laughing.

In order to navigate the rapidly evolving business world, Kim also needed to adapt with the changes. To stay laser-focused on her path to professional and personal fulfillment, she sought out self-development training courses, many of which were taught by the Law of Attraction teachers from The Secret: Jack Canfield, Hale Dwoskin, Abraham Hicks, and John Assaraf — and others including Tony Robbins. And yes, she points out, she did do the “fire walk” across the hot coals.

Over the course of five years, she and Chris travelled throughout North America learning the secrets of how to create rapid and lasting transformations in both life and business.

“We aren’t as immersed it in as we once were, but we’ve stayed in that mode and it’s an ongoing evolution,” Kim says. “I think that’s the reason why we’ve been able to keep the company flourishing. We learned that we don’t have to struggle. The more gratitude you have, the more joy and abundance you experience — and it just keeps coming back.”

It’s this expression of gratitude that has fostered continuous loyalty from Emmatt’s clients. After two decades in business, the tech company still works with some of their original clients.

“Today, we’re still working every week for the very first document imaging client we had 21 years ago,” Kim says.

Even though technology is the backbone of the business, she says it doesn’t run the company — relationships do.

“If I’ve learned anything over the years, it’s that sales is all about relationships. We listen to and understand our customers, and then give them what they want.”

For Kim, that also means delivering projects on time and on budget, keeping clients informed and giving them full transparency, and solving problems immediately when they arise.

When she’s not co-leading a full-time staff of seven, Kim is busy honing her skills as a certified holistic life coach and volunteering in the community.

She served with Community Futures Peterborough for nearly eight years, including time as both board treasurer and chair, and she is a past president of the Women’s Business Network of Peterborough as well as long-standing member.

Kim is also a member of both the Peterborough and Kawartha Chambers of Commerce and the local 100 Women’s group, supports businesses through a mastermind group that meets regularly, and is a formal mentor to entrepreneurs who are just starting out.

Through Emmatt Digital Solutions, Kim and Chris support local charities including the BEL Rotary Club’s golf tournament, Shared Dreams for Independent Living, Soroptimist Peterborough, the YWCA Women’s Shelter, and have provided the Peterborough Humane Society with a free website for their “Our Pet Project” fundraising initiative.

While giving back is good for the company’s reputation, Kim says it’s just plain good for the soul.

“You have to live with a more joyous, abundant and grateful heart. It’s so true: when you give, you get it back tenfold.”

Emmatt Digital Solutions Inc. is located at 649 The Parkway in Peterborough. For more information call 705-750-0476, email info@emmatt.com or visit www.emmattweb.com. You can also connect with Emmatt on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Is your gas pedal always on? You may be causing damage to your health.

Chiropractor Dr. Ange Wellman knows firsthand the damage that stress can do to your body. Growing up as a competitive swimmer, health was a priority for Ange from a young age. This passion for health led her to become a chiropractor.

“At the core I’ve always known that I wanted to help people,” she says. “And I’ve always held health as a very high value — probably my number one value.”

Her chiropractic practice in downtown Peterborough uses state-of-the-art scanning technology and gentle torque release chiropractic adjustments to empower patients to unwind the negative effects that years of stress can have on the body.

For Ange, even with an active and ‘healthy’ lifestyle, something was missing. Shortly after graduating and beginning her career as a chiropractor, she was sidelined by a herniated disc and a diagnosis of melanoma. She felt like she was doing everything right, but it was clear to Ange that something was wrong.

“Through my challenges with my own health I’ve realized that stress is the thing,” she says. “I wasn’t taking care of my mind, I didn’t have good strategies for stress management, and I certainly didn’t live in the moment.”

When she returned to work, her practice changed dramatically. She switched to a torque release method of chiropractic care, which Ange explains is more suited to dealing with the effects of stress.

“Torque release is a very gentle tonal technique that’s focused more on the nervous system and creating ease in the body. When there’s ease in the body, the body will unwind and chronic tension patterns can start to shift.”

After completing advanced training with the Center for Mind Body Medicine in Washington D.C., Ange has also embraced mindfulness in her practice.

“I would say that’s how I’m different from other chiropractors,” she notes. “I have a strong interest in the mind-body connection, and in particular the emotional piece and the role that plays in the body.”

She says the time off from her practice reminded her of what brought her to chiropractic care in the first place.

“I came full circle. What brought me into the chiropractic profession was this resonance with the idea that the body is self-healing and self-regulating, and it felt like a place where I could integrate the passion I have for psychology and personal growth.”

Ange is particularly passionate about using these techniques to help families. As a mother of two, she is intimately familiar with the normal stresses of family life: the physical stresses of birthing and carrying children, and the mental stresses of balancing work and family life.

That’s why she is keen to provide support to parents.

“I like working with parents and families because I think they need a lot of support,” she explains. “My mission is to help local families create extraordinary health and wellbeing from the inside out using gentle chiropractic adjustments.”

To support her work with families, Ange has completed the Epic Pediatrics Training Program and is currently in the process of completing her International Chiropractic Pediatric Association Certification (ICPA).

She says that working with kids from a young age allows her to target the patterns of stress and tension that can ultimately lead to health problems in adulthood.

“I believe strongly that the first five years of life are when patterns are laid down that can predict your future health,” she says. “Working with kids and educating parents from the start is a proactive, preventative approach to health and wellness.”

For Dr. Ange, this type of approach just “makes sense”.

Dr. Ange Wellman’s practice is located at 315 King St., Suite A, in downtown Peterborough. You can email Dr. Ange at info@drangewellman.com and learn more about her practice at www.drangewellman.com, where you can also book an appointment (or call 705-991-1555). You can also find her on Facebook and Instagram.

Ally Pyle thought she wanted to be a nurse, but after she finished her first year Trent University, it was evident that she needed to find another path to supporting people in her community.

“I was terrible at biology and anatomy,” she laughs. “But I was pretty good at economics.”

With her father’s influence — he was an economist on Bay Street — and an early start at Scotiabank, Ally’s path became clearer. She loved finances, was an avid learner, and knew she wanted to pursue a career empowering others.

“I always felt a strong connection to my community,” Ally explains. “The support I received over the years helped me understand the importance of giving back. The financial service industry offered me an opportunity to do just that.”

After working her way up the professional ranks, Ally eventually found her perfect fit as a Wealth Advisor at ScotiaMcLeod®, a division of Scotia Capital Inc. Part of a team of six located in Peterborough, she delights in her daily role supporting clients with education, knowledge, advice, and guidance.

“There is so much diversity in what we do,” Ally says. “I’m always learning — if you’re not learning every day, you’re not doing the best for your clients.”

The learning that Ally does includes professional development; she recently passed the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Level 1 exam and is currently a Level 2 candidate. She also admits to spending a lot of time listening to Bloomberg Radio and processing as much data as possible to be prepared to assist her clients.

The other big component of this learning, though, is understanding the needs of each individual client.

And these needs are important, especially when Ally is assisting individuals, family members, and businesses through a comprehensive financial planning process. She develops relationships and determines clients’ objectives and risk appetite based on their unique life circumstances and goals. From there, she gets to work on making recommendations and providing advice.

Ally says these client relationships bring her tremendous personal satisfaction and fulfillment. She takes great pride in easing the financial concerns that some clients have, and helping to turn their challenges into achievements. For Ally, it’s all about helping people realize their dreams.

She also loves seeing her clients move through life’s milestones. In fact, the simple honour of being invited into a client’s home where she can get to know their kids and pets reinforces the fact that she’s made the right career choice.

“This is all about the individual, what we do,” Ally notes. “There is no one-size-fits-all approach. We tailor our offering to each client who walks through our doors.”

From choosing suitable investments for clients’ portfolios to determining how to assist the transition of wealth to loved ones at the end of life, Ally will work independently, with her team, or with other Scotia Wealth partners to develop the best strategy.

“There is a great feeling of satisfaction that comes from seeing the weight lifted when we let a client know that we can look after their loved ones and that everything will be okay,” she says.

Ally prides herself on being a problem solver and creative thinker. She knows that the key to delivering exceptional results for her clients is how focused she is on listening to the important information they have to share. This also involves asking the right questions at the right time.

“The numbers are important, but this is only part of the equation,” Ally explains. “Everyone measures success in different ways. And we always need to see the big picture. If you focus on one data point, you’ll miss something. We focus on the forest as well as the trees.”

Ally’s passion for empowering others is evident in her professional life, but she also takes it outside the office with her busy volunteer schedule. Her charitable spirit was inspired by all the support she and her family received helping to raise her younger brother who has Down Syndrome.

“Seeing the impact of all that support made me understand how important it is to donate your time and energy to helping those in need,” Ally says. “I’m a board member of 4th Line Theatre, the PRHC Professional Allied Counsel, and treasurer for the Down Syndrome Association of Peterborough.”

She is also a member of 100 Women Peterborough and is actively involved with the Butterfly Run, Habitat For Humanity Peterborough & Kawartha Region (Women Build), and many other local charities.

When asked how she fits so many commitments into her week, Ally laughs and confesses that she’s bad with idle time. For her, helping others is life’s most uplifting reward. Thanks to her valued clients and volunteer community, she’s never lacking for motivation.

“Connecting with others is what makes me happy.”

Alexandra “Ally” Pyle (B. Sc. Econ, C.I.M) is a Wealth Advisor with The Pyle Group of ScotiaMcLeod®, a division of Scotia Capital Inc., located at 111 Hunter St. W., 2nd Floor, Peterborough. You can reach Ally by calling 705-876-3703 (toll-free 1-855-870-7112) or by email at alexandra.pyle@scotiawealth.com.

For more information about Ally, visit her on LinkedIn. For more information about The Pyle Group, visit pylegroup.ca.

After Jeannine Taylor spent her Christmas holidays in 1995 surfing the internet for the first time, she had an intuition the world was about to change.

But she couldn’t have predicted that, 24 years later, she would be the first and only female owner and publisher a locally owned digital media company serving the Kawarthas: kawarthaNOW.com.

“I’d always worked in marketing and promotion and I just knew that the internet was a game changer,” Jeannine recalls.

At the time, she was working as a freelance managing editor for three local print magazines. When she was returned from Christmas holidays, she encouraged her publisher to get ahead of the game and go online. But he wasn’t convinced the internet was anything worthy of attention.

So Jeannine decided to strike out on her own. There were only a handful of websites in the Kawarthas at the time, and nothing providing local news or community information. She saw an opportunity to provide local content online and, only five months later, launched an “e-zine” called Quid Novis on May 1, 1996.

A loose variation the Latin phrase for “what’s new?”, the Quid Novis website at Quidnovis.com received 10,000 visits in its first week.

“That was a lot of internet traffic back in 1996,” Jeannine laughs (by comparison, kawarthanNOW.com gets an average of 33,000 visits per day). “It’s funny now to think of the publicity we got at the time. CBC Radio called me to come to Toronto for an interview, and the local daily and television news covered it too.”

In 1996, there was virtually no advertising online, so how to monetize Quidnovis.com was an open question. However, soon after launching the website, local businesses began to seek out Jeannine for her guidance in web development and internet marketing. Quid Novis soon morphed into Quid Novis Internet Productions, and the company began to focus on websites and online marketing, initially for local clients.

“We got really busy doing website development,” Jeannine explains. “It was so busy we didn’t need to look for new clients. They came to us.”

Over the next 15 years, Quid Novis Internet Productions grew, developing and hosting hundreds of websites for the private and public sector and garnering local, provincial, and international awards.

All the while, Jeannine continued to develop and operate Quidnovis.com as a free community events website. She committed staff resources to maintain and update the site, even though it was a cost centre for her company. While traffic to the website consistently increased, it was as a labour of love.

A pivotal change happened in the mid-2000s. Not only had many other companies entered the web development industry, but it was becoming increasingly easy for people to develop and host their own websites using third-party services. At the same time, social media networks like Facebook and Twitter were gaining traction both with individuals and businesses.

“I realized the potential to grow the web development business was limited,” Jeannine says. “But I had this community events website with huge potential to become what I had originally envisioned back in 1996.”

Because the Quid Novis brand had become synonymous with web development, Jeannine rebranded Quidnovis.com to kawarthaNOW.com in July 2010, and greatly expanded the site’s content to include news, arts, lifestyle, and business content — while also expanding the community events that made the original site so popular.

A complete redesign followed in 2016 and since then kawarthaNOW.com has continued to grow, reaching 3.5 million unique readers and 12.1 million page views in 2018 and now with more than 53,000 followers on social media.

In 2011 and again in 2013, kawarthaNOW.com was recognized with the Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce Excellence Awards for Entrepreneurial Spirit, and was a finalist for the Kawartha Chamber of Commerce and Tourism’s Entrepreneur Innovation Award in 2018.

Along the way, Jeannine has garnered her own share of awards and accolades. She was Peterborough’s Business Woman of the Year in 2005, a Premier’s Award nominee in 2003, and received a City of Peterborough Civic Award for chairing the development of Millennium Park.

More recently, she was nominated seven times by her peers for Heather Doughty’s Inspire – The Women’s Portrait Project and was honoured with an inaugural Peterborough-Kawartha Women’s Leadership Awards in 2018 from Peterborough-Kawartha MP and Minister of International Development and Minister for Women and Gender Equality Maryam Monsef.

As someone born and raised in Peterborough, Jeannine has always been passionate about supporting her community, particularly local non-profit arts organizations.

Quidnovis.com provided an early free online presence for local organizations such as ReFrame Film Festival, ArtsWeek, and Folk Under The Clock, and Peterborough Musicfest — back when it was called the Peterborough Summer Festival of Lights.

“Fred Anderson had to be convinced the internet was important,” Jeannine recalls, referring to the festival’s late founder.

That support for the arts has continued with kawarthaNOW.com, which now sponsors Public Energy, Market Hall Performing Arts Centre, Showplace Performance Centre, ReFrame Film Festival, Peterborough Theatre Guild, 4th Line Theatre, and St. James Players, not to mention the hundreds of local musicians, artists, writers, performers, and makers that kawarthaNOW.com supports through its local coverage.

“The support of all arts and music is very important to us,” Jeannine explains. “That dates back to my education in arts administration. Our readers have always relied on us for arts and music coverage and they can always rely on us for that.”

To help keep her finger on the pulse of the local arts community, Jeannine is also now sitting on the City of Peterborough’s Arts Culture and Heritage Committee.

Along with its reputation for high-quality content, one of kawarthaNOW.com’s distinguishing characteristics is its team of local writers, who come from Peterborough to Bancroft and Cobourg to Havelock.

“I often joke that my only true talent is recruitment,” Jeannine says. “I recruit all of our writers. We have amazing talented writers on our team, and they all understand our focus on high-quality content, which is a key feature of our brand.”

She notes kawarthaNOW.com is well positioned to expand its high-quality journalism as well as its branded editorial. However, in an increasingly competitive media landscape, Jeannine is always looking ahead to the next trend.

“We constantly need to re-evaluate our position in the market and watch who’s crossing into our business lane at any time,” she explains. “We have to make the time to plan strategically and be ready to take action when needed. With the pace of change on the internet, it’s a daily process to stay tuned in and be vigilant.”

While for most people this might seem exhausting, Jeannine says it actually energizes her.

“It forces me to be constantly researching and learning,” she says. “For example, we’re currently planning some new products that will be important for small business to ensure affordable access to digital advertising.”

It all comes back full circle to that Christmas holiday in 1995 that led to the creation of that first community information website in the Kawarthas.

“It’s a good thing that, over 23 years later, I still believe the internet is the future of news and communication.”

The head office of kawarthaNOW.com is located in Peterborough. For more information, contact Jeannine Taylor at jt@kawarthanow.com or 705-742-6404. You can follow kawarthaNOW.com on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

When Allison Laming entered an online contest for a complimentary 12-month membership to the Women’s Business Network of Peterborough (WBN), she was shocked — and delighted — to find out that she’d won.

An anonymous donor had offered the complimentary 12-month membership and Allison thought, ‘Why not enter?’ To sweeten the pot, she was also vying for this profile feature in kawarthaNOW’s 2019-20 WBN digital section.

Allison had attended two previous WBN meetings as a guest. With her eye on the prize, she submitted her entry with the expectation that it would get lost among the multitude of deserving entrants.

“I saw all of these amazing reasons why other entrants thought that they should win this contest,” Allison recalls. “Then (kawarthaNOW.com publisher and WBN member) Jeannine Taylor announced that she would like to include a feature in the digital section with this wonderful donation.”

“I have wanted to be a member of the WBN for years,” she adds. “There’s so much value in it. The speakers are great and the networking is fantastic. It’s great just being able to go out and meet other like-minded people.”

When she was contacted about her win, she was told that the donor wanted Allison to “give as much as she gets and pay it forward” with her free membership. Allison set her intention to do exactly that.

“I was shocked to win, I couldn’t think of any words to say, and there wasn’t just one person I could go and hug to thank,” Allison explains, “I thought to myself, ‘I need to make sure that, every Wednesday night when I attend these meetings, I bring my best game in with me, include other women when I can, give back to other entrepreneurs, and bring people with me on this journey.’ It’s a wonderful opportunity and not everyone gets to do this.”

Before joining WBN, Allison had joined a free group called the Lady Bosses of Peterborough (now The Founders Collective).

“I could chat and network with other like-minded women,” she says of the Lady Bosses. “There are a lot of really wonderful, kind and involved/connected women in that group.”

Allison also joined Inspire: The Women’s Portrait Project — founded by local photographer Heather Doughty — as a board member in charge of grant research and fundraising. The project aims to create a safe space to honour, share, and celebrate the stories of women by recognizing the remarkable in the regular. Allison herself has been recognized by Inspire.

“I was nominated as an Inspire woman back in 2018,” Allison notes. “And then I was featured at the Inspire display (at VentureNorth) on George Street earlier this year.”

Her work with Inspire is her first experience on a non-profit board, and she’s pleased to report that there has been a lot of partnership and support from the city. She now chairs her own subcommittee and is proud to see Inspire continually growing.

Also growing in Allison’s life is the business she and her partner established together. In 2018, Allison and her fiancée Ryan (who both attended Trent University) decided Peterborough would be the home base for their advisory business and would continue to be the place where they would raise their two children.

“We met while working at the same company back in 2016,” she recalls. “We had dreams of one day going off on our own and working together.”

She says their business now takes them “anywhere from Ottawa to Niagara” and won a couple of local awards during their first year.

“We deal with a lot of small and medium-sized businesses,” Allison explains. “It’s important that people make educated choices and understand their options. I speak to people the way I’d want to be spoken to. I want to sit down and talk about what worries them, what their intentions are, what their timeline is, and how I can help.”

Her biggest focus is making people feel safe and comfortable, so that they won’t shy away from asking tough questions.

“People perpetuate the cycle of not getting advice out of fear,” Allison says. “Everyone has a different history and they all have different goals going forward, so it changes with every person we talk to.”

You can follow Allison Laming on Instagram and connect with her on LinkedIn.

Karen Laws is a pack leader with a heart for helping dogs and their owners have the life of their dreams together.

Now, with her sights set on helping more people and pooches, she’s focusing on growing her “dog university” program. She’s spent years developing the program for the dogs she trains and for their families — and the results are monumental.

Karen promotes and teaches five basic principles of leadership at Ontario Dog Trainer, but number one on her list is to build the dog-owner relationship. This is what inspired the switch in focus to her success-building boarding programs.

Karen knows that dogs are not verbal creatures. The pack animals hear with their noses and they use physical interaction to message to the rest of their pack. And just like humans, dogs need to build solid relationships, so that’s what Karen teaches the people she works with — and their four-legged family members.

“We focus on the relationship first,” Karen explains. “With dogs, with staff, and with our clients: relationship first.”

This approach means more time with dogs, so Karen has stopped teaching group classes and put more energy and expertise into her boarding programs — including dog university, where dogs come to stay at Karen’s facility for three weeks or longer.

“We need to build trust with the dog,” Karen says. “If it takes ten days for the dog to understand that we are going to be consistent, then that’s how long we take before we start the formal obedience training.”

The training Karen and her staff cover can include whatever the dog needs to be part of their family, especially real-world adventures in everyday places like stores where dogs are allowed.

“With so many urban dogs, we do lots of work on how to behave in public places and how to greet people and dogs properly,” Karen explains. “And just like some humans, sometimes we teach how to be tolerant without actually meeting.”

All of this takes time — time for Karen to build the relationship with the dog and then additional time to help rebuild the relationship between the dog and its family. And every step of the way, with the dog university program, it’s about benevolent and predictable leadership.

While the doggie students are at school and after they graduate, there are up to five more private sessions together with the human student that take a couple of hours each: two sessions at the facility and also three on-site or in-home sessions post-graduation.

The first session, mid-way through a dog’s stay, focuses on how far the dog has come. It’s also a chance for Karen to learn more about the owners and the life they dream of with their dog.

“I need to show them what’s possible with their dog,” Karen points out. “Then it’s time to help the owners understand it’s possible for them to live a life with their dog beyond basic obedience.”

Karen says she helps her clients feel comfortable enough to reveal where problems might be lingering, so that everyone can experience the success that comes from being focused on a desired behaviour — as opposed to dishing out discipline after something bad has happened.

“People think I’m in the dog business, but that’s only part of it,” Karen says. “I’m in the relationship business.”

The shift to more boarding programs is having a positive result. Karen says she’s constantly hearing positive feedback from more than just dog owners. She’s also hearing from vets, dog walkers, and groomers who appreciate the huge changes they are all seeing.

And it’s not just about immediate results. Karen says she hears from past clients all the time — like the dog she just received an email about, who graduated four years ago.

The dog was supposed to be chasing geese off a golf course, but he would never come back if he was off leash. The dog and his owners completed Karen’s program and kept working to build their relationship. The geese are now gone, and the dog has become a valued member of the family and golf club staff.

Karen is excited about taking her dog university in a new direction as she trains more staff to do what she does. As a coach, she believes in making everything easy for the client and this means having more trainers available with her skills.

Once this happens and she has some additional free time, Karen says she’s finally ready to start writing a book that will provide one more way for people to build lasting positive relationships with their dogs.

Karen Laws is a certified dog trainer and pet food nutrition specialist. Her business, Ontario Dog Trainer, is located at 814 Lifford Road in Bethany. For more information, call Karen at 705-277-1503 (mobile: 705-761-2159), email karen@ontariodogtrainer.com, or visit ontariodogtrainer.com.

You can also find Ontario Dog Trainer on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and connect with Karen on LinkedIn.