Arlene Dickinson, a Canadian entrepreneur and former Dragon’s Den star, was at Carleton to attend the 2017 SOAR Student Leadership Conference on Jan. 21.
The Charlatan sat down with her to discuss her career and the world of business.
The Charlatan (TC): Why don’t we begin by speaking about SOAR. What made you interested in being the keynote speaker this year?
Arlene Dickinson (AD): I think anytime you get a chance to speak to future leaders of a country, it’s a privilege and you have to. You get the option to help inform and potentially help to motivate and influence potential leaders. You can actually shape the future of the country by helping people think about leadership, so this is an honour to do. I love speaking to students.
TC: What is it like being a successful female leader in the male-dominated business world?
AD: I really strive to think of myself as a businessperson. I rarely consider, ‘I’m the only woman in the room’ or ‘gee, I somehow am marginalized because I’m a woman in the room.’ You have to think about it from a perspective of your own confidence and how you feel about it. So I’ve come at it from a perspective of, ‘I’m good in business,’ ‘I know what I’m talking about,’ ‘I could be right,’ ‘I could be wrong.’ I have a lot to learn from businessmen and businesswomen and I’m not going to be afraid of who I am as a person. I think you have to change the tape in your head that says ‘I’m the only woman,’ and say ‘I’m a person with something to offer here.’
TC: You saw many pitches over the years on Dragon’s Den, so what separated the successful entrepreneurs from the unsuccessful ones?
AD: When someone is genuine and authentic, that was always something I looked for. Do I feel like I’m getting sold something or do I feel like these people are really being genuine with me? Or when somebody was honest with me. When they admitted that they had made mistakes. When they talked about what they didn’t know as much as what they did know. Their honesty was very, very important and then their ability to help me understand the win-win.
TC: How did seeing people putting themselves out there on the show influence the way you do business?
AD: I saw thousands of deals and it influenced me enough that I left the show so that I could go and help entrepreneurs full-time. I’ve always helped entrepreneurs through my business at Venture Communications, but since then I’ve opened up Canada’s first not-for profit accelerator in the food and beverage base. Since then, I’ve got YouInc, which is a website dedicated to entrepreneurs that has no cost to join it. Everything I’m doing is about supporting entrepreneurialism in this country.
TC: You said your former colleague Kevin O’Leary lacks the empathy to lead the Conservative Party of Canada, but how do you balance compassion with cutthroat business?
AD: I think [empathy] is an inherent value. The ability to have empathy and compassion: you have to practice it. It’s like kindness. Kindness is something you need to exhibit and work at and make sure that you’re showing up that way. It’s a skill and a value you can become better at. I think it’s more of a female trait in some respects, not that men can’t be empathetic and compassionate. I just think it’s something about who we are and how we’ve been raised and what we believe in.
TC: Through all your success, how do you strike a balance between your personal and professional life?
AD: Entrepreneurs are a funny breed. We mix our personal and professional [lives] into one. We are one person. It’s like when you say to an artist, ‘how do you stop being artistic when you put down your paintbrush?’ You don’t. You still are an artist, and I’d say with entrepreneurs it’s very much the same. With every aspect of my life, entrepreneurialism is one way that I exhibit myself, and my personal life is a part of that, and it is one big messy thing.
TC: What advice do you have for students looking to begin their own businesses?
AD: There is a significant amount of help in Canada for start-up businesses. There’s no shortage of resources and ways and means to get a business going. But none of that’ll matter if you don’t take the first step. The first step lies with you. The first step is the hardest. The first step is committing to [the idea] and going out and doing whatever that commitment means. Making that first phone call to a potential customer, creating that business card, registering a name, starting to take courses or starting to read up on the industry you’re interested in. These are all first steps. Thinking about something is never going to get you anywhere. Doing something is what’s going to get you somewhere.
– Photo by Christian Alphonse
