EW 029 – How To Create Jobs, Build Community and Share The Message Of Peace with Tareq Hadhad, CEO of Peace By Chocolate

Gordon Sheppard (00:01.026)
Tareq, welcome to the show.

Tareq Hadhad (00:03.492)
Thank you very much for having me Gordon. What an honor.

Gordon Sheppard (00:06.388)
the honor is all mine because I got lucky to reach out to you on LinkedIn to track down someone who is involved in the ownership of a business that I've admired from a distance because I had the luck of watching the movie, Peace by Chocolate. And I think that it's a must watch for so many people. And it's funny, I was talking to my daughter last night. I'm just thinking about this just now. One of the things that I talk about is Victor Frankl in the talks that when he talks about

how he survived the Nazi concentration camps and developed his ability to choose his response in a given situation. Now, I know we're not talking about concentration camps in this situation, but you are talking about where you came from, why you came to Canada, and that sort of certainly comes up, you know, again, people need to watch the movie, we're gonna hear about it today. You came from somewhere, things were difficult, and then you've made something out of that. And I just, again, so how lucky for me, but how lucky for our audience too, to get a chance to learn from you here.

Tareq Hadhad (00:53.934)
Yes.

Gordon Sheppard (01:04.033)
today. That's sort of me just getting to get that off my chest. So good to have you here. For people that don't know you, please introduce yourself kind of for the first time and tell us a little bit about your story. Go ahead.

Tareq Hadhad (01:15.822)
Well, my name is Tareq. am originally from Damascus, Syria. Damascus is the most oldest inhabited city in the entire world. So I come from a place rich with culture, with heritage, and I'm quite proud to be now a Syrian Canadian. So our story is kind of a mix between ups and downs, peaks and valleys. There's been a roller coaster as we went through this together. Me and my family, we come from a place of honor.

entrepreneurship, we come from a place of family, of community, of purpose, of values, and these are really the things that govern us since we were born, since we were in our homeland. So my father started a chocolate company back home in Syria and he was a civil engineer. So he had no clue how to make chocolate and that actually kind of inspired everyone in the family to

pursue their dreams, to follow them, to believe in what they have to offer to the people around them. And it was so fun. We grew up in a house where we were taste testers. My father was bringing early batches of chocolate every other day for us to taste and approve. And it was quite exciting times. We were living really kind of our dreams there. And our family's business grew to become the second largest chocolate factory in the entire region by 2006.

and it was exporting everywhere across the region from Turkey to Egypt to Spain to Switzerland to Belgium and you wouldn't see a lot of chocolate companies around the world exporting to Belgium because they don't need more chocolate they have more than enough but we truly believe that we were doing something unique and something remarkable and that's really what kind of inspired our entire family to believe in the power of entrepreneurship

to drive forward the change that we wanted to see in our communities, to do everything that we ever dreamed of. And it was quite remarkable. You we never really imagined how much entrepreneurship gives you freedom.

Tareq Hadhad (03:18.288)
And not only freedom to the direction that you will go, but also the freedom to the legacy that you are leaving behind, the freedom of the purpose of the entire family moving forward. And I think you are setting forward as an entrepreneur what you set forward. It's kind of a guideline, know, not written guideline, but something that you can really get the next generation to be inspired by. And that's why our family was so passionate about doing what we were doing as a way to make the world a happier place.

place and that's actually what chocolate does. So then in 2012 many people know about what happened in Syria, about the war that broke out in the country that kind of shattered our lives, know, destroyed everything we had. It forced us out of our comfort zone. It forced us to leave everything behind and as we were leaving things behind we lost many of my family members. lost

our house. We lost our cars. We lost many of my family members that they were either kidnapped, they were arrested, they were executed. Some of them were bombed where they were living. And that's why our entire family thought that it was time to survive and time to leave the country in 2013. And at that time, my father kept the factory running this whole period. And it was just like a motto that, you know, as a business leader, you really have to also take

of your people even in the worst times more than the comfortable times, right? That's why in 2013 we left, we became refugees in Lebanon. We had only the clothes on our backs. We could not take anything with us. The war took away everything that my family had built. And after that we arrived in Canada in 2016. Just for the record, I arrived in Canada in December 2015 and then my family landed in January 2016. Not a good time to immigrate to

Canada, not a good month to immigrate to Canada, but we were quite excited for that journey. So we settled on the East Coast in Canada in Nova Scotia and we restarted our life again after that by calling our new company here Peaceway Chocolate, which is basically a 2.0.

Gordon Sheppard (05:27.074)
Thank you. Thank you so much. So, Peace by Chocolate is born here in terms of when it gets renamed. Thank you for setting the stage for kind of where you came from and the guiding principle. So fun to hear an engineer take a different career path, right? And how lucky, again, you said as kids, but then how lucky for you to come into business leadership to be able to do this as well. So that's really neat. And so you're out there, you're out there, it's December, you've come from another country, you've landed in Eastern Canada, not even sort of.

Tareq Hadhad (05:43.253)
and how this will be used.

Tareq Hadhad (05:48.112)
So, go back to the system, you know.

Gordon Sheppard (05:54.914)
major cities in Canada, but Eastern Canada, and you set up your factory there, or was it even a factory in the beginning?

Tareq Hadhad (06:03.056)
No, it was not actually. What started as an idea to continue what we were doing back in Syria, was based on the fear of how long it was going to take us because it took us in our home country, it took us around 10 years to get the business registered, to figure out the name, know, to get the all the paperwork done. Between 1987, it took my father until 1997 really to figure out how to do this. And that's why we were afraid because that was our home country. You know, we spoke our native tongue language. We knew the people. We knew

the system and then coming to a new country where you don't know the taxing system, you don't know the banking system, you don't know the business system. And even it is way harder for people who are born in Canada to start businesses. So imagine...

as a newcomer family, as an immigrant family to have to do all of this. And it was not easy, but we found the support in our community in Antigonish And that's why, you know, I figured that you don't need a factory to start a business. You can start a new bedroom if you want. You can start a new...

Gordon Sheppard (07:03.96)
Well, and isn't that the origin? Like, it wasn't much more than a bedroom that you got started with. Is that fair?

Tareq Hadhad (07:09.706)
was way smaller actually. was a tiny room in the basement. It was barely fitting two of us actually at the same time. So it was a home kitchen first and then it was a dining room and then it was the basement. So there was three stages that we stayed in the house just to try to make sense of what we are doing. And after that, the community built a small factory for us outside of our home. And that actually factory now has been a part of the Antigonish culture.

the  Museum and the heritage that our family really kind of celebrating right now with the community around us. So that's how it started. It was just an incredibly small enterprise that we were selling at local farmers markets. It started with the Antigonish Winters Market and then moved on to the  Summer Market, Mabu Farmers Market, New Glasgow Farmers Market. And from there we were doing weddings and custom orders for conferences and corporate.

corporate chocolates. And we thought in 2017, we needed a factory. We needed a large factory. So since then, yes, we worked on actually moving our operations to a larger facility in the Anikanesh County. And yeah, we have been expanding in that location ever since.

Gordon Sheppard (08:22.55)
And piece by chocolate is a phenom, right? It's not just a chocolate exporter, right? There's a whole sort of philosophy that we can hear the origins of, you know, that's baked into kind of everything you do. If I can, maybe that little pun is in there sort of thing for the bake part, but that's so neat. So we now understand the backstory. We understand the difficulty that you went through. Your family comes here. You got set up in the basement. I don't know that you knew, you know what I mean? In those early basement days.

that things were gonna kinda get going, but you knew you had the chops and the skills and the attitude in a sense to make things work and the community came out to support you. What a great table setting. Thank you for the story that we wanna get to now, which is if you had to choose one of your biggest wins in business over this whole time, how would you describe that win for us?

Tareq Hadhad (09:13.136)
Well, I believe that our story is an accumulation of multiple wins. I think our biggest umbrella of these wins is the community. The community is really the reason why we were able to move forward with our plans in the first place. The people who believed in what we believe in, the people who believed in our mission, and I think...

breaking it down and dissecting it to what our company is all about, which is passion, enthusiasm, advocacy, contribution and excellence. And these are really the things that make Piece of Chocolate what it is. And I think if you take passion, enthusiasm and advocacy and then just start with those, I think really things kind of evolved from there. And then we came back to the community where we said, okay, we needed to contribute. How do we contribute to the people around us? And one of the biggest wins that we have had around this

this whole time is when we started moving our operations to retail. We started as a company that was focused solely on B2C in different formats. had our e-commerce platform that we started in 2016, which was a one-pager on a website. And then we kind of took off from there. But then we realized that people want to experience our brand. They want to walk into something. They want to see our entire business collection.

And that's why, you know, peace is very comprehensive. Like we couldn't really break down our products in different segments because it's very comprehensive. You have to look at everything. You have to look at our peace collection. You have to look at our pride collection. You have to look at our donations collections. You have to look at our partnerships collections with many organizations, with indigenous organizations, with refugee organizations, with Trans Canada Trail, with the Lair Institute for Children, Peace and Security. You have to look at all these different components.

really to make sense of it. And it already started to us back in 2020, early 2020. And it's very funny because the only thing really that people remember from 2020 was the pandemic.

Tareq Hadhad (11:16.898)
And for us, it was the year that we filmed our movie plus the year that we shifted our strategy to deliver really one of our biggest wins in the company. And that strategy has always been about the approach to changing the culture of retail.

in the worst time that actually anyone has done, know, repurposing their business and restructuring their business strategies towards focusing more on retail operations. And at that time, you know, we, two months before the pandemic started, we started meeting with stakeholders across Nova Scotia. So we are a proud Nova Scotian company. We are a proud Canadian company, and we try to grow our business in every direction we can. And then we started meeting with stakeholders in Halifax.

of all places and we thought why not give it a shot you know and we started meeting with many people around the Halifax area and at that time there was a new development you know that was almost ready to open on the Halifax waterfront and it is called the Queen's Mark and the Queen's Mark is really one of the most

beautiful, you know complexes you would probably ever step foot on and I'm trying to do advertising here for Nova Scotia So Gordon you're in Edmonton. Please stop by come to the Nova Scotia to try it because they have an incredible, you know an incredible Scenery landscapes, you know on the waterfront and the development took so many years But it's really kind of elevated that that feeling to what Nova Scotia has to offer to all the visitors So we were actually kind of quite excited to bring our brand

and our story to the Halifax waterfront where you will have hundreds of thousands of people coming by every single year from cruise ships to tourism to people from across the country from across the United States from across the world.

Gordon Sheppard (13:07.766)
And this is during those COVID days. So again, I think what I heard, I'm just gonna back up and say, your win is an accumulation of wins. And you've taken me through a couple of levels already. You know, cause you're leveling up your operational size, you're in a condition, are, wait a second, let's go to Halifax. And then I think you're gonna tell us about how you're going around the world and you know, those different things as we kind of get that accumulation of wins. I've got to back up. Peace stands for something. You said five, there's five parts to that. Please slow us down and help us learn.

Tareq Hadhad (13:32.836)
Yes.

Gordon Sheppard (13:37.006)
the peace acronym, why it's important, and then, you know, please just take us into that for a sec.

Tareq Hadhad (13:45.36)
So, Peace for our family stands for passion, enthusiasm, advocacy, contribution and excellence.

And the reason why we selected passion and enthusiasm is because we wanted to have this secret recipe to keep going, to really believe in why we started. And I think answering our own why in this business has been so critical because if you really do not know the reason why you started this journey, you didn't get anywhere.

And being passionate about this and being enthusiastic about it has been quite one of the most significant pillars to keep this mission going. Because what happened for a lot of the companies that we studied is that it's very easy to start a business in Canada in general. It's easy to start, but it's the hardest is to continue, right? It's the hardest is to keep going, to believe that you are on the right path or go through all of these obstacles and barriers that are trying to impede you from getting where you want to be.

and prove them wrong and continue going. And there are a lot of pains, know, and there are a lot of valleys in this journey. So that's why we felt that, you know, having that passion and translating it into an enthusiasm that will get us to the next stage in this business has been quite critical. So you go through passion, enthusiasm, advocacy.

which is actually another major part because the way that we did business in Syria has been quite different than the way we are doing it here. Although the same business mentality when it comes to giving back and paying it forward and supporting the people around you that they have less than what you got. But here it was quite different. Advocacy was something that we wanted people to feel throughout the product, which is we're trying to spread a message here. We're not only trying to tell you to buy our product.

Tareq Hadhad (15:38.556)
the way that we were even telling people about our collections or our products, etc. We never talked to them about how delicious the product was. What we were trying to do is to tell them, we have lost everything in a war. We don't want anyone to go through what we had gone through. We're trying to spread peace because it's so important because without it, no one can go to work, no one can build businesses. You cannot raise kids. You cannot do anything.

Do you want try one product of ours? And that's actually how we got to convince people that we are quite different, you know, because when you're watching a YouTube video and a chocolate ad pops out in your screen,

You see all of these chocolatiers gathering around and trying to feed you chocolate and look at the chocolate just melting. And it's quite a cliche, the way that the chocolate ads are being done right now. But what we're trying to do is to do things differently. And I think we started from a place of messaging and advocating to the cause that we believe in. And that's why the company is called Peace by Chocolate.

It was not called chocolate for peace. It was not the opposite. We started with peace. And that's why it was actually quite important. And then...

Gordon Sheppard (16:57.742)
Get the last two letters for me now, the C and the E. Go ahead.

Tareq Hadhad (17:00.878)
Contribution and excellence and contribution actually is quite the other major part which we wanted to build partnerships with our community and really kind of tell them who we are and why we are on this journey in Antigonish. And you can all learn about the Peace on Earth Society that we started and that actually has all the umbrellas and the 11 partnerships, the active partnerships that we have right now from Canadian Red Cross all the way to Nova Scotia's Phoenix Youth Programs that support all

the youth in our communities. And I think there are more layers to talk about it, but we need another podcast.

Gordon Sheppard (17:38.104)
We need another one, exactly. And the excellence part, I'm just gonna go back and say, there's an engineering dad in there who applied engineering to creating a great product. And then I'm gonna say there's excellence in there too. So thank you for articulating that because I think when we did the pre-interview, you didn't sort of show up and go, peace, here's the acronym, it's perfect, and we know everything we're doing. There was an evolution, right? There was, again, another, when you talk about the accumulation of wins, you didn't start out that well articulated, right? There's the family talking about it.

Tareq Hadhad (17:43.844)
That's right.

Gordon Sheppard (18:06.862)
kicking it around and kind of coming up with it as well. So we've got this accumulation of all these many wins, which is the win overall. We've got a strong basis for the philosophy. We have a lived experience. We lived somewhere else. We came to Canada, we got set up. We got not only just us getting set up outbound, we got some inbound help from the community and we kind of got things going. And now we are kind of where we are, a scaling business that's scaled. I know you've mentioned you've scaled your factory, I'm gonna say three and four times as you

Tareq Hadhad (18:35.663)
Right.

Gordon Sheppard (18:36.846)
create this demand on really a mission driven company, not just a chocolate company, a mission driven company, doing things again globally to do those things. So that's the summary. That's great. I always like to jump into what I call the anatomy of a win to kind of break this down and really discover a little bit more about it. The anatomy of win for me is looking at the strategy, the work plan, the people, the operations and results behind this accumulation of wins that you've got. You jumped into strategy really well for me because if I said, you know, what's your vision? think peace and the way you've described it.

is really very, very clear. I don't mean to spend too much time on that step because you've been great about it, but if you had to pick something out of the strategy, you know, when you get set up in Canada, is there something there, something else you'd like to mention strategically around the goals, again, vision, mission, that type of thing that people need to know?

Tareq Hadhad (19:25.516)
Not really, but overall, guess the translation of this anatomy, especially with the strategies, that so many entrepreneurs, look at strategy when you think about the larger picture, when you think about the future, when you think about the ultimate objective from your enterprise, from your company. But the way that we look at it actually is that how many people we impacting in this enterprise, how many people we are helping throughout our operations, how many jobs we're offering to our community so no one

would have to leave Nova Scotia to the West or to the US or anywhere across the globe to find a job that they believe in, offering careers that are so fulfilling to people that they helped us to start this from the beginning. it's a part actually of a larger strategy that we were working on. However, at end of the day, I really believe that every business across the country should really believe also in smaller communities more than big cities. Because now you have a lot of entrepreneurs talk about, you know, starting their businesses in the GTAs.

or in Calgary or in Vancouver and there's nothing wrong with that. Certainly they can have a big shot at success there. Canadian cities are amazing and they're very intertwined. But so many of us really forget that smaller communities, offer you a sense of community much faster.

And they rally around you to support you to get to the next stage. And that's actually what we felt when we came to Canada. You know, we thought we were going to stay in a large city and we then realized, no, actually, it's a small community called Antigonish, which is 5,000 people. So imagine starting a business almost at the end of the Trans-Canada Highway.

At the far end of it, you know, we're just before Cape Breton, which is the last end of the Transcanada Highway, and opening a manufacturing business where you have to get all the ingredients all the way there and make them and then ship them all the way back to the major urban hub.

Tareq Hadhad (21:16.494)
And if we thought about it before we came to Anakaneshwar, we think that we are crazy, know, when we couldn't survive there. But the fact is, once we opened our business there, we realized there is no other place on the planet that could have provided us with the levels of success that we have found in that community. And that's why, you know, we are a proven example to many entrepreneurs across Canada.

especially those who believe that they belong in their smaller communities and in their areas and the regions. You Canada is the second largest country in the world and most of Canadians live so close to that US border. But we have so many towns and cities across this vast landscape across our country that I really believe entrepreneurs, they have a major part to play to support our country moving forward. So that was really one of our major strategies. Wherever we grow, wherever we grow.

available in almost 1,500 distribution points across Canada and more coming globally is that we still consider our HQ to be in Antigonish and it will forever be there and that's why we are quite excited about what comes next in that direction.

Gordon Sheppard (22:26.092)
You make me proud to be Canadian, honestly, the way you're describing it. And thank you for the end of the Trans Canada Highway and sort of, you know what I mean? The nuances that you've picked up along the way. I also remember in the pre-interview, you talked about a book, I think you admire, tell me if I'm right here called Small Giants. Is that fair? Please. I mean, to mention it for the folks listening, cause it's another great one of saying, no, and there's examples of companies in that book. And again, we need another podcast for this of companies that said, no, we don't need to grow. We need to be true to our values. And I think what I heard was people and place.

Tareq Hadhad (22:40.208)
That's great.

Gordon Sheppard (22:56.152)
being critical in your strategy as you're going along, along with this well-formed peace acronym that is so much deeper, that's tip of the iceberg, for so much depth that you've put into and thoughtfulness as you go to grow and scale your business. That's super. Anytime we have a strategy, we need a work plan. And we've heard a little bit about the work plan along the way. These are sort of the timeline of what are the moment in the events? Well, okay, so we're good chocolatiers, but we had to leave our country. So now we're here in this new country.

Well, we've got a basement and two people can fit in there. I guess we've got a pot and some pans and some sugar and whatever you need to do to get started. Any highlights along the way? Because we did mention these expansion points. What do you like to talk about in the work plan for executing that you want people to know?

Tareq Hadhad (23:37.688)
I think that entrepreneurs should not be fixated on the work plan. They should be flexible. And I think because we are living in a very changing world, like every day is quite different than the other day. And that's why I think entrepreneurs, have just to take it one day at a time and really think about what they were going to do, although they still have to have the vision about, you know, what they want to see accomplished in a certain period of time. And what really it all comes down to is that, is that the level of compassionate leadership and

really when you use all of your knowledge, all of your intellectual property, all of your recipes, all of that you are trying to do and to make sense of it and putting it in a timeline somehow flexible that can really roll out at any time. It doesn't matter, you know, when you launch, when you open a factory. And I think many people feel that rush to get it done. And I understand entrepreneurship sometimes to so many entrepreneurs. It's like not shooting for the 100 percent, but shooting for the 60, 70 percent and doing it faster.

twice or three times faster than anyone else. And that's actually the heart of entrepreneurship because we're living in a world right now where it's so competitive and entrepreneurs are the go-getters. And there's a lot of expectations from entrepreneurs to build the economy. And that's why actually since day one, we were focusing on the speed of how we were doing things and moving at the speed of light to build our second factory, to expand the third time back in 2022, to build our supply chain network, et cetera.

through.

That actually happened based on a different timeline than what we expected. Was that wrong? No, it was not wrong. It just happened at the time that it happened. And I think we were not fixated on getting things done at some time in this journey, but we were fixing on getting it done, period. And that's why actually we were ahead of the game when it came to our move to Ower Factory and also to the move for the other distribution networks. Does that mean we did all the right things? Probably not, but I know at least we tried.

Tareq Hadhad (25:38.692)
in business, we realized the lesson that we actually never lose. We either win or learn, as we all know. So it was quite clear to us from the beginning that in this entire journey that we're on, in this entire business, we are in this not to accumulate all of these successes and wins, but really how, again, back to the point about how are we trying to change how many lives we change in our community and the people around us.

Gordon Sheppard (26:07.502)
What a patient reminder for those entrepreneurs who want to run too fast, who lose in their mindset. Do you know what I mean? Not learn in terms of what you're bringing across there. And yet speed to market. This is what we're hearing. Go, go, go. Get her done. Don't hesitate. 60 % is fine in entrepreneurship because you know you got to crash forward and you're taking me back to my perfection days, which I think it just a few years ago when I let go of them. And what a gift.

Cause now it's like, well, that thing's going out the door. Nope, it's not perfect, but it's part of the, again, those accumulations of making things move forward. Great. We heard a lot about the strategy, heard about the work plan. We've heard a lot about people. That's the third step in the anatomy of a win. know, key people and their attitudes. I need to come back to you as sort of one of the main leaders in this and you know, tell us a little bit about yourself and your own attitude through this journey, maybe where it was and where you've gotten to.

Tareq Hadhad (27:01.978)
think it all really comes down to the history of where I have been and I think what I have gone through to be where I am today and where my family is today. And I think it all started from a place of...

the people around me and you know the family which is you know as my grandmother used to say in times of tests family is best and I surround myself with people that they really kind of try to see the best in me although I do not see it myself and it was quite clear to me since the moment that I got into medical school and I was on the way to become a doctor and then the war broke out so then I had to leave everything behind but then I was using all the knowledge that I have learned you know throughout the experiences I've gained

with international organizations like the United Nations, the World Health Organization, many NGOs and international NGOs when we were helping people who were fleeing and they were looking for healthcare. So imagine using my background in healthcare and the care for people to kind of use it and implement it in business. And that's why I think I brought a different perspective to business and the way that we are doing things is because when it started from my passion

for healthcare and for the right for everyone to be healthy and to be happy and to feel that they are quite fulfilled in their lives in a way to implement this in business, which not a lot of CEOs and companies actually think about it first, right? Is when you ask them about why are you doing this? Like, look, this is a great return on investment. Let's do this because it's gonna generate, it's gonna cover all of our costs within three years and then smooth sailing from there. And actually that's not the way that

I like to do things. I kind of try, had different KPIs along this journey and I used this mentality as well throughout the growth of our business. my background using it along the journey was so crucial. However, I think having the right talent alongside me was also one of the most important things. And I was attending one of the award ceremonies back in 2018.

Tareq Hadhad (29:16.608)
And I didn't win then. I was nominated for a big award. I didn't win. And it was only like two years after we started Piece by Chocolate. But I was sitting with the audience and I was just waiting. Are they going to call my name or not? And then the person who won in my category was on stage delivering their acceptance speech. And I still remember what they said. And I'm glad that they won because if they did not win, they wouldn't have delivered this amazing acceptance speech.

And I learned so much from it. But one thing that I remember so critically and so clearly from them was the guy was saying, in business, you should not be afraid to hire people who are smarter than you.

And actually it was like a mind blowing moment for me because I was looking always for, you know, the people that they can really implement the things that I'm looking for them to do. And since that ceremony, I started doing things a lot differently, especially when it comes to the talent acquisition and to hiring people who are going to join our team is that we thought really about the importance for them to really have all the knowledge and the tools and the skills, but also to be open to ask for help when they don't know what to do. And since then actually,

We're focusing on hiring so many people that they are experts in their fields, but also that they were willing to learn with us as well. And that's why I think we're quite lucky with the high retention rate that we got, especially in some of the key roles that we have in the company. And also offering people as well the chance to say, I don't know, I probably don't belong here. Can you please offer me an exit strategy? And we're also telling them, probably that's going to be the best for you. And doing it's-

Gordon Sheppard (30:53.006)
And so you're able to keep your company culture tight with that kind of thing. we've heard that's, anyway, we could talk on and on. This is so good. We've heard a lot about you. And again, thank you for that medical background. Again, you can hear that seeping into the philosophy in there. So great. You're hiring smarter people than you. Great business move in terms of that, you you've got the humility to do that, but also you know that that's good. Your genius father's in the background. It started whenever it was 20 and like where this engineer goes rogue.

Tareq Hadhad (30:55.982)
That's great.

Tareq Hadhad (31:00.024)
Hahaha!

Gordon Sheppard (31:21.71)
and starts to make chocolate and does it at a high level. And so again, I don't mean to get into his biography too much, but I do need to hear maybe one or two people from the community. You don't need to name names, you could name names. Because said the community was very important for you in this success story. So in those early days, there a name to offer? And if not, that's fine. But how can you describe the community and their attitude as key players in your success?

Tareq Hadhad (31:22.288)
Great.

Tareq Hadhad (31:46.51)
Well, you know, I,

think it's an entire community. There aren't really specific names to say, but people who watched the movie or read our book, probably know there are some critical people that they supported us along this journey. And I think one of the early lessons I got as well when we were on this journey is that we have to get a mentor. And I think mentorship is so critical for you as a startup, as an entrepreneur, is that you have to learn from people who have been through this.

before you. And I think right now the world is so different than 20 years ago, than 10 years ago, than 30 years ago. And I think a lot of the things that you probably will learn from your mentors probably are not valid anymore. But still it's the mindset of having support from people who have been through this before you is quite critical. And that's why in the community, for example, we had business counselors, we had marketing experts, and we had people

that they really kind of were experts in the supply chain as well, that they were coming along, know, supplying us with feedback. And we had to do multiple trips across the country as well in these early years to find the people that they can really help us. We got a lot of actually support since our story was brought to the United Nations back in 2016. And that opened the national actually level for our business. And they brought a lot of people from across the country to call us, email us and say that you need any help. And I think when you mentioned that, you

you are proud to be Canadian. think the point of pride to be Canadian couldn't be more important than it is today and I think...

Tareq Hadhad (33:25.22)
We are what we are and we have successful entrepreneurs in this country because we believe that we are in this together. And no matter if you are in a big city or a small town, on the East Coast or the West Coast, I think we are there because you can see right now from the movement across this country to support one another, how people really truly care. And it's not only that Canadians are supporting Canadian businesses, but Canadians really believe in goodness and believe in kindness and believe in compassion.

and believe in giving back and supporting one another. And that's why I think, you know, it's never been more the right time to be an entrepreneur in Canada than today.

Gordon Sheppard (34:05.614)
Wonderful. If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes an anti-Ganish to help build peace by chocolate. Do you know what I mean? So how great to hear the players. There's you and there's your dad and there's these people. And then it's dozens. You know what mean? It would take us forever to get through all those. And I love those little moments along the way. We've got the right marketing help at the right time, the right supply chain. Then it opens up to the international. Wonderful. So we get a really good feeling for the people part. The fourth step in the anatomy of a win is to look at operations and say,

Tareq Hadhad (34:10.434)
Ha ha ha.

Gordon Sheppard (34:34.104)
You know, if you had to pick out one or two highlights, and I don't mean to get into the making of chocolate, although I would like to, because I love chocolate, but there's something about the secret sauce. You've got a recipe. You've got a chocolatier in the background who sort of developed that part. Then when you're building a business, you've got to get into process. You've got to get into regulations. You've got to get into all the different things. Any highlights, in a sense, from operationally getting this thing to rise that you'd like to point out along the way?

Tareq Hadhad (35:02.542)
Well, I truly believe that our operations have evolved over time. However, they are still not where we want to see them. But at the end of the day, from what we have learned throughout our operations is that you really have to make sure that you are as a growing business, especially in manufacturing, especially if you are a CPG enterprise, especially if you focusing on food as well, which is quite critical. You are producing something that people are going to consume.

and it's going to be a part of them. It's going to be a part of their bodies. know, all of these molecules, all of these nutrients, they're going to be a part of who they are and of their bodies, probably for a long, long time. And that's why it was quite critical for us in our operations to make sure that we start in that molecular level, you know, at the very, very small level from our operations to make sure are we doing things right? Are we doing the right recipes? Are we using the finest ingredients? Are we securing local ingredients?

first? Are we talking to our neighbors before we go to another province or to go international to secure what we're trying to do? And it would have helped a lot actually if cocoa would grow in Canada but cocoa doesn't grow in Canada so we have to import it from so many other places. at the end of the day guess that one of the major important points that we were talking about is how to make sure that in this operation that our business has not is and is not contributing to the suffering of others and that's why making sure that our

ingredients are ethically sourced.

was quite important in this entire cycle. So we spent a lot of time actually just trying to figure out that piece of the puzzle and we were quite happy at the end when we realized that there are so many people around the world right now that they are so much socially conscious, way more than us, that they have figured a lot of these processes and we were just meeting with them. I traveled to Paris back in 2019 and I was a part of the OECD summit that brought

Tareq Hadhad (37:04.93)
leaders from the world, there's like many presidents and prime ministers. And was talking to so many people from Australia and New Zealand and especially in that part of the world where they have figured out so many things that actually we do not have yet in Canada, especially when it comes to CPG. And then I had so many virtual calls with them and I asked them about how they do build their factories, what kind of processes do they use, how do they make sure it's lean, how do they make sure that it is very efficient and especially in

where actually, you know, our cost of goods are quite higher than many other countries because the ingredients are higher, know, labor is higher, etc. But at the same time, you know, it's a kind of how the business is contributing to the overall success in the community. So when it comes to our operation, I think it follows different methodologies, but the number one thing is really trying to come down to that very much the unit base in terms of when I hold a product in my hand,

the contributions for so many people in this product, but also...

Is there other ways to do this? Is there anything that we can do different to make sure that this product actually can be, can be better? It's from the chocolate base, from the messaging, from the contribution, from the packaging, is it recyclable? Can people actually, is it going to harm the environment? You know? And I think being so aware about what goes on after you sell the product, because so many businesses, stop, their cycle stops at the point of sale, right? It's like you sold the product, that's it. The business is done.

But for us actually this is the middle of the journey because we want to ensure that people are enjoying the product and the packaging is ending up in the recycling bin.

Tareq Hadhad (38:48.784)
or that it's not going to hurt the environment afterwards. And then this product already contributed fundraising with a 25 cents or a dollar or $2 to support wildfire management across the country, for example, to support transcended trails so people can enjoy walking in the summer months. So there's a lot that goes on and that's actually the mindset that we have built in our operations.

Gordon Sheppard (39:10.068)
I love it. Again, it really comes, it's very consistent. The alignment of philosophy meets every moment. So funny, I'm just having this image of not holding a chocolate bar in my hand, but you're holding an idea, a philosophy, and that's flowing through because the thoughtfulness is there. And again, I think people are gonna really enjoy hearing how thoughtful you've been at all the different ways along the way. And again, core driving values and principles are represented at every.

Every interaction that's happening along the way. That's great. So we heard about the strategy, the work plan, the people, the operations. Finally, there's results. Qualitative and quantitative results. What sort of results highlights do you like to point out for having done all this?

Tareq Hadhad (39:52.592)
I don't like to talk about results in terms of numbers. I attended so many conferences where I'm hearing two CEOs talking about the success of their businesses in terms of dollar signs. know, we made the billion dollars last quarter. This quarter we made 10 billion dollars. So look how successful we are. And for me, this is not the right strategy. It's not really too important to me to compare these numbers. What matters is, are we happy?

you

Are we happy in this? And every time I guess, know, it's the tone of happiness that really matters to me. When I go to my family and say, guys, are you happy that all we are doing is leaving an impact to our team? Are you guys happy that, you know, you are spreading this message of peace at a time when there's so much conflict across the world, when there are so many people sleeping hungry, when because of the war impact, because you know that we are living in a world that is so complicated.

think when I go to one of our retail stores and see tourists coming from all across the world and seeing our peace wall with different languages that speaks to their native tongue, that speaks to their home, you can just see the joy on their faces. So you don't really need to ask them if they are happy. And I think really it just starts from that place. It's more kind of a quality thing than really a quantity thing. And it's all about the change that we are doing in our community and seeing.

thrive and seeing Nova Scotia thrive and making sure that our Canadian brand is expanding. was just looking a few days ago about some of the top Canadian companies that really Canadians have voted for to rank and our company was on top of the list and I was just thought that we just started nine years ago. So imagine what the next nine years can bring. We were quite excited about this journey forward and I think it all starts from a place of story.

Tareq Hadhad (41:53.874)
And that's why, you know, when you talk about quality, you have to relate it to a story and really bring in the story that we brought to Canada with us. It's a part of our DNA. And I think we are also thrilled that our journey is just in the beginning and what to come is yet to be created.

Gordon Sheppard (42:16.792)
So wonderful and you know what's fun is as people listen, happy by the way thank you because so clear. Nobody, if I had you in for another couple hours you would take me through a very detailed KPIs, numbers, that's all there. But you can see that where your emphasis is again is consistent with what's there. So people can't underestimate the fact that you've got all that at your fingertips as well, I guarantee it. So for any expanding business that's the truth.

Tareq Hadhad (42:29.328)
Thank you.

Gordon Sheppard (42:44.642)
But I love where it ends up there, which is again, that happiness indicator, which is back to people impacted. You said that very clearly at the beginning. How are we impacting people to make this world a better place with this peace message? What a, how wonderful to get to spend this time with you, you know, hearing about some of the details of your, where you're at. And funny enough, your mid journey, third of the way through, quarter, maybe you said nine years in, maybe another nine, maybe another 90, depending on how far this family goes with what you're doing.

For the leaders that are listening, if you had to sort of talk to a leader and say, there's one thing I always like to get across to leaders, you to get a chance to be maybe a bit in your mentorship role as you give back. What's a leadership lesson that you can just leave us with? Something brief that you can leave us with from your own perspective.

Tareq Hadhad (43:32.112)
I think the most important thing that any leader can do is that to listen more than they talk. you know, whenever you are in any room, just try really to listen.

do our operations meetings in our company with all of our senior team members. I try to be the last person that comes forward with any thoughts or opinions. Because this way, I leave the floor quite open for them to share truly what they believe in and what they want to see changed. Those people are giving our...

company and our vision, our mission, third of their days each day. You know, they come forward, they spend probably more time on the floor and in the office more than they spend with their families. And I think that is quite an honor. It's a quite a responsibility to handle properly. So treat it properly, you know, handle it like a, like a precious diamond and try to also, you know, understand more about where some of these opinions that you probably thought they were wrong are coming from.

So if you start from the early strategy when you're hiring people that were smarter than you, probably you will have to listen more than you talk anyway. overall, I guess you will find miracles, you know, once you truly are listening to the people around you and the opinions that come a long way that can really drive forward your passion for your success.

Gordon Sheppard (44:59.118)
Super clear, super lucky. Thank you so much for being on the show.

Tareq Hadhad (45:03.918)
My pleasure. Thank you very much for having me.