What happens when a 28‑year‑old walks into a boardroom full of 50‑year‑olds and completely rewrites the culture of a unionized retail operation? Joshua Millar didn’t just survive it — he became the longest‑serving GM in Tepperman’s London history.

This episode goes deep into the kind of leadership you can’t fake: the kind forged on a berry farm, hardened in the Canadian Armed Forces, and tested inside one of the most complex retail environments you can imagine. Josh breaks down how “leaders eat last” isn’t a slogan — it’s a lifestyle. From feeding his section before himself to rebuilding trust inside a store that churned through six general managers in five years, he shows how service‑based leadership actually works in the real world.

We get into the wild dynamics of running a unionized, commission‑based sales team — where everyone wants fairness, but everyone also wants to win. Josh shares how he rebuilt culture from the ground up, turned hostility into collaboration, and created a workplace where employees brag about their leader to strangers… including the VP who secretly visited his store.

If you’ve ever wondered how to lead people older than you, how to earn respect without demanding it, or how to think like an entrepreneur inside someone else’s business, this conversation is a masterclass. Calm under pressure, relentless in service, and obsessed with building people up — Josh’s story is the blueprint for intrapreneurs everywhere.

Some people build businesses. Justin Mulligan builds experiences. And somehow, he’s doing it inside one of the biggest companies in the country — with the freedom, creativity, and hustle of a founder. This episode is a masterclass in intrapreneurship: how to act like an entrepreneur even when you don’t technically own the business.

Mully’s story starts in one of London’s most iconic small‑business legacies — Pete’s Sports — where he grew up watching his dad and uncle grind, build relationships, and accidentally help launch Vaughn, one of the most legendary goalie equipment brands in hockey. That early exposure shaped everything: the hustle, the people skills, the instinct to create moments people remember.

Fast‑forward to today: Justin is the National Brand Experience Manager for Molson, designing massive festival activations, building speakeasies behind porta‑potties at Stampede, bringing 80s mascots to life as touring DJs, and dreaming up ideas that reach millions of people across Canada. Mechanical bulls, Instagram walls, custom jibbit bracelets — if you’ve seen something wild at Boots & Hearts or Rock the Park, there’s a good chance Mully was behind it.

But the real magic is his mindset. The imposter syndrome he still feels before every event. The notes app full of “fix this next year.” The obsession with making experiences better, tighter, more memorable. The belief that growth lives in discomfort. And the reminder that you don’t need to own a company to think like a founder — you just need to care enough to build something worth talking about.

This episode is pure energy, pure joy, and pure entrepreneurial spirit — even inside a 200‑year‑old beer company.

You don’t stumble into a skull‑cleaning business… unless you’re Katie Dortmans. What started as watching her brother boil deer heads in the backyard turned into one of the most fascinating niche businesses we’ve ever featured — and one of the most unexpectedly inspiring entrepreneurial journeys you’ll hear this year.

Katie went from a secure corporate job with a pension to running a full‑time skull‑cleaning operation powered by dermestid beetles — the same beetles used by museums like the ROM. She built her first colony in a 10×11 shed, took drop‑offs in a wheelie bin beside her house, and slowly grew a reputation for immaculate work that hunters across Ontario now swear by.

But the real story isn’t the skulls — it’s the leap. Katie talks openly about the slow burn of passion, the moment she realized she couldn’t keep one foot in the corporate world, and the mindset shift that pushed her to “burn the ships” and bet on herself. No leave of absence. No safety net. Just full commitment.

And then there’s the art. The part she hid for years. The part she never showed her face for on Instagram. The part that eventually pulled her into her first art show and forced her to admit: she’s not just an entrepreneur… she’s an artist.

This episode is weird, wonderful, and wildly motivating — proof that the most unconventional paths often lead to the most fulfilling work.