Join Barb Stegemann, CEO of The 7 Virtues and Clare MacKenzie of Edgewood Communications for this workshop style event that will empower you to use your passion as fuel to tell your story and grow your business while doing it.
 
When the pandemic started, all 600 Sephora stores were shut and all of Barb's in-person speaking engagements were cancelled or postponed. Barb will share how she harnessed her passion to completely change directions virtually and the resources she used through the programs available to Nova Scotia businesses. As a result, The 7 Virtues is growing and expanding into more stores and new countries with Sephora.

The 7 Virtues story is one of inspiration and innovation. Clare MacKenzie believes every business has a unique story to tell and that it’s important to know how to do that in ways that resonate best with your key audience or market. During this event, Clare will share insights into how to tell your stories and how to get them to the people you want to reach.

This event is free to attend and open to the public. We invite you to join us for this interactive virtual event to learn and connect with the business community. ​During the second hour, we encourage you to grab your favourite cocktail as we host an interactive Q&A session with Barb and Clare where you can ask your questions directly to the experts.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS:

BARB STEGEMANN, FOUNDER AND CEO, THE 7 VIRTUES

Barb Stegemann’s entrepreneurial vision was formed after her best friend—a soldier—was severely wounded in Afghanistan. Understanding that supporting Afghanistan’s economy was key to building stability for its people, Stegemann launched The 7 Virtues out of her garage armed with only a dream to help war-ridden nations rebuild. Her company sources organic, fair trade essential oils from countries experiencing turmoil (such as Afghanistan, Haiti the Middle East and Rwanda and beyond). Despite addressing complex global matters in her talks, Stegemann uses humour to explain how individuals can use business for good and effect change, both at home and worlds away.
 
A decade later, The 7 Virtues is now an award-winning social enterprise — supporting suppliers in countries such and the only Canadian brand to be sold through Sephora’s "Clean at Sephora" fragrance space across the US and Canada. Through her inspiring entrepreneurial story, Barb shares powerful messages of triumphing over adversity, and empowers her audiences to embrace their inner disruptor.
 
A newsmaker, Barb first became known to millions of Canadians when she landed a venture-capital deal on CBC’s hit show Dragons’ Den — the first woman from Atlantic Canada to do so. She went on to become the "Top Game Changer" in the history of the popular reality show for creating her social enterprise.
 
Since then Barb and her hypo-allergenic fragrance collection have been celebrated in major media outlets around the world, including Vogue, Elle Canada, Fast Company, Forbes, The Cut, Women’s Wear Daily, The Globe and Mail, as wells as CBC, CNN, Bloomberg, and more.

Barb has been named one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women by WXN; won the Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year Award” in the emerging Entrepreneur category for Atlantic Canada; was ranked as one of Profit Guide magazine's "Top 30 Cool and Fabulous Canadian Entrepreneurs"; and was also made the first female Honorary Colonel in the history of 14 Wing Greenwood base, Royal Canadian Air Force, completing her term in 2015.

Barb is also the author of the bestselling book, The 7 Virtues of a Philosopher Queen, now in its 8^th edition, and the subject of the feature-length, award-winning documentary Perfume War. Watch the trailer www.PerfumeWar.com

CLARE MACKENZIE, OWNER, EDGEWOOD COMMUNICATIONS

Clare MacKenzie, owner of Edgewood Communications, helps businesses, entrepreneurs, universities and non-profit organizations tell their own unique stories in ways that align with their values and missions, and resonate best with their key markets or audiences.

She does this through a range of services including writing and social media management, and by offering customized media training workshops.

Prior to becoming a communications and media consultant, Clare spent more than a decade working for CBC as an award-winning journalist in Vancouver, Toronto, Halifax and St. John's. She worked for local, regional and network news in the roles of TV host/anchor, reporter, producer and senior writer.

Clare is thrilled to have recently returned to Halifax where she is able to reconnect with past clients and help new ones tell their stories.