Passion & Grit: Build Your Resilience Toolkit

You started your business because you wanted to make an impact, and those same values and aspirations can continue to drive you forward through change!

Encountering sudden change that’s outside of our control can be daunting. Whether it’s an unexpected increase in growth or a less positive obstacle, it’s probably not your first challenge and it won’t be your last.

Everyone has dealt with unexpected change over the past couple of years; yet, while one person’s situation might look different from another’s, one thing is certain – we are not alone on our journeys.

In 2024, WeBC is hosting “Passion & Grit: Build Your Resilience Toolkit” a program to help you develop four keys of resiliency: mindset, preparedness, strength, and action.


Who is this for?

This program is designed for women and non-binary entrepreneurs who are actively operating their own business in Canada, and would like support to turn current obstacles into long-term success.

Jennifer Hood

Program takeaways

Instead of focusing on how you can get things back to how they were, adopting a resilient mindset can help you to adapt and focus on what your business can look like in the future. You started your business because you wanted to make an impact, and those same values and aspirations can continue to drive you forward through change.

In this series, you will have the opportunity to connect with other women entrepreneurs to support and encourage one another to stay motivated, gain insight, new ideas, opinions and feedback from an outside perspective.

We’ll introduce you to scenario planning tools, useful resources and an action plan template that you can use in your business. Assisted by group activities, you will discover how to apply these learnings to restore confidence in your business plans today and every time you encounter an obstacle.

About the program

Program topics

You’ll connect with a small group of women, meeting for five, 1.5-hour virtual sessions to learn proven resilience strategies in a supportive peer network.

Session 1 | Connected Pathways: The Power of Your Network

The path ahead calls for resiliency, creativity and risk-taking to find ways of moving past obstacles in your way, but you are not alone. In this session you will meet our facilitator, Dawn McCooey, who will explain the objectives for the series and introduce you to your group members. Providing plenty of networking time, you will have the opportunity to share your entrepreneurial journey and connect with other women business owners in a supportive and encouraging environment.

Session 2 | Strive to Thrive: Develop a Resilient Mindset

Resilience is something that can be learned, it can be developed over time with practice, and it often looks like a sliding scale: from existing to coping to thriving. What contributes to personal resilience, and how can you live on the thriving side? In this session, you’ll have the chance to connect with your group, focusing on three key components that will help you reframe setbacks as opportunities in your business and in your life.

Session 3 | Flip the Script: Preparing for New Challenges

Not all change has to be unexpected. In this session, we’ll run through different scenarios as a group to identify predictable risks, highly unusual events or opportunities that could impact your business. Then, we’ll practice risk assessments to explore the likelihood and impact of these events and work at reframing your challenges into opportunities.

Session 4 | Empowerment Design: Embracing Your Strengths

In this session we’ll look at “what is strong, and not what is wrong.” You started your business because you wanted to make an impact, and that passion can empower you, driving you forward. As a group we’ll discover your strengths, resources and capabilities collaborating to figure out how to apply them to keep your vision alive.

Session 5 | Work It Out: Planning Your Next Step

We’ll talk about a variety of tools that help you to create a detailed action plan. You’ll have the opportunity to evaluate your current situation, gather feedback and bounce ideas around the group, explore and prioritize strategic ideas, then create an implementation plan.

Program details

  • Cohort 1 – Full

    • Where: Zoom
    • When: 5 sessions | Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10am to 11:30am PT
      • February 6, 8, 13, 15, 20
  • Cohort 2 – Delivered in English for women and non-binary entrepreneurs across Canada – Full

    • Where: Zoom
    • When: 5 sessions
      • March 5, 7, 12, 14, 19 | Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10am to 11:30am PT
  • Cohort 3 – Dates and times TBC
  • Cost: Thanks to grant funding from the Government of Canada’s Women Entrepreneurship Strategy, this program is free in 2024! 

Meet the facilitators

Dawn McCooey

Dawn McCooey | WeBC Entrepreneur in Residence (Cohort 1 Facilitator)

A Certified Management Consultant (CMC), Dawn completed a Master of Arts degree in Leadership and Training at Royal Roads University, and has worked with corporations, small businesses and government in organizational development and human resources management.

At WeBC, Dawn works directly with women business owners to provide one-on-one complimentary business guidance. She reviews and provides feedback on business plans, evaluates loan applications, and provides support to loan clients.

As the owner of a career consulting company for over 18 years, Dawn managed up to 32 employees in three offices in Victoria and was voted “Best Boss in Victoria.” She is the author of the Amazon bestseller, Keeping Good Employees On Board.

Ingrid Broussilon

Ingrid Broussilon | Founder, Griottes Polyglottes (Cohort 2 Facilitator)

Ingrid Broussillon, founder of Griottes Polyglottes, fosters growth through playful learning. Offering improv and theatre workshops, she empowers individuals to embrace discomfort in a safe and fun space, fostering creativity, communication, and confidence for life’s challenges.

Ingrid works and plays with schools, corporations with culturally diverse teams and organisations that support newcomers and immigrants. Her team-building workshops aim to:

  • Help to speak up against racism and promote diversity
  • Boost language confidence for French and English learners
  • Build confidence for public speaking or job interviews

If you are like her and believe that learning can be fun, impactful, and transformative, connect with her, you can make a huge positive impact together. Let’s play with purpose!

Stay in the Loop

We’ll be offering this program again in 2024! Please join our waitlist to be notified of future intakes >>>

STAY IN THE LOOP

“Before the series I really struggled managing all my ideas with the scaling opportunities that have become available. My visions are really big which makes it hard for me to see the small steps and decisions I need to make to move forward slowly, efficiently and wisely.

 The course really focused on personal resilience before transferring the ideas and values to the business. This is extremely valuable as the owner is the core for all decisions and often self-work gets neglected.

This course really inspired me to enjoy the small steps in planning and building growth! I learned activities that are stimulating, rewarding and fun to accomplish on my own. The many resources offered continue to lead me forward on my thirst for improvement and inspire me towards developing resilience.” – Ewelina Pankowska, Reforest Design, Salt Spring Island

“I learned resilience is a skill that can be learned, developed and practiced. And secondly, that often, the deepest and best learning for leaders comes from adversity and during periods of your greatest challenges.

Stay focused on the big goal. There was a reason you started the business you did- realign yourself with that goal and take one small step towards it every day. When circumstances are chaotic or challenging, consistent, sustained movement in a focused direction can cut through a lot of the noise.” – Jennifer Hood, Jump Gymnastics, Vancouver

Thanks to our Promotional Partners

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The C3 Project is funded by the Government of Canada’s Women Entrepreneurship Strategy.

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada   Canada wordmark