The Loew Down
The Loew Down is the podcast where Hamilton's small business community tells its own story — origin stories, pivots, hard lessons and the real advice that only comes from someone who's actually been through it.
Episodes
17 episodes
Carly's Story: Even Therapists Need Support
You've built something that helps everyone else, and you still don't know who to call when you're the one who needs support. You tell yourself you're fine, you push through, and you assume everyone else has this figured out i...
Andy's Story: Views Aren't Sales
You built something people love walking through the door for. Scroll through your Instagram and you'd never know it. You've been posting consistently, maybe even trying the trends everyone tells you to, and it still isn't bri...
Cailen's Story: The City Told Her No. Twice.
Ever hit a wall as a small business owner with absolutely no one nearby who's been through it before? You Google it, you ask around, and you still end up piecing it together completely alone. Here's the relief: it gets figure...
Kristen's Story: Nobody Told Her She'd Be Okay
You know that feeling of facing something scary in your own body, completely alone, with no one there to tell you it's going to be okay? You've probably told yourself that's just what it costs to build something alone.Here's what that i...
Katie’s Story: Building a Business When Your Brain Won’t Quiet Down
Our season finale, and what a conversation to close on.Katie from Cake & Kale is a Hamilton-based custom cake and wedding cake artist, a mom of two boys with a third on the way, and someone who has spent years being radically honest...
Ayaan's Story: Time Is Tissue. What Cheap Botox Really Costs.
Ayaan Ali built Fiore Med Spa in Westdale Village, Hamilton and she did it her way. Two and a half years in, she has a team of five, a waitlist of clients who found her after something went wrong somewhere else, and almost nine years of experie...
Elizabeth’s Story: Her Biggest Legacy
Elizabeth Den Hollander was six months into her career as a registered massage therapist when her mom was diagnosed with stage 3 cervical cancer. That same day, she took over the clinic. She kept it running for nine years, treating clients, bui...
Alex's Story: Stardust With Belly Buttons. Why Rejection Built Her Business.
She walked into rooms nobody invited her to. Cold called every single day selling a technology most people had never seen. Heard no more times than she can count. And kept going anyway.Alex Graham is the founder of Me-Tour, a Hamilton c...
Michelle's Story: Twenty Years in the Trenches, Still Proving It
She's spent two decades in pediatric medical and mental health and she still has to convince parents she's worth paying for.Michelle McVittie is a certified child life specialist and parenting coach behind Mom the Manager, and the recur...
Amanda's Story: She Built the Space She Always Needed
Amanda Gurman spent years being the person other women called when they finally had something they needed to say out loud. She's the host of the Honest as a Mother podcast, a three-time bestselling co-author, and the founder of Her Truth Press ...
Matus’s Story: The Bed Bug Guy Nobody Talks About. Until They Have To.
Matus Baran has been the guy nobody calls unless they have to — and he’s completely fine with that. He runs Green Heat Bed Bugs Exterminators out of Hamilton, Ontario, doing 100% chemical-free heat treatment for bed bug infestations across Hami...
Safiya's Story: She Almost Gave Up. Then the Space Appeared.
Safiya didn't plan to open a clay studio. She planned to take a break.After 15 years in higher education, teaching, research, coaching, she quit her job, moved to Ancaster, and picked up pottery as a hobby. Something just for her. Then the ...
Annette's Story: She Already Has a Plan.
Annette Smith of Lip Service Beauty has been through a winery fire, a year-long insurance battle, COVID, two Canada Post strikes, a tariff war — and this week, hackers wiped out eight years of her Instagram and Facebook in a single afternoon.&n...
Holly’s Story: What Nobody in Business Says Out Loud About Copycats
Holly Silenzi built Beyond the Bomb from scratch during COVID lockdown — a one-woman handmade bath bomb business out of Hamilton that became the original toy surprise bath bomb shop. Five years in, she’s one of the most respected makers in the ...
Mersina's Story: She Built the School She Always Needed
Mersina opened Lion's Heart Family Martial Arts in Ancaster when she was 21 years old — with no business background, no financial cushion, and a school that had been open for exactly one year before COVID tried to take it all away.She's...
Kristi's Story: He Built It. She Couldn't Let It Go.
Kristi Grove has been running Tundra Leather on King Street East in Hamilton since 2015. The shop has been there since 1991. Her dad, Peter, built it. When he got sick and passed away, Kristi walked away from a stable finance job at McMaster Un...