Building a Legacy Through Relationships with Diane Shirchenko

In this insightful and inspiring episode, Diane Shirchenko shares her journey from working as a registered nurse to becoming the managing partner of DiCAN, a leading Canadian fleet safety company. Diane opens up about building a values-driven business alongside her husband and brother, the pivotal role of relationships in her growth, and how she’s navigated the challenges of a male-dominated industry.

She brings wisdom, warmth, and honesty as she reflects on leadership, resilience, and the power of trusting your intuition—offering a refreshing take on what it really means to build a business with heart.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

• Why strong relationships are the foundation of lasting business success
• The importance of human connection in a digital world
• How Diane transitioned from healthcare to entrepreneurship with clarity and care
• The role intuition and resilience play in leading through change

Episode Chapters

00:00 Introduction to a Trailblazer
01:29 The Importance of Relationships in Business
04:28 Transitioning from Nursing to Fleet Safety
08:26 Building DiCAN: The Early Days
12:19 The Role of Human Interaction in Business
15:17 Navigating a Male-Dominated Industry
18:38 Adapting to Technological Changes
21:33 Handling Business Ups and Downs
24:35 Lessons Learned and Future Aspirations

Links

Connect with Diane:
Email: info@dicaninc.com/
Website: https://www.dicaninc.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dicaninc/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dicaninc/ 

To work with me and make your next power move, visit:
https://theroadtoseven.com 

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Transcript

Shelagh Cummins (00:01)
My guest today is one of those women that you just simply need to meet. She's a trailblazer in Canadian business and has grown an incredible business, ⁓ all about fleet safety, which is so fascinating. Diane, thank you so much for joining us today.

Diane Shirchenko (00:17)
Shelagh, I really appreciate you asking me. Thank you.

Shelagh Cummins (00:19)
Oh, it's a pleasure. Listen, I know you haven't always been the managing partner at DiCAN. Tell us a little bit about how it came to be that you are where you are and you've built what you've built.

Diane Shirchenko (00:32)
That's awesome. Thank you so much. ⁓ You know, what lights you up in life is something that I can really talk to. And I'm going to say at the beginning, at the inception of our company, it was a combination of my brother, my husband and I coming together. And at the core of our being, relationships are super important. We think that we are created for relationship. so relationships light us up. And we wanted

to establish a business where relationships would be at the foreground. So we started with our feet on the street, three different personalities, and working together, respecting one another, and going out into the marketplace and meeting people, listening to them, growing to understand what their needs are, and then knowing that we wanted to develop a team that would be able to

reach into the marketplace and really just grow. So I'm going to say this.

to stop for a second.

Shelagh Cummins (01:41)
So you were a nurse first. How did? No, I don't. I just want you to start there.

Diane Shirchenko (01:43)
Yeah, it was a nurse first. Do want me to go back in?

Okay, yeah. All right, so to begin with, I was a registered nurse at a university teaching hospital. I worked in neurosurgery and spinal cord injury. I worked with some top doctors. I got to experience firsthand the minutia of caring for a person that would come into the hospital and technically have their identity taken away from them.

and they'd be very vulnerable. And then you would work with different levels of professionals that would either support and help them to feel like they were being cared for, or sometimes they just kind of dismiss them and treat them as though they were just a product. And I'm going to say at the basis of my core, people and relationships are really important. And so I found I worked my heart off.

to try to help those people and their families to understand their importance. And that became a part of the core values of what we implemented when my husband, my brother and I started DiCAN. So we wanted to build a team that actually felt like they were cared for. And I'm gonna say that again, with relationships being at the core of our company, as we started building our team,

We really wanted the members that were a part to feel like we cared about the fact that they would have lives outside of work. That's really important to us, that we would give them the tools that they need. And in everyday work, ⁓ there are a lot of things that go on every day. So we want them to understand their significance and the role that they play. And that became a really important part of the beginnings of DiCan.

And I found that's what really lit me up personally. And that's what is a driving force for me today.

Shelagh Cummins (03:49)
So just two things. I love that you talk about your company values first. I think that's one of the things that has not only driven your success, but I think really differentiates your company from others. So I love that when we're learning about your company, you start with the values ⁓ first and foremost. And secondly, I understand the nursing piece, but how do you go from nursing

to entering into the automotive world and focusing in on fleet safety. Did your brother or your husband have a foot in there? How did DiCAN itself come to be?

Diane Shirchenko (04:28)
Okay, so very interestingly, so my nursing career ended after the second child and my husband doing two jobs. And then after that, my husband and my brother both worked for an automotive company. They both had experience in the automotive industry. They both dealt with product. And so in a big automotive company, if you have a line that goes down,

you don't have people that are being paid to do their job. So they understood a lot about preventative maintenance, caring for the clients, caring for the staff members. So we came together with that background. And then I had the opportunity to work with my brother in a not-for-profit worldwide organization. I worked at one end of the building and he worked at the other. And we realized quickly,

We got to work together for 15 years and we realized very early in our career together that we really meshed well. And my husband, he has his strengths set that just the three of us together, and I'm gonna say this a few times, we became a threefold cord. And if you know anything about a threefold cord, it's not broken easily. It's a very strong and tenuous cord. And I think that in business, you have to be courageous.

You have to have a lot of confidence and you have to really care. So it's not for the faint of heart, but if you can get lit up by ⁓ seeing solutions and seeing people feel successful and understanding that all together, can be a very, you can have a very satisfying career life. And let's face it, you know, those of us that work, you spend a lot of time.

Shelagh Cummins (06:16)
Mm-hmm.

Diane Shirchenko (06:23)
in your workplace, in your environment. And so as we started to build a team, ⁓ we look for people that were motivated, number one, because you can inspire people that are motivated, but you can't motivate people on their own. That has to be in the core of their being. And so we have some pretty long-term staff now. And when I go back to them and I say to them,

Now we deal with a minutia of business every day. So there's always those things that are going on. But when I ask them about what helps them in their tenure, what helps them to really appreciate working with us, it boils down to the fact that they know they're significant. They know that they're appreciated. It's those little things that you do that become a constant. know, every day there's a new slate. We wake up every day and we have a new slate to start the day.

And I start the day with a new slate and I always feel like, who can I help today? How can I be a support? How can I enable my team, our team to be able to succeed this day? And there's always things that come and always opportunities that allow you to do this. And then when you see those smiles on their faces or those high fives when a solution is provided or you've actually been able to accomplish something as a team.

It's there's just it just it blows your mind. You just get you know, you just get really excited. So I'm going all over the place. Man, Shelagh. But I'm going to say that kind of was the beginnings. We we all had different backgrounds that we brought into the company. We started very slow. We were feet on the street listening.

Shelagh Cummins (08:16)
What did that look like though?

Like what was the first, okay, we're going to go in business and sell this. What was that first thing that you started with?

Diane Shirchenko (08:26)
So the first thing was a digital hour meter that measured the hours of service. It could tell you tack or whatever. And what happened was my husband was manufacturing a vibratory plow and he was introduced to this hour meter. And then when we started the business, we thought, okay, we're going to start selling this and see how we can do with this. Well, if you're manufacturing something,

and then you go to try to sell something, there's a conflict of interest there. So we realized we had to start a separate company if we wanted to sell products that could be used on these pieces of machinery. And so we did that. We invested personal money. We started in the bedroom of our house. Our garage was our inventory place.

We had the smallest, littlest vibe that would be packed up and put on the road, maybe with ladders on top. we just, and product by product started to develop, moved from a bedroom into the basement, ⁓ hired our first couple of employees. My brother started just being in sales full time instead of selling by day and installing by night and weekends. We just, we just grew.

really slowly and met and we're really fortunate to invest in people that really responded and were excited to do what we were doing. And we've just slowly been growing since then. It's been about, I'm going to say eight years that we moved out of the house and we've gone from having one unit in a strip mall to two units to now three units. We're really busting at the seams and we're looking for that.

one day when we can have that nice building that will just encompass everything we want, but that's not a priority. I'm going to say investing in our people, in our clients, and in the vendors that we work with will always be at the core of who we are and how we do what we do.

Shelagh Cummins (10:39)
Yeah, and I think that that's really neat. And I also think it's interesting that we really clarify that you started this company before everybody had Internet and you had you sold through websites. I think there's so many companies today that start from behind a website, whereas you started boots on the ground. And I think the fact that relationships are at the core of your entire business, it kind of symbolizes that idea that you started

by knocking on doors. And I don't, were you involved in the door knocking or were you more behind the scenes?

Diane Shirchenko (11:16)
was more behind the scenes in the first few years and then as we expanded more, I became more a part of associations. And so I would then go and meet the clients and my interface with the clients would be by phone, coordinating jobs or how we were going to accomplish different tasks for people. So I was able to put names to voices and then eventually...

to actual faces and interacting with them. And there's nothing quite like it. Shelagh, I've met you in person, sitting with you and looking into your eyes and sharing and listening to you. It can become a lost art. And so.

Shelagh Cummins (11:52)
It's different.

Yes, well I think

it is a lost art and I think that's one of the downfalls of the internet is people have forgotten that human interaction and that we are in the people business and I think that's one of the things that separates DiCAN from the rest.

Diane Shirchenko (12:19)
And do you know, interesting you say that because with, you know, we sell a lot of camera systems for safety and they can be in different shapes and sizes and they can have different functions and AI is something that you're hearing a lot about and it has its place and it can really help to support but it does not take the place of human interaction. There is nothing, I don't, I'm sure that there are a lot of, there's a lot of schools of thought on it.

I'll be hard pressed to believe that you'll be able to replace a human. And we're not interested in doing that. We're certainly interested in supporting your safety and the community. And we want to impact the marketplace. want to help those people that are responsible, whether it's the operator running a piece of equipment or the supervisor that is accountable or the upper management that's really ⁓ looking at that risk.

Shelagh Cummins (13:03)
Yeah, for sure.

Diane Shirchenko (13:18)
management. We want to be able to ⁓ educate to actually explore solutions and you know and remember your client is always he's the one that you want to satisfy. He's the one that you want him to be the hero. You want to be able to be a part of his story having success of having that safety consideration of having that accountability. ⁓ So you know we we focus in that way.

I'm gonna say that when it comes to the client, we wanna listen, we really wanna understand. And then we wanna explore those solutions because there's usually multiple solutions. And in our business, we deal with a lot of municipalities and cities. So we have the fortune to work with them. And they can be small and they can be large. They can be affected in their budgets, their equipment can be used.

multipurposed. So you really want to be able to listen to your client and understand. And again, that comes to the basis of relationship. You think about when you sit around the dinner table and you know, some people don't take time to sit around the dinner table. But what we find is that when we sit around the dinner table and we interact with one another, we may start out grumpy. We may start out needing to get some food in our tummies, but eventually

What happens is we deepen our commitment to one another, we deepen our understanding and we can celebrate one another because we get to really understand what makes us light up, what influences us, how we can strengthen one another in those ways that are just more difficult to work with. And this is just life. And so if you can infuse life into business and be able to

Shelagh Cummins (14:57)
Mm-hmm.

Diane Shirchenko (15:13)
flourish and enjoy. That's amazing. I think so, yeah, in so many ways. And I don't know that we'll ever become a Fortune 500 company. I'm not gonna limit that we couldn't, but at the end of our work experience, we will be able to say that, you know, the legacy that we can bring to our people and to our clients is that that one of

Shelagh Cummins (15:17)
I think that's the Holy Grail, isn't it? I think so.

Diane Shirchenko (15:42)
putting relationships and their needs at the very foreground of the whole purpose of why we exist as a company.

Shelagh Cummins (15:52)
Yeah, for sure. Tell me, tell us a little bit about what it's been like being a woman in a very male dominated industry. You know, even when you're working with municipalities or you're working with, you know, companies that have large fleets of vehicles. I would assume you were one of the few women that were in the room. What's that journey been like for you?

Diane Shirchenko (16:13)
Very interesting and ⁓ I'm going to say for me, very satisfying. I have grown up with a respect for men. ⁓ I think that the last few decades ⁓ there's been maybe a thrust towards ⁓ independence, that women having an independence and really

and women have a lot of strength, which is to be celebrated and to be respected and appreciated. And I think there is a balance. And I go into a workplace with men and few women understanding the significance of the strength that you gain when the two of you work together. My strengths are not a male's strengths. And when we come together and respect one another, and respect is really important, and that covers a

Shelagh Cummins (16:57)
Mm-hmm.

Diane Shirchenko (17:06)
whole large gamut of areas. ⁓ I think that that is really important in working in a man's world is you understand to respect them. You know your stuff, you're going to know your stuff because you know that you're in a world where they have a much greater understanding, but you know that you can come along and support. I've never been one that I have to shine.

I really believe that other people shining really is my success. So I light up easily and I get excited and I care about people. So I know that comes out in me and I'm gonna listen and when we have a challenge, I'm not gonna want my way. I'm gonna want what is the best solution moving forward. And I find that that when you work with men, when you work with women, I think that it's again,

you're putting relationships at the top of the spectrum and we can succeed that way.

Shelagh Cummins (18:11)
I agree.

I agree. And you know, I think the other really interesting thing is your business has grown and evolved through a time where the world has grown and evolved exponentially from, you know, the like from the internet taking over as a big part, the use of software, you mentioned AI, how have you been able to keep up with the growth and evolution? How do you handle that? Because it's

It's moving really fast and it impacts your business a lot too.

Diane Shirchenko (18:42)
It is, it is. And because we didn't start out with a lot of softwares, because we didn't really start out with the internet being our main source of connection, we're adapting into that and growing into that. then, and again, you have to take wise steps. You can't just dive in full throttle because it takes time to learn these things. And so, you know,

piece by piece, precept by precept, foundation by foundation, you keep incorporating and actually increasing your capacity by enabling people to have a better view, more, I'm lost for the word. ⁓

more transparency. Again, today when we do, we started out when we started doing installs and we do our installations at the customer site. So when we started out, we would fill out a work order and we'd bring it back to the office and then it would become an invoice. Now, that's a legal document. We prepare that in such a way that that can go to the client. We take pictures of the before, the during, the after.

And we have all of that accessible to the client. Now that in itself requires the software to be able to enable that to happen. And so we're growing into how we can have those systems and have that flourish. And so it's been part of the learning curve. And again, today, if you listen to companies that are startups, they're going to start the reverse end. They're going to start with their marketing. They're going to start with their

processes and then they're going to reach out. Whereas we started out with the relationships. We started out understanding what the client needed, hearing him and then working to find those vendors that we're going to actually be willing to take that care on to. Because you can sell a product and nine times out of ten it's going to work, but that tenth time that it doesn't work, you want someone that's going to work alongside you to satisfy the client's need.

because lots of times it's all about risk management and safety. So that's important ⁓ to make sure that you manage.

Shelagh Cummins (21:01)
Mm-hmm.

it. I'm curious, I'm sure that it hasn't always been smooth. I mean there's no business that's always on this upward trajectory, never has any dips or challenges. How do you Diane handle, I don't want to call it a roller coaster, but I'd like to call it the ups and downs that happen within the day-to-day minutiae of running a company. What are some of your tactics for handling that?

Diane Shirchenko (21:33)
being surrounded by strong people. I'm gonna say, Shelagh I appreciate you.

Shelagh Cummins (21:39)
Thank you.

Diane Shirchenko (21:40)
I'm going to say that I believe in people, I believe in the solutions that we're working through, and I believe that collaboratively we can figure out when there's a problem. You know, we do have a lot of respect for our team, and at the same time, there's an anticipation and an expectation that we're going to work together to handle when things don't go right. And you're absolutely right.

Business is a roller coaster. You can start out on top of the world in the morning and you can hit a lot of lows by the end of the day, but that doesn't mean that that's where you're going to stay. If you let those lows overwhelm you, then you could stay down there. But I find that nine times out of 10, those lows make us stronger. They help to redefine us. They help to set our processes in place in a more determined way.

I'm going to, just use an example of 10 years ago, there was a, ⁓ there was a group of municipal members that there was a tender for a project and we poured our heart and soul into it. I got to carry the tender to city hall and drop it off and people had missed night's sleep while we were just making sure that we had all our T's crossed, all our di's audited, di's audited, how do you like that? I's dotted.

Shelagh Cummins (23:08)
you

Diane Shirchenko (23:09)
Anyways, and then we didn't get it. And we felt that disappointment, but I learned that delay is not denial. Okay, so how did we miss it? We started asking questions. What could we have done better? What didn't we understand? What didn't we know? And then, so then we just, we kept sharpening. And now in the last three years, we have onboarded over 40 municipalities.

So it's like, again, you learn, you do have those ups and downs, you don't go into business believing that there won't be, and you believe. There's always hope.

Shelagh Cummins (23:51)
Yeah. Well, because I think

that initial no with that first municipality, you had the choice and you could have walked away and been like, guess that's not our, that's not our path. Or, you know, you can choose in that moment to be like, all right, what's in that for us? What do we need to do differently next time? And that is what I think is at the heart of resilience.

Diane Shirchenko (24:13)
Yeah, I think you're right and you need that in business. You really do. Yeah.

Shelagh Cummins (24:16)
You have to, you have to,

because it's not always unicorn and sunshine, but it's how you handle it. What I've noticed, I've interviewed a lot of women that have built some big companies like yours, and the one commonality is that when things aren't going well, they lean in.

Diane Shirchenko (24:34)
Excellent way to put it Shelagh. You're absolutely right. Absolutely right.

Shelagh Cummins (24:38)
Yeah and I think you've just exemplified that. Listen I've got

I know how busy you are so I've got two more questions and then I'm gonna let you go. The first question is what do you know now that you wished you knew when you started with DiCAN?

Diane Shirchenko (24:54)
I'm going to say ⁓ to listen to my intuition.

Shelagh Cummins (24:59)
Right? ⁓ god, it's so hard.

Diane Shirchenko (25:01)
Yeah.

You know, you second guess everything, but when you pay attention and you listen and you have that little voice going off inside of you, explore it. You can't go wrong by exploring it. Just ask questions and don't be afraid to reach out to people that have maybe experienced this before or that, you know, that have gotten to a certain place.

Shelagh Cummins (25:23)
Mm-hmm.

Diane Shirchenko (25:28)
and you're not there, it's okay. We're constantly learning, we're constantly growing. If I do something wrong to this day, I first of all apologize and then I dig in to see what I could do differently. So I think that's something that I would take away from this. And then a second thing is...

look for people that are the same mindset and that are motivated. know, again, you, I, my glass is three quarters full all the time. So I see things in people and I believe in people strongly and I'm learning that I listen to see if they believe the same way that I do, if they're willing to put that work in or if they want to be carried. And again, in business life today,

You have to be motivated. There's no place to carry people. And especially as you grow, the importance of cash flow, the importance of the team working as a team. There's no I in the word team. It's a collaborative effort. And I know I wouldn't see the success that I've seen today if it wasn't for the multitude of people and the different personalities. I've learned to celebrate different

Shelagh Cummins (26:38)
Mm-hmm.

Diane Shirchenko (26:51)
personalities. Not everybody's going to think the way I do at all. And it's great because we wouldn't solve a lot of conflicts because I hate conflict management. I do. But I've learned to embrace it. I've learned to lean in. I've learned to celebrate and figure out, you know, and in my own way, I don't dismiss things easily.

I want to figure out what's the best way to do this. And then at the end of the day, even if it's not the solution that I want, I know I gave it my best shot. And so at the end of my career, in my legacy, I'm going to be able to say, you know, I gave it my best. And then other people will be inspired to do that too. I'm believing.

Shelagh Cummins (27:33)
Yeah.

It's funny that you say trusting intuition because that has come up on on probably three quarters of the calls that I've had this week where we're I'm trying to encourage people to sort of tap in and listen and be OK with opportunities that are presented that are maybe not right or, you know, a red flags going off or so. I love that you brought that to the table and, you know, trust is one of the hardest things out there because when you trust.

Diane Shirchenko (27:57)
Y'all.

Shelagh Cummins (28:07)
It's like oxygen. If you have oxygen, you don't even think about it. It's just a part of your day to day. But the minute oxygen is removed, it's the only thing you can think about.

Diane Shirchenko (28:18)
Wow, that's so smart, Shelagh. So well-twit. I think that one is very smart. Yes, I appreciate

Shelagh Cummins (28:21)
Every once in a while we get a good one like that. ⁓

Listen, Diane,

I know that people ⁓ actually have one more question before I let you go. ⁓ What's next for DiCAN? What's next for you?

Diane Shirchenko (28:35)
Hmm. Wow. Well, we are growing. We want to increase the market space that we're in. want to learn what legacy looks like. I want to look at what are our next steps for my husband and I as we've built this team, as the team continues to grow. What does stepping aside look like? We love our business.

We do not want it to, in no way do we want it to dissolve. So what does that look like? That's where my mind is at. That's where my thinking process is as we continue to grow and look at how we can influence other marketplaces to educate and to strengthen. And again, we are a community of people and we want safe roads.

We want our communities safe and we want to be able to celebrate life together. And so that's something that is universal and it can be something that it can be your faith belief. It can be, you know, on many fronts. And I think that that is really strong in our hearts and lives. yeah, yeah. Maybe that means starting somewhere else. Who knows? That's right. Absolutely.

Shelagh Cummins (29:51)
But so exciting. Who knows? But maybe we don't have to know. Yeah,

I love that. So I know that people are going to want to learn more about you, learn more about DiCAN. Where should we be sending people so they can connect with you?

Diane Shirchenko (30:09)
That's awesome. If you would like to connect, info at daikaninc.com. Our website is daikaninc.com. But I'd welcome talking to anyone, encouraging anyone in your journey. I'd be very happy to do that with you. And Shelagh, I thank you for the opportunity to just share and be honest with you. Really appreciate it.

Shelagh Cummins (30:30)
⁓ the pleasure

is all mine. Thank you for your time today. And I can't wait to see what the next chapter looks like. And I would like to also point out that I think you've already left legacy. You're just broadening it at this point. So I love that. Diane, thank you for your time today. Thank you.

Diane Shirchenko (30:46)
Thank you.

It's a pleasure Shelagh, thank you.