Mireille Dimitry

The full conversation with Mireille Dimitry, transcribed. Lightly formatted for reading.

You have 3 kids, you have a husband, and now you just switch completely to Seedme to dedicate your focus on that. How do you do all of that? How do you juggle all of these different facets of your life? I mean, you try my best.

I don't think that there will ever be balance. I think that it's not possible. I think that in one day I'm going to be a great entrepreneur and I'm not going to be a super good mom, and then other days I'm going to be an awesome mom, and my to-do list I checked— I checked nothing off of my to-do list. So ultimately, it's to just be okay with the fact that things are not perfect.

So what would be your advice for somebody who's thinking of launching their own business? They're thinking, maybe because I have kids and I have all these other things I'm doing already, like, they see this as a roadblock because I'm not going to be a good mom if I do that. Like, I don't have to sacrifice my whole family. Well, you know, there is a lot of time I spend away from my kids, but ultimately the kids see that I'm working super hard towards an awesome goal, and they they see that and they appreciate that.

Before, perseverance is really number one. You could do it, just plan your day out properly and work with the time that you have. Enlist as much help as you can. I'm blessed to have my husband that supports me so much, my parents, my sister, friends and family, and everyone pitches in however they can.

Welcome to the show, Mireille. It's a pleasure to have you. Thank you. I'm so excited to have you on.

Thank you for having me, Kathy. No problem. Usually I start by asking the guests to tell me a little bit about themselves, especially maybe when they were in their 20s, because I believe that— oh, even when they were a child and they're doing their childhood, because I find that that person in our childhood sometimes has a great impact on the person that we become today. So without further ado, please let us know who, what, and what do you do.

Uh, thank you. So I'm Mireille, owner and founder of, uh, super awesome local company called Seedme. We make healthy energy snacks. And, um, who I am— I always start off by thinking, first thing that comes to my mind is mom of 3, uh, wife, and, you know, just, uh, accountant by trade.

But no, I mean, uh, yeah, so I was an accountant before. So for 17 years— 17 years— I worked in, in accounting and finance. Various, various different roles. And are you still working as an accountant or you completely stopped?

Completely stopped. Wow. It's officially, officially over. When was that?

So that was a couple of weeks ago. A couple of weeks ago? Yeah. Well, congratulations then.

Thank you. Thank you so much. So now you're fully— fully dedicated. I— well, when I started the business 3 years ago, I started off as, you know, I still worked full-time in my accounting job.

And then about a year and a half ago, I decided to accept a part-time role. Okay. And worked part-time in my day job, my accounting job. And well, I don't want to say part-time SeedMe because it's always more than full-time.

And then I definitely— I took the lead just a couple of weeks ago and ready to take it on full-time, full force. Well, there's a lot to unpack here. Okay, so for 17 years you've been an accountant. You know, that's what you do because you loved accounting, right?

I don't know who actually loves accounting. I've yet to find someone that does. But I mean, I did accounting myself. That's why I'm asking.

I'm joking about it. There you go. So yeah, it's— It's one of those things where it's a safe choice. I went into it because it was safe, because my, you know, you're almost guaranteed a job and a good job and a paying, a well-paid job.

Was I happy? I mean, I think for 17 years I was, I never felt that I was in the right place. I felt that I was just going through the motions of life. And you know, when you finish school, you go to work.

And then I remember thinking in the very beginning, this it? Is that what my life will be for the next 40 years? And I, you know, 17 years later, it's just, fast forward, there's a lot that happens. There's, you know, marriage.

Yeah, 3 kids. 3 kids. And so just, it really was a fast forward to— sometimes I don't believe it's been 17 years, but it went by quickly. Yeah.

And how old are your kids? My kids are 9, almost 8, and 5. Similar to me, my 3 are 9, 5, and almost 3. It's busy.

Yes, very busy. And you know, you have your husband as well, right? So, okay, so then walk me through this. You have this little voice in your head that says maybe one day you want to do something more, like becoming entrepreneur?

Is that how it went? Yeah, so my— well, my father has been an entrepreneur. He's a food entrepreneur. He was, you know, he owned restaurants for years, and I've often went to his restaurants, lingered around, you know, try to help him.

He taught me how to make my first latte at— he had a really nice cappuccino machine. I learned to make the first latte at 13 years old. Okay. And he always, you know, he— I went to help him on my days off from school, and I really just— I felt at home when I was in that environment.

And yeah, I mean, fast forward 17 years, here I am. So you said, how did that go with your husband to say— Let's do it. Let's do this. So during the pandemic, there was a silver lining to the pandemic.

And during the pandemic, I didn't have to commute to work every day anymore. So I found myself with an extra almost 2 and a half hours of my day. And my kids went to school, and I'm constantly trying to find snack solutions for my kids. That met my requirements.

So I wanted a clean snack that didn't have a lot of preservatives and that I could understand the ingredients. And at the same time, it had to fit the lunchbox. So if I had an hour to make a snack, it needed to— they needed to like it and I needed to be able to put it in a lunchbox. So during the pandemic, I started, you know, making my own energy snacks and swapping out nuts for seed-based alternatives.

And when my kids liked it and my husband loved it and tested on a few other guinea pigs around me, and I felt like I had something. Okay. Yeah. And so, but whose idea that say, you know, maybe Mireille, why don't you turn this into a business?

Yeah. So, I mean, I've always had the idea of, oh, maybe this could be something interesting. What if I made a, what if I commercialized this product? And so we just, it really was, let's do it.

Let's start off something very simple. You know, started off with like a small website and Instagram, a Facebook, and then see where it goes. And how's the demand? How do you see people responding to Seedme?

So in, you know, when, when we started, it was fully online during the pandemic. And, you know, we had a lot of repeat buyers, repeat customers, a lot of people telling us, this is an awesome product, I've never had anything like this. And so we've had so much positive feedback. That's good.

And then we felt, okay, well, let's keep going. We're in the right direction. So which one, which version did you make first? Because I see you have different.

Yeah, so I started with the Crunchy Caroline. Yeah, the yellow one. The yellow one. Okay.

So I started off with a version of the chocolate chip because I mean, who doesn't love chocolate? A safe one. Then I decided to try out some without chocolates. You don't always want to have chocolate, maybe not in the morning, and so I figured, let's use the same idea but then turn it, you know, bring in different flavours.

Yeah, and they look really good. I love the packaging. Thank you. Did you come up with that yourself or did somebody help you out?

Yeah, so we worked with really good designers in Montreal that really took our ideas and awesome, awesome packaging. And yeah, they're so good. I know, they look really good. And where can people find them?

Because you said you started online, so I'm guessing now they can find them at the stores, right? Yeah, so we still sell online, but we're in about 120-some locations in Montreal. And we just recently started in Ontario as well. Wow, congrats.

Thank you. Do you pinch yourself sometimes to say, wow, I can't believe this is going so fast? Definitely. Oh my goodness.

And what are your goals, for example, for I don't know, with Seedme for the next few years? So really would be to get into more places, to spread the love. And I've always loved feeding people. It's just— this is how I show love.

Feed people that come to my house. I love to feed them. And what I like even more is being able to feed them something that's good for them. That's nice.

I wish you were my neighbor. Let's go to Mihai's house. And so, yeah, it's more growth, being in more stores, more provinces. And yeah, but you can visualize it.

You can see this happening now for sure. Yeah, I do. And, and if there's anything that I learned from the business, and it's actually— I don't know if it's about the product as a facet of the business, but I think it's, it's how much do you keep going? Are you going to keep going?

That's really what makes it or breaks it. Perseverance. Yeah. And do you have any bad days?

Like, I'm sure there are days that you're like, oh my gosh, what am I getting myself into? Talk to us about that a little bit. I do. I'd say probably the first year is when I was asking myself every day, Why am I doing this?

Why am I doing this? I had a simple life. Yeah, I had a simple— sitting in front of a computer, 9 to 5, I clocked off, and that was it. And I think I'd ask myself, of all the industries I went into, I had to pick food, which is a super difficult industry.

It's very complex. You meet a lot of food entrepreneurs, and they probably all say the same thing. It's very challenging. There are so many different restrictions.

And I think that really— just the perseverance and moving forward with just keep going. What are some of the— what makes it so difficult? Yes, I know it's food, it has to be clean, all these other things, but what are some of the challenges that you encounter in this industry that maybe we're not thinking about because we're not in that industry? So, I mean, especially for snacks, there's a lot of competition.

Yes. So snacks industry is— I don't want to say saturated, but there's so many different options in the market and there are so many options. And I think a lot of people have a fear of You know, spending money on a quality product, you never know, is it really good? Is it not so good?

Am I— you know, so there's— so I'd say the competition is definitely a challenge. And I find also, as we move forward, I just— I find that it's obviously all of the— you said it, the food regulations are intense, you know, so— and everywhere you want to go, if ever I want to go into the States, there's a whole slew of different regulations. What about Quebec and Ontario? Were there some differences that you— anticipate?

Not many differences. A lot of the regulatory bodies that I deal with for, let's say, for organic, EcoCert, for organic, just to make my product organic, it's all of Canada. Okay. And what were some of the big mistakes you made that you didn't even realize it was going to be a big deal, but then it turned out to be?

Is there any story like that? I'd say a big showstopper was size. You know, we started off Seedme with, you know, I have a bigger, like, this is a two-piece package. But when we started, it was 12 pieces.

It was too much. Yeah, so we started off with sizing as being a 12-piece, and when it's bigger, it's obviously a more expensive product. And we developed packaging for a bigger product, and then we scaled down, and then we scaled down to the 6-piece, and then we scaled down even more to a 2-piece. So I think that packaging is— it's an interesting part of the business.

It just It's constantly evolving, but I think that that's, that was something that had I known from the beginning, I should have, you know, should have thought of a grab-and-go, a smaller packaging would have avoided a lot. So this one is catered more for the kids at school to put in their lunch or? Exactly. So, you know, you grab it, you put it in the lunchbox, or even we're in a lot of like healthier stores or salad stores and you have your meal and then you want to grab a healthier snack option.

So it's a really nice. Grab-and-go option. So then the KPIs, or how many you sell, when it was 12 in a bag, that enabled you to come to the conclusion maybe we should reduce the size? Well, I think we needed to.

The key to going retail was to reduce it in size. People, when they go to the grocery store, don't necessarily want to spend $20 on a snack. And so we had no choice but to make a smaller package. I understand.

And when it comes to the business, what are some of the things that you like, you know, being an entrepreneur? I love being able to control the future of or the direction. It's really nice, and you really do get what you put in. If I do 100 calls, I'll get something, and if I do 5 calls, I'll get something else, and it's really up to me.

And I like to have the control over the direction. If I want to implement a new flavor, I could. I don't have to. In my previous job, I used to work at the government, and it's extremely— there's a lot of levels, and it's a really big machine, takes a lot of time to move.

And so being in a position to change and to to pivot is really awesome. Flexibility and freedom. Yeah, I like that. And you mean calls, like you're calling— who are you calling?

So yeah, potential clients or, you know, vendors, anyone. If I want to go with this vendor, I could. If I don't want to, I'll go with somebody else. And that's— I decide, I choose.

Yeah. And what are some of the things that you don't like doing? Accounting. No surprise there.

I did, I did. However, uh, I did at the beginning, delegate, delegate that task on because I just don't want to do it and because I have a million other facets of the business. So now you're focusing more onto revenue-generate activities so that you can promote the business. And my favorite, my all-time favorite task is, is product development, is R&D.

Why? I just, I love creating. I love creating different options, different snacks. And so when I started the business you have this glamorous idea of you start a business and you're gonna do just what you love, which is in my case I love R&D.

It's not a lot of that because there's a lot of other things to do. Yeah, but R&D is still at the top of the list. And what does a typical day look like for you? Okay, so typical day in the life would be I wake up around 5:30, I answer some emails from my phone, and, uh, then I try to wake my kids up.

Takes about half an hour. I'm trying to wake them out of bed, shake them off, get them ready for school, you know, prepare, pack their lunches, come back, uh, go for a run, get my mind off of things for about, I don't know, 30 minutes to an hour, whatever time I get. And then I, you know, get on, get onto my, my to-do list. And, um, by the end of the day, pick up my kids, drive them to hockey, do homework, and that's it.

Around 9 o'clock, I try to watch a show but then fall asleep within 3 minutes. So do you work on Sid Me at All? It's a part of the day. Yes, I do, I do.

I mean, what I meant to say is, yeah, I like, I do have huge to-do list and everything from, you know, production standpoint to some of the days I go to the production facility and I see the staff and what they're doing and every facet actually. So production, purchasing, uh, inventory management, everything, everything. So kind of, I'd ask the question because a lot of people, maybe they're wondering, you have 3 kids, you have a husband, and now you just switch completely to Seedme to dedicate your focus on that. How do you do all of that?

How do you juggle all of these different facets of your life? I mean, you, like, I try my best. I don't think that there will ever be balance. I think that it's not possible.

I think that in one day I'm going to be a great entrepreneur and, and I'm not going to be a super good mom, and then other days I'm going to be an awesome mom, and, and my to-do list— I checked— I checked nothing off of my to-do list. So ultimately, it's to just be okay with the fact that things are not perfect. Yeah. So what would be your advice for somebody who's thinking of launching their own business?

It doesn't have to be in the same industry, but They're thinking maybe because I have kids and have all these other things I'm doing already, like they see this as a roadblock because I'm not going to be a good mom if I do that. Like I'll have to sacrifice my whole family. Well, you know, there is a lot of time I spend away from my kids, but ultimately the kids see that I'm working super hard towards an awesome goal and they see that and they appreciate that. Like I said before, perseverance is really number one.

You could do it, just plan your day out properly and work with the time that you have and enlist as much help as you can. I'm blessed to have my husband that supports me so much, my parents, my sister, friends, and family, and everyone pitches in however they can. That's good. So you make your kids participate into developing Seedme, basically.

Absolutely. They're the tasters, you know, is that good? Yeah, I did a video actually once about my kids and they're always, whenever they can, they'll come. I have a really nice laptop too at my facility, the kitchen facility, so they come and they try to play on the laptop.

But they come, they put some stickers, they prepare some boxes, you know, like whatever light stuff I can get them to do. They're definitely my models. And my taste testers. But if I can have them come with me, at least it allows me to spend some time with them and also to show them that you could follow your dreams and you shouldn't look at all of the different things in your life as roadblocks and just try to overcome them.

And where do you find the strength? Because yes, we talk about perseverance, we have to push, push. But there are days that are really low, low points. How do you keep that mental strength to say, "You know what, Mihaly, you got this, keep going, don't give up"?

So, I do, I run a lot. It's definitely an outlet for me. I think that in my gym, I look at it as being a therapy. More than anything.

It's— we underestimate the little 30 minutes or 45 minutes of sweat time that we could take. And I definitely try to find the time. And the days that I don't, I feel it. I'm more antsy.

My husband's going to ask me, "Did you go to the gym? Did you go to the gym? Did you go for a run today? " So it definitely puts my mind in a different place.

And so as much as possible, you know, super important to take in that 30-45 minutes of, of exercise. So basically find something for you that enables you to— like, I see what you mean. There's— there must— there is something that happens in the brain for sure when you— when you sweat it out. So, and what about your husband?

Is he working full-time or is he— yeah, so my husband has a very big job too at a firm. He's super busy as well, but always cheering me on. " On certain days where I ask myself, "Well, I don't think I want to do this anymore. " It's just a problem.

You'll find a solution. And so it's good. Yeah, you do need that, you know, because otherwise you feel alone in your head. Who can you talk to about the difficulties that you're encountering, right?

Yeah. Sometimes people maybe they might be wondering why put ourselves through all of that. Why? What would you say?

You know, follow your passion. If you have a passion, it's not really— it doesn't become It's not really a job. It's very— people used to tell me that before I started my journey. It's not really a job.

You're not really— I don't feel like I'm working. I feel like I'm just having a good time. I'm solving problems. I'm finding solutions.

I'm— it's, it's— you work for yourself. You start off. This is like my— this is my fourth baby over here, and it's very proud of this fourth baby. I see it more as It's, it's, it's just, uh, it doesn't feel like work.

Yeah, a lot of people say that it makes you feel good. You're doing something that fulfills you, basically. Yeah, fulfilling. Absolutely.

Yeah, I like that. And how do you promote, uh, the product, the snacks? So we did start off a lot using social media like Instagram, and during the pandemic, I'd say it was great It worked really, really well. I feel like since the pandemic has taken a little bit of a side, people are, you know, more out and about.

So what's really helping now is more like the face-to-face, the markets, you know, being, you know, in all the really big markets in Montreal. Like, for example, we just did the Festival Vegan de Montréal. Okay. The vegan festival.

It was good, you know, pushing the brand, getting people to try it. These are more things that help a lot more right now. I saw you on the news. Oh, yes, yes, I did Global.

How was that? It was good. It was a great experience. Did they prepare you before you went on stage?

Or I don't know how it works. Yeah, I mean, it was very short. It's a 5-minute interview. But there was a bit of prep.

Before you got sort of guidelines of what we're going to talk about. But it was a really great experience. My first time. Yeah, you did well.

So 2 years, almost 3 years now, right, with SeedMe? Yeah. 4 years ago, looking back, did you see yourself doing any of this? Like if somebody had said, "Mihai, this is what you're going to do in 3, 4 years from now," would you believe them?

No, I definitely dreamed about this. I didn't feel like I had the capabilities to do it, but you know what, Seed Me Really Happened is very much a— yes, there's a big strategy and a big picture of what I want, but it was really very much day-to-day too, like keep pushing, keep going. And I definitely didn't think I'd be here. I'm very happy with the work that we've achieved.

And just happy, proud. You would never go back? Never go back. I'm happy for you.

And how do you differentiate yourself from the competition? Like you said earlier, there's a lot of snacks when you go into the store. And I know you have to keep them refrigerated, right? So you're in that section of the— Yeah, the refrigerated side.

They were different because most store-bought healthier snack options that are organic and gluten-free, there's nuts. And that was very much a problem for the snacks for my kids, actually. So I was looking for a healthier snack option that didn't have nuts. And so that's how we differentiate from the others.

We're a snack that you can— very minimal ingredients, an everyday type of a snack It's basically something you can make at home, except everyone's busy now, so Seedme makes it for you. And that's just an overall allergen-free option that the adults will like. It's not really just for kids. I eat this.

A lot of adults eat this. And that the kids love it too, and you could just put it straight in their lunchbox. And talk to me a bit about— because you have to buy the ingredients, the seeds, or you buy them in bulk, you have store them? I don't know, what are some of the issues or what is that like?

Well, I mean, like growing into this role of procurement and managing all of— yeah, so we buy as per our needs, so it's always freshest ingredients. And it was definitely a growing pain for me in a sense that I wasn't— I come from the accounting world, so buying ingredients, buying in advance, making sure I have enough for production. I've had some situations where I didn't have enough products and I had to wait or I had to source from somewhere else. But learning curve, steep learning curve.

Yeah, of course. That comes with the territory, right? Oh my goodness. And we talked a little bit about the work-life balance earlier.

How would you define it if you had to give it a definition? I have to say there is no balance. Yeah, you did mention that. You know, it's more— it's to just accept that things, you know, it's to accept that things will not always be perfect and you do your best and not to beat yourself up for it.

" Because it doesn't seem like it. And I'm spending a lot of nights at the kitchen producing and packing and it's just overall my kid is happy, he's okay, I'll do what I can, enlist help and just accept that It's a little bit challenging. It's hard, but it's okay. How does that make you feel, getting a call like that?

Yeah, you do feel shitty. And yeah, you mean that I have to face the teacher and tell her, "No, I don't do homework with him every day. " I get it. But it's all part of— you adapt, basically.

Because there's a lot of moms out there that are in that situation. Even me, like, I do run businesses and I don't— I have 3 kids as well. I'm a wife. So it's not always easy.

Today I went to the school actually to get the report cards. Actually, everything was good. So I'm happy. But the teacher said, well, Kathy, she has to be a little bit more focused when it— because she forgets things a lot at home.

I'm like, yes, she does. She's like, for example, she forgot her backpack. ' I said to the teacher that I'm teaching her to— she has to fail and face the consequences, because if I'm there for her all the time to prevent her from making mistakes, then she's never gonna learn. You're right, you're right.

You, you learn. There is someone was— I heard once in a podcast is there's no such thing as failure. You just learn from— you win or you don't. It's either you win or you lose, but you don't really lose, you learn.

So it's really, it's an interesting way to look at something like that and instilling those habits for the kids. We're not being bad parents, you know, they learn something out of that. For sure, and then they can see your dedication, like you put your mind to things and you explain them. For example, my daughter, she's 9 as well, she's able to understand more.

Uh, she's like, okay, Mommy, what are you doing? So I said, okay, come sit here, let me explain this to you. Come do this design for me on Canva if I'm doing something that's artistic, because she really likes that. And then she gets to participate.

Because looking back, I remember my parents as well, they were entrepreneurs. And I remember me being at the stores just like you, and then learning, understanding, you know, people coming and buying. And I'm like, I'm the store, you know, manipulating money. Yes.

No, but these are, these are real life skills that you can gain as a child. Your children are gaining real-life skills over and above the typical, you know, classroom situation, which I think is very— is necessary. I'm not saying it's not a good one, but it's— you leave school and then you have all these other skill sets that will help you for your life. And I think it's definitely, definitely win-win, win-win situation.

Yeah, for sure. I definitely agree with that because I remember at school, like, I had the choice of choosing marketing or going into accounting. I'm like, okay, what am I going to do with marketing? Who's going to hire me?

Because I couldn't see, like, what job am I going to get back then in marketing. So I said, okay, well, I'll just go with accounting. You know, every business needs one, safe. Yeah.

So I fully understand. And look at us both here. I know, right? We're more in marketing today than— Yeah.

Because marketing is linked to sales, right? You did a lot of marketing in other two. To be able to help people, get them to be aware of your product in order to sell it. So then, yeah, I really like your journey.

I can— what's the word? I can relate to your story a lot. Thank you. I mean, we need to unite as moms and as, you know, that it's possible.

You want to do something and it's possible. And almost as though, you know, when your plate is full, can't possibly think to put anything else. But I feel as though when your plate is not full is when things take longer, you procrastinate. So if our plate is full and then you add a little something, you're just a lot more effective.

Yes, that's true. I remember somebody said, if you want to get something done, give it to a busy person. Yes, that's true. Because sometimes I wonder, people that, uh, that have no kids at the moment or future moms— not to say anything negative about it because I was in that situation— but looking back back when I was single, I was like, all this time I had on my hand, right?

Like, yeah, what did I do with it? Because now I'm so busy. But anyway, but that's life, right? Yeah, absolutely.

If you had one message, some wise thought, what would you say to everybody that's listening? If you have a true passion, persevere and do it. Just all of the, you know, just go for it. Those are really, you know, important.

Someone told me this when I started the business, and I think it definitely goes a long way. So if you have something, you love something, don't look at all of the different challenges in your life. Push them aside and persevere and do it. Baby steps, you know, just start.

Just start. And what do you like about the city of Montreal? Ah, Montreal. Montreal has First of all, it's beautiful.

The city of Montreal is beautiful. The food is amazing. We're very blessed with a lot of great food options in Montreal. And the people, you know, I've been, you know, so many people rooting for Sidmi.

And, you know, a lot of people might not realize, but when they do send me those messages on Instagram and on emails and people are just genuinely nice. And like to see local businesses grow. And I appreciate all of the people that have helped me and helped Seedme grow to where it's at today. And yeah, so great people, great foods, great city.

Nice. Well, it was nice to have you on the show, Mireille, and I can't wait to hear more about Seedme in the future. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.