Business Energetics
Mixing Energy & Strategy for exponential results in your business, with your host Claudia Comtois. For all your marketing needs, visit :www.alchemimedia.com // Instagram : @xoclaudiaking
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Business Energetics
From HR Director to Thriving Entrepreneur: Catherine Poirier’s Inspiring Journey
From HR Director to Thriving Entrepreneur: Catherine Poirier’s Inspiring Journey
In this exciting episode of Business Energetics, we’re joined by the vibrant and unstoppable Catherine Poirier! A mom of two, wife, entrepreneur, and owner of Treasure Kids and Événements Reconnaissance RH, Catherine shares her incredible story of transitioning from an overwhelmed HR professional to the proud founder of two thriving businesses.
💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
How Catherine built a business organizing events for HR professionals and companies.
The behind-the-scenes journey of creating and selling Montessori-style products for kids.
Tips on juggling motherhood and entrepreneurship while staying inspired.
How Catherine’s products made their way to major retailers like Amazon and Walmart.
Catherine’s energy and insights are sure to leave you motivated and ready to take action on your own goals. Whether you're a parent, entrepreneur, or professional, this episode has something for everyone!
🎉CONTEST : Win a Famous Treasure Kids Balance Board! 🎉
We’re giving away one of Catherine’s signature Balance Boards to a lucky listener! This versatile tool helps kids develop better equilibrium and can even be used by adults for fitness or fun.
How to Enter:
Subscribe to the podcast.
Comment below with your favorite part of Catherine’s story and add your Instagram handle so we can find you!
Contest Rules:
Open to Canadian residents only.
No purchase necessary.
Entries close on Valentine's Day!
Winner will be announced on the show!
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Welcome back to the Business Energetics Podcast. I am here with the gorgeous Catherine. She is a serial entrepreneur, multi-passionate mother, wife and entrepreneur. She is amazing. She has two great companies under Pure Liberté Inc, which is Treasure Kids, which is a kids learning tools and games that they can use to grow, and she also runs a lot of events through Événements Reconnaissance RH, which I've had the pleasure to attend, and we we go a long way back over 10 years ago.
Speaker 1:We met at HSA Montreal and for all people listening, what was your group number 16 and our group number five. So this is amazing. Thank you for being here, catherine. Thank you, claudia, for the nice introduction. It's great. We have so many topics we could tackle because you have a very interesting way to approach business, which I feel like there's nothing you can't do. Basically, thanks, honestly Trying my best. No, basically, thanks, honestly Drawing my best. No, it's great. First things first. We are right now at Sabia, which you hosted an event here. Yeah, it was such a beautiful event, with plenty of food and drinks and beautiful women that are leaders in marketing and HR.
Speaker 1:And can you tell us a little bit more about what got you into the field? How did you get started. Why events? Events? It goes way back, Like when I was in high school, like I was in the prom committee and like president of the class, and I always like to do events. Like my personal email was Organisation, sébor was organization when I was like 17 years old. Like I organized like um art gallery, like at the city when I was 17, so it was always a passion. But uh, my father is a well-known scientist and he always told me, like you have to study to have a career and like, oh, even planning it's not a real job, like for him. So he said you should do like human resources, like a bachelor in human resources, and after, like you can organize parties for employees. So that's what I did and I went to human resources at HSM Ohio because in the business I love people. Like a day that I passed just with my computer, I'm depressed. I need to speak with people, I need to engage and I think what's magic about events is that you plan the event and after you live in it and after you're talking about it. So it's like a trip and I feel like you do that so well.
Speaker 1:I remember the first event we did together was a colloquium for european scientists that was hosted in hsc. Yeah, with, in collaboration with the sirium of montreal, and your organizational skills to be able to align scientists from all over the world and to coordinate them into giving a conference. You even had the minister of um was it the foreign affairs or immigration? Yes, yes, he came to our event and we were just like a university student at that moment. But like I think, like you're never too young to start doing great things, and like that's why, and after, when I finished my degree, I've got a job as a human resources, like assistant director, and after like nine months, my boss just left and I was there with 200 employees across Canada, 24 years old, 4.5 foot I still look young, but at that time it was. Five foot, I still look young, but at that time it was. And um, and sometimes I asked my boss like um, I did not know how to handle a different situation, and he's that he's like I'm not in HR, like you figure out yourself. And like that's what I did. And like we grew, like we opened other warehouses across Canada and I ended up with the 300.
Speaker 1:I was in the board of director. It was not all the director from the company that was there and I was very fulfilled about this job and I was working so hard and we did a lot of events for the employee. We had a great budget, our Christmas party were really amazing, and so, yeah, that was a great period in my life. But in hr there are more difficult stuff to do. It's like a veterinarian like you love animals, but sometimes you have to do it in asia, like sometimes in hr, you have to like fire people or deal with like ugly and harder stuff. So, um, after my maternity leaves, I decided that I want to focus on the happiness at work, and what makes me happy is really to organize events. The happiness at work is also like HR marketing and help people like I don't want to fire people anymore, I want to make them smile. So that's such a beautiful way to put it. It gets me excited and giddy about what you have built as a beautiful, beautiful brand that is getting more and more and more well known. I love your tranche de vie de vendredi, which you bring such a human aspect to business inside your linkedin persona. Um highly recommend everyone to follow her because she is just giving the gist on how to deal with hr but also, at the same time, um, how to be human while doing it.
Speaker 1:So how do you transition? You come back. You're a young mom. You've dealt with 300 employees. It's high level energy every day. You have to be on top of your game. You have to represent the brand as the employer, but you also have to represent the employees as their ally. How do you decide After coming back from maternity leave?
Speaker 1:This is no longer for me and take a leap. Yeah, it was really with my husband, matthew. We're going to be together for 15 years soon and he's the entrepreneur, the visionary, the real estate. I've been doing real estate together for 10 years and he was always telling me like, like, like, you can do this by your own. Like, don't give, like the best hours of your day to an employer. Like, do it.
Speaker 1:But I was scared. It's scary to be like two entrepreneur and don't have like the fix, and I was doing like the bigger salary of the household, so it was scary. But when you have, you detach, and I mean I was pregnant during COVID, so everything was closed and I had a baby shower on zoom and yeah, and I did my baby registry on Amazon and that's why I click. I was like, oh, how people are doing like how they sell on Amazon and that's why I click. I was like, oh, how people are doing like how they sell on Amazon and I was researching that and that's your. That's leading into your second business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the first business I launched it was Treasure Kids. So we started it was Treasure Kids first and then, yeah, because I did Treasure Kids, it's a product-based company. So we try on and off, like on amazon, finding product, really creating the design, the trademark. And like I was in my baby fever era so I think we, I I could have sold anything on amazon, but like my life at that point was baby. So I, that was your passion, you wanted to share my every day, and all my friends they all got kids, so I was my own like public sib, so so, uh, yeah, so we, we tried and sell on amazon across canada and it worked. So we ordered and after we did it in USA and after in Walmart and after I missed to have like conversation with people because it was all remote.
Speaker 1:So I've decided this year that the brand should be like in stores. So I met a friend. Yeah, we are now in 10 stores across Canada. Oh my God, congrats, yeah, thank you. And to develop and like yeah, we are now in 10 stores across Canada. Oh my god, congrats, thank you. And to develop and like, yeah. When I say people that we are at Carrefour Laval, they say oh, okay, it's a real company, it's not just like online, we're not doing dropshipping. Where in Carrefour Laval are you located? It's in the Boho Boutique, near the science.
Speaker 1:And as we're here, I want to do something. Yeah, because you brought something. You're doing it because I'm in heels pausing your amazing episode. Just to give you a little bit of context. So if you're curious about the amazing balance board that katherine brought to the studio, head over to our youtube channel to see it in action, so you'll see exactly what it's about and you'll have an actual visual Plus. We're running a special contest. Thank you to Treasure Kids and Catherine for their incredible generosity. You could win this exact prize balance board on Valentine's Day. So all you have to do is make sure you subscribe to the podcast, wherever you're listening to it, and leave us a positive review with your Instagram handle so we can find you. So don't miss your chance to bring home this incredible product. Now back to the show.
Speaker 1:So this is one of your products. Can you tell us a little bit more about what it is and what it does? Yeah, it's a balance board. It's really popular, like in the Montessori era, so it's it's to help children and this one they even support adults to gain their balance. Young kids they often have too much energy, so with this thing they go and they swing and they do it in silence because there's a mat under it so it doesn't scrape your floors. I love it, but our main it was an additional project because we are most known for our learning towers, so the kids can cook with their parents. And we love multifunctional items Because when you become a parent, like your house is filled with like plastic toys and we want to have like a nice feel like wood and something you can pass to other children or other people in the family. So it's really our goal to have like aesthetic and multifunctional stuff. Like my boys, they they put it downwards and they play cars on it, so there's many things you can do with it, multifunctional.
Speaker 1:I'm going to put this one on the side for now, but yeah, so you're in coming back to your story. Oops, okay, it's during COVID. You're at home. You're like, okay, let me start this amazon, let me build this business, and then you don't take it to the hobby, you take it globally. I know you're in 10 stores. Well, for now, love it, and can we talk about what you just experienced, or is it still? No? Okay, confidential. Maybe soon we're gonna see Catherine and Treasure Kids on tv. I did a February in the interview with oh interesting, yeah, so I did that. But like, bigger show maybe coming up, coming up soon, so we'll see when this podcast is released. Maybe we'll hint at little things, but we'll have to wait. But there's some exciting news happening for you.
Speaker 1:I just feel like you have the Midas touch, in the sense of, like everything you touch, you pour heart and energy into it and it works. What would you say is your unfair advantage or your secret to success? I think it's like self-confidence, like you have to trust, like you can do stuff, even if people don't believe you can do it, because like that drives me, like well, like I love it when people say, oh, you cannot achieve that, and after I do it, then so, so yeah, and it comes back. I think it's every little success like you build your confidence and you're trying to do more things. And also like I think it's the personal skills, like to be able to talk with people and to really interesting. I'm not selling stuff Like I'm doing even I'm trying to bring happiness at work with even my heritage but like if the people need it, if they don't need it, that's fair. And like I won't push. I'm not. I'm really about relationships. Yes, I feel like you give opportunities for people to connect as well.
Speaker 1:So, leading into what happens, after you launch um, treasure kids, and now it's starting to grow and everything is that when, when you started Event Mount Air Hash, what was the timeline looking like? Yeah, yeah, at Treasure Kids, we started to sell in 2022, but really like baby steps, like trying to figure out everything. But I remember I did my studies in HR and my passion was always like events and after the COVID ended, like in 2023, I was missing like the HR world and the, the events. So, and also like I produce my items in China spoiler alert but because here the same product would be four times the price, and like the parents don't have that kind of money usually to spend. So that's why we but since we do it internationally, like when I put some money inside to do the factory, it can take up to six months to come here, so I have to put a lot of cash in advance versus a service business like, yeah, maybe a little ads, but it's not like hundreds and hundreds of dollars you have to invest in advance. So it was to help the cash flow and also to see, like my passion and like use what I learn and what I'm good at. Yeah, you, you leverage a skill you already had since, like years and years and years ago. You, you're doing that beautifully and you know the world because you've been in it in a position of challenge, and you, you're able to bring that to the people.
Speaker 1:So I remember when you did your event here, you mentioned that HR and marketing they take care of everyone, but then you wanted to give back to them by taking care of them. So do you think that's um, something that should be more emphasized in the world of HR? Yeah, I think it's absolutely, and the goal was like to give back to people that take so much time for others and, like in HR, like you're always the one that is giving the Christmas gifts but you don't give one, or like you do the raise their meetings for everybody but you're the last one to get the raise or stuff like that it's it's pretty common when I talk to the community. So, yeah, that's, and I think like everybody needs to have a little self-care sometimes. So that's why I talked about this event with my friend Marine, and I love Sabiatu, so it was a great collaboration to do. I love that so much. That's beautiful. So you started that business.
Speaker 1:Now what is the goal for the next few years? Do you focus on marketing to HR and helping them create events for their staff? Who's your target market? Yeah, I'm working with a lot of people for now and because we offer different kind of service and like I'm the only one in the Montreal area that do that and sometimes people say, oh, it's a weird mix, but it's me like both of my company, like they seem not to be related, but it's related because it's had to do with me and my heart and what I'm interesting and loving. So in hr, like I'm doing consultation to help like smaller businesses who don't have hr in a permanent head, to help them with some recruitments or like training or really like strategic HR stuff. So those are less big companies Between like I have a client they are four and I have a client they are 50 in that area and after for the events, it's more like bigger company. I'm a lot of real estate and I have multinational.
Speaker 1:And now for 2025, I'm going to organize my first event with the government. It's Service Québec. I'm organizing the Women Leadership Day. We will have a lot of guests. It gonna air on the january. So, yeah, so for that, I work with it really at different kinds of it's really broad, but it's really personalized whatever they need.
Speaker 1:And with the even not reconnaissance, I really like got to realize a dream in 2024 I I organized a corporate trip and we went to san die Diego with the company and organized like the whole trip for like five days and there was like four events per day, was super intense, like like a retreat, yeah, but it was like the distributor meeting, so they have it was like team building and like the, the Canada head office plus like distributors, and so they wanted to have a bond and they do that every two years and it was the first time they had hired someone outside the company. Okay, because it's challenging to organize such a big scale event when you already have your day-to-day job. Yes, so, yeah, so I did all that and it was amazing. It was like living a dream for me because I love events and I love to travel. So travel events together like my goal for 2025, like I would like to do that again, but like, maybe in Dubai. More abroad travel Dubai yes, dubai, let's do it. It seems nice, like I want to do that. So anybody that wants to do a corporate event, they call me, let's go in Dubai. I love it so much.
Speaker 1:As you can tell, catherine is a bubble of energy and I want to touch on that because you are a mom. You have multiple businesses, you have real estate investments. If there's a mom right now looking at you and she's like I just need some of the coffee she's getting in the morning, I don't even drink coffee, so I want to know what would you tell them? Where do you source your, your energy from? Where you're always passionate about what you do? Because in every instance that I've seen you, it's not like one day you're out of it and one day you're in it. You have an ability to sustain that level of passion and to infuse it into your projects. So what would you tell a mom right now watching at home and she's like totally overwhelmed diapers everywhere, she hasn't showered in two days and she's just like how am I even supposed to start a business right now?
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it depends, like at what age your baby is, because, honestly, like the three, four, the, the first three months, like you're a mess, you're just trying to survive because you don't sleep and this is like the most like difficult physical thing I have ever done, even if, like your breastfeeding, like it's like sucks the energy out of you, like it's really intense. So if you're in the first three months like relax, just be, just survive, but after that, when the baby starts sleeping and everything, I think it's important as a person for me. I really cherish, like my couple. I want to be a mom, but I want to be a person and to me, to be me, I need to do projects. That makes me happy because it's like a goal. You have to achieve goals.
Speaker 1:Like I'm an organized person, like I do lists and like I like to check stuff. So you don't have to do like a big thing to start, but just a little thing. Go outside your comfort zone, try to organize a and it does not need to be like in even planning. It can be just a feel that you like you love bakery, like you can start baking and you can start selling it on marketplace and see if it goes. Like you just start small. Yeah, just do it and do something you love like I ate, like accounting I would be not the same person if I was doing accounting in my office like all the day. So when you do something you love, it doesn't feel like you you work. So I think that's also to find something that you're passionate about and try to make money out of it.
Speaker 1:Because, like life is expensive and like I think women can do both and men too, but like mostly, like I think like often, like mothers they just, they just forgot they are a person. They are just like the extension of their kids and I think that's sad, like it's okay. You have like days that you're not with your kids and you're doing business and you have night out with your husband and like you can be. They say they have this study that shows that the children that have mothers that are happy it's the big reflection on their success, like in their future life. Yeah, I saw that. I should send you the link. I like, I love that. Yeah, so, like, so a mother's happiness is a predicament for the child's success. Yeah, wow, yeah. So I think so, like when I do events, or like I'm happy, I like to engage with people and like I come back to home and I'm so happy to see my sons and I hug them and but like they see a better version of their moms and what I love that so much. That's such a powerful message you're sending to moms right now to take back their power and their identity outside of the family home.
Speaker 1:And when it comes to being a wife, how is it Because you mentioned you were the primary breadwinner and now it's a family of two entrepreneurs how do you navigate not always talking about business, still having intimacy amongst all that's going on? Yeah, but yeah, me and my husband husband we often talk about business, but we love it together. So like we do projects together, like all real estates, we're doing it together. Like we rent a house and we bought another one and this summer we bought a commercial building was our first. So like we're doing it together and I would say, oh, maybe we can scale together. And like we plan together and we.
Speaker 1:I think that's the force of our couple. Like, for example, we did an auto construction of our house. We built it ourselves, like eight years ago when we were 23. And people were saying, oh, you don't have experience, it's going to cost you way too much. But like, it was our dream. So we took the time to talk about it and planned it and we did like our plan and when we went to the architect, he was like, oh my god, you know so much what you want, but we did it together and I think it's the strength, like, the more you do stuff together, it's like it's the goal and we have grew up together and everything.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, we talk about business, but like it's it turned us on. It's's like, yeah, you guys get excited to do projects together. That's beautiful, yeah, and we take time also. For example, yesterday we did the grocery together and I was like, oh, I want a night with you, but we put the kids to bed and we enjoy a tartare together. Just chill at home. Nice, romantic supper, yeah, and we have a table pool downstairs so we play. So it's great.
Speaker 1:Moments create moments. I love that. Oh, that's so amazing. And what can you leave? A sprinkle of dust, a little bit of magic for people to be able to experience life on the frequency that you experience it because you're very high frequency of almost like a fairy, like I'm just living life and I'm just enjoying every moment. And that's beautiful in a moment where we're in the middle of the winter blues. People are very low energy, they're very conservative with their heat or, yeah, just their minds that's helps. So, thank you so much, catherine. It was a pleasure to have you on, very excited um, tell us what's next. Yeah, what's next like happiness, family, more businesses. I want to grow the real estate. I want to do more corporate trip, help more companies get happy at work and, yeah, and treasure kids, have more stores all around canada. So, yeah, we have more projects than times to sleep, so I love it. Thank you so much. Thank you, it was really nice and it was a pleasure seeing you again. Thank you, we'll see you in the next episode.
