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Surria Fadel – Finding your “why” in your career (#90)

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About Surria Fadel

On today’s episode, we are talking about the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, what it’s like working in a small business and finding your “why”. Our guest today is Surria Fadel, Co-Founder of Cedar Valley Selections. Cedar Valley Selections is not your average pita chip company. They create high-quality authentic pita chips in a variety of different flavours.

Suria graduated with a bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and has spent several years in the fitness industry in many roles, including being a Personal Trainer, Coach, Fitness Instructor, and Pain Management Therapist. She started Cedar Valley Selections with her son Ameen after receiving a small grant from his school board and wanted to share his mother’s famous Fattoush Salad recipe. Cedar Valley Selections has been featured on Dragon’s Den with Arlene Dickinson.

Things mentioned in this episode:

This week’s episode is sponsored by:

CareersNow! is Food and Beverage Ontario’s multi-year workforce development initiative that is connecting students and job seekers with employers in Ontario’s food and beverage processing industry for exciting career opportunities. Check out CareersNow.ca for more information on exciting jobs, career information, industry mentors and training opportunities for professional development.

Other things we mentioned in this episode:

Timestamps

(0:00) Introduction
(2:19) Cedar Valley origins
(7:38) Where Ameen’s entrepreneurship spirit came from
(12:05) Why Surria decided to commit to Cedar Valley
(13:05)What drives Surria
(21:47) Sponsor: CareersNow!
(22:14) Experience running a manufacturing facility
(33:54) What it was like being on Dragon’s Den
(40:30) Where Surria looks for guidance
(47:36) Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs

Surria Fadel Quotes

I’m telling you, Veronica, without fail, whether it’s me going through something or we are going through something, one of us making those mistakes, I’m telling you, like, without a doubt, there is always a customer that will text us, email us, share a story following that incident within 24 hours, saying thank you for it. – Surria Fadel

[About being on Dragon’s Den] Yeah, it’s been pretty crazy since then between Costco and Dragon’s Den. Yeah, it’s given us a ton of exposure and it’s really really helped people learn about who we are. – Surria Fadel

It’s funny because we’ve had people come to us, small businesses trying to get started and they make assumptions that it was just easy for us. No, it wasn’t, and I try to tell people it’s not easy. What you see on social media is just for fun. We just need to focus, laser focus on our business what we’re doing, not look around and and compare ourselves to anybody else. – Surria Fadel

If you are passionate about what you have, what your business is, what your product is, whatever it is, if you really truly believe in it and you’re passionate about it, just go for it. – Surria Fadel