Lauren Manekin Beille | YukonU: Innovation & Entrepreneurship | February 10, 2022

S2E10

 

Join Yukon Entrepreneur Lauren Manekin Beille, Manager of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (I&E) at Yukon University as we discuss what changes have occurred since we last connected over a year and a half ago.

 

(2:50) Lauren shares their first memory of the pandemic and how there are personal and professional memories.  They share the difficulties of working from home and the toll is takes on families on a personal level, but on a professional level, the exciting memory of also launching the PIVOT project to support businesses with micro grants to sustain them.

 

(5:58) Over the last couple years, looking at I&E’s business model, Lauren has learned that what they do is really challenging in times like this, and it is a tough time for folks to jump out of their comfort zone and take risks.  This makes their team have to work creatively to reinvent themselves to meet the idea of innovation and entrepreneurship. 

 

(10:15) Learning about leadership during the pandemic, Lauren has discovered how hard leadership is, especially if you are an empathetic leader who holds space and is flexible with the realities that humans are experiencing.  They are really excited about growth and development and find it hard to sit back and take the foot off the gas.  Growing alongside their team and trying to figure out what the right balance is has been an amazing opportunity.

 

(12:22) Lauren shares the adaptations they are most proud of is the team’s ability to go outside of themselves to find answers that support the people that they serve every day.  They share how proud they are of the team understanding how they can do a good job of meeting people where they are and connecting them to who they need to be connect with so that they can take the next step in business.

 

(15:17) The public health measures that Lauren has found the two most challenging are the distancing they’ve had to do, as a leader it is hard to share leadership when everyone is working from home.  They share not being able to connect face to face, smile to smile, and heart to heart with the people they serve being difficult. The other piece is not being able to host in-person events celebrating work and progress businesses they’re partnering with have been making and share their expertise and growth has not been fun.

 

(17:04) Lauren discusses some of the supports I&E has been offering to entrepreneurs.  The model they have is to fund a crazy good idea at a very early stage and how the funding is really flexible to help businesses grow.  They provide a wraparound service that helps to build a community for entrepreneurs.  Lauren encourages anyone with an innovative idea, some new, or re-imagining something old to come hang out with them.

 

(22:35) Looking at Yukon’s shifting economy Lauren sees an opportunity in how critical entrepreneurial skill sets are. The idea of design thinking, creativity networking, following your idea and building upon it is critical for around the future of work.  Lauren shares how the I&E department dreams about incubation programs where not only students can come up with the answers via entrepreneurial thinking and solving their own problems, but also having industry come and collaborate to solve problems at a larger scale.

 

(25:35) In regard to the rebuilding of Yukon’s economy, Lauren feels strongly about identifying who is doing what around the territory and ensuring that they’re not doing it alone.

 

(27:53) Lauren’s advice for emerging entrepreneurs?  Connect with I&E, and others, there is so much available.  The next piece is to plan.  Plan for those places where you’re not going to get support necessarily outside of peer to peer and build your networks.

 

(29:51) Lauren’s worldview hasn’t shifted per say, but they share that an aha moment they hope they knew before was recognizing how everyone is trying their best.  They share they have seen over the last two years how complex humanity is and how patience, compassion, and love have been a big piece of that.

 

(31:10) What wellness practices keep Lauren grounded?  Lauren loves to work.  Recognizing this, their wellness practice has been to work less.  This has allowed them to make connections that are arguably more important in some ways than most other ones versus when they were moving as fast as they did in the past.

 

(33:10) Lauren shares their final thoughts, encouraging folks to stay creative, stay aware of those ideas where you see a problem and come up with a crazy solution for it.  Those ideas are so needed right now, challenging the status quo, and creating a community to pave new ways to envision a new future.

 

Thank you for watching!

 

To learn more about Lauren and Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Yukon University, visit the website at:

https://www.yukonu.ca/innovation