The Loew Down

Safiya didn't plan to open a clay studio. She planned to take a break.After 15 years in higher education, teaching, research, coaching, she quit her job, moved to Ancaster, and picked up pottery as a hobby. Something just for her. Then the job market dried up. Then she couldn't find a studio space. Then she gave herself six months, and she almost ran out of time.In this episode, Safiya gets into the full story: growing up in Dubai, starting a dessert subscription box business before moving to Canada, the long search for a space, and what it actually felt like to open a creative studio six months ago with no roadmap and a lot of faith. Safiya talks pricing, pivots, building community from scratch, the tension between keeping things affordable and running a real business, and why pottery and small business have more in common than you think.Safiya also shares a moment from her studio that stopped the conversation cold — a story about a family, a funeral, and what healing with your hands actually looks like.Find Safiya at @kreativeklay.ca on Instagram and at kreativeklay.caBecause your story matters.

Annette Smith of Lip Service Beauty has been through a winery fire, a year-long insurance battle, COVID, two Canada Post strikes, a tariff war — and this week, hackers wiped out eight years of her Instagram and Facebook in a single afternoon. Annette is a certified aromatherapist and cosmetic formulator who left a corporate district manager career to build Lip Service Beauty from scratch — starting on Etsy, growing to 30–40 products, wholesale, and in-person markets across Niagara and beyond.In this conversation: the 2022 winery fire and the insurance battle she had to fight alone. The playbook she’s built for surviving external chaos. What the hack actually felt like — and what she’s building instead. Why she’s not reinstating her personal accounts. And how she thinks about community over competition in a way most people talk about but don’t actually do.We close with the question we ask every guest: what do you want to be recognized for in your community?Find Annette at lipservicebeauty.ca and @lip.service.beauty on Instagram. Because your story matters. 

Holly Silenzi built Beyond the Bomb from scratch during COVID lockdown — a one-woman handmade bath bomb business out of Hamilton that became the original toy surprise bath bomb shop. Five years in, she’s one of the most respected makers in the city.Today she’s talking about something almost nobody in small business says out loud: copycats.What actually happens when someone takes what you’ve built — your products, your photos, your ideas, even your bio? Holly and Cassidy have both been through it. In this episode they get into the moment you first see it, the emotional hit that nobody warns you about, where inspiration ends and copying begins, what to do on social media (and what not to do), how to stay grounded and keep creating when you know someone is watching, and how you protect your business without losing yourself.Plus: Holly’s take on donation requests, building brand trust, and why focusing on your customer — not your competition — is the only strategy that actually works long term.Holly’s business: beyondthebombbath.ca | @beyondthebombbathThe Loew Down: theloewdown.ca | @theloewdown.co

Mersina opened Lion's Heart Family Martial Arts in Ancaster when she was 21 years old — with no business background, no financial cushion, and a school that had been open for exactly one year before COVID tried to take it all away.She's been running it for seven years. She has a 4th degree black belt, has represented Team Canada at the World Championships, and has built a school around one principle she will not compromise: make money to do karate. Don't do karate to make money.In this conversation, we get into what it actually cost her to stay true to herself when every school around her was pivoting. We talk about surviving COVID a year in, building radical inclusion into the DNA of the school, the parent who called expecting to be turned away because her daughter is deaf, and a solo trip to South Africa that gave the school its name.And we close with the question we ask every guest: what do you want to be remembered for in your community?Find Mersina at Lion's Heart Family Martial Arts on Instagram and Facebook, or in the business park in Ancaster. Listen to the Lions Den podcast with the kids.The Loew Down drops every two weeks. Find us on Instagram @theloewdown.co — because your story matters

Kristi Grove has been running Tundra Leather on King Street East in Hamilton since 2015. The shop has been there since 1991. Her dad, Peter, built it. When he got sick and passed away, Kristi walked away from a stable finance job at McMaster University and took the reins — even though they never once talked about whether she would.In this conversation we get into how Peter started the shop, the moment Kristi knew she couldn't let it close, and what it actually felt like to step into a business she'd grown up inside of but never run. We talk about learning leather work from Sean — her dad's original hire — who learned it from Peter. About keeping a physical craft shop alive in downtown Hamilton in 2026. About the workshops that sell out every two months and what they've meant for the business and the community. And about what it's like to be a woman running a trade that still occasionally asks if the man is in.And we close with the question we ask every guest on The Loew Down — what do you want to be remembered for in your community? Kristi's answer is worth waiting for.Find Kristi: @tundraleather on Instagram · tundraleather.ca · 313 King St E, Hamilton · Open Tues–Fri 9–5:30, Sat 9–5The Loew Down drops every two weeks. Find us on Instagram @theloewdown.co 

The best business advice Cassidy ever got didn't come from a book, a course, or a morning routine. It came from another small business owner who'd been exactly where she was and gave it to her straight.That's what's missing. So that's what she's building.Before you meet anyone else, meet Cassidy — former soapmaker, lip care and gift box creator, legal assistant, mom, and the quiet one in a group who somehow keeps finding her people. In this pilot episode she tells you who she is, why The Loew Down exists, and what you can expect every time you hit play.She gets into the rebrand from Allan Soaps to Loew and Co — what shifted, what stayed, and why her maiden name meaning lion in German had everything to do with it. She talks about moving to Hamilton before her first child was born, not knowing anyone, and finding that the small business community was the thing that finally made her feel like she belonged somewhere.And she answers the question she will ask every single guest before she ever asks anyone else.What do you want to be recognized for in your community?No guest today. Just the real story of why this show exists.The Loew Down — Real talk with Hamilton small business owners. Starting here and growing from there. Because your story matters.