A year and a half ago, I was a stay at home mom with a crazy idea to send rocks the same way we typically send flowers. The idea literally popped into my head one day while I was bathing my 6-month-old baby. Like, “Aha… Little Box of Rocks… that’s brilliant!”

If I could somehow magically go back and tell myself in this moment that a year and a half would bring two celebrity endorsements, tons of earned media (nationally and internationally) and an opportunity to pitch on CBC’s hit show the Dragons Den, I wouldn’t have believed it for a second.

But the miracles of life never cease to amaze me, and as I took a deep breath and carefully stepped down the staircase and onto the dimly lit set of the Dragons Den, (one that I’d seen probably hundreds of times from my own living room) and looked into the skeptical faces of the “dragons,” it hit me:

Anything can happen.

My plane had landed in Toronto the evening before. By the time I made it to my hotel room and neurotically quadruple-checked the bouquets I had brought along to give to the dragons, it was late, so I tucked myself under the cold duvet and closed my eyes, hoping that the morning would bring a fresh jolt of courage.

It didn’t.

When I arrived at the studio the next morning at 7:45 (6:45 Winnipeg time), I was greeted by a small group of other entrepreneurs waiting in the lobby of the CBC building, some chatty… some quiet… but all clearly a little (or in my case, a LOT) nervous.

“Am I the only one who’s afraid to do this?” I overheard a lady whisper to a staff member nearby. I raised a hand and waved at her, quietly indicating that she most certainly was not alone.

The group was ushered into the studio where we were to set up our displays and begin practicing our pitches with our assigned producers.

“Oh my goodness, you’re such a glamazon!” said my producer, Adam Avrashi, as he came up to meet me. Clearly I had lucked out in being assigned to Adam, who chatted with me for the next couple of hours in the greenroom over tea and didn’t bat an eyelash when I told him I might pass out! (It was a legit concern of mine… and though we got on well, I wondered how he’d feel about this “glamazon” if I passed out on set.)

“You’re up next,” he said finally as they began wheeling large platforms of Christmas trees onto the set, decorations that I was told were brought in that day for my pitch, which is expected to air sometime around the holidays. 

Then it was time to go in. I stood with a crew-member and camera guy for a few moments, before I was given the cue to enter the set, walking past the iconic shadowed wall and down the staircase. I hit my mark and launched into my 90-second pitch, immediately noticing that I couldn’t see a single camera pointed in my direction, an atmosphere that really does make you forget you’re being taped!

I am not able to say the result of what transpired, but I can say that it will definitely make for a fun and interesting segment. I can also say that I am happy with how it all unfolded. Meet me back here in 6 months or so to hear my thoughts, with full, no-holds-barred disclosure on how the whole thing went down…

I seriously can’t wait!