“If you can dream it, you can make it happen here, which feels pretty, pretty good,” says Candace Dow, celebrating where she now lives and grows her business. It’s far from where she grew up, in a small community of just 200 people near Jasper, Alberta. She moved away at eighteen years old to take the forestry technology program at NAIT.  She learned about trees, plants, animals and living out in the bush. She worked in forestry for five years until she had her first child and now she has two.

Working in forestry, her schedule was 10 days on and four days off, and she went wherever they were working. She ended up in Whitehorse, Yukon and has been there for nine years but worked there in the summers for seventeen. She has two family businesses and loves the opportunities to be outdoors and achieve her dreams.

When it comes to obstacles, Dow says, “When you're a business owner or entrepreneur, every day feels like a challenge, or sometimes everything feels overwhelming, and I still feel like that, and I've been doing it for a long time.” While she has the opportunity to follow her passion and things she excels at, she also has to learn things that aren’t her strength yet, like bookkeeping or computer work.

Dow overcomes these challenges by taking things one day at a time. She keeps lists and tries not to get overwhelmed looking too far ahead. She also doesn’t go it alone when she doesn’t have to. “There's so many resources out there nowadays that it's easy to reach out for help, and there's always someone, someone around that can help you, if you just ask for it,” she offers. Eliminating distractions, working when she has the most focus which is usually the mornings, and breaking things up into chunks helps, too.

Thinking of the advice she wishes someone gave her when she was young, she wishes someone taught her more about saving money and other life skills. Running a household and basic financial literacy are things she wishes she had known more about early on. “it took me many years to figure all of that out, and I felt like I was catching up. I still do,” she laments. Getting a jumpstart on those skills would have been helpful in her business.

Entrepreneurship is a path she recommends to others even though it’s been harder without those foundational skills. “If you can come up with your own business, that's where you're gonna succeed, even though I think it's a little bit harder to take that route, but eventually, if you keep at it, that's that's the best career you can have to be your own boss and to be able to do something that that means a lot to you, because when you're actually doing what you what you what you love to do, it doesn't necessarily feel like work all the time,” she urges.

Her advice for Indigenous youth leaving their home communities to pursue their education is to reach out to Indigenous support services on campus to stay connected and it can be nicer to go with friends or if you go when you are a little older. Accessing cultural support can be helpful to stay grounded and do research ahead of time to be prepared.

“It's a good opportunity, even if it does feel scary, and you can always come back home.... It's good to go out there and see what else is going on in the world, and learn from other people…. Learning can feel overwhelming, for sure, but I think it's a smart step, and that's how you grow as a person: putting yourself in those tough situations, and that feels tough at the time, but that's what keeps moving you forward and growing your bubble a little bit bigger,” she encourages.

Having the option to bring your new skills back to your home community is also helpful, she believes. ”Having that mentality that you're out there to learn and grow and even if you feel self conscious about things, it's mostly you, if you can put that aside and realize that nobody else is really worried about you in that sense, but that you should just go out there and go for it and you're never going to regret doing it,” she continues.

When it comes to her mental health, Dow considers herself fortunate given she runs a wellness business, teaching yoga, promoting that yoga is for everyone. She does yoga first thing in the morning and treats it like an appointment. Going for a walk also helps clear her mind as does spending time with her 40 horses, dog and cat. Spending time with her family is also helpful as is staying off her phone. Recently, she spent some time on the ice fields, skiing, doing yoga and had a great time.

In closing, Dow shares, “one of my biggest things, is promoting just going back to the land, going back to the culture, and you'll find your path, because that's who we are, and that's who we're meant to be, and it'll work out.”

She knows that if she can dream it, she can achieve it, and as a family business owner, that is exciting. Candace Dow started off in forestry then birthed a family and family businesses. Living in the North is full of opportunity and she’s learning new skills to keep following her dreams.

Thanks to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article.