The History of
Goodness Blossoming
When I first started What’s Good in 2020, I had big dreams, but also a small window of opportunity. I’ve always been a bit of a ‘big thinker’ and found the process of immigrating, while worthwhile, to also be a roller coaster of unexpected obstacles. For the immigration pathway I was on, I was not allowed to have a business of my own—not as my soul source of income at least. I was told I could have a ‘lil’ side hustle,’ but that I had to work for someone else—a Canadian employer—for a certain amount of hours, over the course of 3 years, to just be eligible to qualify for Permanent Residency. When starting What’s Good, it was a passion project, as it could be only that.
Right before all of this, I was a recent Sociology University graduate who got hired as a Legal Assistant at a Personal Injury Firm. This wasn’t exactly what I wanted to be doing, but I was grateful for a job, and that I might be headed in the right direction. After a couple months, I was inevitably let go due to covid. I found myself missing not just a direction in life, but use for my skills and a purpose for all my hard undergraduate work.
A lightbulb moment finally came to me in my jobless state: I could just use my long-lost, looming love of photography in combination with my sociology skills to humanize the local economy. I started to brainstorm what on earth this big idea could possibly look like in reality. I felt I had to begin at the start—with a foundation.
The first and most pressing challenge I faced was that a side hustle meant I couldn’t really generate income from it. I needed to create some form of value and exchange so an economy could form. For something to thrive, it has to live, and to live well, you need to exist in a sustainable ecosystem. Another lightbulb went off: just because I couldn’t generate money didn’t mean that I couldn’t generate a form of wealth.
How to Humanize
I knew that money was a middle-man created by man; and, if you took money out of the equation, you’d be left with just a human… and all their skills. This idea of a trade economy, although I’d love to take credit, is not a new idea by any means. What I find the most interesting about this type of economy is its relationship to exchange. It is a more personal and intimate one that inherently gives back a sense of dignity to the producer.
Emilie Durkheim's concept of mechanical and organic solidarity outlines the distinction between the two economies. A mechanical society operates as a highly individualized sectors and is distinctly disconnected due to this. An organic society, on the other hand, offers a structure of interdependence that exists like nature—giving way to symbiotic freedom, movement and connection. It humanizes the economy because it reminds us that we as humans are deeply rooted to it. Producers and consumers alike, we all play every role. Therefore, a trade economy can create bridges across industries.
Let’s Trade
The chapter before this included a few years of experience volunteering in a federal prison. How I got there is an entirely different story, but the lessons of that environment greatly impacted the perspectives and intentions on which What’s Good was built with.
I’d always had a particular curiosity about trade economies and what these environments both humanizing and dehumanizing. Learning and then seeing how an economy could not only exist in prison, but offer a sense of respect and connection is… a wildly creative endeavor.
What I perhaps admired most about the trade economy was that since it wasn’t about money, it was difficult to discriminate by class. Not only do you not have a measuring stick for what class is without a consistent ruler, but it’s not relevant because it’s not about what you have, it’s about what you can do. While not an original idea, it was then when I remembered, if you’re locked out of the economy, build another.
Trade economies have the capacity for different relationships to be built amongst people. That is not to say that money doesn’t have its place or purpose, but rather, to suggest that if we utilize both trade and money, we could operate at a whole new level.
One that would feel different, not just for ourselves,
but for communities.
What is Wealth?
I thought a lot about wealth and how I was going to create it. Like all new idea-moms, I was learning how best to nurture, manage and root what was becoming. Like a summer seedling with great sun and good water, What’s Good took fairly quickly. It wasn’t until about 3 months in that I saw a blossom, I felt a bit richer, and a piece of wealth revealed itself to me. The ecosystem had a moment, like the electric spark of life that creates the heartbeat, and a rhythm began. I watched an ecosystem being built and was in awe of it. New businesses came, locals gathered, and a beautiful momentum was being formed.
Wealth exists far beyond a physical money, and the prison made that evident. It’s a place where money doesn’t exist, but currency and exchange do—wealth perseveres. We find wealth located in time, skill, quality and most importantly necessity. Necessity is important because it creates the law of value, which describes that while things hold wealth, the value that wealth holds can fluctuate based on celerity of fulfillment.
One of the wealthiest lessons of business I’m lucky I feel I learned early on, from both entrepreneurs and consumers, is the power of community, the power of showing up, and the power of curiosity.
What is the Opposite of Judgement?
Curiosity!
Over the next few years, I’d get to fill up my curiosity cup as What’s Good became more established. In time, a beautiful team of part-time collaborators would also grow and I began to share this experience with some of my closest friends. At the end of 2024, we worked with, created content for, and told the stories of over 650 local businesses across the Pacific Northwest on a completely trade basis. Working across 40 diverse industries, we have met some of the most innovative and inspiring people and have experienced not just offerings, but stories that have changed the course of our lives. Of course, the process doesn’t stop there. At the end of this, we get to share our latest discovery and hope it might resonate with another person whose life could change too.
Time for a Rebrand
Since I am such a big thinker with just a few big ideas, the idea of a rebrand had honestly been weighing on me for a while. What’s Good YYJ grew in incredibly wonderful ways, but I still felt a constraint, like a flower growing through concrete, in how the initial structure was set up. Not being able to travel for 5 years forced me to put the idea of it, and the important perspective travel brings, out of my mind. What’s Good is that coming into this rebrand, rediscovering who I am and what I want to provide this world with, includes becoming a resource for locals and local businesses globally.
Goodness Evolves
You Are What’s Good isn’t just our business name, it’s our philosophy. I wanted to find a way to tell the stories of and celebrate the producers of our goods. From day one, it was important to me that the way we went about creating and conducting our processes was done so in a humanizing way. I always felt that in order to visually communicate something, you’ve got to know what you’re talking about. We research each business we work with and also listen, carefully, to their unique story. While the years of knowledge, work, triumph and defeat cannot be captured, the final product and the power of the story that comes with, can be. This learning and discovery process is what allows us to authentically uncover What’s Good… so that we can capture each brand and the impact of their work in a meaningful way.
You Are What’s Good has also become part of our mantra. As What’s Good has grown, we’ve grown with it, and that is how we measure success. As we emerge globally but stay rooted locally, we plan to expand our offerings over the next few years to include a directory, shop, and other exciting local resources that will continue to make buying local, thoughtful, and more purposeful easier than ever before.
A special shoutout to Mariah Coulombe Photography
for creative direction, curation & shooting all these images!
