Seriously...Thank You!

Alright everybody, we did it!

Indigenous Box has made it through 4 seasons of boxes! It’s hard to believe that we’ve gone from packing a few boxes in a little basement bedroom to packing thousands of boxes in our dedicated production facility. Believe me, there's a story there, and I promise we are going to share it soon. In fact we have some huge secrets that we can’t wait to share with you. It’s literally all we can do to contain ourselves!

We can’t believe it’s only been 9 months 

When we started Indigenous Box, we promised to make as much noise as we possibly could about Indigenous business. This mission started with the proclamation “Indigenous entrepreneurs are doing incredible things and we want to shout it to the world!” We made a pretty good start, didn't we?

When we say we, we mean WE

That’s right, there is no way that we could have done any of this without our amazing community of customers, supporters, and partners believing in our mission and doing so much to spread the word about it. You’ve told your friends and family, social media networks, co-workers, colleagues, community leaders, and anyone else who would listen, about what we are doing and why we are doing it. Any ground we broke was because of, and for, all of you. 

Do you want to know some of the incredible things that WE accomplished in 2021?

This past 9 months your voices have helped us:

• Win a Young Entrepreneurs Symposium Entrepreneurial Challenge start-up grant

• Get the attention of local and national news agencies; making appearances on television and radio, in newspapers and online publications, and were even featured in articles published in major magazines.

• Work with dozens of small businesses to provide thousands of boxes to customers in EVERY SINGLE province and territory in Canada, growing their market reach and customer bases along the way

• Connect with over 90 corporate, non-profit, and government organizations providing custom gifting solutions for their employees, clients, guests, and VIP’s

• Find guidance, encouragement, and recognition from elders from many nations, and from community, civic, provincial, federal, and business leaders across the country

• Receive a nomination for the award for “Best New Subscription Box” (we didn’t win, but oh boy were we ever honored and excited!)

• Oh yeah…also some top secret stuff that WE CAN’T TELL YOU YET!! (So quit asking geez)

Not bad right?

Since we started this journey, we have learned so many new skills, wore so many different hats, and faced more fears than we ever thought we could. The limits of our comfort zones have been pushed again and again. I think the biggest lesson we learned is that if you make a really good plan and start following it, revising and adapting, and dreaming as you go, sometimes you can accomplish more than you could ever imagine. As I like to say “don’t quit your day dream!

We’ve made plenty of mistakes (some we probably don’t even know about yet), but we can sleep well knowing that we’ve made every decision guided by a deep desire to represent Indigenous business in a good way, and make as much space as we can for others. 

But we aren’t just taking a seat at the table to make space for Indigenous business, we decided to make a whole new table, and invite as many as we can to take their place with us at it. The MOST important thing for us is that when our youth see us making and holding space for them while we follow our dreams, they get inspired. I know, they've told me.  

We truly believe we are on a mission to change the world, and that you have all volunteered to come with us! We couldn’t be more grateful.

Now…who’s ready for 2022?

Until later,

Mal