When Arlene Dickinson first heard about Twitter two years ago she decided to give it a pass.
"My first reaction was that it was for people who didn't care about content," says the 53-year-old entrepreneur, motivational speaker and marketing maven.
But, hanging out with her four adult children in her Calgary home, Dickinson noticed they had their eyes glued to their computer screens and smart phones, not the television. When she peeked over their shoulders, she saw they were on Facebook and Twitter.
Gradually it dawned on her: "Wait a minute, this is how they have a conversation."
She became a convert.
A Twitter devotee since 2008, Dickinson was the first of the self-made millionaires on CBC's Dragons' Den to send out tweets about the show.
"I egged them on," says Dickinson, interviewed in the board room of her trendy Toronto office on John St. It is decorated with antique and junk store finds, including a pair of old skates, a carousel-style horse and a '50s-style kitchen table where staff have "beers and cheers" on Thursdays.
"The point, for me, of social media is for you to control the narrative. If you're not the person talking, others will do the talking for you."
Dressed in a light grey suit she wore for a guest appearance on another CBC television show earlier in the day, she calmly answers questions while occasionally touching the startling white streak running through her long, flame-colored hair. That streak is her signature – unique and memorable.
As CEO of Venture Communications, a company with a staff of 75 in Calgary, Toronto and Ottawa, Dickinson has made her millions controlling the narrative for her clients, which include Toyota, Sport Chek and Red Rose Tea.
But there's also Dickinson's own narrative – something she refers to as "My Story."
It is a compelling one.
The single parent of four young children overcame a lack of training and education to forge a spectacularly successful career. She graduated high school at 16, was married at 19 and divorced at 28, when her eldest child was only 7.
She struggled to find work in Calgary, discovered a talent for marketing and joined Venture as a partner in 1988. Ten years later, she was its sole owner.
It is a story of hardship, ambition and mistakes.
She builds and reinforces her story in speeches and television appearances, in blogs and tweets, and in the way she runs her company.
"I'm a big believer in storytelling," she says. "I love to sit and talk face to face, engage people. When I'm on Twitter, I have 5,000 different conversations."
Recently, she told her followers about her trip to the Olympics where she saw the Canada-Russia hockey game and Canada's gold in ice dancing. She gushed about meeting retired Lt.-Gen. Romeo Dallaire and revealed she hurt her knee skiing on a double black diamond run.
"It's not about the money for me, it is about being successful," Dickinson says of her growing profile during a break taping the CBC's Steven and Chris show. In a segment where she talks about negotiating price, she points to her green flower ring that her daughter got for $6. The original price was $10.
The cheap ring is a homey touch that draws the audience to her. In spite of the designer clothes, Dickinson comes across as warm and friendly. The ring was no accident. Preparing for the show the night before, she picked out the prop.
In another segment about knowing your net worth, she once again keeps the examples everyday and accessible to the audience of students and middle-aged women. She warns them that people are often unaware they owe more than they own. The audience groans in recognition.
That happened to her 20 years ago in Calgary when a customer went under, stiffing Venture and leaving her with a $90,000 printer's bill.
"There was nothing left to mortgage," so Dickinson went to the printer and arranged to pay their bill month by month. It took six months but taught her a valuable lesson. "The people were kind. We continued to work together. It felt good that we didn't walk away from the debt."
Women and children have always been her causes and on Dragons' Den she will sometimes support a single parent's project because "they need a hand." That is something she didn't get. "There's a lot of despair when you are a single mom," she says.
Dickinson recently promoted Jennifer Cioffi to president at Venture, splitting that job from the CEO position. Dickinson hired Cioffi, a former Microsoft executive, five years ago after receiving an inquiring e-mail from her late one evening.
She quickly called Cioffi, who had just had her third child (and a very short maternity leave) and was looking to come to Canada with her husband. Within three days, there was an interview and a job offer. She makes quick decisions every day, says Cioffi.
"The pace is relentless. My friends were like, good for you, you're going to a little company. But it was like shock and awe. It is fast, furious and smart. I've learned a ton."
The two executives balance each other, says Cioffi, adding, "She is usually over the moon and it is up to me to be the Chicken Little."
Now divorced, Cioffi says Dickinson has always understood the demands of family and trusts that the work will get done even if a parent has to run out of the office to handle an emergency.
Dickinson didn't get to see as much of her children as she would have liked when they were young. Today, three work for her in Calgary – none report to her – and all take family vacations together, including the three grandchildren.
"She has a good dose of empathy," says Cioffi, who is based in Calgary but spends one third of her time in the Toronto office, which will soon be moving to bigger space on Wellington St.
Interviewed in April 2009 for the on-line magazine techlife, Dickinson was asked for her advice during the recession. She said, "Don't be afraid."
This wasn't hollow advice. She bought two companies in March, 2009, Lifecapture Interactive, a company that specializes in interactive web development, and Motorcycle Productions, a video and digital production house.
This allows Venture to provide all marketing services under one roof, and expands the company's multi-media reach.
At its core, the company, with an estimated $45 million in gross sales, tells client stories, says Dickinson. One such narrative is a Sport Chek commercial featuring a woman running on a leaf-strewn track in a campaign called The Power of Sport. She's fit, determined, concentrated. You can see the muscles in her legs as she runs and the voice-over says, "When you're in the zone, concentration is complete and you realize your mind can carry you farther than your legs." It is designed to connect the emotions of sport with the company.
The runner isn't Dickinson, but she could be. Dickinson took up running two years ago.
In Toronto, she runs near her Annex home early in the morning before she goes to work. She's been "in the zone" when it seems "as if time stands still" – that's why she had the commercial shot in slow motion.
"You feel one with what you are doing."
For Red Rose Tea, Venture pushed the idea of creating tea party "sisterhoods."
Unilever's Jan Mollenhauer, marketing director of the division that includes the tea, loves that Dickinson responds to messages right away, even though she is "is so popular now."
The women bonded over the fact they both have four children, says Mollenhauer, who "got up off the couch" when she read that Dickinson was preparing for a half-marathon. Now, she's training too.
"She inspired me," says Mollenhauer, an avid watcher of the Dragons' Den. She says that Dickinson is the "strong, silent type. She is the humblest of them all. She is the most empathetic and sensitive."
After years of the demands of a young family and then a growing business, Dickinson is ready to write a new chapter in her story.
"I feel like the cat that has had nine lives. At different points in time in my life, I have been a different person. I don't know what's next, but life is just beginning for me. I hope I'll be able to do something meaningful."
That won't be in politics, she hastens to add, but she may throw her formidable marketing talents into charities.
She's particularly interested in Dallaire's Child Soldiers Initiative and spent three hours with him in Vancouver discussing the non-profit agency, which wants to prevent the recruitment of child soldiers. Because it involves children, it is a natural fit for her, she says.
"All I ever wanted to be was a wife and mother. If I hadn't got divorced, that's what I would be today."
The motherly ambitions seem at odds with Dickinson's glamour.
She recently invested in a couple of "blo" franchises in Toronto – hair salons that offer quick washes and blow dry for about $30. She now uses the service to tame her tangle of curls into a long, sleek mane.
But she has no intention of getting rid of that Cruella De Vil streak – her trademark that prompts daily questions about its origin. Her hair started going grey when she was in her 30s and Dickinson decided to go with it. It's the rest of her hair that is now dyed.
The one part of Dickinson's narrative that seems false, is real.
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