With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1081341
MARCH 2019 BCBUSINESS 15 G L O B E A N D M A I L , C B C N E W S, B C G A M I N G I N D U S T R Y A S S O C I AT I O N, O F F I C E O F T H E P R O V I N C I A L H E A LT H O F F I C E R W hen Anita Cheung was a teenager growing up on Vancouver's east side, she suffered from anorexia. As a result, much of what she's done in her adult life has involved the pursuit of wellness for herself and others. In what Cheung calls a "weird and winding path," a BSc specializing in international nutrition from UBC ("I thought I was going to save the world") gave way to a career helping people on a more personal level. 6 a.m. Every weekday morning, Cheung guides her clients through three 15-minute meditation sessions that run an hour apart, starting at 6. Luckily for everyone involved, these don't take place in a physical loca- tion. Cheung delivers her service, called In Bed With Betty, through an Instagram page; participants pay a US$9 monthly fee for unlimited access. It wasn't always like this. A few years ago, Cheung was running a meditation pop-up shop at various spots in Vancouver when a couple of investors became interested. That was the birth of Moment Medita- tion, but though the three had a fair amount of success attracting people (mostly young women) to the trend of guided meditation, Cheung eventu- ally decided that the company was going in a direction she didn't love. She left this past June. "It's like being in a relationship with anybody, right?" she says at a Gastown coffee shop, a stone's throw from Moment's old head- quarters. One of her former partners "wanted to take it more into the corporate world," Cheung explains. "It's just not what I wanted. I realized I don't want a studio, I don't want corporate." 10 a.m. Once she's done with her 180 or so Betty subscribers, Cheung works with other clients in person. Through her time spent in yoga studios around the city and her earlier meditation efforts, she has a bevy of regular patrons. "It's both yoga and meditation," she says. "I'm a trained yoga therapist, so I do have a couple clients I keep on, because they're just great." Lunch Cheung blends the line between personal and busi- ness to the point where she treats having lunch with friends (two of her go-to spots: DD Mau and Pokerrito) like a meeting. That way, she knows she won't flake. There's also the reality that the two often go hand-in-hand: "I'm a big believer that people should be paid. So if I rent a friend's space, I will pay her. This sounds very yoga teacher–ish, but money is the currency of energy. You took the time to decorate this space, so I'm going to pay you for it." 3 p.m. With no formal training as a designer or website developer, Cheung taught herself CSS and HTML as well as Adobe programs and now does branding for individuals and small businesses. The work came from people who had seen her advertising for Moment around town."That was the first time my branding was really out there. People were like, Who did you hire? And I went, Me. So I started getting some clients from that." E N T R Y L E V E L A LOT ON HER MIND Between hosting events for women of colour, designing websites and running a meditation business, Anita Cheung is a modern-day Renais- sance woman by Nathan Caddell 6 p.m. Usually Cheung tries to fit in a workout (Lagree West and All-City Athletics are her current haunts) before the day is out, but she has also has a "side-side project." That would be WOC Talks, a bimonthly gathering for women of colour. Cheung started doing the nights (formerly held in Moment's space but now at a friend's apartment) with her friend Rachel Ricketts, who has since moved to Sweden. But she believes in the initiative, and so do the 70 or so attendees, it seems. "A lot of the women feel really isolated; oftentimes they say, 'I'm the only person of colour at work,'" Cheung says. "So it's a chance to come together and talk. We try to keep the dicussion on track, but it doesn't always work like that." • G O F I G U R E a day in the life 125,000 Problem gamblers in B.C., according to a 2014 study. Such gam- blers incur more than four times the medical expenses of people without a diagnosed gambling addiction, a 2013 provincial gov- ernment report states 14.6% Increase in revenue from BCLC's online gaming site in 2017-18 The B.C. gaming industry employs almost 37,000 people, including some 10,000 in casinos and other gambling centres 60% OF B.C. GAMING REVENUE COMES FROM THOSE FACILITIES IN B.C. THERE ARE 17 CASINOS 18 COMMUNITY GAMING CENTRES 7 BINGO HALLS 3 HORSE RACETRACKS 19 HORSE-RACING TELETHEATRES