Lobster Tales: Dive into Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy with Ron Caudle

Are you a fan of seafood?
 
Are you curious about the fascinating world of lobsters?

Then you definitely need to tune in to our latest podcast episode featuring Ron Caudle, the inspiring entrepreneur behind Caudle's Catch. Ron has been a successful and influential business leader in the Kitchener-Waterlo area for over 40 years.

Join us as Ron shares his decades of industry experience, taking us on a journey beyond just seafood. We'll hear about the innovative ways he's navigated the business world pre-social media, and how community connections have been crucial to his success. Plus, Ron tells us his favourite seafood recipes that are sure to make your taste buds dance!

Bake Ron's Easy Seafood Recipe

But it's not all about the food - Ron also has a passion for giving back to his community. From taking an icy plunge to support the Special Olympics to uplifting entire communities through his work with the Grand River Hospital Foundation, Ron shows us the power of giving back.

So, if you're interested in entrepreneurship, community engagement, and, of course, delicious seafood, be sure to listen to our chat with Ron Caudle. You won't want to miss it!

Resources
Caudle's Catch
Grand River Hospital Foundation
The Waterloo Region Record
Special Olympics
Ron's Rare Orange Lobster Story

Thanks for tuning in to Curious Conversations! We hope you enjoyed listening as much as we enjoyed creating it for you. Don't forget to stay connected with us on our website and Instagram for more exciting content. Also, make sure to hit that follow/subscribe button and leave us a rating to help us grow and reach more people like you.

Transcript

Ron: 0:00

The charity does go hand in hand with the business, because I always thought it was a good way for our company to give back and then it was a win because you're giving back to the community but you're also marketing your company. So I would encourage young entrepreneurs to align themselves with some charities and then it's a win for the community. It'll help your business be successful and it will help the charity be successful. Community. It'll help your business be successful and it will help the charity be successful.

Xavier: 0:28

Hi, welcome to Curious Conversations, a podcast for kids, by kids. I'm one of your hosts.

Emma: 0:39

Xavier, and I'm your other host, emma, and we're so excited to bring you another season of interesting discussions with people from all walks of life, to learn about their passions and what inspires them.

Xavier: 0:51

We are still as curious as ever, and we hope you will join us on our journey. Today we have an awesome guest that you guys are going to love. He's been a successful business leader in the Kitchener-Waterloo region for over 40 years. His name is Ron Cottle and he is the owner of Cottle's Catch, a seafood business that sells all over Canada. He also has a very big passion for giving back to his community. He's been involved with so many different organizations, including the Grand River Hospital and the Special Olympics. Ron has some amazing stories to tell, and we talk about some of the weirdest lobsters he's ever came across and some crazy tales about polar plunges. Plus, he's got some awesome advice for young entrepreneurs who are just starting out.

Emma: 1:30

Welcome, Ron. Thank you for being on the podcast.

Ron: 1:33

Thank you for having me, of course.

Xavier: 1:36

So the first thing we wanted to ask you about is that orange lobster that you found. What was it like to find it, and did the Toronto Aquarium take it?

Ron: 1:45

No, the Toronto Aquarium take it. No, the Toronto Aquarium didn't. We're in contact with another aquarium on the East Coast in Pictou, nova Scotia, so hopefully they're going to. I've been in the seafood business for 39 years and it's very rare to see something like this. I think we had one like 10 years after we opened, so like 20 something years ago. We also had a big lobster. I think it was the second year we were open. It was over 25 pounds. Wow, if you can imagine what 25 pounds a regular lobster is like a pound and a quarter, a pound and a half, so it was like 20 times that big and it was in the bottom of a crate and we ended up going international with radio stations and stuff. And it was in the bottom of a crate and we ended up going international with radio stations and stuff and we actually flew the lobster back first class on Air Canada. My brother put him back in the water because he's a diver. So that's a cool lobster story there.

Xavier: 2:37

You were talking about some other stuff that you found that are really rare. What is the rarest creature that you have found?

Ron: 2:44

really rare. What is the rarest creature that you have found? Probably the 25 pounder. I've never, ever seen one again. They're very rare that they would actually catch them and send them to us, because normally we just order, like I said, pound and a half lobster. So for them to send that up, I think it was a mistake by somebody, and then it's the only one I've ever seen over 10 pounds in my whole life and I've seen millions of lobster over the last 40 years, so that was very rare to see that.

Emma: 3:13

So let's take it back to the beginning. You're from Halifax and came to KW and started in 1986, started Coddle's Catch. What were some of the challenges you faced when you first started the business?

Ron: 3:26

So I was born in Halifax, went to school down there and I went into retail management. I was very successful in it, but they wanted to send me to Toronto and I didn't want to live in Toronto. So the reason we opened a seafood business was because every time I went back home all my friends up in Kitchener asked me to bring lobster and salmon back. I said you know what that might be a good idea? Maybe there's not enough seafood around here. So not just that I was from Halifax, but we did some research and said you know what? I think there's an opportunity to open up a seafood store and it was very hard at the beginning. The biggest challenge was marketing, like letting people know in Kitchener-Waterloo that we actually opened a store because, unbeknownst to you guys, there was no social media back then. So we didn't have any free marketing. We had to, you know, spend our money wisely, whether it was TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and that was the biggest challenge that we had when we opened our first retail store.

Emma: 4:30

You remember what was the most impactful way to advertise?

Ron: 4:36

I think it was probably the newspaper, because back then again everybody read the newspaper every day. I would suspect 90% of the households. Back in 1986 got the Waterloo regional record and so that was the best way and cheapest way to get in front of people.

Xavier: 4:53

So, on the other side, what was the most fun you had when you started the business?

Ron: 4:58

Getting to meet other business people, other entrepreneurs like we joined the chamber of commerce and just to talk to some peers that were also in the process of opening businesses or had some experience that they could pass on to me, and I think the other thing was meeting customers for the first time and talking about how to cook seafood properly. Those were probably the two best things when we opened the business.

Emma: 5:24

What do you think was the most valuable thing you learned from the people you met at the early stages of your business?

Ron: 5:29

Again, I would go back to talking to peers, joining business groups, the Center for Family Business, the Chamber of Commerce and just getting out there and talking to people. Some other ways was joining charity organizations or boards and getting to meet other people that were volunteering at the same time. So valuable lessons from people that were older than me, and some were very helpful.

Emma: 5:55

You have lots of fresh seafood and live lobster, so how do you acquire these items and how do they stay fresh?

Ron: 6:02

Yeah, a lot of people don't know the logistics. So, modern logistics now the temperature is never sacrificed, whether it's on an airplane or in a refrigerated truck from the East Coast. So a lot of our not as perishable stuff gets sent to Moncton, new Brunswick. So from Newfoundland and BEI, nova Scotia, it all gets sent to Moncton, new Brunswick and it gets put on a refrigerated truck and is delivered to us overnight in 20 hours right to our back door. So it's super fresh. Other ways we do it is fly stuff in Air Canada cargo or cargo jet into Hamilton and of course that is a two-hour flight and we have refrigerated trucks and a refrigerate receiving area, a huge cooler that's like 4,000 square feet and a freezer. And we have refrigerated trucks and a refrigerate receiving area, a huge cooler that's like 4,000 square feet and a freezer. And we also have a marine aquatic system that holds up to 10,000 pounds of live lobster.

Emma: 6:54

Wow.

Ron: 6:55

So, yeah, you got to come in and see it, sometimes Pretty cool.

Xavier: 6:58

What is your favorite type of seafood?

Ron: 7:00

My favorite type of seafood probably salmon, shrimp, trout, tuna, lobster, crab. I don't really have a favorite because there's so many of them that I like, I think on a weekly basis, would be salmon and trout. And when we entertain, of course, when anybody comes over the house, they expect lobster and shrimp.

Ron: 7:20

So, we always do a little bit of surf and surf or surf and turf, so it's been fun to get into the knowledge of cooking all the different types of seafood, because everybody thinks we know how to cook seafood so they're always asking questions on what's the best way to do it there. Codfather.

Xavier: 7:38

We watched the Godfather a couple of months back. That's really funny.

Ron: 7:43

So my dad called me the Codfather. That's kind of my handle everywhere.

Emma: 7:49

What is your favorite type of seafood recipe to prepare and what's your favorite type to eat?

Ron: 7:54

Probably one of the nicest ones is tuna. So we bring in yellowfin tuna, we fly it in twice a week. It's kind of like a restaurant meal, so people don't really expect it at home. So you get a nice thick steak, about an inch and a half, two inches thick, and you rub it with a little bit of olive oil and you pat it in some on toasted sesame seeds and then you just sear it in a little bit of olive oil on every side. So all you're doing is toasting the coconuts and the inside is rare, just like at a Japanese restaurant. And then I make a little bit of mixture, a soy sauce and a teriyaki sauce. You warm that up and then you see a side cut the tuna, so you see all the rare center and then you drizzle the teriyaki and soy sauce over top of it and it's I usually put it on like a Japanese slaw or something, so it looks even better and tastes even better. So that's one of my favorite things to make.

Xavier: 8:51

Wow, that sounds really delicious.

Ron: 8:54

It is.

Xavier: 8:55

But what would be an easy seafood recipe, like an easier one that we could cook in our own house?

Ron: 9:04

So a simple recipe and I've taught my own kids this is to take a piece of salmon, wash it off in ice-cold water and then you pat it down with a Dijon mustard. So you rub the whole top with the Dijon mustard so it's completely covered everywhere. And then the fun part you get to drizzle brown sugar on it. Oh, so the Dijon mustard and the brown sugar kind of complement each other. So then you put it on a cookie sheet, on some parchment paper, in the oven at 375. You bake it for 10 to 12 minutes, depending on the thickness of the salmon, and then at the very end I like to put it under a low broiler to get a little bit of crust with the brown sugar, and it tastes fantastic. It's only two items that you have to add to it and it's really simple to cook and tastes delicious that sounds so good it's fun and it's healthy oh yeah

Ron: 9:58

oh well except for maybe a little bit of the brown sugar that's okay.

Emma: 10:02

Everyone needs a bit of brown sugar exactly for anybody else who wants to make it, we'll put the recipe in the show notes. You were very involved in the community and support so many different charities, so what was the first charity you got involved with and why?

Ron: 10:17

The first one was with the Grand River Hospital Foundation, and I actually volunteered there with your mom, oh yeah. So we were on a committee and from that committee I went to the board and from the board I was the board chair for five years and I'm still associated with the Grand River Hospital as an ambassador.

Emma: 10:39

What does it mean to be an ambassador with the hospital?

Ron: 10:42

So you just spread the good news, so we get fed all the proper information on what's going on at the hospital and what's going on in the foundation. Because, believe it or not, even though that was over 10 years ago, people still think I run the hospital Because I was there for so long. And when people see me out at business events or social events they go hey, ron, what's going on at the hospital, what's new, what's exciting? So I make it a point to get as much information as I can and then just be goodwill ambassador for them it's good, awesome to hear.

Xavier: 11:17

So we saw online that you recently did a polar plunge to raise money for the special olympics that was cold so what was it like to? To jump into the freezing water so it's.

Ron: 11:30

I've been doing it for six years now, and um the first time we did it, uh, the air was colder than the water, so they put ice in the water, but it was minus 35 with the wind chill that day oh my gosh so, coming out of the water we literally got frostbite on our fingers and toes, like like preliminary frostbite, so just tingling and all that stuff.

Ron: 11:53

So it's for such a good cause, though, like for Special Olympics, we get to meet some of the Special Olympic athletes and their families, and when you see how much it means to them, you know jumping in the cold water for a couple of minutes is really nothing. So it does start to bother me. I'll admit, 24 hours before I have to do it, I start thinking about how cold the water is going to be. But it's for such a good cause I look forward to doing it every year, and I was the largest individual fundraiser in Ontario this year.

Emma: 12:25

Oh my gosh, that's awesome. There's a lot jumping in that cold water can do.

Ron: 12:30

Well, I email all my friends, Emma, and ask them, because I said if I'm jumping in the cold water and you're not, you should be sponsoring me. I email all my friends.

Xavier: 12:40

So we started to do some ice baths a couple months ago. Oh cool, it's definitely not as cold. It's only about like 10 degrees, I think, but it's still really cold.

Ron: 12:51

Well, that's a good start, Xavier. So next, next year, maybe I'll get you to do the polar puns with me.

Xavier: 12:56

Yeah, oh my gosh, I would love to do that.

Ron: 12:58

Right, it's very fun.

Emma: 13:00

Yes, how long do you stay in there for?

Ron: 13:03

The fun thing is you come up with like an outfit that's unique to you, so it can be like whatever you want, like a fish, or whatever. You're standing on the podium and they announce your name and then you just jump in the water. There's divers in the water in case something happens, they'll get you out right away. So you're only in there for like seconds, like 10, 20 seconds, and they actually have a hot tub now that you can jump into afterwards.

Emma: 13:26

So it's like a hot, cold bath 10 to 20 seconds is definitely feels a lot longer when you're in the water.

Ron: 13:32

It does, it does, I would definitely do that.

Xavier: 13:35

That sounds really fun.

Emma: 13:37

What was your outfit last year, though?

Ron: 13:39

I did the cod quader this year. Oh, yeah.

Emma: 13:57

That's awesome, so I had my hat on and sunglasses and a. Oh yeah, special Olympics. We talked to Constable John Burke that is an episode coming in later who is in charge of the Special Olympics. So can you tell us how you and the Polar Plunge are involved in the Special Olympics.

Ron: 14:13

Yeah, so I was on the committee back in 2020. And because we're bringing this Ontario Spring Games to the Waterloo region, but COVID stopped that. So now we're doing the spring games this year May 23rd to 26th, and I just did a fundraiser dinner with John last night at Deer Ridge. We had 50 people in for a surf and turf dinner that I sponsored and we raised over $15,000 for Special Olympics so again.

Ron: 14:41

It's you know, once you meet the athletes and the families and see the difference you can make in helping them. It means so much to them to participate in the Special Olympics, it's like the highlight of their year. And you know, for us to do a couple of things to help raise some money to support them seems so small in the reality of things. So we're just glad that we could do it.

Emma: 15:03

It's really amazing to see the impact that it has on the athletes.

Ron: 15:06

It is.

Xavier: 15:07

We heard that you recently joined the Council for the Royal Highland Fusiliers. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Ron: 15:14

Yeah, it supports a regiment of reserve in Cambridge. It's been around for a long time I think over 100 years and because my dad was in the Armed Forces I grew up in an Armed Forces base. It was kind of near and dear to my heart and when I talked to Jane Klugman about it she said you would be a great fit for that with your community involvement and your enthusiasm and the history of living on an Armed Forces base. So it really was a no-brainer for me and I'm really glad I did it and to bring some knowledge to the local community about that. You know these people actually serve in wars Some of our reserves have been over in Afghanistan and peacekeeping missions and they have to train to the highest level to be ready for this stuff and it's really good to be involved in that and to let the community know what we do right here in the Waterloo region.

Emma: 16:10

So you mentioned that you are on the council, so what is the role of someone on the council as part of the RHFS?

Ron: 16:17

It's really about raising funds and bringing awareness to what the Royal Highlands Usulaires do, and they have a whole bunch of community members, business people that volunteer to do that, and somebody like Jean has rose up to the honorary lieutenant colonel for the council, so that's a really big role like lots of time. But we have galas and fundraisers. We advise them on stuff to make them viable, so we're really just helping them what they do best and that's be ready for peacekeeping.

Xavier: 16:51

So you talked about living on an army base. What was it like to live there?

Ron: 16:57

So it was actually a naval air base. I grew up on Halifax Harbor and I can remember as a young boy seeing submarines and aircraft carriers, like we had an aircraft carrier called the Bonaventure. I've been on most of the ships because my dad was on a lot of them, so to be able to get a tour and walk around on a Navy ship that has helicopters on it and stuff was really awesome as a young person and I feel very privileged to have had that opportunity to see and do some of the boats and some of the aircrafts.

Xavier: 17:32

Were you ever able to ride any of the like helicopters or fighter jets?

Ron: 17:37

No, because of insurance things, we weren't allowed to go up in them. Ed did all of them. I got to go on the ships and we actually went outside of Halifax Harbor on a ship before and that was pretty cool. To see some of the guns and the radar and all the neat technology that they have on them is pretty awesome.

Xavier: 17:56

That sounds so fun.

Ron: 17:58

Mm-hmm, growing up on Halifax Harbor was an experience yourself. I don't know if you guys have ever been to Halifax.

Xavier: 18:05

Yeah, we actually went a couple years. Guys have ever been to Halifax. Yeah, we actually went a couple of years back here to Halifax and around.

Ron: 18:09

So you know what it's like then. Like you know the cruise ships and the Coast Guard and the Navy ships and the oil rigs, it's like watching a movie when you're in Halifax the harbor is so active all the time.

Xavier: 18:20

It's a really nice harbor.

Emma: 18:29

What do you think the biggest?

Ron: 18:30

difference is not even just in the seafood business but just in the area of where you are now and Halifax. That's a great question. So the East Coast you guys have been there is a little bit different vibe. Down there the people are a little bit more relaxed. I want to say it's not the hustle and bustle of the 401 all the time.

Ron: 18:43

I definitely think that's true, yeah, yeah, so, but I miss Nova Scotia a lot. It's my mother still lives down there she's 89. And I have two brothers down there and lots of friends, and I brainwashed my kids my two daughters and my son that Nova Scotia is the best place, so they always want to go there too.

Emma: 19:05

It's a fun spot for sure.

Ron: 19:06

Yes.

Emma: 19:07

Do you have any advice for young people, either starting a business or how to get involved with a charity?

Ron: 19:13

Okay, kind of two different things. Starting a business I would encourage them to do as much research as they can in whatever field they're thinking of starting the business. I really believe that you have to have a passion for whatever it is so like. If you didn't like seafood, don't open a seafood business. Also, for the business definitely have a business plan and get advisors, which is something I didn't really do. I just had a lot of passion and a lot of knowledge of seafood, but I would have been a lot better off with a more formal business plan back then too. So I'd encourage people to do that. Charities the charity does go hand in hand with the business, because I always thought it was a good way for our company to give back and then it was a win because you're giving back to the community but you're also marketing your company. So I would encourage you know young entrepreneurs to align themselves with some charities and then it's a win for the community. It'll help your business be successful and it will help the charity be successful.

Xavier: 20:17

So thank you so much for being on the podcast. We had so much fun talking to you and we learned so much.

Ron: 20:23

Cool, cool. Well, I encourage you to come over to the store sometime and I'll give you a tour and show you the lobster tanks and some of the products that we bring in every week.

Xavier: 20:33

I would love to do that. I would love to. I love lobster so much.

Ron: 20:38

Oh, nice, nice. One of my favorite things is to make lobster rolls.

Emma: 20:43

Oh, those sound delicious.

Ron: 20:44

So you can imagine I could have lobster every day of the year if I wanted to, every day of the week if I wanted to, but I really only have live lobster cooked about four times a year. And then I do lobster tails probably about eight times a year, but I do lobster rolls about 12 times a year, so they're definitely my favorite.

Emma: 21:04

Oh yeah, those sound good.

Ron: 21:06

Yes, they are.

Emma: 21:07

Thank you so much. It was a lot of fun.

Ron: 21:10

Good Thanks for having me and I look forward to seeing you soon.

Emma: 21:16

Thank you for listening and I know all the shows. You probably listened to say this, but if you enjoy this episode, please follow and rate the podcast.

Xavier: 21:23

Also, we would love to connect with you and hear your thoughts about our episodes. You can find us on Instagram or visit our website. The links are in the show notes. Thanks for tuning in. Bye.