Mandy Rennehan is someone who values being true to herself: she says she’s proud she never felt the need to compromise who she was to succeed in the world of business.

“I kind of go against the grain of corporate constipation,” she says.

“A lot of these companies very much are like, ‘We need Mandy in here (for speaking engagements) to get you guys to come out of your skin,’ because I don’t know any other way to be but authentic.”

Rennehan has won many awards for her entrepreneurial success and outreach work — receiving the Order of Canada, however, feels different, she says.

When she got the phone call, the woman from the government told her that she smiled when her file crossed her desk and said: “This was award was initiated by people like you.”

The Niagara-on-the-Lake resident is one of two entrepreneurs in the town receiving the honour this winter. The other is winery operator Donald Lawrence Triggs.

Rennehan, nicknamed Bear, is the founder of Freshco, a full-service reconstruction and retail maintenance firm. There is no relation to the grocery store chain, though she said the company sometimes receives angry emails about the price of bananas.

“We just learn to have fun with it rather than fight it,” Rennehan said with a laugh.

Started 31 years ago, when she was 19, Freshco provides trades services rather than food. Rennehan said her love of the trades came early.

“I didn’t know why I loved construction, I just did,” she says.

She says she has experience in a range of trades despite never attending college or becoming certified in any one area, something she believes helped her business.

Freshco operates as a one-call service for retail maintenance jobs such as plumbing issues, roof leaks, tripping hazards and overflowing toilets.

“I was probably the first in Canada to facilitate one phone call,” she said, referring to consolidating multiple trades into a single service rather than having retailers call different companies for different jobs.

The company now employs dozens of tradespeople and works with Fortune 500 retailers in the United States, including Nike and Sephora.

“If they’re a sexy retail client, they’re basically our client,” Rennehan says.

Despite Freshco’s international reach, Rennehan has always called Canada home. Originally from Yarmouth, N.S., she says her life shows someone from a small community and a family with financial struggles can build a successful business.

She says her reputation as a “go-getter” spread in Nova Scotia when she was 19 and 20. By age 30, she was a millionaire.

Rennehan has also focused on giving back. She says she has delivered “hundreds” of public speeches and works to encourage women to enter the trades, particularly given that women are underrepresented in the trades and that there’s a shortage of skilled trades workers in Canada.

One advantage she said she had was her comfort navigating male-dominated environments.

“I grew up with three brothers … everyone else seemed to be boys around me, so I certainly knew my guys,” she says.

Alongside her public speaking engagements and mentorship work, Rennehan also hosts the show “Trading Up with Mandy Rennehan” on Netflix and Global TV. She is also the author of the book “The Blue Collar CEO.”

She has also been outspoken in her advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community as a gay person herself. Freshco was recognized as the Canadian Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce LGBT Business of the Year in 2017.

She previously lived in Toronto and Oakville before moving to Niagara-on-the-Lake five years ago. She says it had long been a place where she came to relax.

“When the pandemic hit, I looked at my partner and said, ‘Why the hell are we here anymore?’” she says. “We just did it.”

“NOTL is my home now.”

Rennehan said the Order of Canada ceremony will take place in the spring.