We’re used to seeing comebacks play out in sports or feel-good movies. But every so often, they happen in the most unlikely of places, including behind bars.

Emily O’Brien was serving time in a minimum-security institution when she got a kernel of an idea for a business involving popcorn.

Popcorn was an easy starting point. It’s the kind of snack meant to be shared, even during the Super Bowl watch party that she and her fellow inmates had access to in prison. O’Brien noticed how the popcorn was a blank canvas for creativity, how they all added different seasonings using whatever ingredients were available to them. It was the kind of creativity and resourcefulness that prison life often demands.

She began experimenting on her own with recipes like “jailhouse cheese,” made with the processed cheese powder that comes in boxes of Kraft Dinner. Another favorite combined a popular sugar substitute and cinnamon. She researched, tested and brainstormed with fellow inmates, correctional officers and staff. By the time she left jail, she not only had a solid business plan but she also got her confidence back.

“I was going to try and start a gourmet popcorn company,” said O’Brien. “I didn’t know if it was going to work. I had no idea. But I was going to try, and I was going to involve people who were incarcerated to prove that we’re worthy of redemption and a second chance.”

Originally called Cons & Kernels, O’Brien rebranded her business Comeback Snacks to reflect her story of resilience and reinvention.

She makes premium candied popcorn that’s sold online and in such grocery stores as Farm Boy, Sobeys and Metro. Her food products can also be found in concession stands at Toronto’s Rogers Centre, Scotiabank Arena and other sports stadiums. Her tagline is: “Popcorn so good, it’s criminal.”

On Monday, an Ottawa audience will get an opportunity to learn more about O’Brien’s story when she speaks at an International Women’s Month event being hosted by Invest Ottawa at Bayview Yards.

The talk is geared toward women business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs, particularly those leading product- and service-based businesses. It’s called Purpose & Resilience: Building a Business with Conviction.

In one sense, conviction refers to O’Brien’s determination to make the best of her bad situation. In another, it alludes to her criminal past. In January 2018, she was given a four-year sentence after she pleaded guilty to trying to smuggle narcotics into Canada from St. Lucia. She was arrested in 2015 at Pearson airport, along with her male travel partner, after both were found with two kilograms of cocaine. She was 26 at the time.

The sentencing judge took into account O’Brien’s guilty plea, the out-of-character nature of the offence, her efforts to address her substance use, her potential for rehabilitation and her strong support system.

The entire incident left O’Brien feeling ashamed, outraged and bitter. “I just wanted to blame it on someone else, and I did,” said O’Brien of her travel partner. “I hated that person for a long time, and I spent a lot of energy wanting revenge. But it wasn’t doing me any favours.”

“I realized the only way to move forward in my life was to make something good come out of the situation”

O’Brien said she finally came to a place of acceptance, deciding to own her past, to learn from it and to become the person she knew she could be. She also learned to forgive herself, so that she could focus on future possibilities rather than dwell on past regrets.

“I realized the only way to move forward in my life was to make something good come out of the situation,” said O’Brien, who, while incarcerated at Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, also learned skilled trades and earned a small wage doing maintenance. Before her arrest, the university-educated woman ran her own small business focused on social media marketing and branding.

Once on parole and living in a halfway house, O’Brien was able to start selling Comeback Snacks to friends and family. By January 2022, she regained her full freedom. She secured a commercial kitchen, where she could scale up her production.

Six months in, O’Brien hired her first employee — someone with a criminal past. Today, her team of six, along with contract workers, are all ex-offenders, building a business around second chances. She and her business are based in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area).

But even as her new business drew praise in the press, it has also attracted a wave of backlash on social media. Hurtful as it’s been, it hasn’t stopped O’Brien. “I just keep going,” she said.

Last year, Comeback Snacks grossed $1.2 million in sales.

O’Brien said her comeback has taught her that learning, self-improvement and growth are ongoing processes. It’s a theme she explored in a newspaper op-ed she wrote a few years ago. “We all share this ability and capacity as individuals, families, businesses, cities and even as a nation, to rebound from a disaster, to learn and to become stronger, smarter and wiser than ever before,” she opined.

This article is made possible through sponsorship from Star Motors, WCPD, Syntax Strategic, RBC, Marilyn Wilson Dream Properties, ExecHealth, Altis Recruitment, Bell Canada, First Avenue Investment Counsel, Welch LLP, and Brazeau Seller Law.

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