Abigail Thomas is a purpose driven sustainability and digital leader with a vision to create positive environmental and social change through innovative solutions. She has more than twenty years’ experience in digital strategy, transformation, sustainability, innovation and product development, having led teams at SBS, Commonwealth Bank, Deloitte, ABC and in the UK Government. She was Vice Chair of the Australian Design Centre and President of not-for-profit One Step Walks which connected local communities with refugee communities. She is intrigued by the ways digital tools and approaches can be used to solve global environmental and social challenges. Abigail is currently Head of Sustainability and Product Strategy at SBS, combining her passion for both sustainability and digital products.

In this episode, Abi shares the story of SBS’s sustainability journey, including her personal story driven by her own passion and commitment to climate action.

She highlights how her experience in change management helped shape her approach to driving sustainable change by building allies—an approach based on recognising that sustainability is everyone’s job; and using data to make a case.

Abi invites us to think about the role of emotion in engaging people within an organisation, sharing a story about how a risk she took in changing how she opened a presentation to the leadership team, paid off. The song and video she references in this story – Paul Kelly’s “Sleep Australia Sleep” can be found here.

She shares stories and examples of actions taken by individuals and departments within SBS, from the TV Show department to Legal, Finance and the Audio and Languages Team. We discuss the impact of action on team morale and how it engages people’s discretionary efforts.

She shares some of the key milestones that SBS have achieved over the last 18 months, as well as their ambition to be a leader in the industry—adopting a collaboration over competition mindset, to help the industry to accelerate their transition to sustainability.

Read about SBS’s sustainability here

Connect with Abi:

On Linkedin

Today's guest, Penelope Goodsall, is a passionate and purpose driven business leader with over fifteen years of global expertise in brand strategy and communications.

As Australian Vintage’s Sustainability Manager, Penelope is responsible for leading the global ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) strategy, setting the roadmap to deliver net zero absolute reduction across all scopes by 2040, delivering positive environmental and social impact, and ensuring purposeful growth and transparent reporting. Incorporating sustainable business practices across the organisation to mitigate risks and enhance stakeholder value, she is committed to using business as a force for good.  This dedication saw Australian Vintage become B Corp certified in February 2024, ensuring long term commitment to transparency, accountability, and purpose-driven business.

Australian Vintage is the company behind wine labels like Tempus Two, Nepenthe, McGuigan Wines, Barossa Valley Wine Company, The Shy Pig, Not Guilty and many more.

In our interview, Penelope shares Australian Vintage's groundbreaking shift towards sustainability, guided by a forward-thinking CEO and board in 2022. We explore the influences behind this strategic move and she walks us through the company's full-scale involvement in the wine production value chain, their innovative low and no alcohol products, and their B Corp certification.

We also explore the significant commercial benefits of being purpose-driven, from increased employee engagement to attracting like-minded investors.

Tune in to be inspired by Australian Vintage’s dedication to making wine that is truly good and their leadership in the sustainability space.

Connect with Penelope and Australian Vintage

Penelope on Linkedin

Australian Vintage website

My guest is a woman after my own heart. Aga Bajer is obsessed with the opportunity to create thriving cultures by understanding what it is that people need to do their best work. 

Aga wears many hats as the driving force behind CultureBrained®, where she steers the ship as both founder and CEO. Beyond leading her company, Aga is an author and a captivating keynote speaker, known for sharing insights that resonate deeply with her audience. She's the voice and brain behind the CultureLab podcast, where she dives into the intricacies of organisational culture, and has built a vibrant community for culture leaders around these conversations. Her impactful contributions, books and thought leadership in her field have earned her a spot as one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices of 2024, marking her as a must-follow for those interested in the world of company culture and leadership.

I absolutely loved our conversation. Aga challenges some of the ‘truths’ that we as a society seem to have accepted with very little rigour. She shares the insights she has uncovered through her research as well as her own experience. For Aga, her work is personal and this shines through our interview. The need for people to feel a sense of belonging is the central theme of this episode and Aga also shares with us what it takes to help foster a sense of belonging in organisations.

Interview highlights:

• Aga shares and expands on her insights on the 3 things people need to do their best work – fun, meaning and belonging
• She shares her fascinating career journey from starting an ice cream factory aged 22 to later joining large consulting businesses, in a quest to understanding how to build an environment where people can thrive.
• Her fascination and obsession with understanding the impact of environment on people and their ability to do great work and to thrive.
• She introduces her consultancy CultureBrained® and it’s “crazy dream”, a mission to make work synonymous with fun, meaning and belonging.
• Aga explains CultureBrained’s approach:
  • Codify culture
  • Embed and activate it
  • Evolve culture
• She shares that a big part of this is focused on creating a community of practitioners, a creative space for heads of people and culture, CEOs, CMOs, all finding new better ways of cultivating healthy cultures
• We talk about the Fireside Chats that Aga hosts for her members – a small, deep, intimate format. She confesses that, as a business owner, this can be quite terrifying to run this kind of format, when the rest of the world seems to be pulling in the other direction of big, mass, scaled.
• Our discussion moves to Dunbar’s number – Robin Dunbar’s theory that the maximum number of people we can manage to be ‘friends with’ is 150 people – and how this inspired Aga in how she manages her CultureBrained community
• Aga shares the story of how she came to be writing her book, which originally started as an exploration of the concepts of fun, meaning and belonging, but eventually moved to single-mindedly explore the topic of belonging 
• She shares a fascinating insight into scientific research which reveals that belonging is actually the Number 1 human need (in conflict with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs)
• Aga takes us on a deeper dive into the topic of belonging and why she is so personally invested in exploring and understanding it. She talks about her personal experiences as well as what she has observed in organisations and teams
• She explains the three things we need to generate Belonging, providing deep insight on what it takes, including being valued as well as creating value
• The strong link between belonging and organisational performance, which is backed up by scientific research
• The cost of “Unbelonging” and the benefits of Belonging
• Aga’s ambition for the next five years towards a more regenerative society and what that could look like for business

Connect with Aga and CultureBrained

The Culture Lab Insider Newsletter

Aga on Linkedin 

agabajer.com  

The CultureBrained community 

Can you imagine loving your bank?

Can you imagine your bank being a reflection of how you see yourself, in the same way we choose fashion brands to reflect parts of our identity?

Well, perhaps if your bank is Bank Australia, you might not have to imagine too hard. From today’s interview, this bank is one that I can easily imagine loving and identifying with.

My guest today is Georgia Windrum, Manager Climate Action Strategy, Bank Australia. Georgia leads Bank Australia’s work to reach their ambitious net zero by 2035 target. She has previously worked on climate strategy, policy and campaigns at Climateworks Centre, the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Australian Council of Trade Unions

Our conversation uncovers the unusual way that Bank Australia conducts it’s business, from being customer-owned, to not paying out bonuses or dividends and to serving their purpose – to inspire and empower our customers to use their money to create a world where people and the planet thrive.

There’s much we can learn from this Australian bank and one of their ambitions is that other financial institutions use and adopt their model. This collaborative mindset comes from the ambition they have to use business as a force for good.

Interview highlights:

• Georgia shares her background journey from growing up with a strong connection to nature to her role at Bank Australia today, managing their climate action strategy
• She explains what it means to be a customer-owned bank, including what it means to have values-aligned customers as your shareholders
• Georgia highlights Bank Australia’s four key impact pillars – climate action, affordable and accessible housing, nature and biodiversity and First Nations reconciliation – and some of the ways they support these areas
• She shares Bank Australia’s 2035 Net Zero target and highlights some of the initiatives that have come from this target
• I ask Georgia to share an initiative that she’s particularly passionate about and she highlights their pilot home electrification program in Victoria, getting their customers off gas
• We discuss the benefits and challenges of having customers who are so aligned and emotionally invested in the bank’s activities
• Georgia shares what it means from an employee perspective to be part of a purpose-driven bank

Connect with Bank Australia and Georgia

Bank Australia website

Georgia on Linkedin

I first came across Neal Foard about a year ago. I saw one of his videos on Linkedin and I was hooked. Since then, I light up every time I see the distinctive black backdrop with his smiling face inviting me in for another immersive life lesson.

Neal is a storyteller. He shares beautiful, heart-warming stories – always with a powerful takeaway. In an age where many of our political leaders and media personalities encourage us to think the worst of each other and to focus on the rage, Neal highlights the best of us. Through his stories, he inspires the best of us.

Neal’s background is in in advertising and marketing. Thirty years spent creating award-winning campaigns for global power brands like Budweiser, Sony and Nokia. For his work on Toyota, Neal ranked among the top ten most awarded creative directors in the world in 2002. As the author of an innovative talent development series, Neal was named Worldwide Director of Creative Learning for global ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi. He has consulted on creative messaging for Fortune 500 companies and universities and been a featured speaker at TEDx conferences. Most recently, Neal has gained a sudden following on social media for his inspirational videos about the kindnesses of everyday people.

Today, I am so excited to introduce you to Neal. This episode is filled with stories and insightful nuggets of gold. Ultimately the message that rises up is the immense power of stories to connect us in a disconnected world, to build trust and to inspire the best from us. 

Highlights:

• Stories – many of them - littered through our chat. You’re welcome!
• Neal shares a story about a car dealer friend, whose philosophy is to be prepared to lose a little money to make a friend. I’ll leave you to figure out how healthy his bank balance is!
• We talk about how the best leaders bring a real energy when they walk in the room; they don’t just have that energy, they inspire it in others
• Neal shares his belief that brands are not only defined by what they do, but what they don’t, or won’t do
• We talk about trust and Neal shares his view (which I share) that trust is the most valuable commodity a business can offer. He shares the story of Sandra, a hotel receptionist who left an enduring impression on him through her thoughtful and playful approach
• Neal shares his background story of thirty years in advertising, along the way he shares the insight of what great brands do – enable people to be seen. He uses the Barbie movie as a great example of this.
• He explains what Storyfire does and why it is so important – words, persuasion and most powerfully stories, allow us to relate to each other, which build trust
• We explore the idea of energy, the magnetic gravitational pull, that stories can inspire
• Neal loops back to the story of Sandra, sharing a deeper explanation of why the impression she created was so powerful – by making him the hero of a story he could share with others, she had played to his narrative (one we all share) of being the hero of his own story. There’s a beautiful insight here around ‘Story Gifting’ and the power we all have to do this.
• We explore the value of being our unique selves and attracting the people and opportunities that reflect who we are – connecting to our identity. Neal shares a personal story that demonstrates the Pygmalion effect – when you set a standard of behaviour and expect people to live up to it, they usually will.
• Neal explains why he shares stories of human kindness; through his own personal experiences, to combat the confected rage that is being stirred up by elements in society
• We discuss the importance and power of stories to inspire the best of us. Not brand stories or marketing stories, but everyday stories that reflect our identity.
• Neal explains why he believes CEOs should be the greatest tellers of stories, to infuse a culture with belief… “Stories are the CEO providing a vision and warm safe place for people to be their best self; for them to think of new ideas because they’re not terrified of losing their job tomorrow” (had to include that)!
• He also shares why CFOs ought to be storytellers – to tell you where the numbers are headed; and of course, why sales people too should be storytellers
• Neal envisions his dream for the future: travelling America to tell the stories of American small businesses – relationships, truth telling, values, old fashioned traits - people taking care of each other

Connect with Neal

On Linkedin

On YouTube

On Instagram

On TikTok

Storyfire website

Sasha Titchkosky is the co-founder and CEO of Koskela; Australia’s leading sustainability practitioner in the furniture and design industry. She has become an influential voice for circular business and social impact as she transforms Koskela towards total circularity by 2027 and absolute-zero emissions by 2035. 

She also leads programs that use design skills to support Australia's Indigenous communities.

Sasha founded Koskela in 2000 with her partner Russel Koskela, both leaving behind lucrative jobs in the corporate sector in a bid to create a company with a courageous mindset and strong social conscience. 

Today, they work with some of the world's leading corporations and educational institutions to create work and learning spaces of the future, from Airbnb to Pinterest, Apple, Google, and Australia's leading law firms and banks.

In 2017 Koskela became Australia’s first certified furniture B Corporation.

Sasha is committed to manufacturing Koskela’s range in Australia and is a fearless advocate for using design skills to affect social change.

Our interview covers Sasha’s career journey leading to why and how Koskela started 24 years ago.

Sasha shares the story of Koskela’s evolution from a business that started with the principles of designing furniture that was affordable and sourced and manufactured locally, to their commitment to achieve total circularity by 2027.

It’s a story of innovation and leadership and one that I’m certain will provide inspiration and insight to others who want to understand how business can solve some of society’s most challenging problems.

Interview Highlights:

❤️ Sasha introduces Koskela, highlighting their two impact pillars – reconciliation and environment

＄ She shares her background journey from law and working at the ASX to how she and her partner started Koskela

❤️ The problem Koskela set out to tackle – the horrific level of waste in the way commercial tenancies worked

＄ The evolving thinking of Koskela’s founders on certain climate certifications and why they decided to move beyond carbon neutrality

❤️ Sasha explains their move towards creating their own carbon budget and she highlights  and recommends the tool they’ve adopted, through The SME Climate Hub

＄ She shares their ambitious 2027 deadline to become fully circular

❤️ Sasha explains the scale of the problem they are tackling, highlighting both waste and health factors. 

＄ This provides the context for her to share how Koskela have designed their shift to circularity, including their ReHome second life program

❤️ Sasha shares the next exciting phase of Koskela, a subscription model award-winning concept that is currently in development

＄ We discuss the importance of profitability for a purpose-driven business

❤️ Sasha outlines her vision of what Koskela could look like by 2030

Connect with Sasha and Koskela:

Sasha on Linkedin

Koskela website

Koskela's 2027 Circularity Action Plan

Lucy Piper is the Director of WorkforClimate and a passionate voice for moving the needle on climate change. After a decade in the corporate sector working in advertising and film production, Lucy faced her own climate reckoning. As a new mother, hearing the voice of Greta Thunberg addressing the UN, "We will never forgive you", echoed in her mind and she decided to turn her skills towards climate solutions.

In 2020, she left her much-loved role as the Global Head of Creative at Intrepid Travel to join WorkforClimate – a non-profit that equips climate-concerned professionals with the education, resources and community to make impactful change. Since then, Lucy has spent her days empowering Australians to push for change within their workplaces so that more businesses can set and achieve ambitious climate goals.

Lucy believes that businesses are key to solving the climate crisis and that employees are critical to its success. “You don't need to quit your day job in order to have a big impact on climate change.” She says. Her team is helping build a ‘green collar’ workforce and increasing practical climate literacy in every role and department.

My interview with Lucy was such a boost of energy and I hope it flows through to you. It is exactly the kind of energy we need, because it comes from a place of empowerment. A recognition that we all have a role to play in the climate crisis. And we can do something. And that something – no matter how small it is – can level up into something bigger.

Work for Climate is an antidote to the philosophy that little old me can’t do anything. Yes you can.

Interview highlights:

❤️  Lucy shares her background from the perspective of – as she describes, a “geriatric millennial” – starting work at the intersection of the analogue and digital worlds.

• Her ten years at Intrepid Travel – from starting on contract to becoming Head of Creative; and why she loves the company so much
• How the catastrophic bushfires in Australia in 2019, combined with Greta Thunberg’s inaugural speech at the UN became a catalyst for Lucy to join WorkforClimate

💲  Lucy explains the concept behind WorkforClimate – empowering people to take action on climate change within their organisations

❤️  She recalls and describes a powerful Venn diagram concept shared at the 2023 Purpose Conference by Adaptation Architect Digby Hall, explaining how we all need to respond to the Climate Crisis today – at the intersection of mitigation and adaptation. She connects this with what corporate organisations must do now to meet their stakeholders’ needs

💲 Lucy explains the specifics behind WorkforClimate and the four comprehensive action areas they support, which include the tools and resources for employees – leadership skills to influence others in their team; and technical skills

❤️ She fleshes out the four action areas:

1. Energy – switching to renewable energy
2. Emissions - Getting the organisation to have a science aligned ambitious target to reduce emissions
3. Money – investments, default superannuation funds
4. Influence – Lobbying efforts and what they call Scope X – advertised emissions (what emissions are you enabling? Who are your clients? Using your influence to minimise the expansion of the fossil fuel industry).

💲  Lucy passionately describes the imperative for everyone to take some form of action. Because the alternative is to be a bystander!

❤️  Lucy shares the dream for WorkforClimate – that “every job should be a climate job” - to grow the community exponentially globally, for employee-led change, across industries, sectors, companies, to accelerate what is possible in the corporate sector.

Get Started now in your climate job here

WorkforClimate website http

Connect with Lucy

On Linkedin

There are 40,000 victims of modern slavery on any one day in Australia, as reported by the Australian Federal Police. Shocking right?

My guest on this episode is Sally Irwin, Founder and MD of The Freedom Hub, who is committed to create a world of freedom by ending Modern Slavery. 

Sally has a career background in the corporate sector, but in 2008 she moved to Germany when her husband took up a Diplomatic post in Berlin. There, Sally was confronted with the issue of human trafficking in Eastern Europe, and established a charity in Berlin to fund organisations that supported the victims. She became very active in a centre supporting women trafficked in prostitution and was personally involved in helping a number of these women return to their country and begin a new life. 

After four years working face to face with trauma victims of modern slavery, Sally returned to Sydney in 2012, keen to apply her experience in Australia. 

She found a gap in Australia’s care for slavery victims, resulting in the creation of The Freedom Hub (TFH). In March 2014 Sally founded TFH Survivor School, that rebuilds the lives of slavery victims and is the ONLY specialised long-term support in Australia. TFH trauma informed classes train, equip and provide work experience to survivors of modern slavery in Australia. With over 14 years of frontline experience TFH is now a leading organisation in this field. 

Sally is such an inspiring leader committed to creating change and this is an episode you don’t want to miss. What is remarkable and what I absolutely LOVE is how her commitment to tackling this problem has led her to creating an innovative organisational model that creates value for a range of different stakeholders.

Her story and that of The Freedom Hub is utterly compelling and will – I have no doubt – inspire you. My hope is it inspires you into action. Small steps or big leaps, it doesn't matter. One action almost always begets another, as Sally's story confirms and as the quote featured on TFH's website also supports...

“Start by doing what’s necessary, then do what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”

~ Saint Francis of Assis

Interview highlights:

❤️ We learn about the shocking scale of the problem that is modern slavery in Australia.

💲 Sally describes the problem that she discovered – not just the existence of Modern Slavery in Australia, but the absence of long-term care for its victims. 

❤️ Sally shares her extraordinary story that saw her move from a corporate career in procurement to being posted overseas as a diplomat’s wife, to eventually starting The Freedom Hub, the only organisation that exists in Australia to support victims of Modern Slavery with long-term care.

💲 Sally tells us about the origins of The Freedom Hub - a cafe in Surry Hills, Sydney - that then became an event venue

❤️ How the Modern Slavery Act 2018 led to Sally expanding TFH into ethical business consulting for corporates, leveraging the work of TFH as well as Sally's earlier corporate expertise in procurement.

💲How Sally's passion to eradicate the problem of Modern Slavery has led to TFH also running Zoom training sessions for smaller organisations to do it themselves as a voluntary exercise, making improvements over time. She also talks about the business opportunity for medium and small organisations supplying corporates.

❤️ The galvanising statistic! 75 per cent of global slavery in the world is in Asia-Pacific - Australia's shopping ground, for our government, businesses and consumers. Meaning WE, Australians can dramatically impact global slavery just through conscious buying.

💲Sally describes the 5 pillars of TFH's Survivor School - the human-centred journey for survivors, the length and depth of which can vary for each individual; and which links to TFH's employment program.

❤️ Marking TFH's 10 year anniversary, Sally shares her inspiring 5 year vision of success and what she needs (businesses, please take note - there is so much opportunity for business partners in this, corporates and small to medium businesses alike)!

Connect with Sally

Linkedin

The Freedom Hub Website

In the last episode for 2023, I reflect on the interviews that have aired this year and some of the themes that have emerged.

When I started this podcast back in 2021, it was only meant to be a limited 12-episode series and yet here we are at Episode 52. I guess I have become a bit addicted to interviewing people who I consider to be true leaders of our time, who are charting a new and better path for business.

Our 2023 interviews covered a range of topics including:

❤️DEI – Diversity Equity and Inclusion

💲Social Enterprise, BCorp and Fair Trade

❤️Brands leading change

💲 The power of community and collaboration

❤️Creating more human-centric workplaces

💲Challenging the purpose of business

❤️Leadership

💲The Environment

❤️Cultivating Resilience

And I then dive into two key themes that consistently emerge through these interviews and my conversations with others on purpose-led business. And that I believe are intrinsically linked:

❤️ The proliferation of women driving purpose-led change

💲The importance of connecting profit with purpose

I also talk a bit about an article by author and researcher Thomas Klaffke on “Pleasure Activism”. It is such a perspective-altering read about the organising principle of the modern world being pain and the opportunity that reframing it to one of pleasure offers us.

If you're enjoying this podcast, please rate/review it on your favourite listening app and share with others who you think may also enjoy it.

Connect with Carolyn:

Linkedin

The Cause Effect website

Carolyn's personal website

Buy the For Love & Money book

Heidi Dening is a professional keynote speaker, author and trusted expert and educator on resilience. She regularly features in the media on this topic and believes that education changes lives.

Combining the insights she has learned from surviving a paralysing illness, a gunpoint kidnapping, a life-threatening tsunami, and petrol bombs with her impressive business and health education background, she has a unique ability to elevate the professional resilience of leaders and their teams. This enables them to make better decisions, be more innovative, have more energy, optimism and empathy, and successfully deal with change, stress, and uncertainty.

Heidi has dedicated her career to inspiring thousands of people globally with practical strategies that improve resilience, self-leadership and wellbeing, from small children on remote Pacific Islands to professional teams across numerous industries.  

In this episode, Heidi shares her story that brought her to becoming one of Australia’s foremost experts on resilience. She generously shares some strategies for cultivating resilience and why it is so important.

Why is this relevant to a podcast that explores the intersection of Love & Money (Purpose & Profit)?

Well, leaders of the movement for purpose-led business will face many bumps on their path to purpose. There will be resistance to the change that becoming truly purpose-driven demands of businesses and leaders. Cultivating resilience in yourself is vital if you are going to go the distance. Clearly it is also a vital trait for teams, but today’s episode is for you. This is about cultivating resilience for yourself.

I hope you get value from this episode. Heidi is amazing and has so much wisdom to impart on this subject.

Interview Highlights:

• Heidi shares her back story into how she came to become a trusted expert and keynote speaker on Resilience
• She shares her actual “petrol bomb” moment – a frightening and confronting life-changing experience for Heidi – and relates this to a metaphor for the “petrol bomb moments” we all face in our lifetimes, offering advice on how to prepare for those moments
• We talk about the Voice Referendum result in Australia and the impact of the No result on First Nations People, as well as non-indigenous supporters of the Yes campaign
• I ask Heidi to share her thoughts on how those of us who were committed supporters of the 'Yes' campaign can respond to the feeling of disempowerment that comes from the 'No' result. She talks about the vicarious trauma from bearing witness to traumatic events and the deep need for connection with likeminded others at this time.
• She also shares one powerful practice we can do that is all-important at times like this – scanning for the “micro-wins”
• We talk about the unrivalled resilience of First Nations Australians and what we all might be able to learn from that, including our moral obligation to honour the resilience of our own ancestors, by showing up to do the right thing for future generations
• Heidi shares her insights on how we can give the world "the best of us, not what's left of us". Link to the mental health plan template she mentions here.

Connect with Heidi

Heidi's website

Heidi on Linkedin

In this episode, I wanted to introduce our listeners to an organisation that I love; one of our amazing impact partners.

Rainforest Rescue is a not-for-profit organisation that has been protecting and restoring rainforests since March 1999 by providing opportunities for individuals and businesses to Protect Rainforests Forever.

Their projects re-establish rainforests through planting, maintenance, and restoration programs, as well as purchasing and protecting high conservation value rainforest and preserving its biodiversity

The majestic Daintree Rainforest is their key client, if I can put it that way. The forest they love, learn from and invest most of their time to protect.

I interview Rainforest Rescue’s CEO Branden Barber and Partnerships Director Kristin Canning. Both of their bios are below. It was a wonderful opportunity for me – and I hope, n turn, for you – to learn more about the Daintree and Rainforest Rescue’s efforts in collaboration with their partners, to protect it forever.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Branden introduces us to Rainforest Rescue, including the history of how it started and why it exists.
• He and Kristin share with us the impact that Rainforest Rescue are creating and some of the ways in which the Forest is a teacher.
• Branden touches on the UN’s decade of restoration and what that means.
• We learn a bit about some of the new investment schemes coming out that are supportive of restoration and that go way beyond Carbon Credits, including the Government’s Nature Credit Scheme, Reef Credits and Cassowary Credits and the Land Restoration Fund.
• Branden describes the importance of the work that Rainforest Rescue is doing with the Traditional Owners of the land, the Jabalbina Aboriginal Land Corporation, representing the Eastern Kuku Yalanji; and their desire to do more and learn more from them.
• For those listeners who enjoy learning how people of impact came to do what they’re doing, both Kristin and Branden share their respective journeys that led them to work with Rainforest Rescue.
• Why Rainforest Rescue? What makes them unique and so appealing as an impact partner for businesses as well as individuals.
• Why business partnerships are so vital to Rainforest Rescue and the confidence it gives them to take on some mighty risks.
• The 1% Profits to Rainforest Rescue Program which opens partnerships up from small business all the way to large corporates.
• The necessity of setting big audacious and scary goals.
• Branden shares a bit about one of their projects, Lot 1 Cape Tribulation Road

And if you’re looking for some great Christmas gifts, take a look at their wonderful merchandise here

Before founding her own enterprises, All of the Good Things and Authentic Selling, Nimmity worked for 25+ years in senior management in the software industry.  Working across a broad international landscape, this included working in Africa, Middle East, Europe (including Russia and Central Europe), Scandinavia, Asia and the Americas. 

As well as providing fantastic experiences exploring the world, these experiences also highlighted the extreme contrast in her living and travelling circumstances, and those she saw in her travels. Nimmity is passionate about using her business experience for good. Her travels and work experience sparked a passion in the Fair Trade movement. Nimmity currently volunteers as the Chair of the Executive Committee of the Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand. Nimmity enjoys hiking, exploring new cities, art and camping. 

In this interview we explore the importance of relationships – the emotional bonds we build with other human beings. Not just friends and family, but through business. Nimmity talks about Fair Trade being the antidote to Modern Slavery, but our conversation also reveals it is so much more than that. It is about moving away from transactional bonds to emotional bonds. And in the process building more human businesses and reconnecting to our humanity.

I loved this conversation. It has inspired me to dive deeper into the Fair Trade movement. I hope it achieves the same for you.

Some of the highlights:

• The value of the relationships we build with people through the organisations we work with
• Nimmity’s background and the role travelling played in opening her eyes to the inequities in the world
• How Nimmity’s experiences inspired her to volunteer with the Fair Trade Movement and to eventually leave her corporate background to start her business “All Of The Good Things”
• She shares the mission of All Of The Good Things, including why ethical gifting has such positive impact
• Nimmity explains what Fair Trade is about – the problems it is committed to solving and the principles it adheres to
• She talks about how Fair Trade goes beyond reducing negative impact and instead creates positive impact
• We discuss the empowerment of consumer choice and how the importance of micro actions, on their own but all  collectively in creating positive impact 
• She explains the scale and depth of Modern Slavery and and how Fair Trade is the antidote
• She reveals to us the Artisan side of the Fair Trade movement beyond goods like coffee/tea/chocolate that people usually associate with Fair Trade
• We chat about the idea of buying less but better quality and products using natural fibres; and wearing things till they fall apart
• The stories we can tell about the things we buy including the connections we have as a buyer to the people who produce the goods – bringing us back to the value of relationships
• Expanding on this theme of relationships, Nimmity shares a beautiful story about what happened during Covid when overseas artisans were unable to work during lockdowns and how Fair Trade businesses here in Australia responded
• The ripple effect of employing someone and the positive impact it creates
• The different ways people can support the Fair Trade movement – as a consumer, as a business and as a citizen

Connect with Nimmity 

On Linkedin 

All Of The Good Things website

All Of The Good Things on Instagram

Connect with the Fair Trade movement

Fair Trade Association website

List of Fair Traders in Australia

Get involved

NSW Meet-ups

Fair Trade Australia (commodity products)

Today's guest has roots in the coffee industry going back 20 years and has pioneered many businesses including coffee education, coffee farming and processing, cafe’s and roasting. Saxon Wright is the founder and owner of Pablo & Rusty’s Coffee Roasters, a B Corp certified roasting company based in Sydney, Australia.

He is also the co-founder and CEO of Huskee, also a B Corp certified company focused on eliminating single-use products from the coffee and broader hospitality industries. Huskee has developed a reusable cup that utilises waste from the farming of coffee, however more importantly has created a swap system so consumers can exchange the cup for a freshly cleaned one, removing the need for single-use disposables. 

Saxon is the recipient of the NSW Green Globe award, Australian Good Design Award and multiple sustainability and business awards. He also serves on the board of Greensquare, a tech platform connecting coffee roasters and traders. He is deeply committed to seeing business solve issues linked to our broader environmental crisis.

This interview covers Saxon’s background – the key experiences that led him to where he is today. He shares his inspiring approach to people development which, when applied to Pablo & Rusty’s, enabled him to create the head space for other opportunities, ultimately leading to building Huskee.

You’ll notice how much the theme of curiosity, design and innovation threads its way through our interview, all driven by Saxon’s commitment to using business to solve environmental issues and creating systems change. 

Discover how Saxon's companies are making a difference, from supporting farmers to reducing single-use plastics. Saxon also provides practical steps consumers can take to minimise their environmental footprint. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in sustainable business practices and making a positive impact on the world.

Super inspiring!

Connect with Saxon

Saxon on Linkedin

Pablo & Rusty's website

Huskee website

In this special episode on The Voice to Parliament, I have the privilege of interviewing Yes campaigner and Director for Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition, Thomas Mayo.

Thomas is a Kaurareg Aboriginal and Kalkalgal, Erubamle Torres Strait Islander man. He is the Assistant National Secretary of the MUA. 

Thomas is a signatory of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and has been a leading advocate since its inception in May 2017. He is the Chairperson of the Northern Territory Indigenous Labor Network and a director on the Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition board. 

Thomas is the author of six books published by Hardie Grant and has many articles and essays published across the major media providers.

His latest book is co-authored with well-respected journalist, Kerry O’Brien: The Voice to Parliament Handbook - All the details you need; published 17 May 2023. 

In this special episode I ask Thomas to answer the many questions arising from the proposal for the referendum for the Voice to Parliament. Some of these questions are legitimate. Sadly and frustratingly many are borne from a campaign of wilful disinformation. This means there is a lot of misinformation floating around and this episode is a chance to hear directly from one of the leaders of the YES campaign.

I hope you find this episode valuable, however you ultimately decide to vote. And I ask you please – if you have found it valuable, please share it with someone else who you think it could be helpful to. I also echo Thomas' ask at the end of our interview; to reach out and speak to people about this important proposal. To listen to them with patience, curiosity and respect and if and when you hear some of this misinformation as part of their consideration process, share the truth.

A healthy democracy depends on our citizens being well informed. Sometimes we need to get involved personally to protect our democracy. I believe this is one of those times.

Highlights of this episode:

• Thomas shares his vision of the future if this referendum is successful
• He shares the lessons learned from the history of struggle of Indigenous people for recognition and justice and how that has shaped the path forward including the proposal for the Voice to Parliament
• We talk about the deliberate campaign of disinformation
• He explains the history and the comprehensive process leading up to this proposal today
• Thomas answers some of the legitimate questions arising from the proposal
• He also debunks the more mischievous claims and outright disinformation designed to confuse and manipulate Australians
• He invites Yes supporters to reach out and speak to others respectfully about the Voice proposal
• He shares his hopes for a future where as a nation we have turned a page and taken the colonial past of their shoulders

Connect with

Thomas Mayo on Linkedin 

Yes23 website

Other links

Uluru Statement from the Heart

AEC Disinformation Register

RMIT FactLab

The Voice To Parliament Handbook by Thomas Mayo and Kerry O'Brien

Today's episode features Kirrily Graham, founder of Dovetail Social Enterprises. Through Dovetail, Kirrily is on a mission to transform how small & medium sized charities operate, creating more sustainable organisations through empowering micro, small and medium sized businesses to develop successful charity partnerships that don’t just raise the funds they need for their projects but also become social impact investors, building the charity's capacity and capabilities to amplify the great work that they do in the world. 

Kirrily’s combined experience of working in the NFP industry, running her own micro, small & medium-size businesses (MSME) as well as working in the corporate sector, has led her to create her own Social Enterprise to empower partnership between MSME's and small but mighty, grass-root charities. 

If you are a leader of a small to medium business and you want to make a greater difference in the world through simple and powerful partnership with grass-root charities that will help them scale – this episode is for you!

Kirrily shares with us

• How her background in the charity sector and her own personal burnout experience opened her eyes to a massive gap that small charities are struggling with
• The TED talk by Dan Pallotta that got right inside her head and spurred her to take action
• How all of this led to her starting Dovetail Social Enterprises
• She explains what a Social Enterprise is
• She shares the really smart model that she has created through Dovetail that benefits both charity partners and the for-profit businesses who join her program
• She talks about some of the charity partners within her program as well as the vetting procedure she goes through in selecting them
• She highlights the different levels of partnership a business can come in at; and at the top level, she talks about Charity Challenges – a wonderful opportunity to fundraise while challenging yourself and potentially your team or even your clients.
• Her vision for scaling the program to create more impact
• Network for Good - a great way for anyone interested to get involved now

Resources and links to connect with Kirrily

Kirrily Graham Linkedin

Dovetail Social Enterprises website

Network for Good

Earlier this year I was part of a panel at Mumbrella CommsCon 2023 to discuss "how to profit with purpose". I joined three leaders in Australia’s communications industry – all women, movers and shakers; founders and leaders of their respective Communications Agencies. The discussion we had was a good one, but barely had time to scratch the surface of such an important topic within an industry that has such influence and leverage. 

So I invited them to join me on the podcast to take a deeper dive into the topic. I managed to get two of them into the interview. The third, Simone Gupta, who is co-founder of a new independent creative agency, Supermassive, helped us shape the subject but unfortunately couldn’t make the actual interview on the day.

My two guests in this interview are 

Joanne Painter - Co-founder & Group Managing Director of Icon Agency

Dena Vassallo - CEO and Founder of SOCIETY

Joanne Painter Co-founder & Group Managing Director of Icon Agency Joanne has over 30 years of experience across media, strategic communications and public relations. She was recently named ‘2022 PR Agency Head of the Year' in the prestigious PR Asia Awards.

Formerly a senior journalist with The Age, Joanne now consults to Icon’s government and corporate clients in Australia and across the Asia-Pacific, including Salesforce, Schneider Electric, ADP, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of Defence, AUSTRAC, the Department of Education and the National Library of Australia. 

Dena Vassallo CEO & Founder of SOCIETY

SOCIETY is an independent, female-led creative agency with a fresh and brave approach to marketing communications. SOCIETY puts people at the heart of everything they do, and works to support brands and organisations that are positively shaping the societies in which we live, work, and play. 

Dena lives her values of environmentalism and female representation and empowerment through her work on the board of Green Adelaide and as the Chair of She Creates.

In this interview, the rabbit hole we go down is, I believe, a really important one...the power of brands to lead positive change within business. But it’s actually more than that – this interview is about brands leading societal progress. Our conversation expands to leadership, the risk of inaction, the need for bravery and how brands and leaders can move forward with their purpose agenda.

It's a rich conversation with two brilliant women who are driving change through their industry. I hope you enjoy it.

Highlights of this interview:

• Brands – the benefits of emotional characteristics over functional in building brand saliency and resilience; and the impact of a brand on building connection and belonging 
• Who leads purpose and ESG standards within an organisation?
• Why brand leadership is so important to building a purpose-led economy.
• The importance of the SME community to embrace ESG standards to meet Australia’s ESG targets, as well as to position themselves for the supply chain needs of large organisations
• Bud Light and Dylan Mulvaney – a case study of how to damage a brand through inauthentic cause marketing/purpose washing and a failure of leadership
• Unilever ANZ’s B Corp Certification – how Society approached PR and Comms announcing this achievement
• Joanne and Dena’s advice to business leaders who are holding back on leading with purpose because of fear of the risks

Connect with Dena

Linkedin

Email

Society website

Connect with Joanne

Email

Linkedin

Icon Agency website

Danielle Chiel is founder and CEO of KOCO, a knitwear company specialising in commercial hand knitting. KOCO (Knit One, Change One) engages women in rural villages in the south of Tamil Nadu, India, to produce artisan knitwear for global fashion brands.

Combined, her lifelong passions for innovation, education, and giving women a voice, have enabled her to make significant social contributions in both Australia and India.

She’s a published author, her book KOCO – How Handknitting is Changing Lives and the Fashion Industry describes the story of KOCO’s sisterhood, has touched the hearts of brands and consumers around the world. In this interview, Danielle shares...

• How knitting became a passion for her from a young age, but because of family expectations, she initially took an academic path before finding her way back to fashion.
• The story of how new Australian government legislation in the fashion industry forced her to find knitters outside of the country, taking her to Southern India.
• How KOCO was established in Australia by Danielle in partnership with women who live in rural villages of Tamil Nadu southern India.
• Danielle talks about what began as a solution to producing hand-knitted garments offshore is now a sisterhood of artisans and a business with the United Nations’ Global Goals for Sustainable Development entwined in their DNA. They have scaled the art of hand knitting to produce commercial quantities of garments, all entirely hand knitted.
• Along the way she is helping to give those women a voice, inadvertently also helping to break the economic cycle and the cycle of DV that many of them have lived with. As she says it’s about supporting them to be strong, independently-minded women.
• We also talk about how for people who have connected to their higher purpose, it is often connected to something that they experienced in their childhood. I reference a book called The Desire Map Experience by Danielle le Porte

I hope you enjoy this episode and the fascinating stories and insights that Danielle shares.

Connect with Danielle:

KOCO website

Danielle's Linkedin Profile

“Imagine waking up to a world without nature. Blue skies replaced by grey, grass by dirt, oceans turned to dust and mud.  This isn’t some far-fetched Science Fiction movie, it is the reality we are facing now. We are staring down the gun at the end of the world as we know it and business leaders need to unite to implement new ways of thinking and doing before it’s too late.”

Introducing Paula Kensington, award-winning CFO, business leader and director of consulting group, PK Advisory; and founder/CEO of CFO Conversations.

In her recently published green paper, Paula draws on global research, highlights the pitfalls of the past and offers hope for the future by outlining a strategic road-map out of outmoded, profit-focussed business practices to a new ‘planet-centric’ approach, with CFOs and CEOs leading the way.

“More than just a numbers person, CFOs are ‘key stewards’ that can drive change from within to align business outcomes with earth outcomes to go beyond carbon credits to turn profit into purpose,” she says.

Our conversation on this podcast centres on three key themes:

1. Why should CFO’s lead the purpose agenda
2. How do we ‘flip the business model’?
3. How do we reconstitute what we value as business success

If you are a CFO, this episode is especially for you. 

If you’re not a CFO, the value this interview offers is understanding that Purpose and Sustainability is no longer a ‘nice to have’. The ‘compliance’ stakes are gearing up and soon. Paula shares her thoughts, insights and paths to navigating from ‘business-as-usual’ to a new world of business. Great insights and I hope you might consider sharing with a CFO you know; perhaps in your own business.

Some of the highlights of this interview:

• Why CFO’s should lead the purpose agenda
  • What might be holding CFOs back from leading the purpose and sustainability agenda
  • CFO Excellence Index report – when the CFOs leads the sustainability agenda, the business is more successful
  • How new regulations and standards are going to mandate sustainability reporting which sits alongside the financial results and reporting
  • Her thoughts on probable timing of these reporting requirements (and it’s soon!)
  • What can CFOs do to prepare for these new mandates
  • The risk frameworks (COSO) around effective internal controls over sustainability reporting
  • Campfire Conversations: Paula’s approach and an analogy on how CFOs can navigate this new world and expectations
  • How “CFO Conversations” works and what CFOs can expect to gain out of them
• “Flipping the business model” – how do we change our focus on valuing the end product to a new world where we also value all inputs and resources? 
  • How do we value nature while its living? 
  • How do we bring living nature onto the balance sheet?
  • How do we transition to this new world which may be 5-10 years away?
  • Disrupting the business model. Paula shares the deep questions she believes business leaders must ask
  • She questions how businesses are allocating their capital reserves, challenging the notion that the majority is re-invested into business-as-usual
• How do we reconstitute what we value as business success?
  • Do we need new language, models, ledgers?
  • Horizon concepts
  • What can we do right now?
  • Stewardship over ownership
  • Whole system approach
  • As a CFO now we need to be aware of whole system thinking
  • Regenerative principles… challenge our thinking …decoupling everything tied to a financial outcome

Links promised in the interview:

Episode 43 features Nikki Beaumont…Founder and CEO of Beaumont People, a leading recruitment business who are all about placing people first – whether its their own people, their clients or the candidates they place.

This ‘people first’ philosophy and purpose-driven vision to connect people with organisations that empower them to do meaningful work and to create more opportunities for meaningful work in Australia, has seen Nikki's team provide much more than standard recruitment services to her customers.

Key to Nikki's and Beaumont People's success has been the unfaltering investment she makes in her people. She has crafted a work environment that is conducive to success - where her people are nurtured and motivated to achieve their personal best not only for the business, but as importantly, for themselves.

In this episode we talk a little bit about Beaumont People’s approach and some of the initiatives it has driven, but we zero in on one key initiative that they implemented 3 years ago – the 4-day work week.

As one of the first Australian businesses to do this, Nikki has some valuable insights to share.

I hope our listeners can take these insights and use them to think – not just about the 4 day work week – but also to question some of the other rules of business that we rarely examine. How can we do things better? What can we change?

I hope you enjoy the gems that Nikki shares in our chat.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Nikki shares Beaumont People’s origin story, including how the GFC was the stimulus that led to Beaumont’s strength in serving the charity sector
• What their purpose around meaningful work means to Beaumont People
• We talk about the ripple effect that having meaningful work has beyond the individual
• Nikki shares her pride in the people in the Beaumont People team, in implementing the Four Day Work Week; in launching gender neutral parental leave; and their work in the charity sector (having saved almost AU$35 million for the charity sector to date)
• What inspired Beaumont People to launch the Four Day Work Week and some of the best advice they were given to make it work by Andrew Barnes from the 4 Day Week organisation
• How they announced it to their people at their annual conference and engaged them in thinking about how it would work
• How Beaumont People’s peoples’ ideas were central to how the initiative was implemented
• How they approached the ‘Productivity’ question, including understanding that productivity varies so much across teams and functions
• How introducing the Four Day Work Week has clarified how Beaumont People measure productivity and success
• The role of trust in the success of this initiative
• Nikki shares her greatest learnings from the last 3 years of running the Four Day Work Week

Connect with Nikki

Nikki's Linkedin Profile

Beaumont People on Linkedin

Beaumont People website

Our guest on this episode of the FOR LOVE & MONEY Podcast is Kelly Beater. Kelly is Head of felix mobile, a brand that describes themselves as “passionate about enabling a seamless telco experience for our customers, while driving a positive impact for our planet through our partners like One Tree Planted.”

felix’s mission is to inspire a better mobile industry; one that’s great for people and cares for our planet.

felix mobile is part of TPG Telecom, one of Australia’s biggest telecommunication companies. One of the interesting things about this brand is that they exist as a siloed business unit within the larger TPG Telecom organisations. This represents a really interesting model on how large organisations might start navigating their way to balancing profit with purpose – by starting with a small business unit, to build confidence in a profit through purpose model.

In this episode, Kelly shares the journey so far with felix, highlighting the power of a BHAG – a big hairy audacious goal – which for them was to plant one million trees. A goal they have just achieved!

So much gold in this episode. Here are some of the highlights, but make sure you listen all the way to where Kelly talks about her love of what she does and her pride in what she and the felix team are doing (around the 41 minute mark).

• Kelly shares how the brief to create a “digital-only” brand led to the development and launch of a purpose-led digital-only brand and business unit within TPG Telecom
• Why the felix team chose climate action as their greater cause; the environmental impact of mobile phone usage
• Kelly shares felix’s three powerful values and how these shape the behaviour and decisions of the felix team
• On achieving their BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) to plant one million trees on behalf of their customers
• Kelly shares the benefits of tree planting including environmental and also the restoration of habitat of threatened species like koalas
• She talks about some of the projects that felix have supported both in Australia and overseas through their partner organisation One Tree Planted
• The role of their customers in choosing their projects
• Kelly shares a fascinating insight on what attracts their customers about felix’s value proposition and what drives their ongoing customer satisfaction
• The role of purpose in attracting the brand’s stakeholders
• Beyond the one million trees, Kelly shares some of felix’s other successes, from awards, to customer growth, customer feedback, customer referral and customer retention
• The inextricable link between purpose and profit in felix’s success metrics
• Kelly talks about the value of credible partnerships and she shares some of the partnerships that felix have, that help build trust
• Kelly talks about how much she loves what she does and how proud she is of what she’s doing through felix (I just love this section of this interview)!
• How felix mobile operates within TPG Telecom and how the felix business is influencing the wider business
• The next big goal!! And more big news which Kelly couldn’t share during our interview, but we will link to here when “it” is announced

Connect with felix mobile and Kelly

felix mobile website 

Kelly’s Linkedin 

Today's guest on the FLAM podcast is Graeme Cowan, whose dedication and commitment to creating mentally healthy workplaces has seen him named one of LinkedIn’s top voices for 2022 in the Mental Health & Resilience space.

Graeme helps leaders and teams to be more caring and resilient - and enjoy growing together. 

He was founding Board Director of R U OK? and is the author of four books, including the internationally acclaimed BACK FROM THE BRINK, which has a testimonial from the former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, and which has become a best seller in China. 

He is the Co-Founder of WeCARE365, which creates simple scalable eLearning to prevent mental health issues. 

Graeme is also host of The Caring CEO podcast, where he interviews CEO’s who champion a culture of care AND high performance.

In his earlier career he worked in senior leadership positions with Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and the management consulting company, Kearney. 

In 2000 he went through a 5 year episode of depression that his psychiatrist described as the worst he had ever treated. He emerged from this crisis with a different view about how we can increase our resilience, mood, and performance. 

Today, his purpose – helping leaders and teams to be more caring and resilient and enjoy growing together – is the guiding force that drives everything Graeme does in this space.

Key highlights of this interview:

• Graeme’s personal journey that led him to have such clarity of purpose. His own painful experience with serious depression, but also the pivotal experience of work he did many years ago as a consultant with Ramsey Healthcare, in shaping his view on the value of “people caring for people”.
• His insights on what poor mental health is costing our workplaces in absenteeism, presenteeism and even on workers compensation premium costs.
• Some of the insights he’s gained through his podcast, The Caring CEO, and the characteristics these leaders share.
• An overview of the programs he and his business partner Brendan Carter have developed through their business WeCARE365, empowering managers to create mentally healthy workplaces.
• How to measure the impact of a mentally healthy workplace – including an interesting development in a tech startup as something to watch out for

For anyone who believes that people are an organisation’s greatest asset, this interview will get you thinking about how you can create organisational and team environments where people feel safe and are able to bring their best to their work. 

Connect with Graeme

Linkedin 

Email

Websites:

http://www.graemecowan.com.au/ (Personal)

https://wecare365.com.au (WeCARE365)

Ravi Prasad is a former ad man turned social entrepreneur.

A strategist, who in a career spanning over 20 years, worked for agencies including, EURO RSCG, Leo Burnett, John Singleton Advertising, Ogilvy & Mather, Sapient Nitro and Clemenger BBDO.

Over the years his work has won, or been a finalist, in awards, from W3 in New York to the IIB Awards in London, and from ADMA to AIMIA in Australia. 

In 2013 Ravi shifted the focus of his life and work to pursue his interest in social justice and civil society, and founded Parliament on King.

Parliament on King addresses the barriers to social, cultural and economic participation faced by asylum seekers and refugees. 

It’s also a social enterprise catering business, that offers training, work experience and paid employment to asylum seekers and refugees – all funded by the proceeds of its commercial catering operations.

The project has been recognized with awards including a Refuge Council Humanitarian Award and the Good Food Guides ‘Food for Good Award’. Ravi is also the recipient of a UTS Human Rights Awards and the 2022 NSW Human Rights Medal.

Ravi shares such valuable insights in this interview. There’s a theme that threads its way throughout our chat - the importance of belief, clarity of belief, self-belief and shared belief. This, combined with the other recurring themes of the power of ‘action’ to build belief; and the fallacy of limited resources, makes for an interview that I really hope will inspire people to act without any further delay.

Some of the highlights of our conversation

• A great philosophical discussion about the role of love in business
• Ravi’s view on the role of the social enterprise sector and the future of business
• The life defining moment that forced Ravi to examine his beliefs and what happened as a result
• The idea of limited resources being a barrier to starting to live your beliefs.
• Parliament On King’s start-up story – you’re going to want to listen to this!
• The importance of action – “doing things” – to create proof and belief to take the next step
• The power of doing something small
• What can one single person do? The power of one
• The secret to people being trustworthy is to trust them – Ravi’s story about his experiment on trust
• Social businesses are built on belief. Social business leaders can make their own rules.
• Parliament On King’s ripple-effect of impact –on asylum seekers and refugees, the homeless and other vulnerable groups
• Shared narrative, transformative leadership, action and stories
• Transparency of impact that builds trust

Connect with Ravi

Email:  myintuition@yahoo.com

Phone: +61 414 235 325

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raviprasad/

Carolyn Tate is a writer, educator and speaker and the author of six books including Brave Women Write and her best-selling book The Purpose Project. She is a pioneer of purpose in Australia and her book has inspired countless individuals to pursue their purpose and make an impact. Brave Women Write is her most recent book. It’s a powerful call-to-action for women to harness the power of their words, to get writing and create personal and planetary change. As a river swimmer with a deep connection to nature, Carolyn’s purpose is to write and share the stories that move us to remake the world.

Carolyn and I were speaking about this topic of women who were bravely showing up to share their ideas of how to make things better, through writing and publishing books. Our discussion sparked this idea of using the podcast to inspire more women to write.

There is no doubt we are experiencing a movement where many women are bravely showing up as protagonists of change in their industries. While this isn’t limited to women, my experience and that of most of my co-conspirators, is that more women are driving purpose-led change than men. Perhaps it comes from the need to rebalance growth and winning with nurturing and sharing. 

So today’s episode is dedicated to the many women who are showing up bravely, as well as those who want to do more to show up bravely. Brave Women Write is a celebration as well as an invitation. Hope you enjoy this episode. 

Some of the highlights

• Alice In Wonderland – an invitation to channel your inner “Alice” and go down that rabbit hole
• The importance of curiosity in our lives and through our writing
• The vital role of antagonists
• How to overcome imposter syndrome
• Being in the arena: Teddy Roosevelt and Brene Brown
• The voices we can share and the role of our ancestors
• Writing to connect to (and release) our deeper grief
• How sharing our stories will remake our world
• “Story Boxing”
• Ideas on how to start writing and storytelling
• An invitation to adventure
• Why do we need to be protagonists?

Connect with Carolyn

Carolyn's website

Get the book BRAVE WOMEN WRITE 

Welcome to the For Love and Money podcast, the show where business and social purpose meet to inspire a movement for positive change. 

In this episode, Carolyn introduces Lisa Erhart, author of Advanced Grant Writing for Female Founders. Lisa is a passionate funding specialist with over two decades of experience helping women entrepreneurs secure the funding they need to grow their businesses. With a remarkable personal journey in the funding sector, Lisa has secured millions in grants and assessed over $50 million in applications.

Lisa shares her insights on why more women need to apply for available funding and how they can improve the quality of their applications. She emphasises the importance of balancing love and profit in business, encouraging female founders to aim for financial sustainability and generational wealth.

Throughout the episode, Lisa and Carolyn discuss the power of partnerships, the necessity of data in building a compelling case for funding, and the transformative impact of securing grants. Lisa's stories of successful funding journeys, like those of Melanie Greblo and also the Maternity Consumer Network, serve as inspiration for female business owners to pursue funding opportunities confidently.

If you are a female business owner looking to grow your business and secure funding, this episode is a must-listen. Lisa's practical advice and passion for empowering women will leave you inspired and ready to take action.

Connect with Lisa

Buy Lisa's book "Advanced Grant Writing For Female Founders"

Lisa on Linkedin

Funding4growth website

Listeners of this podcast might be familiar with the term B Corp, but like many – perhaps don’t have a clear understanding of what B Corp stands for and what is involved in becoming a B Corp.

B Corps are businesses that meet high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency and as a result have received certification.

The B Corp certification is the most holistic and rigorous independent certification for businesses today. 

Certified B Corporations, or B Corps, envision a better economic system where businesses can benefit people, communities, and the planet. They choose long-term investments over quick wins, and measure their success based on the positive impact they create.

My business, The Cause Effect is proud to be a certified B Corp. We achieved certification in October 2021. You can see our B Corp profile here and read a short blog about it here.

On the For Love & Money podcast, our mission is to explore the intersection of love and money (or purpose and profit) in business, to inspire a movement for positive change – business as a force for good; brands driving profit through purpose. 

The B Corp community and movement aligns to this 100%. Their mission: Make Business a force for good. We won't stop until all business is a force for good.

So it is with great pleasure that I introduce today’s guest Mindy Leow.

Mindy is Director of Impact and Growth at B Lab Australia & NZ, the certification arm of B Corp. At the time of this interview she is also acting CEO.

Mindy is a champion of business as a force for good. Instrumental in building the B Corp movement in Australia and New Zealand, She has worked with more than 200 companies to achieve certification. She has also worked with hundreds of other businesses to measure and improve their social and environmental impact through the free online B Impact Assessment tool. 

In this episode, Mindy shares her journey to becoming a B Corp champion and gives us some great insights into what B Corp certification is all about, what value the process of becoming a B Corp offers to business leaders; and the strong benefits that being a B Corp delivers.

If you haven’t already - my hope is that this episode will motivate you to check out the B Corp Assessment and start doing the assessment, regardless of whether or not you are committed or you have commitment from within the business to undertake the B Corp certification process. Hands down you will learn so much from simply doing the assessment.

Some of the highlights of this interview:

• Mindy’s background and how she came to be part of the B Lab Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand team
• Mindy shares the concept that B Lab use to describe shareholder primacy – as a “source code error”. Great analogy!
• The three levels that B Corp certified businesses need to meet: Performance, Accountability and Transparency. Mindy talks about these in some detail.
• Mindy shares the five pillars of the B Corp assessment and shares some examples within the pillars
• We discuss the value of undertaking the free B Corp Assessment
• She also shares the benefits of being a B Corp

Connect with Mindy and the B Lab community:

Mindy Low on Linkedin

B Corp Website

The B Impact Assessment

Imagine if impacting people's lives was deemed more valuable than money.

That's what my guest on this episode is working towards.

Kimberley Abbott, CEO and founder of Vested, a company with a mission to 'redefine millionaire to be a person who impacts millions of lives' through leveraging data-driven impact assessment to help people invest their money where it makes the best impact on society.

Vested helps people invest their money where it matters. To create impact where it is most needed.

Kim is an Aussie who has relocated to London. I first learned about her when I was listening to Mick Spiers Leadership Project Podcast and I was so inspired by her story and was determined to get her on this podcast to share some of that story.

Kim shares a bit of her journey from studying Engineering to starting a social enterprise in India to working for the UN, assessing and monitoring peacekeeping missions; to then starting the company.

We get into some of the ‘how’ Vested operates and how it differs from businesses reporting on company’s ESG (Environmental Social Governance) activity. But the key theme in this interview is the purpose behind the business and how that has driven her to think ambitiously and create something out of nothing.

I feel so inspired after our interview, I have no doubt it will inspire you and I hope, galvanise you to do something differently.

Some of the highlights:

• Kim’s journey from university to starting Vested and the influences that led her to where she is today
• She shares how her family’s philosophy towards failure was influential in her journey
• Vested’s mission and how it has driven their approach
• How Vested approaches and defines how impactful a business is being and how this differs from the traditional ESG (Environmental Social Governance) reporting approach
• How Kim built the product herself in the first 2 years and while it was not perfect and how now been developed by someone with more skills, it was effective in getting started
• Kim shares the four questions they ask at Vested to determine the value of impact of a business
• Kim's invitation to speak to world leaders at the Paris Peace Forum in 2022 – a recognition of the value of her efforts
• The collaborative mindset of impact led organisations

Connect with Kimberley

On Linkedin 

Vested Website 

Saving the world, one wash at a time. Sounds pretty good, right?

That’s the question posed and answered by the personal care brand, Baresop, which is responsible for producing modern-day zero-waste personal care products. Manufacturing everything from hand wash soaps to body wash products, Baresop is pushing to create change through every wash.

Baresop’s founder, Prisca Ongonga-Daehn is my guest on today’s episode of the podcast and I can’t wait for you to hear Prisca’s story and the absolute gems of insights she shares about starting this social purpose-led brand, Baresop.

Prisca is a Kenyan-bon Australian, a global citizen, an entrepreneur and a changemaker.

Prisca was told “it’s not possible” many times in the early development of Baresop, but she refused to give up. She had a vision for a product range that would reduce waste, be good for the planet, and be “waterless”. 

I love people who prove the naysayers wrong. Don’t you?

Some of the themes we cover in this interview include:

• Prisca shares her story of what inspired her to start Baresop and her daughter’s influence in the creation of her business
• Solving a customer problem – how this drove the ideation process of the business to help customers take small steps to creating change
• We talk about Baresop’s 2035 goals – how they are both audacious and achievable and are built on credible data (Prisca LOVES data. Fellow data lovers will enjoy how data is a recurring theme in this interview)
• She shares and explains Baresop’s 3 key pillars: Innovation, Impact and Change
• The multiple benefits of Baresop that have been developed based on customer insight and feedback
• Prisca talks about their product scents, what they have in common with gin and the benefits to the skin, as well as the wonderful storytelling properties of scents
• We talk about storytelling and it’s power in inspiring people to create positive change
• Ontop of water conservation as one of the key benefits Baresop offers, Prisca shares the partnership they are developing with Charity Water to provide clean water to communities. 
• How Baresop started; her bootstrapping story and the funding support she got to start the business, including the investment she got from Start Mate
• We talk about our children and what they deserve from us and Prisca shares her belief that we all have the power to create change

Connect with Prisca

On Linkedin

Baresop website

Baresop on Instagram

Today’s guest is committed to empowering changemakers and shifting the technology landscape, ensuring a more diverse and inclusive space for all.

Luli Adeyemo is the Founder & Director of Sydney-based integrated marketing agency Best Case Scenario and has spent the last 30 years curating content for thought leadership conversations and campaigns in the technology sector.

In 2020, Luli was appointed the Director of not-for-profit foundation TechDiversity - an industry alliance committed to amplifying diversity awareness and achieving a culture of inclusion through conversation, collaboration, and action.

Luli’s personal purpose that has guided her career, is to break down barriers - including the language barriers synonymous with the tech world - to make it accessible to everyone. Her energy is absolutely infectious and I hope you love listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed recording it.

Luli’s impressive credentials also include:

Elected Council Member – Australian Information Industry

Active Member – WEConnect International

Activator - SheEO (now Coralus)

Themes we discuss in the interview include:

• The importance of loving yourself and self-care
• Luli’s career path, her experiences and realisations that inspired her to lead change, break down barriers and fight for equity and access within the tech industry
• Her move to Australia with Gartner and how the lack of support she experienced led her to start her agency, Best Case Scenario (BCS)
• Best Case Scenario’s journey from its origins to becoming a marketing agency and events company, to recognising their underlying purpose to “empower changemakers”
• The impact that clarifying and articulating their purpose has had on Best Case Scenario, including recognising when they should walk away from a client opportunity
• The dramatic cost of the pandemic to BCS and the wider events sector and how their purpose guided the team’s response to it, bucking the industry trend and taking them back to their roots; in the process, enabling them to rediscover their sizzle
• Luli discusses TechDiversity Awards and their mission to make diversity & inclusion the #1 business priority in Australia.
• She shares her pride in the creation of the TechDiversity Academy and we discuss the integration of Luli’s personal purpose, the purpose of Best Case Scenario and the purpose of TechDiversity
• The technology industry having an identity crisis and the perceptions that need to change so we can diversify the technology workforce
• The TechDiversity Awards Program and why they created the Tech for Good category
• The importance of equity and understanding that it’s not about equality for everyone, but instead understanding people’s differences, to provide the same opportunity and access to all
• TechDiversity’s vision for the industry, our wider workforce and society and what they’re doing to achieve it

Connect with Luli

bestcasescenario.com.au  

linkedin.com/in/luliadeyemo  

Few people would see a global pandemic as an opportunity to open a co-work and event space, but this is exactly what my guest today did in 2020. 

Abbey Pantano is Founder of Seed Impact Business Community.

As a retail marketing specialist of 12 years, and eco side hustle owner for two, it was a stream of devastating world events and climate anxiety that led to a new dream... What if we brought together a community of mission-driven entrepreneurs, dedicated to using their businesses as a force for good? The arrival of COVID created the platform Abbey needed to take the leap. Using a redundancy package, learnings from 12 years of big business marketing and a defunct purpose-built start up – Seed Spaces was born. 

Today the co-work and event space, based on the outskirts of Sydney’s CBD, has blossomed into an Australia-wide digital membership with 70+ social impact businesses in the mix (and growing!).

Since our interview, Abbey has moved her focus fully into the Seed Impact Business Community, embracing her passion for and expertise in community and collaboration; with a goal to seed ideas and help those who want to make business for good, good for business.

The power of community and collaboration runs deeply through this interview. Not surprising for such a purpose-led individual as Abbey – purpose inspires people to think ambitiously; ambition inspires collaboration. 

Here are some of the themes we discuss in this interview:

• Abbey’s entrepreneurial journey, from working in marketing and partnerships in a large organisation to her start-up tackling plastic pollution 
• Abbey’s realisation of the value of partnerships to grow and empower purpose-driven businesses
• The origins of Seed Spaces from the initial spark generated by the Covid pandemic to now
• The value of B Corp Certifications as a public framework for businesses to grow and improve, aspiring businesses to build like-minded communities. Link to the B Corp Assessment we discuss here
• A discussion about Seed Impact and focusing on the idea of making one’s vision deeper instead of bigger, helping each other achieve success
• Abbey’s take on the importance of finding common ground, and the benefits of coming together over a common goal to support one another’s vision for the future
• Abbey’s view of how the power of business should be used to reroute energy into the hands of those powerful enough to make wide-reaching, positive change
• We discuss the Sustainable Development Goals and the importance of mapping your impact to the Global Goals framework. Abbey mentions Elaine Hendrick’s Sustainable Development Goals Tool which you can link to here, as well as Kirrily Graham’s Dovetail Social Enterprise which matches charity partners to businesses wanting to make an impact.
• Abbey shares her view on the Voice to Parliament and the experiences she's had that have helped to shape it.

Connect With Abbey

linkedin.com/in/abbeypantano

https://seedspaces.com/ 

Today's guest Melanie Greblo’s driving purpose is to catalyse and lead positive impact. This has led her to become a founder and CEO of an innovative and highly impactful start-up, Scriibed and a not-for-profit organisation, Banksia Academy.

Scriibed combines the best in AI with a highly trained and skilled workforce delivering transcription-based services. Scriibed for HR offers automated meeting admin with a human touch.

They automatically capture, summarise and action important workplace meetings. Their highly trained and skilled human workforce ensures customer success whilst providing flexible and safe work opportunities to women survivors of domestic and family violence.

Scriibed and Banksia Academy share a Theory of Change to achieve long term financial independence for women victim survivors of domestic and family violence through full social and economic participation. Melanie is an ideas synthesist and strategist with a proven record of achievement in business, social ventures, community engagement, and culture transformation with a deep commitment to diversity, inclusion, innovation and systemic social change. 

Her impressive career trajectory includes 

• 7 years with the team at Impact Asia Pacific, where she curated the annual Impact Investment Summit and the region’s first Gender Lens Investment Summit. 
• 10 years with The Coterie for Renewal, a global human development and learning community, which she founded in 2011

A number of prior roles leading social and not-for-profit organisations

The business model behind Scribed and Banksia Academy is one that I think listeners of this podcast will really appreciate because of the "Win-Win" outcomes it creates for multiple stakeholders.  Solving customer problems AND simultaneously serving societal needs by supporting vulnerable people, as well as supporting potential victims through workplaces. My hope is that this episode inspires listeners to continue to think differently and intelligently about what business can look like.

Themes we discuss include:

• The tragic event early in her life that led to Melanie’s impact-led career path and how it shaped her thinking
• Mel shares her career path through to the trigger that led her to starting Scriibed and Banksia Academy, including the shocking statistic on the percentage of single mothers who are victims of domestic and family violence and the number of barriers that women survivors face
• She explains how Scriibed works and the multi-layered value it offers organisations
• The Theory of Change behind Scriibed and Banksia Academy in breaking the cycle of women returning to violent relationships and leading to prevention of domestic violence
• Melanie talks about the “need-want” overlap that attracts clients to the Scriibed solution
• She outlines the two types of clients that Scriibed serves and the growing relevance of what they offer, given business needs around the ‘S’ of ESG and social procurement targets
• She shares the shared value opportunity that Scriibed offers – supporting women in their workplace more broadly
• We discuss the need for business solutions to be designed in a human centred way
• How we are rewriting how and why we do business

Connect with Melanie

Melanie's email

Scriibed website 

Linkedin 

Today’s guest is a leader of the global Purpose movement.

He’s also a best-selling Author. Visionary Founder. Inspiring Keynote Speaker.

Afdhel Aziz is on a mission to solve one of the biggest problems facing individuals and companies in the 21st century: how to find purpose and meaning in their work and unlock the enormous power of business to do good in the world.

He is the Founder and Chief Purpose Officer at Conspiracy of Love, a global purpose consultancy that works with Fortune 500 companies to help them grow their businesses by doing more good in the world. Conspiracy of Love is a proud Minority-Owned Business and Certified B Corp.

He is also the Co-Founder of Good is the New Cool, a creative company and content incubator focused on creating positive stories that fill the Hope Gap. Good is the New Cool produces books, podcasts, TV shows and a global conference series called GoodCon that has taken place in Los Angeles, London, Sydney and New York.

Afdhel is the co-author of the best-selling books 'Good is the New Cool: Market Like You A Give a Damn', and the follow-up ‘The Principles of Purpose, as well as writing 'The Power Of Purpose' column in Forbes.

He is also an internationally renowned keynote speaker who has been featured at the Cannes Lions, YPO, SXSW, Forbes CMO Summit, Advertising Week, Conscious Capitalism, and the Fast Company Innovation Festival. He lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife and son.

I’m so excited to share this episode which explores some of the big questions around Purpose that listeners may have. I’ve been eager for this opportunity to get Afdhel to share his insights and experiences on Purpose globally and he doesn’t disappoint. I also seized the opportunity to exchange insights (where we discovered a lot of consistency) and to discuss some of the more critical challenges surrounding the purpose movement, particularly in Australia. The depth and breadth of Afdhel’s knowledge on this subject makes listening to every minute of this podcast worthy of your time.

Some of the themes we discussed included:

• The secret to becoming a loved business/employer/brand
• Afdhel highlights some of the work that Conspiracy of Love is doing with brands around the world
• We discuss the growth of the Purpose movement globally and what has caused it; Afdhel shares some insights he’s uncovered through research he’s undertaken for his third book on Purpose (this one covers personal purpose)
• We discuss Australia’s role in the Purpose movement and explore what is inhibiting big business in Australia from grasping the opportunity that purpose presents
• Afdhel shares his view on the 4 C’s holding Australian business back
• We discuss these 4C’s and other contributors, including 'fear'; and the role of boards. Link to an article Afdhel wrote on Five Mistakes Boards Make When Thinking About Purpose, for Forbes Magazine
• Afdhel shares some Australian stats from a recent Porter Novelli study on the relationship between Purpose and Reputation in the minds of Australians
• We exchange our (pretty consistent) thoughts on the different stages of Purpose
• We have a great discussion on the power of purpose and the growth opportunity that so many traditionally-minded businesses are missing out on
• We discuss the need for Purpose to start from the inside-out and why this is so important and Afdhel highlights Conspiracy of Love’s GPS to Purpose Methodology (Gifts, Passions, Service)
• Afdhel shares some pearls of wisdom – advice for people within organisations who see the opportunity that purpose presents but are not sure about what action to take

Connect with Afdhel

Linkedin 

Conspiracy Of Love website 

Good Is The New Cool website 

Good Is The New Cool on Instagram 

I was introduced to Emma Freivogel by a mutual friend and started following her Linkedin content. I was immediately drawn to her because of her unapologetic passion and conviction in revolutionising recruitment and her commitment to creating serious change. Emma is founder of Radical Recruit, a London-based not for profit recruitment consultancy that exists to excite, agitate and shake things up in the recruitment industry!

If you love this episode, you're going to want to follow Emma on Linkedin where she is active in exciting, agitating and shaking things up big-time! Her energy and authenticity is infectious.

Radical Recruit represents the UKs most diverse ‘hidden’ talent, helps employers do recruitment better and creates real and lasting social change.

Here are Emma’s own words on why she started Radical Recruit...

‘I began Radical because I believe it is time to boldly and unapologetically challenge the status quo. It is time to redress the imbalance of opportunity afforded to those labelled; ‘care leaver’, ‘disabled’, ‘gang member’, ‘black’, ‘uneducated’, ‘inexperienced’, ‘homeless’, ‘criminal’, or generally, just ‘not ‘good enough’. It is time to call out businesses who talk a big game when it comes to their commitment to equality but whose policies fail to translate into practice. I am RADICAL." 

Emma has brought together a community of likeminded people from disparate backgrounds, to champion the business and ethical case for change to the way businesses source, recruit, and develop hidden talent. Founded in October 2019, Radical has placed hundreds of Radicals into jobs that they love. During this time, they’ve also worked with hundreds of brands: helping them reimagine their traditional candidate attraction and engagement methods, run fairer more equitable recruitment processes, recruit Radical people, and support them to flourish in their chosen careers.

Here are some of the themes our interview covers:

• Emma shares her journey and the powerful origin story behind Radical Recruit
• She explains the benefits of a diverse workforce and some of the challenges in big business’ approach to diversity
• Emma’s view on the three key events that have changed attitudes to diversity in UK businesses
• She shares Radical Recruit’s role in the “Everybody In” campaign, funded by the GLA (Greater London Authority) and addressing homelessness during the pandemic
• Emma shares the broad value that her organisation offers across recruitment, social value, diversity, social responsibility and ESG
• The impact of the pandemic on ordinary people’s desire to help others who are in need of help
• The cost to taxpayers of homeless people and the benefits of providing them with support
• On setting up Radicals for success and the ultimate value to Radicals of the work they do 
• Radical Recruit’s move into advisory and consultancy, assessing the efficacy of an organisation’s attraction, engagement, recruitment, onboarding development processes; with a focus on capacity building
• Anti-bias and leadership the Radical way
• Her ultimate vision for Radical Recruit

Connect with Emma

Linkedin

Radical Recruit website

My guest on this episode is Cassandra Treadwell, Co-founder and CEO, So They Can www.sotheycan.org and Co-founder, CEO, Essence of Humanity www.theessenceofhumanity.com

So They Can is a not for profit organisation committed to empowering children living in poverty through education.

Cassandra’s career background is medico legal, gaining her masters degree in medical law and ethics from King’s College, London University. While she has enjoyed living overseas, she chose to come back to Wanaka, New Zealand, to raise her 4 children in the same nurturing community she grew up in. She also loves living in New Zealand for the running, tramping, skiing and general outdoor lifestyle it enables.

Having spent a year in Argentina on a student exchange when she was 16, Cass spent time at an orphanage and was confronted for the first time with poverty in the developing world. The injustice affected her greatly, and sculpted her future career choices and charity involvement. As a new mother this empathy took her back to the communities of East Africa that she had become acquainted with while travelling, and a drive to improve the lives of some of the world’s most impoverished children whose families suffered deprivation and displacement due to political violence.

Working in Africa now Cass gains so much from the people she works with, as she describes in her Tedx talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3qCejfLqk8&t=102s. The community has taught her to be grateful for what she has got rather than focus on what she has not got, the children have helped her to live in the present and enjoy the simple pleasures of life, and the communities of Kenya and Tanzania have taught her the value of Ubuntu (I am because of you) and the importance of global balance.

Cass was honoured to be nominated for the 2015 New Zealander of the Year and to be one of the final 10 people that were considered for this prestigious award. In 2018 she was a finalist in the New Zealand Women of Influence Awards.

This is a conversation that I will carry with me for a long time. It’s not often I find myself brought to tears (of empathy, inspiration and hope) in an interview. Cass is more than an inspiration, I think she’s a role model for what an individual can do when they allow themselves to feel empathy for our fellow human beings.

Cass speaks with such humility but there are some big truth bombs in this interview. Here are some of the things we explore in our conversation

• Cass introduces us to the African philosophy of “Ubuntu” (a Swahili word) – I am because of you; how our personal wellbeing is deeply connected to the wellbeing of others

• Cass shares the outcomes of the work of So They Can, supporting 33,000 children across 47 schools plus alongside some of their other programs, including microfinance for women, impacting 45,000 people overall

• Cass shares one story after another story, bringing to life lessons in Ubuntu, through the classroom of Africa

• She highlights the abundance of emotional wealth in these communities despite the lack of material wealth and what this teaches her

• She shares the compelling story of how So They Can started – after seeing a movie – Hotel Rwanda

• She takes us on a journey to the IDP (Internal Displaced Placement) camp she first visited, housing Kenyan refugees and how she responded to their request to her to set up a school

• She shares her back story and what took her to Africa in the first place, looking for a project to support 

• Cass shares the unique model behind So They Can, pairing an ex-pat with a local, taking the time to understand what is needed from both outsiders and the people on the ground to bring mutual understanding to the process

• Cass talks powerfully about her mission to change the definition of charity from the idea of the great white saviour to the truth that it is a reciprocal exchange and partnership of emotional and material wealth”

• Cass shares and invites listeners to get involved in So They Can’s latest campaign “One in a million” – asking ppl to give just $1 a month. 

• She highlights what success of this campaign will enable – moving from 47 schools – 33,000 children to 500 schools empowering 400,000 children

• She shares that Neil Finn from Crowded House, who is one of So They Can’s ambassadors – has written a song to launch one in a million

Connect with Cassandra and So They Can here:

email: cassandra@sotheycan.org

Website: http://www.sotheycan.org/

Join the 1 in a million campaign here https://1-in-a-million.raisely.com/

Simon Griffiths is CEO and co-founder of Who Gives A Crap, the iconic Aussie B Corp that sells good looking, forest friendly toilet paper, paper towels and tissues direct-to-consumer. 

Who Gives A Crap donates 50 per cent of their profits to help build toilets for those in need. As much as Simon loves toilet paper, he helped start the business for its impact, with the company on a mission to improve access to hygiene, clean water and basic sanitation in developing countries. Since founding the company back in 2013, Who Gives A Crap has donated more than $10 million.

If there was ever a brand that is living proof that authentic human qualities can inspire L-O-V-E, Who Gives A Crap is that brand. If it's possible to achieve what this business has done with toilet paper - from both perspectives of impact and commercial success - can you imagine the untapped possibilities for other purpose-led businesses and brands?

There is so much depth to this brand and we cover a lot of ground in this wide-ranging interview. There's great value in this episode for anyone wanting to navigate their business and brand successfully on a purposeful path, as Simon generously shares the insights that Who Gives A Crap has gained through their business.

Here are some of the themes we get into in our conversation:

• Simon shares the devastating statistics of poor sanitation and the a-ha moment that propelled the formation of Who Gives A Crap 
• He explains the wider benefits of investment that reach beyond the direct value of sanitation 
• We discuss Who Gives A Crap’s distinctive and iconic brand personality and the thinking behind it
• Simon tells us about about the Christmas holiday edition of Who Gives A Crap 
• He talks about the brand’s huge mission – to ensure everyone has access to clean water and a toilet within our lifetime. He explains where they are now and what they are doing to realise their mission. 
• He introduces us to the wider product range including Good Time personal care products
• We talk about the people at Who Gives A Crap– 
  • The challenges of balancing caring about impact and working within the pressures of a startup
  • The organisation’s five values and what they mean to their people
  • The implications that being purposeful has on managing your people and their expectations
  • The role of storytelling within the organisation
• Simon shares how they work with their impact partners including the ‘investment portfolio’ style of approach they take with them
• International expansion and the impact that has had on their marketing strategy and team management
• Retail strategy including their national presence in Aldi in Australia 
• The inextricable relationship between balancing profit and purpose and the innovation it inspires; and why they chose to donate 50 per cent of their profits
• On inspiring other people to create social purpose-led business models like theirs 
• His advice to existing businesses on the shift of consumer sentiment and what it means for business in the near future

Contacts:

Who Gives A Crap website https://au.whogivesacrap.org/

Good Time website https://au.whogivesacrap.org/pages/goodtime

Simon Griffiths Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/simongriffiths-founder/

Josh Kirkman, CEO of Surfers for Climate is our guest today.

Surfers for Climate is an Australian charity dedicated to turning the tide on climate change.

Since it was founded in October 2019, it has inspired the collective power of surfers through initiatives like the successful Fight for the Bight campaign in South Australia and more recently the Draw a line in the Sand campaign that successfully contributed the NSW Parliament unanimously passing amendments to legislation that will ban all offshore oil and gas in NSW waters for good.

Surfers for Climate continues to grow, with thousands of people from the surfing community across Australia coming together to take off on the party wave of climate action and become part of the solution to the climate crisis. 

Josh became CEO of the organisation in 2021. He has a history in climate communications in the Nordic Cleantech Investment space as well as a sporting history in competitive bodyboarding, earning multiple Australian Championship titles as well as being a highly-ranked competitor on the global stage.

He is passionate about affecting change in the diverse and growing surf community, focussed on leading this community towards greater political agency for people and planet.

You’re going to love this episode, from learning about Josh’s personal journey to understanding the many different and inclusive ways that Surfers for Climate are educating and supporting the surfing community to take meaningful climate action. And also representing the community to advocate for changes like the recent NSW legislation banning all offshore oil and gas drilling.

As Josh says – the reality is surfers could decide every election.

Interview Highlights:

• Josh's environmental awakening and career journey
• Overcoming imposter syndrome
• Surfers for Climate vision, mission and legislative impact
• Diverse representation in surfing 
• Surfers for Climate Programs: Wave Changer and Trade Up
• The PEP 11 fight
• The intersection of politics and conservation
• Josh's five year dream

Connect with Josh and Surfers for Climate:

Josh on Linkedin

Surfers for Climate website

My guest today is a champion for the UN Sustainable Development Goals aka The Global Goals or the world’s ‘to-do list’. If you aren’t aware of these goals, this episode will be a great introduction for you.

Mick Hase is the founder of SEVENTEENx , a movement designed to engage the business community with the Sustainable Development Goals. 

As an impact driven entrepreneur, Mick and his brand exist to connect companies together to use business to build solutions to the world's biggest challenges. SEVENTEENx uses "TEDx like" speaking events to showcase how leaders and founders are using their business as a force for good in the world and aligning with the Global Goals. 

SEVENTEENx Tours Australia each year with its events and is building a huge community of values aligned brands and people. Mick is also a dad of 2 boys, husband to a great wife Renee, and keen ocean lover and surfer. Mick is also public speaker and workshop facilitator. He is an energetic and engaging speaker with a real passion for connecting people to their impact, engaging humans through purpose and how to lead people with aligned values. 

Here are some of the key themes from our interview

• Mick shares his back story and the life events that led him to start thinking about reciprocity, doing good and how to use business to create purposeful outcomes

• For listeners who may not be familiar with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (aka the Global Goals), Mick explains what they are and how businesses are aligning to them to focus and scale their impact.

• We talk about Pledge 1% and B1G1 and how both these movements offer businesses of all sizes a great starting point for creating impact

• Mick shares the mission behind SEVENTEENx and what audiences can expect from these events. He talks about the community that is building around SEVENTEENx and some of his plans for engaging this community into the future

• We talk about the relationship between profit and purpose 

• Mick shares some of SEVENTEENx’s plans for 2023, including a pilot SEVENTEENx youth forum

Connect with Mick here https://www.linkedin.com/in/mhase/

Learn more about SEVENTEENx https://www.seventeensdg.com

Check out the upcoming tours here https://www.seventeensdg.com/tour22

Learn about the Global Goals here https://www.globalgoals.org

My guest today is Yas, Founder and Chief Evangelist of the award-winning circular economy enterprise, Circonomy.

An entrepreneur of impact and a circular economy pioneer in Australia, Yas recently closed a $4M equity capital raise to expand nationally, with Officeworks as a key investor and shareholder. 

Together, through expansion of re-use, repair, resource recovery and recommerce initiatives, Yas is thrilled to work with partners and investors to bring the next phase of growth, seeing her Circonomy vision come to life.

There are so many highlights in this interview that I think you’re going to love. Here’s just a taster of some of them:

• The role of love in business opened up a whole stream of amazing themes and ideas, including 
  • Her belief that love is the next disruptor in business. Yas talks about love as a value and explains why it should be brought into the workplace
  • She shares a beautiful family story about love languages and how it inspired her to take love languages to the boardroom and what happened as a result (ref: Gary Chapman’s Five Love Languages)
  • She also issues a challenge to listeners to understand your love languages and those you work with so you can build deeper professional relationships
  • From me-too to “be-too”; on loving yourself and the parts of yourself that are “too-much” – our strengths, superpowers, imperfections, faults and flaws; and finding yourself in the process
  • On building a movement around #Ilovemyself and the value of who you are vs what you do
  • Yas quotes author Dave Ramsey “We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like”
• Yas shares the origin story of Circonomy
  • How and why she started the World’s Biggest Garage Sale
  • Recognising the circular economy opportunity (a $4.5 trillion industry)
  • On partnering with Officeworks
  • On finding the energy of an idea in your “hut” (heart and gut)
  • On running the pilot event with Officeworks in March 2020
• On being BRAVE (being raw authentic vulnerable everyday)
  • Understanding that when we have pain, instead of running away from it, working through it is how we grow - “when we work through the pain that is when we have the most gain”
  • On being true to yourself and defining your own narrative and showing up as the whole human that you are – not wasting human potential
  • When you align values, you create value – the foundation of great organisations

Contact details:

Yas pages

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/yasgrigaliunas

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasmingrigaliunas/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/yasgrigaliunas

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/yasgrigaliunas/

Circonomy pages:

Circonomy website: https://circonomy.com.au

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/circonomy

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/circonomyaustralia

Twitter: https://twitter.com/circonomyau

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/circonomyaus/

My guest for today’s episode of the FLAM Podcast has had many careers; radio broadcaster, creative director, donut maker and lecturer. 

Nik Robinson is passionate about using his creative skills to solve problems and make a positive difference, so in 2018, he set up his company, Good Citizens with his young kids to take on the world’s plastic issue.

It would take 752 days and thousands of failed attempts to finally launch Good Citizens Eyewear in April 2020. Good Citizens has one mission - to untrash the planet™ by turning trash into good. 

Good Citizens turns single-use plastic bottles into sunglasses frames. The frames are 100% recycled and made in Australia. Within just a few months of launching, Good Citizens was awarded two prestigious 2020 Good Design Awards and The Design Files Sustainable Idea of 2020 plus Selfridges in London gave the brand an entire window.

Nik has become a leader in working with recycled materials; designing and manufacturing in-demand, on-trend consumer products made from waste materials. He has spoken at the United Nations and he lectures at numerous Australian universities to inspire the next generation to think cleverly about using recycled materials.

This episode is such a human feel-good one, I can’t wait for you to listen to it.

Here are just some of the themes we touch on:

• How love of family and love of and care for the planet has driven the emotional energy that has inspired a business fighting against plastic waste
• We talk about the role of failure in building a purpose-led business; and how our failures become our stories
• Nik shares his belief in the need for businesses to show vulnerability. This opens a conversation around Greenwashing: businesses not being transparent (and vulnerable) and over-marketing their sustainability credentials  
• What “radical transparency” – one of Good Citizen’s first values – looks like for them  
• The origin story of the business (so much to love about this story), which included a

business plan with 4 principles that the family developed around the kitchen table

• The post-it note approach Nik used to working through starting a new business in a category where they had no experience and how much each phase cost
• How a bottle, a prototype and (another) post-it note formed the basis of Nik’s pitch to Selfridges in the UK which resulted in Good Citizens being given an amazing window display which you can see here
• We speak about Greenwashing and the impact it has on trust
• How Nik’s two young sons and his wife have inspired his tenacity to keep going in the face of multiple “failures”
• Repair – Nik shares the hilarious story of one Good Citizen who needed a new arm for a broken pair of sunnies (broken due to alcohol related beach ball antics) – and how Good Citizen’s approach to repair amplified the love that customer has for the brand
• On turning down investment opportunities and what ROI for Nik’s family looks like for them
• Good Citizen’s 8 billion people ambition
• On creating the world’s most beautiful eyewear (beauty = well made, great looking, that will last from generation to generation; and sustainable)
• The influence that Good Citizens are having on other businesses, inspiring solutions to the environmental crisis

If you’re enjoying the podcast please leave us a rating on your listening platform. It really helps us to get the podcast found by new listeners.

Contact

goodcitizens.com.au

goodcitizens_official

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Welcome to Episode 25 of the FLAM podcast.

For regular listeners of this podcast, you may remember an earlier episode (Episode 14) where I read a chapter from my book “FOR LOVE & MONEY How to profit with purpose and grow a business with love”

We had some great feedback on that episode so we thought we would do it again!

I’ve selected a chapter that covers a subject I speak a lot about. It is also the starting point for any work we do with clients when helping them uncover the higher purpose of their business.

We don’t start with WHY. Much as I love and respect the work of Simon Sinek and much as I value his approach to purpose using the golden circle… today, understanding your unique organisational identity is essential to finding your way to a meaningful why; a social purpose. This is why we start with WHO.  

Acknowledgement to Seth Godin whose phrase “People Like Us” I use to describe this part of the process.  It is such a perfect way to frame the part of our WHO that really matters when it comes to building a purpose-led business and brand.

Some of the themes we cover in this episode:

• Who are we but the stories we tell ourselves?
• “People like us” believe things like this
• Why it’s important to get clear on your “people like us”
• Defining your “people like us” – I share examples from some purpose-led businesses

I hope you enjoy the reading of this chapter. If you do and you’d like to buy the FOR LOVE & MONEY book,  it’s available at all the major online book stores and some retail book stores in Australia.

The Purpose Conference was first staged in Sydney, Australia in 2015. Today, Purpose is a stand-alone company and community. After a 4-year hiatus, 2022 marks the fourth Purpose event, coming at a time when the movement for social purpose-led business is growing with intensity. It’s a movement driven by employees, customers, consumers, investors; people realising that we need to accelerate the pace of change and business is the means in which to do this most directly.

In this episode, our guest is Sally Hill, founder of Purpose and a long-time advocate of responsible and sustainable business. She is a a leader, thinker and doer in the world of purpose-driven business. 

Sally founded Wildwon, one of Australia's first B Corps and established the Purpose Conference in 2015. Sally curates the Purpose program and is the connector of Purpose’s partners, community and team.

Immediately prior to rebooting Purpose in 2022, Sally worked with Climate 200, bringing business on board to support the historic 2022 ‘climate election’ result.

You can get a taste of our interview here:

• Sally shares her journey from GetUp campaign co-ordinator, through various CSR and sustainability roles, to WWF, to launching her own experiential agency, Wildwon and launching Purpose Conference. Her journey continues taking her to a number of roles including NSW Circular and Climate 200, before returning to Purpose to where she is today.
• She shares some of her learnings from these various roles and how they have contributed to her thinking and approach today 
• Sally explains that while government is driving change, the pace is slow. This influences her belief that while business is the cause of many of society’s problems,  harnessing business and capitalism to solve the issues is the best opportunity we have to do it at an accelerated pace and at scale
• She shares some stats from recent BUPA research about Gen Z workers attitudes to businesses demonstrating strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments
• We talk about the lack of employee engagement in workplaces in Australia and New Zealand and the impact this is having on businesses, workplaces and the economy
• Sally highlights some of the speakers that will be at Purpose and the innovations they are creating in service of solving big societal issues
• She shares her hopes and aspirations for what the Purpose Conference can achieve 
• We talk about the link between the business world and government policy and the innovation opportunities this opens up

Only 2% of VC funding goes to women-owned businesses in Australia. 

Women over 50 feature in less than 4% of media globally. 

I’ll just let that sit with you for a moment before you dive into my interview with Jules Brook – founder of She’s The Boss and Handle Your Own PR.

Those two statistics, alongside others that should make you feel distinctly confused/uncomfortable/angry (pick your choice) is what inspired Jules to launch She’s The Boss at the start of the pandemic in 2020. Since then, it has grown into a thriving community. There are online zoom lunches and Learning Table events with female founders, real life networking events, two podcasts, She’s The Boss Chats and She’s The Boss Leaders. She’s The Boss also has a YouTube channel and all the media features interviews with wildly successful women in business from Australia and around the world.

Jules is also the founder of Handle Your Own PR, a DIY PR service for business owners. Using her online PR Accelerator program and PR SaaS platform, Jules’ students have been on TV, radio, magazines and newspapers nationally. Many have gone on to huge success in their business.

Jules is passionate about making female founders and women doing extraordinary things in business more visible. You’ll feel that passion right through this interview. IMHO Jules is one of those women doing extraordinary things, even if she doesn’t realise it herself!

To get a shot of Jules’ passion and energy that’s driving her purpose and her commitment to it, tune into this episode. I know you’ll enjoy it; not just for the love of Jules, but also for some of the rich insights that come out of our conversation.

Some of the highlights:

• Jules’ take on the importance of love in business: Not just loving what you do but loving the people you work with – your customers and teams
• The origin journey of She’s The Boss: from Ticker TV guest to show host; to what happened as a result of Covid, as Melbourne went through one of the world’s harshest lockdowns; She’s The Boss became a beacon of solidarity and support for female business founders in Jules’ community
• Jules shares her Big Hairy Audacious Goal, to start a TV network for women in business and what this looks like; and what it will take.
• Her absolute clarity on who her target audience are and why (a stunning example of what clear targeting looks like)
• Jules shares her view about the isolation and loneliness of women who have succeeded and got to the top of the corporate ladder; and the need to provide them with the support of other women
• She references a Forbes article: The Power of the Pack which talks about the need for women to support women in business and how important it is: men who succeed are supported by men; women generally only succeed if they are supported by other women
• We talk about the need for feminisation of business to balance the dominant masculine traits 
• Jules shares her mission – get ready for the sheer clarity of this one!
• I ask Jules her thoughts on the key characteristics of female purposeful leaders
• We have a great discussion on the money side of FOR LOVE & MONEY – Jules shares how she’s trying to monetise her venture, which opens up insights into the funding gap for female owned businesses and finally the statistics which galvanised Jules herself into action
• Finally, Jules shares some fabulous advice for women in business

Connect with Jules

Shesthebossgroup.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/julesbrooke/

Our guest on this episode of the FOR LOVE & MONEY PODCAST works at the very heart of social impact and business. Tom Dawkins (he/him) is the Co-Founder and CEO of the social impact crowdfunding platform and innovation agency Start Some Good. Start Some Good began in 2010,  and aims to help emerging entrepreneurs to design, launch, and grow their prospective social impact projects. 

A leading advocate for social enterprise, Tom was previously the founder of youth non-profit Vibewire, the first Digital Communications Director for Ashoka in Washington DC, and co-founder of the Australian Changemakers Festival. Tom is also a founding Director of The Social Enterprise Council of NSW and the ACT, as well as currently operating as Non-Executive Director of the Centre for Social Impact since 2019.

On top of this, Tom has also received awards and fellowships from the World Summit Youth Awards, The International Youth Foundation, Nexus Summit, and the Social Enterprise Awards, while also being a global speaker on social innovation and entrepreneurship, teaching workshops, and speaking at events around the globe, from The Social Enterprise World Forum to The World Summit on the Information Society.

Start Some Good is a B Corp Certified Enterprise and, in addition to helping in the development of social impact projects, also runs the Good Hustle social enterprise design course, StartSomeGood.com crowdfunding platform, and impact accelerators and entrepreneur education programs for partners including Optus, ING, the United Nations Development Program and the City of Sydney.

Here are just some of the highlights from our conversation with Tom as he passionately shares his journey of accelerating innovation and helping social impact projects prosper:

• Tom shares his origins as a serial starter-upper and social activist to social entrepreneur
• Tom’s experiences overcoming challenges and learning from observing while on his journey to fund innovation projects and making a social changemaker world 
• Tom’s discussion on calculating social impact and the need for greater financial commitment in overcoming societal challenges through business
• Tom discusses the “Will it work?” lens versus the “Could it work?” lens that is impacting the deal flow of prospective social projects
• How Kickstarter and its role in helping creative entrepreneurs inspired the vision behind Start Some Good and its approach to angel financing
• Start Some Good’s evolution from a crowdfunding platform to an interconnected ecosystem using core principles of entrepreneurship to help entrepreneurs turn an idea into a business plan
• Capacity-building programs delivered through partnerships, such as the Good Hustle Social Enterprise Design Course, that focus on specific beneficiary communities
• Tom discussing Lend For Good, a crowdlending platform for growth-ready social enterprises directly designed in addressing “the missing middle”
• Tom’s advice on the core building blocks necessary before initiating your crowdfunding campaign
• Tom on what it takes to become “investable” and “launch ready” as a social impact entrepreneur
• How Tom’s personal mission to build a better democracy and create change together has inspired and shaped his crowdfunding journey
• Tom shares some examples of the social enterprises the SSG ecosystem has supported and helped to start on their road to scaleable impact

Connect with Tom

Linkedin linkedin.com/in/tomdawkins    

Website https://www.startsomegood.com/

Dr Kyle Turner is our guest on this episode of the FOR LOVE & MONEY PODCAST. Kyle, a Wiradjuri man (he/him) from central New South Wales, is the CEO and Founder of Pearlii, a for-profit social enterprise using artificial intelligence to bring free dental check-ups and free oral health education to the world.  

Dr Turner holds a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Oxford and he has published widely on the burden of chronic diseases, with a heavy focus on prevention, together with a passion for improving health outcomes for First Nation Peoples.

Pearlii is an investor-backed, social enterprise which started in 2019. It’s such an interesting business model, designed to both prevent and treat oral health; an area of need that has such wide-ranging health impacts. I particularly love the way they’re leveraging technology to drive accessibility.

In our interview, Kyle shares his journey with Pearlii and his vision for the future. Some of the highlights of our conversation include:

• Kyle’s journey from epidemiologist to social enterprise techpreneur
• How growing up with bad teeth made him painfully aware of the impact that can have on someone’s confidence 
• We talk about the problem of poor oral hygiene and the impact that it has on general physical health, as well as mental health
• How he found investors who were attracted to Pearlii’s mission and learned to perfect his “pitch” in the process
• Kyle shares the 2 parts to the business model: prevention and treatment and how Pearlii targets both of these (Pearlii’s is a really interesting model tackling a problem that has wide-ranging impacts)
• The business that inspires him the most 
• His vision for the future and how it includes non-Dental practitioners helping with oral health
• Kyle shares some savvy advice for other social entrepreneurs starting their journey

Connect with Kyle

Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-turner1111/

Website https://www.pearlii.com

Mike Smith is an entrepreneur, adventurer and not-for-profit founder. Over the past fifteen years he’s founded three startups in the surfing, wine and sustainability arenas and built two schools in Myanmar. He’s travelled to some of the most remote corners of the planet, including North Korea, Tajikistan and Nagorno-Karabakh to name just a few. Mike Smith's most recent venture - Zero Co - aims to solve the global plastic problem through large scale ocean clean-ups and a closed-loop solution for personal-care and home-cleaning products. Mike is infectiously passionate about having a positive impact on the planet and inspiring others to dare greatly. You can’t fail to feel this passion as he shares Zero Co’s story. Enjoy!

Here are some of the interview highlights:

• Zero Co’s origins started with a trip Mike and his girlfriend (now wife) took travelling to some of the most far-flung places in the world
• Mike shares “the mission-driven brief” of the business they set themselves, highlighting that he was agnostic about the industry they went into. 
• He talks about what he calls “mission-driven 2.0 businesses”, where the mission and the product are the same thing, not an afterthought
• He explains how Zero Co works – basically disrupting the household and personal care products category – and inviting the consumer to change their behaviour to become part of the solution
• While talking about the complexities of this business, Mike acknowledges that he frequently thinks about how crazy this idea is, but they are driven by their big mission: to scale the business model profitably and become such a pain in the ass for the big guys, that they have to copy them!
• Mike shares the experience of their latest equity crowdfunding campaign which has set the Australian record
• We talk about their brand and its lighthearted tone that came from the core values Zero Co was established on
• Their values are truly inspiring and you’ll really want to hear the stories that Mike shares that inspire those values (gave me goosebumps)!

Connect with Mike

Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-smith-62aa383a/

Zero Co website https://www.zeroco.com.au

On the 9th of February 2009, our guest on this episode lost most of what he owned in the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, Australia. Grateful to be alive and overwhelmed by the support he received, David Laity decided to begin a wine business that gave back. And so began Goodwill Wine, Australia's only certified social enterprise wine company. 

Since its inception, Goodwill Wine has donated close to half a million dollars to Australian charities by empowering its customers to choose which charity they would like to receive half of the profits from their case of wine.

In 2019 Goodwill Wine took on its first round of angel investment, allowing it to undergo a rebrand, extend its range of wine offerings and embark upon a substantial growth phase. Since then, the business has seen a 500 per cent increase in the amount it has been able to donate to charity.

In an intensely competitive market, David has managed to cut through all the noise simply by embedding purpose into the very heart of his business's DNA.

If you haven’t heard of Goodwill Wine yet, you’ll want to listen to this episode. There is everything to love about them. Their wines are fabulous. And they donate 50 per cent of their profits to charity. But at its essence, the story of Goodwill Wine is a story of David’s recovery from the trauma of the bushfires and his resulting PTSD. 

Here are just some of the highlights of this beautiful and personal interview with David:

• He shares his journey from filmmaker to wine merchant and how an idea about advertising on pool balls turned into Goodwill Wine
• The origin story of Goodwill Wine demonstrates the impact human kindness can have on people and what it can inspire them to create
• David shares his motivation in building Goodwill Wine was to reward the supporters of great causes, with quality wine they could enjoy
• If you assume these wines aren’t high quality because they’re not a “known label”, you’ll want to listen to how Goodwill Wine sources the wines 
• He talks about the extraordinary amount of love that customers have for the business: the love of the wine itself, the love of the charity they support and the love of an ethical business
• Handwritten notes from David to his customers are a feature of Goodwill Wine’s customer experience and David shares how he has clocked over 50,000 personalised notes!
• He also shares the incredible ‘why’ behind the handwritten notes. They were never a marketing strategy, but a way for him to connect with people as he recovered from PTSD 
• Learn about some of the tangible impacts Goodwill Wine customers have been able to create through over 300 charity partners
• Sharing his deep appreciation for the people around him, David talks about what he’s most proud of and his pride in leaving a legacy for his daughter

Connect with David and Goodwill Wine

Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-laity-b652aa41/

Website https://goodwillwine.com.au

Win-win-win…at scale.

That is the message behind Episode 63 of the For Love & Money podcast, featuring Geoff Wilson AO, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Wilson Asset Management and Founder of Future Generation and Caroline Gurney, Chief Executive Officer of Future Generation.

Geoff has over 42 years’ direct experience in investment markets having held a variety of senior investment roles in Australia, the UK and the US. He founded Wilson Asset Management in 1997 and created Australia’s first listed philanthropic wealth creation vehicles, Future Generation Investment Company Limited and Future Generation Global Investment Company Limited

Caroline has more than 25 years’ experience in the financial services sector focused on marketing, corporate affairs and corporate social responsibility. She has held senior roles at UBS and Citibank and has worked in London, across Asia-Pacific and Australia during her career. She is a member of Ascham School Council and the Centennial Park and Moore Park Foundation, an ambassador for the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation (AIEF), a director of Our Watch, an organisation focused on preventing violence against women and children and set up and was a director of the UBS Australia Foundation. Caroline has also previously served as a director of Future Generation Australia and as a Council Member of Chief Executive Women, and is currently an active member.

The Future Generation companies are Australia’s first listed investment companies to deliver investment and social returns. Shareholders pay zero management performance fees for access to leading pro bono Australian and global fund managers. This allows the Future Generation companies to donate 1% of assets each year to Australian not-for-profits.

Future Generation Australia (ASX: FGX) provides investors with diversified exposure to Australian equities while supporting children and youth at risk. Future Generation Global (ASX: FGG) provides investors with diversified international equities exposure while supporting not-for-profits promoting wellbeing and preventing mental ill-health in young Australians.

Geoff and Caroline share the story of the creation of Future Generation and how the model behind it works, delivering value for all stakeholders. They highlight the eye-watering scale of the impact that this model and organisation has created – $75.8 million donated so far, with a 2030 goal to increase their philanthropy to $130 million

The win-win-win?

❤️ Shareholders win, with exposure to leading fund managers without paying management or performance fees.

❤️ Social impact partners win, with a stream of annual investments.

❤️ Fund managers win, with a unique opportunity to make a positive difference to Australia’s future generations.

CONNECT WITH FUTURE GENERATION

Future Generation's Website

Caroline Gurney's LinkedIn

Future Generation Founder and Director, Geoff Wilson AO’s X/Twitter

Future Generation's Linkedin page

Today’s guest is Paul Dunn, a 4-time TEDx speaker, master storyteller and one of the most well-read people I know!

He is a Senior Fellow in one of the World’s Leading Think Tanks and consults to and mentors leading-edge businesses around the world.

He was honoured as a Social Innovation Fellow in his new home of Singapore; something he shares with film-star and philanthropist Jet Li and Walmart Chairman, Rob Walton.

He was one of the first 10 people in Hewlett Packard in Australia. He then created one of Australia’s first computer companies and then The Results Corporation where he helped develop and grow 23,000 small and medium scale business enterprises. 

His programs are used by an estimated 226,000 companies around the world and he continues to push the boundaries. He featured in Forbes Magazine alongside Sir Richard Branson in a global piece on ‘disrupters’ in business.

He is the co-founder of B1G1: Business for Good, the history-making Global Giving Initiative that’s already enabled businesses to create over 281 Million giving impacts globally.

• Paul shares an incredible story about something that happened involving him after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. It precipitated his meeting with Masami Sato that led to them co-founding B1G1, but it profoundly shifted his thinking on what he believed was the secret to success in business.
• He then tells the story of Masami Sato, who he was mentoring, sharing the idea that directly led to B1G1 starting, which has now led to a global movement that has created over 281 million impacts (as at May 2022).
• We talk about the idea of “possibilities” and Paul shares an insight from the book, Teeming, by Dr Woolley-Barker.  One of the major learning points is that we need to understand that nature does not solve problems. Nature always looks for potential. An idea that perhaps humans can learn from.
• He shares his thinking on the two types of companies that exist: standard companies and standout companies, through the lens of legacy
• Another book he references is Cult Status by Tim Duggan and the idea that of seven things leaders can work on to gain cult status, number 1 is to define the impact you want to have. And define it in terms of the number of lives that you will touch.
• Paul shares a rousing quote from Steve Jobs about how powerful the storyteller is. It’s a quote that makes you really think about the potency of storytelling for generations to come.
• For those who don’t know B1G1, Paul explains how it works and the profound impact it creates for everyone involved.

Get in touch with Paul...

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulb1g1/

https://b1g1.com

Anna Sheppard, Founder and CEO of Bambuddha Group strongly believes the power of Kindness is world changing. With a deep commitment for creating equality based on her lived experience, Anna began Bambuddha Group to empower corporate leaders and their teams how to ‘work kinder’. The team at Bambuddha developed an evidence-informed kindness curriculum which minimises risk and improves outcomes across all organisational areas. Bambuddha Group is a multi-award winning social enterprise that provides leadership coaching and corporate kindness programs. 

Anna has added value to thousands of companies and inspirational leaders by showing them how to ‘work kinder’ and is also the founder of several other major initiatives, including The Corporate Kindness Awards, Working Kind Collective (the world’s first kind business centre), the Impact Studios and The Corporate Kindness Project, which is an Australian-based research study focusing on the business benefits of working kind. The first white paper was released in 2019 and is now an upbeat, honest and feel-good podcast show called ‘Project Good Boss.’

Anna Sheppard and Bambuddha Group have won multiple awards for work in this space, including being recognised as one of the ‘Top 10 Leadership Development Training and Coaching Companies 2021 in APAC’, ‘Top 50 leading light for APAC’, ‘Top 50 most impactful LinkedIn Influencers’, a 2021 NSW Business Awards finalist and currently, a finalist for 2022 Telstra Best of Business Awards.

Anna believes in a future where every leader and organisation is committed to creating a sustainable world of equality and opportunity for everyone.

In this interview Anna shares how she is using Bambuddha to contribute to that future by building a movement of like minded people and leaders who prioritise kindness.

She shares with us her incredibly colourful background and how it inspired her passion for diversity and inclusion and her commitment to building a movement of kind leaders. The sense of belonging Anna talks about early in the interview weaves its way through the rest of the interview as a constant theme. The interview also includes a great discussion on the need for kind leadership today, more than ever.

(Excuse the couple of barks towards the end of the interview – introducing Monty our beautiful mini-Groodle. Oh the joys of working from home!)

Here are some of the highlights of this interview:

• Anna talks about her early years, including finding her “gang of others” and how it was able to give her a sense of belonging.
• She highlights how her travels around the world opened her eyes to the massive disparity of opportunity that some people get in life vs others – which she found difficult to understand and which spurred her to create Bambuddha.
• Anna shares with listeners how Bambuddha is empowering leaders with knowledge through a 12-month academy with masterclasses and support. She also shares some of the other ways that Bambuddha Group is delivering on their mission, including:
  • The Bambuddha pay-it-forward model which funds a Gamechanger Program – a scholarship program for diverse and under-represented business owners and leaders.
  • The world’s first kind business centre in Stanmore; a space where people can come together to collaborate
  • The 5 key pillars of a wholesome Kindness Curriculum that they have built
  • The Corporate Kindness Index that is in development to track how leaders are improving in each of those areas
  • The Corporate Kindness Annual Conference and Awards –showcasing leaders who are leading the way in kindness
• I ask Anna to share a leader who inspires her and why; and she highlights three very different people: Nelson Mandela, his prison guard Christo Brand and Pamela Bishop, the COO of Blooms The Chemist (and the recipient of the Corporate Kindness Awards – the Gamechanger Award, the highest honour of the annual awards).
• Why ‘kindness’ is so important and what it means to be a kind leader.
• We talk about the importance of empathy and how a leader might be able to operate with kindness even if there is a lack of capacity for empathy.
• Why the answer to more meaningful work doesn’t necessarily mean going to work for a non-profit organisation.
• The importance of support from others and building a community of like-minded people to support you on your leadership journey.
• She zeroes in on the results of kind leadership: brand trust, happy workforces, staff retention, community engagement, investment, well leaders and reconciliation.

Connect with Anna

https://www.linkedin.com/in/annasheppard2021/

https://www.bambuddhagroup.com

https://www.facebook.com/bambuddhagroup

My guest on this podcast says that the best advice she has ever been given was “when you are dancing on thin ice, you may as well tap dance” and that’s how she lives her life.

Nicky Sparshott is the CEO of Unilever Australia & New Zealand and former Global CEO of luxury retailer, T2 Tea. She has over 25 years of experience in developing & building brands, growing businesses and transforming infrastructure and culture. She has worked across a broad range of organisations including Unilever, The Coca-Cola Company, P&G and George Patterson Y&R.

Recognised for her depth and breadth of expertise across FMCG, Retail, Luxury and Ecommerce, Nicky also brings broader based category experience spanning food, beverages, health care and personal care.

Nicky holds a Masters in International Business, which has been supported by significant global management experience across Australia, New Zealand, UK, Europe, USA and the highly diverse markets of Asia. She recently completed an Executive MBA in Change, through INSEAD, graduating with Distinction and is also an HBDI certified practitioner.

Nicky is a Non-Executive Director on the boards of World Wildlife Fund Australia, Global Sisters and the Australian Food & Grocery Council and sits on the Australasian Advisory Board of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute and UTS Vice Chancellors Industry Advisory Board.  She is a National Member of the Champions of Change Coalition; a Founding Member of the B-Team Australasia and Climate Leaders Coalition and is a member of Chief Executive Women. She is a passionate advocate for businesses driving sustainable agendas that positively impact both people and the planet and in doing so be a true force for good.

Avid followers of purpose-led businesses will recognise Unilever as one of the global leaders of the corporate purpose movement, so much so that they’ve copped criticism from some investors for too much focus on “soft” issues like sustainability and social responsibility. So I was really excited to hear Nicky’s perspective on all things purpose and profit and what leadership looks like through the perspective of purpose in business. Nicky’s own leadership shines through powerfully in this interview. Not perhaps in the way you might expect of a traditional leader of a big corporation; rather a leader for our times. Australia, and indeed the world, would do well to have more leaders with Nicky’s outlook and beliefs. 

If you are looking for inspiration on courageous, strong and vulnerable leadership, you need to tune into this episode.

Here are some of the highlights of our interview:

• Nicky shares some of her views from the thesis she recently wrote as part of her Masters of Change, on Love and Fear; emotions that can unleash superpowers, which are so relevant to business during changing times.
• Despite not growing up with the ambition to be a CEO of a company like Unilever, Nicky highlights the two key characteristics that she believes has brought her to where she is today: an entrepreneurial spirit which she had from a young age and the activist within, coming from her sense of injustice and a desire to do something about it.
• Nicky shares with us her views on leadership, including what she believes her number one job is and how leadership needs to shift from the traditional hierarchical structure to creation of a steer co of equals, agnostic of function, age and hierarchy.
• The Great Resignation is reframed positively by Nicky as The Great Realisation and what this means to leaders who want to recruit and retain great talent.
• Nicky shares her views on the opportunity behind purposeful business. She challenges listeners to stop looking at the opportunity cost of “doing purpose”. Instead look at the opportunity cost of NOT doing it.
• Nicky highlights Unilever’s background and purpose; what it means for the business; and how Unilever’s purpose shows up in practical ways.
• She shares an overview of Unilever’s current Compass Strategy and highlights the integrated nature of the strategy, being good for business, as well as good for society and the planet.
• Unleashing people’s superpowers is a recurring theme through this podcast and I suspect something Nicky feels passionately about. She talks about this in the context of goal setting.
• Nicky’s beliefs on what the new corporate currency is: Care, Compassion and Courage.
• She speaks about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Not just as another box to be ticked, but in human terms and with a real understanding about what people really desire: an environment where they can belong and show up in their most authentic way.
• We discuss the balance between profit and purpose and what Unilever’s approach to this is.
• Nicky highlights her views on the role of play, purpose and potential to raise performance and to create sticky teams.

And we covered all of this (and more) in under 1 hour!

If you enjoy this episode, please rate it in your favourite podcast listening app.

James started The Good Beer Co – Australia’s first social enterprise of its kind – to brew beer for good causes and inspire change by demonstrating what purpose-led businesses can achieve. In his 20+ year career, he’s been a change-maker, pioneering corporate social responsibility at a major banking group, helping build partnerships to lift one million UK homes out of energy poverty, helping grow a social enterprise that floated on the London Stock Exchange, negotiating ground-breaking, multi-million dollar partnerships to cut carbon emissions, creating a national Healthy Air Campaign as the CEO of a national environmental charity, and forming an alliance between a new green energy company and leading environmental organisations to generate over $3 million in funding. 

He’s also been named on Linkedin’s inaugural list of Top Green Voices in Australia and New Zealand, a curation of 15 must-follow thought leaders sharing their perspectives and passion for sustainability, climate change and protecting the environment. 

In this episode, James shares his background leading to where his focus now lies, through the lens of partnerships.

I think you’ll get so much value from listening to how James approaches product development and campaigns. I truly believe that any organisation leading with a higher purpose is compelled to think innovatively and to seek out strategic partnerships. It’s consistent with the ambitious nature of purposeful organisations to find collaborators that help them to build awareness and scale their impact. This interview is a masterclass in purposeful partnerships.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Listen out for James’ response to my question – what is the role of love in inspiring purpose-led business? It’s a powerful response.
• James shares his career progression and some of his achievements, from where he started in politics and media, through government, to corporate, to his activity today through The Good Beer Co
• He shares the start-up story Great Barrier Beer in partnership with Australian Marine Conservation Society; along with partnering with Dan Murphys and BWS to trial the first ever biodegradable 6-pack packaging
• We talk about the power of purpose to inspire richer, more meaningful conversations that build relationships that lead to purposeful partnerships
• James tells us about The Good Beer Co’s upcoming campaign in the UK for Thank Brew, a limited edition Pale Ale created by breweries across the UK in partnership with Big Drop Brewing Co, celebrating Thank You Day, for the Queen’s Jubilee Weekend, with all profits going to support good causes
• He also whets our appetite by sharing a little about a new local initiative in Australia in partnership with Sobah. due to launch later this year. A purpose-led business, Sobah exists to raise positive awareness and promote First Nations' culture, arts, language, and history. 

Connect with James

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesgrugeon/

Twitter:   JamesGrugeon  

Website: https://www.thegoodbeerco.co.uk