Explore every episode of the podcast Planet Purpose

Building the right narrative about your brand can be the difference between success and failure for your business—no matter how strong a product you are offering. This episode offers detailed advice about building a successful brand narrative. It also features wisdom from the founder of Farmer’s Fridge, whose work as a traveling salesman motivated him to create a company to solve the problem of finding healthy food options while on the road.

Building the right narrative about your brand can be the difference between success and failure for your business—no matter how strong a product you are offering. This episode offers detailed advice about building a successful brand narrative. It also features wisdom from the founder of Farmer’s Fridge, whose work as a traveling salesman motivated him to create a company to solve the problem of finding healthy food options while on the road.

From the outside, founders seem to have so much freedom in running their own businesses. But how much control do they really have? When is it an advantage to retain control over decisions, and when is it time to let go? Christene Barberich, cofounder of Refinery 29 and author of the newsletter, A Tiny Apartment; and Rebecca Minkoff, founder of her own fashion brand, sat down to talk through the nuances of working with cofounders, selling a company, and watching it grown beyond a single person’s control.

The company’s director of finance explains how her job goes well beyond accounting. Tina Hetzer, director of finance at Pink Lily, is one of the rising financial stars who are helping to bring their businesses to the next level. She built Pink Lily’s finance team from scratch and has helped the company become one of the fastest-growing retailers in the country. In this podcast, part of the SAP-sponsored Growth Agents series, Hetzer discusses the cash-flow challenges unique to fashion retailers and explains how working at a smaller, founder-run company can fuel greater collaboration across the organization.  

Diana Ransom and Scott Omelianuk talk with Stacy Spikes, Kathryn Minshew and Taryn Langer about how founders should approach dealing with the media. Stacy Spikes is the co-founder and CEO of MoviePass. Kathryn Minshew is the co-founder and former CEO of The Muse. Taryn Langer is the founder and president of Moxie Communications Group.

Duolingo’s freemium subscription model, beloved brand and strategic investments have allowed it to execute its educational mission and become a cultural touchstone. Matthew Skaruppa, CFO of Duolingo, is one of the rising financial stars who are helping to bring their businesses to the next level. Since he joined the company in 2020, Duolingo has grown its base of monthly active users by more than 80%. Each month, 75 million users hone their language skills on the Duolingo app. In this podcast, part of the SAP-sponsored Growth Agents series, Skaruppa discusses how his analytical background has allowed to him to be a more strategy-oriented CFO. For him, that has meant balancing big aspirations and finite resources, and turning the uncertainties of tomorrow into action today.

Inc. Executive Editor Diana Ransom and Editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk pull back the curtain on the world of entrepreneurship with some of the most successful founders in the world. Inc. Uncensored features frank and unfiltered conversations about what makes business leaders tick, the trends founders need to know to be successful, and the secrets that nobody really tells you before you start a business.

Mitch Reback, CFO of Sweetgreen, is one of the rising corporate financial stars who is helping to take their companies to the next level. When he started, Sweetgreen had 25 stores; today, there are more than 220—and Reback says the company is still in its “infancy.” In this podcast, part of the SAP-sponsored Growth Agents series, Reback takes a deep dive into his role as a growth agent. Capital is the engine that drives growth, and Reback says his job is to make sure the company has adequate capital to grow as well as determining how best to allocate it, including investments in stores, marketing, staff, and technology—or, as he puts it, to push innovation forward in a way that’s capital efficient.

When talking about higher purpose, one of the largest companies out there is Prudential, which also happens to be a purpose-driven company. Prudential’s purpose is to solve the financial challenges of our changing world, helping its customers achieve peace of mind and financial security. On this episode, the team chatted with Prudential Chief Marketing Officer Susan Somersille Johnson about the Olympics, Broadway, racial equity, and bringing back the Rock in their advertising campaigns.

As the pandemic continues to amplify existing inequalities and derail decades of progress for women in the workplace, there are, however, some incredible leaders out there who are really making a difference. Phoebe Robinson is one of the hottest rising comedians in the United States, and she also recently started an imprint called, Tiny Reparations Books . Chip and Scott sat down and talked with Phoebe about her latest essay book, "Please Don't Sit in My Bed in Your Outside Clothes," which serves as a launch of the imprint.

It’s not surprising that a recent survey found 76% of Americans expect companies to take action against climate change. 73% of Americans would stop purchasing from a company that doesn't care about climate change. But the question is -- are companies really going to step up, and if so how? Chip and Yolanda sat down with HP Chief Impact Officer and Head of Sustainable Impact Ellen Jackowski to shed some new light on the sustainability challenge companies are facing.

Over the past 18 months, we’ve witnessed a completely new level of employee activism, challenging the traditional structures of management and putting new pressures on leaders who weren’t taught how to deal with this new reality in business school. To delve into this more, the team chatted with Conspiracy of Love Founder and Chief Purpose Officer Afdhel Aziz. They discussed how employees can find and unlock the power of their own purpose, and why that matters.

Today’s episode comes from the Your Next Move vault and is a conversation between host Bea Dixon and guest Melissa Butler. Melissa is the CEO and Founder of The Lip Bar -- a vegan lipstick company catering directly to women of color.  In their conversation, they cover Melissa’s transition from the corporate ladder to becoming a lipstick chemist. Plus, her experiences with retail chains and direct to consumer marketing, and what it means to be focused on African American women while remaining inclusive to all.

Corporations feel like they have to take on social issues, but as we’ve been discussing, doing so isn’t easy. Recent research from RepTrak found that 36 percent of consumers have "felt betrayed" by what a company stands for, and 47 percent have stopped doing business with the company as a result. 63 percent prefer to do business with companies that "stand for a purpose that reflects their values and beliefs, and will avoid those that do not." We sat down with Laura Lane, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at UPS, who had some great food for thought on the topic.

In a recent Harris poll of customers’ reaction to the COVID-19 crisis, more than 80 percent of respondents said they would remember which companies “did the right thing by their workers.” Three-quarters said they wouldn’t forget those businesses that took missteps “long after” the crisis ends. This is familiar ground for Northwell Health CMO Ramon Soto. We sat down with Ramon to chat about his experience mobilizing people inside Northwell Health, one of the largest health services organizations in the country, the largest private employer in New York state, and the organization that received the full brunt of the COVID crisis when it descended upon New York in 2020.

The world of business leadership has shifted dramatically in the past few years – from stockholder capitalism to stakeholder. A higher purpose is what businesses need to be about and companies need to take a stand on societal issues. There’s one big problem though: today’s leaders weren’t trained for this new world. There was no class for this in business school. In some ways, it’s the wild west – a new frontier with no map. And C-suiters are struggling to find the way forward. As a result, there’s a vacuum in purpose leadership. Company purpose is often toothless and company social activism backfires. How do CEOs navigate this new terrain? How do CHROs build this new culture of leadership into the employee experience? How do CMOs build purpose effectively into their brand?

What do Millennials think about purpose? Do they actually buy and work for companies and brands that have activated purpose? Is this a real thing? And what should leaders know about this important generation?  We’ve invited a couple of Millennials to chat about it. Fast Company’s Social Media Producer Christina Royster and Fast Company’s Associate Editor Yasmin Gagne from the podcast, Hit the Ground Running, are here to share their opinions and ideas about what purpose means to them.

Today, consumer spending and sentiment suggest that purpose has become more influential in the purchase decision of a brand versus any other business lever. However, leaders constantly challenge if product, price or even placement are more important to drive purchase behavior. In this episode, we will discuss why purpose has grown in importance and provide insight and examples that show when purpose wins and when purpose loses to other business levers. Tune in to hear how companies and brands rise to the top and gain some new insights about the power of purpose.

We’ve been thinking a lot about how companies responded to recent social events and wanted to dig into it some more on today’s episode. What's at the heart of it? What are companies going to do to show they have a point of view, that it's not all talk and they are doing something meaningful for everyday people?

Planet Purpose from Inc. magazine examines how companies can focus on their purpose and transform their brands. Join co-hosts Scott Goodson, Yolanda White and Chip Walker as they take a look at the ways purpose-driven companies could realize better outcomes by activating purpose to the people who matter inside the organizations and out. Tune in every other Wednesday, starting on June 16th, available on Apple podcasts, Spotify and wherever you enjoy your podcasts.

Whether you’re crowdfunding, getting a bank loan, or seeking venture capital, you need to be able to pitch yourself and your business successfully. Today's episode features some of the biggest lessons learned from the founder of clean fragrance brand MOODEAUX, who has secured funding in an incredibly challenging market.

The impact of AI on finance departments will be huge.

How artificial intelligence is shaping the product journeys from procurement to end customers.

In this podcast, leaders in HR and AI reveal what it will take for businesses to get their staff on board.

The so-called “fifth quarter” could be your opportunity to give your business a competitive edge. Hear directly from successful small business owners Lauren Petrullo, of Mongoose Media, and John Wai of John Wai Martial Arts Academy about how they use the post-holiday season to grow their businesses. In this podcast, the entrepreneurs are joined by Meta executive Becky Bui to explain how this so-called “fifth quarter”—a period often overlooked by businesses as a slow season—can be the key to unlocking new cost-effective, quality leads that lead to sales, while building meaningful connections with customers.

Working together within a marriage can require give and take, but imagine working in the same company too. Melissa Ben-Ishay, co-founder and CEO of Baked by Melissa, and Adi Ben-Ishay, its director of technology and innovation, met by happenstance—to be honest, it was something out of a romance novel. Now, they're married with two kids and still running Baked by Melissa. How do they make this work? We sat down with them to discuss how they met, how they support each other, and how they iron out their disagreements while raising children and working to grow their business.