Cory Ames  0:07  
On the social entrepreneurship and innovation podcast, we feature business leaders who are changing the expectations of what business can and should do. Its business leaders who pursue positive impact for both people and the planet that we want to amplify, encourage and support. We want to shine a light on entrepreneurs who stay true to their pursuit of progressing the business world from purely extractive and exploitative to truly restorative and regenerative. And this last year on the podcast, our aims didn't waver from multiple industries and multiple perspectives. We spoke at length with impacts business leaders, who consider the cost of business as usual, far too great to ignore. And so here we are putting another year of recording the social entrepreneurship and innovation podcast in the books January 2021. We'll bring our three year anniversary in this year we're grateful to as well again have recorded record high listenership 2021 Is is up about 13% versus 2020. In its entirety, the years not quite over yet. We registered downloads from 149 countries all over the world. And so to end this year, we're giving you something special here with a multi part episode where we're sharing the strongest moments. From our most popular guest episodes from the podcast in 2021. We're sharing with you 10 impact business leaders who are changing the course of business for the good of the planet, people everywhere. So here in part one, you're going to hear five of those 10 most popular guests from the podcast this year. So stay tuned for part two as well, where in a couple days, we'll release the second five. I hope you enjoy. As always thanks for listening in to the social entrepreneurship and innovation podcast. Here we are with 10 impact business leaders who are changing business for the good of the people in the planet.

To start we have Madeline Shaw, who joined me on the podcast this year to talk about the what, why and how of social entrepreneurship. Madeline herself has been a social entrepreneur for over 25 years. In her 20s She founded Luna Pat's now rebranded as aisle, which commercialized natural menstrual care. She also founded a nonprofit organization called G day that produced rite of passage events for young self identified girls. Most recently, she founded a family friendly co working space called networks. All these experiences led Madeline to write and publish a book, the greater good social entrepreneurship for everyday people who want to change the world. And she joined me on the podcast to both define social entrepreneurship and offer the tactical steps to explore this pathway for those who are interested. And here are some thoughts from Madeline on her definition of who a social entrepreneur is and why she's leaned into this chosen definition. But before we jump into that, if you are interested in diving deeper into social entrepreneurship, and getting advice from a career social entrepreneur, be sure to check out Madeline's episode on how to become a social entrepreneur. And likewise, pick up a copy of her new book. All right, here's a quick tip from Madeline Shaw.

Even though we can get caught up on the labels, I would love to start perhaps, Madeline, if you could define for us in your words, what is social entrepreneurship and who is a social entrepreneur?

Madeleine Shaw  4:04
Yeah, thanks. I love that question. And obviously, it's subjective. Like I'm not positing sort of an absolute definition. And in fact, my definition is being very expansive and very democratic. So just for starters, let's break it down. So the word entrepreneur is a very long word with lots of vowels. It's derived from the French verb to undertake. So to me, by definition, an entrepreneur is somebody who undertakes something and action and initiative. It can be for profit, it could be nonprofit, it doesn't need to be incorporated at all, actually, it could just be a project or something that you love. But the point is you taking action, the social part, which precedes the word entrepreneur, importantly, it comes first, right? So social is kind of shorthand for some form of positive social or environmental impact. That can be anything honestly, whatever matters to the entrepreneur, that the point is that it's what motivates and inspires. It's it's the central purpose of why the undertaking is being undertaken, like it's why you do what you do, right. It's what gets you out of bed in the morning. So, as opposed to traditional notions, you know, in a traditional business sense, people are looking to make a profit or capture a certain market segment or do something like that. But it's not necessarily coming from a place of primary desire or motivation to make the world a better place in some way.

Cory Ames  5:27  
I think what really sticks out to me there is perhaps at the top that you use this word, as your definition is an expansive one. And perhaps it's a bit more broad, I guess. So you know, contrasting that, if it's a bit more narrow and specific, wide, have you leaned to your definition of social entrepreneurship being something that's much more broad and perhaps inclusive,

Madeleine Shaw  5:49  
to encourage more people to see themselves in that kind of construct or profile because I feel like until now, like, and this happens all the time, Cory, when I do speaking gigs, one of the things I'll do is, I'll ask the audience, when I say the word entrepreneur, like, tell me who you think of like, Who's the first person who pops into your mind? And invariably, it is Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, you know, and it's those guys with their big, massive scalable tech, blow it up, disrupt things, Silicon Valley, spaceship, whatever things, right. And that's a really hard kind of paradigm to relate to. If you don't look like that, if your project if your idea is not that big, and that kind of unicorn sort of thing, it's pretty easy to kind of go, I don't think I'm mad. And the reason for wanting to broaden that is because I want more people who from diverse backgrounds with really amazing social change ideas, to feel that they too, can take action and should be celebrated for doing that. Because the more people that do that, like in so many ways, like I feel like we're waiting, like, look at the times that we're in query like you, you know, the beginning of the conversation, you know, when we first talked, it was before COVID. Now the world has changed, climate change is accelerated. We've got you know, the urgent need to achieve racial justice, we've got so many things going on, just really urgent, not to mention COVID Everything. It really is an all hands on deck kind of situations. So what the book is really there for is to encourage all those hands of whatever size wherever they're from whatever they look like to feel that their ideas are needed, and that they're empowered and resourced to take action on any scale. They don't need to be the next Jeff Bezos to do that.

Cory Ames  7:47  
Giancarlo Marcaccini is a former professional basketball player, a dedicated yogi and the CEO of one of my favorite tea brands Yogi Tea. Giancarlo's approach to entrepreneurship is unique. He is the competitive spirit of an athlete, but also the mindfulness of a yogi. This wasn't always the case. Shankara although he did always have the entrepreneurial aptitude, he told me that even as a college athlete, he was always trying to find some sort of side hustle. But this is why after his professional basketball career in Europe, Giancarlo pursued entrepreneurship by opening a gelato company with his brothers. It wasn't until later that he discovered yoga and fell in love with it. It just so happened that his local studio was also involved with the East West Tea Company, more commonly known as yo et. And after Giancarlo offered some business advice and console to the studio. They invited him to be on the board of East West tea a few years later, while I'm skipping over some steps, Giancarlo was offered the CEO position, Yogi Tea is nearly 50 years old. They're one of the top tea brands in the US and distribute over 40 organic tea blends to Europe as well. Giancarlo is a fitting leader for this business. And he joined me on the podcast and offered up some excellent advice for purpose driven entrepreneurs. Here's a few of Giancarlo strongest bits of advice on failure on loving what you do on working with good people, for young, aspiring impact driven entrepreneurs. But be sure not to miss the full conversation with Giancarlo for all the tips and advice for impact driven entrepreneurs. So make sure to check out the full conversation.

Giancarlo Marcaccini  9:39  
You know, we've talked about you're gonna fail. So it's not about like trying to avoid failure. It's about how quickly do you bounce back? You know, how long do you want to sit there and feel sorry for yourself? And I think that's one where we excelled. We just just keep moving forward. And I didn't realize like 10 years later, how many failures we had So you just got to keep going. I mean, I would start way fight advice, make sure you love what you're going to do. As man, it's going to be your life. And it's going to be a grind. And it's going to be much more difficult than you think it's going to be. So just love what you're going to do. Number two is most important ingredient for me is people even beyond product because you can, I've worked with people that I thought amazing products and people that Yoker products, and you just see the even mediocre products with good people eventually, then figure out the product side. So you want to invest and bring into your circle, like just talented people. And yeah, I think those are probably the do something that you really love, because you're gonna eat so much of your life is going to be this is your child, this is your partner, this is everything, at least it was for us. And the sooner you can afford or you know, maybe you get a lot, is just learn how to hire good people, and learn how to create an environment to make people successful. And yeah, so those are the, I guess my two words of wisdom today.

Cory Ames  11:11  
And then and perhaps diving a little bit deeper into the the environment component, as you're approaching that as a leader in in yogi, how are you attempting to foster an environment? Yes, for people really to thrive and succeed?

Giancarlo Marcaccini  11:26  
Yeah, and why that's so important to me and how that became because it wasn't part for me, when I started as a business person, it was like, Hey, how, you know, how are you going to make money? And what are you going to do? And, and I love business as well. So I think that just evolved as I evolved as someone as a person and also got out of survival mode. With the yoga, I think there's how we approach how I approach business today, I guess is how I approach life, not business. You know, I think how you approach anything is how you approach everything is just I've had that experience of oneness, you know, you can, you know, you say oneness, and I think that's a beautiful word. But you know, like in basketball, you have maybe 234 times a year you have, you know, in the zone where you can't miss fall in the zone for meditation is, you know, you're at it, I've been at it for 1415 years. And you know, if you've had a handful of moments, maybe it's like hitting that golf ball correctly. It's like, man, you experience oneness. And it's not a concept. It's not an idea. It's his full blown out experience of like, we're just all one, you know. And so I guess from that place, then, is how I approach how at East West Tea Company, the approaches from that experience of knowing how do you interact and participate and be in relationship with your growers? How are you in relationship with mother earth? How are you in relationship with your supply chain? How are you in relationship with all your employees? What products are you putting out for your customers? So for me, the environment piece is that's how we approach it like, a oneness as a being as an entity, Earth I mean, earth and the planet. It's like, this is a living entity, that I'm one with like, how do we do we just take take take the we rack, and when it comes to the environment, I don't even think sustainability is the right word from now it's almost, you know, we're in a hole. It's about regenerate and, and fill up the hole and leave and put more back. And we're on that journey. And in all those aspects. I think they're all important for us from the grower aspect to our relationship with mother earth to our employees, even their sustainable How can you set up your employees to be sustainable, where they're not leaving work exhausted, and we're a strength based culture, and I think that's awesome. It's really putting people with their talents on the right team and the right jobs. So when they're done, they're not exhausted because they're doing what they like what they're naturally good at, and they go home and be good parents or great people in their commute have energy and prana to give back to their community and everything. So I think when I look at sustainability, I look at it and just a broad word. And then the way we are with the environment, a huge piece of it and also a common language for us at our company.

Cory Ames  14:43  
As Carol Sanford said herself in our podcast recording.

Carol Sanford  14:48  
I don't do I be

Cory Ames  14:52  
and one of the things Carol attempts to be as much as possible is what she calls a disruptive force. I think she lives up to that. Carol has spent much of her career disrupting the way business is conducted. She's worked with a number of fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurs from all over the world, to design new and better ways of helping businesses succeed. Through Carol's work in teaching organizations and individuals of all shapes, sizes and occupations, develop what Carol calls a regenerative mindset. This mindset as Carol depicts, in her book, The regenerative business, is where enlightened, disruptive innovation happens. Carol sees immense potential for the business community to do exceptional, good, or cause incredible harm. Much of what this hinges on is correctly building the minds of those leading in business, be sure to check out my full conversation with Carol Sanford on regenerative business. But in the meantime, here she is on the unique opportunities that face the business community.

Carol Sanford  16:00  
The place you start, it's not something you do, which is what you even asked me would you tell people what you do, and I set out do I be, and I be in a process of discovery I be in. So I think what you have to do is build the quantum work, The Matrix way of working that maybe is the best way to respond to you is the three slash Four C's. And I didn't actually set them out to be that way. Because I hate that where we make. The first one is every company I go in whether it was DuPont and Colgate or whether it was seventh generation, and all good, is we work on building capability to see how it is we're thinking and how we're getting in our own way, which we've been doing a little up here, right? If you don't do that you're doing will come from the old paradigm, invisible, manipulating you looking right because it's familiar. So that's why I run education communities. Karason for an institute is about building capability of 10 to 1215. Sometimes companies in time who meet online with me over three, I used to go into companies three years, three to four to five, and many of them just stay because that you have to be in a community to do this. So the first of the C's is capability. We don't have the capability to do all the things I've been talking about today and I'm not even remotely done. I still fall into all the traps because I live in a culture I was indoctrinated to be a racist. That was how it happens in the south and yet are learned that you had to learn to see it in your own mind and I still see a trumpet. It infuriates me, capability is about learning how to learn learning how to develop, learning how to see learning how to think learning how all that works. The second C is culture. And culture gets built only in community. So you work for several years doing nothing. But coming into a community learning to think differently. You can't get it out of books, they're supposed to whet your appetite make you hungry crave a different way of seeing the world. And you come into work. And in that process, you'll get ideas, you go try that and you say, oh, okay, I can see how that's affecting this thing. I think I'll go try that. And I give you some reasons like a whole different way to think about customers. A whole different way to think about performance measures and business models and what your corporate direction is why you should get rid of missions and visions and purpose are totally on the open paradigm. And well intended people get identified with them. So you come in you learn it's a lot of undoing. So capability building culture, you have to be in with others who are doing it, you can't create the kind of changes we're talking about. And particularly if you create associations, which we have a lot of association to well intended businesses, which are teaching people quote, a better version of feedback, I just breaks my heart every time and they create certifications. There's no such thing as certifying, in regeneration, because that means generic, and it means it's not about life. It means like they're all the same watershed management, right business management, how you structure people. Now you have to learn how to think to do those things and you have to do it in community. And you have to create a culture you when we started, I did everything I could to disrupt the path you were gonna go down. And I continued to disrupt it when I heard the word you have to get people where the field that they're working in the paradigm they're in. So you work on capability Thank you work on changing the culture by entering different communities. And the third way to learn what consciousness really means. Like I just did a podcast on conscious capital. realism, which isn't about consciousness at all. And their definition is of because, for me consciousness is consciousness of worlds at work at different levels, do we understand, can we see hold, and really become active in our mind and seeing the holes and how they work and how they're nested. And we use, I hear well intended people use those terms all the time. But that's not how they work. So you have to start, if you're going to make me give you a first step, I spend every organization I'm in meeting with them Kinder having them do something. And I've got a paper on what research I actually draw this off up, which was were the first people I met who took me on this path into business, we're about why it is that you have to have this regular rhythm have a new way of thinking, or the minute you're out of it, like you don't stay in a community, you'll lose it. So you have to build capability. The research said, the frequency has to be doing something in the new paradigm, at least weekly, it has to be about 10% of your waking hours, and go on about three to eight years before you can catch yourself and notice it. That's how in praying we are with the old pattern. So get into the idea. But get into a community who is doing this, you cannot do this alone, you cannot. I don't care how good or how well intended you are. And you can't do it in communities and associations, which are teaching you a better version of the old paradigm, then those things just carry apart. So that's the first step, learn how to see your own paradigm see your own language. And it will take a ritual of being in a community to do that and to learn to have frameworks that are not mental models you're used to using. So I would love for anyone who that we feel like a beacon for them. Come join us we were regularly introducing new people in you can only get in by invitation we don't market or sell. We find people who are called to it and who want to put in the work.

Cory Ames  22:23  
Christopher Marquis is a professor at Cornell University, where his own research and teaching focuses on both sustainable enterprise and doing business in China. Thanks to some of his students, Chris picked up a keen interest for the certified B Corp movement. After nearly a decade of research, which chronicles the inception and growth of the B Corp movement, Chris produced his latest book, better business, how the B Corp movement is remaking capitalism. Chris is a major believer that when both the structure and intent have the correct aim, business has the ability to be a tremendous force for good. His primary case study the B Corp movement. And so what's different about the B Corp movement from more traditional forms of corporate impact? In our conversation, Chris identified primarily two things. But before we dive into those, don't forget to listen to the full conversation with Chris about what sustainable capitalism could look like. Here's Chris, on the certified B Corp movement.

Christopher Marquis  23:27  
At least initially, I'm thinking about sort of two differences. So one, you know, for a traditional company and CSR programs, there's a lot of great examples, I No way want to sort of denigrate or, or, or not, sort of say how respectful I am of the work that large companies are doing. But it's a usually to the side of the core business. So you know, you have a company, you know, like IBM, I mean, it's an amazing technology services consulting company, and they do a lot of great things in the community in education. But it's not the core of actually their business and what they're trying to accomplish. And with the, you know, leaders of it are trying to sort of accomplish it's not social impact, so much as you know, selling products and services. So I'd say that the social entrepreneurs that I think are really characterized by the B Corp movement, like you mentioned, Eric Hudson, and preserve. I mean, he started out with an interest in actually making products out of recycled plastic, which is, you know, which people may not realize it's actually really hard. I mean, we all sort of are very conscientious recyclers, but actually, the extent to which what we recycle, what we actually put in the recycling bin in our house and gets transported away, gets trans transitioned into actually products is, you know, surprisingly low. And it actually takes a lot of, you know, sort of a lot of creativity and hard work and, you know, engineering and all kinds of things. And so, you know, Eric really saw this problem Particularly with certain kinds of plastics, and he created a business around this. And so, you know, that's fundamentally different, we're actually the social impact is actually at the core of what the cup what the company is doing. So I think that's one different sort of it's, it's not to the side, it's not peripheral to the core, it's actually part of the core of the social impact. The second thing that I think is, is super, super important is that to become a B Corp, you have to go through the B impact assessment. And that obviously, you know, certifies that you're performing at a high level, but what really I think sets it apart is the fact that you have to, you know, sort of measure track, and also be transparent on an accountable on social, environmental, community, you know, workers etc. And I'd say that's something that sets a B Corporations offer from regular CSR, is that it's the accountability dimension. And I think that's something that, you know, one of the reasons I wrote the book is that, not necessarily that all companies should be B corpse. But what I talk about is that the tools, like the B impact assessment that has been created are some things that all companies can use. And I hope that, you know, as even the largest companies in the world continue to do their CSR, you know, they do it and actually work to be more accountable.

Cory Ames  26:26  
Faith, Legendre is a circular economy solutions strategist. And she's been advising companies on the overlap between design, zero waste and technology for over 15 years. Faith is inspiring, she's exceptionally creative in something of a futurist. But she also appears to have the heart of an artist with a deep appreciation for culture, and self expression, face celebrates fashion, and how it's an artistic vehicle.

Faith Legendre  26:56  
In use, because they can be kept in use that beautiful navy blue shirt that you're wearing, that can be kept in use for decades. And it can turn into different things, you'll say, Well, it's the trends and its fashion. And I love fashion, because for me, when people get up in the morning, and they put on something, they're like a blank slate, and they're just painting that canvas. And it's their form of expression. I think we need that because art is part of life. But we need to do it in a really conscious way in a really circular way.

Cory Ames  27:27  
At the same time, faith also inspires an urgency to create a more circular economy for a better future for all. Before we hear from faith one more time, make sure to check out my full conversation with her about the convergence between fashion and technology. Here's Faith once more.

Faith Legendre  27:51  
We're doing all of these things to become more circular. Because there's future generation, I want to ensure that fashion is fully circular so that all generations to come, they don't have soil that has been depleted from growing mass amounts of cotton for textiles, they don't have dyes that are full of chemicals that are in the water, you know that we you know, everything that we wear gets rinsed off, right, it goes right into our aquifers, it goes right into our water. And then we use that water on our plants. So we're eating everything. So I say to people, like do you feel comfortable with chemicals that are on that $5 shirt, right? You're sweating, and you're breathing that in. So it's just interesting, because I think that people are starting to think about that and see there's everything's connected, everything's connected in nature, and everything's connected back to us. And so if we're really conscious, and we don't over produce, there's enough textiles in the entire world right now. And everybody that I talked to that tells her the fashion issue, they don't understand it. They're like, wait a minute, what do you mean? Don't they use up? Do they make just him out? Because it's, it's costly? They don't say absolutely not. The fashion industry has been burning for a long time. At incinerators, brand new textiles. I just think that those are resources. People say, Well, it's waste to energy, but I think if we keep doing waste to energy, then we'll just have a giant planet of a poof of energy and nothing left at all. That's what happens. It's where those resources go to die.

Cory Ames  29:28  
Alright, y'all, that's it here on part 1: 10 impact business leaders, featuring our 10 most popular podcast guests from 2020 ones recordings of the social entrepreneurship and innovation podcasts. These episodes are a lot of fun to put together, as always appreciate you listening in and really, really appreciate any and all supports as a small business. We rely heavily on the support and engagement of listeners like yourself. So if you love the show, please Share it with a friend. Share it with a colleague. Reach out to us on social at AmesCory on Twitter. We always love to hear from you. And likewise, if you work for a company or know someone who does work for a company might be interested in sponsoring the social entrepreneurship and innovation podcast, send them our way go to socialentrepreneurship.fm/contacts to kick off the conversation. Alright, show all that support really helps us along our mission to build a better world together. Stay tuned for part 210 impact business leaders, and we'll talk to you again soon.