Cory Ames  0:00  
We are wired to admire and appreciate the natural world. Likewise, I think we are built to be collaborative and want to take care and care for others. This can get complicated, of course, but I believe it's very difficult for us to stare suffering straight on.

Hey, y'all, it's Cory here with the social entrepreneurship and innovation podcast, as always so grateful to have you listening in today's episode is something a little special, it's gonna be an exploration and purpose, purpose for why it is that we do what we do here at Grow Ensemble, why we exist. I find these types of reflections and zooming out to be helpful as we navigate the many conversations and discussions that we have with change makers and innovators from all sectors all over the globe here on the social entrepreneurship and innovation podcast.

Today, we're going to talk about one core component parts of our overarching mission and purpose at grow ensemble, which is to create awe, and so we'll get into that in just a second. But before we do, I want to invite you to sign up for our Better World weekly newsletter. What you're about to hear is actually an essay that I first wrote for the newsletter and released a while back. And so by signing up there at growensemble.com backslash newsletter, you'll get the first of everything the latest in our work, or thinking or reflections on all things building a better world here at grow ensemble. Again, go to growensemble.com backslash newsletter to get the next one in your inbox. All right, y'all let's talk about one piece to the purpose of grow ensemble, creating, awe...

I co-founded grow ensemble with my partner, my wife, Annie Bright. We founded grow ensemble out of vague appetite to encourage more collective and collaborative action to think outside of just the eye of the individual. And think more about the we, we wanted others and ourselves to think more about how our actions, our purchases, even the work that we chose to do, affected and influence the world around us. But this was first quite a broad approach, it was more of an exploration, we thought we'd start by using what existing skill sets we had writing, editing, digital marketing, and that brought us to start the social good blog, and connect with people through recording the social entrepreneurship and innovation podcasts that you're listening to here. This is strictly trial and error, very common with new projects. But we did take action on what things that seemed to make the most sense to us. Learning about the space of social impact and sustainability, sharing everything that we learned, and connecting with others and building some sense of community through the podcast.

As a product of that about three years in with plenty of reflection and revision on the vision that plans whatever strategy we've been operating from, it's come back again and again, to a never ending appetite to learn a thought on what I've appreciated most and what I've enjoyed most about working on Bravo ensemble for these last few years now. It's this exercise of learning. I absolutely love to learn. In particular, I love to learn about the things that make life and living beautiful. I absolutely love to learn about what makes life and living on this planet most worse it is my first sound weird, but I'm not particularly motivated to learn for the sake of improving myself or to make myself better in some way to beat or outcompete others. Although I am motivated personally to feel good, physically, emotionally, mentally, mostly though, I'm driven to learn and consume things that satiate my appetite for, for all of the planet, and the people that live on it. And so what's evolved into a core component piece of our mission here at grow ensemble, the mission behind what I'm continuing to create myself is to replicate a similar feeling of awe in others. We want to inspire or re-inspire others to fall in love with the planet in the people that live on it. We want our work to create a sense of awe for the planet and the people that live on it. We believe that what you care for, you take care of and I do believe that this is our natural inclination. This is why I say re-inspire. Or perhaps we could say fall back in love Have or even reconnect to that feeling of awe. Because I believe it's something inherent in us inherent in our humanity. We are wired to admire and appreciate the natural world. Likewise, I think we are built to be collaborative and want to take care and care for others. This can get complicated, of course, but I believe it's very difficult for us to stare suffering straight on. When we're detached from that suffering. From people struggling, it's much easier to act in discordance with what might be best for taking care of the greater whole. And so the first piece of our Grow Ensemble mission has become this to create or recreate a sense of all in others for the planet, and the people living on it.

We want others, like many of you listeners already do, to have an absolute gleeful admiration and appreciation for life in how beautiful or absolutely incredible living on this planet is and can be from appreciating and caring for all the different people, cultures, and communities to how incredibly rich inspiring and breathtaking our natural ecosystems are. But the second component of this piece to our mission, after people have fallen back into that love, appreciation and feeling of awe is to take up the courage to act on it. It's this, these two things that we believe are most disconnected right now. Like I said, I believe it's inherent in us, we love the natural world, we love being outside, we love a breathtaking view. It's something that's hardwired in us, you can't look out on the Grand Canyon, and not feel some sort of reaction, it hits your brain, it hits your heart, you can give you chills. Likewise, seeing the joy of a little kid, smiling, laughing, learning about the world that they live in, enjoying themselves and just being authentically them. It's something difficult for humans not to react on.

At the same time, we're all too familiar with the state of the world, the impact of our economies, in the incongruence between what it is that we love, and what at the same time we're destroying. It's this disconnect from this love and appreciation that is natural and inherent in us. And then courage to act on those feelings in our day to day lives that we want to bridge together. That's emerged as core to our mission. We want to inspire people to feel this way, create that sense of awe, and then build the courage to act on that in their day to day lives. And as for our name, grow ensemble ensemble means together in French, we believe that for us to grow and evolve as a species. It's something that we must do together. It's not something that can be done in isolation. It's not something that's done with just the individual. It's also made easier. If we aren't alone, it's easier to find the courage to act, if you've seen others like you do the same. And this is why we serve social entrepreneurs changemakers from all sectors all over the globe. Because we believe it's these people who embody our mission completely through the work they've chosen, the way that they spend their waking hours, it reflects that they have a love for either the people, the planet, or both people who are working in reforestation, ocean conservation, or regenerative agriculture. Those people love the planet, and they want to protect and conserve it. They've chosen their work because of that love, appreciation and awe for the planet that we all live on.

I think this says well, with people working in some sort of social impact, directly or indirectly, even companies like Tony's chocolate, they're on a mission to eradicate slave labor from the cocoa industry. And I believe at their core, it's because they love people. They love humanity. at a bare minimum. They don't want people to suffer. They also don't want people to just survive. They do what they do, because they believe that anyone and everyone deserves to not just survive, but thrive. And we believe that too. And this is why we support the social entrepreneur in the Changemaker. We think that the more people get to know them, their motivations, the work that they do, why they do it. We think that it can inspire the collective courage for others to do something similar in whatever capacity that feels best to them, to not just feel the love, appreciation, and that awe for people and the planet we all live on. But to courageously act in accordance with that.

Alright y'all, that's a wrap on another episode of this social entrepreneurship and innovation podcast as always so grateful to have you listening in. If you love the show, please leave us a review on Apple podcasts or hit subscribe wherever it is that you get yours. And as well I want to invite you to sign up for our Better World weekly newsletter. This is our weekly discussion with our community of social entrepreneurs and changemakers on all things building a better world is a newsletter I write and publish send out myself every single Monday go to growensemble.com backslash newsletter, to join in on that discussion, all things building a better world. Go to growensemble.com backslash newsletter to get the next one in your inbox. And finally, if you know of a company work within a company or run a company that might be interested in sponsoring the social entrepreneurship and innovation podcast, we always love starting conversations with potential partners who share our vision of building a better world together, go to socialentrepreneurship.fm backslash contact. There you can fill out a quick form, start that conversation with us. These sorts of partnerships fuel our mission to build a better world together. Alright, y'all, until next time.