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[“Don’t Bet on Dinosaurs – Good Business is Good for Business!”] Nathan Stuck, Founder of Profitable Purpose Consulting, discusses his deep expertise and extensive global network in the triple bottom line business movement now sweeping the planet – especially the B-Corp / B-Certification credential that has been earned by thousands of conscious companies throughout the world already, and that thousands more companies are endeavoring to earn in the next three years. Developed and administered by B-Lab, the B-Certification is among the most comprehensive, independent third-party business credentials that indicates extensive vetting and verification across social, environmental, governance, and community impact KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). In other words, companies that earn the B-Certification have shown that they are out-competing their conventional, “single-bottom-line” counterparts across a variety of essential criteria, and, as the world’s citizens (sometimes referred to as “consumers”) are increasingly demanding products and services from companies committed to strong environmental and social stewardship practices, B-Certified companies are realizing increased competitive advantage, talent retention, earned media, and profitability as a result. And, Nathan is one of the premier corporate consultants in this rapidly growing global ecosystem, helping companies prepare for, attain, and maintain their B-Certification credentials. Through Profitable Purpose Consulting, Nathan and his team of experts are among the best to get your company “vetted and vouched for” through B-Certification.
About Profitable Purpose Consulting
Under the leadership of Founder Nathan Stuck, Profitable Purpose Consulting provides companies world-wide with custom-tailored advising and management consulting services oriented around the B-Certification performance credentials. As a special member of the Y on Earth Community’s Partner / Supporter community, Profitable Purpose Consulting is offering a 15% discount on advising and consulting services – see the links below to connect with Nathan and to enlist him and his team to help you and your company.
About B-Lab and B-Certification
Launched in 2006 with the idea that “there’s no Planet B,” and that a different kind of economy is not only possible but necessary, B-Lab creates standards, policies, tools, and programs that shift the behavior, culture, and structural underpinnings of capitalism. Thus far, B-Lab has certified over 7,000 companies world-wide, and as the “regeneration renaissance,” “circular economy,” and “stewardship ethos” are gaining momentum throughout the global economy, B-Lab and its global network of businesses are, by many accounts, just getting started.
About Nathan Stuck
A “hyper-networker,” Nathan is an award-winning leader in the B Corp community and the Founder of Profitable Purpose Consulting, a culture, impact, and B Corp consultancy. He founded and chairs B Local Georgia and serves on the board of B Academics, a nonprofit organization committed to research and experiential B Corp learning opportunities. Nathan teaches an MBA course on B Corps at the University of Georgia, is a regular speaker at conferences and on podcasts around the world, and hosts the B The Change Georgia podcast. His first book, Happy Monday: Designing Your Career With Purpose, was released in 2022. Nathan reminds us that, “We the People have all the Power we need to decide what version of capitalism we want to live with,” and that, “Fear can make [falsely] people believe that what we do won’t matter.” Colleagues can connect with Nathan to join his special online meetup that Nathan curates for executives, entrepreneurs, and other change-makers the second Friday of each month. And, be sure to catch our “behind the scenes segment” – exclusively available to Y on Earth Community Ambassadors (click here to become an Ambassador).
Links, Resources, and Related Episodes
https://www.profitablepurposeconsulting.com/
Nathan Stuck: Reimagining Capitalism Through Purpose, With Purpose, & On Purpose | TED Talk
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanastuck/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/b-local-georgia/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/profitable-purpose-consulting/
Episode 138 – Tom Chi, Founder, At One Ventures
Episode 137 – Georgia Kelly, Founder, Praxis Peace Institute (and Mondragon Coop expert)
Episode 127 – John Perkins, Author, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and Touching the Jaguar
Episode 117 – Mike Bronner, President, Dr. Bronner’s (the “chocolate episode”)
Episode 85 – Kate Williams, CEO, 1% for the Planet
Episode 63 – David Bronner, CEO, Dr. Bronner’s
Episode 35 – Bud Sorenson, (past) Director, Whole Foods Market
Transcript
(Automatically generated transcript for search engine optimization and reference purposes – grammatical and spelling errors may exist.)
Welcome to the YonEarth Community Podcast. I’m your host, Aaron William Perry. And today
we’re visiting with Nathan Stuck, the founder of Profitable Purpose Consulting. Hey Nathan,
how you doing?
I am doing great. How are you doing?
Doing great, man. And, uh, yeah, so, so happy to have this opportunity to visit with
you and share a bit with our audience about all of this really exciting work you’re doing
with companies all around the country and globally.
Yeah. No, it’s, uh, I keep myself busy. We’ll just say that. I will unpack all of it,
I’m sure.
Yeah, I look forward to it. Nathan is an award-winning leader in the B Corp community and the
founder of Profitable Purpose Consulting, a culture, impact, and B Corp consultancy. He founded
in chairs B, local, Georgia and serves on the board of B academics, a nonprofit committed
to research and experiential B Corp learning opportunities. Nathan teaches an MBA course
on B Corp’s at the University of Georgia, is a regular speaker at conferences and on
podcasts around the world and hosts the B, the Change Georgia podcast. His first book,
Happy Monday, Designing Your Career with Purpose, was released in 2022 and Nathan, yeah,
we’ll be, I’ll show it for the audience looking at the video here. I’ll, we’ll talk about
the book a little bit too, but, uh, you know, before getting to that, just to kind of set
the stage here, what the heck does B Corp mean? What are, what are we even talking about
here? You’re doing so much of so many different organizations related to this B Corp thing.
Well, first of all, you have to be careful because if you say B Corp three times fast,
I just show up in your living room and start talking to you about B Corp. So, um, like
Beetlejuice, um, we’re dating ourselves and we’re starting to reference 80s. Yeah, I know
that means. Um, but anyway, so B Corp’s, it’s a sort of outside certification that businesses
can get and I always tell people it’s B Corp is to a business what lead is to a building.
So, I don’t need you to understand everything that goes into it. I just need you to know
it’s the gold standard of corporate social responsibility and it looks at, you know, the
overall business and its practices. So, it’s looking at your, um, your corporate governance,
your, your, your workers, your community impact, your environmental impact and then kind
of how you treat your customers, what you’re doing with data, those types of things. So,
it’s kind of a holistic view of the business. So, it’s not just looking at like your facilities
or your products, it’s looking at everything and making sure that you get a minimum score,
verified score too. Anybody who’s been through it knows it’s a not so fun verification
process that I literally will be spending my Friday night working on one tonight, um,
just uploading, documenting, you have to prove it. You can just tell people, we’re doing
these great things and you’re going to get the certification. It’s like, oh, that’s
really cool. You guys did a lot of volunteering, prove it. So, it’s, yeah, it’s vetted. It’s
outside, it’s an outside certification and, I mean, in a day and age where everybody’s
saying how great they are, it’s kind of hard to believe anybody anymore. So, that’s kind
of where that certification comes in. It’s kind of the, like, lead. I don’t really know
everything that goes into lead. I walk in and go, huh, must be efficient. But I know
it’s, I know it’s, like, that’s it for buildings, like lead. Wow. But I don’t, you know,
the same thing with B Corp. I don’t need you to know everything. I just need you to have
that same kind of wow reaction when you meet a B Corp. Love it. Yeah. And I imagine most
of our audience knows what the lead stands for. Leadership in, what is it? Energy and
environment or environment and energy design for buildings, right? It has to do with
the sound. That sounds good. Environmental impacts, footprints, energy efficiency. Yeah.
And like, how well are you using, like, natural lighting? This is where I wish my, uh, my
colleague Jenna was here. Because Jenna, before I got her to come work for me, she was doing
lead certifications and, uh, fit well and all these different things. So I kind of brought
on somebody who, uh, strengthens my weaknesses, not that it’s a weakness. It’s just something
that I’ve never really worked with. And she was, that’s what she was doing. So, but she’s
also B Corp experts. So now I have my, my full team. Yeah. I love it. I love it. Nathan,
and having, uh, taken a company through the certification process about a decade ago,
um, I can attest that it is very thorough, rigorous and, and therefore really meaningful
when a, when a company is able to display that, that B certification logo on their products
or website or whatever. Um, and, and I’m wondering at this point, do you have any idea how
many companies worldwide have this certification approximately like ballpark? Uh, it’s over
7,000. So I would say by the time you released, I’d say we’ll be close to around 8,000
around the world. It’s amazing. Yeah, it’s nuts. I mean, and they’re finally solved
that the, the, the, the Q, which they were, I mean, just 2020, I mean, you think that
there would have been a drop in demand in 2020. And in reality, the exact opposite happened
and they got slammed with companies like doubling down on their values. And so it took them
a while to dig out from under the, the increase in, in applications. So now it’s, it’s almost
moving so fast. As a consultant, you’re like, you hit submit and you’re, we were used
to waiting like multiple months until we heard anything. And now you’re like, Oh, God,
you already want to start uploading things like that. Take a breather here. So it’s, it’s
been pretty crazy how, um, how quickly they’ve, they’ve worked through the queue and now
how quickly companies that are like, um, and my phone never stops ringing. So it’s, it’s
clearly, I think we’ve passed that critical, critical mass, whatever you want to call it,
like the case for the ROI or whatever that I think companies are now just getting it. And
good companies are realizing that to distinguish themselves as a good company, they, they need
- Love this. And in your phone’s ringing off the hook and might be even, even further
as especially your offering a special, uh, promotional 15% discount off your services for
the, YonEarth community network and, and we’ll have, uh, the information, the links,
et cetera, on our, uh, partners and supporters page at YonEarth.org for folks who are
interested in connecting with you that way, of course, we’ll provide other links and, uh,
social media handles and so on. But, uh, it’s so, it’s so great to hear Nathan. And
can you just tell us so with your consulting company, what, what is the nature of services
you’re providing? You’re, you’re helping people get the certification, right? Yeah. I mean,
working through, I mean, we’ve done some stuff where people have just wanted to kind of use
it as the guiding tool for, especially when my background professionally, the B-Corp, I
worked at before, I started my own company. I was culture and impact. That was the
director of, you know, corporate culture, strategic impact. So I love those projects where
we’re using the B impact assessment, even if they don’t necessarily want to certify using
it as a guide. Um, and I would tell every business owner to use it as a guide, um,
just to, to, to baseline check where you’re at. But the majority, I’d say 90% of what
we do is B-Corp certification projects. So, um, and, and, you know, working with clients
to kind of figure out like, um, what does they need? You know, what is the, uh,
you know, cause for some clients, you know, early stage startups that might not make sense yet
from a, hey, we’re fundraising, go fundraise, you know, and so like finding that trusted
partner that you can, that you have that can kind of shoot you straight and let,
you know, kind of like, hey, here’s what makes sense. Or here’s what I would do right
now. Um, I think that’s important too, because I know now there’s, and there’s not really
many, or any bad players out in the, you know, in the B-Corp space, there’s not a lot of people
that are like, well, here’s a quick buck. I’m going to be a B-Corp consultant. But I think
there’s also a lot of people seeing this demand and moving into the space that maybe don’t
have the experience to give you the best advice for the business. So, um, so yeah,
I mean, anybody listening just wants to kind of like to have a conversation about it.
And where, you know, where’s that ROI for our business? What would you do?
Is that ROI for our business? What would, you know, what is it? What would it take for us
to do? Um, what is a legal requirement? What are the, you know, just kind of to,
to, to take that kind of moment to look at like, is it right right now? Um,
and if so, how do we proceed? And how do we do it in a way?
The other part too is like, how do you do it in a way that’s digestible?
It’s a lot of what you’ve been through it. It’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of work too.
So like, how do we chunk this out? So your CEO and your, or your, you know,
your sales team, or your, you know, all these people where it’s like, man, I’m paying you to do this.
We can pay Nathan to do that. Um, and keep you focused and all you have to do is show up for an hour
a week and kind of run through this with us. So, can we try to make it as hands-off as possible as well?
Yes. We want higher consultants.
A valuable service. I actually kind of wish I would have had access to you 10 years ago when we’re going through it ourselves.
Well, now it’s crazy because you probably wouldn’t even recognize it now because it’s moved.
I mean, it’s like lead. Like, lead, what, what lead standards were in the 70s are now like building codes.
That’s just like city building code. Like it’s, so like they’ve moved this needle.
And you’re seeing in the B-Corp space where they’re about to come out with version seven next year.
They’re on version six right now. And, um, yeah, I don’t even know if you’d recognize it.
And it’s gotten so, I don’t say complicated, but so there’s, there’s things where the B-Corp community might be hit to it.
It’s new to a lot of people like some of the, some of the concepts. And so you see, I’ll get a lot of people who like submit.
They get through it on their own or maybe they don’t even submit, but they get through on their own and they’re like, I don’t, I don’t know what to do with the rest of this.
So, um, they end up mining us or sometimes they get all the way to the end and now it’s like time to do the like the up the documentation and the proof.
And they’re like, can you help us finish this? Because then it gets super time intensive and you’ve got some CEO or co-founder or whatever trying to do all this.
And there’s like, I just, just tell me your rate, send me a quote and let’s get to work. And I’m like, so we get a lot of those too where it’s like, just finish this for me.
That’s great. Oh, man, you’re providing such an important service.
Is it, would you say you’re finding that the some of the assessment process that is perhaps a little less familiar to executives and founders is more on the like culture side or more on the like carbon footprint.
You know, accounting supply chain value chain accounting side life cycle.
Um, I think a lot of companies, I guess it depends on the sector there and of what they struggle with more.
Um, I know from a, you know, because you’ll see like, I mean, I’ve heard professional services companies tell me that like, oh, this thing’s rigged because you can never be a beacon unless you like a manufacturer with a huge supply chain.
And then you talk to manufacturing like, it’s so hard to be a b-corp is like, you know, we have like factory workers and like so we, you know, like our benefits are, you know, you’re like.
All right, y’all, just you’re going to get more points in the environmental section because you’re supply chain what you can control.
You’re going to get more in the worker section.
So I think you see based on the industry, like what they’re more used to talking about and dealing with.
So like, you know, when I work with professional services companies, they crush the worker section and they’ve got the benefits out and you take them and you’re like, hey, so what’s your carbon footprint look like?
I don’t know.
How energy efficient you’re building?
I don’t know.
Well, we put in some low flow, low flow sinks, low flow toilets.
Okay, so you have no idea.
Got it. And same thing a lot of times with, you know, your manufacturing or whatever CPG products.
Sometimes it’s like when you get into like the like not even worker benefits, but like the corporate culture component.
They’re like, well, we do a happy hour once quarter.
You know, it’s like, no, no, no, no, like what is okay?
So it’s kind of fun to go back and forth and and and see those, I don’t know.
I don’t want to say struggles, but the aha moments as they come out of like, oh, okay, I get it now.
Yeah, such a great education and for folks who maybe don’t know CPG is consumer packaged goods and think like drinks and things we buy at a store generally speaking.
Yeah, sorry, that’s one of those is my MBA.
So I speak in a lot of little jargon.
So that’s what the degree is basically you just learn jargon.
Did you start jargon around?
I love it. Yeah.
I guess like we should mention ROI is return on investment also.
And I’m curious because I’m used to seeing a lot of B certified, you know, a lot of different companies out there, especially in the CPG space.
I make decisions on beverages and snacks based on seeing that.
And or the one percent for the planet certification.
And we know a lot of companies have both the B ones.
They’re lovely.
Yeah.
And so I’m wondering, you know, we’re seeing more and more entrepreneurs and executives making deep social and environmental commitments through their businesses, you know, without the third party certifications.
And so when you’ve got companies like that out there and we’re obviously seeing many, many more of them, which is wonderful.
You know, why get certified?
What’s the reason the rationale?
Which in your experience, the business case for that?
I never asked.
I just, you know, and it’s funny to you because I get that a lot too.
Like, well, we’re already doing this.
So like, why would we pay for a certification?
You’re like, well, okay, well.
And then out of the other side of the mouth, you hear the argument.
I’m like, man, nobody really notices like, oh, we should be doing it.
I’m just like.
And so for me, like, I’ll start here and I’ll get into the ROI and some of that is like.
If you go on any company’s website, like we could pay the company right now.
I guarantee you there’s like an about us page that has like their mission and their values and like.
And if they make something, you’re just going to be a sustainability page.
She and she and has a sustainability page.
I can’t say that laughing.
Yeah, she and who like releases like 400 new product lines like our things per day or something,
whatever the horrible number is.
The king of fast or the queen of fast fashion has a sustainability page.
So anyway, everybody’s doing so as a consumer is become near impossible.
I mean, like it’s so noisy.
And unless you’re in this, like you and I can sniff out the BS really quickly.
Most people can’t.
So it all just sounds like white noise.
It’s all just jargon and like, I mean, like you look at the back of a bar of chocolate.
Like there’s some of some of these certifications.
They’re all natural.
I would hope so.
It’s a bar of chocolate.
How would it not be natural?
Like I heard a chocolate.
You’re telling me that one time.
I was like, what is it from outer space?
Like that doesn’t mean anything.
So people don’t none of it means that you’re you’re marketing.
None of it means anything to a consumer anymore.
None of it means anything to a potential employee.
Because we just assume everybody’s full of it.
I mean, that’s the way I look.
And I just roll my eyes at these commercials.
And like, oh, this is XYZ companies committed to serving their community.
And we do bloody block community service every quarter with our team.
I’m sure you do.
Great.
I’m guessing you do.
That’s awesome.
Oh, look at them.
They’re all in their company shirts.
Oh, look at the commercials.
They’re planting a tree.
Oh, my God.
Look at the diversity on that team.
Oh, my God.
This is a great company.
Like, it’s just all like you look like everybody else.
So to me, that’s the B-Corp value.
It’s like, oh, you’ve been vetted.
Okay.
I don’t really need to tell you much.
Like, I mean, I kind of tell my companies, like, my clients, I’m like, use it as a bundle.
One of these days, I’m going to do something with my B is for a bundle blog.
Hopefully it’s released by the time this comes out.
I’ve written it.
But use it to bring people back.
Like, when you’re talking about your impact, when you’re talking about your community,
when you’re talking about your, you know, your work in bringing in diverse teams
and diverse customers and creating safe spaces and being inclusively, bring it back to the B.
Because that will remind people that, like, you’re not just putting your PR and marketing team
on this campaign to make it sound fluffy.
Like, we do this because we’re a B-Corp.
We do this because it’s in our DNA.
And customers will, again, going back to what I said to open this.
I don’t need you to know what, I don’t need you to, all I need,
what I want somebody to take away from this episode as a consumer is recognizing that B.
And if you have option one or option two, one of them has a B-Corp logo
and you’re not sure which one to buy by the B-Corp logo.
If it’s Dr. Bronners or XYZ brand by Dr. Bronners.
If it’s all birds or Nike, buy the all birds.
Because at least it’s been vetted.
I don’t know.
Nike might be doing some great things.
I don’t know.
I wear Nike my whole life.
I probably still own some Nike’s.
But like, now it’s all birds.
It’s Tom Shoes.
It’s Patagonia.
It’s Olukais.
I bought some Olukais.
Those are awesome, by the way.
But yeah, I spent, you know, vote with your dollar.
So, that, I mean, that’s an easy ROI in this thing.
It’s a differentiating aspect of like, we get employees at my old job.
We hire fresh out of college and they just about all of them would say,
like, we can number one reason on the survey.
Why’d you come over here and be like B-Corp?
And then you get to orientation and be like, so who knows what a B-Corp is?
No.
But they wanted to work for a B-Corp.
So it’s like, the brand is valuable.
And honestly, I will say as well,
your business will be better for having gone through the process.
Somebody, I’ve been called multiple times.
They’re like, you’re more of like an operations consultant.
And I’m like, oh, thank you.
Because your brand’s going to be better.
You’re going to tell better stories at the end of this.
Because now you’re going to have quantifiable metrics.
You’re going to have KPIs, keep performance indicators.
That you run your company off of the artist sales and revenue.
And da-da-da, pipeline, funnel, and blah.
You’re still going to watch that stuff.
You’re running a for-profit business.
But you’re also going to be like, what are we on track for this year
and volunteer hours?
What percentage of revenue are we going to give away in pro bono product or service
or whatever are charitable donations?
How are we turning towards these things that we have committed our business to
that we stand for?
What percentage of our employees have volunteered?
All these different things.
But when you have that data now, I can tell better stories.
I can pitch it better to future employees.
It’s just, I don’t know, gives it more teeth.
And yeah, you go through some of these things and the process isn’t like.
Literally, when you boil it down the common denominators,
it’s everything we teach in a business school.
Good business.
Good business is good business.
I’m trying to beat that drum.
I’m going to make that my when you catch phrase.
Good business is good business.
Good business is good business.
I like that.
And I like vetted and vouched for.
What I’m sensing is, and I explore some of this in the book I wrote
YonEarth Community, there’s a chapter on demand about the power of consumer demand.
And so I’m sensing part of the business case in rationale for the executives and business owners
to go through the process is sure you’re going to get an advantage,
a competitive advantage in the marketplace with that recognition.
Secondly, which you just spoke to, the business itself may find some improvements and efficiencies
that contribute to the overall performance.
And then third, which to me is one of the most intriguing that you also spoke to
with those young interns and new hires coming in as the ability to attract and retain
better talent relative to the competition out there.
And I think of all the tipping points we’re seeing that last one is really one of the very interesting
as we go forward over the next five, 10 years.
And this competitive landscape worldwide is really shifting around these shared values
of environmental stewardship and social responsibility.
And it’s just it’s so exciting to think about all of this through the lens of business and economics.
Oh, and thank you for bringing that up because I was talking to a friend the other day
and like we’re you know all this stuff and you know and we’re recording this a couple of weeks
after Supreme Court decisions and people kind of asked me like well what do you think about this
or private industry that and then we’re just barely removed from the Bud Light controversy.
My response is bring it like let’s to quote my old quarterback from my Tampa Bay
Buccaneers let’s F and go like I want the battle.
I want like I’m these are both business school degrees.
Like I said it my Ted talk like I’m an unapologetic capitalist.
I think it’s the best system we’ve discovered I got family in East Germany.
Yeah, I want to get system like there’s not there’s like there’s nothing that drives innovation
like being rewarded for risks that you’re taking and and and putting yourself out there and risking failure
and like now capitalism off the rails is off the rails.
So like we can talk about that.
I’m not defending greedy capitalism.
I got plenty of Thomas Piketty on my bookshelf but capitalism is also like competition.
It’s free market.
It’s fair free market like you’re going to bring customers in and you don’t tell the customers which ones they have to shop at.
So if you want to run your business and never serve an LGBTQ customer and never employ one and then they’re like
I just want to see you over the next 20 years like let’s go.
Let’s have that battle.
I’m going to run my company’s B Corp.
I’m going to I’m going to I’m going to champion all the things we champion.
You continue to hate on DEI and hate on LGBTQ and don’t want don’t believe in climate change.
Like I just I just think you’re it’s you’re kind of like betting on the dinosaurs.
And I think I just I firmly believe that this next generation cares enough.
And if we you know market it the right way and talk about it the right way and and help people understand that it’s just good business.
I don’t think there’s a fight there.
I think it’s it’s it’s Mike Tyson punch out like no or whatever when you play the first round where you really have to be any good at the video game and you knock them out.
Like I just I firmly believe that but I kind of welcome it like let’s free market competition.
So like let’s let’s play by the rules that sometimes we don’t agree with.
Right.
I love I think that video game reference may have also been dating.
Oh, I dated ourselves.
Maybe that’s what I know you’re talking about.
Yeah.
And you know this this is so so interesting and relative to competitive advantage and market share.
It astonishes me to observe companies basically saying we only want to deal with a portion of the existing possible market share out there.
And it reminds me of a story my dad used to tell me from whom I inherited the what I think might be a genetic disease called entrepreneurialism or whatever.
And he was telling me a story he was involved in habitat for humanity for a number of years and sharing a story that with the leadership of Jimmy Carter and some of the others.
Someone you know raised a question at one of their conferences.
Hey if we accept a donation from so and so who maybe didn’t agree with the same cultural values or what have you.
Does it end up tainting our mission for habitat for humanity?
And it was I don’t know if I’m getting all the facts right in the stories is how I remember it.
I don’t know if it’s Jimmy Carter somebody else who said basically the only money that’s tainted is the money that taint hours.
And you know it’s it’s an interesting thing to consider for those of us participating in a competitive capitalist system.
And I love you know let the games begin bring it on I love that that sportsman like attitude let’s go.
Yeah I mean I just I just kind of look forward to settling the debate of you know it was Milton Friedman right in my right when I ran it’s about Milton Friedman.
You know I’d love to find out I mean and I just I that was kind of the point of my my Ted talk was just kind of that though like this is just capitalism like you know I mean even some of the stuff that’s happening right now like.
This isn’t this isn’t you know ESG whatever you all these trigger words now that these things that have become politicized like it’s just business.
Like it’s just it’s just and honestly right now I think the thing that people are in denial about is this is literally just people.
And it’s why I will never turn down a client like I always ask the question first question intake question.
Why be Corp what is it about certification interest you.
People say I think we can tell more I think it’s there’s a competitive advantage of this thing cool.
Okay that’s fine with me because you know I’m going to do I’m going to make a better we’re going to prove the experience that your workers have we’re going to make you more attractive employees we’re going to scale your impact that you’re making in your community we’re going to decrease your environmental impact.
Oh yeah you sell some more shareholder value we can drive shareholder value but your stakeholders can benefit as well so like you get into this debate of like where do you get into the like.
Do I like I want you to be in it for the periods of reasons and like I would love you to be.
But you’ve just proven that we’re right like the demand curve shifted that’s why you want to do it you do it because you realize it’s a business advantage cool.
Let’s go make your business better so I think sometimes we take a pure approach.
In the B Corp community it’s kind of why I always talk about capitalism too I’m like majority of people that do this like we’re still capitalist like but that word also has been I think probably not politicized but like.
And like contorted or whatever the word I’m looking for like manipulated a little bit on one side where it’s become this like horrible evil that is all things.
You know incoming inequality and all the things that’s grown to represent that it really is just what we’ve let it grow to represent not really what it is.
You know and you raise this in your book happy Monday.
Designing your dream career and I’m going to show this again.
We had so many cool designs that end up being opposed to the smiley face love it.
I actually love it you know and in here you speak about conscious capitalism and I think in many respects capitalism is the canvas right so to speak and what we choose to paint on the canvas as a culture as a society.
It’s really you know to reference a recent podcast episode with Tom Chi who’s managing a $450 portfolio with his company at one venture $450 million dollar portfolio.
You know economics is not a science it’s a design discipline like architecture and we get to design it we are designing it it’s design evolves through time and so to your point.
You know what we’re doing with capitalism is is a matter of what we want to be doing with capitalism and and it’s a not only a free market competition of goods and services but also of ideas right and we’re in this really exciting frothy time when some ideas are winning out over others and we’re seeing some of the
actions out there as a result of certain segments realizing they’re losing massive market share presently or about you and and so we’re seeing some of those convulsions some would say death throws coming from certain sectors which is interesting and I you know I want to in the book you
and I’m hoping you can unpack that a little bit for us further and then I want to ask you a question about what you know sets profitable purpose consulting apart in terms of competitive advantage but we’ll get to that second.
Yeah and I think that you know with conscious capitalism I mean speaking of it’s like it’s an art yeah it you know like you think I mean there’s conscious
organization’s John Mackie Whole Foods kind of started that whole movement and I do a lot with conscious capitalism Atlanta I mean it’s just a really again there’s no vetting process but I’ve I’ve yet to meet a bad person at a conscious capitalist movement like there’s just a great organization but like you know just the concept of conscious capitalism is exactly
like we consciously get to decide what what this looks like and again like you said there’s a there’s a there’s a demand curve who drives the demand curve like at the end of the day we the people have all the power like to do whatever we want with capitalism we
have purchasing power we spend our money we vote with where we want to work with how long we work there.
Um you kind of saw with a great resignation a little bit like in and so we have these opportunities to consciously decide what version of capitalism we want to live in.
Um and I think that’s where it and you know and I think we’ve done a disservice sometimes with the way we talk about.
Income inequality and the way we especially with the way we talk about climate change we scare people so much and we don’t.
Make them feel like their actions will matter.
And I think that’s where we were getting and you started to see more climate activists I know kind of take this approach of like trying to be more optimistic even though it’s slow but.
Oh for another time reverence over your quarter this the seven hottest days in the history of earth were in the last week.
Um so there’s a dire need but you know getting people to know that like hey you know just you stopping you know bringing reusable.
Toats to the to the grocery store and change it.
Daggum thing I’m going to sell daggum uh doesn’t change the daggum thing but.
If I start doing it and you start doing it and a hundred thousand people start doing it and a million people start doing it like thinking a little more intentionally around those lines like so same thing with like.
What difference does it make if I stop.
I should stop bashing she in let me pick another brand I don’t know.
I didn’t even heard of that that’ll.
Oh it’s fashion as worse anyway.
Blinders on the fact that they also got like.
No charge or equal lawsuit today um but like whatever if I if I stop shopping from XYZ company what difference is it going to make.
Well if I stop shopping there you stop shopping there now you got a problem I mean you saw it kind of with what happened above late like a bunch of people collectively stop buying it.
And now if we can do that for good instead of punishing people for supporting LGBT.
That one is I’m not touching that one on this episode give me some time to digest it but like if we can do that same collective activism for good.
And all the side that we’re going to start buying all birds moonshot shoes that are like no literally like carbon not carbon neutral they’re like.
Zero mission I don’t know how you made a shoe like that but it’s cool and then they share their playbook with everybody but let’s reward them for that.
Let’s drive those companies like let’s make that business case by by shopping with our values by acting with our values by taking the small little.
Things that we need to do to reverse climate change like let’s start all collectively doing these things and let’s start all collectively supporting.
The other people doing these things and I think then you’re you’re driving the demand curve.
And the direction where sorry capitalism is going to fall the demand curve it’s always going to fall the demand curve that’s that’s it so consciously making those decisions and consciously.
You know pushing the world in direction even if it’s just you right now but then you and you tell a friend and like just those ripples like you have to believe in ripples and I always tell people.
You know like my favorite adaptation adapted.
What’s the word I’m looking for adaptation of the quote is be the change you want to see in the world even if you’re alive to see it like I think sometimes we don’t.
We think it has to be done like tomorrow and if it doesn’t then it’s not pure enough when we cancel everything and like I think we have to take more.
Stances on like what does this look like in 10 years to solve not saying that that’s really applies to climate change because that’s a now.
But I think some of our problems we have.
I’m going to solve them because we’ve wanted like the miracle, like the guy in the boat
where he puts the screen door on the boat and they spray it with the thing.
He’s like, hey, look, there’s flex seal or whatever.
You know, like, we need to think about maybe taking that apart and building a new boat.
It’s just going to be longer until we can get back out on the water.
And yes, I just made a flex seal analogy from a scene on TV product.
There you go, folks.
I love it.
Yeah, love it, Nathan.
It’s definitely wonderful.
Let me get to that second question.
So recognizing that there are more and more consultants out there who are pivoting into
this space, which we sort of broadly call the regeneration renaissance as it applies
to culture, ecology, and economy, which is really exciting to see what sets you apart,
your profitable purpose consulting business from others that are out there and maybe
a little newer to the game.
Yeah, that’s a great question.
I mean, rule number one, obviously, you get stories about flex seal.
I’m here in there.
Yeah, I went to some Southern charm, even though I was born in Michigan and grew up
in Miami, but I’ve been here now longer than I’ve been anywhere.
And you get me around Southern people and it really comes out.
So what y’all get when you partner with PPC, obviously, I think a lot of is the experience.
And there’s people ahead of me that have been doing this longer and that, you know, and
honestly, it’s a really cool thing about this ecosystem is that abundance mindset where
like, I have friends that have helped me that are in the same space as me.
Yeah, and some of them have like employees in my backyard where they’re like, they’ve
always been like abundance mindset with that thought of like, hey, we can grow the pie
together.
And then we get bigger pieces of pie instead of trying to protect our little tiny sliver
of pie right now.
They’re only 7,000 B Corps in the world.
There’s a lot more companies than 7,000.
There’s a lot of food on the table.
But I think what separates me is, I mean, in the southeast on the guy that’s just been
doing it.
And we talk about like, I had a client tell me this the other day and he said, you know,
the coolest thing, and this is just our first meeting, is they’re like, holy, like you’ve,
not only are you like connected to like, you know, his people and culture officer.
I was like, oh, you should come to the culture and talent collective call.
I started it back in 2018 because there’s just like a void.
So I just like started this call.
I still run it.
And he was like, that’s what you do.
What?
He’s like, you been running a call for five years?
I was like, yeah, no, I was just kind of like the culture person’s not HR, but you have
HR.
So we created a call.
And then he’s like, yeah, our CEO is in the outer banks of North Carolina.
I was like, oh, you should come to Raleigh.
Like we’re doing this B Corp Commerce, I’m the executive director of playing this whole
regional, southeastern B Corp Commerce.
And I was like, dude, you literally though are like an ecosystem building.
You just see it and build it.
So not only are you like connected to it and know who to introduce, like you are the
guy that should be, we need to be introduced to.
So I think that’s the biggest thing is like, and I didn’t do any of that.
Like, I never thought I was going to be an entrepreneur.
Like I don’t know.
I mean, I guess I didn’t think I wouldn’t be.
I just kind of, I’m not like Yvonne Chinard, like accidental entrepreneur, like I’m not
panagonia.
Hopefully maybe one day.
I don’t know.
But all these things I was doing were just like me kind of going like, ah, we could use
like B local Georgia.
Like, why don’t we have a B local in Georgia?
Like, how does it start to be local Georgia?
You know, like build Southeast, like I’ve been, I went to build Mountain West from Denver
in 2019.
May or may not have had to do with the head and the heart playing on a Wednesday night
in the conference on a Thursday, but whatever.
Sometimes you need to go to Red Rocks.
I went to, I went to build Mountain West and I was like, this is so cool.
And then of course, you know, I’m like, maybe we should do a build in like Georgia.
I don’t know.
I’m going to have an B corpse.
You know, they’re B corpse in New Mexico and Idaho and Utah.
And I was like, what do we do?
Like build Southeast, but like being COVID hits.
You know, like, what do we just, like, that would be perfect trial.
Let’s just do a virtual one.
And so like, nah, we’re in year three.
Like this will be our third built Southeast and our first one in person.
And again, 2020, I was happily employed.
Wasn’t thinking about a consulting career.
Wasn’t like, I mean, I was still happily employed when I left, but I was like growing
this business.
So I think that’s the cool.
That’s the differentiating factors.
Like through that work, I just know everybody.
So like, what’s the value?
I’d ask yourself that.
And I’m not saying I’m the greatest consultant.
I’m not saying that anybody else is like terrible at it.
I mean, there’s plenty of people who are super well connected, but like, I mean, I have
a new client.
And I immediately put like a bunch of their thank you, their, their, their, their product.
I put them in our, our speaker thank you bags for the conference in September because
I’m like, well, I’ve only knew somebody who needed to buy 40 of those right now.
Oh, I do.
Um, we’re our conference.
So I think that’s the big piece of like, just ask yourself like, can they, because that’s
the ROI too is in the community.
Like, yeah, it’s like your customers are going to be aware of it, but like, I’m trying
to build this whole thing where we’re all like doing business with each other like this
circular B economy.
So like, can I introduce you to anybody?
Can they open the doors?
Do people like them?
Um, like, and there’s some other consultants that I can like, Carolina Miranda is one of
those that like, anybody will make time for Carolina Miranda.
She is a great choice as a consultant like me, but people will make, like, find those
people too.
They can really get you into the community and get you introduced open some doors for
you and kind of take away the newness or the whole, like, the, the struggle of kind
of like, save you years off of all the networking that people like Carolina had to do, um, to
get that reputation as, as a community builder.
So anyway, that kind of it, and this cool logo, super cool logo, how much people pay for
logos?
I pay the college student $250.
That’s dope and tight.
You wanted to get graphic experience.
Those like, even the logo for me, and I’m like, and it was so basic, I was like, it’s
perfect.
I really like it.
Yeah.
It’s for me.
I’m going to have to get, get one of those hats.
The best part is my bookkeeper was like, said this was, she originally saw the, because
what did I buy this from New Year or whatever?
And she was like, it’s the only non-beak or thing I’m wearing, I’m sorry.
But no, she saw it and she put a, like, owner, owner disbursement or whatever.
I’m like, take the file, the charge away, and I was like, that’s, and then I was wearing
the hat one day.
She’s like, I like your hat.
I was like, yeah.
I was like, I bought it for the, you know, this is my logo and she was like, oh, I need
to recategorize that to marketing expense.
Yeah.
For sure.
But I was actually going to a conference in New Orleans and my friend down there was like,
don’t bring any of that Atlanta stuff down in New Orleans.
And I was like, I got, so I ordered the hat and stayed.
I was like, let me just come down.
So now it’s kind of become the, this and the red sport coat that’s kind of become the
thing.
They get nice.
I want to, I want to make sure to ask, so you mentioned you’re hosting this, this meetup,
this call regarding culture and so on.
How often does that occur and how can people connect in with that if they want to?
Um, so we’ve been doing it, I had one an hour ago.
Um, we do it on the second Friday of every month, second, it’s kind of like closed
B Corp community, but like if you’re working on B Corp or like in the queue or going through
the assessment, we usually, like, we don’t, we’re not like super stringent on, um, you
must be this B Corp to ride the ride.
Um, and then I forget, like we can put it in the show notes, like we have an event right
now that we use, like we don’t have a website or anything, um, we never record the call
because it’s supposed to be a safe space, um, this, you know, you’re sharing HR stories,
culture stories, employee stories, um, we just don’t, we, we just never have, never
recorded people.
I was like, Oh, did you record?
I’m sure there’s a lot of good takeaways.
I mean, yep, should have been there.
Yeah.
Sorry.
Yeah.
So yeah, it’s been, it’s been fun.
It’s a safe space for people who aren’t, especially like when the B Corp, we call
B Keepers.
Um, it’s like the person you sign to the role of like, I don’t know, your certification
and then kind of like maintaining because every three years you have to recertify.
So those B Keepers end up having a lot of like HRE metrics.
And then they have no shirm background or anything like that.
So they’re kind of like all of a sudden you’re in charge of like, employee engagement,
you’re like, what the hell is employee engagement?
So like you’re scrambled like, so that’s kind of where we were like, you know, maybe it
would be nice if we all got together and honestly, some of the people on the call are
traditional HR, some of our recruiters and then a lot of them are B Keepers or the person
in charge of the culture.
So like we all get to learn from each other and you know, traditionally HR sometimes
isn’t as in tune with like the culture and versus somebody who’s doing culture who might
not be like, oh, we have to check all these 38 boxes to get our, you know, based candidate
on board.
Like there’s, there’s different personalities in that in those roles.
So that’s great.
Yeah, it reminds me a little of our monthly ambassador online regeneration renaissance roundtable
meetup.
We do the first Sunday of each month at 11, 33 a.m. mountain time.
And most of who joins for that call is our ambassadors, fully activated ambassadors.
But several are in the process of getting activated or a little newer to the community
in the network.
Yeah, it’s, it’s not like we exclude people, you know, based on checking certain boxes.
It’s all about collaboration and community and connection.
And so yeah, I’m psych, we can share if you want us to the, whatever, you know, whatever
the right way for people to connect with you about potentially joining your monthly
call would be great.
And we’ve got a number of other links, your website that will include in the show notes
as well.
Remind folks, this is the YonEarth community podcast.
I’m your host, Aaron William Perry.
Today we’re visiting with the founder of profitable purpose consulting, Nathan stuck in
Georgia and want to be sure to mention that you can connect with Nathan through his profitable
purpose consulting dot com website.
Also, there’s B local Georgia dot com.
We’ve got a handful of handles in social media linked in.
And also B impact assessment dot net.
Nathan had shared with me before we started recording for anybody who’d like to get engaged
with the process of the B certification framework.
And want to give a shout out to our sponsors who make our podcast series possible as well
as the rest of our regeneration renaissance work that we’re doing nationwide and internationally
with our network of ambassadors and collaborators in our sponsors include Chelsea green publishing.
We’ve got a 35% discount on all of their books printed audio books, et cetera, available
through our website.
Winers dot org.
Just go to the partners and supporters page.
You’ll find Chelsea green also purium organic super foods.
I love them.
I’m enjoying them every day now for a year, nutritious, delicious, amazing product place
and I like it.
Yeah.
Puriums great.
We’ve had an episode with founder David sand of all earth hero sustainability products.
Pretty sure they’re be certified.
Earth coast productions, wheylay waters, our biodynamically grown hemp infused aromatherapy
soaking salts, soil works, our biodynamic soil amendment and, of course, a special
shout out to all of our ambassadors who have joined our monthly giving program.
And if you haven’t yet joined in, you’d like to join any level that works well for
you.
Just go to the supporter donate button on the website.
And if you contribute at $33 a creator per month, we’re happy to send you a jar of the
wheylay waters soaking salts that we make in partnership with some of the regenerative
and biodynamic farms are connected to here in Colorado.
And of course, a very special shout out to our friends at 1% for the planet as well.
And Nathan, I’m just filling up my paper here with notes to write the summary when we
publish and I’m really I’m so excited.
It gives me a particular type of joy when we’re so succinctly and in such a focused
manner, joining the cultural and the I would call even aesthetic aspects of sustainability
stewardship regeneration, well-being, et cetera, with the economic and there’s so much
power and magic here that we get to leverage as human beings and mobilize and we’re seeing
so much good change occurring underway in the world and so much more that we can all help
facilitate amplify, activate.
And I’m just I’m thrilled by all your resources.
I wanted to also ask if folks want to see your TED talk.
What’s the best way for them to track that down?
I’m pretty sure you can just Google TEDx Nathan’s stuff.
I’m pretty sure it was it TEDx Folsom so I’m pretty yeah, I’m 99% sure that should get
you there.
Okay.
That’s great.
And by the way, I mean, I can get I can shoot you the link to if you want to put them
in the show notes.
Yeah, let’s do that.
That actually be even better.
Yeah.
And Nathan, you and I have had a number of conversations over the last year and we’ve
even dropped a few German words with each other and you come from a German heritage and
background and spend quite a bit of time in Europe.
And I was so happy just out of curiosity because I didn’t know this off of the top of
my head.
I was like, I wonder which took means and looked it up and it is stuff.
Oh, it’s like a natural building material and or a piece of something, right?
Like a piece of fabric or whatever it might be.
Or something I was called as a hockey referee for years.
A piece.
Okay.
Okay.
It’s a very versatile term, I guess, but I just I also love one of the ways that you
seem to bring this a genius to this focal point, this nexus is your ability to interface
with so many different cultures, subcultures, right?
Whether we’re talking about the south, the southeast and here in the United States, we’re
talking about the various cultures in Europe and elsewhere.
And I wanted to just kind of ask you, like, what is it about you and maybe we’ll dive
a little deeper into this during our behind the scenes segment that we share with our ambassadors?
You know, what is it about you and your background and your maybe it’s something special in
your childhood that has given you this gift of being able to relate to and interact
with so many different diverse groups of people?
You know, a couple years ago, I probably said I have no idea and I had a friend in Atlanta.
Oh, my friend LeBon asked me, she’s like, Nathan, where are you from?
And I was like, Miami, she went, that makes so much sense.
And I was like, well, sorry, what?
She’s like, you just fit in, like wherever you go, like you walk in a room and you just
blend right in, you know, you’re not, it’s not awkward, like, and especially sometimes
in Atlanta, some events I go to, I’m like, I might be one of like three or four white
people in the room.
That’s normal, except in Miami, it was, they were like South American, Cuban, Dominican,
like, I played baseball, so you’re like, practice was in Spanish.
So there’s nothing weird about that to me to walk into that room and just go like, oh,
cool.
Hi, Nathan, nice to meet you.
Like, so I think that’s part of it.
And then, you know, and then like, mom, I mean mom wasn’t, she came over when she
was five, so I can’t say mom was, I mean she technically was off the boat, like literally
because it was in the 50s, so she, they took a boat.
But like, Omanopa, like, German side, like towards the end too, like, I mean, I learned
German to be able to understand their fights as a, like, learning German, then I was like,
oh, I’m going to go over to Europe and like, so I discovered this whole, like, German heritage
and like, and I understand the culture and like, Omanopa, like, take your shoes off when
you walk in the house, put on your house shoes, like, all those little things, like, I
don’t know, and like, that got me into soccer, so that gets, and that’s a whole other cultural
bonding experience when you’re sitting at a table, like a world cup, just like watching
games in a bar, but like, these people are Chinese and these people are South African
and these people are from Denmark and like, so I don’t know, I guess that’s kind of my
answer is maybe the fact that like, yeah, I, the Germanness plus Miami, it’s just kind
of like, and then probably 20 years in the South.
And then even like the Midwestern though, like, you know, that’s when we’re both my parents
grew up.
So like, you can drop me off in like, Bay City, Michigan where my dad’s from and I can,
you know, saddle up to the bar and make friends there.
So like, I don’t know, maybe I’m just like, normed from cheers, love it, it was a little
rosters, never met a stranger.
And obviously a little sense of humor goes a long way and then start to think, but you
really, you really have a gif, man, and I admire it and, you know, another thing I really
admire about you in the handful of calls we’ve had catching you walking to yet another
volunteer meeting, you’re, you’re so involved in the community and you’re a busy entrepreneur
obviously very focused on the work you’re doing, what you’re doing for your clients, your
bottom line growing, your business.
And you’re making a lot of time for volunteering in various organizations in your community.
And I think that, you know, this is, this is part of the magic that probably more and
more of us can experience and enjoy in terms of our quality of life and connections and
relationships.
But the way you, you manage all of that is, is really admirable.
Thank you.
Yeah.
No, I’m on pace.
Keep a spreadsheet.
Well, I’m also a b-court by a track, my metrics, I’m on pace for 540 volunteer hours
this year, which hopefully will taper down after September when the conference hits.
But I guess, well, when you’re listening to this, that hopefully it has tapered down already.
But yeah, I mean, it’s just one of those two where it’s just like, I don’t, like, the
older you get, the more you realize it’s like, you know, you’re younger in your career
and you’re like, I don’t know why they just don’t do this, I don’t know why they just
don’t do that.
They should change this policy and you’re like, change it, they’ll do it.
Like, you know, like, and you’d be like, Nathan, just complains about you, like, everybody
just thinks I’m a complainer.
I’m just pointing out what’s wrong and not stepping up to actually do any of the work.
That’s why you’re labeled as a complainer.
So I think like, you get to this, like, you get older and like, luckily the sun’s kind
of gone down.
Some of my beard looks less gray now, but you get older, you get this perspective of like,
if you’re going to say something or complain about something, you better be willing to do
it.
You better be willing to do the work needed, like I had lunch with some people yesterday
and I was like, look, I don’t need another initiative.
I just want to know, how can I plug in to help with whatever wheel you’re building?
Because I don’t need it.
We don’t need another organization.
I don’t need to, but, you know, you start to look at like, if I’m going to sit here
and say, like, oh, Athens lacks this like entrepreneurial, like organizing entity,
high economic development folks, high chamber of commerce folks.
What’s missing?
How can I help?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I’m not just sitting here just like complaining on Athens.
Well, Athens will never get better because we don’t have this.
It’s like, oh, Athens needs this and I don’t know, I roll off a nonprofit board next
year.
Maybe I have the bandwidth.
So, I just kind of maybe that, I mean, of all the calls to action, that might be my
favorite one of like, like if you see it, to do it, if it needs fixing, don’t walk
by it.
You know, if there’s peace of traction in the road, bend over and pick it up, like, you
know, just kind of stop with, I mean, that’s kind of how we got ourselves into this
mess.
Or somebody going to clean up after whatever it is, somebody else will fix it, somebody
else will clean up, somebody else will take the initiative and it’s like, just do it.
And people will respect it.
Like, I mean, and you think about it too, like even volunteering, like, how many, I
mean, I have a, I have a client that I met volunteering at a community farm that happened
to be an entrepreneur.
Also, like, oh, this actually is a pretty good networking too.
Is that here cutting down English ivy or no, it was Kudzu, we were cutting down and then
it was like, oh, kept talking for another two hours.
Three years later, she calls me up and says, hey, I think we’re ready to certify as a
B-Corp.
I’m like, oh.
Yeah.
I love it.
I love it.
As we say in the permaculture world, stacked functions, right?
Whatever we’re doing, anything that seems social, it’s also connected to our work, our purpose,
our permission, all these different things are interconnected.
Yeah.
I mean, and that’s, so you put good out in the world.
I mean, all I’m going to say is in the last seven years since I got my MBA, I’ve been
focused on putting good in the world and connecting, you know, never looking for anything
in return.
You just do good.
Connect this person to that person.
Do this.
And man, the reciprocity that has hit me of just good finding me.
But you’re kind of putting yourselves in that, you know, like you create your own look.
So I mean, I think there’s a karma justice to good returning to you.
But I think there’s also like you’re putting yourself in that situation to meet a client
because you went and volunteered for no reason other than you wanted to.
I didn’t go looking expecting like, well, I hope I rub business cards today.
I’m like, no, I’m wearing my worst clothes and nothing low-goat, no, nothing.
I’m ready to like, what’s my task today?
I’m like, no, oh god, cuss you.
No, like I think that’s just, I think people just put good out in the world and see
what happens.
Love it.
Yep.
Love it.
Yes.
One of the subtler aspects of the maybe the law of attraction that, you know, some of us
are consciously cultivating and what you’re describing and what you’re embodying reminds
me of one of my favorite points you make in your book.
In addition to speaking about humility and here’s the book once more happy Monday designing
your dream career.
In addition to speaking about humility, you say that it’s about working harder on ourselves
than on our jobs, right?
And man, that I think is the, for leadership, for efficacy professionally, I think this
is the secret sauce.
Well, and it’s a Jim Rohn quote, learn to work harder on yourself than you’re doing your
job.
If you work harder on your job, you’ll make a living.
If you work harder on yourself, you’ll make a fortune.
And you know, and honestly, too, it’s funny because our culture and talent collective
call today, we talked about like, how do we, how do we manage the pendulum swing back
from employer, employee market to employer market, and we’re, you know, how do we kind
of like land it in the sweet spot?
And then we kind of got into talking about like, you know, some of the coddling and some
of the, like, you, you have this, you know, when you’re younger and you have this desire
to like want to see sweet, you know, and everybody thinks it’s like, oh, this next generation,
no, we were the same way.
We were dumb.
We didn’t know what we were talking about.
Like, sure, I should run an enterprise rent car with three years of professional experience.
Sure, they all make some great decisions.
Like I was the same way at 25, but like, I think right now where I’ve seen some of the,
and I mean, I literally said this week had an article published on medium about social
impact burnout.
And where I want to make sure that we talk about is like, social impact, like, all
of this stuff, like, it’s an awareness of the mental health issue.
It’s awareness of burnout.
It’s an awareness that to eliminate this, I’m in no way advocating for people to just
like, oh, we should all just like, you know, if you like get like, I don’t know, put
him like 30 hours a week, like, you get there.
Like, anybody who’s built a business, like, it is hard.
I didn’t have these grades before I started this business, it’s hard work.
I got bags in my eyes.
I was Friday night that we were recording this.
I will be working tonight because I didn’t get to all my clients stuff today.
Like, it requires hard work.
And it requires any CEO, any, like, it’s not about the work.
It’s about what are you getting out of the work?
And like, how are you setting yourself up for future success?
So like, that quote to me now hits home where I’m like, is I wrote the book I started
thinking about like, huh, yeah, I must have a lot in myself in my 20s.
I was also working really hard, like, even enterprise, 50, 60 hours, but I got really
good at managing numbers.
Like, all those things when at the time, you’re like, oh, I’m just working hard for somebody
else at enterprise.
I was taking away a lot.
And when I was doing sales, I was working really hard for enterprise.
And now it’s like sales, I develop sales skills, I got really good at pitches and phone
calls and how to talk to people and read personality types and adjusts and mirror and all these
things where you’re like, and then, you know, all of a sudden, you’re an entrepreneur
later in life.
You’re like, oh, I have to manage all these numbers.
Oh, I have to sell, I am the sales team now.
So like, put the hours in and when you’re young, like, even if it’s not what you want
to do forever, like, put those hours in and learn and become the best, try to be the best
you can be at whatever you’re doing.
And you won’t know why yet.
But investing in like the skill building, stop looking at it as like, oh, man, like, you
know, don’t sign up to just wash cars in the back if you work at enterprise, sign up
to like, run the daily report and look through the numbers and make sure all this stuff,
you know, like, sign up for the thing that’s going to teach you more that’s going to set
you up for future success, read the books, go to the seminars, go to the conferences,
take your, you know, invite your boss out for coffee to pick their brain, like, those types
of things, like, make yourself better all the time and invest in yourself because it
will pay off.
But I think we’re in a weird way with all the stuff we’re doing with mental health and,
you know, you’ve social impact right now.
We’re like, Tom, people, hey, it’s okay, just like, like, four day work week, like seven
hour days, just like 28 hours, like, you’ll totally, and like, I don’t know if we’re doing
a service or a disservice to people when it’s like, you know, I think we need to be talking
more about like, hey, when you’re at where I am, tomorrow is a computer free day for me.
We’re going to Atlanta, we’re going to hang out with some friends, like, no, when you’re
burning out and how to step back versus just like, hey, no, like, you’re going to make
it in life if you don’t really, you don’t really have to do a whole lot.
Like, I just kind of, you know, without it sounding like this horrible, like, thing where
like, you must work until your knuckles bleed, right?
I think we have to figure out how we walk that line.
But I think that it’s important that that our young listeners, not only for ease, so
I’m still learning, but know that, like, make those investments in yourself, like, outwork
the competition.
Like, that’s still a thing.
Like, I work the, you don’t have to be working all the time, but I work the competition
and know when it’s time to take a break.
That makes sense.
Yeah, sage advice, sage advice, and Nathan and I, yeah, I so appreciate it.
And, you know, before we wrap up the podcast interview, I have one more question I want
to ask about your website and we’re also going to do a little behind the scenes segment
for our ambassador network.
And if you’re interested, audience in becoming an ambassador and connecting in and getting
access to our behind the scene discussions with many of our podcast guests and exclusive
videos, recordings, and we actually do record our monthly meetups, but those recordings
are available only to our activated ambassadors and they really are a treasure trove.
You can, you can connect with the Y on earth community at Y on earth.org to engage with
us in that manner.
And I’m looking forward, Nathan, to picking up a couple of these threads in our behind
the scenes piece here in just a few minutes.
But before we wrap up, I do want to ask one final question about your website.
It really struck me.
I’d love to hear more and make sure I understand two of the offerings you have, their accelerator,
cohort certifications, and fractional leadership.
Can you just briefly walk us through what those two things are?
If you are a foundation, they would like to pay for a cohort of companies to go through.
We would love to talk to you.
So we’ve done a couple funded, like, I mean, accelerators probably lose serum because it’s
not a traditional, like, startup accelerator that’s more of a, we did one in Birmingham with
a foundation there where we got five companies through and we worked with them.
We called it Certified and Storytelling.
No, it’s got that little Southern twist.
But my business partner, Twana and I, who we, we’re not, we have our own separate businesses
and we collaborate all time.
So I don’t know if that’s a business partner or a collaborator, collaborative partner.
But Twana and I, and she’s a storyteller by nature and I’m a beekeeper by nature.
So I worked with them on the certification and she worked with them on the kind of the
storytelling and what’s the brand and how’s this going to, how are we going to work bee
corp into our existing brand and just beyond that.
So we’ve got, I think we ended up submitting four of the five companies that went through
it and one of them is, one of them, I think we have a verification call coming up.
So hopefully by the time it was out, four of them are certified and then we, in Atlanta,
we did another one similar with three companies, excuse me.
And we had actually, it was a small business, an SBA grant to an organization and then
I got chosen to come in and do the work so we helped them do it.
So we’ve been trying to push more and more of those and trying to identify foundations
and things where it’s like, especially in the south where, you know, we were able
of those eight companies that we worked with seven were, all eight were female and seven
were BIPOC owned.
So like talking about like bringing diversity into this community and I’m making it, you
know, some of the accessibility and inclusivity, you know, where it’s like, you know, especially
when you’re talking like, you know, one to your old company is 50,000 revenue, as soon
to spend 10,000, $15,000 on a bee corp consultant, it’s kind of a, it’s all to ask that somebody
else can write that check for them and make their business better along the way.
Like, okay, let’s do that all day every day.
So that’s the accelerator cohorts and then, rational leadership, honestly, I’ve had
a couple of clients take me up on this, even my whole job, actually, where once we’ve
finished the bee corp thing, it’s like, okay, what do we do next?
Cool.
And so they end up kind of keeping us on to do some of that work as they kind of figure
out like, what is next?
Well, here’s our, you know, we’re going to put together our culture calendar for the
year.
We’re going to do all the stuff I used to do my whole job where I’m like, well, we could
continue like, we could be your beekeeper internally.
Or at least direct the beekeeper.
And some people will keep me on for like three months to just kind of like, okay, so we’ve
identified person X is going to be the beekeeper will for the first three months, let me work
with them and be, and make them available, you know, or make me available to them.
So when they have questions and they don’t know what to do or they don’t know where to
go or they need an introduction that I’m still there and I’m not, you know, doing everything,
which I will do the majority of those in introductions, but it’s kind of a nice gesture
when I can bill you for a bunch of time that at some point, oh, I need three introductions.
Well, that’s probably 30 minutes of my time at seven, 30, so nice to bill you.
So that’s kind of the fractional stuff and then obviously it goes beyond that too.
Some people want me to actually want us to come in and really build out like the culture
roadmap and really be like full time fractional culture officer.
So yeah, runs the gamut.
Super valuable services you’re offering there and I imagine most of our audience knows
the term BIPOC, black and indigenous people of color just in case anybody was not clear
on what that is.
Nathan, it’s so, so great visiting with you, man, and so great what you’re doing.
Excited about our connection and growing collaboration and excited to share this discussion
with the world before we sign off, I just, I want to give you the floor if there’s anything
else that you’d like to say.
Ooh, I suppose I think it’s something noble.
If you’re looking at the wall behind me, I don’t know, go dogs, no, I think I will just
say, you know, as you go out there, like the business owners, people, like we have a more
power than we think to shape the world and the way we want it to be.
But it starts with each one of us making those right decisions and not waiting on others
to do that for us.
So be a leader and not a follower, lead others into those decisions and lead by example by
making them and don’t always look for their reward and don’t always put the spotlight
on yourself.
Good things will come out of that.
Uh-oh, Amen, Samo, be right on, yeah, brother.
That’s one of those where you’re like, Blue Yeti drop.
Boom.
Mine’s black.
Or is Blue the brand?
Blue is the brand.
Yeah.
Blue Yeti, I don’t know.
Somebody told me this is like the premiere podcast scene.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The very same thing over here.
Um, this is so great.
Nathan, yeah.
Well, we’ll conclude the episode there.
Here’s this one.
We’ll conclude the episode here and then do our little behind the scenes segments.
So thanks to everybody for tuning in and thanks Nathan for taking the time to visit with
us today.
See you, man.
Absolutely.
Thank you.
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