Mond Qu is a designer, animator, and digital craftsman who works between disciplines to explore solutions for contemporary issues through design. His projects and experiments upend the status quo, challenge norms, and explore a brighter future. 

Mond is dedicated to building a world and future that we all want to live in and he uses waste, immersive experiences, and the physical world as touchpoints for his work. In our conversation, he unpacks his thoughts on the relationship between art and design, the role of a designer, and how he views the creative process. We chat about a few of his recent works and his current interest in sustainable homes and furniture. 

Mond shares his ideas on how priorities can be mapped out, about the layers that go into good design and the need for a variety of perspectives instead of a uniform solution. Our conversation explores what the future of design looks like and the idea of overlap between the physical and digital worlds that we might witness in our lifetimes. We finish off with some thoughts from Mond on the current state of the world and how he is choosing to react to the coronavirus pandemic. 

The world of documentary film is a particularly powerful avenue for social impact. Today’s guest, Louie Psihoyos, is an example of someone that has figured out how to make a massive impact through storytelling and cinema. Louie made waves with his first film, The Cove. Sweeping awards and informing a worldwide audience on terrible dolphin hunting practices in Japan — his film helped to reduce dolphin hunting by 90%. Since then, Louie has continued to create numerous award-winning documentaries around the conservation movement that have reached millions, if not billions.

Louie was a National Geographic photographer for 18 years and was involved in helping to kickstart the recycling movement with his photography. In 2005, he started the Oceanic Preservation Society and since then has used film as his main weapon for conservation. Louie exemplifies the dream of so many filmmakers: moving hearts and changing minds. In our conversation, we do a deep dive into his philosophy towards film and activism and his rules for making an impactful piece of art. He shares the important ingredients that go into his projects and what it takes to ignite social movements — and ultimately — positive change. We cover the practical side of this and get into the pros and cons of defining oneself as an environmental activist. For this inspiring conversation with a true legend, listen at one of the below links:

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Realizing a big business ambition does not have to come at the cost of the planet’s well-being. In fact, the best way is to bring in revenue while being ethical at the same time. Today’s guest is Adrian Solgaard, whose sustainable travel company, Solgaard, removes five pounds of plastic from the ocean for every single product that they sell. 

Adrian is a serial entrepreneur that has done a little bit of everything, from running a creative agency to launching bicycle locks on Kickstarter, but the reason he joins us today is because of his latest social enterprise. In it, he uses business in service of the planet by helping clear China’s Yangtze river of plastic and recycling it into products, bricks, and energy too! 

In our conversation with Adrian, we talk about what it takes to get ideas of this proportion off the ground and all the lessons he has learned along the way. He is a big believer in the power of collaboration, speaking about how he couldn’t achieve his vision without finding experts to help, and how powerful storytelling is critical to winning them over to his cause. 

Another big takeaway from today is that Adrian's solutions mindset is contingent on him being able to ask the right questions. We also talk to him about motivation, aiming high versus doing things step by step, and why he decided to raise so much capital on Kickstarter rather than get a regular job while penniless and sleeping on his friend’s couch! 

Follow along and be inspired by Adrian’s work and ideas today! Check out the episode on any of the following platforms:

It feels as though the major advent of virtual reality has been bubbling up to the surface for some time. Our guest today is Trent Clews-de Castella, cofounder of Phoria. He is here to give us a glimpse into the not-too-distant future and the potential impact of the VR space, as well as the adjacent technologies of augmented reality and mixed reality! 

Phoria uses the latest technology in the field for therapeutic interventions to help individuals ease pain, anxiety, and drug use. They also aim to create sustained behavioral change for a variety of conservational causes! The company’s aim is to make a difference in the healthcare space as well, using VR experiences in the clinical trials framework to remove the need for anesthetic, an initiative we at Impact Everywhere find particularly inspiring. In this conversation with Trent, we get to hear about some important landmark events in the history of virtual reality technology, how a background in psychology has driven his recent work, and the centrality of user experiences in ensuring the success of projects. Trent and his team are certainly at the forefront of what is happening in the space, and the sheer amount of potential for changing lives is quite staggering. This is an episode you are not going to want to miss, so tune in (at any of the below links) to hear what he has to say!

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We can all positively impact the world and these changes can take many forms. While many of us may not have the opportunity to make large, structural changes, we all have control over the relational impact we make. This means being mindful about the way you show up daily and being intentional with your interactions.

On the fifth episode of Impact Everywhere, we hear from Eugene Wong, a Culture Shaper who believes that all of us have the power to bring about positive change. Drawing on a unique skill set and experience, he empowers people to impact their spheres of influence more effectively. He has worked as a lawyer, a social worker, a theater producer, in local government and in not-for-profits.

In this episode, Eugene talks about making a difference in the world, and shares his personal journey of how he transitioned from a corporate career to a life of service. Despite how disparate these worlds seemed, he noticed parallels between the two and came to the realization that at the end of the day, everyone wants to be seen. He shares more about his work with homeless people, the Flourishing Framework he draws on to help people live richer lives, and why he believes that everyone can be helped. Eugene firmly maintains that each of us has a light within us, and no matter how dim it might seem, it’s still shining. This was a powerful conversation, so we hope you tune in today!

Listen at any of the following platforms, or for those of you who prefer to read, see our brief summary below.

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The 3 ways a person can have an impact on the world:

1. The glamorous way (changing world in a big way)
2. Helping systems to work more efficiently, and doing it with integrity
3. Improving the lives of those around you by simply being yourself (bringing positive energy improves how individuals and groups work)

6 things that every person needs to flourish:

1. Having basic needs met on a day-to-day basis
2. A sense of belonging
3. The ability to contribute to society and feel like your contribution is actually valued
4. A sense of purpose
5. The opportunity to celebrate and lament communally
6. Spirituality or higher sense of meaning beyond ourselves

The biggest difference between being a consumer and being a creator:

As a society we are trained to be consume, and there isn’t an actual purpose to it. When you’re a creator, there is an innate purpose for creating, versus just contributing to an economic structure. As our connectedness to things increases, our connectedness to others decreases and we can lose our sense of belonging. Thus, our sense of purpose and belonging can be derived from creating, among other things.

The transition from a corporate career to a more purposeful life:

At one point, Eugene noticed that CEOs and hustlers are not so different from one another. People just want to feel seen. We really are all the same at the core, and just have different ways of expressing it based on the different sets of privileges we are born with. Eugene worked directly with the homeless for a long time, but now with his vast education and experience, he wants to do the most good for the most amount of people by helping others make change.

It is always difficult to measure the impact of a project or initiative, but that does not mean that going out there to affect some sort of change is not worthwhile! On the show today we have Laura François to talk about her goals of making the world a better place and how complex these issues can be. Laura is focused on inter-disciplinary social and environmental impact, using both digital and creative mediums. She is the founder of the social change agency A New Kind and social entrepreneurship academy, The Spaceship and is passionate about participating in growing ecosystems and emerging markets, and she believes in really drilling down to the base of problems instead of treating surface-level symptoms.

In our conversation, Laura unpacks her thoughts on the issues she addresses and gives some examples of fundamental concerns as opposed to their resultant indications. Her commitment to real change and the means to make this happen is so impressive; we talk about the ‘five whys’ and taking action instead of allowing complexity to stall progress. Laura walks us through the benefits of socially motivated work for businesses and corporations and how much this landscape has changed in the last decade. She shares so much of her learning and passion, you are not going to want to miss this and stay tuned to hear about the project that Benjamin and Laura worked on together!

Last but not least, Laura created a free tool tool is designed to guide anyone looking to explore how their hard and soft skills have the potential to translate into unique opportunities for creating impact. This framework encourages anyone to rethink the problems they are motivated to help solve by identifying their unique value creation and artistic vision!

• https://www.laurafrancois.com/bookshelf

• Why is it so hard to make the world a better place? (Hint: The world is not black and white)
• The key to more Innovation in corporations, is the integration of more creative thinkers within their ranks.
• By learning how to speak different “languages” to different “audiences” you can more effectively get your message across.
• Businesses need to be thinking about positive impact →Young consumers care about values like sustainability and human rights more than ever before →A brand is more likable and memorable for being honest about their shortcomings as well as their steps to improve their business practices
• By using the simple technique of the “5 Whys” — you can already begin to better understand your impact. (TLDR: Ask yourself at least 5 times why the problem you’re confronting is happening )

On the third episode of Impact Everywhere with host Benjamin Von Wong, we hear from Will Mezner who offers his unique insights not only into the different ways movements can develop and grow, but also how artists can best contribute to them. If you’re interested in hearing the full podcast, check out these links:

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The power that social movements have for orchestrating change can’t be overstated, and the unique skills that artists bring to them means their help is always welcomed. For today’s discussion, we talk about the intersections between artists and movements with Will Mezner, a youth engagement leader at World Vision, Australia’s largest development NGO. Will kicks things off by giving listeners some insights into the process of how change happens in society and also talks about some of the dominant models for organizing it.

We hear about how social change initiatives can scale from petitions to campaigns and then start to take on a life of their own once they become full-blown movements. Will has a bunch of great information to share about the ratios between supporters and resistors of a cause, how these change as a movement grows, and what happens at the tipping point. Our conversation then turns to the role artists can play in these movements and we talk about art’s unique power as well as consider some logistical questions about how artists can partner with NGOs to combine powers.

Will makes a strong case for the concept of making good art first. By this, he means that art can make the most impact if it is already firmly rooted in a cause, rather than being tacked onto the cause of the NGO as an afterthought. He also speaks about his own experience in working on campaigns that collaborate with artists, and at which points in a movement’s growth an artist’s help can be of most use. In the end, the overarching message is that all parties who involve themselves in a cause for change should realize that they are participating in something communal because it is only in numbers that people can take a true stand!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Four strategies for organizing change: ‘cup of tea’, place-based, online, and distributed.

• A quick study of movements that acquire a life of their own after an initial spark through the research of Saul Alinsky

• A reflection on a commencement speech by Neil Gaiman that talks about the critical importance of an artist to Make Good Art.

• Erica Chenoweth and the two key ingredients to a successful movement: majority and active support.

• A brief introduction to Bill Moyer’s ‘movement action plan’ and the strategic frameworks that describe the 8 stages of a successful social movement.

•The Inner Game and Outer Game of how artists can collaborate with campaigns through a distributed organization strategy.

One of Inc’s 5,000 fastest growing companies, you ought to have your eye on BRINK. Located in both Tucson and D.C., BRINK is a creative group comprised of an agency, a consultancy, a foundation, and a film distribution company. With clients ranging from corporations to causes, their purpose is to elevate their communities and culture.

On the second episode of Impact Everywhere, you’ll hear from Josh Belhumeur, Managing Partner and Creative Director of BRINK. Check out the podcast to hear his full thoughts on binaries, corporate social activism, and storytelling at any of these links:

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In a world that is increasingly controlled by machines — the fight to retain our humanity is becoming more important. The importance of taking a stance is growing in parallel with our need to hold space to hear the opinions of the other side.

Though our use of computers may not change our flesh and blood, it may be impacting our minds. Josh explains that the algorithms used to track our preferences and feed us information are negatively affecting how we view the world. Imagine the binary “1” and “0” as a simple “yes” or “no.” When you click on something, a platform like Facebook will mark you as a “yes” and continue to feed you similar content. When we are constantly exposed to the same things, it can become increasingly more difficult to have meaningful conversations with people of differing opinions. The world is not all 1s and 0s or black and white. There’s a lot of grey in there — but how do we interact with it?

Josh suggests this is not just the responsibility of media and individuals, but also other players like corporations.

Let’s look at the Edelman Trust Barometer. In 2020, people found businesses to be competent, but not ethical. In fact, none of the below organizations were found to be both competent and ethical. But that doesn’t make them inherently bad. This is the grey of the world.

Joe O’Connell is the founder and president of Creative Machines - a design and fabrication firm located in Tucson that builds large-scale massive public art installations, museum exhibits, art for children hospitals and even products for disaster relief.

Joe isn’t technically an “activist”. He doesn’t directly campaign for social or political change - yet everything that he creates - is designed to bring people together, and inspire self-confidence - and that to me is Impact.

Although some of you might find his journey a little unrelatable - after all - how many of us get to play with melting lead as a child - I encourage you to read between the lines to see how he weaves impact into everything that he does. 

The three things in particular that I noticed? 

1. That impact can only happen after you have a clear vision of WHY you’re trying to have an impact in the first place. 
2. That the best way to measure the impact of art is to start with a measurable environment.
3. If you want to get involved in the impact space, make sure to position yourself as a solution to a problem. 

A quick and simple introduction to this podcast.

After surveying hundreds of people to better understand what kept them from integrating impact and purpose into their jobs, projects, and careers - I learned that there were three major barriers.

First, the world is complicated and figuring out what needs to be solved in which priority in what order is often really difficult. 

Second, Even if you could figure out what needs to be done next, understanding how your skills can contribute is also a challenge.

And finally, even if you knew what had to be done, and how to do it, it usually would come at the expense of career success and financial stability.

As a result, I”ve decided to explore the topic more deeply. By having conversations with different people that live on the intersection of worlds - and to explore the different frameworks, possibilities, and opportunities that lie within the spheres of impact and purpose. 

Learn More at ImpactEverywhere.org or UnforgettableLabs.com