Life Ensemble

⭐️Show Notes: https://growensemble.com/climate-neutral-certified

⭐️Newsletter: https://growensemble.com/newsletter/

Show Description 👇

We’re with Greta! Global warming is the biggest existing threat to humankind. We are seeing the increasingly devastating effects of climate change each year. 

Perhaps the most prominent discussion on this topic comes in the news as it describes governmental “efforts” to address the global climate crisis; the creation of the Paris Agreement; the United State’s departure from the Paris Agreement; etc. etc. 

The governmental movements are incremental and they need to increase in speed and scope. 

We have good news and bad news:

Bad news first: The grimy fossil fuel industry is not alone in contributing to the destructive levels of greenhouse gas emissions that are destroying our planet. We all play a role in the destruction.

Good news: Since we are all involved in the destruction, we can also take action against climate change at a meaningful level every day. We don’t have to wait for the government to require that we reduce our energy consumption!

In late 2019, we at Grow Ensemble made our first official commitment to protect, preserve, and advocate on behalf of our home planet—we enrolled in 1% for the Planet, where one percent of our revenues go to vetted environmental nonprofits. 

Now, we are excited to share how we at Grow Ensemble are continuing to advance our climate action efforts…

We have committed to carbon neutrality!

Listen in to this episode for more on our most recent announcement.

See Full Show Notes here: https://growensemble.com/home-storytellers-francisco-alejandra-alcala/

Francisco & Alejandra Alcala, a powerful father-daughter duo, founded the United States-based nonprofit Home Storytellers in 2018. Their mission is to inspire people, philanthropic organizations, businesses, and governments to act in support of proven solutions that enable refugees’ self-reliance through visual storytelling. They deliver impact with very attractive ROI through communication campaigns powered by artful, character-driven short documentary films they produce with a team of seasoned filmmakers and photojournalists. 

Based in Mexico, Francisco brings a unique combination of more than 30 years’ experience as a senior business executive in four continents for the Kellogg Company and a transformation into a photojournalist and documentary filmmaker. Alejandra is a visual designer based in Barcelona. Even though her background is in graphic design and she recently completed her post-grad in motion graphics and 3D design, her career has led her to explore different disciplines, such as animation, post-production, and art direction. Together, they have found that they can leverage their skills and passion to make a difference in the lives of many refugees through the art of storytelling.

They have since completed their first project, a short documentary called Hot Dogs on a Tricycle, which profiles a young man and his mother who were forced to flee El Salvador and successfully sought asylum status in Mexico. This film, produced in partnership with Asylum Access, helped that organization bring about social change by shedding light on the refugee crisis. They have recently released the trailer for their second project, Sawdust, profiling a Congolese refugee and his story of resettlement with his family in a refugee camp, a camp that is home to 42,000 refugees, in Malawi.

In this episode, Francisco and Alejandra discuss how they came up with the idea of using film production to showcase sustainable solutions for this refugee crisis, the lessons learned from their first film and partnership, and the goals they are hoping to achieve with their next film currently in development.

See Full Show Notes here: https://growensemble.com/social-enterprise-marketing/

Running a social enterprise, let alone marketing a social enterprise, is inherently more difficult.  

You, as a social entrepreneur, have set your standards higher. 

Achieving a profitable business model isn’t enough. 

You’ve also determined to use your business as a force for good, to make an impact.

Whether you’ve determined to address chronic and systemic inequality, or the greatest environmental problems of our time, you’ve set your sights on a business model that’s about much more than doing business as usual.  

And that’s why we want to see you succeed, get found online by potential customers and advocates of your brand, and accelerate the change you are looking to make in your industry and within the lives of your customers. 

At Grow Ensemble, we’ve developed a Framework, a step-by-step marketing system built specifically for growing successful social enterprises and purpose-driven businesses. 

This has come from my own work, where I took up digital marketing on the side in college, to starting my career in a digital marketing agency where I eventually became the CEO. At the time, I supervised nearly 100 client accounts, now, with Grow Ensemble, we produce a weekly podcast that has grown in listenership 289% year over year as well as a blog, that has helped increase our website traffic 267% over last year. 

In efforts to accelerate this movement of social entrepreneurship and sustainable business, we help our purpose-driven clients to do the same—build their audiences online, compete and beat other traditional profit-centric businesses in their marketplace, all using our now tried and tested Grow Ensemble Framework. 

And that is in part our goal for this post as well, to help you and your social enterprise get a game plan for marketing and messaging both your brand and mission online to build an audience of customers and advocates, to advance your impact even further (online and offline). 

In this episode, we’ll start by outlining and introducing the principles that underlie this strategy, then we’ll dive deeper into each phase so you can get a sense for doing them yourself.

See Full Show Notes here: https://growensemble.com/fully-david-kahl/

David Kahl founded Ergo Depot in 2005, which was rebranded as Fully in 2016. Fully is an office furniture company committed to making workplaces healthier, happier, and more productive through its innovative, sustainable designs. Fully’s growth and commitment to running a better business has truly been profound and exceptional to learn about and watch. They were certified as a B Corp back in 2013 and are leaders in their local Portland chapter, helping develop a guide on how to create strong local B Corp associations around the world.

Fully, best known for the Jarvis chair, was recently acquired by a larger publicly traded furniture company back in Pennsylvania called Knoll. It was particularly fascinating to discuss with David this process and hear his reflections on it. He expresses both the positive and the negative sides of this acquisition process. It’s a great opportunity to learn about an exemplary model of a better business and a better businessperson.

Hearing about David’s transition from being a Wall Street CPA to a mindful CEO of a conscious business that is working to change the world one desk at a time is inspiring. Sometimes it takes a catastrophic event to give you some perspective, which is David’s situation, but it is awesome to witness how David has transformed as a human and as a businessperson since that event. David discusses that impetus for founding Fully, how David feels he has contributed to the success of Fully as a company, and the details of the acquisition process.

See Full Show Notes here: https://growensemble.com/shea-yeleen-rahama-wright/

Rahama Wright founded Shea Yeleen (a health and beauty company dedicated to empowering women in West Africa and the United States through the production, sale, and use of shea butter products) about 15 years ago in 2005. However, since then, Shea Yeleen has certainly taken a significantly different shape from how it originally was incepted. What originally started as a nonprofit has since transformed into a social enterprise business model. Rahama made this transition about six years ago. From that turning point, you can now find their shea butter in Whole Foods and MGM Resorts, and they have been featured in O, The Washington Post, MSNBC, and more. 

It was excellent to hear Rahama share her truthful and insightful reflections on what has contributed to her staying power and her endurance in what can be an experience filled with such trials and tribulations, and what lessons she has extracted from this 15-year journey. We tend to glorify these kinds of experiences, but we found that Rahama was more honest than most in discussing both the positive and negative aspects of her journey with this company. And that’s what we loved so much about our conversation with her.

In this episode, we discuss Shea Yeleen’s beginnings as a nonprofit and how and why Rahama made the decision to convert the business into a social impact for-profit model instead; her honest reflections on this intense 15-year journey of entrepreneurship she’s been on; and some wise tips on both traveling and staying power as a business.

See Full Show Notes here: http://growensemble.com/spark-creations-lorie-corcuera/

Nine years ago, Lorie Corcuera co-founded SPARK Creations Inc. after going through a brutal divorce where she struggled to hold on to her identity and sense of self. After revitalizing herself, and defining her own individual values and purpose, she knew she wanted to help others do the same. While she and fellow co-founder Aileen De La Torre started with women’s retreats, their impact grew to a point where they brought their discovery process to organizations to help establish a more sustainable culture that leaves employees feeling more engaged -- not just in the workplace, but in the rest of their lives as well. 

Lorie is insistent about the concept of life-long learning. She insists against using the word “expert” because while she always wants to share what she has learned, she knows that she is still learning and evolving. This type of open-minded thinking is a major component of why she is so effective at this line of work, and how SPARK has been able to reach almost a decade of impactful work.

What does an ideal company culture look like? What are the limiting factors that prevent organizations from getting to that point? How can leaders begin to reflect on their own personal values and belief system more deeply? These are the main questions that drive the thoughtful conversation within this episode.

See Full Show Notes here: https://growensemble.com/conscious-company-media-meghan-dunbar/

Meghan French Dunbar is the CEO and co-founder of Conscious Company Media - the nation’s leading media company dedicated to purpose-driven businesses and social enterprises. Conscious Company Media produces national events, such as the World-Changing Women’s Summit, the Conscious Company Leaders’ Forum (a forum dedicated to training leaders to use business as a force for good), and Their flagship product, Conscious Company Magazine, which was the first nationally distributed print publication in the U.S. to focus exclusively on sustainable and conscious business practices. 

While Meghan’s role transitioned from doing everything in start-up land to editor-in-chief of the magazine to focusing on her responsibilities as CEO, she has learned a lot about herself and her passions and skills. Meghan has determined that her true zone of genius is in bringing people together to have thoughtful, deep conversations, providing people with the knowledge and tactics needed to change their lives. While she loves helping all kinds of people, her real focus is on allowing women to be more authentic, feminine leaders in the mission-driven business space, which is why she developed both the summit and her podcast.

But she could not have done this alone. Meghan emphasizes the power of community, and how important it is to surround yourself with people who share common experiences with you and believe in similar values. Four years ago, she founded a group of seven female CEOs who continue to meet and share their thoughts on being a woman in this space every other month. She also offers insights she has learned from both male and female business owners who have inspired her on this journey through the space.

In this episode, Meghan shares her journey with us, discussing her experience co-founding Conscious Company Media, lessons learned along the way, her thoughts on community, and her deep-rooted passion for connecting with, empowering, and supporting impact-driven women to help them make their mark by making a difference. 

See the full show notes here: https://growensemble.com/social-entrepreneurs/

In early 2019, we here at Grow Ensemble launched The Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation Podcast, where each week we’ve been releasing an episode featuring both established and emerging leaders in the social impact and socially responsible business space. 

We’ve covered a variety of topics with social entrepreneurs and innovators from a wide breadth of industries—tour companies, medtech, agencies, hospitality, and many many more. 

In each conversation, I know our team here at Grow Ensemble has extracted a variety of lessons, and in this post (and two-part podcast) we want to share (a few) of those lessons with you. 

Whether you want to hear from the CEOs of some of the world’s most successful socially responsible businesses, small business leaders punching way above their weight, or Executive Directors from nonprofit organizations influencing massive positive change, they are all in here. :) 

Not to mention, businesses you’ll see (or hear) here, aren’t just running a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program to check the boxes on social good, these businesses and business people have integrated positive social change and impact into their core of how they do business and how they show up in the world. 

What a pleasure it was to sit down with so many generous and successful social entrepreneurs and innovators thus far! 

Excited for many more inspiring conversations and connections in the year to come.

See the full show notes here: https://growensemble.com/social-entrepreneurs/

See the full show notes here: https://growensemble.com/social-entrepreneurs/

In early 2019, we here at Grow Ensemble launched The Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation Podcast, where each week we’ve been releasing an episode featuring both established and emerging leaders in the social impact and socially responsible business space. 

We’ve covered a variety of topics with social entrepreneurs and innovators from a wide breadth of industries—tour companies, medtech, agencies, hospitality, and many many more. 

In each conversation, I know our team here at Grow Ensemble has extracted a variety of lessons, and in this post (and two-part podcast) we want to share (a few) of those lessons with you. 

Whether you want to hear from the CEOs of some of the world’s most successful socially responsible businesses, small business leaders punching way above their weight, or Executive Directors from nonprofit organizations influencing massive positive change, they are all in here. :) 

Not to mention, businesses you’ll see (or hear) here, aren’t just running a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program to check the boxes on social good, these businesses and business people have integrated positive social change and impact into their core of how they do business and how they show up in the world. 

What a pleasure it was to sit down with so many generous and successful social entrepreneurs and innovators thus far! 

Excited for many more inspiring conversations and connections in the year to come.

See the full show notes here: https://growensemble.com/social-entrepreneurs/

See Full Show Notes here: https://growensemble.com/miles-4-migrants-andy-freedman/

Andy Freedman is the co-founder and managing director of Miles4Migrants, a nonprofit that uses donated airline miles to unite separated refugees and immigrant families. Since their inception in 2016, they’ve flown over 1,800 people, reunited 600+ families, and redeemed over 27 million frequent flyer miles, the equivalent of over $700,000 in cash value. In 2019 alone, they’ve flown nearly 400 individuals internationally, and with the worsening of the U.S. border crisis this last year, they’ve flown over 700 individuals within the United States. They certainly are not slowing the pace, as they’ve recently partnered with United Airlines for a Miles on a Mission campaign, where they were tasked with raising 5 million frequent flyer miles in 28 days. As of November 15, they hit that goal. 

What’s incredibly valuable about Andy and Miles4Migrants’ story is the power of volunteerism and how it really takes a village. Andy and his two co-founders all currently volunteer their time to manage their organization. All work day jobs and are actively engaged husbands and fathers in addition to running this organization. While they finally were able to hire paid staff this year, they also relied on the power and passion of volunteers in a rapid period of growth after a tweet mentioning their work went viral last year. Learning more about how this organization was run without paid staff for several years is inspirational for those just starting up.

There are two fascinating topics of conversation in this episode. The first is the opportunity to learn and understand more about the needs of these refugees and asylum seekers. In efforts to put into perspective how impactful a small action like these airline miles can be in making such a significant life-changing impact. On the other side, following the trajectory of Miles4Migrants can help you visualize the process of identifying a problem in a population you’d like to serve and taking it from an idea to a full-blown execution.