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Making The World a Better Place With Jo Salter
On this episode of the Lead With Purpose podcast host, Tze Ching Yeung talks to Jo Salter, an ethical fashion consultant who is committed to making the world a better place through her work about her journey through her career.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- My mother is a strong, Catholic, Irish woman, so through my childhood there was this sense of doing what’s right, morality, looking after other people, community and all those elements that were very important to me. From a young age I was involved in those kinds of discussions. At workplaces after graduating I was always doing fundraisers and daft things like abseiling down towers, doing parachute jumps, organising charity balls, etc.
- I set up Where Does It Come From? In 2013 because I needed to know exactly, right back to the fields, what things were made of and who was making them. I had the idea to put a code on the clothing label so that customers can trace that right the way back, get to see pictures and hear stories about the people who were making them.
- If something isn’t working you can come in and ask why they’re doing it like that. There’s an element of arrogance around entrepreneurship. When setting up Where Does It Come From? I was very much in the space of: the most important thing is to find out about the journey and find out about the people. I’d go and work with people mainly in India and Africa and talk about how they make things. When you talk to people in the fashion industry over here they’ll say “people don’t want that.” How do you know? Have you asked them? It’s about challenging norms.
- I didn’t see why no one had done it before, but I quickly realised that no one had done it because it’s really hard. The advantage we had was being small and staring up, you can be much more agile. But to find the suppliers you could actually give me the information that I wanted was really tough. The first set that we worked with fell apart, both because they couldn’t do what I wanted and I didn’t have enough knowledge either. On LinkedIn I was introduced to the concept of Cardi, which is a fabric AND a philosophy of rural workers in India.
BEST MOMENTS
‘For various historical reasons there are some people living in other parts of the world that don’t have the same opportunities as us and, to be really blunt, that’s not fair and we have to share better.’
"We don’t know if we’re dressing our kids in clothes made by other kids, that’s really wrong.’
‘It’s about doing the right thing, but you’re also trying to benefit other people as well.’
‘20 years ago there was a sense of business is business, you don’t have to question the morality of business decisions and business isn’t meant to be fair. To me that’s completely wrong, you can’t say all’s fair in business, it’s just rubbish.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Jo Salter founded the award winning ethical brand Where Does It Come From? in 2013 which has established ethical, transparent supply chains in India and Africa. With its goal to create ‘Kind Clothes that Tell Tales’ following no-compromise ethics and sustainability criteria, the brand has been featured in major press and magazines including Forbes. Where Does It Come From? is a truly innovative brand – the first in the UK (and maybe wider afield!) to add a code to garments so customers can trace the entire creation story.
Jo is an ethical business consultant, speaker and writer, supporting others in their sustainability journey. She regularly features on radio BBC Radio Suffolk talking about sustainability and transparency, as well as other radio and BBC TV appearances. In 2016 she set up Ethical Brands for Fashion Revolution as a community of ethical fashion brands campaigning for a better fashion industry. In 2018 she co-founded the Be The Change awards to provide a platform for new enterprises with a positive impact goal. In 2019 she was invited by DEFRA to be a Year of Green Action ambassador. Jo is a fellow of the School for Social Entrepreneurs, a non-executive director of Khadi London and a member of Ipswich Fairtrade Steering Group. Jo is passionate about sharing her expertise with others to help them on their social enterprise journey – her vision is that all business will be ethical business!
Website: https://wheredoesitcomefrom.co.uk/
ABOUT THE HOST
Tze Ching started her entrepreneurial journey back in 2007 with the launch of a sustainable clothing and home furnishing ecommerce business. Next, she created a sustainable fashion brand.
In 2019, she launched a social enterprise to help raise awareness about the negative impact of fashion at schools and colleges.
Through the 15-year journey, she learned so much, but easily the most meaningful lesson learned was about the importance of marketing. She now focuses on channelling those insights to help others succeed, through We Disrupt Agency, a business coaching, mentoring and digital marketing company.
Tze Ching’s mission is to create a community of global change makers and to contribute to positive change in both people and planet.
CONTACT DETAILS
Tze Ching’s website: https://wedisruptagency.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wedisruptagency
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wedisruptagency/
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/wedisruptagency
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tzechingyeung/
View all episodes
By Tze Ching Yeung
5
44 ratings
On this episode of the Lead With Purpose podcast host, Tze Ching Yeung talks to Jo Salter, an ethical fashion consultant who is committed to making the world a better place through her work about her journey through her career.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- My mother is a strong, Catholic, Irish woman, so through my childhood there was this sense of doing what’s right, morality, looking after other people, community and all those elements that were very important to me. From a young age I was involved in those kinds of discussions. At workplaces after graduating I was always doing fundraisers and daft things like abseiling down towers, doing parachute jumps, organising charity balls, etc.
- I set up Where Does It Come From? In 2013 because I needed to know exactly, right back to the fields, what things were made of and who was making them. I had the idea to put a code on the clothing label so that customers can trace that right the way back, get to see pictures and hear stories about the people who were making them.
- If something isn’t working you can come in and ask why they’re doing it like that. There’s an element of arrogance around entrepreneurship. When setting up Where Does It Come From? I was very much in the space of: the most important thing is to find out about the journey and find out about the people. I’d go and work with people mainly in India and Africa and talk about how they make things. When you talk to people in the fashion industry over here they’ll say “people don’t want that.” How do you know? Have you asked them? It’s about challenging norms.
- I didn’t see why no one had done it before, but I quickly realised that no one had done it because it’s really hard. The advantage we had was being small and staring up, you can be much more agile. But to find the suppliers you could actually give me the information that I wanted was really tough. The first set that we worked with fell apart, both because they couldn’t do what I wanted and I didn’t have enough knowledge either. On LinkedIn I was introduced to the concept of Cardi, which is a fabric AND a philosophy of rural workers in India.
BEST MOMENTS
‘For various historical reasons there are some people living in other parts of the world that don’t have the same opportunities as us and, to be really blunt, that’s not fair and we have to share better.’
"We don’t know if we’re dressing our kids in clothes made by other kids, that’s really wrong.’
‘It’s about doing the right thing, but you’re also trying to benefit other people as well.’
‘20 years ago there was a sense of business is business, you don’t have to question the morality of business decisions and business isn’t meant to be fair. To me that’s completely wrong, you can’t say all’s fair in business, it’s just rubbish.’
ABOUT THE GUEST
Jo Salter founded the award winning ethical brand Where Does It Come From? in 2013 which has established ethical, transparent supply chains in India and Africa. With its goal to create ‘Kind Clothes that Tell Tales’ following no-compromise ethics and sustainability criteria, the brand has been featured in major press and magazines including Forbes. Where Does It Come From? is a truly innovative brand – the first in the UK (and maybe wider afield!) to add a code to garments so customers can trace the entire creation story.
Jo is an ethical business consultant, speaker and writer, supporting others in their sustainability journey. She regularly features on radio BBC Radio Suffolk talking about sustainability and transparency, as well as other radio and BBC TV appearances. In 2016 she set up Ethical Brands for Fashion Revolution as a community of ethical fashion brands campaigning for a better fashion industry. In 2018 she co-founded the Be The Change awards to provide a platform for new enterprises with a positive impact goal. In 2019 she was invited by DEFRA to be a Year of Green Action ambassador. Jo is a fellow of the School for Social Entrepreneurs, a non-executive director of Khadi London and a member of Ipswich Fairtrade Steering Group. Jo is passionate about sharing her expertise with others to help them on their social enterprise journey – her vision is that all business will be ethical business!
Website: https://wheredoesitcomefrom.co.uk/
ABOUT THE HOST
Tze Ching started her entrepreneurial journey back in 2007 with the launch of a sustainable clothing and home furnishing ecommerce business. Next, she created a sustainable fashion brand.
In 2019, she launched a social enterprise to help raise awareness about the negative impact of fashion at schools and colleges.
Through the 15-year journey, she learned so much, but easily the most meaningful lesson learned was about the importance of marketing. She now focuses on channelling those insights to help others succeed, through We Disrupt Agency, a business coaching, mentoring and digital marketing company.
Tze Ching’s mission is to create a community of global change makers and to contribute to positive change in both people and planet.
CONTACT DETAILS
Tze Ching’s website: https://wedisruptagency.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wedisruptagency
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wedisruptagency/
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/wedisruptagency
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tzechingyeung/