Today's guest is Geraldine Cox, founder of Sunrise Cambodia, a charity that was originally a single-handed orphanage in in Cambodia, that now extends its services to sustainable development and family support throughout the country.

Facts

Geraldine Cox is a native of Adelaide

She left school at the age of 15 and undertook various jobs, including secretarial and mining.

At age 19 she spent a year in Europe, that being her first of many overseas adventures

At 25 she entered the Department of Foreign Affairs and her diplomatic postings included Cambodia during the Vietnam War, and then Philippines, Thailand, Iran and the U.S.

After resigning from the foreign service in 1987, Geraldine worked for eight years at the Chase Manhattan Bank in Sydney

Unhappy with her corporate life, in 1993 she helped found Australia Cambodia Foundation

When she moved to Cambodia permanently in 1995, she started working as an Executive Assistant for the Cabinet Director in the Cabinet of the then First Prime Minister of Cambodia, HRH Prince Norodom Ranariddh. In her spare time Geraldine assisted Princess Marie, the wife of Prince Norodom, in operating and supporting a residential education centre for orphaned children.

When a military coup occurred in 1997, she decided to look after the the children of the orphanage that Princess Marie had to leave behind.

After Geraldine was the keynote speaker at Auscare's 1997 Refugee Week in Australia, she gained a lot of public exposure, which earned support for her cause.

Geraldine Cox is the author of the book Home is Where the Heart Is, an autobiography of her life in Cambodia with some of the children she has cared for.

She's also the subject of the documentary My Khmer Heart, made by Australian filmmakers Janine Hosking and Leonie Lowe. This documentary won the Documentary of the Year Award in the prestigious Hollywood Film Festival, in the year 2000.

Quotes

"I had no plan, I did not know what I was going to do. I did not know how I was going to start. I just knew that this is what I had to do, and I lurched from one obstacle to another".

"I had 60 or 70 children. I had no way of feeding them. I had 80 dollars and half a tank of gas (...) then, we got a $ 10,000 anonymous check, from someone I still don't know who it was, that enabled not just to stay there, but look after the children for a whole year".

"That's what it's been like. Thinks look really bad. And at the eleventh hour, something happens and it's all alright. That's how my life is. I don't really have a masterplan. I just let things happen".

"People have advised me, when I said I want to do something, 'Geraldine, you can't do that', 'you'll never be able to do that'. You tell me I can't do something and that's the best way to get something done. That's the worst advice and the best advice."

"Everything is going to be alright in the end. And if they're not, it's not the end"

Links

www.sunrisecambodia.org.au

Facebook.com/sunrisecambodia

Today's guest is Lawrence Sprung, president and founder of Mitlin Financial, Inc., as well as member of the National Board of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), and the co-founder of the Keith Milano Memorial Fund.

Facts

Lawrence Sprung earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics from Binghamton University.

He entered the financial industry in 1996.

In 2004, Larry founded Mitlin Financial, Inc., a company named in memory of his wife’s grandfather Mitchell, and his mother, Linda. Mitlin is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) that prides itself on facilitating their client’s financial future. 

He's been recognized as one of Long Island Business News' "40 Under 40*" and was chosen, in 2009, as Valedictorian of the "40 Under 40*" Class of 2006. Most recently, he was the recipient of the “2017 Top Financial Executive Award”.

His commentary is regularly featured in publications such as Long Island Business News, U.S. News & World Reports, Newsday, Investopedia, Yahoo Finance, Nasdaq’s website and RT Digital Magazine, serving the publishing industry.

Just prior to launching his firm, his brother-in-law Keith Milano, died by suicide, and he and his wife decided it would be best to move forward.  This also had an impact on their charitable endeavours and involvement.

In the 14 years since his death, he and his wife Denise have raised in excess of USD 1,000,000 for the Keith Milano Memorial Fund at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP).

Quotes

"'Hey, what's going on, is there something wrong with you? Can I help in some way? Because that one question could take that person from the deepest, darkest despair and get them on the right path"

"More people are talking about [mental illness] than ever. Which is great, (...) the conversation puts us on the path to healing. But I thing that there are forces out there that are putting our society in a position to be more prone to mental illness."

"Hopefully one day, AFSP will put themselves out of business, and there won't be a need for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. That's really the big audacious call, right? That we put ourselves out of business."

"We are working on ways to lower the suicide rate by 20% by the year 2025".

Links

https://www.keithmilano.org/

http://www.afsp.org

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lawrencesprung

http://www.mitlinfinancial.com

Today's guest is Hari Kalymnios, a consultant and speaker on the topics of mindset, resilience, health, well-being and how to feel ‘superhuman’.

He has a past in the corporate arena, and worked for top tier organizations. He eventually got frustrated seeing many of his colleagues suffer from ill health, burnout and stress. Not wanting to have the same, he ended up leaving the corporate world and diving deep into the personal development world which led him to meet some amazing people who shifted his paradigms on many topics around life.

Seeing once a speaker who was almost twice his age, but looked years younger, rock it on stage for 14 hours, two days straight, got him curious. He spent the next years looking at different high performers and reading and researching whatever he could from health, and business to spirituality and from metaphysics to yoga, science and biographies. Over a period of about four years he read over 200 books, attended hundreds of hours of live courses, and thousands more audio courses. Making small and incremental improvements to his own life, he saw his health, relationships, focus, productivity, peace of mind, contentment and energy all increase.

Hari Kalymnos' mission is to empower people to become what he calls ‘superhuman’ – you on your best day but a 10x version. And not just once in a while, but most of the time. And to be the best self-leaders they can be. After all, nobody can you hope to lead other people if they can’t lead themselves first.

Quotes

"Anyone can write. A big book of 50.000 pages, explaining a muffling around a concept. But if you want to make it into one sentence, that will probably take you years"

"Life isn't that complicated. But look after yourself first. And then you can look after other people"

"If you are not embarrassed about the first product, you probably waited too long (...). Just get the stuff out there. It doesn't need to be perfect".

"We evolved looking for danger. Looking for things that are out of place, that grab our attention. A tiger footprint in the sand, or a bush that's been broken (...). We need to condition us out of that. It's not to say that bad things don't exist. They do, but actually the overwhelming majority of things are positive".

Links

http://harikalymnios.com

http://thethoughtgym.com

http://facebook.com/thethoughtgym

http://twitter.com/thethoughtgym

https://linkedin.com/in/harikalymnios

http://youtube.com/thethoughtgym

Hari's TEDx talk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQWGgO4pWy4

Contact form:

http://harikalymnios.com/contact

Today's guest is David Gaines, head of La Terza Coffee. David has had firsthand experience testing and exploring the vast possibilities of Social Enterprise. On a global scale, coffee is one of the worst industries for workers, many of whom are paid unfairly or are forced to work without wages. David and his team at La Terza have made a concentrated effort to reject this system by buying coffee through sources that guarantee a living wage for their employees. What he has come to realize is that changing the working conditions of your average coffee farmer is only the first step toward fixing some of the negative narratives that plague our current economic system.

We can improve the working conditions of coffee growers around the world. How can we do the same in other industries? David sees a new type of business model. In that model we can not only better the lives of people we source from, but also the lives of our employees, customers, and even our competition.

David is passionate about creatively challenging the traditional business status quo and incorporating life-bringing ideas into everyday business practices. And it doesn't just stop with our work; it also continues as we engage with our purchases. Every dollar we spend is a vote for something. There’s a story behind every product we buy, and we should support businesses that have a positive impact on the world. As awareness grows among consumers, how do we do our part to buy better stories? This is the message David hopes to spread in all of his business endeavors.

La Terza is based in the metropolitan area of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.

Quotes

"We have to work together with our competitors. (...) There's plenty of other things that separate us as businesses. Ethical trade of coffee is not one of them"

"We are going to see in the next 10 to 15 years that corporate responsibility is going to evolve from just 'hey we're gonna give a million dollars to this charity'. It is going to evolve

"The orphanages that exist now, can be directly linked to the wages that a farmer receives. So, if we were to just simply buy coffee the right way from the beginning, it wouldn't eliminate orphanages, but the amount of them would be a lot less."

"We forget that the small steps are absolutely critical to make these big movements"

"Most of us think of this one big pie that we're all fighting after. Versus the philosophy of 'how do we work together to grow the pie'"

Links

www.daviddgaines.com

www.laterzacofee.com

www.instagram.com/laterzacoffee/

www.facebook.com/LaTerzaCoffee

www.yelp.com/biz/la-terza-artisan-coffee-roasterie-cincinnati-3

Today's guest is Kim Pearce, the co-founder of The Possibility Project, a Sydney-based social enterprise using principles of the circular economy to disrupt the fashion industry.

Kim Pearce was born in Australia, from Indian parents

Kim is a former economics teacher. Se believes all problems hold tremendous opportunity for positive change if we respond to them creatively

She studied and compared both linear and circular economics. Kim developed a very strong interest in the latter

She's a mother of four. Having her first child was a life-changing moment.

She and best friend Kath Davis founded The Possibility project, with the aim to reestablish a balance between fashion and planet

Kim loves educating people on the vital role they can play to re-imagine the fashion industry if they allow themselves to think creatively.

Quotes

"Ultimately, that's what the Possibility Project is. It's just a demonstration that there are alternatives. We know that there are other possibilities to solving our problems."

"It's a very exciting space, but ultimately it's helping people to facilitate a shift in what has value. And especially, value within things that we often say 'no, that's rubbish.'"

"We don't tell people what is right or wrong. We would never judge people for their choices, because that's not empowerment. I would never judge anybody's choice in fasihon. Our role is just to educate and bringing awareness, that there are so many other ways to do it."

"When you enter a space like that, with this sense of offering solutions that are based on 'right' or 'wrong', or judgement (...) you find that everybody in that room immediately feels connected."

"It is still and always will be the prime purpose for why we action the Possibility Project, and that is to restore some peace to very difficult times on people's lives. (...) It's an unusual measure of success, but I truly believe every human being understands that what it's worth it is far greater that money or trophies or titles or rewards."

"When you can't change something, you are forced to change yourself."

Links

https://thepossibilityproject.com.au/

https://www.facebook.com/thepossibilityproject1/

https://instagram.com/slumwear108

Today's guest is Jacqui Bennett, a teacher and philantropist based in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. She's the founder of Humans in Geelong (short form HUG), a social movement using storytelling to create positive social change.

Jacqui Bennett was born in the UK during her parents' working holidays

She's been a teacher since 1985.

During the 1990s, she had the privilege to travel around the world for two years, in company of her partner in life and future father of her two children

They established themselves in Geelong, Victoria, to form a family

Wanting to 'practice what she preaches' at school to her young students, she decided to found Humans in Geelong.

They are a small team of ‘Not-for-Profit’ volunteers who report on the ‘good news’ stories of their home town Geelong,

Their aim is to 'inspire, connect and strengthen' by reporting their community's stories about the everyday locals. These are local people who take action to make a social difference.

They got their inspiration from Humans in Melbourne and thought ‘why not do something like that in Geelong?’.

In October 2017, HUG organised the first inspirational ‘Humans in Geelong Expo 2017’, with an attendance of 1,500 people at the Deakin Waterfront.

On October 7th, 2018, the second Expo will be held in Geelong

Quotes

"We don't teach. We facilitate. They become problem solvers, inquirers. It's just the best educational system I've ever seen"

"This is all about locals and all the amazing things that they are doing to make a difference. And the stories are so diverse"

"If we all work together, we'll be out to make a difference"

Links

Humans in Geelong

https://humansingeelong.com/

https://www.facebook.com/HumansinGeelong/

Instagram: @humansingeelong

Twitter: @HumansinGeelong

http://humansingeelong.com/humans-in-geelong-expo-2018/

Humans in Melbourne

https://humansinmelbourne.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Humansinmelb

Today's guest is Bob Sager, an American inspirational leader, coach and network marketing professional. He's the founder of SpearPoint Solutions, a company that offers both companies and individuals, training workshops and coaching on "implementation of personal achievement and practical innovative thinking".

He grew up on the verge of poverty.

At age 10, he asked his parents for something – he doesn’t recall exactly what – and they told him they didn’t have the money for it. Then he decided to earn the money and buy it himself. This fact proved important in his personal development.

In his mid-20’s he became a self-employed real estate agent, He did that for four years. This taught him the self-discipline needed to thrive.

After the real estate business, he spent 17 years in the financial services industry.

It was seeing over and over both clients and representatives sabotage themselves financially what frustrated him. He then began to seek the answers to why people do the things shouldn't do and why they don’t do what they should do.

Some years of research in the psychology of human action led him to some breakthrough discoveries. So, after a 17-year career, he left the financial industry and started a company to teach what he just learnt.

The need for faster and more consistent business growth pushed him to research on creative thinking.

He then discovered a technique that Einstein called ‘combinatory play’. Almost immediately he began to produce high quality ideas using this method.

Eventually, employing these techniques, Bob invented the innovative/creative thinking game, "What’s The BIG Idea?", which is now extensively and successfully used in his trainings.

He's also the founder of Meaningful Connections, a business networking by conference call/conference app platform we use to help connect LinkedIn community on a deeper level.

Quotes

"My tribe are people [that] understand the benefit to themselves and others for adding value in every circumstance. Regardless of 'what's in it for you'. Because it all comes back to you eventually, anyway. Plus a little more (...). It's human nature to go 'what's in this for me'. But that leads to short sightedness"

"There's a difference between knowing about something and actually knowing it. And the difference is conscious contact with it."

"People, even the ones that set goals - they're setting goals based on one of two things. Either, what they think they ought to want, or what somebody else wants them to want. And they're not really setting their true goals."

"Our goal is to change, at least, on a minimum, a million lives over the next ten years"

Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobsager/

https://twitter.com/sagerbob/

https://spearpointonline.us/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/meaningful-connections/

Today's guest is Ray Blakney, a social entrepreneur that defines himself as a global nomad. He'll talk about his experience in life and business so far and about his interesting future projects.

Facts

Ray Blakney was born in the Philippines to a Filipina mother and American father.

At 11 months old, his family moved to Turkey where he spent the next 15 years.

At 15 years of age he moved to the US to finish high school and college

After 10 years of working in the US as a computer engineer in Silicon Valley start-ups and fortune 500 companies he ditched it all and joined the Peace Corps as a volunteer.

He was sent to southern Mexico to work with indigenous communities for 2 years.

There he met his Mexican wife and after finishing his 2 years in the Peace Corps they started their journey of entrepreneurship together.

Over the next two years, Ray has founded and sold a wide variety of companies. All of these companies have a social entrepreneurship and cultural understanding as a core part of the business model.

His businesses have included a chain of brick and mortar language schools in Mexico (sold 2012), a chocolate factory in the Philippines (sold 2017) and a travel agency in Mexico.

He currently owns and operates – along with his wife – the online language school www.livelingua.com. The goal of Live Lingua is to help facilitate the understanding of language and culture around the world. Being social enterprise, in addition to teaching languages (with both paid and free resources) they also have a free repository of dying languages. This includes material to learn them.

Part of the proceeds of Live Lingua's paid language lessons goes to sponsoring children around the work through Save the Children USA.

Quotes

"So my fist word was Turkish. A few days later I said something in Filipino. In Tagalog, specifically. And I said something in English a week or two later. So when I applied to college, I just liked to say that English wasn't my first language"

"I guess that limiting belief was I thought I knew everything. It wasn't till I tried a second business that didn't work. And a third that didn't work. And a fourth that didn't work. Then realized there's more to this. It wasn't as easy as I thought the first time. [I thought] 'I got lucky. Let's start learning.'"

"I don't really associate with any kind of nationality. I have passports. I have two citizenships. Actually culturally I'm similar to Turkish, (...) but that makes me feel like a global citizen. And on the flip side of that, I've an aversion to nationalism of any kind."

"You need to plan your rest with as much detail as you plan your work, if no more so."

Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/raymondblakney/

www.livelingua.com

http://www.rayvensoft.com/

http://www.teacherindie.com/

Today's guest is Kathy Wong. She defines herself as a "serial entrepreneur", having founded and run several businesses in various industries. This includes branding, design and marketing. In a second phase, she created an artisan business, focused in jewelry. Currently she runs Moeloco, a shoemaking company with a social goal.

Kathy trained as a visual communicator, has always been a passionate philanthropist, loves children and has a thirst for personal development and people.

Her desire with Moeloco is to create a heart centered community of engaged individuals wanting to be the change they see in the world.

Facts

Kathy Wong was recently (2018) nominated as one of the 35 social entrepreneurs to watch in 2018 by Cause Artist Magazine

She's passionate about social change and inspiring the next generation of social entrepreneurs and changemakers.

After running several businesses and retiring in her early 40’s, Kathy grew discontent with her contribution to society and the gap between business and community engagement.

In 2014, she came out of early retirement and established Moeloco, a social entrepreneurial business that has impacted over 7,000 children in poverty and has created a growing youth ambassador program.

Energised by her motto of ‘dream crazy’, Kathy is now in the start-up phase of creating a youth entrepreneur incubator program, bringing leading social entrepreneurs together to educate and mentor the next generation of change makers.

Kathy has been a keynote speaker at The Spark Festival, NSW University wide entrepreneurial learning program- Interchange, The Shine Conference and speaks at various social change, changemaker and youth leadership events.

Kathy’s no-nonsense practical and heart felt presentation style has inspired many young people and women to take action, live their crazy dreams and make a positive difference.

Quotes

"I've always been quite a big dreamer. But this was, even for me, a huge stretch. So, you know, I just believe that to be able to do things of this scale, you gotta be quite crazy"

"I wanna see a world where every little thing that we consume and purchase can have a positive impact on humanity."

"I'm interviewing as many social entrepreneurs as I can around the world. And the reason for that is (...) making everybody aware of what social entrepreneurs do. Because, unfortunately, the majority of the public don't know that we exist. Or, if they do, they get us continuously confused with charities."

"I hope that one day, soon, we don't even talk about social entrepreneurs, or social enterprise, because this is just the way that business will be done"

"Action is a really powerful form of motivating others. And also (...) just being honest. Being just vulnerable and honest with people, I think that it's really important too. [It] definitely inspires people."

Links

https://www.moeloco.com/

https://www.facebook.com/moelocoflipflop

http://instagram.com/moelocoflipflop

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCItmpvLhMM3LG1aLBQ4CcMgù

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathywong

Today's guest is Denise Collazo, chief of staff for Faith in Action, an American faith-based community working to reduce racial and economic inequality.

Facts

Denise Collazo has 25 years of experience in the US social justice field

She believes that this moment in our history requires that we all operate at maximum creativity. And that we all show up as our most courageous selves.

Faith in Action is a network consisting of 54 local and state federations in 21 U.S. states.

Together, the organizations in Faith in Action work with thousands of people of faith and moral courage

Faith in Action believes that despite our differences, we can become a new people

They work to reform immigration, the economy and the criminal justice system as part of the journey of becoming new people.

She’s convinced that two of the most important factors to unleashing our creativity are to create environments where people are free to speak their truth and they are free to take risks and fail. Often, women of color are not offered the psychological safety in male-dominated or White-dominated spaces to show up as their full selves.

In 2018, Denise led Faith in Action’s Together We Vote program which was the largest non-partisan, volunteer-led voter engagement program in the US.

During that election, FiA made structural changes in states across the country. These are aimed to increase wages, improve access to employment and make the justice system fairer. The drivers and strategists for the Together We Vote Program were women from communities across the country who invested time, talent and resources to reach out to people and encourage them to vote.

Faith in Action held over 829,000 conversations with voters of colour who are traditionally ignored by candidates and campaigns.

Quotes

"There's been a lot of backlash to the positive changes that came out of the 1960s. So now, in this country we're seeing almost like a pendulum swing the other direction. It's leading to things like food stamps being cut, basic healthcare services for senior citizens, pregnant moms."

"We just passed a major tax reform. [It's] designed to make everybody think 'great, my taxes are gonna go down'. But the truth is that for most middle-class folks, their taxes will go up. For the people of the very, very top, their taxes will go way, way down."

"We work across these racial differences, towards a common goal. And what we've seen is that we're much more powerful when we do that (...). When you're in close proximity with others, and you tell your story, and they empathetically hear your story, that's when relationships get built."

"Your voice matter. Your vote matters. we're here as volunteers. We're here as Faith in Action to encourage you, and give you all the tools that you might need to be able to participate."

Links

https://www.FaithInAction.org

https://www.facebook.com/FIAnational/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/denisecollazo

https://twitter.com/FIAnational/

https://www.instagram.com/FIAnational/