In episode 36 of the Alt-Normal, we ask the hard and important questions at the intersection of sustainability and advertising with Helen Brain, a Strategy Director at MediaCom UK with 16 years of experience solving business challenges within media, digital, social & content across a diverse set of verticals -- including retail, tech, government, luxury, fast moving consumer goods and utilities. She sits as Joint Head of MediCom’s Social Chang Hub, supporting clients in creating positive social change and a sustainable future. Additionally, she represents MediaCom in GroupMs’ Mission Zero team and the IPAs Climate Charter alliance, both of which aim to support the industry in transitioning to a zero carbon future.

To make sustainability sustainable (and not just another fleeting trend that’s lost all meaning much like ‘brand purpose’), brands need to start asking the right questions to have the greatest possible impact. After all, sustainability is a scientific field that is now entering the world of marketing, and the level of collaboration that takes place with experts and thought leaders will shape a brand’s sustainability success. It comes down to three questions: 

What does your audience care about within sustainability? 

What are you doing that’s credible to be talked about publicly? 

Where is the ownable opportunity within the sustainability convo for your brand? 

On this episode, we unpack what today’s post-pandemic brands (what Purpose Disruptors calls “systemic amplifiers”) can consider when building out a sustainability strategy:

• Sustainability is about how your product or service is helping your audience (especially those who are most affected by climate change and historically underrepresented) 

• Consumers want to live a low carbon footprint, but they can’t always act upon it. Why? It’s too expensive.

• Greenwashing isn’t intentional for the most part. When there’s a gap in sustainability know-how, brands need to recruit experts who can support them in collaborating towards a solution. Collaboration is advertising’s greatest currency for a sustainable future. 

• Reducing carbon emissions has to coincide with making a profit. Both have to happen for sustainability to impact people and planet 

• To drive behavior change, we need to frame climate change as an opportunity (vs. responsibility) 

• Look to these brands who are doing it right: IKEA, Ben and Jerry’s, Unilever, Patagonia and Sky.  

Follow Helen on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenbrain/ 

More about the show: https://www.digseedgrow.com/thealtnormal-podcast

Produced by Resonance™, the creative practice of Dig | Seed | Grow

This show is hosted at Destination Outpost, a coliving and coworking community based out in Bali.   

In episode 35 of the Alt-Normal, we explore the essence of “what it means to live in a female body” from the perspective of branded content, authentic storytelling and feminism with Megan Lierley, the managing editor of Blood & Milk -- a women’s health and lifestyle website created by Cora. The mission of Blood and Milk is to consider and expose the physical, physiological, emotional, spiritual, psychological, social, political, cultural and economic forces that influence the way women exist in their bodies while striving for wellness. She is also a freelance writer and editor with work published in The Lily, The Good Trade, and Women's Wear Daily, among others. She writes a weekly current events and culture digest.

Since 2017, the women’s liberation movement has exploded on the scene with diverse expressions of feminism taking many new forms on the collective and individual level. Brands like Cora have also been instrumental in driving the women’s health conversation forward with both women in the US and abroad, by partnering with NGOs in developing countries like Kenya and India to provide organic tampons and pads to millions of underrepresented girls who on the whole lack access and education. Conversations and curiosities have deepened on all sides -- period poverty has drawn more awareness as a timely issue to reverse (underrepresented girls stay home 25% of the month because of their period, which ultimately affects their future livelihood and the GDP of their home countries) and Western women at home are openly speaking out about their most vulnerable experiences (imagine an article titled “What you need to know about postpartum masturbation” drawing hundreds of thousands of curious female visitors each month). 

With a content writing background and a deeply curious feminist lens, Megan helps us deepen into the following questions.

• As a conscious brand, how can you do impactful storytelling justice? Think centering authentic listening and learning over the potentially harmful effects of rushed, performative and exploitative leanings of white saviorism. 

• As an empowered women curious to deepen her connection to self, what does it mean to own your authentic expression of what it means to be a feminist and fully inhabit the female body?  

Subscribe to Megan’s newsletter at meganlierley.com/newsletter. 

Blood & Milk: https://bloodandmilk.com 

More about the show: https://www.digseedgrow.com/thealtnormal-podcast

Produced by Resonance™, the creative practice of Dig | Seed | Grow

This show is hosted at Destination Outpost, a coliving and coworking community based out in Bali.   

In episode 34 of the Alt-Normal, we explore the far reaches of stakeholder capitalism with Piril, a Sustainability Manager at Allianz, one of the world’s largest asset managers. Her passion for social + environmental impact and women’s empowerment started early on having grown up in the developing country of Turkey. Through her leadership since 2014, Allianz Turkey became the first insurance company in the country to commit to the UN Global Compact, sign the Women Empowerment Principles, report under the Global Reporting Initiative and kick off nationwide CSR campaigns in schools. 

While stakeholder capitalism (where ALL stakeholders within a business are considered, not just shareholders) isn’t new, it’s taken decades for this concept to find mainstream acceptance and take a seat at the table. That said, a massive gap exists between intent and impact where business objectives exist separately from ESG and CSR (corporate social responsibility) programs of giving back. If sustainability is no longer a ‘nice to have’ but rather a ‘must have’ by consumer demand, how can corporations make sustainability the most SUSTAINABLE practice?

In a post-pandemic moment where companies are grappling with how to put their best foot forward, Piril lays out the basic tenets of the Materiality Exercise to help bridge business strategy, stakeholder interests, SDG goals, systems mapping and consumer feedback to spot the most mutually-beneficial opportunities for creating shared value and ultimately, more benefit and resources for all -- especially those who have been historically underrepresented and in the case of Allianz, historically uninsured. 

With palpable optimism and passion for the power of stakeholder capitalism, Piril moves us to envision the future of scaling shared value in the corporate world. Our conversation ranged in topics including:

• Her love for corporations was solidified after taking a yearlong sabbatical to run a B&B with her mom (“I hated every moment away from corporate white collar life”)

• The evolution of ESG, CSR and stakeholder capitalism since the 1970s

• How to start a company’s sustainability journey towards shared value with the Materiality Exercise

• Biggest barrier to operationalizing stakeholder capitalism and closing the intent-impact gap

• The future of sustainability practices in corporations

More about the show: https://www.digseedgrow.com/thealtnormal-podcast

Produced by Resonance™, the creative practice of Dig | Seed | Grow

This show is hosted at Destination Outpost, a coliving and coworking community based out in Bali.   

Note: All views shared on the show represent those of our guest and not the company she represents.

In episode 33 of theAltNormal, we get to the root of ayahuasca (plant medicine) with Melissa Stangl, co-founder of Soltara Healing Center -- a Shipibo-led ayahuasca center in Costa Rica with a focus on integration. After years of corporate and working in scientific labs as a Cancer Research Biologist, she officially moved down to live and work in the Amazon jungle. With a background combining engineering, science and management, her mission is to help advance the plant medicine and psychedelic movements and bridge the Western world with indigenous and holistic health.

This conversation went deeply personal on both sides. While having a life-changing experience with Ayahuasca isn’t news, the underlying root cannot be emphasized enough. Disease does not just magically appear out of thin air. Our emotional traumas live in the body and spiritual disconnection affects mental health. When we HEAL the emotional roots of our physical problems (ie: anger towards a parent underlying a chronic illness - true story), the chances are...those physical ailments will also heal in time. The power of psychedelics in the right ceremonial setting (and respecting the indigenous roots of the medicine) reveals the undeniable connection between unresolved trauma and disease. When we lean into our innate capacity for healing, possibilities multiply.

Without a doubt, the mainstreaming of plant medicine can be world-changing in a post-pandemic (overly-medicated and overly-intellectualized) moment. And it doesn’t have to be a game of “allopathic medicine vs. traditional medicine.” With mental health on the rise, what could be possible if we supported people to cultivate resilience in their bodies with ayahuasca as one powerful modality, of many?

Other highlights of this episode include:

• The journey from cancer research biology to the jungle to start an ayahuasca center

• What makes Shipibo-led ayahuasca different than other approaches to plant medicine 

• The BREAKTHROUGH healing story of how a woman diagnosed with Lupus (autoimmune disease) completely healed her symptoms on ayahuasca

• Why “integration” is often an overlooked (yet crucial) piece to the plant medicine puzzle

• Preserving indigenous wisdom tradition with the rise of ayahuasca commercialism and tourism (how to run a conscious plant medicine business)

• The importance of expanding access to the less financially privileged underrepresented BIPOC who may benefit from plant medicine the most

More about the show: https://www.digseedgrow.com/thealtnormal-podcast

Produced by Resonance™, the creative practice of Dig | Seed | Grow

This show is hosted at Destination Outpost, a coliving and coworking community based out in Bali.   

In episode 32, we reimagine what’s possible when we bridge psychedelics, healing and our most underrepresented communities of color in this reimaginatively rich conversation with Nicholas Powers. Nicholas is a poet, journalist and Associate Professor who has authored several books, including “The Ground Below Zero: 9/11 to Burning Man,” and has written for the Village Voice, Huff Post, Business Insider, and Chacruna among many others.

With the voice of a poet, mind of an academic, spirit of a healer and resiliency of a Black American man, Nicholas weaves a story about the “real America” that rarely gets told. If the ‘dual pandemic’ of COVID-19 and racial injustice has taught us anything, it’s that America is anything but its idealized version of freedom and justice for all. To move past the endless “isms” that continue to plague our country requires a sober reckoning not just in the mind, but more importantly in the body -- where intergenerational traumas and internalized racism are experienced and held if they’re not properly released.

In this conversation, we center psychedelics as one possible solution. While this story isn’t new, psychedelics can become yet another form of colonialism if we don’t address the elephant in the room -- what if we broke through the deeply stigmatized War on Drugs and gave communities of color access to psychedelics in a set and setting that helped them burn through their trauma chains? A “chemical exodus” (also the name of his upcoming book) is underway!

“America will not evolve until Black America is free.” -- NP

This conversation of masterful storytelling, history and poetry includes:

• What it’s like to live through (and witness) a dual pandemic of COVID-19 and racial injustice

• The major differences between talk therapy and psychedelic healing 

• How Nicholas experienced healing in a post 9/11 world in just one night (vs. the average person in 9 years)

• How to combat the real stigma around psychedelics in communities of color given the  War on Drugs

• Discerning between the importance of a psychedelic state vs. psychedelic drugs

• Defining the “Chemical Exodus” for Black America and why reclamation (of their land and identity) is at the core of this revolution

More about the show: https://www.digseedgrow.com/thealtnormal-podcast

Produced by Resonance™, the creative practice of Dig | Seed | Grow

This show is hosted at Destination Outpost, a coliving and coworking community based out in Bali.   

In episode 31, we peel back the layers of all things feminine care, social justice and period power with Mariah Mansvelt Beck, the co-founder of Yoni. The brand’s mission is to protect vaginas globally and revolutionize the fem care industry with 100% organic tampons, pads and pantyliners (with period proof underwear on the way)! With a Masters in International Development from the University of Cambridge and experience working for Doctors Without Borders alongside Yoga teaching experience, business was the last thing on her agenda, which then begs the question -- how did a social worker start a feminine hygiene company that eventually became B Corp certified?

After a cervical cancer scare, Mariah turned her life around by asking big important questions, one of which became the genesis for Yoni. What actually goes into the body, especially the most absorbent part (the vagina)? After much exploration, the answer became clear. Not only did mainstream menstrual care products lack transparent labelling, but they were heavily sprayed with pesticides. Only four companies dominated the fem care industry at that time. When you consider that the average woman wears 13,000 tampons during her lifetime, this equals 6 years of chemicals in her most intimate body part. In 2014, Yoni became one of the first brands to tackle this issue (and more), putting organic products on mainstream shelves. 

So what does this mean today? The conversation has shifted in major ways, with brands like Nike and Pantone empowering women to talk openly about their menstruation, and lots more innovation on the product level (think CBD oils for cramps and biodegradable plastic tampon applicators). That said, 1 in 4 women in their menstruating years lack equal access to products or education, otherwise known as the “period poverty.” Without awareness, knowledge and more acceptance of the period conversation as the most NATURAL conversation, we risk keeping a generation of girls and women in a state of silence, disempowerment and shame. What could be possible if our next generation of girls (including those coming from our most underrepresented communities) broke through this universal taboo to reclaim their period power? 

Other dynamic topics we cover:

• An inside-out look at a B Corp certified business that benefits self, community and planet

• What’s really going on with ‘Period Poverty’ and the ‘Period Tax’

• Old story versus new story of conscious consumerism in the feminine hygiene industry

• Why we need more diversity in the fem care space around product innovation and storytelling/advertising 

More about the show: https://www.digseedgrow.com/thealtnormal-podcast

Produced by Resonance™, the creative practice of Dig | Seed | Grow

This show is hosted at Destination Outpost, a coliving and coworking community based out in Bali.   

In episode 30, we explore the embodied intersection of business, brand and leadership with Jee Chang, founder and Leadership Director of UME Agency, a collaborative design studio on a mission to create a more vibrant, livable future for all of us by helping brands grow from the inside-out. Her work focuses on elevating principles of feminine leadership and to move hearts and minds to greater consciousness in business whether it be through executive coaching, brand strategy & design, or teaching at Parsons – The New School.

In this dynamic conversation, we unpack the inside-out philosophy that powers UME, which can also be mapped onto the body-heart-mind connection -- where business is the body, brand is the heart (what you stand for and why you exist) and leadership is the mind (to empower teams to grow). Supporting this philosophy, we peel back the layers of feminine leadership that guide inside-out everything, from how teams function, client relationships to approaching creative and design thinking. Unlike traditional models of leadership that “power over,” feminine leadership is relational, holistic and regenerative -- inviting even more abundance, creativity, innovation, trust, possibility and collaboration by “powering with and behind.” By serving others to find their power and answers within, feminine leaders (by no means restricted to women) have the capacity to take a step back and nurture the right space for holistic growth and possibility to happen organically. By letting go of the old model of leadership relying exclusively on action and measurable linear growth, we can reimagine an emergence of feminine leadership (think future “Chief Gut Officer”) that welcomes the power of intuition and gut checking business decisions with a radically new feminine lens. How might we use our gut, or second brain, as the new metric for how we work and co-create together? 

We cover this and other soulful explorations, including: 

• Growing up Korean-American and how identity shaped her lens on leadership 

• Why brand, business and leadership are inseparable in thinking about how organizations evolve and change

• What it takes to reimagine a brand from the inside-out 

• The organic journey from Creative Director to Leadership Director in an all-women’s collaborative design studio

• Unpacking the guiding principles of Feminine Leadership and how this style can impact the most rewarding creative work and collaboration

• Somatic practices that you can use today to elevate consciousness and connection in your work space 

UME Design: https://www.umedesign.co/

More about the show: https://www.digseedgrow.com/thealtnormal-podcast

Produced by Resonance™, the creative practice of Dig | Seed | Grow

This show is hosted at Destination Outpost, a coliving and coworking community based out in Bali.   

In episode 29, we tour the evolution of purpose with Carol Cone, internationally recognized “purpose queen” (by the BBC) who has dedicated 35+ years to steering the purpose movement, 250 purpose programs and more than 30 research studies with major brands like Unilever and Microsoft to name a few -- ranging from social purpose, ESG strategies and communications, cause branding, nonprofit positioning, fundraising and stakeholder engagement. Her innovation (“My Special Aflac Duck”) to have Aflac sponsor the build of a social robot and comfort pediatric cancer patients during their first 1000 days of treatments was named one of Time Magazine’s Best Inventions, Best in Show at CES and winner of 2 Cannes Lions.

Presently, the purpose conversation is at a crossroads -- as a brand, are you on the side of operationalizing purpose authentically or riding the trend at the expense of ‘purpose washing’ (intent externally without real impact internally)? With impact front and center, brands have the power to tap into the $12 trillion opportunity should they walk their talk and align with one of the UN’s seventeen SDG goals. Carol highlights a core insight of purpose -- that as a market segments, it also matures (think: how brands unite purpose across storydoing and storytelling matters even more). Helping us unpack the 4 C’s of purpose driven leadership (commitment, culture, colleagues and collaboration), she makes the case that purpose architecture touches all stakeholders and isn’t just good for business, but also people and planet. To reaffirm what we already know to be true in line with Paul Krugman’s wisdom, “every social and environmental issue is an economic opportunity in disguise.”

• Discerning between authentic purpose vs. purpose washing with brands like Avon, Audi, P&G, PNC Bank and Aflac

• The evolution of purpose from cause marketing to stakeholder capitalism 

• How George’s Floyd’s murder and the subsequent BLM resurgence accelerated the purpose conversation in business

• The gold standard of purpose and how the B Corp certification fits into the picture

• Why operationalizing purpose is a present challenge for B2B companies

• How the marketing, advertising and comms industries will need to shift to do purpose right

• The brilliant impact of “My Special Aflac Duck” in connecting business + innovation + pediatric cancer patients 

Carol Cone On Purpose: https://www.carolconeonpurpose.com 

What will be your organization’s authentic purpose in 2021? https://www.carolconeonpurpose.com/post/what-will-be-your-organization-s-authentic-purpose-in-2021 

More about the show: https://www.digseedgrow.com/thealtnormal-podcast

Produced by Resonance™, the creative practice of Dig | Seed | Grow

This show is hosted at Destination Outpost, a coliving and coworking community based out in Bali.   

In episode 28, we dive into the intersection of mental health and social justice with Carrie Zhang, founder of Asian Mental Health Project. This initiative aims to educate and empower Pan-Asian communities in making mental healthcare more accessible using content creation and community events to de-stigmatize topics of mental health and critical social issues. CNN featured her project in their roundup, “People of Color Create Their Own Mental Services Online.” 

The work of Asian Mental Health Project couldn’t be more relevant than it is today, especially in the aftermath of a President who stoked public hysteria by coining COVID the “Chinese virus.” In a worldwide moment of heightened anti-Asian sentiment and hate violence with historical roots dating back to the 1800s, the numbers paint a sobering picture of how COVID has accelerated this racial injustice -- more than 2800 incidents of Anti-Asian discrimination have been reported since the pandemic began (according to NowSimplified). Thanks to Carrie’s project, the Pan-Asian community is coming together to share their lived experiences and connect with mental health experts around a range of topics -- releasing perfectionism, unpacking people pleasing as a trauma response, and understanding intergenerational trauma are just a few.

As a daughter to Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants, Carrie is no stranger to the barriers that keep the Pan-Asian community from seeking out mental healthcare (8.6% of Asians seek this out compared to 18% of the general US population). The new story around Asian mental health care is about the capacity to “tell our story without feeling like we have to be adjacent to whiteness or another group. We can be who we are without being a model minority -- caring for and understanding ourselves in the way we haven’t before.”

This and other illuminating topics, include:

• The impact of the project’s weekly wellness events “stay in, check in” 

• How AMHP practices allyship with Black Lives Matter and the intersecting movement towards BIPOC liberation

• What is the model minority myth vs. new story emerging around Asian mental health

• Unpacking the Western European origins of mainstream psychotherapy to make sense of why we need alternative inclusive modalities for the Pan-Asian community 

• What’s next for AMHP (show your solidarity and support by donating through the link below!)

Asian Mental Health Project: https://asianmentalhealthproject.com

More about the show: https://www.digseedgrow.com/thealtnormal-podcast

Produced by Resonance™, the creative practice of Dig | Seed | Grow

This show is hosted at Destination Outpost, a coliving and coworking community based out in Bali.   

In episode 27, we sit down with Rada Yovovich who makes the case for banning the “D” word (diversity) and instead, pushing play first on “accessibility.” Rada Yovovich co-founded a next-gen consultancy, The Darkest Horse, focused on helping teams build integrated future-of-work talent management strategies, politics and cultural practices that support a culture of diversity, equity, accessibility, and radical inclusion. She’s an experienced coach, meta-coach, mediator, trainer and facilitator based in Chicago.

Contrary to how DEI tends to trend in organizations, Rada laser focuses on the power of accessibility as the primary starting point. Diversity is merely a consequence if all the other pillars are operationalized first. In a moment when organizations are able to hire the best talent from anywhere in the world, accessibility comes down to the basics -- can talent show up to work, and feel supported in their neurodiversity by the structures and culture of their work spaces? While hiring for a diverse workforce is the right thing to do (and by default, translating to more justice for more kinds of people), Rada moves us to ask, “is it justice if diverse employees and workers are not being treated equitably?” In looking ahead, what we need is to actually move towards justice and liberation, which if considered as an add-on to DEIA, can more precisely target the points of privilege and oppression we exist in. From there, we can begin to delve into questions around who holds power within an organization, and how to implement capacities for growth (such as antiracism) within the systems that hold sway to create real change internally.

We dig into thought leadership across a wide-ranging spectrum, including:

• The origins of “the darkest horse” archetype and how they’ll lead the future of work

• Discerning between the D-E-I-A-J as leaders reimagine work culture, develop greater fluency in change management and open up paths for antiracism 

• The case for making accessibility the starting point, which has the potential to open up greater capacities for growth and change 

• Intrapreneurship vs. entrepreneurship and how to embrace the former as a skillset and state of being for innovation within an existing system 

• As a call to action for the modern day changemaker, how can you create a big vision for the future and simultaneously hold a deep unconditional appreciation for what is true right now?

Rada Yovovich: https://radayovovich.com

Darkest Horse: https://www.thedarkesthorse.com

More about the show: https://www.digseedgrow.com/thealtnormal-podcast

Produced by Resonance™, the creative practice of Dig | Seed | Grow

This show is hosted at Destination Outpost, a coliving and coworking community based out in Bali.