This episode's special guest is Jon Miller, author of The Activist Leader: A New Mindset for Doing Business.

Together we explore how we can all use an activist mindset to make businesses more of a force for good.

Jon takes us through the 5 types of Activist Leader:

• Campaigner
• Path-finder
• Mobiliser
• Bridge-builder
• Fixer

And a quick poll of participants shows that over 50% of MarketingKind members identify as Path-finders.

Jon shares many examples of businesses that are leading the way such as the largest shipping company in the world, Mærsk, which has created a new design for ships that produce half of the carbon emissions of a standard cargo ship.

Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever, endorsed The Activist Leader calling it, ‘A must read for all current and aspiring leaders’.

The Activist Leader is the second book that Jon has written. The first is Everybody's Business and both were co-authored with his business partner Lucy Parker.

In addition to his writing, Jon is a partner of the Brunswick Group, where he co-founded the Business & Society team in 2011, working with many of the world’s largest companies on their critical societal issues – from climate change and biodiversity to human rights and inequality.

In 2015 he founded Open For Business, a coalition of global companies advancing LGBTQ+ equality, with live programmes in East Africa, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and South East Asia.

With this event taking place live in London (and online) we have an extended Q&A resulting in our longest episode so far!

This episode is hosted by Caroline Bates, Founding Partner of Citizen Good and a member of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode we explore with Kian Bakhtiari, founder of The People, how we can restore collective imagination in order to better solve society's biggest challenges.

Kian believes we have a crisis of imagination and we need to use marketing and communications to create a shared sense of language and vision to help us imagine a better future.

In the discussion Kian inspires us with his work at The People, which is a is an award-winning Gen Z Insights and Strategy agency powered by 150+ diverse young changemakers.

He gives advice for helping to breakdown the notion that the world is fixed and unbending and suggests we should:

- Nurture the beginner mindset

- Evoke the power of play

- Take people out of their usual setting to give them a new perspective

This episode is hosted by Anna Mullenneaux and Paul Skinner co-founders of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode we learn from Parisa Wright, founder of Greener & Cleaner, how their charity is tackling the loneliness epidemic, the cost of living crisis and the climate emergency all at once.

Their innovative Community Hub in The Glades shopping centre in Bromley has turned a vacant space into a thriving place for a diverse range of people to learn from each other how they can live more sustainably, while saving money, learning new skills and building a more resilient social network.

People come to the Hub to learn new skills such as sewing, to borrow equipment from their Library of Things, to volunteer or to meet new people in a supportive environment.

Greener & Cleaner also use their Hub to test and learn. They are building a ‘Blueprint’ for success to help other community groups and charities to replicate this model in vacant spaces in shopping centres and high streets around the UK.

Our members are working with Parisa to help grow the charity by strengthening and diversifying their funding streams, particularly through their work with businesses. And if you would like to join us in supporting their work please get in touch at [email protected].

This episode is hosted by Jackie Marshall, former Head of Marketing at Fairtrade, MarketingKind member, volunteer at Climate Ed and Business Engagement Lead at the Food Foundation.

In this episode Manda Scott, bestselling novelist, explores how Thrutopian narratives can give us 'a road map through' our current polycrisis existence to one we would be proud to leave to future generations.

We discuss how Manda used the concept of Thrutopia in writing her recently published novel Any Human Power, which is described as a mytho-political thriller and which includes a surprisingly timed general election. *** So a special thank you to Rishi Sunak for calling a general election the week before the book came out, helping to make the book feel even more prescient and needed. ***

Manda says we need to change our mindset and our value system away from 'see, want, take' to one where we don't see ourselves as separate from nature or each other.

Her top three practical recommendations for changing politics in the UK:

1) Read Plurality: The Future of Collaborative Technology and Democracy by Audrey Tang
2) Change from First Past the Post voting to Proportional Representation
3) Give 16 year-olds (or younger) the right to vote

Manda is the author of 18 books including the hugely popular Boudica: Dreaming series and the Times ‘Book of the Year’ Into the Fire​. She hosts the Accidental Gods podcast where she and guests explore how we can create a future we’d be proud to leave to the generations that come after us.​ And she is a contemporary shamanic teacher and offers courses in Thrutopian writing.

​This episode is hosted by Paul Skinner, founder of ⁠the MarketingKind community⁠, director of the ⁠Agency of the Future⁠ and author of ⁠The Purpose Upgrade⁠ and Collaborative Advantage.

This episode's special guest is Philippa White, author of Return on Humanity: Leadership Lessons from All Corners of the World, and together we discuss a people-first approach to leadership.

Philippa is a global thought leader, social innovator and the Founder and CEO of UK-based company TIE Leadership and host of the TIE Unearthed podcast. For over 20 years she has been dedicated to unlocking the potential of corporate leaders and their companies by igniting the power of a people-first approach to business.

Philippa shares what she considers the three pillars of being more human as a leader: self-awareness, interdependence and interconnectedness.

1) Self-awareness means knowing who you are, what you are good at, what your purpose or compass is and what makes you happy.

2) We are interdependent, because we can't make decisions on our own. We need other people, we can't make decisions in a vacuum, we need other sectors and other regions of the world. We need voices from outside communities to help us find solutions. And to create an environment where the people needed can collaborate in a cohesive way, we need human competencies such as empathy and understanding how to gain trust from people who are very different to ourselves.

3) Our interconnectedness means business can't be only about shareholders, it needs to be about all stakeholders. There needs to be an understanding of our place in the community and how what we do impacts all other aspects such as our customers, civil society and the environment.

The more human a business culture is, the happier people are and the more successful it becomes and this is a 'Return on Humanity'.

We learn about her aunt and uncle's activism in apartheid South Africa and how it motivated her to create her leadership programmes at TIE and to write the book.

This episode is hosted by Anna Mullenneaux and Paul Skinner, co-founders of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode Steph Caswell, writing coach and author of Dare to Write, shares her advice on how to turn our ideas into great business books.

We are also hugely lucky to have a community filled with authors and in the group discussion we hear from Rory Sutherland, Dr Chris Arnold and Paul Skinner about their own writing and publishing experiences.

Steph's top three tips and some of her reading recommendations include:

1) Read!

Read within your genre and outside of it. Read and explore what makes a good business book.

The Success Principles by Jack Canfield is an example of a book that influenced Steph's journey.

2) Always keep the reader front and centre.

What is the problem that your reader has that will cause them to reach for your book on the shelf? This becomes your reader promise.

Write about an idea that flicks a switch for the reader and helps them to see and do things differently. Eric Nelson, an editorial director, wrote an article on LinkedIn about the secret to coming up with ideas that people get excited about, which is worth reading: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/secret-coming-up-ideas-people-can-get-excited-eric-nelson

Books that Steph mentions include The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins, Atomic Habits by James Clear and Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.

3) Make sure to create a sense of momentum for the reader.

When people read non-fiction books they want to be able to take action as a result so give them practical tips. What can you do in your book that could make a difference for your reader?

This episode is hosted by Anna Mullenneaux, co-founder of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode we learn from Zak Gottlieb, co-founder of Bank.Green, how they are influencing banks to support a more sustainable future rather than continuing to fund fossil fuels.

The fight for a habitable planet is the fight for our lives. But while we look at ways to make our own lives more sustainable, most of us are also funding environmental catastrophe.

During the 7 years following the Paris Agreement, the world’s top 60 private-sector banks pumped $5.5 trillion into fossil fuels.

In honour of Earth Day 2024 Bank.Green launched a new league table and methodology so that we can all find out if our bank (and therefore our money) is funding fossil fuels. And if we’re not happy with our bank's ranking then Bank.Green makes it easy to find and switch to a better one. 

Zak joined the climate movement in 2019 after feeling the world was sleep-walking towards catastrophe and wanting to use his knowledge of digital marketing to do something about it. At Bank.Green, he is responsible for their growth and partnerships, while liaising with banks about how they represent them.

This conversation was part of a MarketingKind Coffee with a Cause session where members work together to support the growth of a pioneering charity.

This episode is hosted by Anna Mullenneaux, co-founder of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode we explore 'life after the big job' in a very open, honest and engaging conversation with Mark Evans, former Managing Director of Marketing and Digital at Direct Line Group.

"A big part of moving out of executive life is finding a way to move away from (or maybe reframe) one's ego, so I do have a bit of a problem with the word 'portfolio'. I describe my existence as having a fruit salad."

Whether you are still in 'the big job' or you have struck out on your own, the world needs a lot more ‘fruit salad’ thinking.

Mark shares advice given to him at a curry house dinner celebrating his university graduation in 1995 which has shaped his career ever since.

Mark currently aims to learn more, enjoy more, and contribute more. He has raised over £900,000 to help beat cancer quicker through the Sprintathon. And he shares the many other incredible roles and initiatives that make up the current mix in his fruit salad.

We learn about the importance of building a 'board of advisors' rather than relying on the expertise of one mentor. And Mark's top four tips for anyone wanting to diversify their career interests with the potential for creating a portfolio or fruit salad life.

This episode is hosted by Elaine Roberts, B2B marketing expert, coach and strategic change consultant. And Mark and Elaine are both members of the MarketingKind community.

This episode's special guest is Rob Harrison-Plastow, CEO of insight agency Source Nine and climate communications and behaviour change expert.

We ask Rob to help us better understand how we can unlock emotional insights in relation to our own lives and our work in marketing.

Rob shares that our emotions are based on our perception of our needs being met at an unconscious level, which shape our experiences and our reality of the world.

This conversation is an important one for every marketer and every human being. This should be taught in schools.

Rob describes how he works to first listen to people and understand their emotions, discover their underlying needs and to then create value through strategies that align a client's products, services and communications with meeting the needs of those people in a positive way.

When this is done right you can truly understand why people act the way they do, you can connect deeply and create human flourishing.

It should feel obvious when you achieve this. It is simple.

We discuss understanding three main buckets of negative emotions and how to use them to achieve quick wins. Emotions such as sadness, anger and fear serve a purpose and they can be navigable.

We delve into the ethical considerations involved and Rob's goal of helping people to flourish.

Rob references Manfred Max-Neef's Fundamental Human Needs and Marshall Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication.

This episode is hosted by Paul Skinner and Anna Mullenneaux, co-founders of the MarketingKind community.

In this episode we explore inclusive economics with Arunjay Katakam, digital payments expert, social entrepreneur and author of Generation Hope: How Inclusive Economics Can Help Us All Thrive.

Arunjay tells us of his personal journey from chasing wealth to becoming a social entrepreneur finding ways to help the poorest in the world access digital payments systems.

He was inspired to write the book when during the pandemic he was interviewing gig workers and discovered what he calls 'algorithmic dehumanization', when businesses lure people in and then decide how much they should earn, even though they are technically self employed.

Steve Cook from The Undaunted also contributes significantly to this discussion.

Arunjay is the author of two books Generation Hope and The Power of Micro Money Transfers. He is a digital payments expert, who until recently consulted for the United Nations. He is the founder of Inclusive Action Lab and has previously co-founded several start ups, one of which sold to Twitter.

All profits from the sale of Generation Hope go to the non-profit Acumen, which is working to change the way the world tackles poverty.

This episode is hosted by Anna Mullenneaux, co-founder of the MarketingKind community.