For Love & Money

Ep 45 Danielle Chiel, CEO of KOCO on giving women a voice

Danielle Chiel is founder and CEO of KOCO, a knitwear company specialising in commercial hand knitting. KOCO (Knit One, Change One) engages women in rural villages in the south of Tamil Nadu, India, to produce artisan knitwear for global fashion brands.

Combined, her lifelong passions for innovation, education, and giving women a voice, have enabled her to make significant social contributions in both Australia and India.

She’s a published author, her book KOCO – How Handknitting is Changing Lives and the Fashion Industry describes the story of KOCO’s sisterhood, has touched the hearts of brands and consumers around the world.

In this interview, Danielle shares...

• How knitting became a passion for her from a young age, but because of family expectations, she initially took an academic path before finding her way back to fashion.
• The story of how new Australian government legislation in the fashion industry forced her to find knitters outside of the country, taking her to Southern India.
• How KOCO was established in Australia by Danielle in partnership with women who live in rural villages of Tamil Nadu southern India.
• Danielle talks about what began as a solution to producing hand-knitted garments offshore is now a sisterhood of artisans and a business with the United Nations’ Global Goals for Sustainable Development entwined in their DNA. They have scaled the art of hand knitting to produce commercial quantities of garments, all entirely hand knitted.
• Along the way she is helping to give those women a voice, inadvertently also helping to break the economic cycle and the cycle of DV that many of them have lived with. As she says it’s about supporting them to be strong, independently-minded women.
• We also talk about how for people who have connected to their higher purpose, it is often connected to something that they experienced in their childhood. I reference a book called The Desire Map Experience by Danielle le Porte

I hope you enjoy this episode and the fascinating stories and insights that Danielle shares.

 

Connect with Danielle:

KOCO website

Danielle's Linkedin Profile

 

Ep 44 Paula Kensington, CEO of CFO Conversations on Flipping The Business Model

“Imagine waking up to a world without nature. Blue skies replaced by grey, grass by dirt, oceans turned to dust and mud.  This isn’t some far-fetched Science Fiction movie, it is the reality we are facing now. We are staring down the gun at the end of the world as we know it and business leaders need to unite to implement new ways of thinking and doing before it’s too late.”

 

Introducing Paula Kensington, award-winning CFO, business leader and director of consulting group, PK Advisory; and founder/CEO of CFO Conversations.

In her recently published green paper, Paula draws on global research, highlights the pitfalls of the past and offers hope for the future by outlining a strategic road-map out of outmoded, profit-focussed business practices to a new ‘planet-centric’ approach, with CFOs and CEOs leading the way.

“More than just a numbers person, CFOs are ‘key stewards’ that can drive change from within to align business outcomes with earth outcomes to go beyond carbon credits to turn profit into purpose,” she says.

 

Our conversation on this podcast centres on three key themes:

1. Why should CFO’s lead the purpose agenda
2. How do we ‘flip the business model’?
3. How do we reconstitute what we value as business success

 

If you are a CFO, this episode is especially for you. 

If you’re not a CFO, the value this interview offers is understanding that Purpose and Sustainability is no longer a ‘nice to have’. The ‘compliance’ stakes are gearing up and soon. Paula shares her thoughts, insights and paths to navigating from ‘business-as-usual’ to a new world of business. Great insights and I hope you might consider sharing with a CFO you know; perhaps in your own business.

Some of the highlights of this interview:

• Why CFO’s should lead the purpose agenda
  • What might be holding CFOs back from leading the purpose and sustainability agenda
  • CFO Excellence Index report – when the CFOs leads the sustainability agenda, the business is more successful
  • How new regulations and standards are going to mandate sustainability reporting which sits alongside the financial results and reporting
  • Her thoughts on probable timing of these reporting requirements (and it’s soon!)
  • What can CFOs do to prepare for these new mandates
  • The risk frameworks (COSO) around effective internal controls over sustainability reporting
  • Campfire Conversations: Paula’s approach and an analogy on how CFOs can navigate this new world and expectations
  • How “CFO Conversations” works and what CFOs can expect to gain out of them
• “Flipping the business model” – how do we change our focus on valuing the end product to a new world where we also value all inputs and resources? 
  • How do we value nature while its living? 
  • How do we bring living nature onto the balance sheet?
  • How do we transition to this new world which may be 5-10 years away?
  • Disrupting the business model. Paula shares the deep questions she believes business leaders must ask
  • She questions how businesses are allocating their capital reserves, challenging the notion that the majority is re-invested into business-as-usual
• How do we reconstitute what we value as business success?
  • Do we need new language, models, ledgers?
  • Horizon concepts
  • What can we do right now?
  • Stewardship over ownership
  • Whole system approach
  • As a CFO now we need to be aware of whole system thinking
  • Regenerative principles… challenge our thinking …decoupling everything tied to a financial outcome

Links promised in the interview:

BCG Article on CFO leading the way on Sustainability and ESG

 

Paula's Green Paper No.1

 

COSO report on Achieving Effective Internal control over sustainability Reporting

 

CFO Conversations on LI

 

Connect with Paula

Linkedin

PK Advisory Website

Email

 

 

 

Ep 43 Nikki Beaumont, Founder & CEO Beaumont People on the Four Day Work Week

Episode 43 features Nikki Beaumont…Founder and CEO of Beaumont People, a leading recruitment business who are all about placing people first – whether its their own people, their clients or the candidates they place.

This ‘people first’ philosophy and purpose-driven vision to connect people with organisations that empower them to do meaningful work and to create more opportunities for meaningful work in Australia, has seen Nikki's team provide much more than standard recruitment services to her customers.

Key to Nikki's and Beaumont People's success has been the unfaltering investment she makes in her people. She has crafted a work environment that is conducive to success - where her people are nurtured and motivated to achieve their personal best not only for the business, but as importantly, for themselves.

In this episode we talk a little bit about Beaumont People’s approach and some of the initiatives it has driven, but we zero in on one key initiative that they implemented 3 years ago – the 4-day work week.

As one of the first Australian businesses to do this, Nikki has some valuable insights to share.

I hope our listeners can take these insights and use them to think – not just about the 4 day work week – but also to question some of the other rules of business that we rarely examine. How can we do things better? What can we change?

I hope you enjoy the gems that Nikki shares in our chat.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Nikki shares Beaumont People’s origin story, including how the GFC was the stimulus that led to Beaumont’s strength in serving the charity sector
• What their purpose around meaningful work means to Beaumont People
• We talk about the ripple effect that having meaningful work has beyond the individual
• Nikki shares her pride in the people in the Beaumont People team, in implementing the Four Day Work Week; in launching gender neutral parental leave; and their work in the charity sector (having saved almost AU$35 million for the charity sector to date)
• What inspired Beaumont People to launch the Four Day Work Week and some of the best advice they were given to make it work by Andrew Barnes from the 4 Day Week organisation
• How they announced it to their people at their annual conference and engaged them in thinking about how it would work
• How Beaumont People’s peoples’ ideas were central to how the initiative was implemented
• How they approached the ‘Productivity’ question, including understanding that productivity varies so much across teams and functions
• How introducing the Four Day Work Week has clarified how Beaumont People measure productivity and success
• The role of trust in the success of this initiative
• Nikki shares her greatest learnings from the last 3 years of running the Four Day Work Week

 

Connect with Nikki

Nikki's Linkedin Profile

Beaumont People on Linkedin

Beaumont People website

 

 

 

Ep 42 Kelly Beater, Head of Felix Mobile on the Power of a BHAG

Our guest on this episode of the FOR LOVE & MONEY Podcast is Kelly Beater. Kelly is Head of felix mobile, a brand that describes themselves as “passionate about enabling a seamless telco experience for our customers, while driving a positive impact for our planet through our partners like One Tree Planted.”

felix’s mission is to inspire a better mobile industry; one that’s great for people and cares for our planet.

felix mobile is part of TPG Telecom, one of Australia’s biggest telecommunication companies. One of the interesting things about this brand is that they exist as a siloed business unit within the larger TPG Telecom organisations. This represents a really interesting model on how large organisations might start navigating their way to balancing profit with purpose – by starting with a small business unit, to build confidence in a profit through purpose model.

In this episode, Kelly shares the journey so far with felix, highlighting the power of a BHAG – a big hairy audacious goal – which for them was to plant one million trees. A goal they have just achieved!

So much gold in this episode. Here are some of the highlights, but make sure you listen all the way to where Kelly talks about her love of what she does and her pride in what she and the felix team are doing (around the 41 minute mark).

• Kelly shares how the brief to create a “digital-only” brand led to the development and launch of a purpose-led digital-only brand and business unit within TPG Telecom
• Why the felix team chose climate action as their greater cause; the environmental impact of mobile phone usage
• Kelly shares felix’s three powerful values and how these shape the behaviour and decisions of the felix team
• On achieving their BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) to plant one million trees on behalf of their customers
• Kelly shares the benefits of tree planting including environmental and also the restoration of habitat of threatened species like koalas
• She talks about some of the projects that felix have supported both in Australia and overseas through their partner organisation One Tree Planted
• The role of their customers in choosing their projects
• Kelly shares a fascinating insight on what attracts their customers about felix’s value proposition and what drives their ongoing customer satisfaction
• The role of purpose in attracting the brand’s stakeholders
• Beyond the one million trees, Kelly shares some of felix’s other successes, from awards, to customer growth, customer feedback, customer referral and customer retention
• The inextricable link between purpose and profit in felix’s success metrics
• Kelly talks about the value of credible partnerships and she shares some of the partnerships that felix have, that help build trust
• Kelly talks about how much she loves what she does and how proud she is of what she’s doing through felix (I just love this section of this interview)!
• How felix mobile operates within TPG Telecom and how the felix business is influencing the wider business
• The next big goal!! And more big news which Kelly couldn’t share during our interview, but we will link to here when “it” is announced

Connect with felix mobile and Kelly

felix mobile website 

Kelly’s Linkedin 

Ep 41 Graeme Cowan, Co-founder WeCARE365 on creating mentally healthy workplaces

Today's guest on the FLAM podcast is Graeme Cowan, whose dedication and commitment to creating mentally healthy workplaces has seen him named one of LinkedIn’s top voices for 2022 in the Mental Health & Resilience space.

Graeme helps leaders and teams to be more caring and resilient - and enjoy growing together. 

He was founding Board Director of R U OK? and is the author of four books, including the internationally acclaimed BACK FROM THE BRINK, which has a testimonial from the former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, and which has become a best seller in China. 

He is the Co-Founder of WeCARE365, which creates simple scalable eLearning to prevent mental health issues. 

Graeme is also host of The Caring CEO podcast, where he interviews CEO’s who champion a culture of care AND high performance.

In his earlier career he worked in senior leadership positions with Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and the management consulting company, Kearney. 

In 2000 he went through a 5 year episode of depression that his psychiatrist described as the worst he had ever treated. He emerged from this crisis with a different view about how we can increase our resilience, mood, and performance. 

Today, his purpose – helping leaders and teams to be more caring and resilient and enjoy growing together – is the guiding force that drives everything Graeme does in this space.

 

Key highlights of this interview:

• Graeme’s personal journey that led him to have such clarity of purpose. His own painful experience with serious depression, but also the pivotal experience of work he did many years ago as a consultant with Ramsey Healthcare, in shaping his view on the value of “people caring for people”.
• His insights on what poor mental health is costing our workplaces in absenteeism, presenteeism and even on workers compensation premium costs.
• Some of the insights he’s gained through his podcast, The Caring CEO, and the characteristics these leaders share.
• An overview of the programs he and his business partner Brendan Carter have developed through their business WeCARE365, empowering managers to create mentally healthy workplaces.
• How to measure the impact of a mentally healthy workplace – including an interesting development in a tech startup as something to watch out for

For anyone who believes that people are an organisation’s greatest asset, this interview will get you thinking about how you can create organisational and team environments where people feel safe and are able to bring their best to their work. 

 

Connect with Graeme

Linkedin 

Email

 

Websites:

http://www.graemecowan.com.au/ (Personal)

https://wecare365.com.au (WeCARE365)

 

 

 

Ep 40 Ravi Prasad, Founder Parliament On King on Social Enterprise - the future of business

Ravi Prasad is a former ad man turned social entrepreneur.

A strategist, who in a career spanning over 20 years, worked for agencies including, EURO RSCG, Leo Burnett, John Singleton Advertising, Ogilvy & Mather, Sapient Nitro and Clemenger BBDO.

Over the years his work has won, or been a finalist, in awards, from W3 in New York to the IIB Awards in London, and from ADMA to AIMIA in Australia. 

In 2013 Ravi shifted the focus of his life and work to pursue his interest in social justice and civil society, and founded Parliament on King.

Parliament on King addresses the barriers to social, cultural and economic participation faced by asylum seekers and refugees. 

It’s also a social enterprise catering business, that offers training, work experience and paid employment to asylum seekers and refugees – all funded by the proceeds of its commercial catering operations.

The project has been recognized with awards including a Refuge Council Humanitarian Award and the Good Food Guides ‘Food for Good Award’. Ravi is also the recipient of a UTS Human Rights Awards and the 2022 NSW Human Rights Medal.

Ravi shares such valuable insights in this interview. There’s a theme that threads its way throughout our chat - the importance of belief, clarity of belief, self-belief and shared belief. This, combined with the other recurring themes of the power of ‘action’ to build belief; and the fallacy of limited resources, makes for an interview that I really hope will inspire people to act without any further delay.

 

Some of the highlights of our conversation

• A great philosophical discussion about the role of love in business
• Ravi’s view on the role of the social enterprise sector and the future of business
• The life defining moment that forced Ravi to examine his beliefs and what happened as a result
• The idea of limited resources being a barrier to starting to live your beliefs.
• Parliament On King’s start-up story – you’re going to want to listen to this!
• The importance of action – “doing things” – to create proof and belief to take the next step
• The power of doing something small
• What can one single person do? The power of one
• The secret to people being trustworthy is to trust them – Ravi’s story about his experiment on trust
• Social businesses are built on belief. Social business leaders can make their own rules.
• Parliament On King’s ripple-effect of impact –on asylum seekers and refugees, the homeless and other vulnerable groups
• Shared narrative, transformative leadership, action and stories
• Transparency of impact that builds trust

 

Connect with Ravi

Email:  myintuition@yahoo.com

Phone: +61 414 235 325

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raviprasad/

 

Ep 39 Carolyn Tate on Brave Women Write

Carolyn Tate is a writer, educator and speaker and the author of six books including Brave Women Write and her best-selling book The Purpose Project. She is a pioneer of purpose in Australia and her book has inspired countless individuals to pursue their purpose and make an impact. Brave Women Write is her most recent book. It’s a powerful call-to-action for women to harness the power of their words, to get writing and create personal and planetary change. As a river swimmer with a deep connection to nature, Carolyn’s purpose is to write and share the stories that move us to remake the world.

Carolyn and I were speaking about this topic of women who were bravely showing up to share their ideas of how to make things better, through writing and publishing books. Our discussion sparked this idea of using the podcast to inspire more women to write.

There is no doubt we are experiencing a movement where many women are bravely showing up as protagonists of change in their industries. While this isn’t limited to women, my experience and that of most of my co-conspirators, is that more women are driving purpose-led change than men. Perhaps it comes from the need to rebalance growth and winning with nurturing and sharing. 

So today’s episode is dedicated to the many women who are showing up bravely, as well as those who want to do more to show up bravely. Brave Women Write is a celebration as well as an invitation. Hope you enjoy this episode. 

 

Some of the highlights

• Alice In Wonderland – an invitation to channel your inner “Alice” and go down that rabbit hole
• The importance of curiosity in our lives and through our writing
• The vital role of antagonists
• How to overcome imposter syndrome
• Being in the arena: Teddy Roosevelt and Brene Brown
• The voices we can share and the role of our ancestors
• Writing to connect to (and release) our deeper grief
• How sharing our stories will remake our world
• “Story Boxing”
• Ideas on how to start writing and storytelling
• An invitation to adventure
• Why do we need to be protagonists?

Connect with Carolyn

Carolyn's website

Get the book BRAVE WOMEN WRITE 

Ep 38 Mindy Leow, Acting CEO B Lab ANZ on becoming a B Corp

Listeners of this podcast might be familiar with the term B Corp, but like many – perhaps don’t have a clear understanding of what B Corp stands for and what is involved in becoming a B Corp.

B Corps are businesses that meet high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency and as a result have received certification.

The B Corp certification is the most holistic and rigorous independent certification for businesses today. 

Certified B Corporations, or B Corps, envision a better economic system where businesses can benefit people, communities, and the planet. They choose long-term investments over quick wins, and measure their success based on the positive impact they create.

My business, The Cause Effect is proud to be a certified B Corp. We achieved certification in October 2021. You can see our B Corp profile here and read a short blog about it here.

On the For Love & Money podcast, our mission is to explore the intersection of love and money (or purpose and profit) in business, to inspire a movement for positive change – business as a force for good; brands driving profit through purpose. 

The B Corp community and movement aligns to this 100%. Their mission: Make Business a force for good. We won't stop until all business is a force for good.

So it is with great pleasure that I introduce today’s guest Mindy Leow.

Mindy is Director of Impact and Growth at B Lab Australia & NZ, the certification arm of B Corp. At the time of this interview she is also acting CEO.

Mindy is a champion of business as a force for good. Instrumental in building the B Corp movement in Australia and New Zealand, She has worked with more than 200 companies to achieve certification. She has also worked with hundreds of other businesses to measure and improve their social and environmental impact through the free online B Impact Assessment tool. 

In this episode, Mindy shares her journey to becoming a B Corp champion and gives us some great insights into what B Corp certification is all about, what value the process of becoming a B Corp offers to business leaders; and the strong benefits that being a B Corp delivers.

If you haven’t already - my hope is that this episode will motivate you to check out the B Corp Assessment and start doing the assessment, regardless of whether or not you are committed or you have commitment from within the business to undertake the B Corp certification process. Hands down you will learn so much from simply doing the assessment.

Some of the highlights of this interview:

• Mindy’s background and how she came to be part of the B Lab Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand team
• Mindy shares the concept that B Lab use to describe shareholder primacy – as a “source code error”. Great analogy!
• The three levels that B Corp certified businesses need to meet: Performance, Accountability and Transparency. Mindy talks about these in some detail.
• Mindy shares the five pillars of the B Corp assessment and shares some examples within the pillars
• We discuss the value of undertaking the free B Corp Assessment
• She also shares the benefits of being a B Corp

Connect with Mindy and the B Lab community:

Mindy Low on Linkedin

B Corp Website

The B Impact Assessment

 

 

Ep 37 Kimberley Abbott, CEO & Founder Vested on redefining ”millionaire”

Imagine if impacting people's lives was deemed more valuable than money.

That's what my guest on this episode is working towards.

Kimberley Abbott, CEO and founder of Vested, a company with a mission to 'redefine millionaire to be a person who impacts millions of lives' through leveraging data-driven impact assessment to help people invest their money where it makes the best impact on society.

Vested helps people invest their money where it matters. To create impact where it is most needed.

Kim is an Aussie who has relocated to London. I first learned about her when I was listening to Mick Spiers Leadership Project Podcast and I was so inspired by her story and was determined to get her on this podcast to share some of that story.

Kim shares a bit of her journey from studying Engineering to starting a social enterprise in India to working for the UN, assessing and monitoring peacekeeping missions; to then starting the company.

We get into some of the ‘how’ Vested operates and how it differs from businesses reporting on company’s ESG (Environmental Social Governance) activity. But the key theme in this interview is the purpose behind the business and how that has driven her to think ambitiously and create something out of nothing.

I feel so inspired after our interview, I have no doubt it will inspire you and I hope, galvanise you to do something differently.

Some of the highlights:

• Kim’s journey from university to starting Vested and the influences that led her to where she is today
• She shares how her family’s philosophy towards failure was influential in her journey
• Vested’s mission and how it has driven their approach
• How Vested approaches and defines how impactful a business is being and how this differs from the traditional ESG (Environmental Social Governance) reporting approach
• How Kim built the product herself in the first 2 years and while it was not perfect and how now been developed by someone with more skills, it was effective in getting started
• Kim shares the four questions they ask at Vested to determine the value of impact of a business
• Kim's invitation to speak to world leaders at the Paris Peace Forum in 2022 – a recognition of the value of her efforts
• The collaborative mindset of impact led organisations

 

Connect with Kimberley

On Linkedin 

Vested Website 

 

Ep 36 Prisca Ongonga-Daehn on small steps towards big change

Saving the world, one wash at a time. Sounds pretty good, right?

That’s the question posed and answered by the personal care brand, Baresop, which is responsible for producing modern-day zero-waste personal care products. Manufacturing everything from hand wash soaps to body wash products, Baresop is pushing to create change through every wash.

Baresop’s founder, Prisca Ongonga-Daehn is my guest on today’s episode of the podcast and I can’t wait for you to hear Prisca’s story and the absolute gems of insights she shares about starting this social purpose-led brand, Baresop.

Prisca is a Kenyan-bon Australian, a global citizen, an entrepreneur and a changemaker.

Prisca was told “it’s not possible” many times in the early development of Baresop, but she refused to give up. She had a vision for a product range that would reduce waste, be good for the planet, and be “waterless”. 

I love people who prove the naysayers wrong. Don’t you?

 

Some of the themes we cover in this interview include:

• Prisca shares her story of what inspired her to start Baresop and her daughter’s influence in the creation of her business
• Solving a customer problem – how this drove the ideation process of the business to help customers take small steps to creating change
• We talk about Baresop’s 2035 goals – how they are both audacious and achievable and are built on credible data (Prisca LOVES data. Fellow data lovers will enjoy how data is a recurring theme in this interview)
• She shares and explains Baresop’s 3 key pillars: Innovation, Impact and Change
• The multiple benefits of Baresop that have been developed based on customer insight and feedback
• Prisca talks about their product scents, what they have in common with gin and the benefits to the skin, as well as the wonderful storytelling properties of scents
• We talk about storytelling and it’s power in inspiring people to create positive change
• Ontop of water conservation as one of the key benefits Baresop offers, Prisca shares the partnership they are developing with Charity Water to provide clean water to communities. 
• How Baresop started; her bootstrapping story and the funding support she got to start the business, including the investment she got from Start Mate
• We talk about our children and what they deserve from us and Prisca shares her belief that we all have the power to create change

 

Connect with Prisca

On Linkedin

Baresop website

Baresop on Instagram