For Love & Money

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

Ep 35 Luli Adeyemo on DEI and empowering change makers

Today’s guest is committed to empowering changemakers and shifting the technology landscape, ensuring a more diverse and inclusive space for all.

Luli Adeyemo is the Founder & Director of Sydney-based integrated marketing agency Best Case Scenario and has spent the last 30 years curating content for thought leadership conversations and campaigns in the technology sector.

In 2020, Luli was appointed the Director of not-for-profit foundation TechDiversity - an industry alliance committed to amplifying diversity awareness and achieving a culture of inclusion through conversation, collaboration, and action.

Luli’s personal purpose that has guided her career, is to break down barriers - including the language barriers synonymous with the tech world - to make it accessible to everyone. Her energy is absolutely infectious and I hope you love listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed recording it.

Luli’s impressive credentials also include:

Elected Council Member – Australian Information Industry

Active Member – WEConnect International

Activator - SheEO (now Coralus)

 

Themes we discuss in the interview include:

• The importance of loving yourself and self-care
• Luli’s career path, her experiences and realisations that inspired her to lead change, break down barriers and fight for equity and access within the tech industry
• Her move to Australia with Gartner and how the lack of support she experienced led her to start her agency, Best Case Scenario (BCS)
• Best Case Scenario’s journey from its origins to becoming a marketing agency and events company, to recognising their underlying purpose to “empower changemakers”
• The impact that clarifying and articulating their purpose has had on Best Case Scenario, including recognising when they should walk away from a client opportunity
• The dramatic cost of the pandemic to BCS and the wider events sector and how their purpose guided the team’s response to it, bucking the industry trend and taking them back to their roots; in the process, enabling them to rediscover their sizzle
• Luli discusses TechDiversity Awards and their mission to make diversity & inclusion the #1 business priority in Australia.
• She shares her pride in the creation of the TechDiversity Academy and we discuss the integration of Luli’s personal purpose, the purpose of Best Case Scenario and the purpose of TechDiversity
• The technology industry having an identity crisis and the perceptions that need to change so we can diversify the technology workforce
• The TechDiversity Awards Program and why they created the Tech for Good category
• The importance of equity and understanding that it’s not about equality for everyone, but instead understanding people’s differences, to provide the same opportunity and access to all
• TechDiversity’s vision for the industry, our wider workforce and society and what they’re doing to achieve it

Connect with Luli

bestcasescenario.com.au  

linkedin.com/in/luliadeyemo  

Ep 34 Abbey Pantano, Founder, Seed Impact Business Community

Few people would see a global pandemic as an opportunity to open a co-work and event space, but this is exactly what my guest today did in 2020. 

Abbey Pantano is Founder of Seed Impact Business Community.

As a retail marketing specialist of 12 years, and eco side hustle owner for two, it was a stream of devastating world events and climate anxiety that led to a new dream...

What if we brought together a community of mission-driven entrepreneurs, dedicated to using their businesses as a force for good?

The arrival of COVID created the platform Abbey needed to take the leap. Using a redundancy package, learnings from 12 years of big business marketing and a defunct purpose-built start up – Seed Spaces was born. 

Today the co-work and event space, based on the outskirts of Sydney’s CBD, has blossomed into an Australia-wide digital membership with 70+ social impact businesses in the mix (and growing!).

Since our interview, Abbey has moved her focus fully into the Seed Impact Business Community, embracing her passion for and expertise in community and collaboration; with a goal to seed ideas and help those who want to make business for good, good for business.

The power of community and collaboration runs deeply through this interview. Not surprising for such a purpose-led individual as Abbey – purpose inspires people to think ambitiously; ambition inspires collaboration. 

Here are some of the themes we discuss in this interview:

• Abbey’s entrepreneurial journey, from working in marketing and partnerships in a large organisation to her start-up tackling plastic pollution 
• Abbey’s realisation of the value of partnerships to grow and empower purpose-driven businesses
• The origins of Seed Spaces from the initial spark generated by the Covid pandemic to now
• The value of B Corp Certifications as a public framework for businesses to grow and improve, aspiring businesses to build like-minded communities. Link to the B Corp Assessment we discuss here
• A discussion about Seed Impact and focusing on the idea of making one’s vision deeper instead of bigger, helping each other achieve success
• Abbey’s take on the importance of finding common ground, and the benefits of coming together over a common goal to support one another’s vision for the future
• Abbey’s view of how the power of business should be used to reroute energy into the hands of those powerful enough to make wide-reaching, positive change
• We discuss the Sustainable Development Goals and the importance of mapping your impact to the Global Goals framework. Abbey mentions Elaine Hendrick’s Sustainable Development Goals Tool which you can link to here, as well as Kirrily Graham’s Dovetail Social Enterprise which matches charity partners to businesses wanting to make an impact.
• Abbey shares her view on the Voice to Parliament and the experiences she's had that have helped to shape it.

 

Connect With Abbey

linkedin.com/in/abbeypantano

https://seedspaces.com/ 

Ep 33 Melanie Greblo, CEO Scriibed and Banksia Academy on combining AI with a human touch

Today's guest Melanie Greblo’s driving purpose is to catalyse and lead positive impact. This has led her to become a founder and CEO of an innovative and highly impactful start-up, Scriibed and a not-for-profit organisation, Banksia Academy.

Scriibed combines the best in AI with a highly trained and skilled workforce delivering transcription-based services. Scriibed for HR offers automated meeting admin with a human touch.

They automatically capture, summarise and action important workplace meetings. Their highly trained and skilled human workforce ensures customer success whilst providing flexible and safe work opportunities to women survivors of domestic and family violence.

Scriibed and Banksia Academy share a Theory of Change to achieve long term financial independence for women victim survivors of domestic and family violence through full social and economic participation.

Melanie is an ideas synthesist and strategist with a proven record of achievement in business, social ventures, community engagement, and culture transformation with a deep commitment to diversity, inclusion, innovation and systemic social change. 

Her impressive career trajectory includes 

• 7 years with the team at Impact Asia Pacific, where she curated the annual Impact Investment Summit and the region’s first Gender Lens Investment Summit. 
• 10 years with The Coterie for Renewal, a global human development and learning community, which she founded in 2011

A number of prior roles leading social and not-for-profit organisations

The business model behind Scribed and Banksia Academy is one that I think listeners of this podcast will really appreciate because of the "Win-Win" outcomes it creates for multiple stakeholders.  Solving customer problems AND simultaneously serving societal needs by supporting vulnerable people, as well as supporting potential victims through workplaces. My hope is that this episode inspires listeners to continue to think differently and intelligently about what business can look like.

Themes we discuss include:

• The tragic event early in her life that led to Melanie’s impact-led career path and how it shaped her thinking
• Mel shares her career path through to the trigger that led her to starting Scriibed and Banksia Academy, including the shocking statistic on the percentage of single mothers who are victims of domestic and family violence and the number of barriers that women survivors face
• She explains how Scriibed works and the multi-layered value it offers organisations
• The Theory of Change behind Scriibed and Banksia Academy in breaking the cycle of women returning to violent relationships and leading to prevention of domestic violence
• Melanie talks about the “need-want” overlap that attracts clients to the Scriibed solution
• She outlines the two types of clients that Scriibed serves and the growing relevance of what they offer, given business needs around the ‘S’ of ESG and social procurement targets
• She shares the shared value opportunity that Scriibed offers – supporting women in their workplace more broadly
• We discuss the need for business solutions to be designed in a human centred way
• How we are rewriting how and why we do business

Connect with Melanie

Melanie's email

Scriibed website 

Linkedin 

Ep 32 Afdhel Aziz, Chief Purpose Officer of Conspiracy of Love on the power of purpose

Today’s guest is a leader of the global Purpose movement.

He’s also a best-selling Author. Visionary Founder. Inspiring Keynote Speaker.

Afdhel Aziz is on a mission to solve one of the biggest problems facing individuals and companies in the 21st century: how to find purpose and meaning in their work and unlock the enormous power of business to do good in the world.

He is the Founder and Chief Purpose Officer at Conspiracy of Love, a global purpose consultancy that works with Fortune 500 companies to help them grow their businesses by doing more good in the world. Conspiracy of Love is a proud Minority-Owned Business and Certified B Corp.

 

He is also the Co-Founder of Good is the New Cool, a creative company and content incubator focused on creating positive stories that fill the Hope Gap. Good is the New Cool produces books, podcasts, TV shows and a global conference series called GoodCon that has taken place in Los Angeles, London, Sydney and New York.

 

Afdhel is the co-author of the best-selling books 'Good is the New Cool: Market Like You A Give a Damn', and the follow-up ‘The Principles of Purpose, as well as writing 'The Power Of Purpose' column in Forbes.

 

He is also an internationally renowned keynote speaker who has been featured at the Cannes Lions, YPO, SXSW, Forbes CMO Summit, Advertising Week, Conscious Capitalism, and the Fast Company Innovation Festival. He lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife and son.

 

I’m so excited to share this episode which explores some of the big questions around Purpose that listeners may have. I’ve been eager for this opportunity to get Afdhel to share his insights and experiences on Purpose globally and he doesn’t disappoint. I also seized the opportunity to exchange insights (where we discovered a lot of consistency) and to discuss some of the more critical challenges surrounding the purpose movement, particularly in Australia. The depth and breadth of Afdhel’s knowledge on this subject makes listening to every minute of this podcast worthy of your time.

 

Some of the themes we discussed included:

• The secret to becoming a loved business/employer/brand
• Afdhel highlights some of the work that Conspiracy of Love is doing with brands around the world
• We discuss the growth of the Purpose movement globally and what has caused it; Afdhel shares some insights he’s uncovered through research he’s undertaken for his third book on Purpose (this one covers personal purpose)
• We discuss Australia’s role in the Purpose movement and explore what is inhibiting big business in Australia from grasping the opportunity that purpose presents
• Afdhel shares his view on the 4 C’s holding Australian business back
• We discuss these 4C’s and other contributors, including 'fear'; and the role of boards. Link to an article Afdhel wrote on Five Mistakes Boards Make When Thinking About Purpose, for Forbes Magazine
• Afdhel shares some Australian stats from a recent Porter Novelli study on the relationship between Purpose and Reputation in the minds of Australians
• We exchange our (pretty consistent) thoughts on the different stages of Purpose
• We have a great discussion on the power of purpose and the growth opportunity that so many traditionally-minded businesses are missing out on
• We discuss the need for Purpose to start from the inside-out and why this is so important and Afdhel highlights Conspiracy of Love’s GPS to Purpose Methodology (Gifts, Passions, Service)
• Afdhel shares some pearls of wisdom – advice for people within organisations who see the opportunity that purpose presents but are not sure about what action to take

Connect with Afdhel

Linkedin 

Conspiracy Of Love website 

Good Is The New Cool website 

Good Is The New Cool on Instagram 

 

Ep 31 Emma Freivogel, Founder Radical Recruit on championing diverse and hidden talent

I was introduced to Emma Freivogel by a mutual friend and started following her Linkedin content. I was immediately drawn to her because of her unapologetic passion and conviction in revolutionising recruitment and her commitment to creating serious change. Emma is founder of Radical Recruit, a London-based not for profit recruitment consultancy that exists to excite, agitate and shake things up in the recruitment industry!

If you love this episode, you're going to want to follow Emma on Linkedin where she is active in exciting, agitating and shaking things up big-time! Her energy and authenticity is infectious.

Radical Recruit represents the UKs most diverse ‘hidden’ talent, helps employers do recruitment better and creates real and lasting social change.

Here are Emma’s own words on why she started Radical Recruit...

‘I began Radical because I believe it is time to boldly and unapologetically challenge the status quo. It is time to redress the imbalance of opportunity afforded to those labelled; ‘care leaver’, ‘disabled’, ‘gang member’, ‘black’, ‘uneducated’, ‘inexperienced’, ‘homeless’, ‘criminal’, or generally, just ‘not ‘good enough’. It is time to call out businesses who talk a big game when it comes to their commitment to equality but whose policies fail to translate into practice. I am RADICAL." 

Emma has brought together a community of likeminded people from disparate backgrounds, to champion the business and ethical case for change to the way businesses source, recruit, and develop hidden talent. Founded in October 2019, Radical has placed hundreds of Radicals into jobs that they love. During this time, they’ve also worked with hundreds of brands: helping them reimagine their traditional candidate attraction and engagement methods, run fairer more equitable recruitment processes, recruit Radical people, and support them to flourish in their chosen careers.

 

Here are some of the themes our interview covers:

• Emma shares her journey and the powerful origin story behind Radical Recruit
• She explains the benefits of a diverse workforce and some of the challenges in big business’ approach to diversity
• Emma’s view on the three key events that have changed attitudes to diversity in UK businesses
• She shares Radical Recruit’s role in the “Everybody In” campaign, funded by the GLA (Greater London Authority) and addressing homelessness during the pandemic
• Emma shares the broad value that her organisation offers across recruitment, social value, diversity, social responsibility and ESG
• The impact of the pandemic on ordinary people’s desire to help others who are in need of help
• The cost to taxpayers of homeless people and the benefits of providing them with support
• On setting up Radicals for success and the ultimate value to Radicals of the work they do 
• Radical Recruit’s move into advisory and consultancy, assessing the efficacy of an organisation’s attraction, engagement, recruitment, onboarding development processes; with a focus on capacity building
• Anti-bias and leadership the Radical way
• Her ultimate vision for Radical Recruit

 

Connect with Emma

Linkedin

Radical Recruit website