191 | Big Impact Through The Power of Small with Masami Sato
Our guest on the pod this week is Masami Sato. Masami is the Founder of the global giving initiative B1G1 - also known as Buy One, Give One. They help businesses give back in meaningful ways. Since 2007, they've worked with over 2700 businesses creating over 220+ million giving impacts.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
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Masami Sato Awarepreneurs Podcast Interview
SPEAKERS
Masami Sato, Paul Zelizer
Paul Zelizer 00:01
Hi, this is Paul Zelizer. Welcome to another episode of The Awarepreneurs podcast. This podcast is all about the intersection of three things, conscious business, social impact, and awareness practices. Each episode, I do a deep dive interview with a thought leader in this intersection. Someone who has market tested experience, and is already transforming many lives. Before we introduce our guests and our topic, and we have a fabulous guest today, just one request, if you could go over to iTunes, or whatever app you're listening to the show on, hit the subscribe button, do a review, it helps tremendously. Our guest today is Masami Sato. And our topic is Big Impact Through the Power of Small. Masami is the founder of the global giving initiative B1G1, also known as buy one, get one. They help businesses get back in meaningful ways. Since 2007, they've worked with over 2700 businesses. And I just found out, Masami needs to update her LinkedIn profile, 220 million giving impacts as a result of those initiatives. Masami, welcome to the show!
Masami Sato 01:12
Thank you, Paul, thank you for having me today. Such an honor here.
Paul Zelizer 01:20
You've been doing this work about business and positive impact for a long time. So I can't wait to hear more and introduce our audience. Before we get into your work. masumi talk to us were called aware printers. And one of the ways we like to get to know somebody is to ask you about a wellness or an awareness practice that you personally use to bring your most creative your most resourced self to work? Well, good question. Well, actually, in my, you know, younger youth time, I did a lot of different things. So I did travel around in a backpacking, I did do yoga, or I did learn about natural, you know, health and healthy eating or even farming, natural farming and things like that. So I spend a lot of time exploring how to create this like ultimate well being to, but these days being busy business person, much like you all are listening. I keep it very simple. So one thing I love to do is running. So each day, I would normally start my day with running. And what I love about running is that the running opens up so much like, you know, time to really connect without worrying about trying to do something. And yeah, so. So that's kind of one thing that I consistently do other than, you know, still trying to generally maintain good healthy eating and happy a stress free life.
Paul Zelizer 02:54
If we're not careful, we could easily turn this into a running episode. I promise we won't. But we were joking before we hit the recording button. masa, you are in Singapore, if I remember correctly. Yes, yes. Yeah. So it's very hot and humid here. It's very hot. It's very humid. And it's very early. It's early in the morning. And I'm in New Mexico. And it's snowing, and you went for a run at the beginning of your day. I've had a super busy day. And as soon as we get off this podcast, I'm going to go trial run with a buddy. I promise listeners, we won't turn this into a running as awesome podcast. But running is awesome. So I can't agree with you anymore.
Masami Sato 03:34
So this idea of business being you know, something that can have positive impact. You started with big wine in 2007. Now, it's like one of the most popular social enterprise and sustainable business, one of the most popular majors on college campuses around and fastest growing majors on college campuses around the world. But that wasn't true back in 2007, you were you were pretty early to this conversation. How did you get into this work? Well, I didn't intend to get into any specific thing like, Well, actually, interestingly, I started my very first business and became an entrepreneur, actually before then, that was about 20 years ago. And so the motive behind why I started my own company and which was a food business back then was because I wanted to use my life to do something meaningful. And, and that was just happened to be when my very first child, the baby daughter was just three months old. And I was experiencing this like very, very deep sense of love and connection with my baby girl. And at that time, I really like reflected on my life and what happened before then, like leading to that which was that when I traveled around the world
04:58
I you know
Masami Sato 05:00
And to connect with people in so many different countries and cultures and, and at that time, there was one thing, which kind of made me really deeply think because I saw, there are lots of challenges in the world and children, for example, living on the street and not being able to go to school or families not having access to simple things like clean water or medical care. So with that in mind, and feeling this deep sense of connection with my own child, I thought I could do something and I should do something. So that's when I started my own business, and then got into entrepreneurship. And the big one, the bathtub, the one to one, the social enterprise, was actually like five or six years after that, because I realized that that was their ambition to try to do good. You know, using my own business to do good, I found that really difficult, because even though I was working really hard and trying to grow business, and our business, in fact, was growing. But then even, you know, five years into our journey, I was still saying to myself, I wasn't ready, like business had to make more money or grow more, so that we could take time, or we could give, you know, significant amount of money to build a soup kitchen to help street kids or so with that the 2007, the idea will be one day one turning into social enterprise, but that actually, there are so many business people like me who wanted to do good, but then they didn't know how, and they were busy running their business. So they didn't have a lot of time or large amount of money to give. So we created to be one to one. So I sold my first company then to create a big one and move to Singapore, and may be wondering, as a global initiative to help businesses around the world to make a positive impact and better effective giving in their day to day business. So since then, it's been like well, already, like, more than 13 years.
07:07
And and if somebody's not familiar with B one g one, like what is that?
07:13
Okay, so B one g one
07:16
is, also stands for the idea of buy one, get one. So if you imagine a world where everything you do makes a difference, just like you know, imagine every time you have a cup of coffee, a child in need receives access to life saving water for a day. Or imagine every time you purchase and read a book and learn something very, very meaningful, you also get to plant a tree or imagine every time you go to see a doctor, or you are, you know, healthcare guru, then you get to give access to medical support to somebody in need for a day or so imagine a world where everything we do makes a difference. And that's the one g one and the one g one works by inspiring actually businesses of all sizes to really understand the impact that they want to create. And then we help them actually incorporate the tangible impact in their everyday business activities so that they could say on every time we host a podcast, this great impact happen, or every time we have a fantastic meeting, then we celebrate that by educating a child or by planting a tree. So the possibilities are endless. In day one, day one, if you were going to pick a couple of examples of different kinds of, you know, in the US, one of the first brands that many people, including myself heard of using this model is TOMS shoes. somebody buys a pair of shoes from TOMS shoes in a more developed country. And Toms would give a pair of shoes in a less developed economy, particularly to kids because there's a lot of health research that says if you're walking around in certain environments without shoes, it isn't great for your health in lots of different ways. That's one example. But what are some of the examples that like you started to see early or some of the early businesses you worked with?
09:18
So actually, like my original company, the food business, they did that every meal we sold, we give a meal so that simple, like one for one concept. And you know, interestingly, like we started to be one to one around the same time as Tom's and we didn't know about what Tom's were doing for many years until you know many years later. But then there are lots of cases in the regiment. Sometimes people misunderstand that the v one v one is about like businesses giving the things that they're selling, because TOMS Shoes became the example became very famous. So people go like oh, buy a pair of shoes and give a pair of shoes. So if it's
10:00
Like, buy a TV then give a TV. But that doesn't quite work in that way. So we went to a model works in actually understanding the needs on the ground in different communities, and what kind of things actually made an impact in the sustainable long term way. And then businesses to choose the resonant impact, but they're not necessarily trying to match what they are selling the ways what they give. So, example could be like, Okay, so we have a swimming school, really, really great swimming school in Miami, in America, and they embed the giving in what they do. So every, you know, lesson that they provide creates an impact. But not only that, they also inspire all their assuming teachers and their, you know, staff members to think about the giving. So they do this thing that every time their team members celebrate birthday, then they give them, you know, opportunity for them to choose to create the impact. And that could be like giving access to clean water. And lots of their team members resonate with the Clean Water initiative. So they as a company support in many different clean water programs. But then, as individual team members, they might be, you know, passionate about the other things as well like planting trees, or educating the children or providing the income opportunity to woman to start a business or so we wonder what stories can expand. And, you know, we have a pest control company. And it's very interesting, like, when we imagine that types of businesses out there, and all the businesses doing very different things. And, and in the world, there are so many different issues. And so if we had hundreds of projects like we do, we sometimes you know, could wonder like, oh, and there are enough businesses who would choose to give to these unique project in a very different project. But interestingly, that well to be one to one, create this ecosystem, so that all sort of project to get supported by different companies. So in this pest control company in UK, the background is that they started this Pest Control business, because they were ex army veterans, and they realized that they lots of Army veterans had trauma by being in the conflict zones and seeing how, like certain vulnerable people suffered income conflict. So what they decided to do was for them to provide work opportunities to veterans who are suffering from the trauma, but then at the same time, the company made an impact to vulnerable children and their access to education and in a conflict zones or certain developing countries. So by making giving an impact the part of and central to the business activities, then they not on the transform seven programs, but also their company in the team get united even more. So there are so many examples that I could keep sharing that I hope like these gives you ideas of the variety, you know, it's not just about the typical one for one, but the older business is doing what they believe in on the everyday basis. I love that. And I love the way, you know, sometimes people approach social impact. Like, sometimes it's too transactional, right. So like, that's a great example of like a swimming school, that rather than just oh, we should give away swimming lessons, that's not a bad thing. But But the idea that deeper than that, what they care about is water. And clean access to water just makes sense for swimming school, so it's not linear. But you can see, at least to me, it feels so resonant that they would choose that as their impact goal is to you know, we teach people to swim in water all day, and when we're doing for impact is, you know, making sure that people have clean water so or like you were saying the, the idea of that's like a pest control company. Of course, they could maybe do treatment in places where people are having trouble paying for the past treatment they need. But like you said, they went deeper than that. So I just listeners, you know about my spiritual highlighter, right, so masumi, I pull out my spiritual highlighter. So I just want to highlight what you just said there doesn't have to be linear. One pair of shoes means you give a pair of shoes, you're a food company, you've given me a can. But be open to looking more deeply at what's really aligned with your core values and your vision for the world. So thank you for sharing those great examples that it's not so tightly scripted that it has to be the exact thing you're selling has to be the exact thing you turn around and give away in this model. I'm so glad you cleared that. Yeah.
15:00
Actually, interestingly, when we go with a model like that, trying to give exactly the thing you're selling, we could potentially create additional problems. So, in Toms suits case two, they learned over the years that, you know, just giving the pair of shoes, the initiative was good, because they saw the need and how shoes broad impact on the people and children's lives and well being. But then over the years that when so many shoes were given, then people started to realize that actually, it was creating some challenges for the local industry, where the local shoe sellers are struggling, because so many people in the community are receiving free shoes, so they weren't buying anymore, or so quite often, like when we determine that giving from the donors perspective and donors request and demand, then sometimes we could end up creating greater challenge to so what is the more like a holistic way of giving is to really like listen, and tune into the need in the local community, and identifying and letting people identifying their own issues. And working with these leaders who are really like connected with the local community, we see that okay, this project has a great impact and very good track record. If we could create a more sustainable income and funding going to them, we can scale the impact and serve more people. So those are the opportunities that will be listed in the one to one. So for businesses for them, they don't need to say this is the right way to make an impact. All they need is to tune into what they want to do and how they want to create impact what resonates with them, and choose from the list. And then we make sure that they're giving maximized. There's that word again, listeners Listen, right, though we come in. And we think we know all the answers, even if our intentions are good, we can wind up causing harm, or at least missed an opportunity to be helpful in a truly meaningful, lasting way. And when we're listening to the communities, we want to help, you can find incredibly, you know, Win Win solutions, as opposed to that savior thing where, you know, I've done it, some others of us in our community have done it, but we miss opportunities to really create the kind of positive change. So just great advice here, mostly, when you mentioned it real quickly, but I just want to circle back around because there's something really significant and what you said, you said when a company is doing this, it has a pretty significant impact not only on the people they're giving to, but also on the team members, the people who work in that company, tell us a little bit more about that?
17:47
Well,
17:48
as a company ourselves, because big one runs as a social enterprise, in actuality. So we have a two part organization. And so the social enterprise side runs as a kind of like a normal business, even though we exist to create a positive impact. So we realized over the years, when you know, we are doing our work, and our team, and our company has a dislike a strong sense of purpose, then we attract the truly unique people to ask. So you know, for example, there are students who come to us wanting to intern and they are very, very smart people, but somehow, you know, even though they may not get the highest paying opportunity, or amazing job prospects after graduation, they will choose to come to us because they want to spend their time working for enterprises that actually create the positive impact and the great, the great value to the society and the world. So in the same way, the businesses that we work with, quite often those businesses could be quite conventional business because, you know, for example, we work with a lot of service based b2b businesses as well, like accounting firms or even legal firms or coaches, consultants. So these businesses, if they just said, Oh, we are accounting firm, then most people will think oh, that's boring, right, like, but then when we work with accountants that are inspired themselves and doing what they do, why not just file additional, you know, tax return, or charge more for the hour that they do or, but they are dedicated to the actual positive impact that they would create for the community. First of all, they attract great people and those great people tend to stay with them, even if they are not giving that maximum like highest the salary of or job package. So I think more and more people today are looking out for opportunities to live more meaningfully, rather than just to change
20:00
The biggest income and, you know, the biggest material wealth. So with that in mind, and it's not only the team members, right, like, because it's the everyday people and the customers and the clients of those businesses are starting to actually want to work with businesses that are doing good, and actually being more conscious and caring for them, rather than trying to make the most amount of money. So this moving beyond the profit centric and the maximization focus, to actually purpose centric and maximization focus, makes businesses so much more attractive, but then place where people work happily, you know, together as well. So I think it's a simple no brainer, you know, this is something that all businesses should be thinking about, like business owners can be questioning, like, if they have just one life to live and limited number of years to spend our time on this planet, then how would we be wanting to live our life? And what kind of business do we want to run? And then also, what kind of people do we want to be surrounded by on a day to day basis? Because, you know, we spend so much time at work like eight hours or even more, right these days. So if we are spending a majority of our time doing something, or connecting and working with people, then what choices do we make? And I think it's actually quite simple, rather than just making it really complicated, like, Oh, this is about the CSR.
21:37
And CSR if anybody doesn't know, corporate social responsibility, you know, put Oh, yes. Sorry about oh, that's okay. You're swimming in this stuff? No, this connecting acronym? No, no, no, no problem. That's part of my job. So if somebody CSR, there's a couple of acronyms of fly around, and the SDGs, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, ESG, environmental, social governance, you'll hear those tossed around in the space a lot. So I'll put some links. So people can go read about that. Me too. If I'm listening, I'm thinking of two particular listeners, who, I'd love to get your feedback for them one listener, number one, let's say somebody, we have listeners who are in that position, they're in a more traditional business role. They're they're doing pretty well accounting, or they're in corporate somewhere, or they have their own business. But it's not they haven't optimized for impact, right? And so somebody who's in that space, who's like, Oh, I never thought like a pest control business can be a social impact business. Wow. How do you even begin with somebody in that scenario that the actual product or service that they're selling, they didn't create it with impact as one of their top goals? But now they're thinking, oh, wow, that's interesting. I wonder, you know, how could we apply it in our situation, when we didn't bake into the DNA of our product or service, these impact goals? How would we go about, you know, starting to move in this direction?
23:10
Well, actually, like, when I started my own company, I never heard of this term called the social entrepreneurs, or social enterprise, right? Like a business was just a business. And then there were challenges. So it's either you would start a charity, or you would start a business. So there was no social enterprise then. But over the years, people started to talk more and more about social enterprise social entrepreneurship. And then the idea is that when you start a business already, with the social impact in mind, and you are ultimate, the purpose is to create and maximize the social impact. And then but you run it as a business with a strong financial model, also, that your activities do not depend on donations. So that's social enterprise. Let's say somebody started a business without really thinking about that. But basically, that person wanted to have like a financial freedom or freedom to do their own thing. And then that was their kind of, like, initial founding, so it could be a food company in a restaurant or accounting firm or, and those businesses may be seen as somehow, like conventional business, let others live and social enterprise. But the thing is, I actually believe that every business actually started with a sense of purpose, and a mission. And let's say accounting firm starting accounting firm, let's say the owner, it was an accountant who loved how numbers you know, having good control of numbers and grasp of numbers in business, transformed what businesses could achieve, and then to be much more effective or deliver their value more effectively to their customers, right like so.
25:00
Every business can have or would have a sense of purpose as a central starting point. Because if businesses were just about the money, like how to make the most amount of money, and that's it, then actually, people don't need to start a business because, you know, maybe they could just invest their money somewhere for high return, or they go get a high paying job, and they don't need to exert so much of extra time like and work late at night, early morning, you know, holidays. So actually, when people start a business, I think there is always this sense of purpose, like the value they want to add, or the, you know, special quality that they want to express in the world, and become an artist or service provider or so, because businesses always have this potential to do some form of good, I like it, it could be create, the more good for the customers life. So it's very natural for business owners to actually do want to feel that meaning that they achieve that good that they get to create. So we see that effective giving is another additional element that makes the business that journey of business much more meaningful, because, you know, we tried to do quite often big thing, like set the ambitious goal, and that's very meaningful to work toward ambitious, big goal. But then on the day to day basis, sometimes businesses and people in businesses get kind of disappointed that they are still far away from that ambitious goal. So the way we want to run giving works is that every step of the way, and the everyday achievement, just like this conversation, or you know, that email, I send it to somebody, if like, every one of those actions actually can create a positive impact, and you can track it. And then over the period, you look back and say, Hey, this month, we already planted so many trees or, you know, so many days of access to education were given through what we do, then it's really transformed that. Yeah, so it's really transformed the feeling in the business as well. Beautiful. And how another person, we have wonderful young listeners, you know, who are early in their journey, and they're motivated by people like me, I mean, 220 million, hate giving impacts. That's, that's beautiful. And it's a little odd, inspiring, and can be a little intimidating, if you're pretty new, and you're just getting started. And you know, you're trying to make sense of some of your choices early on in your career, and you want to have that kind of positive impact, but you're pretty new to the journey, or you just, maybe you just got out of college, maybe you didn't go to college, whatever it is, you're in the earlier phases of life. Interesting. I want to have big impact like that. But I don't quite know where to go, how does somebody who's feeling that poll get started in a way that they can start to move in that direction? And not kind of beat up on themselves that but but I've had to giving impacts and not, you know, are 22? Not 220?
28:25
Yeah. So we when we talk about, you know, these big impacts, like 220 million impacts, and these are not the just the big numbers, because these are what we see the smiles and the benefits being delivered to someone. So every single impact in here is actually meaningful and important. You know, it's if one person received access to water for one day, and then imagine you going off like your day for the entire day without actually having access to water entire day. That is a huge impact on your life. That's a bad day. That's a really bad day. Yeah. It is a bad day, like no shower, no, no, brushing teeth, and drinking water and cooking. And so imagine that, you know, even one days access is a big thing for someone. And, and in day one, day one, the impact or project in day one day one start from, you know, even one cent, so one cent can do something or it could be like $2.50 the plan to one three in this region. Or then you know, even education like providing access to education could be even with a few dollars, you could actually support the child to stay in school for a week or so actually, it doesn't take so much to do something. And so if we are not worried about doing the big thing, and if we are not comparing ourselves with somebody else, we'll have more done more, then everything will become very rewarding and we appreciate every business and every individual person
30:00
anticipating getting the big movement and making an impact. So we will never say like, Oh, this business is more valuable because they created more impact. But it's about businesses actually giving regularly and sustaining that and creating and sustaining that giving a habit we value them, and otherwise them so much. So yeah, in life and business, I think this like, comparison, sometimes create the issue, like we, we have a big goal. So if a big goal makes us feel less motivated, to work in what we are doing, then that's a problem. Or if we compare our success with somebody who achieved more, then we go like, Oh, well, I've done it useless, then that creates the issue. But when we actually compare ourselves with anything, then it's actually a more like, smarter strategy to compare ourselves with, you know, people who are having less and go like, Oh, I'm very lucky to have health or family or the education or opportunity or, you know, safe home or so we can always be at any point of time, be grateful. And then to think about how to share, value, and support others who have less. So that like, naturally makes us feel happier on a day to day basis and feel that we have great value to give and share. So it's a simple winning strategy to live live every day in a more committed, dedicated, inspired and uplifted feeling, to actually not to compare ourselves with something bigger and feel small. But to always think about how much we already have, and then find ways to give more. I love that answer. Thank you for that great answer.
31:51
So let's do this. In a moment, I want to come back in here you have a book, you work with these companies incredible ways, I want to hear about the more specifics of how you do that. But first, I want to take a break and hear from our sponsor.
32:05
Do you have a business that's about working to make the world a better place, and you want to move the needle in terms of having positive impact? And you also want to have enough income to live? Well.
32:18
If you do, I'd like to talk to you a little bit about podcasting for a second. Why do I think podcasting is such a great way to grow an impact business? podcast listeners are really special bunch. And I'll give you four data points. There's more but for to give you a sense of why I think this is something you might want to think about. Number one, podcast listeners are early adopters. They love new ideas. They're looking for innovative new ideas. And they turn to podcasting to learn about awesome things like what you do, they're already looking for it. You don't have to sell them on, you know, trying new things. That's how they're naturally wired. Number two, they are natural leaders. In other words, in both their work and in their personal networks, people turn to them and say, Hey, you seem to know a lot of creative things. What do you know about that? So they're there. By getting your message and your business in front of these kinds of folks, the word spreads organically. They also tend to have more responsibility and Leadership at Work.
33:25
And lastly, podcast listeners make more money. Not a little bit, but a lot more money. So that's a pretty unique constellation. The other thing is that podcasts themselves, the average episode is just under 43 minutes long, so you have time to get into the nuance and the intersections and the depth of what you do. It's really interesting combination. I think it's an incredible opportunity, whether you want to be a guest, like masumi as being today, where you want to be a host and have your own podcast or both. If you'd like to learn how to do this, where printers has a podcast success team, and we'll help you unpack each and every step. Tomorrow actually, we're doing a masterclass on
34:08
getting booked on bigger podcast podcast with as a guest to learn how to find them and and pitch them in a way they say, yeah, we'd love to have you as a guest. For instance, we'll walk you every step of the way and learning how to do it, whether you want to be a guest host or both. If you'd like to find out more, you can go to a where printers.com forward slash podcast dash success. And thank you to everybody in the podcast success team who sponsors this podcast.
34:38
So massively you teach people in a variety of ways help them learn how to do this one way a really cool way is you have a book, right? Tell us a little bit about your book.
34:50
So thank you for asking. So I have a few books about the one which is most relevant for the work that
35:00
I do and then for, you know, businesses of giving is called giving your business and giving a business talks about, you know, how they went from started to like their personal journey to, but more focused on also the concept of why businesses should give. And then the benefit of also embedding impact in business too. But then it's get into also a personal thing and how to create a great giving culture. And yeah, so that's a book to probably read to really like understand, like, their kind of ideas behind this movement as well. So that's one another thing. The most recent book that we published is called legacy that sustainable development goals in action. So the legacy books focuses on the Sustainable Development Goals, 17 of them. And then there are 17 chapters, and we created the stories from 50 to changemakers. And many of those small to medium sized business owners that we work with, and some are from charity organizations, and creating greater impacts on the ground. And then some from global thought leaders, and forwarded by Paul Polman for his webinar, the kind of global leaders co creating their Sustainable Development Goals. So this book gives everybody the ideas of how everyone knows us and every business can actually align with the Sustainable Development Goals SDGs, and then to be part of making an impact. So those are the two books giving a business and legacy. You can find it on Amazon, we'll put them in links in the show notes and listeners, here's somebody who's been at, here's somebody who's been at the forefront of baking impact into businesses at scale for almost as long as this conversations been going on. So please go check out those books, I can't recommend them highly enough. So you have the books, that's one way people learn about your work. How else do you help people learn about B, one g one SDGs doing business in this impact and values based way.
37:19
So I think the best place to go is actually our website to be one g one.com. You know, whether you are business owners looking for a way to create the positive impact, or you could be like people working in you may be somebody working in a business or working in maybe NGO sector or so, we would love you to visit to be one to one.com and learn more. And there are lots of stories there as well. And if you choose to join this movement as a business, then also be one to one.com is where you actually go and then
37:57
join us and become a giving business. So please do that's like a membership community. Right? Yeah, so it's around by thank you for asking mentioning that, because sometimes people think, like a confused because we say like, you can make an impact from even one cent and then we actually pass on 100% of all the giving to the causes that we listed. So we are not like a fundraising entities that take a percentage of the donation and then to fund ourselves or something. So we even top up even bank charges when businesses are giving and make sure 100% of what they give even one cent for water or $1 for three will go to the actual project. So whilst we do this, people go like, Oh, so how do you you know, sustain your own work? Are you eyetality? Or are you this. So actually, there's social enterprise B one g one is run by the business membership model. So this is a community and movement of businesses and every business contributed a small
38:57
fee to this thing called the movement to fund and this fund will be used to develop all of the systems so that we can continue to create value adding tools and resources for businesses such as you know, businesses can count to their impact on their life impact the counter widget which they could embed in in their website. So that number will automatically update or we would also help them engage with their team or, you know, access and filter very easily the project that they want to give and also embedded giving so that every time they actually do business activities, they could potentially, you know, automatically track that impact as well. So, so we continue to develop this with the support of our members and tiny businesses can join, you know, from small, very tiny subscription. So it's very easy, even for startup and then larger companies might contribute a little bit more for that movement fund. So that's how how it works.
40:00
We try to make it totally transparent. So the giving is like, you know, when you give, then this is what happened. So, yeah, it's a model that we've been
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exploring, and then it's been working well. And we are looking forward to moving forward, because it's more important that we do more of this work. And then from here, probably faster. So we want to invite many more businesses to join us in this movement. Beautiful. You have both you mentioned nazmi, both of for profit, right? Social Enterprise part of bhiwandi. One, and the nonprofit giving part. And we've had several people I'm thinking of Vicki Abbott, our very first episode, Vicki Abba, dusko, at soul shop, had that same model of social enterprise that teaches
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social emotional learning and emotional intelligence in schools, particularly trying to reduce bullying and increase safer cultures for kids to go to school and learn and not have to deal with physical or emotional abuse. Right? And same thing, we always get a lot of questions. So I'm gonna ask you like, how did you land? Because people are often they'll email me, Paul, should I be a nonprofit? I'd be a for profit. Some people do both. Right. So just I would love to hear your thoughts, because I know, our listeners oftentimes ask that question. How did you decide to have both a for profit and an NGO part of it? And like any tips for somebody who's thinking about possibly doing both?
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Well, I didn't like we didn't think about this model, like, from day one, like, because, you know, I honestly didn't know how to make this initiative happen, that all we had was this very simple idea. You know, imagine if every time business is done, something great happens, and how can we make that? Well, the reality. And so the reason why we first started to be one to one as a business was because we knew how to run the business, but we didn't know how to run a charity. And we want to challenge the people like to ask for donations effectively. So we thought like, here is a great value that we can bring to businesses, if we really made giving very, very easy and simple to do and meaningful to do. And we set out to make that happen. And then a couple of years later, because in the beginning, it was really about the businesses selecting charitable causes and giving and
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but then we realized that this, you know, selection of the worthy causes and creating the list so that it's easy for them to give small amount about the still track the impact. And so when we do so we need to work with more causes. And then we need to also make sure that there is a transparency of all of the financial management management the for the contribution side to separately from the business day to day activities. And you know, because we were as a business, even having our own product, like books that we sell, or event tickets that you know, we sell or so with that to create a transparency, we identified that it's best to have a two separate entities and have a different kind of governance as well. So it was more like learning from the experience, rather than we already knew the best way to map it out. So for us starting our business and thinking or, you know, starting a initiative and thinking about what would be the best way, what you set out to do may eventually change, because you learn like as you go. So, you know, you could go and ask advice from people who have done similar things or who have a good knowledge in that local, you know, regulations, business and charity, regular regulations in your own country or state. However, sometimes, like we can only figure out the best way as we implement the things and learn by yourself as well. So not to worry, I totally agree. And I think there's some great advisor, listeners matsumae said they didn't start both at the same time. So my suggestion is very much pay attention to what she said, you know, in most cases, it's typical for social enterprise, not always, sometimes nonprofit starts for profits, but it you know, more typically, people would start the for profit, you know, and get something going that has, you know, the sustainability of a revenue generated activity. You're not out there asking for donations from day one, but you're looking to provide value. And then as time goes on, you can look at how you add a nonprofit or NGO to that some people have actually done the opposite. Start with the NGO and then say, Well, actually, there's a social enterprise in here too. But rarely have I seen people succeed that are trying to do both. That's a lot
45:00
To work and two very different skill sets. And
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so you know, accountings really different. There's different laws depending on which jurisdiction you're in. So yeah, most people will pick one, it's, it's plenty to start a social enterprise or a nonprofit and trying to do both at the same time, especially if you're not familiar with the rules and regulations.
45:23
That can be pretty overwhelming. So I love what you said. And Monaco sign number three.
45:28
So you've been at this a long time, all these giving impacts 220 million giving impacts, like when you think about where you're going, and what you're paying attention to now, like, you've got momentum, there's better understanding of what this business model is, you've got a community, you've got these tools, like counters that people can put on their website, it's very slick, if you've ever seen anybody using this, you like get to the site, and it uploads and it says this many trees planted and this many gallons of water donated, and you know, this many young people educated it's really cool.
46:06
Like you've done so much since 2007. And what's on your radar going forward?
46:14
Actually,
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we have a goal to reach 1 million businesses by 2030. And 2030 is the Sustainable Development Goals like kind of target to date. So by then we got to be really creating significant impact and big dent in all of the SDGs. And we want to be part of helping make that happen. And for us, like because I personally, as a business leader, in my own company, I'm not super aggressive type, I'm actually like a happy pie. Like on a day to day basis, I'm grateful for my team, and I appreciate their everyday effort and achievement, you know, rather than aggressively pushing everybody to move faster and more and to be unhappy about not, you know, meetings at Target or So, because of that, naturally, like, if I don't contemplate on this, I will be a happy person just to growing like a turtle. Little by little inspiring the World War business creating a lot more impact. But I also realized, over the years, because I'm so lucky to be surrounded by Amazing, amazing people, and our team members are, you know, great, young, talented, smart people with big potential. But then, you know, they might not come with all the perfect mix of experience, years of experience to know how to do certain things, right, like, so we are always learning. So in that, I realized that the people around me are the ones that encouraged me to push this farther, because even though 2700 or 3002 businesses, you know, good achievement, but then if you look at how many businesses are out there, so for example, in the United States alone, like there are I think over like 35 million business, registered businesses, or in Australia, it's, I think, like 3 million or so. So it works out in those Western countries about like 10% of the population are businesses like, almost So actually, if the world is full of hundreds of millions of businesses, then 3000 is very, very small. So like we think 1 million businesses will be really great to work with. And also that results in actually, you know, billions of impacts, but also a significant amount of funds going to all of the SDGs to help the all of the organizations work with different communities to tackle their deep rooted issues. So
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I feel very inspired by that goal, because it's a collective goal. It's not my goal, it's something that our community of businesses will come together to achieve. And I want to be part of that. So there is much more to do. But then much more to do doesn't mean we should be disappointed by how little we have done. So we can be happy about how much we have done so far. Then uplift our goal to go like, actually, there's so much more we can do, we can spread the word and we could inspire more businesses, we could mobilize and enable those businesses to create the impacts that they are proud of, to be part of like, you know, so that impact can be part of their legacy.
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Love. And I meant to tell this story earlier on, but I, you were talking about, you know, not getting overwhelmed, but like trusting community and good people and the power of like, alignment of values to me, and I forgot to tell the story, but I think it's a really interesting story about how it came to be that you're actually that we're having this
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conversation. I first saw Marcy's work on LinkedIn, we have some mutual connection. I can't even remember you. And I sent a connection request and was like, wow, someone's doing awesome things. And I sent a private message on the 10th said, Hey, do you want to be on my podcast, I think are coming. And literally, like, 36 hours later, what are your team members pitch to were printers on our website saying masumi be an awesome, you know, we're doing great work, I think your audience would love it. Like, literally, it was like, it was like a day and a half apart. And I just tell that story to say like, when you're doing work, that is values align, there's actually a lot of like, I'm so thrilled you're here, and I know masumi our community's gonna love what you're up to it. I like, we get pitched hundreds of times a week. But I knew that you had a story that our community would want to hear. And I'm thrilled that you're here. And your team is like, Why are printers oh my gosh, this podcast would be awesome. Our community would love to, like, have the opportunity to like learn about it. And it's just like, complete strangers recognized each other and, like, conspired to like have this conversation happened. And I tell that story to you listeners to get a sense, like, it can feel overwhelming. And I know I have felt overwhelmed at times, oh my gosh, look what's happening environmentally, Oh, my gosh, look what's happening around race and gender. And there's so much work to do, and how much time do we have to do it. But when I take a deep breath,
51:27
and I remember there's really good people who want to help these kinds of messages go out into the world who want what their people are doing a B one g one and and the kind of impact oriented ventures that you listeners are doing. People want to help you get more clients, they want to help you help more people. So it was a good lesson to me to relax and do my part of the work. Like try to have the best podcast with the most helpful guests doing the most impactful work so you listeners can learn from it, and confine mastery and good join be one g one and go get their awesome tools and go read the book, right? That's my role. And like other people have other roles, and we're finding each other. So to somebody who's feeling like oh my gosh, it's not enough or it's not fast enough. And I should do more like, remember that no one of us can do it all. I've heard the image of a choir. One of the things that musically makes a choir so powerful
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is that people time their breath. So everybody, all the altos and acquire, you know, they're singing along and we have to breathe as humans and a certain point when somebody in your kind of Section Yeah, somebody else in the auto needs to breathe, your job is to stop singing, take a deep breath, really fill your whole lungs in your being, and be able to then come back into singing, fully resourced, so that the person to your left or the person to the right, who now needs to breathe, they can stop, and they can breathe, and they can rest and they don't have to rush because somebody who's doesn't have the full capacity of their being in the choir or in the social enterprise isn't effective. And they can actually bring down the whole choir the performance of everybody around. So remember to breathe, remember to be part of the choir, there are no, this is not an individual sport, folks. I'll get off my high horse or my my soapbox now, but just what you were saying about me and that story, I thought that was fascinating that that forces were conspiring that this interview like had to happen, because our two communities wanted to connect, and I'm excited that we have we I could hang out and talk to you all day. But I won't do that to you. And I won't do that to our listeners, if there was something that you were hoping we were gonna get to and we haven't talked about it yet. Or there's something you want to leave our listeners with as we start to wind down this interview. What would that be?
54:12
Well, I think thank you for that question. One. One thing I like as a metaphor
54:20
is this, that actually this is a game. And then because you know, for example, our life and our business journey, they are like a game playing a game because there are some things in common like between those things. So for example, there is a beginning and there is an end to get a game right like you choose to start to something and then you would that game will end at one point and same as the business right? Like when you start a business and it's not gonna be forever one day business might transform into something or you might close the business or you might change the business.
55:00
So, so there is a beginning and an end and the same for the law life. So there is a life and there is an end to it. So, and then another thing is that the in life in business, in game in a game, there are rules, and there are tips and tricks and
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definitions and understandings and skills that we master. And so, so there are lots of commonalities, right, like in business, we are all learning to create a better business to grow business and to gain more or give more. But then there is actually the most important commonality among these three things like our life, our business, and our, that game that we get to play is this, that the fundamental purpose of all these things that we do, is to enjoy. So, actually, the purpose of playing a game is not to win because we lose, or we win, it's, it will end and then we will reset, and we will start again. So, winning is fun,
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at times, but it's not the bat, the ultimate, the purpose, we play again to enjoy, and we live our life, and we run our business actually to enjoy our time that we have. So that is kind of one thing I'd like to share because I live with this. But I think if more of us could live with that understanding of this is actually about sharing this game with all others so that we get to play this game together, we get to have a great time going through this game, all the ups and downs that we share. It is part of the game.
56:47
Lastly, thank you so much for being on the show today.
56:51
Thank you so much for for having me here.
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So that's all the time we have for today's show. Before we go Just a quick reminder, we love listener supported suggestions and guests actually happened for this very interview somebody I'm assuming his team hurdler printers that we need to get me on the show. So please, if you have an idea, you can go to the aware printers website, go to the contact page and we have our three criteria there. If you feel like it's a fit, we'd love to hear your thoughts. For now I just want to say thank you so much for listening. Please take really good care and these intense times and thank you for all the positive impact that you're having.