248 | 3 Tips for Corporates Transitioning to Impact Careers with Paul Zelizer
This week on the pod is our montly solo episode with Paul Zelizer. Paul is the Founder & CEO of Awarepreneurs and the host of the popular Awarepreneurs podcast. He's also been a coach for social entrepreneurs and conscious business owners for over 15 years.
Episode with Paul Zelizer on 3 Tips for Corporates Transitioning to Impact Careers
NOTE: While it’s not perfect, we offer this transcription by Otter.ai for those who are hearing impaired or who don’t find listening to a podcast enjoyable or possible.
SPEAKERS
Paul Zelizer
Paul Zelizer 00:02
Hi, this is Paul Zelizer, and welcome to another episode of the Awarepreneurs podcast. This podcast is all about the intersection of three things, conscious business, social impact, and resiliency practices. Each episode, I do a deep dive into a topic in this intersection. Before I go into our topic today, today is one of our monthly solo episodes, I have one request, if you could go over to Apple podcasts or whatever app you're listening to the show on, do a rating and review, it helps tremendously. Thanks so much for considering it. As I mentioned, today is a solo episode. And our topic is 3 Tips for Corporates Transitioning to Impact Careers. And as I'm recording this episode - I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for those of you who don't know that -we are now experiencing the second largest fire in New Mexico history. We're over 170,000 acres burned, and we're nowhere near contained, this could well become the largest fire in our state's recorded history. Over 30,000 people have been evacuated, and there's a lot of talk here in New Mexico about this is part of the climate change. We've become drier. And fires like this are not just in New Mexico. But in many dry areas around the world. Certainly in the American West are becoming more and more common. So I tell that story just to make it more personal. And to kind of say we are in a poignant moment, as a human family, on our journey on this beautiful planet. Matter of fact, the IPCC group of scientists around the world who are looking at climate, are telling us we are in a “code red” situation. But it's not just about climate, there are many things that need our attention. And one of the things that, you know, I've been doing this focus on impact work for well over a decade, and have colleagues who are also been added a long, long, long time, and many of us are not just seeing the trends on LinkedIn or in you know, professional circles, we know that people are really, the conversation about folks who've been in more traditional careers wanting to do something more meaningful, more focused on positive impact are really high. They want impact careers. It oftentimes sounds like this, somebody I know in my circles will say: “My ___, my husband, and my sister and my colleague really wants to work towards change, they've been doing something that's more traditional business or nonprofit at an educational institution. And they can't not, you know, they can't keep doing what they're doing. They feel like they need to move towards something that's having more direct impact. So from that perspective, as somebody who's been working with social entrepreneurs and thinking about impact for a really long time, I wanted to offer three tips for corporates transitioning, who are thinking about transitioning to impact work. And let me tell you what they are. And then we'll dive into a little bit about each one. Number one, I really encourage you to understand the big trends, what's happening in the impact space, if you want to move into an impact career, I think it really behooves you to learn about what's going on in that space. And it's a space that is growing tremendously. And there's two trends I want to talk to you about in the space so that you can be more prepared. If you're somebody who's thinking about moving into the impact space. The second suggestion I really encourage you to do is to join an ecosystem. I'm seeing some corporates who have great business or professional skills, but don't understand and don't have relationships in the impact space. So I would encourage you not to be one of them. If this hasn't been your professional network so far, that's totally okay. But what I would encourage you to do through the power of social networking sites for me, I do a lot of social networking on LinkedIn. For other people. It's Twitter for other people, it's Instagram, right? But we have tools now where we can connect with other people using things like you know, social net, social media, site groups or hashtags, other things like that, find an ecosystem and join it, and you're going to be much more successful at landing a role in the impact space or starting your own business in the impact space.
Paul Zelizer 04:53
The third suggestion I have is to get help if you need it, even though you have awesome professional experience.
Paul Zelizer 05:00
The impact space is a its own animal and it doesn't really
Paul Zelizer 05:07
one to one equate if you have marketing experience or HR experience or, you know, design experience or leadership experience, those are great. And the impact space is its own animal and getting some help of somebody who's been swimming in those waters for quite some time, can really help you make better choices, and open up doors more quick. So let's go through those three, one by one, and get a little deeper in each one give you some tools, some strategies and some resources.
Paul Zelizer 05:43
So those big trends, I think there's two of them that you want to understand if you want to move your work into the impact space. Number one is impact washing or greenwashing. There is a lot of money and visibility going into
Paul Zelizer 06:03
everything from you know, environmental work and climate work to what's called ESG environmental, social governance. And just a general idea of business for Good is gotten a tremendous amount of traction. And there are organizations that want to, you know, cash in on that some are some people are doing very, very significant meaningful work. And others want to be perceived as doing meaningful work, but aren't so much. So to understand that the difference, not everybody, you know, I'm just going to name names. Walmart has an impact program and an environmental program. I'm not a fan. And I don't think that many folks in the impact space necessarily mean the same thing as what Walmart means when they talk about having positive impact, or their sustainability initiatives, not upset that they have on. But I wouldn't necessarily just I think you need to be careful, this is your professional reputation. And understanding that there is a lot of that going on. And not everybody has a deep commitment to long term sustainability, or long term, Justice inequity if it's a racial initiative that people are working towards, there's a lot of impact washing going on, because there's a lot at stake. And just know that. The second trend, which I think comes out of that is very exciting, is that there are more and more effective metrics and people doing that. Let me give you an example.
Paul Zelizer 07:40
Earlier today, I interviewed Maggie Kim, the CEO of an organization called gold standard. And they're developing very concrete standards around carbon markets, renewable energy, water benefits, standards, and other very concrete metrics that organizations and investors and governments can use in various SDG areas. That stands for the UN Sustainable Development Goals. They're making it very concrete. I'll put a link to gold standard in the show notes. But it's not just gold standard. This is a trend across the industry. So I'm thinking of a where printers guests that we've had on the podcast. Like today Tatum Edwards, who's looking at the prison industrial complex and is really creating shoes to be in FinTech and financial tech, very smart person and is creating metrics a way of helping investors and individuals really see which companies are benefiting financially from the prison industry. And which ones are divesting from it. Or zap Stein, of carbon collective, and it's doing something very similar in terms of climate solutions, and where investors are investing their money. So the impact space is much more sophisticated, and is developing these tools. That's helping people because Part A of this is such a big issue, impact washing, green washing, sustainability, washing, etc. We have really smart people working on these standards and metrics. And a lot of those are available to the public. So be aware of that trend. And don't be caught flat footed, that everybody who's talking about impact where everybody's talking about sustainability may not be pointing to the same thing or may not be in terms of their actual behavior, and where they're investing their resources or how they're sourcing their products. Are ya doing things equally, even though they might be using the same language so
Paul Zelizer 10:00
Those trends are very, very important to understand.
Paul Zelizer 10:05
The second tip I have for you, is to join an ecosystem.
Paul Zelizer 10:10
Humans are social creatures. And we like to gather when we share common interests and not gathering can be people who are excited about the same soccer team or a hobby. Those of you who listen to the podcast, know, I'm a passionate trail runner, you know, trail running communities are a thing, right? And we get together and we talk about, you know, the runs we're going to do, or what kind of trail running shoes to people like or, you know, different kinds of electrolyte products, right. And you know, what to do when there's fires happening in our local hometown. And, you know, down here by Albuquerque, is less smoky than up by Santa Fe, very nuanced information that can help people who share common interests. The same is true in the impact space, there are ecosystems that you can join. So how do you find these ecosystems? Well, one would be to look for leaders on thought leaders in the space are interested, if that's solar, then do some research on solar. Again, I love LinkedIn. For this, I find some of the top thought leaders in the kind of social entrepreneur projects and companies that I'm excited about a good proportion of them the majority, the more on LinkedIn than any other social platform, if they're a little bit younger, Instagram is another place that a lot of impact entrepreneurs, depending on the space, you're interested. So those are two places. You can, you know, look for people in certain industries, let's say the solar industry, you can do a search at the search bar on your social channel of choice. You can also look at hashtags. Obviously, on LinkedIn, you can actually follow hashtags, not just the people who are using them, but you can actually follow the hashtag itself. I follow hashtags like social entrepreneurship and social impact and podcasting, fabulous way to see who is really you know, engaging in conversations and wants to connect on social channels. I also think that listening to podcasts is a fabulous one who's showing up on certain podcasts and taking part in the conversations and just seeing you know, as you find some podcasts in the space you're looking for, a great tool to do that is a search engine. That's podcast specific called listen notes. I will put it in the show notes. Listen notes is the world's first podcasts specific search engine. It's like Google for podcasts. fabulous way to see both episodes on certain topics. It's a search engine, you can literally type in any keyword you want, as well as podcasts that are themed on that. So you can find social entrepreneur podcast where you can find, you know, climate solutions, or future food brands, or whatever you're passionate about. You can find podcasts and see who's guesting on them and then go connect with them. And you'll find ecosystems on these impact areas. But joining those ecosystems are so so helpful. Let me give you an example. It's an example of somebody I happen to know well, my brother, Craig Zelizer. Craig is the founder of one of the largest impact career platforms and communities on the web in the world. It's called PCD and pcbn dot global, I'll put a link in the show notes. And, you know, Craig is a connector and has been at this a very long time, PC dn formally is coming up on its 11th anniversary. But even before that Craig was gathering people who are interested in impact careers a little less formally. That podcast, you know, Greg is like 36,000 connections on LinkedIn. The email list is even bigger than that, right? A very, very robust dynamic community of people thinking about, in this case, those who want to be employees or contractors, in organizations, where as I focus more on social entrepreneurship, and working with founders and people who are launching companies and growing companies, pregs more focused on people who want to get connected and find roles where they can put their skills to use in a positive impact kind of way. So you get a sense of there many of these communities, I'm just trying to give you some examples. And again, ways you can find them are things like using hashtags on social media sites, using podcasts.
Paul Zelizer 15:00
seeing who's been a host on that podcast. And if you resonate with what somebody's saying, Go connect with them and become a good citizen in that network. And the benefits of that are just job offers contracts, if you are an entrepreneur, potential clients, you know, if you need to hire somebody to do something, whether it's, you know, work on your resume, build you a website, you need a lawyer, that's the kind of thing that ecosystems do all the time they help people find the resources, they need to have the positive impact that we want to have in the world. The third one is to get support, especially if you're new. So you may be a rock star in terms of your skill set in a more traditional business or organizational environment. And the impact space is its own animal. And I've talked to quite a few founders and you know, somebody might have, you know, pick a skill set, maybe you're somebody who's really good in the financial realm, right, and maybe have years of experience. And if you're an impact founder, or CEO, and you're thinking of hiring somebody, you don't just want somebody who's been doing what we would call single bottom line accounting, right? The only thing that matters is the dollars. That's not necessarily true.
Paul Zelizer 16:30
You'll hear a lot of talk about things like triple bottom line, in the impact space, people profit and planet. And somebody who's only been working in a single bottom line, even if it's a very robust work history, great experience, somebody else, maybe they're not working in a, you know, fortune 500 company, but they have really good experience and finances, but they have a better understanding of a more holistic approach to accounting and to finances, they may easily get that job offer, even though you have more corporate experience. So to learn from somebody like to have a conversation with somebody who's in the space, who can help you honestly assess what are your strengths? And where are some of your challenges? And how can you develop something like a learning plan? And how can you get familiar with the vocabulary. If you're trying to make a transition, please find yourself somebody who's been in the space for a while who can help you understand the pacing, the metrics, the analogies, the culture of the impact space, because I've seen a lot of folks who are trying to leverage their corporate experience or their organizational experience, which again, I think is a great thing to do. But they haven't done the work to help the narrative of how that work combined with some other things they've done to learn about the culture to understand triple bottom line to talk about their purpose and their values in a way that can add value to the company, they can combine their experience, plus, they've done the work to understand the culture and to communicate that effectively. And when I'm hearing these, Hey, Paul, my husband, my sister, my colleague really wants to change and move more into doing impact work. But they're struggling a little bit. A lot of those folks haven't yet found a way to create a narrative and to learn about the ecosystem they want to come in. And many folks in the impact space are hesitant to bring somebody who has a lot of corporate experience, but hasn't done the work to really join with what's happening in the impact space and contribute value. So I think I can speak for many impact leaders in my networks, at least, who are hesitant to bring somebody on board, if they don't do a little bit of work or don't have a way to be mindful of where they've worked before the norms and the practices. They're what the norms and practices are in organizations that are trying to use business for positive impact. So third suggestion is get support if you're new. So those are the three suggestions. I have the tip I have. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what's going on in your mind as you're thinking about moving into doing work that's more values aligned, that's more focused on positive impact. If you could use some support in that transition. Again, if you're, he's not paying me to say this, I just adore my brother and send lots of folks, if you're looking more for a job in an impact role, check out what they're doing over at PC DN. And if you're more thinking about starting your own thing, taking a path of business ownership for good social entrepreneurship, I love helping social entrepreneurs, you can take a look at the kinds of support I offer in my consulting site. I do one on one consulting in a variety of arrangements. You can find out more at Paul zelizer.com. And the last thing I just want to say is, when you wake up, and you go to work, and every day you're doing something that's about truly making the world a better place. Even in these intense times, I know of no better gift, no way to wake up in the morning and feel like alright, I'm going to work today and it matters and that feeling in this time. One of the best gifts I know to give yourself some if I can help in any way please let me know. Before we go, I just want to say
Paul Zelizer 21:18
we love listeners suggested topics and guests whether that's for the solo episode, you can hear the solo episode started with people reaching out Paul, my husband, my sister, my colleague, they want to shift and do more meaningful, impactful work right or against to interview on the podcast, which we do three times a month. If you would like to make a suggestion, you can go to the AWARE printers website, where printers.com and go to our contact page, and you will see the three criteria we use for guests or guidelines. Or if you have a topic, you can suggest it there for our solo episode. And we'd love to hear from our listeners. So for now, I just want to say thank you so much for listening. Thank you for the positive impact that you're working for in our world and please take really good care in these intense times.