small business | 

I’m super excited to share this episode with you, because you’re about to hear from Miki Agrawal. If you’ve been paying attention to the social impact business scene in the US, you’d know that Miki is a social entrepreneur known for breaking taboos and disrupting the status quo for over a decade. She was named one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People”, “Young Global Leader” by World Economic Forum, “Social Entrepreneur of the Year” by the World Technology Summit, and was one of INC Magazine’s “Most Impressive Women Entrepreneurs.” She is the founder of several acclaimed social enterprises - notably THINX (period-proof underwear), TUSHY (modern bidet brand) and Wild (NYC’s first gluten-free pizza concept). TUSHY is her most recent project. It’s a company that is revolutionizing the North American toilet category with a modern, affordable, designer bidet attachment that both upgrades human health & hygiene as well as reducing wasteful toilet paper consumption. She and her team are also helping fight the global sanitation crisis by bringing clean latrines to underserved communities in India through their partnership with Samagra as well as funding resoiling and reforestry projects all throughout South America. Miki has written two books, “Do Cool Shit” and “Disrupt-Her" both of which made the #1 Amazon best seller list. In this episode, Miki shares lessons she’s learned while Pushing Back on Shame.

As the Founder and CEO of Leverage Lab, Sara Blenkhorn dedicates her time and energy to the intersection of business and sustainability. She helps companies achieve B Corp certification, honing their ethical business practices and baking them into the DNA of their companies. With 20 years of experience in the field, Sara helps businesses capitalize on declaring, measuring and monitoring their impact. Her passion for engaging people has gifted her a vast network and an uncanny ability to lead productive workshops; finding ways of working across silos, and building collaborations that are in service to a wider agenda. Over the last five years, Sara has had the pleasure of working with: The City of Vancouver, the Government of Alberta, Lululemon, H&M, UBC and over a dozen others. In this episode, Sara shares how she and others worked hard to establish a project, only to have its growth cut short due to factors outside their control. Listen in to discover the powerful lessons she gained on her way to Finding Fertile Ground

Vichi Jagannathan is the Co-Founder of the Rural Opportunity Institute (ROI). She started her career as a high school science teacher in North Carolina, before spending two years expanding Microsoft’s TEALS computer science education program into California. Then she worked with the design firm IDEO to develop “Real Talk,” a mobile sex education app with over 10,000 downloads. After graduating from Yale School of Management with her MBA in 2017, she co-founded Rural Opportunity Institute (ROI) with Seth Saeugling. ROI builds the capacity of rural communities to support people’s healing from generational trauma to achieve health, safety, connection, and self-determination. To date, they have reached over 15K people in those communities with training and support, and have big plans to scale their efforts. The success of ROI quickly launched Vichi and her co-founder into the position of having staff. They found that running the business demanded very different skills than those needed to get it started. Listen to Vichi share her experience of learning how to run a business “like a boss.”

Kelly Terbasket of IndigenEYEZ & kinSHIFT and Andrew Greer of Purppl share the story of how they met and how their relationship continues to evolve in the context of Indigenous-Settler dynamics. Kelly is an Indigenous woman who founded IndigenEYEZ to build leadership capacity in Indigenous changemakers and kinSHIFT to support Settlers in their truth and reconciliation journeys. Andrew is a settler who founded Purppl to support social entrepreneurs and impact leaders to build regenerative revenue and impact models. Theirs was a natural fit that others around them noticed before they did. Their beginning had a bumpy start, but their openness and courage provided a path for connection, growth and ongoing learning. Listen to their story to get insight into how to work towards building authentic relationships between Settlers and Indigenous people.

Nina Perez is the founder of Thrive Today,  and a Somatic Connection coach. She’s also a master Latin dance instructor, a best-selling author of The Musical Imprint, and a proud mother of two. She has dedicated herself to helping people become skillful in the dance of connection so they can create the epic relationships and the fulfillment they deeply desire. You will typically find this self-identified shy woman facilitating large and small groups of people. She’s equally at home on stage, in a workshop, a dance class or group coaching environment.  She creates engaging & interactive experiences that get the whole room on their feet… smiling, feeling and moving… all of this in service to learning how to relate more deeply and effectively to themselves, each other and the world. In this episode, Nina shares her experience with Uplevel Whiplash, which is a form of resistance that can arise as we reach for the next step in realizing our dreams.

Kemp Edwards has been dedicated to supporting, growing and consulting businesses on a path to sustainability. He has taken several businesses from launch to become multi-million dollar enterprises and, in so doing, have negotiated partnerships and/or developed programs for globally recognized Companies such as COCA-COLA, TELUS, The UNEP, The IOC, FIFA, and DISNEY. More recently, Kemp has become the Chief Development Officer of Food Security Structures Canada. This is an organization that aims to help end food insecurity and world hunger by providing controlled environment growing systems, equipment, and support, and to empower people to grow fresh, nutritious, affordable food locally, 365 days a year, regardless of location or climate. 14 years ago, he was able to set his mission apart from others by virtue of having a strong ethical and environmental dimension to his offering. These days, there are SO MANY hot topics and an incredible amount of competition for attention in the marketplace, Kemp will share his recent experience with attempting to Cut Through the Noise.

Hey there change makers. I hope you’ve been enjoying this podcast series as much as I have. It’s been amazing to meet so many incredible people. The interview I planned to share with you this week didn’t go as planned. Understandably, people’s schedules can be unpredictable at times. So, instead of leaving a gaping hole in this series, I thought I’d share a spoken word piece that has been meaningful to me for over 20 years. The original work was written by Rob Brezsny, of Free Will Astrology fame. Back in 2001 he wrote a few versions of this piece in response to the 9/11 tragedy. I discovered it later that year and read it to a group of friends at a potluck, and it resonated powerfully with us all. I have since revised it and added my own touch, and I typically share it with good friends at special occasions. Sadly, 20 years have passed and it is even more relevant today. I offer it to you to console, connect and affirm our commitment to what we know is true… together we will rise, and that our collective efforts can create “the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible."