The Best Inspirational Podcasts You’ll Love – Be Inspired and Informed!

change creator best podcasts

There are times that you have a natural psyche to live and chase your dreams. But then there are also days that you can’t motivate yourself to even get off the bed.

You want to chase your dreams but you lack the courage to get out of your comfort zone.

You want to make a positive change in your life but you need something to give you that first push.

Surrounding yourself with positive thoughts is the first step towards making those positive changes in your life.

Motivation books and seminars are often not available when you need them most.

On the other hand, you can listen to the best inspirational podcasts virtually everywhere.

Here we have made a list of six amazing inspirational podcasts, in no particular order, that will motivate you and build you up:

1. Inspire Nation – Michael Sandler

Michael Sandler hosts some of the top authors, life coaches, spiritual leaders and leaders in other spheres of life to give inspirational talks. Two life-threatening experiences inspired Michael to start the show through which he aims to motivate people to live to the fullest of their potential.

The show’s commitment is to motivate you through the advice of these guests to help you shine brightly in all the aspects of life. To this end, they cover different topics depending on the guest’s area of expertise. The ideas you hear are practical and can be applied together to heal you lead a life of purpose.

Psychologist guests will guide you on how to rewire your life to achieve positivity, mental well-being, and happiness. The show also hosts spiritual leaders and experts to share their wisdom on why we are here and what to do about it. You will also get actionable ideas from Law of Attraction experts on how to live the life of your dreams.

If you are seeking to live a life of holistic excellence you need to add this podcast to your playlist.

2. Tiny Leaps Big Changes – Gregg Clunis

Gregg acknowledges the impact of the tiny things we do daily in our life.

This is the basis of this motivational, self-help and wellness podcast. Many people are unable to improve their lives because they look at the big change they wish to achieve and it seems too hard.

Gregg removes this hurdle by breaking the change you yearn for into smaller portions.

In each episode, he discusses some self-improvement strategies that you can incorporate into your daily habits to achieve the overall improvement in your life. By doing so, the change seems much more achievable and the listeners are inspired to start the strategy.

As far as self-help inspirational podcasts go, Tiny Leaps Big Changes stands out because the strategies that Gregg shares with you are not anecdotal. For each strategy he discusses, he gives the results of scientific studies that have been carried out about the strategy.

The show provides you with practical strategies that have been tested and proven to work.

Related: 6 Startup Apps To Help New Entrepreneurs Get Results

3. Optimal Living Daily – Justin Malik

In this show, Justin Malik has taken a different approach to podcasting. Rather than interviewing guests, he reads contents by other authors on productivity, minimalism, and self-development. He does this with the permission of the authors.

In each episode, you get to hear inspirational content on strategies you can use to transform your life. His show is a collection of top-quality content that he has sampled and found resourceful in helping you live an optimal life.

Most of the content of the Optimal Living Daily show is from blogs. Justin makes sure to mention the blogs from which he has sourced the content. If you find the content useful, you can follow source for similar content.

Justin does more than just give you amazing content, he also connects you with great authors that you can follow for further tips and ideas.

4. Change Creator Podcast – Adam Force

Get inspired by the best in business, social enterprise, and people on the front lines changing our world for good.

From business leaders such as Guy Kawasaki to Jake Orak, Founder of Ethnotek Bags – a creative social entrepreneur with quite an inspirational story to tell. Intensely curious, Adam asks the questions all of us wish we could. He gets some amazing insights as well!

Learn more than just business models, growth hacks, and productivity tips – get the real deal stories of people like Maggie Doyne, whose compassion to help children become a social enterprise that sustains real change in children’s lives.

“I’ve been listening to the Change Creator podcast off and on since December 2016, when social media from Tonle mentioned your interview with their founder Rachel Faller. Thank you for your recent unedited podcast on authenticity. Though there is discouragement, this episode has bolstered me to pursue the good that can come from producing music that reckons with society’s brokenness and concerts that open people’s minds to new ideas as they meet living composers.”

5. The Chalene Show – Chalene Johnson

Chalene Johnson is not your conventional motivational speaker. She is a health and fitness expert and you will detect her seriousness in the self-improvement process the minute you press play on her content. As your virtual life-coach, her energetic yet friendly voice will guide you through the steps that you need to make to improve your life.

In each episode, Chalene walks with you step by step through the challenges that life may through at you. She addresses topics like healthy living, positivity, and self-motivation.

As you follow Chalene step by step through her talks, you will soon start to pinpoint what areas of your life are holding you back. You will also start to realize that the solution to some of your problems is right in front of you.

You cannot listen to the Chalene Show and fail to change your life. At the end of each show, you will have a different perspective on almost everything in your life. You will also get insight into how other people perceive you thus prompting you to change for better.

6. Happier with Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen is committed to helping you live a life of happiness daily. She has authored a bestseller on how to make achieve happiness daily – The Happiness Project. There are other books by her that also discuss the pursuit of happiness in detail.

The Happier with Gretchen Show gives more insight into happiness as she interviews various experts on what happiness and how to achieve it. Together with her guests, she also discusses the habits that one can adopt on a daily basis in order to achieve the happiness they desire.

Read Gretchen’s books if you can. If you can’t make sure you listen to this show that will help you live a life of satisfaction day by day.

Final Thoughts

Whichever area of your life you wish to improve, you can always use a little inspiration to get you going.

These podcasts are just a sample of the great podcasts that you can easily access online for your self-improvement.

Utilize them to set your personal short term and long term goals and strategize on how to achieve the goals and dig up for even more.

A Look At Social Business Models and NGOs

change creator social business

The social business is not new. It has existed for decades in different forms with many definitions, some having been more effective than others. It has long been seen as an alternative to the NGO, a model that streamlines impact and eliminates bureaucracy. And yes, from many perspectives, social business is a model for the future. It allows quick growth and broader impact than the traditional NGO.

With a social business model, staffers do not have to fundraise, engage donors or work with government. They can focus on work without the burden of grant writing or taking donors on site tours. But with this trend, many important organizations that enable and support social change have stopped supporting non-business model organizations entirely.

The social business model is similar but also diverging from traditional business because of its mission. Unlike a traditional business, the mission and goal of a social business is to address a social or environmental problem. This is typically done through a market-based approach that uses the sale of products to generate income.

For a social business, profit is a means to achieving a mission not an overall goal.

It is also different than corporate social responsibility and business charity because all activities of the social business address the problem not simply one department of a company. There is one major requirement for a social business: a market. Without a market, a business cannot function—if a product cannot be sold or purchased, no revenue is generated.

Related: Why Social Enterprise Matters: An Examination Into the Role of Social Enterprise to Solve Social Problems

That brings the question: can we monetize all of the problems that we face? Many leaders in social innovation think so.

The rhetoric and policy changes among thought leaders and support organizations are starting to reject any social venture that is not sustainable.

Approaches like impact investment (formally recognized by J.P Morgan Chase) are overtaking organizations that work with problems that are harder to monetize. Business for a social purpose is good. Growth is quick, startup costs are often low and efficiency is high. But the trend of only supporting social businesses will damage important work that is being done to address the issues that we cannot monetize—the issues that we cannot create markets for.

The population of children living in the street across the developing world is a good example. How do we monetize them? How do we create a financially sustainable system in which these children can access education, healthcare, and food?

Some problems are difficult to create markets for and this is where we need traditional NGOs. Yes, they rely on unsustainable and inconsistent funding but they fill an important gap that social business misses.

These organizations need support, they need the funding and backing of foundations and governments. And just as trends go, as big support organizations change their requirements for eligibility, the smaller ones will follow and important work could stop.

8 Famous Social Entrepreneurs Doing Good and Making Money

What is a social entrepreneur? When I think of these words, I visualize the people who seek to create solutions to widespread social issues such as poverty, famine, and a lack of education. They pour themselves into their business and into the people that they are trying to serve. They aren’t just entrepreneurs, they are business people seeking to make a difference in the world.

Unfortunately, we have come to equate the term “social entrepreneur” with “ineffective” or “unprofitable business”. However, social entrepreneurs are no different from everyday entrepreneurs in the way that they conduct business or turn profits. To give you an idea of how social entrepreneurship is still entrepreneurship, here are 8 famous social entrepreneurs that you may have heard of:

1) Bill Drayton

When it comes to social entrepreneurs, Bill Drayton could be considered the man responsible for bringing social entrepreneurship into mainstream society.

Related: The Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Social Business

In 1980, Drayton established the non-profit organization known as Ashoka. This organization identifies, enlists, and supports major social entrepreneurs in order to create a worldwide team of “changemakers” who can help instill empathy in everyone, lead the young in a socially conscious direction, and break barriers in society. According to the organization’s website, “Ashoka’s impact is both multifaceted and far-reaching, spanning many levels of change in many nations across the globe.”

In fact, a study conducted by Ashoka in 2013 found that 87 percent of social entrepreneurs felt that the organization helped to increase their impact and 49 percent stated that the organization made a critical difference to their work.

Along with the formation of this organization, Drayton has other notable achievements such as forming Yale Legislative Services at Yale Law School, holding a chair position at the job creation organization known as Get America Working!, and receiving one of the earlier “genius grants” from the MacArthur Fellows Program.

2) Blake Mycoskie

While Blake Mycoskie may not be a name you are familiar with, the company name TOMSwill certainly ring a bell.

Born out of a trip to Argentina where he witnessed the issues children without shoes were facing, Mycoskie formed TOMS with the intention of donating a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair that was purchased from his company. Over the years, the company has expanded to areas such as eyewear, water, safe births, and anti-bullying programs. To date, Tom’s has managed to donate over 60 million pairs of shoes, restore eyesight to over 400,000 people, and give over 335,000 weeks of safe water.

TOMS owes its extreme success to the many businesses that Mycoskie ran prior to forming the company. Since the first laundromat business that he created to serve the college he attended, he launched four other business which includes an outdoor billboard company, a cable network, an online driver’s education service, and a marketing firm.

Related: 5 Women Social Entrepreneurs Reinventing the World (Get Inspired!)

3) Muhammad Yunus

Another name commonly associated with social entrepreneurship is Muhammad Yunus.

Armed with the belief that the poor should have access to basic banking services and a fierce desire to see his vision through, Yunus established the Grameen Bank in the country of Bangladesh in 1983. What the Grameen Bank set out to do was to provide small loans to those living in poverty so that they would be able to become financially self-sufficient. Rather than operating like most banks or lenders, the Grameen Bank requires no collateral from its borrowers.

Although this may seem like a fatal business flaw, the Grameen Bank is thriving and so are its borrowers. Of the bank’s borrowers, over 97 percent are women and these women pay their loans back at a rate of 97 percent. The Grameen Bank has managed to bring in a net income of $10 million and because of its success, Yunus has received the Nobel Prize, among other awards.

4) Jeffrey Hollender

Jeffrey Hollender and his company Seventh Generation are perfect examples of corporate social responsibility and how much a socially responsible company can grow.

Jeffrey Hollender founded Seventh Generation, a company specializing in the production of eco-friendly household cleaning products and personal hygiene products, in the late 80’s. Along with developing products that were free of harsh chemicals, the company also decided to donate 10 percent of its profits to non-profit organizations and businesses that are dedicated to social and environmental causes.

Hollender’s company was built on morals and systems that were perceived to be unprofitable and limiting. In the year 2010 alone, however, Seventh Generation brought in over $150 million in revenue. The company is even backed by comedian Maya Rudolph.

Although Hollender no longer has a role in the company, he still continues to speak out about corporate social responsibility, write books about social entrepreneurship, and serve on boards such as Greenpeace US.

5) Jacqueline Novogratz

Jacqueline Novogratz is one of the few social entrepreneurs who has successfully managed to integrate traditional investment methods with entrepreneurial investment techniques.

Novogratz created her company Acumen in 2001 with the help of funding provided by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Cisco Systems Foundation, and several other philanthropists. Acumen, which was previously named the Acumen Fund, uses patient, or long-term capital to helps fund businesses who have a focus on providing solutions to social issues.

While most banks and other lenders invest money in businesses and expect immediate profits from the borrower, Acumen provides funds and expects to start receiving returns when the business has had time to build itself. In Acumen’s case, this expected timeframe for these returns is around seven to ten years. In 2014, it was estimated that Acumen had provided over $110 million in funding to businesses.

Besides this successful company, Novogratz has worked for the World Bank, helped found a microfinance institution in Rwanda, and wrote a New York Times Bestseller called The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World.

6) Tom Szaky

Out of all the individuals who have wanted to make a difference in the world, Tom Szaky seemed to be least likely to achieve success as a social entrepreneur.

After dropping out of Princeton University, Szaky used investment money provided by venture capitalist Suman Sinha to start selling his own homemade fertilizer out of the back of his car. In order to build his business, Szaky took his worm waste fertilizer to major business such as Walmart and Home Depot, where he was able to convince them to sell fliers. Little did he know that this small business venture would soon turn into a multi-million dollar company known as TerraCycle.

Once Szaky realized the impact that his company could have on other areas of waste, TerraCycle began taking on things such as recycling and repurposing used objects that are often difficult to recycle, providing waste solutions to municipalities, and providing solutions for industrial waste. Along with its environmental focus, Szaky designed TerraCycle to donate two cents to charity for each waste object that it recycled.

TerraCycle has already raised over $3.2 million.

7) Scott Harrison

Scott Harrison has become one of the most successful social entrepreneurs through his non-profit organization known as charity: water.

Charity: water began after Harrison decided that he was spiritually unsatisfied and made a journey to West Africa with an organization called Mercy Ships. He was humbled by the experience and his time spent him Liberia taught him that he wanted to dedicate his life to charity.

According to the organization’s website, charity: water has already funded around 25,000 water projects, will provide fresh water to over 7 million people, and is currently operating in 24 countries. Unlike many other socially conscious businesses, Harrison uses all of the profits to fund future and current water projects. Although this is typically seen as a business plan that is fatal to most ventures, he has managed to be extremely successful and continues to inspire other social entrepreneurs.

8) Willie Smits

Willie Smits, a former microbiologist working in Indonesia, never intended on becoming a social entrepreneur.

It wasn’t until he had an encounter in Indonesia with a baby Orangutan who was left to die in a trash heap that he decided he needed to change the world. This Orangutan, which he named Uce, sparked the beginnings of what would become the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, a foundation dedicated to helping abandoned apes that were at risk for being harmed.

Along with helping Orangutans and other apes, Smits’ foundation also helps to teach local people the importance of sustainable farming methods, reforestation, and preserving the forest areas that already exist. Smits also has a hand in the Masarang Foundation and has received significant awards such as the title of knighthood in the Netherlands and a fellowship from the Ashoka Foundation.

Famous Social Entrepreneurs: Yes! You Can Be Next!

Social entrepreneurship doesn’t mean that you run a business that’s less effective or less profitable. Overall, social entrepreneurship is a type of business that allows you to reap a spiritual reward along with your profits and your impact. As demonstrated by the 8 examples above, social entrepreneurship can be as impactful, if not even more impactful, than a regular business plan. If you plan on becoming a social entrepreneur, learn from the wise people above and take comfort in knowing that you can one day join them in their ranks.

6 Startup Apps To Help New Entrepreneurs Get Results

change creator startup apps

At some point you might have gotten the itch to become your own boss. I mean, why not right?

I had a surreal experience and spoke to Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus. He made a comment that stuck in my head:

“you can be a job seeker or a job creator.”

There’s nothing wrong with being a job seeker. But the level of change you can create as a job creator if far greater (I did not make the rhyme on purpose). Many people start as job seekers and later decide they want to break free and do something on their own.

Here’s the thing though. How the hell do you become a job creator?

We’ve accomplished a lot a Change Creator but like any entrepreneurial journey, it never ends. You’re always figuring out the next steps and learning how to do it right by failing 20 times first. It’s hard work but the process is what’s great. It is the destination.

Our team has used a lot of different startup apps that serve different purposes and I want to share some of the startup apps that were found most useful in our ongoing thirst to learn and manage our process effectively.

6 Startup Apps – education & Authority and productivity

To be clear, when I say “startup app” I’m referring to any app that we found important to a new founder or team in the startup phase.

Education & Authority

Not only do you need to constantly learn everyday but you need to build your authority if you want to be taken seriously. These can help.

Feedly – FREE
When you’re new to the entrepreneur world or journey you have work to do. That means you need to build your authority which requires ongoing education, especially in your area of interest. Feedly is a great tool because you can follow thought leaders in your space to see what topics are trending and hot. This will not only keep you informed but it will help you create relevant content because you need to be doing that regularly if you want to build your authority.

Reddit – FREE
This is a great platform for a few reasons if you’re audience is here, which it probably is. Similar to feedly you get a great pulse of what’s hot, what people are saying and thinking, but also you contribute. Every time you answer a question for someone in your area of expertise you build up your authority if you do it well. Over time this is can be extremely valuable, especially when you want to promote something you’re doing.

Change Creator Magazine (4 weeks free)
Not to be biased but Change Creator Magazine is a must for new entrepreneurs that want to use business as a tool for income and impact. It’s a one of kind magazine. Generation to generation learning. Peer to Peer learning. There is no better way to expedite your success than to learn from the amazing brave souls who are already blazing a trail. We specifically connect you with the best entrepreneurs on the planet using business to solve social and environmental problems.  They are your mentors! If you have expertise or experiences to share as part of the global impact entrepreneur conversation then you can apply to be a Change Creator Contributor to build your authority.

Productivity

Wunderlist – FREE
This is a great app with a ton of function. Plus, it’s free! Create all kinds of lists that can be shared with the team so you know what’s getting done when. From creating collaborative work lists to personal vacation list or project planning, Wunderlist helps you easily create and share lists by syncing with your phone, tablet and computer and allows you to access them from anywhere.Now you can sync your work and life lists through the cloud-based task management app.

Trello – FREE
We have used Trello as a content management tool for the Change Creator blog. It’s a great project management tool that allows you to track workflows and provides excellent visibility into every project point. Users can create boards, add and assign tasks to share workloads, add editable checklists, upload photos and videos, customize workflows, keep tabs on projects and even invite co-workers to interact with and edit documents. The app offers a tons of integrations too.

Slack
Sure, you probably know Slack already. But a lot of people question why they might use it over other applications. What’s great about slack, aside from creating specific topic based channels for communication with a team or community, you can share documents, videos, and it’s all searchable, unlike a Facebook Group. We use this on the regular!

Final Words on Startup Apps

Knowing about these apps is great. But actually using them and making them part of your daily process is what matters.

Great things take time, so be consistent, stay organized and focused on what matters, and always soak up information from others with experience.

Related: If you’re a busy person than this one skill will change your life

What You Need To Know About Creating New Habits

Want to start a new exercise habit?

Maybe meditating?

Daily journaling?

Whatever it might be, we have deep rooted patterns in our lives and creating new habits take hard work.

The steps themselves might be deceptively simple: pick one habit, keep it small to start with, and remember to do it every day.

But it’s not always so easy — there are a number of forces that can stand in the way:

  • People in our lives create resistance to the habit.
  • Our environment itself creates resistance (i.e. Internet distractions get in the way of writing).
  • We forget.
  • A crisis or other disruption comes into our life unexpectedly.

All of that is difficult … but there’s one obstacle that gets in the way more than any other.

Our biggest obstacle is ourselves.

I’m guessing you’re not so surprised by this. We have seen ourselves give up on habits many times, because:

  • We are busy.
  • We procrastinate because we’re tired or just don’t feel like it.
  • We get distracted by our addictions.
  • We are afraid of failure.
  • We don’t like the discomfort of the task.

We are our own biggest obstacle to the new habits we want to create in our lives.

The biggest reason is because we come up with all kinds of objections.

And then we listen to those objections.

We object to waking up early to write, because we’re tired. Tiredness is a big objection of ours.

We object to doing yoga or exercising, because it’s hard and we don’t feel like it right now. We’d rather check our phones. Procrastination because distraction is easier than discomfort is another major way we deal with our objections.

We object to the difficult studying, because it makes us feel like losers to not know what we’re doing. This feeling of uncertainty is another huge objection.

We object to the daily practice, because it feels restricting. It feels useless somehow, to practice but not get anywhere. It’s not working.

We object to discomfort, uncertainty, being overwhelmed, having to do something regularly, not being able to comfort and reward ourselves whenever we want.

How do we overcome these objections? How do we overcome the obstacles of ourselves? Let’s investigate a few ideas.

Overcoming Our Own Objections

There might not be just one answer to this obstacle. People respond differently depending on how they respond to expectations — their own expectations, and other people’s.

So the right answer for me might not be the right answer for you.

Let’s look at a few different approaches.

Have Answers to the Objections

If we have a set of common objections to sticking to something, then we can pre-plan our answers instead of blindly believing the rationale we usually use.

Here are some common objections, with examples of how you might plan to answer them:

  • I’m tired (or don’t feel like it). Answer: Just do a little bit of it. You don’t have to do it for very long … if you can do one minute (or write one paragraph), you can call that a win for today.
  • Why should I put myself through this. Answer: This is a gift to yourself. Doing this habit is a loving way to make your life better, and always putting it off is a harmful habit. See the deliciousness in this experience!
  • You deserve a break/treat. Answer: Take a break right after you do it for a minute. Or … let this be your treat!
  • I’ll do it in a minute (or “One won’t hurt). Answer: You know that rationale is a lie. Don’t listen to the lies you tell yourself when you’re tired or afraid. Instead, tell yourself that doing the habit for one minute won’t hurt. Or putting off doing something you’re trying to quit (cigarettes, for example) won’t hurt.
  • This is scary/sucks because I don’t know what I’m doing. Answer: Yep, the uncertainty is scary! And yet, everything good in your life has come because you pushed into uncertainty. So see it as something to savor, this uncertainty, because it is the ground where you learn, grow, and get better. Learn to relish in it.
  • This is hard, I’ll do it later. Answer: Do a small dose of the hard stuff now, then go to your favorite distraction after. Switch up the order and things get a lot better in your life.

Of course, the answers above won’t necessarily be the best ones for you … so figure out what answers work for you.

Set Up Your Environment

If having answers to your objections doesn’t work, you might set up your environment to be more conducive to habit success, when you’re feeling good and optimistic.

Some ideas:

  • Clear away distractions. Make it hard to get to them.
  • Make your best option the most convenient option. Put out the healthy snacks where you can see them, and make yourself have to drive to the store to get the unhealthy stuff.
  • Tell others in your house/office that you’re not going to do something (not go on Facebook, not eat candy) … and if they catch you doing it, you owe them $50.
  • Get others to join you in a challenge.
  • Put reminders or inspiration everywhere.
  • Make your Instagram or Twitter feed only filled with inspiration, not distractions.
  • Ask others to encourage you on your goal every time they see you.
  • Set up your yoga mat, meditation cushion, writing space, or sewing area so that it’s easy to dive into your new habit.

Again, what works for one person won’t work for others, so experiment!

Find the Freedom

Some people really don’t work well with restrictions or being told they have to do something over and over. If that’s you, then find the freedom in the activity.

Why eat broccoli and kale? If you make it something your mom is telling you to do, you might hate it. But if you find the deliciousness in fresh, healthy, whole food, maybe it can seem like a wonderful choice. If you think about the freedom it gives you to be healthy, strong, fit and able to do all kinds of outdoor activities, then kale becomes a beautiful empowering leaf.

Why give up cigarettes? Instead of thinking of this as a restrictive thing, think of it as freedom from the burden of having to buy cigarettes, financial freedom, freedom from being tied to a burdensome habit for the rest of your life, freedom from getting super sick from smoking (which will absolutely suck for you and your loved ones).

Why sit down every day to write your book? Think of it as freedom from procrastination and distraction, freedom to express yourself, freedom to finally create when you’ve been running from it for so long.

Find the deliciousness, the treat, the freedom, the fun. And soon you’ll be not your own biggest obstacle, but your own biggest supporter.

Related: 

23 Self Improvement Tips for Social Entrepreneurs

If you’re a busy person then this one skill will change your life

change creator tired

“Sure, I’d love to help.”

“Yes, let’s setup some time.”

No matter how busy I would get, I had a very tough time saying no to people.

Little did I know, that mastering that one skill would change my life. Seems trivial right? It’s a huge factor as you’ll see when I break it down in this article.

Pursuing work as an entrepreneur can be even more tricky after being in the traditional 9am-5pm role because you need to make your own schedule. There are so many choices to make on how to spend your time to be most effective.

If you’re the kind of person who has an activist-spirit or is already pursuing social business than you probably have a high level of empathy. Something that is very powerful in business actually because it’s so important to understand things from the someone else’s perspective. However, while being a very good thing, it can also be a bit of a curse that you need to be very aware of because you always want to help others.

I noticed this the most during my entrepreneur years the most. I would always be networking and meeting new people. As that happened opportunities would come up to work with them.

At the early phase of a business you likely don’t have a ton of cash flow.

You bootstrap and do everything yourself which means you don’t have an assistant.

You’re just a person following their passion and trying to figure things out.

The one thing you can trade since you don’t have a lot of money is your time. Write an article for someone, build their website, make a video…etc. Whatever skill you might have that can help them out.

But the habit of saying yes to everything has huge downsides that I outline below.

But first, why do we say yes?

Why am I a “yes” addict?

As technology continues to boom and connect us in every way possible we lead high paced stressful lives with infinite choices.

We are taught to help others, be kind, bring value to their lives. This is what gets you a return in life.

You don’t want to let someone down or destroy an important relationship.

You want to be helpful and positive. No, is seen as unhelpful and negative, right?

It the book, The Power of a Positive No, William Ury states:

“Saying no has always been important, but perhaps never as essential a skill as it is today.”

Ury even says that “whether and how we say No determines the very quality of our lives.”

His whole thing is about learning to say No in a positive way that still gets the yes.

Mahatma Gandhi once said:

“A “no” uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a `Yes’ merely uttered to please or what is worse, to avoid trouble.”

Related: Find out what it takes to get paid to change the world with Change Creator Magazine

Delayed Personal Progress

It’s exciting to connect with people who show interest in what you’re doing. Maybe you can help each other out? Out of excitement we might rush into decisions, giving into negative emotions such as fear and guilt.

I was always open to a mutually beneficial partnership because it meant progress to me. But, that usually meant carving out some of my limited time to make it happen.

When you do this a few times, you suddenly realize you’re over committed and basically delaying your progress more than anything because you’re spending less and less time on the things that truly matter to your personal goals.

Eroding Relationships

When you become spread too thin and overcommitted, you start having shallow relationships.

You tap into that limited time inventory and start paying less attention to the most important people in your life, business or personal.

Maybe the work you promised someone in your professional life is being delayed. Maybe your quality is suffering because you’re scrambling to get things done based on a super busy schedule. Now, that relationship starts to erode because they are unhappy with your work and attention to them.

I have built so many connections as I interview tons of social entrepreneurs and connect with people in the industry. It’s very hard to keep up with everyone and most times you cannot. I wish it wasn’t the case but you have to keep your attention focused. People don’t want your half baked attention. They want to feel like you give a shit. They want you to listen and provide your undivided attention to them.

Focus is an art itself. Learning how to keep your attention narrow and avoid constant distraction is important. Practices like meditation help this a lot. It has for me.

Related: 5 best tips for increasing your productivity that you need to know now

Saying No Leaves Room For a Better Yes

As you have read so far, there are very good reasons for learning how to empower your life by saying no.

Your time is limited and you can’t buy more of it, so it’s value is very high. You must use it wisely.

When you’re focused and you know what your priorities are you can intelligently determine when to say yes or no.

When you say no you leave room for a better yes.

You say yes to giving your goals precedence.

You say yes to quality time with family and friends.

You say yes to take care of your health – mental and physical.

You say yes to very important opportunities that surface. Things that are important to you.

Final Words

Success in life requires key pillars – health, wealth and strong relationships. Not just one of the three. I have interviewed people such as Tony Robbins and Arianna Huffington who will tell you this very thing.

I can appreciate the macho hype about living the “grind” to be a successful entrepreneur. You have to put in your time to do great work but how you allocate that time is very important.

All work does not lead to success. You need your personal health and strong relationship – friends and family. This is holistic and keeps you in a good state of mind for better work success.

If you want to learn more about how to say no and still get a yes, then definitely check out the book, The Power of a Positive No, by William Ury. I think you’ll enjoy it.

Related: How to fully commit to your idea

23 Self Improvement Tips for Social Entrepreneurs

How to Find Ideas for Your Social Enterprise That You’ll Want to Pursue

So you want to change the world? Congrats on your ambitions. Market-driven social enterprises are proving to be a powerful force for change. Each and every day, social entrepreneurs are working to make the world a better place. With the right idea and a healthy dose of commitment, you can join their ranks. But first, you need to come up with that “right” idea. So, here we go Here is how to find ideas for your social enterprise that you’ll want to pursue!

First  Things First, Discovering Your Passion is Not Enough

Passion and a desire to help is great. However, by itself, these factors are not enough. If your social enterprise is going to succeed, it has to be grounded in the real world, and specifically the markets and local communities you want to work with.

As Change Creator founder Adam Force puts it:

Passion is an important part of the equation but to succeed in scaling an idea and creating a good lifestyle, you also have to know your competency and market.

There’s no sure-fire process to generate a great idea. However, there are some steps you can take to make your brainstorming sessions more productive. There are also some tried and true methods you can use to test your idea to see if they are viable. Before we get into that, let’s talk about how to approach an idea in the first place.

My approach with this article: Develop the methods to create new ideas first!

I’m going to approach this article from an “ideation” standpoint. In other words, I’m going to help you try to develop methods to create new ideas and solutions. However, this glances over another way to find ideas: borrowing. You should never steal someone’s intellectual property, but you can take tried-and-true methods and products and then apply them in a new community or in a new way.

How about setting up a local farmer’s market? Or a zero or low-waste grocery store or restaurant? Maybe your restaurant could donate some or all of its profits and unused food to soup kitchens? These ideas aren’t 100% new, but they could make a big impact in a community.

Related: The Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Social Business

Start By Considering The Community

So how should you start with coming up with an idea? First, don’t start with your own wants or needs. Sure, you can and will have your own areas of expertise and interest. Yes, you should leverage these assets. However, if you want to help a community, that community has to take precedence. How can you use your skills to help the community?

The best social entrepreneurs know the communities they are trying to help. If your social enterprise is people focused, meaning you want to directly help people, it’s important to understand the local community. Many charitable efforts, international development projects, and social enterprises have failed, or worse, cause harm, because the people in charge didn’t understand the community.

On the flip side, those leaders who understood the community they were working with have been able to maximize the impact. They understood the community, its needs, its wants, and local conditions. By understanding these factors, social entrepreneurs can craft solutions that will both address local needs and will be adopted by the local community.

Related: Uncovering 5 Marketing Lessons from Lucky Iron Fish

If You Don’t Know Your Community You’ll Struggle to Create Change

One of the Change Creators featured in our magazine, Makana Eyre, was working on a project in Cairo. The idea was promising: through Ashoka: Innovators for the Public his team would provide local women with entrepreneurship skills training. As the old saying goes: Give a woman a fish, and you feed her for a day. Teach a woman to fish, and you feed her for a lifetime.

So they set up an entrepreneurship training class, reached out to the community, and invited participants to come to a scheduled training class. No one showed up. Why? Turns out that her team never bothered to ask the local women what times would work best for them. The time they had picked for the training session conflicted with bus schedules, local norms, and other factors.

Fortunately, the solution for this problem was pretty straightforward: communicate with the community and find out what times work best. Gather a bit of data, then act on it. However, keep in mind that the consequences can be direr than simply rescheduling a training workshop. Organizations that don’t understand the local community and conditions can waste vast amounts of resources.

Consider the 2004 Asian tsunami, which claimed a quarter million lives and destroyed ocean-side communities across South East Asia and Africa. The devastation sparked one of the largest humanitarian relief efforts in history. Unfortunately, much of the money, resources, and effort was wasted.

For example, companies and organizations sent countless boats to Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere, intended to replace destroyed fishing fleets. Many of the boats simply rotted away on beaches because they were not fit for the South Indian Ocean and other Asian waters. They were too small for fishing and for the local water conditions.

The list of other failures is too long to recount, but the primary source of failure isn’t hard to pick out: many of the organizations trying to help did not understand the local conditions.

Related: 5 Things That Will Kill Your Social Enterprise Startup

Travel to That Community and Submerse Yourself to Get Ideas

So how can you actually get to know a community? Or don’t know which community you want to help? Consider traveling to one. Of course, not everyone has the money or ability to simply pick up and move to a foreign locale. However, communities don’t have to be far away and exotic. There are almost certainly nearby communities that need your help.

Are their local refugee communities? How about soup kitchens, or homeless shelters? The world is full of need. You can find a community to help right in your backyard. Often, it will be a bit easier for you to help these communities because on some level you’re likely familiar with them.

Even if you don’t have an idea right now, as you get to know your community the gears will start turning. You may stumble across ideas on your own, or you might find an organization to team up with. Often, members of the community can share their needs, and even offer solutions to fix them. They might lack resources and skills, but perhaps you can help them find the needed inputs.

Identify Needs and Potential Solutions

By now, you know that the community is important. Consider different communities. Often, it’s best to start with communities that you already know very well. If you’re based in New York City, perhaps it’s best to first focus on the local community rather than a far-flung one that you don’t know or understand.

When it comes to selling in markets, your good or service will need to solve a need or address a want. Many social entrepreneurs focus on “needs” rather than wants. Usually, needs are simply more pressing than wants.

A need can be thought of as a challenge or problem that must be addressed. If left unaddressed, conditions will worsen. So consider the problem you want to address. You can start at the highest level. For example, “I want to help poor communities in New York City.” The challenge is poverty.

Now, ask yourself why? Why are people poor? Why is that a problem? Generally, people are poor because they lack access to a good income.

Maybe they lack the education needed to secure a high-paying job. Maybe they are elderly or handicapped and cannot work? On and on the list goes. How can you address such problems? Community training programs? Educational apps? Assistance for those in need? Where can you get that assistance? Perhaps by taking food that’d be thrown away and delivering it to the doors of the elderly?

After you understand a community, you can identify needs, and then you can come up with solutions. Make sure you talk with community members. They might know of solutions. And they might know of challenges that you haven’t seen yet.

Keep The Market In Mind

The market has proven to be one of the most powerful forces for good in history. Simple economics dictates that good ideas will succeed and bad ideas will fail. Charities sometimes run into trouble because they do not necessarily respond to market forces. Donors can and will fund bad ideas.

Social entrepreneurs, however, can and must embrace the market. If your goods or services are failing to drum up interest, you need to revisit them and make sure they are addressing the local community. Something isn’t working. It might be that your marketing campaign simply isn’t effective. Why? Are you misunderstanding the community? For example, you might be trying to reach out to a Latino community, but your adverts are in English.

On the other hand, the product or service you are selling might simply not be addressing the pains and meeting the wants and needs of the local community. You’ll be able to know by measuring market adoption rates. Are people buying your product or service?

Related: The Most Sacred Gift You Can Give According to Tony Robbins

Look At Existing Products and Identify Social Aspects

The modern market economy has generated a tremendous amount of technologies and solutions. Most of these were driven by a pursuit of profit. As a result, many technologies and solutions lack a true social aspect. Can you take an existing business solution and add a social element? If so, you may be able to launch a social enterprise without needing to reinvent any wheels, and without having to open up new markets.

Further, you might even be able to find businesses will to invest in your social endeavors. Not only that, but you may even be able to draw in some talented private market talent that can provide a lot of skills. Consider microlending programs, including those run by the Grameen Foundation, that provide cash-poor people with access to funds. These funds can help them break the cycle of poverty by allowing them to invest.

The people who started these funds, such as Grameen founder Muhammad Yunus, didn’t do anything overly revolutionary. The idea of lending to people has been around since the earliest days of money, and even before. Yet Yunus and others realized that cash-poor people often lack access to traditional lending institutions.

By offering a new model they were able to extend lending to these communities. In turn, this allowed the communities targeted to invest in and uplift themselves.

Another great example is Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia. Chouinard realized that his steel pitons were damaging rock-climbing surfaces. So Chouinard decided to create sustainable climbing gear, and thus Patagonia was born. You can learn more about Chouinard on the Patagonia website.

Addressing “Small” Problems Can Make a Big Difference

The challenges you take on don’t have to be grand. Environmentally friendly climbing gear is the type of idea you’re likely only to discover if you’re part of the mountain climbing community. The average person might not even be aware of the challenges posed by gear that isn’t environmentally friendly.

Just the same, you might find solutions to seemingly small or niche problems. That’s a fantastic place to start. By taking on smaller problems, you might tackle issues that people aren’t even aware of, or don’t think is worth their time to address. However, if you’re solving a challenge and making the world a better place, it’s worth the effort.

Next Steps: Getting Your Ideas Off The Ground

Rather than concluding with the usual summary, let’s consider how you can bring your ideas to life. Makana Eyre outlined “Five Things That Could Kill Your Startup Social Enterprise”. Along the way, he also outlined some great tips for getting your social enterprise rolling.

First, get your idea down on paper.

If you followed the above steps, you have hopefully identified needs and potential solutions. Now it’s time to start refining your ideas, considering concrete solutions, challenges, and other factors.

Next, start building a team.

As Makana notes, it needs to be balanced. You need both visionaries and business experts and people with technical skills. From there, you have to check your assumptions. I can’t do Makana’s work justice in a few sentences, so make sure you check out his article. Point is, coming up with an idea is great, but once you have an idea you have to get it rolling, or it’ll just waste away.

Listen to examples of others you can learn from.

There’s nothing quite like the learning that comes from others who are on the ground, doing what you want to do. If you are just starting your journey, you need to learn all that you can from others who have been there, done that. That’s why we created the Change Creator Podcast series. Adam Force goes deep into how these amazing Change Creators started their companies, where they discovered their ideas and many, many lessons on how they grew their companies as well. I strongly encourage you to get listening! Podcasts are great on long drives, or Sunday afternoons, just fyi!

Read more in-depth examples of social impact leaders in Change Creator Magazine!

5 Things That Will Kill Your Social Enterprise Startup

There are endless articles listing 5 or 10 or 20 things that will kill a startup. But what about those of you who are launching a social enterprise? What’s out there for you? That’s why I want to discuss the things that will kill your social enterprise startup. You are doing important work. Don’t let some of these things sabotage your success!

Some might argue that the early stages of business and social startups are essentially the same – that you need a strong vision, a product or service, a market, passion, creativity, and so on.

But there are certain things that you, specifically as a social entrepreneur, will face that can make or break the success of your venture.

So, what are the five things that could kill your startup social enterprise?

1. Not planning.

Don’t panic – we’re not talking about a 50-page business plan with detailed financial forecasts, human resource plans, or expense policies. We’re talking about planning out the basic elements of your venture. Without basic planning, your venture will lack focus, likely not achieve the change you seek, and potentially fall apart. So what should you do?

Here are a few ideas:

  • Get your idea on paper. Write it out, type it, draw it – get it in physical form so you can see it in front of you.
  • Consider the business model you will use. Then consider the model you will use to make the change you’d like to see. How will you do it? Who will help you? What do you need?
  • Think about your challenges. Once you’ve got that down, consider some of the challenges you might face and how you’ll mitigate them.
  • Consider your basic finances. How will you make money? Will you have a social enterprise with a product, will you apply for grants, will you use some sort of hybrid model?

These are the important questions you have to ask yourself. For more information about social enterprise planning, see an article we just ran on the topic.

2. Waiting too long to launch your service or product.

This is a pitfall that plagues both social and business entrepreneurs because your product or service is your baby; it’s something you’ve put your blood, sweat, and tears into and you will feel that the last thing you want is to release it before it’s ready.

We’re familiar with the sentiment. It’s easy to feel this way. But it’s important to be honest with yourself and accept that the chances that your product or service is perfect from the onset are quite low.

What’s more, what often happens is people spend lots of time and money on a product or service and then once they think it’s perfect, launch it to a market that doesn’t need it, like it, or use it.

That’s why it’s important to launch pilots, test your assumptions and get out there generally with what you plan to do. Don’t worry, it won’t ruin your project or your reputation. Your market won’t turn against you or disappear. In fact, it’s almost always the opposite. Your target group gives you feedback, helps you improve your service, and allows you to test the assumptions you’ve made. So don’t keep your creation hidden in a basement. Get out there, test what you’ve come up with, talk to people and get feedback.

3. Having an unbalanced team when it comes to expertise.

The social enterprise startup is unique because it requires both social development and business acumen to be successful. In my experience, very few people are experts at both. Some are development visionaries – they can see what needs changing and which ideas would help. Others are business gurus who can find the perfect price point, financial model, and business development strategy.

You need both. There’s no way around it.

So what do you do?

Make sure your team, volunteers, interns, advisory board and so on are diverse in terms of experience and background. Ensure that you have a mix of people around you and on your team who you can defer to for specialized expertise. Avoid at all costs a team of purely business people or purely development experts. Having an overabundance of one can kill your social enterprise startup and hey, isn’t it more interesting to have a diverse team anyway?

4. Not checking your assumptions

This goes for everything. Validating your assumptions is a common business practice, but it’s even more vital when it comes to your social enterprise startup. Before you launch your startup and during its early and mid stages, you need to make a list of all the assumptions you made and go out and test them.

For example, a venture I was working within Cairo came up with a wonderful program for giving women entrepreneurial skills. However, after setting up training and mentorship sessions at various times throughout the day, which we thought would match an Egyptian woman’s schedule, we realized that no one could come. The reason? There were many – from cultural norms to bus schedules to the distance of our office to many suburbs. The result was that our first training session was a complete disaster, and it was because we didn’t ask these women what time worked best for them.

Related: The Role of Empathy in Social Enterprise

When you’re launching your social enterprise startup, you need to talk with your beneficiaries: ask them questions, get the details of their lives, ask them whether your assumptions are true, gather data, send out surveys – do whatever it takes to understand what the reality on the ground is.

5. Venturing out alone.

This may sound like simple advice but you’d be surprised at how many social entrepreneurs don’t take advantage of the people and networks around them. The advice of people who have previously launched a social enterprise can be life-saving to your venture. It can help you avoid common mistakes and expected pitfalls, and can give you the courage to continue when you’re struggling.

I don’t mean to burst your bubble but you can’t do this on your own.

No successful ventures, business or social, have been built with the hands of just one person.

It simply doesn’t work like that. So reach out to people, ask for advice, make calls, make friends, talk to people, ask questions. The most important take away is that people want to help you; you just need to ask.

What Early Phase Entrepreneurs Need to Know About Conferences

change creator new business growth

Excitement. Stress. Wins. Losses.

It’s all part of the entrepreneurial journey.

Maybe you’re waking up early and working on your social business before your day job starts.

Maybe, you’re staying up late working on your social business after your day job ends.

Maybe your social business is your primary work focus already.

The two biggest challenges we hear from most of the entrepreneurs Change Creator talks with include:

  • They can’t get the traction they need to reach the next level
  • They can’t get funding they need to scale up

All entrepreneurs face those challenges but only some overcome them.

I usually reply by asking what steps they have taken to try to get traction. The typical answers include marketing strategies such as video, social media, groups and SEO…etc.

But that’s only half the battle.

You also have to build your network, brand equity and authority if you want to break through saturation and gain momentum. Easier said than done, right?

This is why a conference like SOCAP is so powerful for anyone in the social business space. It’s an opportunity to build incredible partnerships, brand equity and authority.

Here’s what you need to know as an early phase broke entrepreneur struggling for more traction and funding.

Related: The Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Social Business

Investing in Opportunity

Let’s be blunt. At some point, you have to put money into the machine and see what comes out.

You can’t expect to have a successful social business that drives big impact if you’re not willing to invest in yourself or the business beyond a $20 Facebook boost.

I interviewed the founder of Bustle for Change Creator Magazine and in 2016 they earned $30 million in revenue but they also spent $30 million. Crazy right? They will be profitable in 2017. They play very big and believe in their strategy!

Big event’s like SOCAP offer a big return but you have to be willing to invest in attending.

I used to look at conference ticket fees and say, “but I need that money for marketing and operations.”

Here’s the thing, that ticket for the conference is an investment in marketing and operations. A very powerful and most times better investment at the early phase.

Why? Because one of the most powerful tools we have found for growth is building a great network.

You can hide behind your computer and fire off some emails or Linkedin messages but there is no substitute for meeting people in person to build a solid relationship. Remember, you’re interviewing people just as much as they interview you.

In 2017 SOCAP was saturated with over 3,000 of the most amazing like-minded people in the world tackling our most pressing problems. Everywhere our team turned we learned something new and connected with someone relevant to our business. Some were investors, some were in media, some were incredible social entrepreneurs. You can barely keep up with it. Good thing three people from our team attended!

You have to get out there and show up. When you do, opportunities you never would have expected tend to pop up.

For example, this was our team’s first year at SOCAP. Once we got into town we realized that Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Muhammad Yunus was speaking at the Commonwealth Club. So, we decided to go check it out. Long story short, we spoke to his publicist and ended up interviewing him for the January 2018 Change Creator Magazine cover story! That never would have happened if we didn’t invest in our trip to San Francisco for SOCAP.

Remember, your network is your networth. You have to invest in your future.

Related: What early stage investors really look for in a social enterprise startup

Dust Off Your Dating Game

If you’ve ever been on a date that went well, then you’re ahead of the game and will do just fine at a conference like SOCAP.

change creator new business growth

Actually our team was blown away by the relevancy the dating analogy has to the experience. We would meet people and say, “do you think they liked us, will they call?” Or, “should we reach out now or wait a few days?” We had a good laugh about it.

What are you looking for in a partner?

Funding, content share, maybe a technology partnership, speaking opportunity, or advisory?

Let’s pretend you’re on a first date with someone you’re interested in.

For starters, we all get into character. When you go on a date you get into character to attract the other person. You don’t just wear your sweatpants and burp after each course. You’re polite, respectful and dress the part. This may go without saying but you’d be surprised! So, be yourself but play the part. No matter how you feel about it you’re playing a sales role.

How would your date feel if you dominated the conversation all night talking about how awesome you are? I can answer that. They would hate it and feel like it was an awful experience. If you haven’t read the classic book by Dale Carnegie that talks about winning friends than you should.

You have to listen to people and let them ask questions about your business. Their story is essential to understand so you can see where you might fit in and if there are partnership opportunities.

Now, let’s say you’re the type that ultimately wants to get married and have kids. Would you ask them to marry you that night? Of course not, you wouldn’t even bring it up.

You’d seem crazy right? So, don’t ask for funding on the first date either.

After listening to them, if you get a good vibe on a human level and see a good fit to work together, the best thing you can do and let them know that and plan a second discussion to explore ideas. Look them up on Linkedin on the spot to connect and pass that old school business card over for good measure.

Once that fire gets warm you want to keep it warm, so don’t let weeks go by after the conference before you lock in the next steps.

Stacking Success

Once you decide to get out there and show up you need to get a plan in place.

I’m the kind of person that loves strategy. It can be a flaw sometimes because I overthink things. But most times it’s a big benefit.

When is the right time to get to a conference like SOCAP? What do you want to get out of it? Who do you want to connect with?

I like to stack success. What this means is that I determine a big desired outcome and define the intermediate steps required to get there. It’s like a prerequisite for a class.

For example, we did not reach out to get Tony Robbins for the front cover of Change Creator Magazine until we had Neil Patel and Arianna Huffington. We also waited until his latest book was being released. Those were the prerequisites for connecting with his team as we felt it would improve our chances. And it worked!

Planning your experience at SOCAP is not much different. Based on where you are in your journey, you should clarify your desired outcome and plan accordingly.

If you want mentors and investors that can help you grow your business, what do you need to prepare to attract them?

A few thoughts:

  • If you want to increase your chances for success, than you probably want more than an idea to share with people.
  • Maybe something in beta form
  • A well designed website
  • Potentially some early adopter beta test feedback
  • Maybe you already have some partnerships in place or a solid team of co-founders?
  • It could be very good to have a small leave behind that’s visually appealing to share with people that amplifies your value. For example, we would show award winning social entrepreneurs we have featured on our magazine.
  • Is your social business complicated? Can you explain it simply?

Those are some factors that can help attract people to work with you and take you seriously.

SOCAP and other conferences will also usually offer an app or forum to connect with other speakers and attendees in advance before the conference starts.

Make a list of key people you’d love to connect with and let them know you’ll be there, you’d love to introduce yourself and then share a little something to grab their attention.

Many conferences have a lot of people in one place which can get chaotic. Taking steps to connect before hand could be the difference in meeting specific people or not.

Lastly, don’t avoid talking to people because they don’t fit your perfect partnership profile. You never know who they know and what kind of incredible story they have.

Final Thoughts

The fasted way to build your network with wonderful people is to get out there and meet them. This is an exercise in building your brand, being on the inside track in the industry, and opening the door to new opportunities.

I cannot express enough, how much you can expedite your process by investing in networking. We have met people that we never would have met or gotten attention from if we just emailed.

Being in-person allows you to cut through the clutter and jump the line for attention. After you meet and make a good impression, they will reply to your email first.

Why Great Businesses Start with Niche Market Ideas

change creator niche market

I love an inspiring grand vision.

As the applications roll in for Fledge (accelerator), quite a few are big, audacious, grand plans.

The problem is that startups don’t have the resources to make those visions a reality, at least not within a year or two or three.

The bigger problem is that most first-time entrepreneurs don’t know this. They are too often deluded, thinking that everyone on earth will see their grand vision as they do and jump aboard as a customer, vendor, employee, etc. to make it happen.

Meanwhile, the seasoned investors know the truth.

Investors expect the entrepreneurs to have a roadmap that realizes the vision in year-by-year steps.

The trick to that, which trips up most grand visions, is the first step. This is the “minimum viable product” of the Lean Startup philosophy.

An initial product that has enough value to customers that they’ll pay something for it, and at the same time, a product that after many more iterations implements the grand vision.

Dropping out of the hypothetical, let’s look at one common plan I’ve been pitched a dozen times: a website where entrepreneurs post their ideas, where the community joins in to provide feedback, where teams are formed, where customers find new products, filled with reviews, recommendations, and so on. Or in short form: “Amazon for startup ideas”.

Related: How to know which type of investment to seek

Imagine that website with 10,000 ideas and 10 million daily visitors, and it sounds great. Imagine it with three ideas and one daily visitor and it’s pretty much useless. I’ve seen sites like this with a dozen ideas and that’s not enough. Nor a hundred. Sites like this need a “critical mass” of ideas and visitors, and few find a viable path to get to that scale.

One strategy for getting there is to beachhead niche. That is, to focus the initial set of customers to a small niche where the features of your service are highly valued, yet a big enough niche that there is enough money to be made to prove the usefulness of the service. Focus on grabbing a big percentage of that marketplace, then repeat with another niche. Keep repeating until you’ve reached critical mass.

This is how Facebook got so big. They started with Harvard and Yale, then the other Ivy League universities, then all universities, then finally everyone.

This is also how Google Maps came to be. Google was far from a startup at the time, but the same principal works for grand intrapreneurship ideas. The product was originally Google Local, a replacement for Yellow Pages with the results drawn on a map. Then it added directions. Then satellite view. Then traffic. Now it’s an indispensible tool for getting from here to there.

Big audacious ideas are great. We need more of them. But we need big ideas that succeed, and for that we need more entrepreneurs to understand how to get from idea to success. Hopefully this tidbit of advice can help.

The Environment: Innovative Solutions to Our Biggest Challenges

change creator climate change

The Earth is beginning to heave under the strain of overpopulation, war and famine. According to The United Nations, the ever growing global human population is expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100. This will not only put increasing pressure on natural resources such as food and water that are essential to life, but will also increase demand for everyday necessities such as energy, housing and jobs, to name a few. As the world’s population — and the cities that support and accomodate this populace — continue to expand, the natural world is coming under increased strain. Added to this is the pressure of climate change impacts, which are becoming glaringly apparent everywhere we look.

The Nature Conservancy recently released a report, The Biggest Environmental Challenges of 2017, which shares perspectives from global leaders on the most pressing issues facing people and the planet.

Some of the key challenges identified in the report include:

Climate Change — this needs to be addressed before it’s too late.

Sustainable Food Production — how do we feed a growing population without clearing natural areas to expand existing agriculture or expand already overfished fisheries?

Sustainable Cities — we need to create sustainable cities that are self-sufficient, which do not overburden surrounding land and water ecosystems that serve as vital life support systems for both wildlife and human life.

While this may seem like a doom and gloom scenario, Mark Tercek, President and CEO of The Nature Conservancy, is optimistic that these challenges can be overcome with creative, nature-based solutions.

“At The Nature Conservancy, we believe nature-based solutions can play an important role in addressing these big challenges. The road ahead won’t be easy,” cautions Tercek, “but by investing in nature, we think we can find common-ground solutions that are good for biodiversity, good for the economy and good for people.”

Population growth will certainly exacerbate these problems, yet it can be argued that our planet has sufficient resources for everyone, but these resources are poorly managed, and in many cases squandered, with little regard for the needs of others or the future. This is largely the result of a money-based rather than resource-based economy, where saving costs and making profits is the key driver behind unsustainable practices. But some enterprises are moving away from the traditional bottom line approach that focuses exclusively on financial performance, opting for the triple bottom line approach, which measures their social, environmental (or ecological) and financial performance instead, in an effort to improve their sustainability performance.

For social entrepreneurs, these challenges present fantastic opportunities to come up with creative solutions to address these problems for the benefit of humanity, while at the same time generating profits. Below are some of the measures the report proposes we take to address these challenges, as well as some examples of innovative solutions that social entrepreneurs have come up with to tackle the environmental and social issues associated with some of these challenges.

Related: Sustainability as a Model for Environmental and Social Entrepreneurship

Opt for Clean Energy

It is imperative that we tackle climate change head-on by committing to a low-carbon future and transition away from fossil fuels to clean, renewable sources of energy.

Tesla, a technology and design company with a focus on energy innovation, is on a mission to do just that. From state of the art electronic cars that do not compromise looks, power or quality for carbon-free motoring, to solar roof tiles and power banks that supply a home with energy from the sun, Tesla offers clean energy solutions for motoring and electricity supply that will save motorists and homeowners thousands of dollars in fuel and/or energy costs after the initial purchase.

Ned Tozun, together with his partner Sam Goldman, of d.light solar is another example of a social entrepreneur in the energy space who is on a mission to change lives by bringing safe, affordable lighting and clean solar power to communities that do not currently have access to energy. Look out for our podcast interview with Ned in May.

Acknowledge Nature’s Role in Addressing Climate Change

The report also suggests that we maximize the use of nature for addressing climate change and for mitigating the impacts of climate change. For example, reforestation projects can play an important role in absorbing carbon emissions that contribute to climate change, while restoring natural buffer zones such as wetlands and coastal zones can protect ecosystems and people from the impacts of climate change, such as sea level rise and storm surges.

When it comes to reforestation, we can all do our bit by planting trees in our own backyard, school or community. Felix Finkbeiner is a social entrepreneur who not only did just that at the tender age of nine, but in the ten years since planting his first tree, also founded the environmental group Plant-for-the-Planet, which in partnership with the United Nation’s Billion Tree campaign has planted more than 14 billion trees across 130 nations. The group has since upped the stakes, setting a new tree planting goal of one trillion trees.

Improve Global Fisheries Management

Our oceans are over-exploited, and as a result fish stocks have drastically declined. Yet for many people around the world, seafood is a staple diet and often the only source of protein. With fish stocks declining, the livelihoods and staple food source of people who depend on it is in jeopardy. It is therefore essential that we manage fisheries appropriately to ensure these stocks remain viable and this vital source of food remains sustainable.

Dr Alasdair Harris of Blue Ventures, who we interviewed in the 6th edition of Change Creator Magazine, recently won a social entrepreneur award for his conservation work with coastal communities, aimed at restoring marine biodiversity and fisheries in overfished coastal waters. Blue Ventures uses a tempory closure model that allows stocks to recover, which ultimately benefits conservation and the communities that depend on fisheries for their livelihoods and food.

Urchinomics has a truly innovative solution that addresses both issues above, as well as other environmental and social issues. The company plans to harvest invader sea urchins, feed them up so they meet the high standards demanded by this luxury seafood market, then sell them to high-end restaurants. By doing so, they hope to eradicate invasive urchins that are decimating kelp beds worldwide so that affected kelp beds can recover.

As these kelp forests provide essential ecosystem services, including absorbing carbon dioxide, protecting coastal communities from storm surges, and providing habitat for commercial fish and other marine species, removing the urchins will not only provide a sustainable source of seafood, but will also allow biodiversity to return so that the kelp beds can continue to offer these services. Furthermore, the project will offer exciting business opportunities and employment to rural coastal communities where fisheries have been devastated by urchins or environmental disasters, such as the tsunami that ravaged a fishing community in Japan.

Expand Sustainable Agricultural Practices

With population growth and climate change impacts such as drought and floods, together with war and famine being on the increase, food security is one of the greatest challenges humankind is faced with. How do we balance the need for increased food production while preventing deforestation, maintaining healthy ecosystems and limiting contamination of freshwater bodies and our oceans at the same time? Some obvious solutions include moving away from monoculture and pesticide use and opting for more organic forms of agriculture. It also requires some thinking outside the box, moving towards innovative, unconventional approaches to food production that are healthier and greener, and that simply make ecological sense.

Aquaponics is one ecologically sound solution that offers opportunities for individuals, communities and commercial farming ventures to produce healthy organic food (fruit and vegetables as well as protein in the form of fish) by following basic ecological principals. It also offers opportunities for social entrepreneurs. For example, some have developed innovative aquaponics kits to enable households to grow their own food right in their kitchen, while in South Africa, a 13-year old girl has launched a successful aquaponics business that grows food commercially while she attends school!

YouTube video of 13-year old’s successful aquaponics business

Urban rooftop farms and vertical gardens are other creative ways of maximizing space for food production without clearing more natural land for agriculture. For the latter, hydroponics is both a space and water saving method of growing organic vegetables in an indoor urban environment and lends itself to vertical farming. Listen to our interview with social entrepreneur, Tinia Pina, Founder and CEO of Re-Nuble, a socially minded organics-to-energy enterprise that converts food waste into an organic fertilizer as a byproduct of energy produced during the biodigestion process.

YouTube video on Rooftop Farm in New York

YouTube video on Vertical Farming

Create Sustainable Cities

Currently 54% of the world’s population live in urban areas, and according to The United Nations, this figure is expected to rise to 66% by 2050. To accommodate the needs of this growing urban population, cities need to be developed with sustainability in mind. ReGen Villages has taken up the challenge. The company recently launched a pioneer development project that will feature integrated and resilient residential areas that are self-sufficient, providing the energy and food needs for the communities that live there. The first ReGen Village pilot community will be built in Almere, Netherlands, and thereafter the company plans to expand the project across Northern Europe.

YouTube video of ReGen Village concept

When Life Gives you Lemons, Make Lemonade

Yes, the world is facing some mammoth challenges right now, but as we can see, necessity is the mother of invention. These challenges present wonderful business opportunities for social entrepreneurs with passion and drive to literally take up the challenge for the greater good of the planet.

Related: Sustainability as a Model for Environmental and Social Entrepreneurship

Goodio Organic Chocolate: Good For Munchies and The World

goodio founding team

This article was originally posted by Grant Trahant on Caustartist

Meet The Organic Chocolate Company Built On Beautiful Design, Transparency, & Sustainability

Meet Goodio, the pioneering organic chocolate company founded on transparency and sustainability. Goodio’s roots lay in innovation provided by founder of Jukka Peltola, a former game developer at Rovio, the company responsible for Angry Birds.

Meet Goodio, the pioneering organic chocolate company founded on transparency and sustainability. Goodio’s roots lay in innovation provided by founder of Jukka Peltola, a former game developer at Rovio, the company responsible for Angry Birds. After a creative career in technology and entertainment, Jukka came to food through a personal journey for better health.

Jukka found his passion in blending natural ingredients and fusing them with unique flavors, such as wild blueberry and sea buckthorn to give you a delicious one-of-a-kind treat. All Goodio bars are made with raw cacao, which is high in antioxidants and classified as a superfood.

Looking for alternatives to heavy sugar and salt-ridden snacks, Jukka did extensive research and found cacao — a superfood that’s often only associated with unhealthy chocolate bars you see in grocery stores and gas stations. By adding raw cacao to his diet and dropping traditional dairy products, Jukka changed his thought process and adopted a new diet and lifestyle.

After changing his diet and lifestyle he began to see amazing results, feeling more energetic, lighter, and rejuvenated, Jukka then set out to share this knowledge with his colleagues, friends, and family. While raw cacao and healthful treats were the focus, the team also wanted to build a company that stood for more than profit.

“There has to be greater transparency in where our food comes from, how it’s sourced, and how it’s treated,” Jukka says.

Below is a quick Q&A with the founder of Goodio, Jukka Peltola

Why chocolate?

It was 2010 when I started optimizing my wellbeing with nutrition. In a very short time period I got tremendous results which lead to totally a new relationship with food and nature. I was passioned and started experimenting and studying nutrition and found out about amazing nutritional properties of raw cacao, which is one of nature’s most nutritious foods, due to it’s wide array of unique properties.

Cacao is a main ingredient in a chocolate, but I couldn’t find chocolate that was produced in a way I wanted so I started doing my own chocolate at home. It was stunning to realize that you can actually do a favor for yourself by eating chocolate, if it’s just done with right ingredients, way and intention.

I felt so excited about chocolate and was really grateful for finding out what proper nutrition can do for wellbeing so I started thinking why are we suffering so much, why are there so many additives, fillers and other things in our food. I felt disappointed on big corporates’ contribution and also really small, because of the scale of this issue. I remember thinking that somebody should do something about it. Then I thought that self pity doesn’t help and I’m gonna do it for the greater good, no matter what. It still feels kind of crazy, but actually it makes so much sense, it’s just the right thing to do.

That’s how the idea of Goodio was born, not only to make the best possible chocolates but to accelerate the positive change in the world. Later on I found about the dark side of chocolate industry and decided that it’s not only nutrition that needs to be fixed, it’s the way the whole business has developed in the past decade.

Here is a little bitter sweet fact box of chocolate:

The global chocolate market is worth over 100 billion in 2017 and is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of almost 5% by 2020.

Around 70% of world’s cacao comes from West African countries where there’s estimated to be 2.1 million child laborers. Two biggest cacao growers are Ghana and Ivory coast. In Ghana the average income of a farmer is 0.84 $ a day and Ivory coast just merely 0.50 $ a day. Affordable chocolate has it’s price that has just been hidden from us.

goodio chocolate

Tell us about your cacao beans and the process of making Goodio chocolate bars.

We use cacao beans from DR Congo, Ecuador and Peru. Our Maranon Canyon beans from Peru are considered to be the rarest cacao beans in the world. Our Congo Mountains of the Moon beans, that come from Rwenzori mountain range, are certified organic and Fair for Life. Currently we have fine flavor cacao beans from 40-50 different farms in test. The beans are all wild, certified organic or organically cultivated.

We have our own factory in Helsinki where we make our bean-to-bar chocolates. We don’t roast our cacao beans and we stone ground all the ingredients around 72 hours in low temperature to sustain the good nutrients in ingredients.

Our approach to making chocolate is holistic and we are always willing to learn and make our products better. This doesn’t mean that we are changing our recipes all the time. It means we are constantly thinking how to have even bigger positive impact, whether it means biodegradable packaging, supporting small family farms or choosing healthier ingredients.

Related: How the Kind Foundation is Connecting Youth, Spreading Kindness and Creating Future Social Entrepreneurs

Why do you personally think the Nordic countries are such leaders in sustainability and innovation?

I think there are a multitude of things that have made this possible. Here is my personal reasoning in three points:

Engineer mindset and education system – Our ancestors have lived in harsh environment and just to survive you had to be very practical, especially before electricity and technology. Nowadays we Finns are world famous of our free and high standard education system. There are no tuition fees at any level of education and in higher education you can even get financial aid from the government. Because of this we are generally very well educated.

Our rough past and excellent education have made us logical, good adaptors and problem solvers. We Finns are not known about our small talk or marketing skills but for making great products that only a few know about, not to mention well-known brands like Nokia and Angry Birds.

Nature – Even though we are very tech savvy people we haven’t wandered too far away from our roots, nature. We are 5.6 million people, 71% of the country is forest and we have over 180.000 lakes, 500.000 summer cottages and 3 million saunas. In Finland we have the freedom to roam and foraging is very popular. Especially wild blueberries, lingonberries and many mushrooms are common bounty.

Wellbeing – We are very fortunate to have a high standard of living because of our free education, health care and extensive social security system. These privileges give us the freedom to think. When you don’t have to struggle so much and you have all your basic needs satisfied, you feel that you want to give back. We have ability to do things for greater good and that’s amazing.

What does transparency within an organization mean to you?

I’m fascinated to question general operating models that are just learned without deeper understanding or first principles thinking. Are these models still valid and working for our best? Therefore I like to ask ”stupid” questions. Questions like what if we make all our recipes public or what if we publish our whole business strategy.

Currently our priority is to make Goodio a fully transparent company. Everyone in our company is fully committed and excited about the direction we are going. It’s not only the right thing to do, but actually really inspiring and fun too. I believe that many other companies will follow us in the coming years and in the future it will become a new norm of doing things and it’s all good.

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