SocialEarth is a website and blog that gets the word out about businesses and social ventures that have a positive impact on the world. Thanks to a prompt from Tristan Pollock, co-founder of SocialEarth and a Twitter friend of mine, Compass Yoga is featured today as a business that make a difference. Check out the story here.
Category: business
Step 337: Get Involved with Taproot Foundation
Today I went to an orientation for new Taproot Foundation consultants. Taproot Foundation matches professionals with nonprofit organizations to create functional and sustainable products, services, and programs in human resources, strategy, marketing and technology. Taproot consultants donate 100 hours of their time over 6 months, an equivalent of $12,000 of services per consultant. To-date Taproot consultants have completed over 1,300 projects in 5 major markets across the country.
What impresses me most about Taproot is their commitment to create meaning, structured work in which effort and talent is so respected. They are filling the gap between professionals who want to help in tangible high-impact ways and nonprofits who want the expertise outside professionals can bring to their missions and stakeholders. They are professionals of the highest order and expect the same from all of their partners. To keep pace with all the requests they receive from vetted nonprofits, they need to add 250 consultants every quarter. Here are 3 more reasons to get involved:
1.) Have a positive impact on your community. Taproot consultants work with nonprofits based in the cities where they live so their work directly affects their communities.
2.) Explore new career paths. Many professionals have aspirations of making a professional move into the nonprofit sector. Doing a pro-bono consulting project can help provide professionals with a clearer picture of what a career with a nonprofit can look like.
3.) Networking. Taproot has created an active online community and provides consultants with the opportunity to work in close-knit teams toward a common goal with very reputable, vetted organizations. It’s an opportunity to meet passionate, talented people who care about making this world a better place.
Apply here.
Step 294: Love Connection
“You are connected to everything. Love accordingly.” ~ All Day Buffet during The Feast Conference
The Feast Conference happened last week in New York. I didn’t attend this year but plan to attend next year. The Feast Conference is curated by All Day Buffet, a company based in New York City that connects, develops, and launches purpose-driven ventures. I featured my interview Jerri Chou, one of the co-founders of All Day Buffet, in my book Hope in Progress. She is among the most inspirational, dream-pumping innovators out there, as is Co-founder Michael Karnjanaprakorn. I regularly visit the site to keep up with their work. There’s always something good cookin’ over there.
The quote above showed up on All Day Buffet’s Twitter feed last week during The Feast Conference, and it is now the title image on their site. There’s so much emphasis put on connection and collaboration, and it’s an easy thing to do. There is so much knowledge that lies just a few clicks away. It’s found just outside every door and during every interaction we have. We have the opportunity to connect every moment.
Love is a main ingredient to connections. Love for people, ideas, learning, causes. Every time we put negative energy out there, and particularly when we direct it at someone, we are actually hurting ourselves more than we realize. This is a big, big world, despite how small it feels given technology. There is more than enough room for more dreams and ideas and voices. And they don’t threaten our own ideas and voices. When we build others up, we do ourselves a favor by growing our networking and engendering support and faith in return for the support and faith we give to others.
Call it a retro idea to love our neighbors. Think of it as crunch-y and granola-y to believe that we reap what we sow. I love granola and I love love.
Image above from All Day Buffet’s website.
Step 292: Leaders Should Establish a Cult of Creativity
Start-ups need cults – that’s the assertion of Steve Newcomb, the incredibly successful entrepreneur associated with a variety of start-ups, many with a bent for social change. Ventures Hacks featured his essay on on why it’s critical for start-ups team to be incredibly passionate about their work. If you miss that piece as a founder, it’s akin to throwing in the towel on the whole idea. (Incidentally, Steve started blogging with the platform created by Squarespace, a company I featured in my book Hope in Progress.)
There’s a lot of lip service paid to the saying “our people are our greatest asset”, particularly in big companies. Companies have two choices – really live that statement and get behind it with everything you’ve got or stop using it altogether. Companies, start-ups or otherwise, need to give their people resources and support to shine, or be honest about the fact that the company actually isn’t about the people, but about profit or PR or the CEO’s ego or whatever other asset they really believe is the most important one they have. My suggestion is that leaders should do nothing else except serve their people. That’s their job.
Steve articulately and honestly wrote out his manifesto on teams in this essay. It’s a long one and every word is worth reading. My favorite pieces of his advice include: “Suspend Disbelief, then Think Backwards” (Bill Keating) and “Make Sure Every Single [Job] Candidate is Treated Like Gold” (Steve Newcomb). There are numerous other nuggets of gold for entrepreneurs in his essay – it’s well-worth the time to take them all to heart.
Image above by Steve Newcomb.
Step 284: 5 Ways for Entrepreneurs to Bring Together a Rockstar Team
“I used to say when I was starting my first company, I was much more of a recruiter than a CEO or founder.” ~ Vinod Khosla
Venture Hacks recently published an interview with Vinod Khosla. Khosla co-founded Sun Microsystems, and then went on to serve as the company’s CEO and Chairman. After leaving Sun, he became a general partner of the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers in 1986 and remained there through the early 2000s. In 2004, Khosla founded Khosla Ventures to invest in start-up tech firms, particularly in the cleantech sector. When he talks, entrepreneurs listen, and with good reason: his entrepreneurial success is the stuff of Hollywood dreams.
In the interview, Khosla gives several pieces of advice for anyone starting a business, two of which I found incredibly interesting: stay true to your vision and get a good team. Entrepreneurs are by nature self-starters, non-conformists, people who enjoy going their own way. Taking the advice “find a good team” can be a challenge for independent entrepreneurs. I’ve been chewing on this conundrum all weekend, thinking about ways that entrepreneurs can and should go about finding a good team. There are countless ways to go about this tough, critical task. Here are the 5 that have worked best for me:
1.) Shout your clear, concise vision from the hilltops. If you’re clear on what you want and can articulate it succinctly and with passion, it will make it easier for your pack to find you.
2.) Don’t settle. It’s tempting to take someone who kind of fits what you’re looking for when a pile of work is looming on your desk. One of my favorite quotes from Brian is “you get what you settle for.” Good enough does not equal good, and you’ll regret the choice in the not-so-distant future.
3.) It’s okay to contract. Finding a good team takes time, though that pile of work next to you isn’t slowing down its growth any time soon. These days, contracting is a perfect way to get daily work done while searching for that perfect team. Contracting also gives you a way to test out new team members before bringing them on full-time, and it gives them a chance to check you out, too.
4.) Add only as needed. There’s a great temptation to build a team before you build a business. Get the work first, and then add staff as needed. There’s no law against taking it slow and managing your company’s growth.
5.) Multi-talented multi-taskers wanted. Usually, I’m a fan of focus over multi-tasking, however if you can find someone who has skill sets in multiple areas where you need to recruit, you can roll several positions into one superstar team member and offer extra compensation to that superstar.
What tips have helped you build stellar teams?
Step 277: Mad Men Commercials – A Celebration of the Quality We’re Looking For
Have you seen these retro vignette commercials interspersed throughout Mad Men? I was curious about them so I did a little hunting around. The Smith Winter Mitchell Agency, the agency featured in the commercials, is the brainchild of Rocket XL in New York. These vignettes showcase how a fictional 1960s ad agency, SmithWinterMitchell, develops campaigns for six iconic Unilever brands (Dove, Breyers, Hellmann’s, Klondike, Suave Hair, and Vaseline), combining witty historic parody with modern ad footage. They also showcase these iconic brands and celebrate their heritage on a hit show that is culturally and contextually relevant.
The artistic direction of the commercials is interesting, thought there was something else about them that grabbed my attention. I was drawn to the risk that Rocket XL took by building story with their commercials. They didn’t see this campaign as 30 – 60 seconds spots that happen in isolation. They gave the audience credit for their intelligence; they trusted us to connect the dots across the decades, as well as from Sunday night to Sunday night. They have a distinctive look and style that make them memorable, but they don’t take themselves too seriously, allowing us to laugh a little at the ad guys we spend an hour with every Sunday night.
Our country is craving simplicity in the midst of this economic downturn. Somehow, we glorified complexity for far too long and it got us into dangerous territory. We lost our way when we started to throw around phrases like derivative pricing and sub-prime mortgages, without fully realizing how low their downside could take us. Rocket XL is portraying simple products with a simple message – they have stood the test of time and they’re still here with us with the same quality they’ve always had. Sounds simple, but it’s hard to fulfill on.
On the surface, these are just commercials for ice cream a shampoo. But they’re making us smile for a much more profound reason – we’re looking for reliability and stability in a time when all the ground beneath us is so uncertain. These products have stood the test of time and they’re proud of that. I’m not suggesting that a Klondike bar can take all of our cares away. I am suggesting that products and people alike should flaunt what they’ve got – and if what you’ve got is a track record and history of fulfilling the brand promise you made, then that is no small feat.
Learn more about Rocket XL and they’re cool brand blueprint here.
Step 195: The Speed of Impossible Tasks
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” ~ Nelson Mandela
Compass Yoga feels like this to me right now, but my history of finding a way through keeps discouragement at bay most of the time. I struggled a bit to find a yoga studio that provided comprehensive, affordable teacher training with a flexible schedule. A very logical service to provide seemed unattainable as I flipped through the glossy pages of Yoga Journal. Sonic Yoga made that type of training possible for me – it just took me a while (and lots of internet searching) to find my way there.
Then I started to think about how I could us yoga to help the world and attract students, either private or in small groups, that wouldn’t require me to open up my own studio. I took a page from companies like Print for Change and Design 21 who donate a part of their proceeds to nonprofits. I do the same, giving the tax deduction to students and giving them the option to choose what charity to fund.
I put up a website – which I thought would also take a while to craft and was actually done in a weekend. WordPress, and my experience with this blog, made that task easy, or at least relatively easy. Now I’m working on a plan to market myself as a teacher by applying to do some speaking engagements, writing for well-known yoga sites, and offering some free classes to nonprofits in public spaces. The progress is slow – actually at this moment it’s crawling along though moving forward. Sloooowly and steady. After all, that is what yoga teaches us: the beauty of slowing down.
I get frustrated when I think about just how slow it’s going, despite the many hours of work cultivating and following leads. I think about how I’ve transitioned quickly into new parts of my career, to new cities where I’ve lived, to new hobbies and projects I’ve taken on. My life, for as far back as I can remember, has been about speed. Starting and running a business is more about what’s right than it is about what gets me the quickest win.
It seems impossible to me – this idea that slowing down will actually serve me better in the long run. I constantly battle the idea of “if I don’t do these 10 things right now someone else will.” I have SBP – small business paranoia. Though when I force myself to stop racing, when I stop trying to be one (or 100) more step(s) ahead, I can think more clearly and the task at-hand doesn’t seem poised to crush me under its hefty weight. It’s just sitting there, a mountain of work, waiting for me to carry away one stone at a time.
There are a lot of stones. Some of them are really heavy and I’m going to need to ask for help to lift them – yet another thing I am not so good at. I do see the benefits of taking my time with this new venture. The question is did I really learn to master my mind to exist, at least for a little while, in stillness.
The image above can be found here.
Step 160: Share Like a Chef
Yesterday I read the transcript of an interview between Brian Clark of Copyblogger and Jason Fried, Co-founder of 37Signals. The interview is part of a series that Brian is using to kick-off his initiative Lateral Action, a program to support would-entrepreneurs as they take the leap into their own businesses. Now that I’ve started Compass Yoga, I find that I read about entrepreneurship with an even greater interest than I did when I was just writing about entrepreneurship for Examiner. These stories take on a whole new meaning when my first goal is to figure out how to apply them directly to my own venture.
One piece of advice that Jason offers up is the idea of every entrepreneur emulating a chef. “They tell you everything they know.” There’s a tendency to keep our strategic advantages, our ways of doing things, close to our chests in business. The conventional business wisdom dictates that if we give away how we work, everyone will copy us, and we will never be able to stay afloat. Chefs don’t think that way. They let it all hang out – where they shop, what’s in their pantries, and the mechanics and exact ingredients that they use to create a dish. They even write books divulging all of their secrets with glee! Walk into any restaurant and a chef’s philosophy and skill is on display for everyone to see.
What gives? How do chefs give away everything they know and stay in business? In practical terms, chefs have a few things going for them:
1.) Everyone’s got to eat and not everyone wants to cook all the time. Chefs fill that gap with their services.
2.) Going out to eat is an event, usually a social one, so it’s just as much about the experience as it is about the food and drink.
3.) Chefs have the idea of feeder businesses down pat. Their cookbooks, TV shows, restaurants, and retail merchandise all feed into their individual brand, creating a loyal audience who craves their wisdom.
4.) Chefs constantly re-invent themselves, giving us all a reason to go back to see what’s new. That’s the nature of cooking. Every fresh pan is a clean slate for something new that will not be exactly as it was before and will never be again.
Beyond the practical nature of their work, chefs have put their finger on the best way to thrive in business: their strategic advantage is their individuality. No one can exactly copy what they do because every dish, every time, is unique. I could have every ingredient and miniscule detail of the process that any chef uses, and when I make the dish it will taste different than their creation.
So here’s what we really need to do beyond sharing like chefs: we need to identify what really makes us our gorgeous, talented, creative-beyond measure selves and then work the heck out of that. Being part of the pack isn’t going to serve us going forward. Break-out, share, and celebrate your individuality. It’s the only truly strategic advantage we can keep. What makes you, you?
The image above depicts Mario Batali, one of the most generous, talented, and unique chefs around. I love him.
Step 151: Shouting Dreams
Courage means being scared to death…and saddling up anyway. ~ John Wayne
Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow”. ~ Mary Anne Radmacher
These two quotes were used by two of my lovely yoga teacher training pals, Vivian and Courtney, during their practicums on our last day of class. They have stuck with me this past week, and I thought of them often as I considered what I will do now that we have completed our 200 hour training. My friend, Amanda, reminded me of them again when she wrote a blog post this week about prayers and challenges and courage. Amanda shouts out dreams in her post in her articulate, poetic voice, and that voice inspired me to shout my dreams, too.
Dreams have their greatest power once articulated publicly. So here goes my professional dream: “By my 35th birthday next year, I want to earn at least half of my income from my own business.” And look, I didn’t self-destruct by making that proclamation; I actually brought it a little closer into being.
At the start of her teaching career, my yoga teacher, Johanna, worked so hard building her business though she completely avoided making a website, a key piece of her marketing plan. Later, she realized she had some pent-up fear about putting herself out into the world in such a public manner. Once she released the fear, she built the site (which is beautiful!) and she has a thriving career now. She saddled up when she was scared to death, and it paid off in spades.
I took a cue from Jo and built my website for my business, Compass Yoga, in a few days. I could have labored over it some more before flipping the switch, scrutinizing every word. I could have hired a copy writer, a professional web designer, and a graphic designer, delaying the launch and spending a lot of money in the process. Instead, I just used what I know how to do from my own blog, bought a domain for $14.97, wrote all of the copy myself, and stepped on the gas. It’s totally me, mistakes and all. As Dr. Seuss would say, I had to get on my way.
Thank you Jo, John Wayne, Mary Anne Radmacher, Vivian, Courtney, and Amanda, for inspiring me this week to just close my eyes and jump and shout from the hilltops how I want my career to unfold. I’m scared to death and it feels great!
Take a look at the Compass Yoga site and let me know what you think!
Step 144: Sparkseed Supports Social Innovators at American Universities
A few months ago, I featured Jerri Chou from All Day Buffet and Teju Ravilochan from the Unreasonable Institute. Jerri and Teju’s optimism in action inspired me to continue seeking out social entrepreneurs who believe that the greatest positive impact on society can be made when we create opportunities for people to use their personal passions to do well and do good at the same time.
I virtually met Mike Del Ponte as a result of my interviews with Jerri and Teju. He emailed me to educate me about his initiative, Sparkseed, which invests in American college students who aspire to be tomorrow’s social entrepreneurs. They have ideas to change the world, and Sparkseed helps them get there by providing a unique blend of services including pro-bono consulting, mentoring, and seed money.
I meet a lot of social entrepreneurs with inspiring stories. Mike’s ability to combine his business savvy with his passion for and personal experience with social entrepreneurship is a rare gift. “When I was at Yale I launched a social venture and soon found that I had to teach myself everything: how to form the corporation, how to recruit and manage a team, how to pitch to investors, etc…I had to reinvent the wheel and wasted a lot of time…I noticed that almost all student innovators run into the same problem…Sparkseed was established to give young social entrepreneurs everything they need to fulfill their potential as change agents.”
The Financial Times recently awarded Sparkseed with its prestigious Best Social Investment Strategy award. To date, Sparkseed has funded over 50 social enterprise projects from a wide variety of fields:
Elecar Inc.: Founded by Brown University student Andrew Antar, Elecar is working to provide the missing piece to the electric car puzzle. By developing residential charging station and an online payment system, Elecar is laying a cost-effective framework to facilitate the mass adoption of electric cars.
MaloTraders: Founded by Temple University student Mohamed Ali Niang, MaloTraders specializing in the processing, storing, and marketing of rice for small-scale farmers in Mali. By making local production more competitive on the international market, MaloTrade is working to alleviate poverty.
Paper Feet: Founded by University of Michigan student Jimmy Tomczak, Paper Feet makes the world’s thinnest and most flexible flip-flop out of recycled billboard vinyl. Every year, 10,000 tons of billboard vinyl ends up in landfills. Paper Feet is addressing this problem by rolling out a line of hip products all made from up-cycled waste.
Get involved and be inspired! Learn more about Sparkseed and its incredible stable of social entrepreneurs by visiting the organization’s website, joining the Facebook page, and following on Twitter.
Christa Avampato 
