Inspiring greater social change in the world.
[1] 2019 Aspire Social Entrepreneurship Awards Aspire returned for their 7th year of Central Ohio Social Entrepreneurship Awards, recognizing outstanding achievements for businesses creating social impact, hosted by Roosevelt Coffeehouse, the Metropreneur and Columbus Underground. …
Lamar Peoples is the outreach coordinator at the Star House, a drop-in center for youth experiencing homelessness here in Central Ohio. Lamar’s has spent his career on the ground reaching out to people, and he’s …
On Wednesday night, 6 of the 14 SEA Change teams pitched their ideas and collectively won $100,000 to take their ventures forward. It was an inspiring evening and fun to see some fellow social entrepreneurs, …
Keep your eyes open for a special edition covering the recent pitches from the 2019 Cohort of the SEA Change social entrepreneurship accelerator… this is where change is happening! [1] Business as Usual Will Not …
[1] Solar Trains Riding Sunbeams, in addition to being one of the coolest company names I’ve heard in a while, is a social enterprise working to build and connect the world’s first-ever full-scale community & …
[1] They Noticed Kyle Westway said it best, in his popular Weekend Briefing, that a “powerful group dropped a bombshell of a statement redefining corporate purpose to include all stakeholders and not just shareholders. […] …
[1] Chef Miguel Spices It Up On Saturday night, we attended the Spice Up Inaugural dinner – an innovative dinner concept sharing stories and culture of immigrant chefs, to help build cultural ties in the …
[1] Greta Thunberg Joins Movement to Clip Airline Sector’s Wings Teenage Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg is sailing to the UN Climate summit… and has garnered support from others, bringing light to the environmental damage …
[1] Columbus Soup Columbus Soup is an awesome live crowdfunding event. It started as a few friends getting together for soup, and pitching some money into a pot, and voting for a local cause for …
[1] Spice Up This year, at Give Back Hack, I joined a project called Spice Up – their mission to share culture over dinner, hosting dinner events that are for a small group (space is …
[1] Year Here – Testing & Building Solutions Just came across the organization Year Here which recruits fellow to tackle social issues. Go ahead and Meet The Fellows: Their Tenth Cohort of Year Here. Here …
This week I asked myself how you go about magnifying change. What I found were groups building communities, sharing stories and looking at how people from different backgrounds can work together to solve the needs …
Are you depressed reading news about climate change and the ineptitude of government to do anything about it? Here is some refreshment with people taking other approaches to save our planet from doom. [1] Climate …
There aren’t many movements in the world that I am die-hard passionate about, but Give Back Hack is one of them. It takes the goodness of Startup Weekend and mashes it with making a difference, …
I went through SEA Change in 2018 with Emily Lawrence. She’s starting a great company helping moms called Lilac Pack and I’m so excited to have her on the podcast because she’s so open about …
Read moreSocial Good Blueprint | The Perfect Postpartum Present
Emily built the company Lilac Pack from the ground up – a true “moms helping moms” company, providing care packages to support women in their postpartum period (the first 6-8 weeks after childbirth), with their …
I started Social Good Blueprint to examine how others are creating awesome social change… I wanted some inspiration and thought you might too. If you don’t want to miss this, you can sign up below …
Starting the new year with a newsletter for inspiration and some uplifting ideas to take my mind off politics. Because great stuff is happening and I want to hear about it, and I suspect you …
In this episode we dive deep into investment insight, on how to save for your future. The People Helping People podcast is back after a long break. Over the last year, I went to Give …
In this episode, Jason Moore, founder, and principal of Fulcrum Creatives, explains what a Certified B Corporation is, how companies can qualify and what it means for not only businesses but communities. What is Fulcrum …
SEA Change—The Social Enterprise Accelerator—is an organization that supports social entrepreneurs by helping them develop a sustainable business model, access funding and solidify their meaningful impact. In this episode, we talk with Lauren Edwards, the …
Eleventh Candle Co is a social enterprise that seeks to redeem, restore, empower and equip those vulnerable to human trafficking, abuse, exploitation, and addiction. It is a way to employ women and empower them through …
There are so many issues for us to collectively tackle – but perhaps above all is the environment, because if we destroy our home, where are we going to live? What is Zero Waste? Zero Waste …
Where do you go when you want to meet people, and yet do something good at the same time? Columbus Gives Back. Who are they? Columbus Gives Back is a non-profit which provides social volunteer …
You’re in for a ride today. I know we’ve been digging into some serious podcasts around trafficking, but this podcast is about a different kind of traffic: transportation. Who is EmpowerBus? I met with Aslyne …
Clean Turn is a cleaning company with a purpose — not only do they provide quality cleaning services; they employ people who have been affected by trafficking, domestic violence, and other vulnerable populations and work …
Recently, we spoke with Paul Haines of Freedom a la Cart – a social enterprise bringing hope to survivors of human trafficking so they can build a new life of freedom and self-sufficiency. In this …
“87% of consumer believe that business needs to place equal weight on society’s interest as it does its own business interest. Not only do they want their jobs to have meaning but they want the …
Read moreThe Secrets of Creating Purpose Driven Companies with Storyforge & Haley Boehning
Human trafficking is a complicated social issue — it’s difficult to speak about, which makes it harder to raise awareness, but it’s even more challenging for one to survive and get back on their feet. …
Read moreTackling Human Trafficking with Freedom a la Cart & Paula Haines
“We’re not here to help people to survive – they survived without us. We’re here to give them tools that will help empower them to succeed.” — Nadia Kasvin Who is US Together? US Together …
Read moreThe Inside Story of Refugee Resettlement with US Together & Nadia Kasvin
Brook Kohn and Nathali Bertran brought their frustration with the DACA application process to the Columbus Give Back Hack — a 54-hour hack-a-thon aimed at developing sustainable social enterprises. There, they put together a team …
So what is the Unreal Collective? Jay Clouse runs the Unreal Collective – he brings together talented individuals, entrepreneurs, freelancers… awesome people working on interesting projects, for a 12-week program for each to take their …
Read moreTransforming Entrepreneurship with the Unreal Collective & Jay Clouse
Three percent. That’s your chance of recovery, once you’ve stuck a needle in your arm. Where does this story start? Taylor Hunt had a rocky start – alcohol & drugs – to the point that …
“So it started right at the end of 2008, which was the start of the Great Recession. We became concerned that nonprofits were facing unfavorable year ends with giving decreasing, so we decided to step …
Read moreHow the Columbus Foundation Advanced Social Entrepreneurship with Emily Savors
Kenny Sipes started the Roosevelt Coffeehouse in 2013 to make a social impact. He knew from the start that he wanted to build the coffee shop without any loans so that they would be able …
Pete Cline was racing at a semi-professional level in motorsports when an accident forced him to take a different turn. An event in the UK had inspired Pete to enlist some veterans to show some …
When you walk around Columbus, one population you don’t encounter are the homeless, but they are here behind the backdrop of the city. The organization Star House reaches out to specifically help those who are …
Read moreTransforming Lives of Homeless Youth with the Star House & Ann Bischoff
Join me as I speak with my longtime mentor, Dr. Srikumar Rao — TED speaker, author, consultant, and creator of the Creativity & Personal Mastery course. I took his course at the London Business School …
Read moreUncommon Insight into Changing the World with Dr. Srikumar Rao
For episode 19, we spoke with Ione Butler of Uplifting Content, and like the name, uplifting content is all about creating uplifting content… because the world needs more of it. (Personally, I couldn’t agree more. …
David reached out to me on Twitter — and I found myself intrigued by his use of affiliate marketing to raise money for causes that offset the social economics costs of tourism. The statistic I’ve …
I recently met John Rush, President, and CEO for Clean Turn enterprises, right before their Passion Purpose Profit conference. Their mission is to strengthen communities with an empowered workforce by creating profitable social enterprises, and …
I recently met Amy Noltemeyer at the Aspire 2017 awards, where her social enterprise, Growlers Dog Bones, took first place for Emerging Social Enterprise of the Year. Growlers Dog Bones is a nonprofit whose goal …
I recently met Lily Vail, the Program Lead for Kiva in Columbus, Ohio. I’ve known Kiva for years as the icon for social lending abroad, making loans accessible for businesses and projects that were outside …
Ethan Martin and his wife started Reading for Change just a few years ago. Sitting in a coffee shop, his wife was lamenting over her previous teaching position in title 1 school, where she felt …
I have known Raj Thangavelu since we ran cross-country together in high school; he was an early inspiration in my life. Raj, who stood 4’ 10.75” tall, wasn’t the fastest runner on our team, but …
I met Harley when he interned in our company. I knew he was a relative of my parents’ friends from college, but had no idea of his story or his social mission to help ex-offenders …
Read moreGRIT, Building a Career with a Criminal Record & Harley Blakeman
So, I was on twitter where I follow a lot of people. Anyone I think might be interesting, and I often wonder if this accomplishes anything, as I rarely see any of these people again. …
Flower La Warner, left her home in South Africa and journeyed to Korea to teach English in a small village. While many foreigners experience culture shock, Flower fell in love with the culture right away, …
Don Strasser moved to Columbus after living in New York until he was 40, and after a career serving those effected by mental health, he retired. But the idea of moving to Florida and spending …
Read moreColumbus Coalition for the Homeless with Don Strasser
Flying horse farms is not a farm, nor do they have any horses. But what they do have is serious fun. The SeriousFun camps, formerly known as The Association of Hole in the Wall Camps, …