What Works

The Nitty Gritty * The red-yellow-green system Jess Ostroff and the Don’t Panic Management team apply to every potential new client relationship and new hire to help them take the emotion out of it, particularly when it’s not the right fit * What Jess does if a potential client isn’t ready for their services yet, like helping them systematize their business so they’re ready for an assistant in the future * Why Jess chose to only hire United States-based and college-educated virtual assistants This week’s guest is Jess Ostroff, founder and Director of Calm at Don’t Panic Management, a people-first virtual assistant agency founded in 2011. In addition to running the Don’t Panic team, she’s also a speaker and author of Panic Proof: How the Right Virtual Assistant Can Save Your Sanity and Grow Your Business. In this episode, Jess shares the process she uses to vet new clients and new hires, plus how she operationalizes red flags to help her identify make-or-break situations using a red-yellow-green system. For Jess, this system helps her make choices that are informed by both her gut reaction as well as objective facts. We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode. Operationalizing red flags “It’s not just feeling. That’s why we have this red-yellow-green system. I might say: Sally is so nice and she really needs our help. And Jen, my colleague, will say: yes, but did you see those 10 red flags? We gave her a yellow and now she’s a red. She’s not a good fit for us. It makes it easier for me to say no with objective ranking factors in place.” — Jess Ostroff How many times have you said yes to a new client when you should have said no? Maybe the client needed more than what you offered but you felt bad or felt like you should say yes simply because you knew you could help them (and you needed the work.) Whatever the situation, Jess’ method for systematizing red flags with new clients is key for looking through an objective lens rather than a rose-colored one. “I like to start out by feeling what I’m feeling,” says Jess. “But then I like to fact-check that against that everything else I have in terms of information.” Here’s a real-life example. The beginning of a new relationship with a client starts with a general form on Jess’ website. Once they receive that email, they apply the red-yellow-green system immediately. They only move forward with people who pass with a yellow or green. Here’s what this looks like: * Red is a hard no. If the individual provides no information about their business in their initial email or there are other indications that they aren’t a good fit, they don’t move forward. * Yellow is a maybe. In this situation, Jess would need to gather more information. She might ask them to fill out a pre-call form to get a feel for their experience working with assistants, plus what their needs are. * Green is a yes. These individuals are self-aware, very organized, and very communicative. It’s obvious that they’re ready for the help and they have a system for bringing on an assistant with clear tasks and expectations. But the red-yellow-green system doesn’t stop at the intake form: it’s used at every additional step, including phone calls, to ensure it’s a good fit for everyone. “If it’s a red, I’ll say: you know what, I don’t think you’re ready or the right fit,” Jess says, “and I’ll point them in another direction.” Finding and working with clients that are the perfect fit ★ Support this podcast ★

When I got married 11 years ago, I was depressed, ashamed, and feeling like I had no opportunities left — in the way only a 25-year-old can feel. I had always planned to keep my maiden name, which was Seefeldt, but I also planned to be a successful academic with a published work or two under my belt by the time I got married. Instead, I was a grad school drop out working as a retail manager earning less than $30,000 per year. When I met my husband, I was so depressed that I hadn’t been able to eat solid food in about a week. My weight had plummeted and, instead of a solid size 8 and 145 pounds as I’d been most of my life, I was struggling to keep my size 0 pants on my boney frame. I was a complete mess. Marrying my husband — in my tortured mind — seemed like the only solid opportunity I had left. Of course, when you’re that depressed and unwell, making the decision to get married is never a good one. You could be marrying the best person on earth, even the best possible match for you, and you’d be in trouble. But marry I did. I was pregnant — by choice and plan but, again, after a life-to-that-point of not wanting children — within 3 months. While pregnant with my daughter, I was put on Zoloft in an attempt to quell the early symptoms of prenatal depression. It worked beautifully. The medication took the edge off and helped me to see new possibilities. I started to feel more in control, more confident, and more capable again. This state of mind helped me make room for starting a small business — the business that has grown into CoCommercial. I started doing things that made me feel like me again — writing, reading, and thinking. At the same time, it became clear that my marriage was just not going to work. It was a rough time and I didn’t handle it very maturely — but eventually, we made the mutual decision to split up. This was a really positive step in the right direction, even if it caused some logistical difficulties initially. One such difficulty was realizing that I had started to build a brand and a reputation with a name that didn’t feel like my own — Gentile. I considered changing it as we finalized our divorce but going back to Seefeldt seemed like a domain name nightmare and I wasn’t creative enough come up with something on my own! That was then. This is now. When I created my 2018 goal list, I put changing my last name on it — along with climbing a V5-graded boulder problem (done), doing 10 unassisted pull-ups (I’m at 6), running a sub-30-minute 5k (I did 28:18 last month), and hiking the Highline Trail in Glacier National Park (on the schedule). Even if my long-time partner and I weren’t going to get married, I was going to change my name to something else. Well, we are getting married in 2 weeks and, luckily, marriage makes the paperwork a little easier. We toyed with the idea of both of use changing our names but, in the end, I decided on simplicity and doing — for the second — the decidedly un-modern thing of taking his last name. Starting June 28, I’ll begin the transition to calling myself Tara McMullin. Personally, this was an easy decision. Professionally, it causes me anxiety. I’ve spent the last decade building name recognition, credibility, and a reputation as Tara Gentile. I’ve done podcast interviews, spoken at events, been a featured expert, written books, and been a 

The Nitty Gritty * Jaime’s lessons from hiring virtual assistants in the Philippines — and why she eventually hired an employee local to her * How Jaime and her team use Asana to manage projects and assign tasks * What books and tools Jaime uses to track employee time — and how she uses that as a tool to ensure employees are doing what they love with their time * Hear more about Jaime’s approach to the not-so-fun aspect of running a business: firing employees * The difference between an owner and an operator — yet how crucial they are to each other’s success Jaime Masters is a business coach and host of the Eventual Millionaire blog and the going-on-seven-years podcast series. In this episode of What Works, Jaime walks us through her process for hiring and keeping employees happy. She also shares her tactics for firing underperforming employees in a fair and diplomatic way. Curious about the resources that Jaime mentions on this episode? You can find them all at this link! We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode. When hiring an employee is good for business “Before I was trying to hide from the responsibility [of having employees] because I had a bad experience. But it made me understand how important it is to not do everything yourself. I thought I was good at everything but my executive assistant was good at so many other things than me. Letting go made a huge different in my sanity. I could double myself.” — Jaime Masters Before Jaime hired her first employee, she tried working with virtual assistants from the Philippines. Jaime was afraid to hire an employee because of negative experiences in the past — and she thought that a V.A. would meet her business needs. But a coach she worked with told her an employee is a good thing. “You’ll be a better business owner because you have that responsibility,” they said. Jaime took that to heart and hired her first employee: an executive assistant. It turns out Jaime’s coach was right: not only did hiring an employee force Jaime to show up on time — it also made her more dedicated to her work. “It made me put roots down and say: okay, we’re doing this!” she says. Today, Jaime employs four full-time employees: an operator, a full-time virtual assistant, a technician who specializes in Infusionsoft, and a personal assistant. She also works with many contractors, including ghost writers, copywriters, and podcast editors. An overlooked reason why tracking employee time is a good thing “The goal is to level up the things that they do best so that they can feel in flow and love their job.” — Jaime Masters In most jobs, tracking time and tasks is a way to keep employees accountable. But in Jaime’s world, she uses time tracking not only to see what employees are spending their time on — but also to ensure they’re spending time on the things that they love. If employees spend more time on things they’re naturally good at, they’re happier and more productive. That’s what Jaime’s seen with her team by putting this practice into place. And it’s super simple: they use the RescueTime time management software. Taking the emotion out of firing underperforming employees “I had to put something in place on the firing side so that I could separate it from my emotions because I want to help everybody and I hate firing people. Everybody’s probably heard that you want to be slow to hire and quick to fire. ★ Support this podcast ★

The Nitty Gritty * How Lauren and Jason Pak, cofounders of Achieve Fitness, use their Instagram to educate and inspire their audience — and why they chose Instagram as Achieve Fitness’ main marketing platform * What their weekly social media schedule looks like and how they plan, create, and edit that content * How the first four years of business helped the duo master the day-to-day operations and why they now feel confident to delegate to team members * What their strategy for hiring new team members looks like and how they infuse empathy and kindness into everything they do, including weekly team meetings Lauren and Jason Pak are the cofounders of Achieve Fitness, a gym based in Boston, Massachusetts. While personal fitness is what they do, their why is even more compelling. This husband-wife team set out to change the industry: they want to make the fitness industry a more approachable and positive place to be. While the pair got into personal training by accident in 2007, their approach to growing their business is anything but accidental. They’re extremely intentional about their core values and building that into everything they do at Achieve Fitness, from planning and creating Instagram posts to hiring new coaches. Listen to the entire episode to hear more from the Paks and definitely check out their 5 Year Business Anniversary video on YouTube to see their story in action. We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode. Translating your core values into your social media content “It’s our mission not just to change our gym and our area but we really want to change the way that the fitness industry approaches helping people. We felt like, especially on social media, a lot of what happens is trainers trying to show off what they could do in order to impress other people. What was actually happening was they were intimidating other people.” — Lauren Pak Lauren and Jason were frustrated by the fitness industry. To them, it felt unapproachable and inaccessible — and they saw that same theme extend to social media. The majority of posts that they saw were trainers showing off — and in a way, they felt, making fitness intimidating for others. When it came to crafting their own social media presence, they decided to do things differently and made it easier for people to feel that being healthy and fit was possible for them. “We really had to take a step back and say: are we doing this for other coaches? Or are we doing this to make a positive impact on the industry? That means we need to simplify things and make it much more approachable and much more accessible,” Jason said. Planning a weekly social media strategy “We’re spending about 15-20 hours on social media creation so it’s pretty much a part-time job. We were only recently able to get involved with it since we were able to develop a really strong team at the gym.” — Jason Pak For the first four years of business, Jason and Lauren were deep into the day-to-day necessities. But now that they’ve hired out some of those responsibilities, they have more time to translate their vision into Instagram content that attracts a worldwide audience. You can see their entire Instagram feed by clicking here. At the heart of what they post is the desire to educate people. They schedule in a weekly meeting where they plan the content for the week, including taking photos and videos. Then, they post videos and demos, with a focus on proper form, ★ Support this podcast ★

The Nitty Gritty * How Sarah Bray, entrepreneur, author, and digital strategist, transitioned from working exclusively for herself to joining the smart and passionate team at &yet, a design and development consultancy * What it means to be an intrapreneur in the modern creative world — and what drew Sarah to the &yet team * How to fuel your self-confidence, especially if you’re moving from the entrepreneurship world to a team culture * Why Sarah and the &yet team create resources, like Leadershippy, that serve the company culture as well as the public to inspire, educate, and support them on their work/life journey Have you ever felt that you could never work for someone else, other than yourself? Sarah Bray, entrepreneur, author, and digital strategist, felt the same. That is: until she saw how she could give more life to her ideas by working on a team. Despite working independently for years, today, Sarah works as the Chief of Strategy at &yet, a design and development consultancy based out of Richland, Washington, that centers their work on possibility and people.. Listen to this inspiring episode of What Works to hear more from Sarah about her transition from working solo to working in tech. We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode. Tapping into your confidence as you transition from entrepreneurship to intrapreneurship “My confidence in what I could do and what I could bring came from those experiences and that validation. I was at a point in my growth that I didn’t have to seek out those people. I never had to sell my ideas to anyone because they’d been reading my work for a long time and they knew who I was.” — Sarah Bray The digital entrepreneurship world and the tech world are similar in many ways. Culturally, they’re both forward thinking and quick moving. There isn’t much bureaucracy (hopefully!) — autonomy and bold ideas are welcome. But the big difference between the online business world and the tech world is that the people who work within each realm don’t cross paths often. As Sarah shares, her new coworkers at &yet weren’t familiar with her digital work, besides her business partner Adam. But it didn’t matter because Sarah knew she created quality work… and she used that confidence to push forward from running solo to joining forces with others. If you’re considering making the jump from growing your own business to working for someone else, consider: what do you do really well? How is what you do well served by pivoting to a team-based environment? And how does this shift serve you personally and professionally? Embracing frustration to fuel your work “Frustration is the most amazing thing. Anytime there’s something I’m annoyed about or that’s driving me crazy, that’s the feeling that I know my own limitations well… and that I really need to be working with other people to move my ideas farther than I’m able to take them.” — Sarah Bray Something I love about &yet’s company culture is that they fully embrace the idea of possibility. But not as a grandiose vision that doesn’t feel grounded in reality. Instead, it’s at the heart of everything they do and something they highlight on their website’s homepage. Possibility is no doubt something that Sarah embraces in her life, too. If she didn’t, would she have considered working for someone else? Would she have believed that working with others could make more of her ideas come to life than w... ★ Support this podcast ★

The Nitty Gritty * How Cathy and her songwriting agency, Catch the Moon Music, manage music inquiries and how they close deals * Hear all the details on Mochas and Music, Cathy’s unique way of putting her music in the hands of music supervisors (hint: it worked!) * Why she uses live events to bring together songwriters and music supervisors together in one room, plus why she started a course for songwriters * How she turns outreach on its head by approaching clients in a way that’s authentic to her, and equally important, valuable to them On this week’s episode, we talked with Cathy Heller, songwriter and President of Catch The Moon Music, a songwriting agency for T.V., ads, and film based out of Los Angeles. In our conversation, she shares where her love of music stems from, how she used closed doors as an opportunity to create her own path, and why she’s now offering courses for other songwriters. We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode. Using “no” as a tool to uncover your strengths “I believe that if it is right and the world is saying yes, then there’s enough room. But you need the courage to try and you might be told no. If you’re told no enough times, maybe you need to realize that you’re meant to be on the other side. You’re just really great at identifying great music so you should be the one choosing the songs.” — Cathy Heller When Cathy first pursued her music career, she wanted to be a singer. She didn’t anticipate songwriting as her chosen field — but when she went to Los Angeles and she heard no enough times, she realized that she didn’t need to be the singer. Instead, she could be the one writing the songs. That moment transformed her career from singer to songwriter and ultimately she founded Catch The Moon Music, a boutique music licensing company. Today, her clients include global corporation like Coca Cola and McDonald’s as well as Netflix, Crate and Barrel, and Disney. As Cathy mentions, sometimes when you hear no enough, it’s not the wisest choice to keep pushing through to prove a point. Sometimes those no’s are really a window, showing you different opportunities that might suit your talents better. Radical empathy is the tool for solving other people’s problems “The difference between a hobby and a business, at its core, is radical amounts of empathy. If anybody wants to make money, somebody else is going to give you that money, so we have to spend a lot of time anticipating other people’s needs.” — Cathy Heller At the core of Cathy’s work is curiosity. “What else can I create with my two hands that is going to serve my audience,” she asks. Her method includes asking the music supervisors who are choosing music what they need. Not only that but she’s always looking at what they’re already using in their T.V. shows and ad placements, then reverse engineers songs from what she’s learned to anticipate their needs. Think about your own business: how can you embrace radical empathy and put yourself in your customers shoes? How can you start to anticipate what your clients and customers need? Finding what is authentically you… and what’s valuable to others “Every person has their thing and when it’s expressed, it makes the world brighter and better. Every person can find a way to make it a living but it takes some introspection, it takes some exploring, and it takes some start and stops because sometimes we gotta try things to figure out what works and what doesn’t. We have to be willing to put in the quest.”  — Cathy Heller Even after taking a break from the music world for two year... ★ Support this podcast ★

The Nitty Gritty * The story behind Susan’s personal breakthrough that prompted her to leave a two decade fashion career to launch Art & Eden, a sustainable clothing line for kids * How Susan transformed her approach to business from fast to slow * What processes Susan and the Art & Eden team put in place to stay accountable to their sustainability values * Where — and why — they give back a portion of their profits to social equity projects as a part of their Buy Better, Do Better mission After two decades in the fast fashion industry, Susan Correa decided to leave her career as the sole breadwinner of her family to pursue a more sustainable approach to fashion. Today, Susan is the founder of Art & Eden, a sustainable clothing line for kids that approaches fashion in a slower, more intentional pace and weaves in social equity projects into the foundation of the business model. Listen to this episode of What Works to hear more from Susan on what transformed her mindset to create a business that is better for the planet and the people. Plus, so much more on the values, processes, and branding efforts that go into a sustainable business model — and how that applies to any business. We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode. Leaving behind a career to launch a business “It was the most difficult decision of both my personal and professional life. It was a really tough decision but I could no longer participate in a world that values profit over people. I knew too much.” — Susan Correa In Susan’s fashion industry experience she focused entirely on profit. What trends would bring the most money? That was at the foundation of everything Susan did for two decades. But after learning more about using business for good, including giving a portion of profits to social equity programs, Susan faced a turning point in her life. Susan declares, “I had one of two choices: accept the industry or change the industry. And I’m one that doesn’t take anything lying down so I decided to make change a reality.” With a newfound passion for sustainability, partnered with her longstanding experience in fashion, she decided to leave the career behind and start a brand new business from the ground up. That business is now Art & Eden, a collection of sustainable children’s clothes made from organic cotton, low-impact dyes, and unique prints. Staying accountable to sustainability principles “It’s really a coming together of committed people from committed institutions that makes it all come together. Even in our smaller world of Art & Eden, engaging with a community that cares is what enables us to make this a possibility.” — Susan Correa Creating a sustainable foundation to your business requires buy in and help from anyone — and any company, collaborator, or partner — that touches your business. In this conversation, Susan shared multiple ways that her company stays accountable to the sustainability principles that they were founded on. Here’s a quick look: * Sustainability from seed to finished product. This means asking questions like: are we dying the textiles in the correct manner? Are we labeling products correctly? Are we working to educate our farmers? * Relationships with independent testers. Art & Eden works with the Global Organic Textile Standard, or GOTS, as well as

The Nitty Gritty * What inspired Sarah to launch Startup Pregnant (and how that concept pivoted from book to podcast) * Sarah’s strategy for securing sponsors before launching a podcast (hint: it’s all about knowing your target audience and what their pain points are) * What new resource Sarah’s working on to meet the precise needs of her community Sarah Peck is a writer and the host of Startup Pregnant, a weekly podcast where she explores and reimagines what parenting, entrepreneurship, work, and motherhood looks like. Listen to this episode of What Works to hear more about Sarah’s journey in launching Startup Pregnant, plus her vision for the podcast and her body of work. We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode. Securing podcast sponsors before launching “If somebody’s going to put dollars for advertising somewhere, they’re going to spend it on Google ads and Facebook ads because they’re better. But I can happily lose that game because what we’re looking for in sponsors is people who believe in the value and the mission of what we’re doing. They think that providing services for new moms isn’t just a business opportunity — it’s also worth doing in the world.” — Sarah Peck At a bare minimum, Sarah needed enough to cover the costs of running the podcast — and while that didn’t mean she paid herself (at least not yet), she didn’t want to pay out of pocket to launch Startup Pregnant. Luckily she didn’t need to. She asked four people who were already a part of her blog community and they all said yes to sponsoring the podcast. So what did it take for them to say yes, especially because the podcast wasn’t even launched yet? It was all about the intended audience of the podcast: women entrepreneurs who might also be mothers and what might help make their lives easier. Sarah says they value things that save them time, save them money and also help them with efficiency… so services like Acuity and MeetEdgar are two sponsors that meet those needs. Creating a wildly valuable resource that your audience needs “Here’s what I made. Steal it. I’ve just saved you 25 hours of time and here are the negotiation scripts. It solves a really specific problem for people — but I hope it can also change people’s lives.” — Sarah Peck What happens when you need to go on maternity leave… but you aren’t sure what the policy should be? Sarah’s target audience are entrepreneurial and working moms — specifically new moms — and this was a question she heard all. the. time. She decided to put together an entire resource, dedicated to not only answering this question — but also providing policy language and negotiation scripts. “Look, you’re pregnant so you’re really tired,” Sarah says, “and you have limited time. You’re trying to finish your job and you’re trying to do a good job. Doing research is not easy.” Think for a moment about the struggles and pain points that your audience might face. How can you offer something as specific and resourceful as this? Letting your vision lead you… even when you don’t know where it’s heading “It’s not easy for me to do but I’m trying to remain as open as possible to the fact that I might not even know what this is becoming yet.” — Sarah Peck The truth of entrepreneurship is that everything is an experiment. The path isn’t laid out for you. You have to forge through, learning more about your customers, your product or service, and yourself along the way. ★ Support this podcast ★

The Nitty Gritty * How Jennifer’s creative entrepreneurial journey influenced the creation of Sister and Feminine Business School * What led Jennifer to transition from solopreneurship to a brand that’s bigger than her — and how collaboration sets the foundation for Sister * The practical and foundational values of creating and formulating a feminist business * Why you should see your business as a partnership and some of the tools Jennifer uses to connect students with their business’ “spirit” Do you think there’s a better way to approach your work than just hustling hard? Jennifer Armbrust, founder of Sister and Feminist Business School, would argue there’s a more feminine way to build and grow your business. In this episode of What Works, Jennifer walks us through what a feminine economy looks like, how to use those values to guide your business decisions, and tools for working on your business in a holistic, healthy way for work/life balance. Jennifer also discusses her experience with growing from a solopreneur mindset to a leadership one… and the struggles she faced on that journey. We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode. What is a feminine economy? “If capitalism is an economy that values masculine traits, what could another economy look like? That’s where we get the feminine economy. It’s almost a backward question. Instead of saying what economy would we need for feminine values, I’m saying: what if we start valuing feminine principles? Will that shift the economy?” — Jennifer Armbrust Capitalism currently operates according to masculine traits of the ego, Jennifer says. For example, worker value comes from productivity, poverty is vilified, nature is dominated, and systemic racism and sexism are commonplace. You can find the graphics mentioned in the podcast here. So what would the world look like if we included resourcefulness, mindfulness and gratitude, integrity, and honesty in the very foundation of every business and system? Things would radically change — for the better. Infusing feminine ideals into daily life “It’s a creative act every day going to my business, taking these ideas and ideals, and asking: what are the choices and the ways I’m setting up my business that’s going to evoke them?” — Jennifer Armbrust One of Jennifer’s most recent experiences putting her values into her business was with her new office. “I want it to be honoring my body,” Jennifer shares, “which is the first principle of the 12 principles for prototyping a feminist business. Our bodies are things that we use in our day-to-day workspace so how do I configure my workspace to support my body?” With that as a guiding principle, she got both a sitting desk and a standing desk. She also added a meditation pillow. “I’m not trying to make the choice that other people made before me,” she says. “Instead, it’s: what is my office? What is Jennifer Armbrust’s office for Sister? What is this space going to be and how do I work in it?” What are some feminine values that you already infuse into your business? What are some that you’d like to explore more in your everyday work life? Check out the 12 Principles of the Feminine Economy from Sister for more insight and ideas! Scaling from one to many, with intention ★ Support this podcast ★

The Nitty Gritty * Why Michael created Buzz, a rock-and-roll infused sandwich shop on wheels * How he infused his personal values into Buzz — and how those values extend into the culture of the company * Everything Michael learned from taking the B Impact Assessment * How becoming a B Corp positively impacts Buzz, its employees, and the community * What running a responsible business means to Michael Today on What Works, we welcome Michael Sirianni, owner of Buzz, a mobile rock-and-roll inspired sandwich shop serving the Lancaster, Pennsylvania community. But Buzz is about so much more than egg and cheese sandwiches: as a B Corp certified business, Michael runs his restaurant-on-wheels a bit differently than most. Listen to the entire conversation with Michael to hear all the details on what B Corp certification is, why sustainability is an important foundation for running any business, and how the B Corp certification benefits Buzz, its employees, and the community. We release new episodes of What Works every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode. How B Corp Certification aligns Michael’s company and personal values “I’m a firm believer that a company’s values need to drive and reflect what your customers, vendors, and employees value. In addition to that, those values should be rooted in kindness, fairness, and generosity.” — Michael Sirianni Most of us go into business because we see possibility for a better world — and we see how we can help make it so. That’s definitely true for Michael, who, after years working in the food industry, felt that his B Corp business matched his personal values. “I think that’s who I always saw myself as a leader in business,” Michael adds. “I could not be more happy that B Corp came along and now my personality matches my professional desire.” For him, making Buzz a B Corp certified business made it possible to make an even bigger impact than without it. What Michael learned from taking the B Corp Assessment “I sat down with my books and said I can’t really afford to do this. I can’t afford to give everyone a living wage and bring home X of profit. But that’s what the whole thing’s about. It’s about saying profits need to be sacrificed for the betterment of my staff. When you give somebody a living wage, they’re less likely to leave, they learn more, they grow more, they’re more invested, they become a bigger part of your company in the long run, they’re less likely work a second job because they have less of an economic need so they’re available more hours to you. There are all these positives about it. That’s the thing I learned most and simultaneously the thing I’m proudest about.” — Michael Sirianni Going through The B Corp assessment, Michael realized that if he truly wanted to create the company he was the proudest of, he needed to be able to pay his staff a living wage. That meant that he’d take home less profit — but, to Michael, it’s worth it because it results in happier and healthier employees. In addition, providing stable, living-wage jobs to his employees results in a stronger community. What responsibility in business looks like “Are you doing what’s right for your community? Because they’re your customers and they’re your future employees. The private sector, as we define it, absolutely has a responsibility to make themselves a part of the solution and a part of progress.” — Michael Sirianni B Corp certification is Business Sustainability 101. “Everyone should do it, ★ Support this podcast ★