People Helping People

Send us a text “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 businesses that they interact with as consumers to have meaning.”~ Haley BoehningI recently met with Haley Boehning to explore the question of how for-profit companies can shift to make a bet...

Send us a text Freedom a la Cart & Paula HainesHuman 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.  Freedom a la Cart is a social enterprise here in Columbus, which provides a working environment that helps victims of human trafficking develop th...

Send us a text US Together“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 KasvinWho is US Together? US Together is an organization which helps refugees get the support they need in central Ohio. They treat everyone like the individual that they are, and I believe this is what helps them do such ou...

Send us a text 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 and over a weekend built a wireframe and working prototype for a platform that would ease the process for dreamers applying for DACA.What was it like grow...

Send us a text Jay Clouse & Unreal CollectiveSo 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 project to the next level by supporting each other. There are goals, clarity, and direction balanced with the sup...

Send us a text 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 he thought his life was over. But during a short period in detox and a moment of clarity, the choice came to him that he wanted to live. His journey through recovery was not easy. On the 11th step...

Send us a text “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 in... and basically help non-profits generate revenue streams.”Grants for Social EntrepreneurshipThe Columbus Foundation was founded in 1943, and are celebrating their 75th year next y...

Send us a text 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 to make the biggest impact. Before starting the Roosevelt Coffeehouse, Kenny worked as a pastor for youth services. He imagined it must be a bit creepy for youths to meet in a pastors office, so he...

Send us a text 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 patriotic support with his team, and it put him on a ride which led to VETMotorosports. What is VETMotorsports about? VETMotorsports is an organization that honors and empowers disabled comb...

Send us a text 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 between the ages of 14 to 24 and don’t have permanent housing.  Star house offers a safe place, providing these homeless youth with access to food and basic needs, showers, r...

Send us a text 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 back in 2005 - and never imagined it would still have an impact on my life 12 years later.  Perhaps I'd have imagined that I would have achieved some level of mastery by now, but...

Send us a text 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. The toxic political elections in 2016 were one of the reasons this podcast came into being.)Ione Butler is a superstar in the space of connecting people with inspiring sto...

Send us a text 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 heard is that only 5% of your tourism dollars typically go to the local economy that you visit. Quite often we go and stay in chains or resorts or eat in restaurants that are owned by indi...

Send us a text 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 have built up quite an organization in the last 5 years. Through their work, they create employment for men and women formerly impacted by h...

Send us a text 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 is to provide adults with disabilities viable employment and vocational opportunities. Amy is herself a teacher, which makes her a constant life learner. Her own son, Max, i...

Send us a text 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 the realm of traditional bank loans... and I love their vision which is “We envision a world where all people hold the power to create an opportunity for themselves and others”.Bu...

Send us a text 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 like she had made a real difference in the lives of low-income kids.  The conversation rolled into an inspiration, and Reading for Change sprung to life.  Moments later they would be driving...

Send us a text 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 he had something unique: a drive to show up and put in his best effort. For me, that is where I learned that winning isn’t everything and what matters is that you show up and put your heart i...

Send us a text 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 get back on their feet. Then I want to his book launch: "GRIT: How to Get a Job and Build a Career with a Criminal Record".Harley had a rough childhood after his father passed away. He started using drugs...

Send us a text 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. A significant portion respond with automated DM's, so I just kind of ignore them. Somehow, in this madness, I followed Donna Blume. And she responded with an actual message. I'm glad I saw it and asked...

Send us a text 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, but over time found herself feeling agitated by social issues repressed by Korean culture, especially orphans and suicide: Orphans have a taboo in Korea and are often treated as if...

Send us a text 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 his days playing golf on pristine golf courses just didn’t sit with him. So what did he do? He got even further involved with the Columbus Coalition for the Homeless. He was working in mental h...

Send us a text 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, was founded by Paul Newman in 1988, and now is a network of 30 camps for children with serious illnesses. Flying Horse Farms opened in 2010, in Gilead, Ohio and hosts about 900 children and families ea...

Send us a text For episode 7, we dive deep into Mysore style Astanga Yoga with Danielle DePompei, an instructor at Astanga Yoga Columbus. Danielle has such awesome energy and a cool story about how she found Astanga Yoga and made it to Columbus.  I feel quite honored to explore her story and what insights she's uncovering from her own journey. Personally, I have practiced this form of yoga for ove...

Send us a text I am very fortunate to present this podcast with Steven Anderson, founder of Integrated Leadership Systems. ILS helps organizations all over North America improve their leadership and team building to be more effective so they can perform at a higher level, and I know this through my own experience in their program. This, however, is a podcast about what you can do to help the envir...