Social Enterprise Alliance Podcast

Since 1993, Paul Zelizer has worked with and led programs for 30,000+ leaders working for positive change in and through their organizations. He's one of the first business coaches to focus on the needs of social entrepreneurs and impact business leaders. As part of the marketing team for Wisdom 2.0, a renowned conscious business brand, he helped grow the yearly conference from 650 to 1800 att...

Jenny Brown is the CEO and Co-Founder of Dutton Farm, a non-profit in the Behavioral Health system that provides community access, adult education, and employment support for adults with developmental disabilities.  She is also the founder and owner of Everybody Inc.,  a bath and body social enterprise that works to remove barriers to community access and inclusion in the workforce for people with...

Discovering the path of social enterprise through the hospitality industry, Adam Zembruski founded Hospiamo, a social enterprise working to forge a path to engage and empower over 250,000 hospitality workers by 2030, elevating them into positions of influence and decision-making, and sharing profits and ownership. Today, Adam is leveraging his expertise and the strength of his network to mentor th...

Dr. Rasheda L. Weaver is a social entrepreneurship author, researcher and coach. She has conducted large-scale empirical studies on the social, economic, and legal activities of social enterprises in the U.S. and is the Founder of Weaver's Social Enterprise Directory. In 2023, she joined the Global African Descent Social Entrepreneurship Network sponsored by the Biden-Harris Administration and...

Last week, we invited in Trace Bell and Tina Olsen of Open Aware consulting to talk through a social concept called Spiral Dynamics. We learned about the framework and how it relates to different moments in human history. Today, we continue that conversation and go a bit further into how an understanding of the concept can help us in our social enterprises.  ********** Spiral Dynamics is a model...

Today’s interview is with Trace Bell and Tina Olsen of Open Aware consulting, who serve as integration guides for individuals and visionaries within conscious organizations. They themselves are visionaries who are intent on creating a life of purpose by following their curiosities in philosophy, non-duality systems thinking, and raising consciousness. They started Open Aware with the vision of ins...

As the Founder and CEO of Fundraising for the Future (FFTF), Stephanie Sample supports organizations in leaning into the expansive nature of grant proposal writing, business plan development and grant-making. Fundraising for the Future is a consulting firm based in New Mexico that has raised over $15 million writing federal, state, and corporate grants for the last 7 years. FFTF provides philanthr...

David Gaines is the Chief Visionary for La Terza Coffee, and author of the new book Radical Business: The Root of Your Work and How it Can Change the World. As David discovered the business model of social enterprise, he saw how all businesses could make the world a better place, and that realization changed everything. ********** With his work at La Terza, David felt pulled toward social enterpri...

Michelle King Thomas is a writer, activist, and social entrepreneur. She specializes in sales and operations that help social impact brands and social enterprises stay profitable and strategize for revenue growth. As a senior sales and operations professional with experience facilitating a 20% increase in revenue year over year, Michelle develops and implements sales and operations strategies, wit...

Callie is an experienced professional and entrepreneur with a strong history of international relations and social business. She specializes in community development and economic empowerment utilizing over 15 years of branding and marketing experience and over a decade of international work. She is passionate about using this first-hand experience to educate those in the field so they can be equip...

Social enterprises are driven by a big mission, but often struggle with their business model. The book, "Powering Social Enterprise with Profit and Purpose: The Tandem Hybrid" explores the strengths and limitations of typical structures and presents a compelling case for the "tandem hybrid," using the best of both for-profit and non-profit models to maximize social impact. *******...

Mark Horoszowski is the CEO at MovingWorlds, a social enterprise that convenes partners from all sectors to build a more equitable, just, and sustainable economy by empowering social enterprises, and the people working with — and within — them. Its global platform connects social enterprises with corporates, peers, learning content, and a global community of pro bono professionals to deliver marke...

Recognized as a White House Champion of Change by President Obama, serial social entrepreneur Steven Clift leads GoodCarts as a dynamic engine for change and engagement via ecommerce. GoodCarts is cross-promotional network for sustainable and shop for good brands. Their new efforts are to boost underrepresented small businesses and their library of over 100 "how to" articles and ecommerce...

Vicki Pozzebon is the principal consultant and founder of Prospera Partners, a small but mighty consulting firm that works with small business owners, social entrepreneurs, and nonprofits on thoughtful business planning, systems change, transformational leadership, and more. She is people-centered and passionate about teaching, guiding, and facilitating clients through strategies to do better by d...

Karla McLaren, M.Ed. is an award-winning author, social science researcher, and empathy pioneer. Her lifelong work focuses on her grand unified theory of emotions, which revalues even the most “negative” emotions and opens startling new pathways into self-awareness, effective communication, and healthy empathy. She is the founder and CEO of Emotion Dynamics LLC and the developer of the Empathy Aca...

One of our goals in producing this podcast is to give social entrepreneurs resources, tools and tips on how to better run your organization - both in areas of impact, and in the day to day business operations. For many of us, the reason we work in social enterprise is that we are very passionate about helping others in a specific cause and mission. We’re good at what we do and we pour our heart in...

Dr. Amanda Kiessel is a cocreator of Good Market, a digital commons for social enterprises, cooperatives, responsible businesses, civic organizations, networks, and changemakers working to create a 21st-century economy that’s “good for people and good for the planet.” It currently includes more than 2,500 enterprises across 90 countries. Amanda spent the past 20 years in Asia working with local or...

Jennifer Norman is the Founder & Chief Human Officer of The Human Beauty Movement, a Certified B Corporation on a mission to turn the face of beauty inside out. Jennifer is passionate about diversity appreciation, humanitarianism and inspiring others to be their most exceptional. Through The HBM, The Human Beauty Movement Community, her new skincare brand Humanist Beauty, and her podcast ROLE...

Branden Harvey celebrates the good in the world. As the founder of Good Good Good — he hosts the podcast Sounds Good, he's the editor-in-chief of the Goodnewspaper, a printed newspaper full of good news, and has built an online community over more than 500,000 world changers. He's been written about in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Men's Health, and Forbes. goodgoodgood.co/g...

Tamra Ryan is the CEO of Women's Bean Project, a social enterprise that provides transitional employment, while operating a food manufacturing business, to women attempting to break the cycle of chronic unemployment and poverty. Tamra is a former partner and board member for Social Venture Partners-Denver and the Social Enterprise Alliance and is on the Council of Advisors for the Graduate Sch...

Gretchen Ki Steidle is the founder and President of Global Grassroots, a mindfulness-based social venture incubator for women in East Africa whose mission is to catalyze women and girls as leaders of Conscious Social Change in their communities. Conscious Social Change is a design methodology that employs mindfulness throughout the process of designing a social solution. Through their programs, wo...

Addressing and healing trauma is hard work! But it's also so necessary. Change ultimately happens when people feel safe and realize that true safety lives within us, which is why Nkem developed the Resilience Toolkit. Nkem Ndefo is the founder and president of Lumos Transforms and creator of The Resilience Toolkit, a model that promotes embodied self-awareness and self-regulation in an ecologi...

Being a young mother, especially one with limited resources, can not only make it difficult to find work that provides a livable income, but also create space for growth opportunities, education, and support in a way that provides child care. Today, we invite one of our members, Carmen Dahlberg to talk about her work at Belle Detroit, about how her company empowers young mothers, and how she uses...

In today's episode, we talk about another of SEA's core values, Equality for Equity. We believe that everyone deserves equal access and opportunity, and as an organization, we strive to procure and empower an adequate distribution of all resources for all members of all communities for social and economic prosperity. Today, we welcome Eve Lyon and Paul Wright, founders of SEA's Recover...

One of SEA's core values is something we call "Kindness for Compassion." H umans feel good when we are kind to one another. Feeling good is the basis for happiness, justice, and peace, and treating each other kindly unlocks our collective and individual success. One of the best ways to embody this value is by working to build better teams, which is why we're so happy to invite Kirs...