People Helping People

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 personal recovery and to help them get their best start nursing. It's a time when the attention is so focused on their newborn that quite often a new mother doesn't get the attention that they need. While they're in the hospital, there may be fantastic support and tons of information, but it's hard to take it all in, especially if you're medicated or otherwise overwhelmed from childbirth. Emily Lawrence, an engineer by trade, wanted to change this, so she brought her idea to an event called Give Back Hack. "It was insane." An introvert by nature, she gathered her wits and pitched her idea to a crowd of strangers, only to be surprised by such a supportive environment. Over a single weekend, she was able to form a team and flush out her project. "They pushed you to get out into the community… as in to put on your shoes and get on the ground and talk to people face-to-face to get their input on your idea." She was surprised at how much she accomplished over the weekend, but luckily her journey didn't end there. She went on to SEA Change - an accelerator for social enterprises, which provided her a 14-week deep dive into building her business model, connecting with experts, and further validating her idea. For Emily, it also gave her the opportunity to push herself to develop the social impact side of her business. As she puts it, it's easy to put this off until later, but you'll never get around to it -- instead, start with your impact and it gives you direction and a standard to live up to. So she built Lilac Pack as a social enterprise -- in addition to the core product, they are a living wage company that provides child care support. (Child daycare often creates a job barrier… the cost is too high for low wage jobs.) The third aspect to their social mission is resource matching -- they have a mommy map with locations of services for lactation consultants, doulas, and other similar services as an open directory of relevant services. Now she's up and running, and growing her business - learning how to tackle online marketing, and how to develop a presence on social media. I was so thankful that she shared some of her insight on the podcast. When asked what surprises she's had about starting a company, Emily responded: "I thought it was going to be harder. It is hard, and just like being a mom, it is relentless. It does not let up, but if you have an idea, and if you are passionate about that idea people will get behind you." Having Emily on the podcast is such a joy - we journeyed with her during SEA Change while we were building Wild Tiger Tees, our t-shirt screen printing social enterprise employing youth experiencing homelessness. She was one of the first to utilize our services to print t-shirts to helped us pilot our program - and she continues to openly share her business insight with us, magnifying the impact that she makes. I love what she’s doing with Lilac Pack, and if you know anyone about to give birth, her packages make for beautiful gifts - so go out and support her wonderful venture! Resources • Lilac Pack • The Mommy Map • Give Back Hack • SEA Change

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 Back Hack up in Cleveland, and pitched an idea to start a t-shirt screen printing company to employ youth experiencing homelessness.  The idea was selected, a team was formed, and we launched Wild Tiger Tees. Working in partnership with the Star House, we're helping mentor and employ youth in the Columbus area. The youth that we work with are amazing - they're all quite different with each navigating their own challenging situation - and usually without family or mentors giving them feedback or direction. So, I was excited to recored a podcast with a long-time friend, and New Yorker, Alan Grodin, founder of Northern State Financial.  He has a career in financial services, but has been giving back by teaching youth about finance and saving... so I was curious what he does. Alan started his financial services right on the precipice of the tech bubble... and weathered the storm in 2008, when the average stock lost 40% of its value.  He speaks about good savings habits -- but what struck me is that his core message was to build the habit.  In your 20s and 30s, even if you can just save $50 a month - it’s giving you the mindset you need to be successful later on.  On the flip side, he warns to never be fooled by credit cards, and to learn how to use them as tool to only spend what you have... never to accumulate debt with them, because their interest rates are so high that it becomes a very ineffective method of managing your money. I didn’t know this, but when selecting a financial advisor, you can search on FINRA -- (I even checked out Alan) and advisors with more complaints, or those that move between jobs more often, should be treated with suspect. The podcast is packed full of investment advice, and is a great starting point if you have no idea about saving for your future, so tune in!

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.

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, director of SEA Change and owner of Next Step Business Consulting.

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 work.

Zero Waste started as an effort with the Nelsonville Music Festival, to transform how they manage waste at their festival. Thier goal? Zero Waste.

Columbus Gives Back is a non-profit which provides social volunteer and philanthropic opportunities throughout central Ohio. Listen to them on our latest podcast!

I know we’ve been digging into some serious podcasts around trafficking, but this podcast is about a different kind of traffic: transportation.

She Has a Name Cleaning 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 to raise awareness about these issues.

In this podcast, we dive deeper into human trafficking in a conversation with April Thacker, the caseworker at Freedom a la Cart, to hear her story as a survivor of human trafficking

"87% of consumer believe that business needs to place an 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 Boehning

Freedom a la Cart is a social enterprise here in Columbus, helping to provide a working environment that helps victims of human trafficking develop the skills they need to succeed.

"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

Brook Kohn and Nathali Bertran brought their frustration with the DACA application process to the Columbus Give Back Hack -- and put together a team, a wireframe, and a prototype and over a weekend for a platform that will ease the process for dreamers applying for DACA.

Jay Clouse brings together talented individuals, entrepreneurs, and freelancers into the Unreal Collective for a 12-week program that helps them take their project to the next level. So what is the Unreal Collective?