The Bonfires of Social Enterprise with Romy of Gingras Global | Social Enterprise | Entrepreneurship in Detroit

Sheri Lozano of Link2Lift We had some fun jumping over to the west coast to talk with Sheri Lozano of Link2Lift. Sheri discusses her innovative and collaborative idea to use unused spaces for lifting others.   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/L2L_Pic_34.jpeg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/L2L_Pic_28.jpeg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/L2L_Pic_33.jpeg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/L2L_Pic_13.jpeg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/L2L_Pic_9.jpeg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/L2L_Pic_4.jpeg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/L2L_Pic_19.jpeg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/L2L_Pic_15.jpeg ( )http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/L2L_Pic_18.jpeg ()http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/L2L_Pic_15.jpeg ( )http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/L2L_Pic_6.jpeg ()http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/L2L_Pic_25.jpeg ()http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/L2LBrochure.png () For the full transcript click below Read Full Transcript Welcome to episode 99 of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise! Wow-wee, almost at 100. Thanks for your loyal support over all of these past episodes! Oh, by the way, this is Romy, and we had some fun jumping over to the west coast to talk with Sheri Lozano of Link2Lift. Sheri discusses her innovative and collaborative idea to use unused spaces in lifting ways. Be sure to stay until the end for a great song from a Detroit artist! Now, first, we have to hear what Natalie has come up with for the fun fuel on this episode. I'm Natalie Hazen and I am bringing you this episode's Fun Fuel. Coworking is everywhere. What is coworking you ask? It is a work trend bringing together professionals from across all industries to form inter-connected communities. According to the website, Mindspace, the concept of a coworking space started in 1995 Berlin with 17 computer enthusiasts got together in a facility to create a space where people with an interest in computers could gather to collaborate and work in an open environment. Fast track to 1999 New York City and 42 West 24 opened to offer a work environment with flexible membership options for teams and individuals seeking a workspace. The difference here was that there seldom were any organized community events. In 2005, Brad Neuberg from San Francisco launched the first official co-working space originally referred to as a “9 to 5 group.” It was a was not a huge hit at first as no one showed up for the first month, but soon interest sparked and coworking took off. Coworking leads to great collaboration. When I hear the word collaboration, my mind goes to the lyrics of Vanilla Ice's 1990 release of Ice Ice Baby. I hear collaboration and I then start singing: stop, collaborate and listen and then goes on to say, “if there was a problem, yo, I'll solve it.” Makes me smile every time. Let's jump on over to see who Romy is collaborating with on in this episode and what problem they are solving. Okay, I absolutely love Natalie's fun fuels! That was so interesting about co-working spaces! And, now I have the Vanilla Ice song in my head! Ha Ha. I have to look that up next! What a perfect lead into a collaboration that Sheri Lozano has tackled with Link2Lift. Let's drop in on my conversation with Sheri… Romy: Sheri, why don't you give us the background about what Link2Lift is? Sheri: Link2Lift is a company that we developed in response to underutilized space. It seems like we've had a ton of buildings that are left unused, and we've developed a process where we can create co-working communities but with a purpose. Voice: Let's talk about

Kate Hayes EchoingGreen- Board Health Back for another conversation this time with a very inspiring woman, Kate Hayes of Echoing Green. Kate discusses her incredibly interesting journey and love for health human interactions and support. She is a  current leader in the impact investing and social enterprise development space.   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Echoing_Green_in_Kigali_Rwanda.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Echoing_Green_in_Kathmandu_Nepal.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Kate_Hayes_-_Purpose_Workshop_in_ATL.jpg ( ) For the full transcript click below Read Full Transcript Welcome, welcome, welcome, to the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. Romy here back for another conversation with a very inspiring woman, Kate Hayes of Echoing Green. Kate discusses her incredibly interesting journey and love for health human interactions and support. First, let's see what Natalie has prepared for our Fun Fuel for this episode. I'm Natalie Hazen and I am bringing you this episode's Fun Fuel Leadership takes all kinds of forms and has many different styles. After all, we are all uniquely made and don't respond the same way to things. Let's take a listen to some top leader's motivational quotes of all time according to Inc. Magazine because according to them, “Sometimes the most powerful and meaningful things come from words that touch our heart and lead us forward to our potential.” So Author Ernest Hemingway kicks us off with his quote: "When people talk, listen completely." --Ernest Hemingway I need to work on that one myself! Retired four-star general in the United States Army, Colin Powell said, "Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand." --Colin Powell But I will wrap up with a motivational leadership quote from Harold R. McAlindon. He said, "Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." --Harold R. McAlindon Let's tune in with Romy as she interviews this episode's latest trailblazer. Thanks, Natalie! So many great leaders have gone before us in history. Let's turn our attention to a current leader in the impact investing and social enterprise development space, Kate Hayes of Echoing Green and her program, Direct Impact. Romy: Let's talk about Echoing Green. Let's talk about Echoing Green. It had a unique start. Kate Hayes: Yes. So, Echoing Green was founded 30 years ago by a group of individuals working in the private sector who wanted to see what would happen if you took the principles of the private sector and applied them to the social sector, and so they started investing deeply in early stage social entrepreneurs, and that has really been at the heart of everything that Echoing Green has been about for the past few decades. So, the core of our work is our fellowship program, where we search the globe to find amazing early-stage social entrepreneurs who have incredible ideas that have the potential to really change the world and solve big social, environmental problems, and we provide them with funding, with support from our staff, from our ecosystem and our community, as well as the community amongst one another where they are each other's best resources as they work to take their organizations to the next step and begin to really grow and scale the solutions that they've identified, and over the past 10 or 15 years, one of the things that we've become more intentional about is building out our ecosystem of support. So, we know that social entrepreneurs are incredibly important. They're close to the work. They're really dedicating their lives to solving really big problems that exist, but they can't do it alone. So, we wanted, as an organization, to become more intentional about how we create an ecosystem of support for them to...

Genusee Wow, what a really great episode on a social enterprise called Genusee. Creatively designing eyewear out of recycled single-use plastic water bottles out of Flint, Michigan. Many of you may have heard some tough stories coming out of Flint. Specific to the water crisis over these past few years. You will meet the founders and designers, Ali Rose Van Overbeke and Jack Burns. They will discuss their journey in Flint and the whole launch process to date.   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Case_Genusee_098_v2.jpg ()   For the full transcript click below Read Full Transcript Welcome to episode 97 of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. This is Romy, and I am your host for this episode on a really great social enterprise called Genusee. They are out of Flint, Michigan. Many of you may have heard some tough stories coming out of Flint, Michigan specific to the water crisis over these past few years. You will meet the founders and designers, Ali Rose Van Overbeke and Jack Burns. They discuss their journey in Flint and the whole launch process to date. Oh, it feels good to be back after a mini-hiatus. Thanks for hanging in there while we made some new shows! By the way, we have some great episodes coming up next from the east and west coasts culminating with a finale for Season 3 and our episode 100 which will be some interviews from the recent GUS awards held in Detroit. So subscribe and stay tuned. Now, let's see what Natalie has in store for us on the Fun Fuel. What do you have for us, Natalie? I'm Natalie Hazen and I am bringing you this episode's Fun Fuel. In today's world, you see so many people wearing eyeglasses and on a super bright sunny day they most certainly break out their sunglasses. Glasses have become ultra-fashionable and why shouldn't they? They most certainly are the very first thing people see when they look at your face unless they aren't wearing theirs and they just can't see you. According to the website lenspick.com, the first vision correction device was invented in 1000 AD and called a reading stone. As you can imagine, it was for farsighted folk who couldn't read properly and was basically a glass sphere used as a magnifying glass. Now fast forward to 12th century China and you have the creation of Sunglasses. People back then used flat crystals of smoky quartz that were mounted for personal use to reduce the glare from the sun. It is also said that these ‘sunglasses' were used by judges while presiding cases, so as not to give away their emotions. Very interesting. So, throughout history, mankind has made some very unique and purposeful inventions, including eyeglasses, that truly make our lives easier. Thanks for listening and now on to the episode. Fascinating that the first pair of eyeglasses was documented to be in 1000 AD. Thank you, Natalie, your fun fuels are always so interesting! Let's jump on in for a listen now to my conversation with Ali Rose Van Overbeke and Jack Burns and their really great company, Genusee. Romy: So let's tell the listeners about Genusee. Ali Rose: So Genusee is making eyewear in Flint, Michigan from recycled single-use plastic water bottles that were a result of the Flint water crisis. Romy: So is it just the eyeglass frames, or are you putting the lenses in and all that? Ali Rose: Yeah, we're doing everything. The frames are specifically what's made from the recycled water bottles, but we are working with an optical lab, so we do prescription eyeglasses as well as sunglasses. Romy: So how did you make this connection, or even have this idea? Ali Rose: Yeah, so Jack and I both went to Parsons together, and worked in a fellowship shortly after graduation, where we kind of learned that we were good working as collaborators. Then in early 2016, I was back in Michigan, I grew up in metro Detroit area. I was volunteering with the Red Cross during the Flint water crisis. Just observing how much plastic, we...

Dr. Paul Thomas with Plum Health DPC We're back with another episode here on social enterprise. We have a doctor on this show who has been making a big impact in Detroit. It is Dr. Paul Thomas of Plum Health Care DPC. He has a dream of changing the notion of health care from a plastic card in your wallet to true healing from a healing doctor!  What a concept!   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Plum_Health_Logo.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/2017.06.15_DC_Trip.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Plum_Health_Direct_Primary_Care_with_Paul_Thomas_MD.jpg ()   For the full transcript click below Read Full Transcript Hi Everyone, this is Romy, and we're back with another episode here on social enterprise. We have a doctor on this show who has been making a big impact in Detroit. It is Dr. Paul Thomas of Plum Health Care DPC. He has a dream of changing the notion of health care from a plastic card in your wallet to true healing from a healing doctor! What a concept! Before we get going here, I want to give a big hello and thanks to our listeners in Japan, we appreciate you! Now, let's see what Natalie has today for us on the Fun Fuel…. I'm Natalie Hazen and I am bringing you this episode's Fun Fuel. The Medicine Ball isn't usually the hottest topic of conversation. If you like to exercise and are a gym goer, you may incorporate the medicine ball into your routine. Or perhaps this little dynamo isn't a part of your repertoire and you pass by, leaving it sitting on the rack wondering what to do with it. While there are many ways to use the medicine ball in strength training, according to the website, azcentral.com, One of the early uses of medicine balls was around 1,000 B.C. where Persian soldiers used round bladders filled with sand as part of their resistance training. Later on, Navy doctors would tell sailors to throw the balls around the decks of the ships to reduce boredom, avoid seasickness and improve the overall health of the enlisted men. But it was the United States President Herbert Hoover who brought the medicine ball to the attention of the rest of society in 1931 with his new sport called Hoover-Ball. When the president's personal physician noticed the president's sedentary lifestyle he developed a medicine ball throwing game to get him up and moving around. The president and members of his team would throw the sand-filled ball over a net similar to the one used during volleyball games. Big kudos to this physician's creativity to get his patient out and about and active. Like other early games, Hoover-Ball may not be played today, but the medicine ball surely has played an important role in many people's overall health. Thanks for listening and now on to the episode. Well, that was truly a fun fuel fact! I love it. So much history of innovation and disruptive strategies all around us! That is a great segway to my conversation with Dr. Paul Thomas. Dr. Paul Thomas: Yes, so we are a family medicine service in Southwest Detroit, called Plum Health DPC, and the DPC stands for Direct Primary Care. What that means is that I work with my patients directly, and we don't bill or use insurance. Instead, my patients pay me a monthly membership fee to be a part of the practice, kind of like a gym membership. Our service cost is $49 a month for adults, and it's $10 a month for kids. With that, my patients can come in and see me anytime they need me. That's the basic of it. Romy: How did you get the idea to start to do this? Dr. Paul Thomas: Well, I heard a podcast in 2012, and I was driving back from a residency interview in Minnesota. My friend sent me this text, and she just said, "Hey, Paul, there's this guy doing this libertarian concept for medical care, and I think it's right up your alley." My friend's a libertarian, so I gave it a listen, and it sounded like this...

PalmEraMia Thanks for tuning in for this great episode on a social enterprise out of Miami! Our guest is Andres Restrepo, one of the founders of PalmEraMia, which is a fashion design company for athletic wear. Through their product sales, they support clean water efforts in Colombia. We learn why they chose Colombia and how they became so convicted about clean water for those without access. Stay tuned until the end of the show because we have our first Spanish rapper as our closing song on this episode.   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/95-Palmera.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/95-Palmers-2.jpg () For the full transcript click below Read Full Transcript Thanks for tuning in for this great episode on a social enterprise out of Miami! This is Romy, and I am honored to be your host. Our guest is Andres Restrepo, one of the founders of PalmEraMia, which is a fashion design company for athletic wear. Through their product sales, they support clean water efforts in Colombia. We learn why they chose Colombia and how they became so convicted about clean water for those without access. We have our first Spanish rapper as our closing song on this episode. I want to take a moment to thank our listeners. Our team has grown over here at the Bonfires of Social Enterprise, and it is really about you, as our listeners, continuing to tune in. Thank you, thank you, thank you. By the way, don't be shy! Reach out to us! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram which are all at bonfires podcast or you can jump to the website and email us or put a note in the mailbag. The website is www.bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com We respond quickly, and we love to talk to you! So, back to our topic of business and social good. I think Natalie has something about water for us in our Fun Fuel…… I'm Natalie Hazen and I am bringing you this episodes' Fun Fuel. Many people have taken to the longstanding sport of surfing, riding amazing ocean waves. But did you know that you can surf the Great Lakes? Now it is different than surfing in the ocean, mainly because nothing will eat you in the great lakes which to me is a huge bonus! According to Third Coast Surf Shops website, Waves on the great lakes are caused by the transfer of energy from the wind blowing over the surface of the water. Whereas ocean waves are primarily created by offshore storms far from the beach, waves on the Lakes are produced by localized winds associated with various weather systems in and near the Great Lakes region. The great lakes have plenty of wind year-round to generate some huge waves. Waves on the great lakes have been documented at over 30 feet in height. Unfortunately, these conditions have been known to be brutal and have sunk many ships over the years. So while the Great Lakes can produce very large waves perfect for surfing, keep in mind you may find those perfect waves in the harsh cold of winter. So bring a good wetsuit, board, and courage to tackle these Great Lakes waves! That's this episodes fun fuel, now let's join in with Romy and her guest. Surfing on the Great Lakes – love it. Thanks, Natalie! Okay, let's drop in on my conversation with Andres and learn more about PalmEraMia. Romy: Okay. Well, welcome to the Bonfires Social Enterprise. Andres: Thank you. I appreciate it. Happy to be here. Romy: I know. We've been trying to connect for a little bit. I'm really glad to have you on the show as our guest today. Let's tell all of our listeners what Palm ... and am I saying it right? Palm Era Mia? Andres: That is correct. Some- Romy: Palm Era Mia. Andres: ... people say- Romy: Yeah. Andres: ... yes. Some people say Palm Era M-I-A because it represents Miami. Romy: Oh, Okay. Andres: Yes. Yeah, so let me tell you a little bit about it. We first started the company back in August of 2015. It was started by three family members. It's two cousins and I.

Kathleen Kelly Janus Back for another episode of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. Kathleen Kelly Janus is our guest discussing her new book, Social Startup Success, How the Best Nonprofits Launch, Scale Up and Make a Difference. Kathleen is an award-winning social entrepreneur, lawyer, and lecturer at Stanford University, where she teaches social entrepreneurship.  And, as usual, we have a great Detroit artist playing a full song at the end of the episode so stay tuned.   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/KathleenJanus53369.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/KathleenJanus53468.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/SocialStartup_3Dcover.png () For the full transcript click below Read Full Transcript Hello there, this is Romy back for another episode on the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. We have author, Kathleen Kelly Janus, as our guest discussing her new book, Social Startup Success, How the Best Nonprofits Launch, Scale Up and Make a Difference. Kathleen is an award-winning social entrepreneur, lawyer, and lecturer at Stanford University, where she teaches social entrepreneurship. And, as usual, we have a great Detroit artist playing a full song at the end of the episode so stay tuned. Before we get rolling down the lane with good advice from Kathleen, let's see what Natalie has come up with for our Fun Fuel for this episode. I'm Natalie Hazen and I am bringing you this episode's Fun Fuel. Since this episode talks about Non-profits not operating on survival mode, I started thinking about what survival mode really means and I my mind drifted to cool animal survival instincts. Survival instincts are inherent to all creatures great and small. I often wonder how animals survive natural disasters such as wildfires and tornados. I think of the birds being whipped around by such high winds and wonder if they get swooped up in the turbulence or soar higher. According to TuftsNow.com, birds can ride out intense storms by taking advantage of microhabitats. Gale force winds can knock even the sturdiest of tv weatherman off their gait, but birds can seek shelter on the lee side of trees or deep inside thick hedges. The decrease in wind speed in these microhabitats can be huge, and as long as they stay put, they are not actually buffeted much by the wind. Now they do need to find food to last out the storms. There are some reports of birds increasing foraging activity as a storm approaches, which indicate some birds can detect subtle changes in air pressure, which can indicate an approaching storm. When this happens, they immediately try to get as much food as possible. The more fat a bird has, the better chance it has of surviving and riding out a long-standing storm. So let's join up with Romy and today's guest to learn more about nonprofits not operating on survival mode. Love it, love it, love it. Thanks, Natalie! Alrighty, I had the opportunity to talk with Kathleen while she was in San Francisco preparing for her book launch. I mentioned earlier that Kathleen is a lecturer at Stanford, but she is also a co-founder of Spark among other human rights organizations. She informally advises a variety of non-profits and social entrepreneurs in San Francisco and more globally. Let's drop in on our conversation and learn more about Kathleen and her great new book. Romy: What prompted you to start to write a book on how to scale? Kathleen: Well, this is a really critical question, as you know, Romy, and I think that it can be a controversial word, like a four-letter word, in the nonprofit sector and the for-profit sector because I think a lot of people would say that scale isn't necessarily a good thing for a number of reasons. Maybe we don't want big organizations. Maybe we want a lot of organizations working together. Maybe we want more Mom and Pop organizations that communities know best how to solve...

Our Common Future Conference – Oct. 27, 2017  Part Two Our Common Future conference was held in Detroit, Michigan at the end of October 2017. We have a Part One and a Part Two to give you the top ten.  We will interview several guest speakers that help shape our community. They give us some insight into the work that they do to empower entrepreneurship and Impact Investing.   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/ocf.png ()   For the full transcript click below Read Full Transcript Welcome Back to the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. On this episode, we continue with part two of the Our Common Futures conference. On this episode, Jennifer and Natalie, catch up with conference attendees Melanie Audette with the Mission Investors Exchange, Brenda Hunt with the Battle Creek Community Foundation, Amy Peterson of Rebel Nell, David Contorer with Hebrew Free Loans, and Jason Paulateer with PNC Bank and Foundation. To kick of Part Two, Jennifer sits down with Melanie Audette of the Mission Investors Exchange….. Jennifer: What I'd like to start off today, during our talk is to have you tell me a little bit about yourself and your organization and then we'll go from there. Melanie: Well, I'm the Senior Vice President at Mission Investor's Exchange. I am based in Seattle and Mission Investor's Exchange is a 12 year old organization with offices in New York and San Francisco and then we have some staff in Seattle, but we're a very small but mighty team that has a membership consisting of mainly foundations of all types and sizes across the US who are either building or expanding an impact investing program. And we started out as the PRI Makers Network 12 years ago, when foundations were really focused mainly on doing program-related investments, and about five years ago we merged with The More Formation Campaign, which was a campaign to encourage foundations to devote two percent of their endowments to invest for a mission. Jennifer: I love that. So here at the conference so far, what are your impressions then of how it works and how it applies to your mission through Mission Investor's Exchange? Melanie: Well the independent sector conference as well as the Council of Michigan Foundation's Conference, where we are today, represents two things for me specifically. First, the independent sector has a very much more broad attendance and participation than a lot of the conferences that we attend and that includes the foundations who are at the heart of our network, but also those who play a very important role in the ecosystem around impact investing. And that includes non-profit organizations who oftentimes have social entrepreneurial goals and projects and so, therefore can be investees of impact investment's five foundations as well as those who support them in the field, so investment advisors, philanthropic advisors, attorneys, and accountants. All of those participants really play an incredibly important part helping foundations to identify who investees can be and to be able to do the work efficiently and within the law and correctly and responsibly. The second part is the Council of Michigan Foundations, Mission Investor's Exchange has had a five-year partnership with CMF, and we've worked together over the years to provide education first for those foundations who are interested in learning about impact investing. Through this partnership, Michigan has become the model, really for the whole country informing what's now an infrastructure within that association to help foundations not only to learn about impact investing, but to actually build and identify investment opportunities, create a pipeline for investments, support them in that work and now this year, they've hired an Executive in Residence at CMF to help on a local and regional level, their membership to do this. Jennifer: So understanding that you're drawing from a large group with a lot of people...

Our Common Future Conference – Oct. 27, 2017  Part One Our Common Future conference was held in Detroit, Michigan at the end of October 2017. We have a Part One and a Part Two to give you the top ten.  We will interview several guest speakers that help shape our community. They give us some insight into the work that they do to empower entrepreneurship and Impact Investing.   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/ocf.png ()   For the full transcript click below Read Full Transcript Welcome to the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. This is Romy, and we have something very special for you on this episode. Our Bonfires team was invited to podcast from the Our Common Futures conference which was held in Detroit at the end of October 2017. I was not able to attend but two of our very experienced colleagues, Jennifer Davis-Papa and Natalie Hazen, caught up with some very high profile attendees and speakers at the conference. They came back with so many great discussions that we had to do a Part 1 and a Part 2 to give you the top ten. So, on Part 1, you will hear interviews with Dan Cardinali, President, and CEO of Independent Sector, Joyce Cade-Hitchye from the organization, Of Impact, Angela Barbash from the financial firm, Revalue Aaron Seybert of Kresge, and Angela Rogensues of the non-profit, Playworks. Let's get started with Dan Cardinelli of Independent Sector. He begins by answering Natalie with some organization history. Dan Cardinali: Well, first of all, Independent Sector is a 38-year-old organization that is founded with two very simple principles; that our goal is to bring the sector, the whole sector together. Grant seeking, foundations, corporate foundations, and ... Excuse me. Can I start that again? Natalie: Mm-hmm. Dan Cardinali: Independent Sector was founded 38 years ago with two very simple purposes; to bring the sector together, sector spanning, so we have grant seeking organizations, nonprofits, and grant-making organizations like philanthropy and corporate foundations. The goal of this gathering is for the community to come together in a non-transactional way. Not to cut deals, but to collectively take stock in what's going well and what's not, and how we as a sector can come together, catalyze activity, and be part of accelerating social change. That's what Independent Sector does. And then we learn from that conversation, and we translate that into our public policy work. Primarily in Washington, but increasingly we partner with state organizations to make sure we're aligned with the policies that are really going to strengthen the sector. Every year we gather, historically every year we gather the sector together in this vital meeting ground, this conference. We realize collaboration is the way of the future. Early on as were designing for this, we said, "Look, who are the strongest sector spanning organizations we can partner with." The Council of Michigan Foundations is one of the strongest state level, regional association working in philanthropy. The Michigan Nonprofit Association is a similar; it's one of the strongest nonprofit association. It made perfect sense to say, "Hey! Let's put our heads together, and let's design together." And that's what we did. It's been a phenomenal experience. Natalie: Wow. That's fantastic. I like how you're getting everybody together in the sandbox to play well together, in essence. Dan Cardinali: Right. Well, the goal I think is playing well together. I think also means struggling to do what we hope happens here. Which is to push each other. Each of us have a different purview. We look across the whole sector nationally. The Council of Michigan Foundations has their lens working with philanthropy here in Michigan. Although, they are also a national player. They've a really great purview, and similarly, the Michigan Nonprofit Association has their purview really on what's going on here...

Because of a Case Hear from Jamie and Sean Strasberger talking about their business, Because of a Case. Because of a Case is a mobile phone case design company contributing to our favorite special causes. And, of course, we have a great song at the end by a Detroit artist for your listening pleasure.   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/vantage2.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/logowithcirclearound.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Vantage12.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Vantage10.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/vantage4.jpg ()http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/vantage3.jpg ()http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/ADAAPic2.jpg ()http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Because_of_a_case_social_media.jpg ()   For the full transcript click below Read Full Transcript Hey Everyone, It's Romy and I am back with great conversations on the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. Today we have Jamie and Sean Strasberger talking about their business, Because of a Case. And, of course, we have a great song at the end by a Detroit artist for your listening pleasure. Let's kick it off here with a fun fuel from Natalie Hazen; she always comes up with the best fun fuels! Hello, I'm Natalie Hazen bringing you this episodes' Fun Fuel. Mobile phones have become such a part of everyone's daily life that if you can't find your phone, that can be a giant disrupter to your day! Been there! Phones have become so mainstream and normal, that a recent post on Facebook about an anniversary reminded me how far we have come in our technology with phones. This post was celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the first ever text message. In 1992, 22 year old British software engineer, Neil Papworth, sent the first ever SMS from a computer to his colleague, Richard Jarvis at Vodafone. That very first text message sent on December 3rd ,1992 simply said, “Merry Christmas.” Perhaps you remember your first text message and who it was from such as those defining moments in history where you can state your exact location and what you were doing at that moment. That was honestly no me. But now who would of thought that 25 years later it is normal to communicate via text and also send streams of happy faces, smiling little piles of poo and all sorts of characters! So happy anniversary text message and hats off to wonderful innovators such as Neil Papworth. Now on to our episode. Well, who knew, texting has been around for longer than I thought! That's great. Let's slide on over to another seat where we move our discussion to the designed mobile phone cases that bring funding to causes while they bring joy to the texters! Here is a part of my conversation with Jamie and Sean Strasberger of Because of a Case Romy: Let's help our listeners understand what your business is and does. Jamie S: Okay. We're a phone case company, and for every case we sell, we donate a portion to different charities. We have a phone case that we donate a portion to the Sea Turtle Conservancy, and it has sea turtles on it, metallic gold foil. We have all different designs that coordinate with different charities. Sean S: For sure, so another organization, the Anxiety ... Association ... What? Jamie S: Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Sean S: Anxiety and Depression. Do that one. We have a lot of animal causes. We have a lot of human causes. We just cover a lot of different bases, and we donate anywhere from 10% of net profits all the way up to 75% for a couple of our causes. Romy: Is the case designed for that particular cause? Am I saying that right? Jamie S: Yeah. Some of them will have a design that we want to use, with a charity in mind. Then we contact the charity after

Douglas Bitonti Stewart Today we head over to the Impact Investing Inglenook to chat with Douglas Bitonti Stewart about his recent article titled ‘Impact Investing and the Development Professional: Learning to Ride the Wave'. You can find this published article in the Fall 2017 Issue of Advancing Philanthropy Magazine.  Doug shares his very unique perspective on fundraising in the philanthropic space and how that relates to impact investing. Stay tuned until the very end for a special song from a Detroit artist.   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/douglas-bitonti-social-media-89.jpg () For the full transcript click below Read Full Transcript Welcome to another episode of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. This is Romy and today we head over to the Impact Investing Inglenook to chat with Douglas Bitonti Stewart about his recent article titled ‘Impact Investing and the Development Professional: Learning to Ride the Wave'. You can find this published article in the Fall 2017 Issue of Advancing Philanthropy Magazine. By the way, we have a lot of links in our show notes for this episode if you want to learn more, which, I am certain, you will after hearing from our guest. Doug shares his very unique perspective on fundraising in the philanthropic space and how that relates to impact investing. Stay tuned until the very end for a special song from a Detroit artist. Let's jump right in to the conversation with Doug. Romy: Well, welcome to the podcast. We're going to talk today about the article you wrote, Impact Investing and the Development Professional. I love that we're going to talk about this from the framing of a development professional because it's rarely discussed, and you have a lot of experience with it. So we'll give links at the end of where this article can be found, and so let's dive right in and talk about the overview of the article first. Douglas Stewart: Sure. So thank you for thinking enough of the article to have a podcast about it. I love your podcast, and I think everybody should be listening to this, and I'm also really hopeful that development officers will start listening to your podcast because this is really important stuff. To start with the why that I felt this article was even necessary. For me, having spent 20 years as a development guy, working for mostly children's hospitals, I loved that work. And after doing that for 20 years, I was just lucky enough to be asked by a family to help run their family foundation. I never thought I was going to do that. Didn't design my career for that but was found myself ... When you've done development long enough, you start to see your role not as raising money, but you see yourself as helping people change the world. And some people do that by contributing money. Other people do that by contributing their careers. And so I had a chance to work up alongside a family, and so, I ended up becoming a foundation person, but not because that was my goal. So in my role as a foundation person, I was seeing donors, foundation staff all learning about impact investing. And it was really exciting, and then when I looked back at my peers in the fundraising field, I looked at their training sessions, and I didn't see anything there. And there was one article in this publication of the Association of Fundraising Professionals a couple of summers ago. It was a cover article, and it talked about impact investing, but there hasn't been anything in there since or before. And I felt like, "Okay, I'm going to pull the curtain back about what foundations are learning and put it in the context of a development officer so that they can start learning about this because there's opportunities here." Romy: And, Doug, just for our listeners in case they don't know the terminology, how do you define a development officer? Douglas Stewart: Sure, so for me, and when I think about that, I think of someone who is engaged...

DIME Detroit Time for another episode of the bonfires of social enterprise. Hear from the founders who took a chance, traded London for Detroit and began to engage with the young music talent of Detroit and then Denver. As usual, stay to the end and enjoy a full song from one of the student artists from DIME.   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/DIME_Logo_DETROIT_COL.jpg ()http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/D2Colour.jpeg ()   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/DIME-JM_2116-i_SMALL.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/DIME-JM_2116-D_SMALL.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/DIME-JM_2116-M_SMALL.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/DIME-JM_2116-C_Small.jpg ()   For the Full Transcript click below   Read Full Transcript Time for another episode of the bonfires of social enterprise. This is your host, Romy and I love our guests today! It is the Detroit Institute of Music Education that we abbreviate for DIME Detroit. We will hear from the founders who took a chance, traded London for Detroit and began to engage with the young music talent of Detroit and then Denver. As usual, stay to the end and enjoy a full song from one of the student artists from DIME. Let's check in with Natalie and see what she has for our fun fuel today. Hello, I'm Natalie Hazen bringing you this episodes' Fun Fuel. Have you ever just drifted off listening to a song and let your mind wander and float with the melody? Great songs allow for just this to happen as our senses are taken on a journey with the Artist. Notable musicians, scholars and presidents each have their own description of music. William Shakespere said, “If music be the food of love, play on.” Bono thinks, “Music can change the world because it can change people.” Stevie Wonder eloquently stated, “Music, at its essence, is what gives us memories. And the longer a song has existed in our lives, the more memories we have of it.” But I will leave you amazing listeners with one final quote from former United States President Ronald Reagan. He said, “Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.” Thanks for listening, now on to our episode. So….interesting! Natalie, you are so fun! Love it. Okay, let's turn our ears to the interview with Kevin Nixon and Sarah Clayman of DIME Detroit. They begin by sharing some of their early success in England, their music label, and how they are empowering the kids of Detroit with music and production. Let's drop in on the conversation now…. Romy: Okay, great well lets get started, let's talk about DIME, and do you go by DIME or DIME Detroit? Sarah Clayman: DIME Detroit here, we have DIME Denver, and we also have DIME online where we have students studying in 22 countries around the world. Romy: Yah okay so what is DIME? Sarah Clayman: So we are a music institute, we teach guitar, bass, drums, vocals, songwriting, and music industry studies at bachelor degree level. We are very focused on getting young people into the music industry, and giving them the skills, and the academic credentials to be able to earn a full time living in the music industry. So we're about long-term sustainable careers in music. Romy: Wow, that's powerful, so how did it start? Sarah Clayman: Sure. Kevin Nixon: Okay so it began back in England, we moved from England in 2014, prior to that we originally started in 2001. So Sarah, and I have had our whole lives in the music industry, and in the millennium year music went digital. And so that's when Napster came along, and the whole industry changed, and we were so brilliantly foresight that we thought we'd do something to help the next generation. Not really, we actually realized that there was a lot of change going on, and we kept, I kept getting phone calls regularly from...

Stephen of Charity Charge Welcome back to another episode of The Bonfires of Social Enterprise. My name is Romy and I’m your host and guide here. This time, we hear from Stephen Garten, the founder and CEO of Charity Charge in Austin Texas. Stephen discusses the moment the idea came together along with the current and I guess, ongoing issues of a social enterprise today. As we do over here, there’s a great song at the end of this episode, so stay tuned all the way to the end.     http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/caring_creditcard_750x200.png () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/caring_creditcard_320x100.png () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Card_1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Stephen_CEO.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Making_Strides_Against_Breat_Cancer_NYC_Central_Park_2016.jpg () For the full transcript – click below   Read Full Transcript Welcome back to another episode of The Bonfires of Social Enterprise. My name is Romy and I'm your host and guide here. This time, we hear from Stephen Garten, the founder and CEO of Charity Charge in Austin Texas. Stephen discusses the moment the idea came together along with the current and I guess, ongoing issues of a social enterprise today. As we do over here, there's a great song at the end of this episode, so stay tuned all the way to the end. Now, Natalie Hazen has our Fun Fuel today, let's see what she came up with. I'm Natalie Hazen and I am bringing you the Fun Fuel for this weeks episode. Today's college students are inundated with fliers & applications promoting the latest and greatest credit card. Of course, we can go back to the 1800's when American merchants extended store credit to trusted customers. I think of all the old style cowboy movies where the weary cowboy dismounts his horse, ties the reins around a wood fence in front of the old general store and goes in to buy some well-needed merchandise like sasparilla or something. Gotta love the movies for that visual. The WalletHub.com published an article about the history of the credit card and it was in the early 1900's that a handful of US department stores and oil companies began issuing their own credit cards to be used at that particular business. Then came the Diners Club card and American Express charge cards in 1951 & 1959 respectively. Finally, in 1966, Bank of America launched the first general-purpose credit card: the Bank Americard – the forerunner to what is now VISA. Now I'm certain, that there are still cowboys that dismount their horses and head into their local general store like in days of old, but the stores have certainly changed and so have the credit cards. Thanks for listening to today's Fun Fuel! Now on to the episode. Oh my goodness, I have never connected [Sasparillo 00:00:46] with credit cards. Excellent Fun Fuel, Natalie you're the best. Oh my, let's drop in now to my conversation with Stephen Garten of Charity Charge. Romy: Okay, well welcome Stephen. You're calling in from Texas. I appreciate that. Stephen Garten: Happy to be here. Thanks for having me. Romy: Yes, we're excited to learn about Charity Charge. Let's jump right in. What is Charity Charge? Stephen Garten: Charity Charge is a credit card that lets cardholders earn cash back, that automatically gets donated to any nonprofit of their choice. It's in partnership with MasterCard, so the credit card's accepted around the world, wherever MasterCard is. I think an easy way for people to think about it for context is imagine say a Southwest Airlines credit card where every time you use that credit card, you are earning airline miles. Charity Charge is similar in nature to that, it's just that every time you use it, you earn one percent cash back that's tax deductible and automatically...

Detroit Mushroom Factory with Deana & Chris Hello out there in listener land, this is Romy bringing you another episode of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. This episode is all about mushrooms! Did you know there are all different types of mushrooms that can be grown indoors, and, that there is a mushroom factory in Detroit?  Well, you will meet Deana and Chris and hear all about their story from concept to now.  As customary, I also like to introduce a song from a Detroit artist at the end of each episode so stay tuned to the end.   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/chris_and_deana.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2016-06-04_10.41.08_3.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2016-02-06_08.24.46-2_2.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2017-01-20_14.45.12_1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2017-01-07_09.34.52_2.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2016-10-28_15.10.25_2.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2016-03-30_14.38.55_2.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2016-01-22_17.48.43_1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2015-10-12_21.10.45_1.png () For the full transcript – Click below   Read Full Transcript Hello out there in listener land, this is Romy bringing you another episode of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. This episode is all about mushrooms! Did you know there are all different types of mushrooms that can be grown indoors, and, that there is a mushroom factory in Detroit? Well, you will meet Deana and Chris and hear all about their story from concept to now. As customary, I also like to introduce a song from a Detroit artist at the end of each episode so stay tuned to the end. Okay, let's see what Luke has for our fun fuel today….. Hi, this is Luke Trombley, and I am bringing you the fun fuel for this episode. Did you know that there are over 30 species of mushrooms that glow in the dark? The chemical reaction involved in this is called bioluminescence which produces a glowing light known as foxfire. Some people will use this fungi to light paths through the woods. Thank you for listening to this fun fuel. Enjoy the episode! Very nice Luke. Glowing in the dark….what a fungi….ha ha. Okay, Romy, enough with the bad jokes. Let's listen in to what Deanna and Chris are up to and how this all began. Romy: Okay, great. Well, welcome Deana and Chris to the podcast, Bonfires of Social Enterprise. Got your cool business here. Let's talk about the Detroit Mushroom Factory. Deana: Great. Well thanks for having us. To just give a little background, we are a mushroom farm. We grow right now just out of our home. We live in Detroit, and we grow mushrooms in the basement. We grow on a substrate that comprises spent brewery grain that we get donated to us from a brewery in Detroit called Detroit Beer Company, and we mix that with sawdust that we get donated to us from a local woodworker named Richard Ganas. And so those two things we combine, we add mushroom spawn, and then we grow those mushrooms and sell them, mostly to local restaurants. Romy: Wow. Let's go over that one more time just in case, just for terminology. So you grow the mushrooms in your basement on, what was that? It was a bent ... Say that again. Deana: Spent brewery grain. So when beer is brewed at a brewery, they are left over with all this grain that comes out of the mash tun and that's usually a waste stream [inaudible 00:01:26]. So our model, one of the aims of our business is to be a totally sustainable farm. And so we have committed to only growing on recycled materials and spent brewery grain is one of those materials. Romy: Okay. Brewery grain, just for those listening in other...

Detroit S.O.A.R. – Sisters On A Roll, Mobile Cafe’ Hey there, I am back with another guest from the great city of Detroit. This is Romy, and I have the pleasure of introducing you to Chef Bee and Jasmine of social enterprise Detroit S.O.A.R!  They have an inspiring story of joining together around health food for some very interesting reasons. This is a true story of how we are better together!  Stay tuned at the end for a really fun song by a Detroit artist. As a matter of fact, you might want to find your dancin' shoes while you are listening, so you are ready.   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/SOARPeaceMeal.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/wings.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/DetroitSoarTT.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Campus_Martius.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/ChiptoleTacos.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Channel_7.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Detroit_soar_logo_huge_1.png ()   For the full transcript- click below Read Full Transcript Hey there, I am back with another guest from the great city of Detroit. This is Romy, and I have the pleasure of introducing you to Chef Bee and Jasmine of social enterprise Detroit S.O.A.R! They have an inspiring story of joining together around health food for some very interesting reasons. This is a true story of how we are better together! Stay tuned at the end for a really fun song by a Detroit artist. As a matter of fact, you might want to find your dancin' shoes while you are listening, so you are ready. Before we hear from Jasmine and Chef Bee, let's see what Luke found for us on this episode's fun fuel Hi, this is Luke Trombley, and I am bringing you the fun fuel for this episode. While on the topic of mobile food, nearly 795 million people in the world do not have enough to eat. That is approximately one in nine people. 98% of the worlds undernourished population live in developing countries. Thanks to companies like Detroit Soar, that bring food to people who don't get enough to eat, the world hunger problem has dropped from 23.3 percent in developing nations to 12.9 percent. Thank you for listening to this fun fuel. Enjoy the Episode! Thank you, Luke! Listening to those statistics, it really makes me thankful for the work of Detroit SOAR. Let's listen in now…. Romy: We're excited to have you. You guys [crosstalk 00:00:22]. Yeah, you guys were ... we met cause you were winners at a Build Social event in Detroit. Right? Jasmine R: Yeah. So, we were in an eight-week business accelerator to help us learn how to build a business while still doing a social mission and making a profit. And we met you at our pitch competition for that. Romy: Yeah. Lucky for me! Yeah, so let's, first of all, let our listeners know about Detroit SOAR and ... I don't know is that the name you use or do you say Sisters On A Roll? Can we clarify that right out of the gate? Chef Bee: Yes. We can clarify that. Sisters On A Roll is my personal company, and me and Jasmine met through that company, and together we became partners to do Detroit SOAR, which is Sharing Opportunities And Resources. Romy: Okay. Glad to know that. Okay, so Detroit SOAR is Sharing Opportunities And Resources. Alright, I love it. And then do you still have your other company going, Chef Bee? Chef Bee: Yes. That's the company through which we do the catering for Detroit SOAR - Romy: Okay. Chef Bee: And everybody else. Romy: And you really go by ... you're really most known as Chef Bee. Right? Chef Bee: I am. Romy: And why is that? Let's go back in history just a little bit. Chef Bee: Oh, we're going way back. I was in the kitchen when Tony from Andiamo's and it was two Browns in the kitchen. So,...

Latrice McClendon of Impact Community Health Thanks for tuning in to the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. This is Romy, and I have a friend of mine on the episode today. Latrice McClendon is quite an entrepreneur and just an all around amazing person. On this episode, we will hear about one of her businesses. She has at least one other venture with her husband.  And, of course, you know I love music around here, so we will hear from another Detroit artist and their full song at the end of the episode so stay tuned!   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/LaTrice_McClendon_4853.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/impcomm.png ()   For the Full Transcript – Click below Read Full Transcript Thanks for tuning in to the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. This is Romy, and I have a friend of mine on the episode today. Latrice McClendon is quite an entrepreneur and just an all around amazing person. On this episode, we will hear about one of her businesses. She has at least one other venture with her husband. And, of course, you know I love music around here, so we will hear from another Detroit artist and their full song at the end of the episode so stay tuned! Luke has our Fun Fuel today, let's see what he found for us…. Hi, this is Luke Trombley, and I am bringing you the fun fuel for this episode. While on the topic of infant health care, did you know that around 255 babies are born each minute? So for the time, it takes you to brush your teeth, nearly 300 new lives are brought into this world. It is also estimated that 353,000 babies are born in one day around the world. So far this year, over 78 million babies have been born. Thank you so much for taking time to listen to this fun fuel! Enjoy the episode! Thanks for that fun fuel Luke! Time to check in now with Latrice and see what she is up to with beautiful mama's and their perfect little babies…. Romy: Alright so welcome Latrice Mcclendon from Impact Community Health, I am really excited you're on our show. Latrice: Thank you, I'm excited to be on your show. Romy: Our little podcast. We love our little podcast. Well anyway [crosstalk 00:00:18] so today we're talking about health, and you've got a cool spin on your new social enterprise. Well, I guess it's not new; but I just newly met you through Build institute, Build Social, right? Couple- Latrice: Correct. Romy: Months ago. Yeah. So you were one of the winners of the program there, and I got really excited right then to put you on the podcast as a guest. So, for our listeners, let's tell everyone what Impact Community Health is in the Detroit area. Latrice: Awesome. Hello, everybody. Impact Community Health is- we are a maternal/infant health program here in Michigan, and our main goal is to reduce infant mortality rates. We work with pregnant women, caregivers of infants up to 18 months who are Medicaid beneficiaries, and we address the psycho-social issues and any logistical barriers that a lot of women or children are faced with as far as having either a healthy birth outcome, or any barriers that are [inaudible 00:01:27] and making it to their first birthday, and of course, developing up to 18 months. So that's what we do, we focus on reducing infant mortality rates. Romy: Okay. Wow. Well that's- there's a obvious social impact from saving our beautiful babies. So- Latrice: Yeah. Romy: Your business- so what do you do then? What does the business look like? Latrice: So what we do, we actually send in social workers and nurses to educate, to encourage, to give all kinds of information on how to either take care of yourself while you're pregnant or how to take care of your baby. So we also have lactation consultants that we send in. We do parenting classes to educate. So our biggest mission is to educate. And we do that because a lot of people- you can't do what you don't know. Romy: Right....

Bogobrush: Heather and John McDougall Hey there! This is Romy here for another episode of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise!  On this episode, we are going to hear from a creative brother and sister team making toothbrushes for some good causes. Fun!  And, of course, at the end, we have a great song from a Detroit artist….always one of my favorite parts of the episode.   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bogobrush__Heather-1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bogobrush__Heather_and_John-1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bogobrush_011-1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bogobrush_010-1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/bogobrush_logo-1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bogobrush_-_White-1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bogobrush_002-1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bogobrush__John-2.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bogobrush_007-1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bogobrush_006-1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bogobrush_005-1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bogobrush_004-1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bogobrush_003-1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bogobrush_013-1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bogobrush_012-1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bogobrush_016.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bogobrush_009.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bogobrush_015.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bogobrush_014.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bogobrush__Stand_Black.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bogobrush_0003.jpg ()   For the full transcript – click below Read Full Transcript Hey there! This is Romy here for another episode of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise! On this episode, we are going to hear from a creative brother and sister team making toothbrushes for some good causes. Fun! And, of course, at the end, we have a great song from a Detroit artist….always one of my favorite parts of the episode. Let's check in with Natalie Hazen on our Fun Fuel about toothbrushes…. This is Natalie Hazen, and I am bringing you the Fun Fuel for this episode. When I think of teeth, my first thoughts go directly to food. That probably is not a good thing, because I really like food, but nonetheless, we need to eat, and teeth help with that process. I think of all the action that goes into eating such as biting and chomping and chewing which is actually a pretty remarkable process. So how many teeth do we have? According to Authority Dental, We have 32 teeth including wisdom teeth with 16 on top and 10 on the bottom. And a human bite can generate a force of as great as 55 pounds on the incisors or 200 pounds on the molars. Humans have quite the chompers! Hope you enjoyed this fun fuel. Now on to the episode. Thank you, Natalie! She is so hilarious. Okay, let's listen in to my conversation with Heather and John McDougall Romy: Alright, so welcome Heather and John McDougal from BOGO Brush to the Podcast Show! John: Yeah, thanks for having us. Heather: Hey, good to be here. Romy: Yeah, so I'm excited to introduce you guys to our listeners. I'm so happy to have you on the show. You've got a different product for us, and we haven't had a brother and sister team on yet, so this is really fun. So let's...

Hamilton Perkins Hamilton and his team are working with Thread International to make bags and other accessories from some of the recycled plastics in Haiti. He has very interesting story. Be sure to stay tuned for a great Detroit artist group called The Infatuations. You will feel like you are transported back in time with their great song. http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bloomingdale_s.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Bloomingdale_s_SoHo.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Hamilton_interview_from_Truitier_Landfill_in_Haiti.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Hamilton_interview_for_Haitian_TV_from_the_first_mile_of_the_HPC_supply_chain-1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Barbara_and_Hamilton.jpg () For the full transcript – click below Read Full Transcript Introduction: Welcome to another episode of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. This is Romy. I am your host for this show. We had a little gap in our postings there, sorry about that! Sometimes I am doing too many things and it catches up with me. Well, we have a great guest today from Virginia. Shout out to our listeners in Virginia! Hamilton Perkins is the founder of a business called Hamilton Perkins. Hamilton and his team are working with Thread International to make bags and other accessories from some of the recycled plastics in Haiti. He has very interesting story. Be sure to stay tuned for a great Detroit artist group called The Infatuations. You will feel like you are transported back in time with their great song. First, let's check out our Fun Fuel This is Natalie Hazen, and I am bringing you the Fun Fuel for this episode. The popularity of recycling has had its share of bumps and bruises over the years, but who or what started this idea of recycling? Many give credit of first recycling to none other than Mr. T-Rex and his dinosaur buddies Mr. Stegosaurus and Ms. Triceratops for decomposing and then producing various oils and gasses. Way to go dinos! But really, in 500 BC, it was Athens, Greece who organized the first municipal dump program in the western world. In an article written by Matt Bradbury in May 2014 for the Resource Center Powered by Busch Systems, he states that Athen's local laws dictated that waste had to be disposed of at least one mile from the city walls. Quite a hike. But for the United States, it was the year 1690 that the recycled paper manufacturing process was introduced. The Rittenhouse Mill near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania made paper from fiber derived from recycled cotton and linen rags. Well, that wraps up our fun fuel and now onto the episode. Thanks Natalie! What a fun connection to the history of dinosaurs. Love it! Okay, let's jump in to my conversation with Hamilton Main Interview: Romy: Hamilton, welcome to the Bonfires of Social Enterprise Podcast Show. Hamilton: Thank you so much for having me, I'm really delighted to be here. Romy: Now we're on the phone together, I'm in Detroit, and you're calling from ... Is it Norfolk Virginia? That's where you're in? Romy: All right, well let's jump right into it. Let's talk about the Hamilton Perkins Collection. We know already that you're the founder, and you're the sort of visionary, so it's named after you. Can you tell us about the business? Hamilton: Yeah, so we make bags out of recycled plastic bottles and recycled billboard vinyl. Every bag is different; every bag is unique. We source the plastic out of Haiti, and we also cut and sew the bags in Haiti as well. We started with a Kickstarter Campaign, a little bit over nine months ago. Had a $10,000 goal, we hit the goal in about a week. We had a couple hundred orders that needed to be sent out and had about a six month lead time. Took some time, we hit the business plan competition circuit; we were able to...

Mile High Workshop What’s going on in Denver social enterprise manufacturing these days?! Romy catches up with Andy Magel of the Mile High Workshop manufacturer in Denver, Colorado. Great song the end! http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/MHW_PUP-037-1.jpeg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/WorkShop_Handcrafted.png () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ButcherLogo2-1.jpeg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/irma_alyssa2-1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/VR_Naturals-1-1.jpg ()   For Full Transcript Read Full Transcript Introduction Hi there! This is Romy and welcome back to another episode of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. I want to give a shout-out to our friends in Haiti, France, and Canada. Please reach out to us on the website. We would love to hear what is happening in your communities, and, maybe even tell your story on our show. So, on this episode, we catch back up with Andy Magel in Denver, Colorado and the Mile High Workshop. Many of you may remember that Denver is known as the Mile High city as it is one mile above sea level. There is a vibrant community of social enterprise in Denver, and Andy is leading the way with his amazing maker space and job creation. Stay tuned at the end for a song from a Detroit artist. Let's, first, see what Luke has for our Fun Fuel... Fun Fuel (no transcript) Transition Thanks, Luke, wooden domes – you just don't think things like that are possible without steel and like materials. Let's jump into the update with Andy on his Mile High Workshop in Colorado. Main Interview Andy : Glad to be back. I was looking; it's been over a year since we last talked and man a lot has happened. We've moved. We've expanded. We've grown and so yeah happy to kind of pick up, and if you have anything, in particular, you want to know let me know, and I'll just come give you a quick rundown but when we last talked we were in about 8,000 square feet, and we've recently moved to a new building that we're occupying about 12,000 square feet of. A much more industrial space with back doors and these types of things, higher ceilings for vertical storage, and it's a much better space for us, and that's been a good move that's allowed us to kind of take on some new projects and grow with some projects. The last time we talked I think we were doing woodworking and sewing and I can't remember if down with the grid quick started up our packaging and fulfillment side of things yet? Romy: No, it was more like etching. I think there was a little bit of glass etching starting or just you were dabbling with it I think sort of that. Andy : Yeah, I was still doing that laser etching and cutting still kind of a nice accessory to a lot of the other stuff that we're doing. But we were doing the fastest growing thing that we started even since we've talked last was packaging and fulfillment, and so we do all the fulfillment and shipping for a company called the Coors. They're a subscription tampon business actually based in San Francisco. A really great company and really doing a lot of growth and so we do all their packing and shipping, and we also do the same type of services with them with some local businesses here, a glass company and a pillow company. And that's been a really good area for us to provide job opportunities and training and we're really excited about what's coming with that, and we got some stuff come down the pipe too. We're actually just about to launch a new partnership Coors Tech which is the ceramics side of kind of the Coors family in Colorado. Obviously, a big family name and Coors Beer is probably pretty well known across the country. But they have a manufacturing side of the business. Technically it's a separate business, but a ceramics and they are placing equipment in our shop...

Job Creation & Impact Investing with Don Lee http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/don_lee.jpg () Today, we are moving to the Impact Investing Inglenook to talk to Don Lee. Don has been quite a visionary around social enterprise local investing and has begun to change the way many people are investing in the Detroit area. His has passionate rationale and incredible enthusiasm – It is quite contagious actually. We have a very special surprise artist at the end of this episode for your listening pleasure so stay tuned! Full Transcript – click below Read Full Transcript Introduction Hi there! This is Romy and welcome back to another episode of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. Today, we are moving to the Impact Investing Inglenook to talk to Don Lee. Don has been quite a visionary around social enterprise local investing and has begun to change the way many people are investing in the Detroit area. His has passionate rationale and incredible enthusiasm – It is quite contagious actually. We have a very special surprise artist at the end of this episode for your listening pleasure so stay tuned! Before we jump in, let's see what Luke has for our Fun Fuel… Fun Fuel Hi, this is Luke Trombley, and I am bringing you the fun fuel for this episode. Don Lee makes a huge impact on businesses with his investing, much like how meteors make huge impacts on earth itself. The world's largest crater is located in Australia, before impact, it split into two pieces, each 6 miles across. This created two craters covering around 250 miles of Australia's beautiful countryside. The second biggest crater is located in South Africa. The meteor was between 5 and 10 kilometers and was traveling around 20 kilometers per second. That is around 12 miles a second! Thank you for tuning into this fun fuel. Enjoy the episode! Transition Thanks, Luke! I love this idea of thinking about Impact Investing making large scale impact. That just gave me a different visual. In some ways, impact investing has turned the financial markets a little sideways when it comes to local investing. Many said it couldn't be done, but, as you will hear from Don, it is happening right now! Let me not delay one more minute and let's jump over to my conversation with Don… Main Interview Don: Romy, thanks for having me. Man, it's been ... it's just been so cool what's been happening the last couple of years when we connected and what we're doing with, in the city of Detroit. It's just amazing, creating over 44 jobs in three entities, that we invested in with your leadership and help. It's been great so thanks for having me. Romy: Gosh, I feel like, I'm just an administrator here, you've been part of the visionary and I think it's been, I'm glad you said only a couple of years because I think it's been closer to four years that we've been doing this. But that's good, time flies. Don: Scary. Romy: I know. Hey, you know what? This has been awesome to have you on here because I've been wanting to have you one here, we get so many questions around impact investing and you are a walking example of somebody who kind of caught the bug a little bit, had the idea, and you've journeyed from actually putting your money into it, both direct and private equity funds that you help design and now help oversee. You, sort of, we'd say, officially caught the bug for impact investing so I'd love to just start at the beginning and take the listeners back to how did you even become interested in kind of local impact type investing. Do you remember? Don: Yeah, well if you go really far back, I came to the state of Michigan or the great city of Detroit with minus $5,000 in my pocket. So I would be ... I wouldn't consider myself wealthy and my net worth wasn't above zero so ... But what I do, and when I reflect back and I start reflecting back after mission trips that there were so many wonderful men and women that came into my life that...

Nique Love Rhodes We have a social entrepreneur of a different kind, she is a rapper!  You will have an opportunity to learn how the social and business sides come together for impact with Nique Love Rhodes! We featured her once before on one of the other episodes, Bags to Butterflies, I think. You will have to check it out. And, since she is an artist herself, we will get to hear TWO songs today, one of which is an exclusive debut before her album even releases! http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/thumb_DSC09558_1024.jpg () For the full transcript of the episode click below: Read Full Transcript Introduction Welcome to another episode of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise! This is Romy and we have something new for you today! We have a social entrepreneur of a different kind, she is a rapper! You will have an opportunity to learn how the social and business sides come together for impact with Nique Love Rhodes! We featured her once before on one of the other episodes, Bags to Butterflies, I think. You will have to check it out. And, since she is an artist herself, we will get to hear TWO songs today, one of which is an exclusive debut before her album even releases! Too much… Before we get started, let's see what Luke has for our fun fuel … Fun Fuel Hi, This is Luke Trombley, and I am bringing you the fun fuel for this episode. Nique has incorporated rap into her career, so we are going to take a closer look into rap and the history of this genre. Rap has recently taken the world by storm. But where did it come from? In 1973, a man named DJ Kool Herc was sitting his apartment in the Bronx with his sister. The young DJ took two turntables and played the same breakbeat section of the James Brown record “clap your hands.” This method of recording is also used today by many producers. In 1979 rap took off and gave birth to many popular songs, including rappers delight by the sugar hill gang. Transition Thank you Luke! Always informative and fun, hence, why we call it the Fun Fuel, ha ha. Okay, let's get to it. Here is my interview with the amazing Nique Love Rhodes. Main Interview Romy: So, all right, so welcome to the podcast. Nique: Thank you. I'm very excited. Romy: Yeah Nique: It's a big week for me; I get married literally in seven days from now. Romy: What? I didn't know that. Nique: Yes. Yes. Romy: Congratulations. Nique: So- Romy: So you'll be married when this comes out. Nique: Yes, I'm excited. Romy: Oh my gosh. It's so great Nique. Well, you're our first artist, you're our first, let's say a musician artist- Nique: Yep. Romy: ... that is a social entrepreneur so, I've been really excited and waiting to interview you, and I wanted to talk about all the things that you do and why you're, why we consider each other social entrepreneurs. And because I don't think sometimes musicians who are doing inspirational things think of themselves that way. Nique: That's true. That's true. Romy: Yeah. So let's talk about what you do first. What's the kind of music for those who have never heard part of your messaging or your, listen to your tracks? Let's give the listeners an overview of the type of music that you produce. Nique: For sure, so I am, I would consider myself a socially conscious hip hop artist. So all of my music is rooted in a couple of different things. So it's rooted in putting positive vibes out into the world and being a sense of encouragement, of inspiration, of hope to every listener, to anyone who listens to my music. But it's also rooted in a sense of being socially responsible and putting messages that are timely, that's gonna get people to think about things critically, or to, you know, think about something completely different, or to, you know, get inspired to actually become active participants in their community and the world when it comes to social issues. So I talk about racism, I talk about, you know, religious

Jeff Adams of Artesian Farms On this episode, Romy catches back up with Jeff Adams of Artesian Farms in Detroit. She interviewed him in Season 1, and his hydroponics facility has changed immensely. Jeff has had a lot of investor engagement. He has taken on program-related investments, loans, and direct equity. It has been an interesting journey. Great song by Astray at the end.http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/ar2.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/ar3.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/ar1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Artesian-farms-social-media.jpg () Full Transcript Read Full Transcript Introduction Hello, everyone, this is Romy on with you for another interview about social enterprise and the fires that keep it burning! On this episode, we catch back up with Jeff Adams of Artesian Farms in Detroit. We interviewed him in Season 1, and his hydroponics facility has changed immensely. Jeff has had a lot of investor engagement. He has taken on program-related investments, loans, and direct equity. It has been an interesting journey. And, as usual, we have a song for you at the end by a Detroit artist. Let's jump over to Luke to see what he has for our Fun Fuel today. Fun Fuel Hi! This is Luke Trombley, and I am bringing you the fun fuel for this episode. When you think of farming, you typically think of an open field out in the country with tractors and farm animals. But, the ancient Mayan people were excellent at farming by hand. Using many systems of agriculture, they were able to feed their people as the population began to rise. In the mountains, they used what is called step farming. It was called this because the crops would look like giant steps. In swampy areas, they used raised earth platforms that were surrounded by canals. In forests, they used a tactic called slash and burn to create a farming surface, and then dug canals into that area to keep the soil wet for plants. I hope you enjoyed this fun fuel. Enjoy the Episode! Transition Thanks, Luke! We people are so inventive and adaptive. So amazing. Lots of ways to farm. Okay, let's keep rolling into the farming discussion with Jeff from Artesian Farms. We were on location so you might hear some blowers and such in the background. This is part of my interview with Jeff. Main Interview Romy: Welcome back to the podcast. Jeff: Well Thanks, Romy, I appreciate you invited me back. It's been two years since we opened back, it actually was two years on Earth Day, it was April 22nd on 2015 that we had our little event here, we had our first prototype rack system built and since that time we've expanded, a little slower than what we anticipated, but we are rapidly expanding now, so it's really exciting right now. Romy: Now let's catch everyone up. What's the size of the facility now? Jeff: The size of the facility, square footage wise is 7,200 square feet of which about 6,000 square feet is dedicated for growing lettuce, kale and basil and currently, we have 14 unites activated that are growing those products with 26 more planned, and of those another 11 of them are already installed and ready to go, we're just waiting to volume now. Then we've got another nine units that we will be assembling here in the next 60 days. Romy: We know because I've been talking with you on the side, but there's quite a demand for this hydroponically grown produce, isn't there? Jeff: Yeah, there's a real demand for locally grown product period, whether it's hydroponically grown or traditional farming grown, whatever the case may be, but anything you read in the culinary and in the food world, everything's focused on local. You see a lot of the restaurants promoting local farmers, both urban farmers and farmers from around southeast Michigan, and then you also see retailers, the grocers that are promoting the same...

Pingree Manufacturing of Detroit It is all about veterans on this episode!  We hear from Jarret Alan Schlaff who is the founder and the main visionary over at Pingree. He shares how the whole idea began and, even, how the name came to be near the end. You won't want to miss it!  Stay tuned until the end when we share another great Detroit artist with you. http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/pn2.jpg () For the full transcript – Click below Read Full Transcript Introduction Welcome everyone, this is Romy, and I am excited to tell you about Pingree Manufacturing today! It is all about veterans on this episode! So, we will hear from Jarret Alan Sheff who is the founder and, I would surmise, the main visionary over at Pingree. He shares how the whole idea began and, even, how the name came to be near the end. You won't want to miss it! Stay tuned until the end when we share another great Detroit artist with you. What is happening in our Fun Fuel for today? Luke, what do you have for us? Fun Fuel Hi! This is Luke Trombley, and I am bringing you the fun fuel for this episode. The company name, Pingree Manufacturing, actually came from the Detroit mayor that served four terms, Hazen S Pingree. Hazen S Pingree was a businessman with no political experience. The Maine native fought for the Union in the Civil War and was a POW at the Confederate prison at Andersonville. Pingree decided to move to Detroit after the war and become a shoemaker. He decided to run for office in 1890 and held office until 1901. He even claimed the nickname “the idol of the people.” I hope you enjoyed this fun fuel. Enjoy the episode! Transition Thanks Luke! Okay, let's drop in on the conversation with Jarret and see what is walking in and out of Pingree in Detroit. Main Interview Romy: Okay. Well, cool. We're here at Pingree. It's Pingree Manufacturing of Detroit? Jarret: Yeah. Pingree Manufacturing. Some know us as Pingree Detroit. Some know us just as Pingree. Romy: Okay. Well, tell us about Pingree. Jarret: Yeah. We're a social impact startup committed to creating living-wage work for veterans that are overcoming homelessness or unemployment by building some exciting accessories, gear, and footwear using reclaimed leather and other materials from the auto industry. Romy: Yeah. Wow, okay. I want to really dive into all those, but where originally did the idea come from to even get into this? Jarret: Yeah. We started probably a little differently than most companies do. We started more from the impact side where there was a veteran that was living and squatting in my neighborhood. Talking to the man, he was a Marine not too much older than me and was just looking for an opportunity. He had overcome his own addictions. He was just looking for gainful employment. That same week I met another, happened to be a Marine ... A big part of my upbringing was a Marine Corps drill sergeant ... Meeting another Marine who was walking on the street going business to business looking for work. Got to know this guy, he had a master's in engineering and a JD and was sleeping in his car. That, to me, just ... It shook me. It was like this back-to-back moment where I literally remember saying, "Someone's gotta do something about this. It's unacceptable." When I said it out loud, "Someone's gotta do something about this," really, I kind of, my core was like, "I can do something about this." At that time, I stepped away from my past job and started on this three-month exploratory, I guess, journey talking to veteran's organizations, nonprofits, businesses, veterans in my family, in my circle of support, my friends, saying, "Hey, what's the current gaps in the space? Why are there men and women like Mike and these different folks who aren't getting the support they need? What are the gaps? What are the needs?" Across the board, this huge gap was between the provision of basic needs where people's...

Jay Rayford of Social Sushi Jay Rayford of Social Sushi catches us up on all of the changes in his social enterprise. He and his bigger team of four have been the champions of proving out your product through pop-ups!  You will hear how they really built a large following before even opening their restaurant. And, after our interview, Social Sushi went on to win $150,000 toward their restaurant because the community was so inspired!  And, as usual, we have a great song and Detroit artist for you to close out the show. http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/17761503_10103698165314164_1660304257_o-1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/17776575_10103698213866864_365739473_o-1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/17776643_10103698234460594_1890442244_o-1.png () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/17838289_10103723952047344_615438886_o-1.png () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/17886862_10103723956179064_479727253_o-1.png () For the full transcript – Click below Read Full Transcript Introduction Welcome to another episode of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. This is Romy, and we have some good stuff for you today. Jay Rayford of Social Sushi catches us up on all of the changes in his social enterprise. He and his bigger team of four have been the champions of proving out your product through pop-ups! You will hear how they really built a large following before even opening their restaurant. And, after our interview, Social Sushi went on to win $150,000 toward their restaurant because the community was so inspired! And, as usual, we have a great song and Detroit artist for you to close out the show. We have a really great fun fuel for you today – super interesting. Our fun fuel today is from Natalie Hazen. What do you have for us, Natalie? (Fun Fuel) Transition Okay, can I just say that was super interesting! Wow, so good. It is amazing how sometimes dark circumstances can cause great creations to come forth! So, let's float on that note into my interview with Jay. Now, we were sitting in a busy little café, and the background music might be a little louder than usual, so lean on in here for my interview with Jay... Main Interview Jay: Yes so, super excited to be back with you again. So yeah so Social Sushi now, at this point has ... We have our building on Livernois and 7 Mile in a dynamic area that's full of homes from two, three bedroom homes all the way up to mansions all within less than a miles radius around where we're going to open. It's beautiful also because I live a few blocks behind the building as well. It's super exciting to be apart of the community in both ways both from a commercial perspective and residential. We've been doing house parties in the community as well so it's a way for us to one bring neighbors together that maybe haven't come together before and also for folks that live kind of like downtown or other areas that always like "I want to find out if like these awesome communities in Detroit, I hear about these neighborhoods but I've never had a chance to really explore them", it's an opportunity for them to come together too. By the way, this sushi's great like oh my God where you guys located? Oh actually we're on the corner, we'll be relocating around the corner. It's been an exciting journey to finally get to a spot where we have a great building. The folks that own the building are amazing people. They show up to all our events and things like that as well, so it's exciting to have that energy. We're hopefully going to be open around August timeframe. Romy: Of 2017? Jay: Of 2017 and we're pushing for that, definitely, want to get open this year even if I have to open a little bit later just to make sure everything is right but this year is definitely it for us. Romy: That's awesome. For the people who...

Motown Rising with  Jacob de Golish! This episode has a lot to do with building, construction, restoration and the skilled trades. Jacob walks us through a large part of his journey, how he arrived in Detroit from Los Angeles and how he was inspired to hire men from the neighborhood for the transformation of homes. We had a chance to visit some of the Airbnb's and man; you have to come and visit at stay at some of the places whenever you get the chance! http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/mr3.png () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/mr2.png () More Before and After Photos of the work of Motown Rising! http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/mr1.png () For the full transcript- click below Read Full Transcript Introduction Welcome to another episode of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. This is Romy, and we have Jacob De Golish from Motown Rising today! We have Luke Trombley on with a fun fuel and SleepyWondr with their song ‘Loving You' at the end. A talented line-up to be sure. This episode has a lot to do with building, construction, restoration and the skilled trades. Jacob will walk us through a large part of his journey, how he arrived in Detroit from Los Angeles and how he was inspired to hire men from the neighborhood for the transformation of homes. We had a chance to visit some of the Airbnb's and man; you have to come and visit at stay at some of the places whenever you get the chance! First, I would like to introduce a new voice to the podcast; Luke Trombley will be sharing some fun Fuels for the next few episodes. What do you have for us today, Luke? Hi! This is Luke Trombley and I am bringing you the fun fuel for this episode. While on the topic of construction, the great pyramids- while they're one of the seven wonders of the ancient world- are also one of the constructional wonders of the world. The pyramid is estimated to have around 2,300,000 stone blocks that weigh from 2 to 30 tons each and there are even some blocks that weigh over 50 tons. Also, if we tried to build an exact replica of this pyramid, it would not be possible. We do not have the precise technology that the ancient Egyptians had that was necessary to build this pyramid. I hope you enjoyed this fun fuel. Enjoy the Episode! Transition Thanks, Luke, that's great. We look forward to your fun fuels on the next several episodes. Let's get right to my interview with Jacob. I had the good fortune of interviewing him in person while sitting in one of his great properties. If you have a chance, we put some pictures in the show notes for this episode which you can access from the bonfires of social enterprise website. Back to the interview, let's listen in now…. Main Interview Jacob: Yeah, we're in one of the Airbnb properties in Detroit. Romy: Okay. Jacob: Yeah. Romy: So let's talk about Motown Rising then. What is Motown Rising as a social enterprise? Jacob: So, Motown Rising is a real estate company. We invest in real estate in Detroit, in one particular area at this point in time. We buy homes, rehab them and rent them out, so it's a holding company, and in the process we have a nonprofit and the social part of that is we hire people of the community, teach them skill trades of their choice, so they actually get paid to learn a skill trade. Romy: We're gonna come back to that. So it's a real estate and for some people that might not understand holding company, would you say you're buying homes and renovating them? Jacob: Yeah, so we buy homes, renovate them, and hold them and rent them out. Romy: Yeah, and sometimes for a longer term than just an overnight, right? Jacob: Right, oh yeah, long-term, we're looking at five to 10 years. Romy: Yeah, well great. So how did you even get started doing something like this? Jacob: Oh, man. So, originally born and raised in Los Angeles. I was a real estate flipper and a developer,

Check out the creative solution to community renting of personal items with the  guys from Jonezie of Ferndale, Michigan Check out what these guys have come up with to help keep up with the ‘Jones’ by building a community rental program for all of our stuff!  What do you want to rent for the summer!!!   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/image1-1.jpg ()   For the full transcript, click the button below: Read Full Transcript Romy: Welcome to the Bonfires of Social Enterprise with me! Romy. Yup, you have me again for another conversation with an innovative social enterprise. On this episode, we talk with Matt and Lenny from a new platform called Jonezie. They have moved back to Michigan from other experiences in social enterprise around the globe to create this great community rental program. Let's drop in now on the entire conversation.... Romy: Okay. So we've got Lenny and Matt here, guys, on the show with us. So let's talk about what's Jonezie? Matthew: Good question, take it away Len. Zachary: Well Jonezie is a platform that let's people list anything that they might have that they don't use all the time. They can list it on Jonezie, and someone in the area can rent it from them. You make a little extra money, and someone in your area doesn't have to go drain their savings account buying the item, they can just rent it for a couple of days or however long they need it and ... you know ... they both win. Romy: So for our listeners in some of the other countries, when we say platform that might be like a digital platform, an online platform, right? Zachary: Exactly. Romy: Okay. Great. So how did you guys come up with this idea? Zachary: Well I ... me and my wife, girlfriend at the time, just moved into our house. It was like the first nice day out here in Michigan, and everyone was out riding their bikes, or running, and I just really was craving a bike ride. We went to the store, and I realized a decent bike was like anywhere from six hundred to eight hundred dollars. I mean I could have bought them, but I knew I would have ended up with buyers remorse or we wouldn't end up using them and they would be in the basement and our house is kind of small, so it's like more things taking up more space. We were sitting on the porch ... we didn't end up buying the bikes, and I saw our neighbor, they came in, him and his wife, and they were on their bikes and it was like "How cool would it be if I could just give em like twenty dollars, I'd use their bikes, drop em off when we're done, he'd make a little side cash to go out to dinner with, and we got our bike ride.". So as the night went on, I kept on thinking about it. Next day I called Matt, and I was like, "Listen I think I have something here. I want to know your thoughts.". Matt was my entrepreneur friend, so I felt like it was appropriate to reach out to him and just play the idea off of him. We kept on talking about it and we ended up talking more about it, and we're like, "Should we do this?", and I was like "Yeah. How do we do this?". He was like, "Well, we are gonna build a landing page and let's gauge what our networks think. If they think it's a good idea maybe we discuss it more.". That's exactly what we did. Romy: The virtual world of pop-up. Those are the retail pop-up, it's the virtual pop-up that's the landing page isn't it? Matthew: Right, exactly. Romy: Oh good. Did you ever ask your neighbor for the bike or it was just, it just planted that idea? Zachary: Recently I told him about it because he keeps on wondering why there's so many cars parked at my house. Well its ... I had an idea cause I saw you riding your bike. He's like "Oh. [inaudible 0:4:01]" Romy: No kidding, that's so good! What did he think of it? Zachary: Loves it. Romy: Well good, so what happened when you guys started...

Bamboo Detroit Update with Amanda Lewan Romy catches up with co-founder, Amanda Lewan to hear about the most recent expansion of one of Detroit’s hottest hippest co-working spaces. Listen in to some of the secrets of the success including the special nature of the diversity in members and programming.   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Bamboo-Detroit-instagram.jpg () Full Transcript Read Full Transcript Romy: Thanks for joining me for another episode of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise! This is Romy and I want to thank you for your loyalty and following. It keeps us all going around here! This time, we follow up with Amanda Lewan of Bamboo Detroit. Bamboo is a co-working space that has some very special characteristics… it is very diversified and full of energy. Not to mention that it is one of the ‘hippest' places in town. Is that even a word? ‘Hippest?' Oh well, you know what I mean. People want to be there! We did an interview with Amanda back in Season 1. She is one of the owners and visionaries of this space. We will catch up with her in just a moment because we are going to hear from Hudson Robertson of Traverse City, Michigan on the fun fuel… Hudson: My name is Hudson Robertson and I am bringing the Fun Fuel for this episode. This information comes from an article published in the online magazine PhatRice.com on September 18th of 2014. The article is called “7 Crazy-Interesting Facts about Bamboo” 1. Bamboo is anti-bacterial - bamboo has natural pest-fighting powers, thanks to the plant's unique resistance to bacteria and fungi. 2. Panda's Did not always eat it like you see in pictures. - At some point, pandas came to love the taste of bamboo and hate hunting, giving us the peaceful and herbivorous, bamboo-munching creatures we know today. Here are a few more…. Bamboo tastes delicious, it grows on every continent, and Bamboo is stronger than steel - In compression tests, bamboo comes out stronger than brick, wood, concrete or steel, meaning it can hold more force than any of those materials. Some scientists even theorize that a length of bamboo 10 centimeters across could hold a 11,000-pound elephant -- though that particular experiment has yet to be attempted. I hope you enjoyed this Fun Fuel. This is Hudson Robertson. Enjoy the show! Romy: Thanks so much Hudson. I might have to go find some Bamboo to try in a salad. I hadn't thought about that before! Ha ha Okay, let's turn our attention to Amanda Lewan from Bamboo Detroit… Amanda: Yes, we just opened up at our new location, 1420 Washington Boulevard on floor three. The building is called the Julian C. Madison Building, so we're super pumped about it. It's a beautiful building right downtown. It's locally owned by a wonderful family. The building's named after our landlord, Sharon Madison's father, Julian C. Madison. He was a history-making entrepreneur himself. Romy: Oh, he was? Amanda: It's very inspiring to live that sort of similar path with our inclusive entrepreneurial hub here. Romy: Yeah, can we hear a little bit about that story? Amanda: Yeah, so Sharon's father and grandfather were trailblazers. They were the first and third African American engineers in the state of Ohio, and I think his grandfather was one of the very first engineers, African American engineers hired by the federal government. When they bought this building, they named it after her father. One of the things they always described it as he always had a spirit of ... A belief that one should take their life into their own hands, and create with it. I guess he [inaudible 00:02:33] always give back and help raise up the younger generation for their own businesses. It was a really good fit for us seeing a great shared workspace for entrepreneurs and creatives, and fostering and sharing those values of inclusion and diversity. We're super pumped. I think it's really good to partner with people who share your...

Detroit Horse Power lifts, heals, and empowers! David Silver shares an update on all of their expansion in the hearts and minds of the Detroit Youth! Community partners make his organization strong and talent-rich. Great song by a Detroit artist! Kids and horses are a great match.   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2016.05.01_1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/01.04_1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/03.01_1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/04.53_1.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Tipperary_IMG_7113-1.jpg () Full Transcript Read Full Transcript Romy: Hi everyone, this is Romy and I would like to extend a warm welcome for tuning back into the Bonfires of Social Enterprise! We catch up with David Silver of Detroit Horse Power on this episode. David shares how he has benefited from using community partners and some strategies on how he selects talent for his team. And, of course, we have a wonderful song for you to debut from a Detroit artist at the end of this episode. Now, let's see about our Fun Fuel for this episode…we have Hudson Robertson of Traverse City Michigan. Let's see what Hudson has for us… Hudson: My name is Hudson Robertson and I am bringing the Fun Fuel for this episode. These are some interesting facts from the article “30 Things you probably didn't know about horses” by Mihaela Husar in the September 17th of 2013 publication. Did you know that An adult horses' brain only weighs about half that of a human- 22 ounces? Did you know that Horses have good taste in music? They like listening to classical music, finding it comforting and serene. Did you know that A horse heart weighs 10 pounds?! Did you know that horses cannot breath through their mouths?. Did you know that horses drink at least 25 gallons of water a day, even more in hot climates? Did you know that Horses' teeth never stop growing? Did you know that the oldest horse on record has lived until the age of 62 years? Well, I hope you enjoyed these fun fuel facts on horses. This is Hudson Robertson, enjoy the show! Romy: Thank you Hudson – love the fun fuel! Now that we have our minds on the interesting features of horses, let's drop in on my conversation with David Silver of Detroit Horse Power… Romy: Okay, so let's catch up. What's happening with Detroit Horsepower. We touched base with you mid-year, 2016. Now, it's ... at this time that we're talking; it's early 2017. I've been following some of your social media, but I'd love to get an update of where you're at. David: Absolutely. When we last spoke, we were just getting ready for our 2016 Summer expansion. We got started in 2015 with two weeks of summer camps that had 18 participants, and we grew. Summer 2016 was a big expansion for us. We had six weeks of camps with 91 participants. 11 of those original 18 were back for a second year which was really exciting. Those kids were ... had been waiting eagerly for horse camp to come back. We were able to grow and give an additional, 70 plus kids, that unique enrichment. We had a really fantastic partnership this summer with a horse facility called, Ringside Equestrian Center, which is out in New Hudson. It's out 96 on the way to Lansing. It's not that close to Detroit. It took us about 45 minutes each day, but really wonderful folks who donated the use of their space and their horses to continue in this pilot model, where we're bringing kids to where the horses are for the summer programs. Romy: Awesome. How many did you have the year before? 91, that's amazing. David: Big expansion over 18. 2015 was really like, proof of concept. We had never done it before. This isn't currently being offered in Detroit, so we just got started, got our feet wet in 2015. Then, really made a big push to do a lot more in this...

Kresse Wesling updates us on up-cycling used fire hoses and discarded leather for luxury use! Romy catches up with Kresse Wesling. Kresse shares intimate insights on thoughtful expansion and overcoming those times when other’s minimize your work. Great new product line and authentic conversations on social enterprise. Song included by Detroit artist at end. Fun Fuel by Reece Robertson in Traverse City, Michigan http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Elvis_Kresse_headshot_6.JPG-1.jpeg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/kw-bag.png () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/kw-rug.png () For the Full Transcript Read Full Transcript Romy: Welcome to another episode of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. This is Romy, and I am excited to catch back up with Kresse Wesling on this episode! We spoke with Kresse about 18 months ago. She and her husband, Elvis, have a social enterprise in London called Elvis & Kresse. They upcycle discarded fire hoses and make them into gorgeous bags and belts. In just a little bit, we will hear about some of their new product additions along with some amazing insight on how they keep up their energy for high-level systemic change when faced with barriers and challenges. She even discusses how she handles situations when others minimize her or their business. These guys are true professional social entrepreneurs, and I learned a lot. Now, before we move to the interview, we have a new guest young man for our Fun Fuel. From Traverse City, Michigan, please meet Reece Robertson. Reece, what do you have for us? ___ Reece: Attack, Supply, Forestry, Booster and Suction….these are all names of firehoses designed for specific uses in putting out fires. Until the mid 19th century, most fires were put out by water buckets transported to the scene. Firehoses were created soon after that but they were very basic to say the least. In 1673 in Amsterdam, Jan Van Der Heyden and his son Nickolas took firefighting to the next step with the first firehose made of leather. This improvement made it's way to the United States by 1794 in Philadelphia. Members of the Philadelphia Humane Hose Company developed the leather hoses to be fastened together by copper rivets and washers instead of sewing them. This cut down on the hoses bursting from pressure at their seams. Modern firehoses use a variety of natural and synthetic fabrics and elastomers. They allow the hoses to be stored wet without rotting and resist effects of exposure to sunlight and chemicals. Modern technology has made the hoses lighter to help reduce the physical strain for firefighters. Romy: Thank you very much, Reece Robertson! Fire Hoses have come a long way! ___ Romy: It's been almost a year-and-a-half since you, and I talked and had our first interview learning about your business. I really want to take this opportunity to catch up. You were one of our most popular guests, as I mentioned, from season one. We want to hear what's happening with your business, everything from what you're having fun with, what your most popular products are, what you guys are doing from a business perspective, just generally what's happening. Let's start wherever you want. Kresse: I suppose that you always have to start with quite a victorious statement like, we're still open. The business is still running. Nothing terrible has happened. I genuinely, I think you can lose sight of these things. Everybody always wants to hear what's the most exciting thing that's going on, but often the most exciting thing is that the mission we started with, rescuing the fire hose, is still the mission that we're on. We're just doing that better and better all the time but very much still engaged with our corporate's [inaudible 00:01:23] and really excited about that. Romy: That's such a good word. I say that all the time. The number one rule of social...

City Girls Soap becomes a Farm: Let the Goat Scaping begin! Amy McIntire joins Romy for an update on the goat farm. Amy shares how the business has evolved from just making soaps and lotions to conservation ‘scaping’. Join in to learn how she is putting ‘Kids on the Bus’ in this great catch up. Great music from another Detroit artist at the end.   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/amy-and-john.jpg ()   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/goat1.png () For the full transcript, click here Read Full Transcript Romy: Thanks for tuning into this episode on City Girls Farm. This is Romy, and I am your host for this episode. We have lots of good stuff for you here. Our main guest is Amy McIntyre of City Girls Farm; she is one of the owners with her husband, John. We did a fun interview back in Season 1, and this is a great update! They went from three goats to eleven! One of the most interesting developments you will hear about is the new service line, goat scaping! But first, let's check out our Fun Fuel with Jentzen. Jentzen: Goats were introduced to North America in the 16th century by Spanish colonists. For hundreds of years the Spanish goat was a source of milk and meat, but goats did not become an agricultural commodity the way sheep, cattle, pigs and chickens did. Many of the original Spanish goats became feral and populating parts of what would become the United States. For most of United States history, dairy goats were utilized by small family farms as a personal source of milk cheese. In the early 1930s goat milk started to find a market as an alternative dairy product for those who had allergies to cows' milk. In the 1970s the goat became a perfect farm animal for homesteaders who embraced sustainable agricultural practices: Goats do not take take up as space or require as much feed as cattle. By the 1980s, goat milk and goat cheeses were sought by connoisseurs as gourmet items. The dairy goat industry has continued steady growth since the 1980s. As of 2013, more than 30,000 farms in the country raise milk goats. In addition to a variety of different cheeses, goat milk is used to make yogurt and even ice cream, and it often serves as feed for other animals. Romy: Thank you, Jentzen. Let's keep on rollin' with goats and jump right over to my conversation with Amy at the Farm. Romy: Let's catch up. We interviewed you ... Gosh, now that was season one that we interviewed you. Amy: It was 2015, wasn't it? Romy: Yeah, and so you had the three goats at the time when I came to your shop. I wanted to catch up because you've gone through all of this expansion of your services and ... so let's start. We know you changed your name from City Girls Soap to City Girls ... is it Farm, Amy? Amy: Yes, and it was more of a re-branding. It was because of City Girl Soap, obviously, it's like, "Oh, bath and body products for the home," and then we realized as we were thinking about expanding and what else we could do using all these goats, which we now have 11 ... Romy: Wow. Amy: We were talking about after we had done our internship with the kids and everything and we thought, "You know, if we re-brand to City Girls Farm and then City Girls Soap becomes a subsidiary of it, then City Girls Farm is like a one-stop shop where you can get to all things City Girl." That's kind of what we started thinking about early in 2016 and then really got it going in like third quarter 2016. Romy: Nice. Do you feel that that better captures the essence of what you're doing now? Amy: Oh, absolutely. 100%. It's ... because we always wanted to be so much more than just soap and lotion and that was the wonderful thing that allowed us to get our foot in the door and to start showing the way you can use agriculture as a viable industry outside of traditionally what we think of it as being. To be a farm...

Michelle Smart of Bags to Butterflies in Detroit! Romy interviews Michelle Smart, founder and creator of Bags to Butterflies. Learn how Michelle is empowering women returning from the prison systems to be all that they can be. Transformation and incredible business ideas are moving this social enterprise into possibility. http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/bags.png () Don’t miss the great Detroit artist and their new song at the end of the episode!   For the Full Transcript – Click Here Read Full Transcript Romy: Hey there! Thanks for tuning-in to another great episode of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. This is Romy, and I have the honor of hosting. Some of you may not remember why this show has this name...Bonfires of Social Enterprise. The word 'Bonfires' was used originally by our team to help social entrepreneurs that the bonfires represented the business enterprise portion of their organization. The warmth the bonfires put off represented the social impact for people. We still use the bonfires analogy today to discuss all of the ways we social entrepreneurs tend to walk away from the fire to do more social impact. We always need to remember to tend the fire so we can keep that sustainable impact growing! On this episode, you will meet Michelle Smart, and she is someone who really gets the notion of tending her fire while making a socially good impact. At the end of the episode, we are showcasing an amazing artist, Nique Love Rhodes, you don't want miss that one! Before we meet Michelle, let's hear from our guest ‘Fun-Fueler', Hudson Robertson of Traverse City, Michigan. By the way, we don't help them with the research or the recording; they do it all by themselves. What do you have for us today Hudson? Hudson Roberston: A caterpillar spends most of it's life crawling on and devouring it's food source. When it's time to become an adult, the caterpillars start to wander away from what they've been eating. The caterpillar makes a simple silk pad on the underside of a branch or twig. It uses a hook-covered appendage called a cremaster to attach itself to it's pad. It twists around, embedding it's cremaster firmly into the silk so it can hang. Then it sheds it's skin revealing the chrysalis. (In 2nd grade last year we studied this process and the caterpillars all made their spots at the top of the cage, so that when it was time for the butterfly to come out, it would use it's wings right away to fly, Cool!) The time then from chrysalis to Butterfly depends on how warm the climate is but generally the whole process from egg, to caterpillar, to butterfly is about 4 weeks. Also, I learned that there are more than 20 butterflies and moths currently listed as endangered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Romy: Thank you, Hudson, that was very informative! Okay, time to meet Michelle Smart. I have to tell you; the interview went quick but, I confess, I wanted to stay and hang out with her, ha ha. Here is part of my conversation with Michelle..... Romy: Well, welcome to the Bonfires of Social Enterprise, Michelle. I know we've been trying to get together for a little bit to hear about your amazing business and let's start by helping the listeners know what is the business of Bags to Butterflies. Michelle: Bags to Butterflies is a social enterprise. We have an outreach to female returning citizens. Our mission is to reduce recidivism within our community by providing employment and training opportunities for women returning home from prison. Romy: Wow! Now is there any time frame that you take that they've been in prison or is it just really any time they've spent there? Michelle: Some of the women have been incarcerated for over 30 years and we take all of them. Our goal is to provide employment immediately upon being released from prison, just so that they know that when they come home, they have employment, so that's one...

Khali Sweeney of the Downtown Boxing Gym Youth Program in Detroit Listen in to the powerful testimony of a great leader, his overcoming a poor education and his will to push for experiences for the kids in the neighborhoods of Detroit. Hear why Khali has adopted the phrase ‘books before boxing.’  This is an incredible story of a true change maker.   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Detroit-boxing-gym-social-media.jpg () Introduction Transcript Romy: Welcome back to the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. This is Romy, and we have a real treat for you. We are joined by Khali Sweeney of the Downtown Boxing Gym Youth Program in Detroit.  Khali does not usually do interviews, and he granted us a favor and let’s us in on some of his passion for the kids and the big why’ for the boxing gym. And let me give you a little hint, his why has to do with his incredible testimony that he so humbly discusses. Stay tuned to the end for a great Detroit artist and song. Now, on this episode, we are changing it up a little bit. We have some new voices of the youth engaging with our show for the fun fuels. For all of our Jentzen fans, don’t worry, he is just making room for some of the great kids out there to have a chance to participate. If you have a son or daughter that would like to take part in the fun fuels, email us at bonfires@gingrasglobal. So, our guest today for the fun fuel is Carter Hazen of Midland, Michigan. What do you have for us today, Carter? for the rest of the transcript click here Read Full Transcript Welcome back to the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. This is Romy, and we have a real treat for you. We are joined by Khali Sweeney of the Downtown Boxing Gym Youth Program in Detroit. Khali does not usually do interviews, and he granted us a favor and let's us in on some of his passion for the kids and the big why' for the boxing gym. And let me give you a little hint, his why has to do with his incredible testimony that he so humbly discusses. Stay tuned to the end for a great Detroit artist and song. Now, on this episode, we are changing it up a little bit. We have some new voices of the youth engaging with our show for the fun fuels. For all of our Jentzen fans, don't worry, he is just making room for some of the great kids out there to have a chance to participate. If you have a son or daughter that would like to take part in the fun fuels, email us at bonfires@gingrasglobal. So, our guest today for the fun fuel is Carter Hazen of Midland, Michigan. What do you have for us today, Carter? Carter: This is Carter Hazen and I am bringing you the Fun Fuel for this episode. I did some research on the history of boxing, and, I found some particularly interesting facts about the boxing glove. Accounts of boxing used for entertainment and sport dating back to the Roman Empire. Back in history, rawhide was used to protect the hands of the boxer and, sometimes, weapons were used. Moving forward in history to 1741, a man named Jack Boughton, also known as the ‘Father of Boxing', inspired rules and equipment after he accidentally fatally injured his opponent during his match. He began the writing of rules and experimenting with safer equipment to protect the head and brain. And, in 1865, the boxing glove was approved. Almost 40 years later, in 1904, the sport of boxing held its first match at the St. Louis Olympic Games. More than a century later, the sport continues to thrive thanks, in part, to a man named Jack Boughton, who decided to make change for good. I hope you enjoyed this Fun Fuel… Enjoy the Episode. Romy: Thank you, Carter! Wow, boxing and boxing gloves have come a long way! Now, before we drop in on my conversation with Khali, I would like to point out that we did an episode in Season 1 with his right hand, Jessica, where she talks all about the history of the boxing gym. Just as a recap, Khali is the founder and President of...

Overflow Coffee Bar – Brandon & Amanda Neely – Chicago Season 3 kicks of with a great social enterprise out of Chicago’s South Loop. Get to know owners Amanda and Brandon Neely and listen how they overcame fears, built community, and decided that free is no good! As they sourced ethical coffee, they built a business and even took on a PRI!   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/OverFlow-coffee-social-media-1.jpg () Romy: Welcome everyone to our official kick-off of Season three! This is Romy, and I want to thank you for hanging in there with us while we worked to prepare some episodes ahead of time. We have about 20 good episodes lined up for you this season. And today, we are starting off with a bang! You will meet Brandon and Amanda Neely, the owners of the Overflow Coffee Bar in Chicago’s South Loop.  They share some candid thoughts on overcoming fears such as public speaking and perfectionism along with great ideas for community and customer engagement. They even give some of their definitions of ethical sourcing and why ‘free is not okay!’ Stay tuned until the end to listen to a great Detroit artist, Astray, and his song “Dance with you.” Before we get rolling, let’s see what Jenzten has to share with us about some of the urban legends around the history of coffee in our episode’s Fun Fuel….   For the Full Transcript – click here Read Full Transcript Full Transcript Romy: So welcome Amanda and Brandon to The Bonfires of Social Enterprise. Amanda: Hi. Brandon: Hey thanks for having us. Romy: I'm excited to talk to you guys. We met maybe two or three years ago when I was in Chicago? Brandon: I think it was three years ago. Romy: Yeah. I've been following your progress. And you'd been open at that point I think about a year or a year and a half? Brandon: Yeah. We've been open about five and a half years now. Romy: Yeah. Well we should tell the listeners that you guys are married and running not just a coffee shop, Overflow Coffee, but we're going to hear today about a ton of cool things that you guys have in the works. So let's anchor everyone that doesn't know you right now about Overflow Coffee. So what is Overflow Coffee right now for Chicago? Brandon: So Overflow Coffee Bar is the third place, we call that the third place, where you would go as home, work, and then you go somewhere else, like your grandma's house or something. And we wanted to really create a third place in the south loop of Chicago, and that's where we came up with the idea of Overflow. Building community, and then also, the reason we started more of a social enterprise as ethical economics, coffee is the second most widely traded commodity in the world, and Americans, the number one consumer. And so as we were thinking about this years ago, we were like, we want to build community but we also want to change the world for the better, and what better way to do that then buying ethical coffee, so bridging community building and ethical economics and then we started the idea of Overflow Coffee Bar, and then in the place where we're at, there's a whole lot of space around us, which Amanda will share about, that we're housed in. So we're a part of a school that meets in the building, actually owns the building. And then there's a bunch of non-profits that are here as well. Romy: So you got some natural traffic there, and just for those that don't know, would you guys mind giving some definition to what ethical coffee means? Amanda: Okay, let me jump in on that one. So the way that coffee normally happens still has a lot of roots from imperialism and slavery. And a lot of the coffee farmers that grow what you might typically find in a grocery store are paid at very unfairly for the labor that they do. What we do with our ethically treated coffee, is we actually have more of a direct trade...

Season 3: Top Six Impact Crushin’ BEhaviors   Welcome to Season Three of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise! This is Romy, and I am the host of today’s episode that we are calling ‘Impact Crush!'  We are doing a Top 6 countdown on behaviors we are crushin' on. And, at the end, we are going to leave you with the most popular artist and song from Season 2- a real crowd favorite! You might be wondering who ‘WE' is….The WE is me, Romy, and my partner, Natalie Hazen. Welcome Natalie! Romy: Natalie, what do you say, we move into the Top 6 countdown? Natalie: Let’s do it!   Romy: Okay, here we go…   Romy: Here is the Impact Crush Countdown- Top 6 Impact BE-haviors we have a Crush on over here.   Natalie: Number 6!  BE HAPPY for others. Their success does not leave less room for yours. Romy: lots of room for all of us to be successful! Natalie: Number 5! BE AUTHENTIC. Romy: The world is full of copies! Your originality and unique purpose are critical to the overall survival of social enterprise. Now, we don’t mean stick out in a crowd just to draw attention to yourself. I mean, if you need to be separate because it is part of who are, then do it!  Just do it in love   Natalie: Number 4!  BE A PRACTIONER. Practice your craft, practice your pitch, practice your operations, practice your speaking, practice, practice, practice. Romy: We can never practice enough.  I can easily take the bait and just did it last week, on why do I have to explain this again. Granted it probably was the 200th time I went over something, but it was the first time for that person I was talking to. Practice. Part of a good social enterprise is role modeling, and practice is a key to excellence. Just ask any Olympic athlete! Natalie: Practice makes permanent Romy: Sometimes we have to repeat ourselves a lot, do the basics Natalie:  (say something here) Natalie: Number 3! BE A LOVER OF OTHERS.  Be a lover of others. We don't mean slobbering over someone in a romantic manner. In this context, we mean loving others when they aren't acting right or loving you back. Romy: We people don't always act right and, often, love must be a choice. Loving others involves patience, kindness, encouragement, listening, protecting, trusting, always hoping, always persevering with them. We are not asking anyone to be a saint; we are saying make the choice to BE A LOVER! We are watching social enterprises, and impact investors make the choice to love even under extreme conditions. Natalie: We have had a lot of people say NOT nice things about us in public, people we don't know, but we love on them, and they become our biggest supporters. Romy: Oh yeah. We love people. Natalie: Remember when those people sued you and were able to take the bank accounts? Romy: Yes,  ha, it is hard to forget. We won that, but I remember sitting in meetings about people investing millions with 0.00 in my bank account. Ha Natalie: But, we won that false claim and made friends with them. Romy: Yup!  Ha, that was kind of about us, wasn't it? Natalie: Yup, ha ha, we'll we are pretty great too! Just sayin'… Move on? Romy: Let's do it!   Natalie: Number 2! BE AN INFLUENCER. Romy: Be such an influencer that people want to copy you and steal your stuff!  Be an influencer that takes full responsibility for what they write, record, post, and speak- both privately and publicly. Natalie: I feel pretty good, people take our stuff all of the time… Romy: Yeah, I think we know of at least 40 times, no biggy, it is kind of an honor…ha ha Romy: Be an influencer of good things. Just remember, the best influencers act in love.   Romy: Okay, Natalie, we need a drumroll for our Number 1 Impact Crush Behavior….. Natalie: (drumroll….) http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/ep-66-twitter.jpg () Natalie Number 1! BE ANTHEMIC!  Be an Anthem. Let your story...

Henry Le  of Imagtor in Hanoi, Vietnam Romy interviews Henry Le, co-founder of Imagtor, a professional photo editing service in Vietnam that is employing people with disabilities.  At the end of the episode, listen for another great new song by Detroit artist, Grace Elizabeth Lee! http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/12273702_10204713929208227_5009448597382392160_o.jpg ()Imagtor Staff in Vietnam http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Ảnh_Nguyên.jpg ()Henry Le of Imagtor   Read Full Transcript FULL TRANSCRIPT Introduction Romy: Welcome and thanks for tuning in. This is Romy, and I will be your host for another great episode here at Bonfires. You will meet the courageous Henry Le and hear about Imagtor in Vietnam. And, of course, we have a talented Detroit artist. Grace Elizabeth Lee joins us for the second time with her song, Like a Bird so stay tuned until the end! Before we meet Henry, let's check out what Jentzen came up with for this episode's fun fuel. Fun Fuel Jentzen: Photography is a word derived from the Greek words photos (light) and graphien (to draw).    In 1827 Joseph Niepce created the first photographic image with a camera obscure.     However, Niepce's photography required 8 hours of sunlight to make and the image would soon fade after appearing. In 1879 the dry plate was invented and making it possible for handheld cameras to be made. In 1889 George Eastman created the flexible film roll with made mass producing box cameras a reality. In 1940 color film was created for the mass producing box cameras. Over the years, many additions were made to the camera, such as better lenses, the flashlight bulb, and flash powder. Developing into the cameras we see today. This is Jentzen with your fun fuel for this episode! Enjoy the show! Romy: Thank you, Jentzen. Photography, at least as we know it today, isn't very old. Interesting. Even though photography has become easy for all of us to capture, it doesn't always mean that the photos are good. That is why we sometimes need some professional help from teams like Henry's in Vietnam. Let's listen in to my conversation as I am learning about Henry and his company, Imagtor. Main Interview Henry: I am a co-founder of Imagtor it is a new social enterprise from Vietnam which just launched last March. After three month pilot, we actually started in business three months ago. We are providing professional photography editing service to international customers, especially to customers from the United States and Australia. We focus on editing the photography of real estate, portrait grading, fashion and product photography. We are a BBO outsourcing company, so what makes us different from other BBO companies, especially ones from India, is that at Imagtor 80% of our staff, currently we have 20 are with disabilities, so at Imagtor we don't call them employees, but we call them partners. We also have a social mission we use our positive profit which we can say 30% go to the development and activities of commonization for our people with disabilities in Vietnam. Hopefully, we can duplicate with this model to the other countries in the future. Romy: Wow, that's a lot and let me repeat that for our listeners. It's professional photo editing and some of the terminology BBO that would be a business to business, or business outsourcing, is more what that stands for right? Henry: It is business outsourcing's, yes. Romy: So you're doing professional photo editing, and we call it business outsourcing. Most of your staff, 80% of your employees is with physical or some disability, and you're giving away 30% of your real profits to other organizations that help with disabilities in Vietnam. That's amazing. Henry: That is correct, thank you. Romy: Gosh, so you're newly open, how did you come up with the idea for photo editing? Henry: Well first of all Vietnam like according...

Chris Lambert of Life Remodeled in Detroit http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/28279643044_c250991b8b_o-1.jpg ()LIFE:Remodeled 2016 Romy interviews Chris Lambert of Life Remodeled in Detroit – incredible passion, boldness, humility, and steadfastness all rolled into one mission. Hear about the incredible neighborhood transformations. Also meet Grace Elizabeth Lee as the featured artist at the end of the episode and her new song ‘Darling.’ http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/2016_Before_After.jpg ()   Intro to Life Remodeled of Detroit Romy: Hello, everyone, this is Romy, and we are here with another episode of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. We have a very special artist, Grace Elizabeth Lee, at the end of this episode and an incredibly inspiring interview with Chris Lambert of Life Remodeled in Detroit. This guy and his team are pulling off miraculous transformation in the neighborhoods.  Before we tune into the interview, let’s find out what Jentzen has prepared for our Fun Fuel today. Read Full Transcript FULL TRANSCRIPT Intro to Life Remodeled of Detroit Romy: Hello, everyone, this is Romy, and we are here with another episode of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. We have a very special artist, Grace Elizabeth Lee, at the end of this episode and an incredibly inspiring interview with Chris Lambert of Life Remodeled in Detroit. This guy and his team are pulling off miraculous transformation in the neighborhoods. Before we tune into the interview, let's find out what Jentzen has prepared for our Fun Fuel today. Fun Fuel by Jentzen Jentzen: Romy: Thanks, Jentzen! It is funny how we can adapt words over time. I am glad the word tenderloin is mostly used for steaks these days. Okay, moving on to my interview with Chris Lambert. I have been reflecting on my interview with him and, while there were a lot of pieces that inspired me, I could not help but notice the combination of a boldness with a humbleness at the same time. Bold and humble, an incredible combination. I felt the wisdom and peace of a seasoned leader and the courage of a warrior willing to stand in protection of others. As you listen in to my interview with Chris, I am certain you will be inspired by his work in the neighborhoods, one block at a time. Main Interview Romy: All right, so Chris, what is Life Remodeled? Chris: Life Remodeled is a Detroit-based non-profit, and our mission is we remodel lives one neighborhood at a time, and the way we do that is every year we choose a different neighborhood in Detroit and we invest about 5 million dollars in cash, labor, and materials and that's all based off of what are the community's needs, and what is the community's vision? We come alongside the community to achieve their vision and there's three main physical things that we do. Number one, we remodel a community asset, usually a high school. The second thing we do is we repair owner-occupied homes and thirdly, we cleanup 300 city blocks in six days with 10,000 people. Romy: How did you land on those three? Chris: Yeah, that all comes back to, again, the community's vision. Every community has an asset that needs improvement and that asset, when it's improved, makes a huge impact on the life of the community and in every community we work in Detroit, there's a lot of homeowners who have needs they haven't yet been able to meet for renovations, and then blight is one of the most significant problems in Detroit because blight is a magnet for criminal activity, so for instance, there are over 60,000 abandoned houses in the city of Detroit and those abandoned houses are more than just eyesores, but those are actually magnets for prostitution, human trafficking, and drug use, and there are real stories of children who have actually been taken on their way to school and bad things have happened in these homes. Then, of course, the tall...

Ivan Gonzalez of Humboldt Park, Chicago – Social Enterprise Coach, Mentor, and Cross-Sector Facilitator Romy interviews Ivan and learns about how his faith anchors and propels him to engage sectors and cultures for the common good.  Great song at the end by Chicago artist, Aaron Eddy! http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/image.png ()   Introduction Thanks for tuning in the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. This is Romy and we hve something different for you on this episode. You will meet Ivan Gonzalez and you will learn about his specialty, cross-sector collaboration. Ivan has a business called Coach for Social Enterprise. He obviously coaches, convenes, and patiently mentors people individually and in large groups around social enterprise and impact investing in communities. I think you will understand why he is so successful locally and nationally when you listen to how open and heartfelt he is about his faith. This is our first guest that has been so open about their faith and I really began to see the ‘why’ behind everything Ivan does. Let’s listen in to my interview with Ivan. Read Full Transcript Full Transcription Romy:;Thanks for tuning in the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. This is Romy and we hve something different for you on this episode. You will meet Ivan Gonzalez and you will learn about his speciality, cross-sector collaboration. Ivan has a business called Coach for Social Enterprise. He obviously coaches, convenes, and patiently mentors people individually and in large groups around social enterprise and impact investing in communities. I think you will understand why he is so successful locally and nationally when you listen to how open and heartfelt he is about his faith. This is our first guest htat has been so open about their faith and I really began to see the 'why' behind everything Ivan does. Let's listen in to my interview with Ivan. Romy: Okay. Well, welcome, Ivan, to The Bonfires of Social Enterprise! Ivan: Thanks! It's really exciting to be finally on the podcast. Romy: I know, thank you. You've been such a supporter. Let's talk about where you're calling in from. This is a call in, or I guess we're Skyping and you're in Chicago, right? What neighborhood are you in? Ivan: Yes, I predominantly do most of the work that I do in the city and Humboldt Park, West Humboldt Park area. Romy: You and I met when we were supporting the social enterprise there in Chicago, right? Is that when we first met? Ivan: Yeah, it was during the time of The Stewards Market, and our mutual friend, Sarah Wheeler, introduced us to, actually it was a friend of Sarah who introduces me to Rowan Richards. Then, Sarah introduced you to Rowan Richards, and we collaborated during that time. Romy: Yeah yeah, and it was a lot of fun, thoughtful meetings around King Lizzy and all that. That's been a real fond memory for me. Then, of course, I got to meet you, and the more I get to know you, Ivan, the more I want to hang out with you. Ivan: Well, that's mutual. I love all the things that you're helping investors, and specifically, social impact investors think about when it comes to investing and social enterprises. I'm excited about what we're going to talk about today. Romy: You're our first guest that has a very high-level, multifaceted experience. As you and I spoke about, most of our guests to date have either been running an enterprise or doing something very niche focused in the ecosystem. You've had 25 years of coaching and mentoring all focused on social enterprise. Since you have primarily a coaching and mentoring-facilitator role, would you mind talking about your business for a minute? Coach for Social Enterprises? Ivan: Sure. About six years ago, I had realized I'd had all this experience with both for-profit, non-profit social enterprises. When I first started, the term social enterprise wasn't

Season 2: Playground Detroit with Paulina Petkoski Romy interviews dynamo Paulina Petkowski, co-owner and co-founder of Playground Detroit!  Learn about the multi-faceted organization and the exciting empowerment for artists and creatives. What talent! http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Paulina-petkoski-social-media.jpg ()   Intro Romy: Hello there, this is Romy and I am excited to share another episode with you. We have Paulina Petkoski on the show today talking about a really fun and hop organization called Playground Detroit. At the end of the episode one of our Detroit artists, Valley Hush, debuts a new song. You don’t want to miss it! I would like to give a shout out to our listeners in the Washington DC and Virginia area. We appreciate you! Let’s see what Jentzen has for us for fun fuel for today.   Read Full Transcript Full Transcript Romy: Hello there, this is Romy and I am excited to hsare another episode with you. We have Paulina Petkoski on the show today taling about a really fun and hop organization called Playground Detroit. At the end of the episode one of our Detroit artists, Valley Hush, debuts a new song. You don't want to miss it! I would like to give a shout out to our listeners in the Washington DC and Virginia area. We appreciate you! Let's see what Jentzen has for us for fun fuel for today. Jentzen: Hey this is Jentzen with your fun fuel for this week's episode. This week I will be sharing some fun facts about a playground! The idea of the playground originated In Germany where the playground was a space to teach children how to play properly. The first playground slide was invented in 1922 by Charles Wicksteed. Research shows that children who are given the freedom to play how they want grow up to be happier and more well adjusted adults. Playground also help children with their balance and motor skills as they play, social skills as they interact with other children, and self confidence when they swing and climb. A playground is also a great source of fresh air and exercise for a child. This is Jentzen with your fun fuel for this week's episode. Enjoy the show! Romy: Excellent. I'd like to set the stage a little bit before we listen to my conversation. Detroit is busting with creative activity. Like any big city, you can almost find anything! In the past, it has been somewhat difficult to locate everything. That's where Playground Detroit comes in! Lets listen in now... Paulina: Playground Detroit is really a multi-faceted platform that serves as a creators catalyst for the city of Detroit and its creative entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, and cultural scene that's happening right now. Romy: Let's break that down a little bit more because you used some fresh terminology there. Multi-faceted, creative catalyst, let's go deeper on some of those elements. Paulina: We have two sides of what we do, IRL and URL. The first part, IRL, is In Real Life, we work with people, and we produce events, we connect people to people, and we like to promote the creative economy. Promoting the arts and culture scene here through exhibits through really cool programming that includes film screening, Q & A panels, installations with other stores that are in the area. Anything that really allows people to connect with one another and experience art in a way that is really fun and unique. The other side of it is online. We have had an online magazine since 2011 that we started to really get out all of the fun, creative, news that's happening in this city that, at the time, wasn't being told in the mainstream media. Since we started the online magazine, we've also expanded the digital media platforms that we have to a really, amazingly, robust, social media following that is growing, basically every week. We have really great Instagram following and Facebook; we use Pinterest, Snapchat, YouTube, anything that...

Lisa Johanon of Central Detroit Christian Listen and Learn from the great Lisa Johanon, for 22 years she has led Central Detroit Christian to large-scale community change by building social enterprises, baking pies, and loving others.   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/IMG_1516-1.jpg ()   Introduction Romy:  Hey Everyone, my name is Romy, and I am your host for another episode of Bonfires of Social Enterprise. We have the incredible Lisa Johanon of Central Detroit Christian with us. Lisa gives us a brief overview of the ten social enterprises and how they have all held a role in the renovation of their neighborhood. At the end of the episode, we have a great song for you from Detroit artist, Malaya.  Before we move further, let's see what Jentzen has for us in the fun fuel Read Full Transcript Full Transcription Romy: Hey Everyone, my name is Romy, and I am your host for another episode of Bonfires of Social Enterprise. We have the incredible Lisa Johanon of Central Detroit Christian with us. Lisa gives us a brief overview of the ten social enterprises and how they have all held a role in the renovation of their neighborhood. At the end of the episode, we have a great song for you from Detroit artist, Malaya. Before we move further, let's see what Jentzen has for us in the fun fuel Jentzen: Hey this is Jentzen with your fun fuel for this week's episode! I originally was going to talk about Detroit, and it's recession but couldn't resist talking about baking, as you get further into the episode, you will see why. So this week's fun fuel will be on the history of baking. During the middle ages, baking was a luxury that few were able to enjoy. Usually, only the rich and royalty ate baked sweets such as cake. During the late 17th century, sugar became cheap to purchase. As a result, many people starting making pies with sugar and spices. And then came the birth of having a desert course with meals! With sugar being more easily accessible, came the invention of the cake hoop and the cake tin along with other kitchen equipment to bake sweets. Schools actually started teaching pastry making at this time. In the 18th-century, cake making became very popular, and the art of culinary was born. This was also a large credit to ovens becoming cheaper to purchase and many people having them in their homes. In the 19th-century, baking powder was invented moving cakes from being made with yeast into being made with eggs and flour, giving us the cakes and baked sweets that we see today. This is Jentzen, and this was your fun fuel for this week's episode! Enjoy the show! Romy: Baking, I love baking. And, guess what, so does Lisa. I have known Lisa for a while and I purposely asked her about baking because I know that she has baked goods for everyone from some of the local gang leaders, city officials, to her great neighbors. I love the thought of unlocking something in city government by bringing them a pie, Ha! So, as you drop in on this conversation, listen for all of the relational activities she has engaged in for the broader good. She knows it is all about the people! ~ Lisa: Central Detroit Christian is a faith-based nonprofit organization. We are this month celebrating our twenty-second anniversary as a nonprofit. We are committed to education, employment, and economic development, within economic development really trying to promote and develop businesses in our community to serve as employment opportunities for our underserved community and also for amenities that are missing here. Romy: That was a fantastic synopsis, given how large your organization is. Lisa: I try. I try to get that elevator speech as small as I can. I've even got the mission statement down where we're transforming individuals while we're transforming our community. It can get to be so ... Twenty minutes later and people's eyes are glazing over. Romy: Maybe if you

 Scott Tallenger of Left-handed Branded and the Detroit Mula! Romy and Scott discuss his inspired left-handed functional design, how he loves Detroit and loves to manufacture locally! http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/instagram_ad_23-1.png ()         http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/SmileAndTheWorldSmilesWithYou-1.png ()     http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/instagram_ad_19-1.jpg ()    http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/35mmAnkleStrap-1.png ()      http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/EasternMarketBike-1.png ()     Introduction Romy: Welcome to another episode of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. This is Romy, and it is great to share another interview with you. You listeners have been so supportive! On this episode, you will drop in on my conversation with Scott Tallenger of Left-Handed Branded. You will hear about how he began his left-handed fashion design and, this               My clothing website is: http://http://left-handedbranded.com/ (Left-handedbranded.com) Then, @lefthandedbranded on Instagram. @lefthandedbrand on Twitter. And, lefthandedbranded on Pinterest. We’re on all of them.     More Links  Jump over to the website for the podcast at http://www.bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com (www.bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com ) Give us a question to the mailbag! Find us on http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com (Facebook) and Twitter http://www.twitter.com/bonfirespodcast (@bonfirespodcast)   Find more about Gingras Global at http://www.gingrasglobal.com (www.gingrasglobal.com) and http://www.gingrasglobalgroups.com (www.gingrasglobalgroups.com)  and http://www.facebook.com/gingrasglobal (Facebook of Gingras Global) and Twitter http://www.twitter.com/gingrasglobal (@gingrasglobal)   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/themula-wanted-02-1.jpg ()        http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/JoeLouisLunchBreak-2.jpg ()      http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Mula-Flyer-1.jpg ()     http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/VivaUncolSot-1.png ()    http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/instagram_ad_17-1.jpg ()

 Amy Kaherl of Detroit Soup! Romy interviews Amy Kaherl of the now famous Detroit Soup! Amy shares about how she started http://www.detroitsoup.com (Detroit Soup), some of the barriers to success and grand plans for the people of Detroit. Amy is a visionary catalyst and passionate about people. Great song at the end by Tim Schumack of Assemble Sound.     Full Transcript Romy: Welcome to the Bonfires of Social Enterprise, This is Romy and I am your host for this episode on Detroit Soup!  You will meet Amy Kaherl, Executive Director of Detroit Soup. Amy shares her very intimate thoughts and strong opinions about the kind of help Detroit entrepreneurs need.  At the end, of course, you will hear a full song by an artist curated by Detroit’s Assemble Sound. Romy: Okay, before you meet Amy,  I want to welcome Jentzen back. He has been away for about 3 months and I have certainly missed his fun facts.  I think he has a little something about Soup… Jentzen: Hey Guys, here with this episode’s fun fuel! 1) In 2014, Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup celebrated its http://www.campbellsoup.ca/en-ca/news-room/campbell-news/chicken-noodle-soup (80th anniversary). 2) It is believed that the http://thegoodnews.biz/soup-facts-fun-trivia/ (first-ever soup) was created around 6,000 B.C. and was made of hippopotamus. 3) Soup isn't always hot! For those who live in warmer climates like Spain, cold soup alternatives, like tomato-based http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/gazpacho-recipe.html (gazpacho), are popular. 4) Many soups that seem suitable for http://www.food.com/recipe/authentic-french-onion-soup-courtesy-of-julia-child-356428 (vegetarians) actually aren't. French onion soup, for example, is commonly made with a beef-broth base. 5) Though it has been linked to several origin stories, there are suggestions that the word “http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/ingredients/article/the-etymology-of-soup-and-stew (soup)” can be traced back to the sixth-century Latin word “suppa,” meaning a piece of bread eaten in broth.   Romy: Thanks Jentzen!  So good to have you back on the podcast. I love fun facts. Now let me set up the conversation I had with Amy. First of all, you will hear a bit of an echo as we were sitting sort of an industrial maker space called Pony Ride. Pony Ride is a maker space with, I think, about 50 manufacturing entrepreneurs. Many of our social enterprise clients have spaces in Pony Ride. That was just a little plug for Pony Ride. I was drawn to Amy as a guest for the show because she is a social entrepreneur. Her organization has been the catalyst for many  of the businesses that exist today in Detroit. As you will hear, she is very brave about expressing herself and is passionate about helping others grow and succeed. Let's drop in on my conversation with Amy…   Romy: Welcome Amy! I’ve been excited to interview you. You’re all over the news, a lot of people know about you at Detroit SOUP, but I want to give our listeners a chance to hear about it. Let’s talk about what Detroit SOUP is. Amy: Sure. The simplest way to describe it is Detroit SOUP is a micro-granting dinner that is funding projects that are looking to make the city better. The ideas can come from any sector at any place of ideation. You don’t have to have a business; you don’t have to have a nonprofit around it. It can just be in the idea phase. You submit your idea through our website, http://www.detroitsoup.com (DetroitSOUP.com) and then all past winners and any volunteer then have the opportunity to vote on what project gets pitched at the dinner. Four ideas have four minutes to share, four questions back from the diners, and then the diners have a chance to eat then, share, connect, and vote on what project should win the $5 suggested donation from the door. The money’s the least interesting thing that gets exchanged. It’s about community...

Ginny Fischbach of Impact100 on Impact Investing Inglenook Romy interviews the founder of Impact 100 Oakland County (Michigan), Ginny Fischbach. What happens when 100 women put $1000 each together for a community good? http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Impact_directors.jpg ()    Full transcription Romy: Welcome to the Impact Investing Inglenook of Bonfires of Social Enterprise. You will meet Ginny Fischbach of a women’s funding group named Impact 100. Now there are Impact 100 groups all over the world. You will learn more about these groups in just one minute. First, I want to give a shout out to our listeners and fans in Australia. I want to thank you for your support of our show. And, I know you guys have an Impact 100 group! Very cool. Okay, let me turn our attention to my interview with Ginny Romy: Welcome, Ginny. Ginny: Well, thank you, glad to be here. Romy: I’m excited to interview you for our Impact Investing segment of Bonfires of Social Enterprise. Let’s jump right to it, what is Impact100? Ginny: Well, Impact100 is you get a group of women, and you try for a hundred or more women, each woman gives a thousand dollars, donates a thousand dollars, and then we turn that into a one hundred thousand dollar grant for some local nonprofit. If we get more members, of course, the grants get bigger. It started in Cincinnati in 2001, the first Impact100. A lady by the name of Wendy Steele, who now lives in Michigan. She started a group of one hundred in Cincinnati. She had heard of giving circles and stuff and thought it was a great idea to pool money but at a larger scale. She got a hundred women and gave out a hundred thousand dollar grant, and it’s been growing ever since then. Cincinnati now has almost five hundred members, so they’re giving close to half a million dollars out a year in grants, which is just awesome. Romy: Oh my gosh, yes. Ginny: They’ve made a huge impact on that city, and they’re really active. It’s grown now to thirty-six chapters around the world, thirty of which are in the US and six in Australia, over four hundred thousand members around the country which are really pretty cool. It’s very, also, a loose organization so we’re not paying dues into a national organization of any kind, it’s just everybody helps each other to do their own thing in their area. You can modify the processes and stuff to fit your local area, to make it work for you, so it’s really pretty exciting. Romy: That’s incredibly exciting. I love anything that has to do with a village coming around an idea, sourcing, lots of resources. You get a lot of people together, and you can really make a huge impact. Is that where the name came from or is there a history of the name? Ginny: Exactly. She named it Impact100 thinking, “If I get a hundred women, I can make a huge impact. If we pool our money we can make a huge impact on a community.” That’s where the name came from, which is pretty exciting. Romy: When did Oakland County’s begin? Ginny: Well, we just started this year. This is our first year, so we’re really excited. We started getting members first of the year, we got our 501(c)(3) from the IRS in November, I think it was, so right after the holidays we started. In about six months we were able to find a hundred women, so we know there’s a lot of women who want to give in the community. We have a lot of areas we haven’t even reached in Oakland County, yet so I think we can get a lot more members real soon. We just started and if we want to talk about why we started? I have a home down in Fairhope, Alabama, and it’s in Baldwin County. There’s an organization down there, an Impact100 organization, that now has almost five hundred members, so they’re giving out close to half a million dollars a year in the area. The women down...

Detroit-based founder, Noam Kimelman of  Fresh Corner Cafe Romy interviews Noam Kimelman on his venture Fresh Corner Cafe in Detroit.  They also discuss his non-profit partner, Detroit Food Academy, and the motivation of the youth in the city of Detroit!  Noam is  a very intelligent and engaging guest. Great Detroit artist at the end of the episode to round out another great show! http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Noam-Val-Dale-1.png ()            http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Lunchbox-Special3-e1455837393402-1.png ()                                          http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/13062369_993095117452265_1555901193925074280_n-1.jpg ()     Full Transcript: Romy: Welcome to the Bonfires of Social Enterprise show! This is Romy, and I hope this interview inspires you. I interviewed Noam Kimelman from Fresh Corner Cafe and Detroit Food Academy. Noam shares about the genesis of Fresh Corner Cafe and what is moving his heart these days. I want to get right to is because it is busting with wisdom. He has a soft-spoken nature and a big giant heart for the kids of Detroit. Be sure to stay tuned to end so you can enjoy another great song by Detroit artist, Griz. Okay, here is a portion of my interview with Noam Kimelman. Romy: Noam, let’s talk about Fresh Corner Café. Noam: Fresh Corner Café is a mission-driven food service provider working to increase access to healthy foods in Detroit. We started off by looking at the landscape and hearing a lot about what was once called the Urban Food Desert, now more often called the Urban Food Swamp because there is quite a number of food options, but a lot of really unhealthy food options. There was a lot of talk about a lack of access to grocery stores, and there was this report that came out that spoke about how the physical proximity to healthy food retail versus unhealthy food retail, and how that was one of the highest indicators of diet-related disease and obesity. Just the mere fact, controlling for education, income level, race, and all the other possible confounding factors, just the mere proximity from one person to a fresh grocery store, versus a fast food restaurant or a corner store, had a big effect on their health. We looked at that, and we thought, “Why does it need to be that way?” I spent some time in Argentina when I was in college, and the corner stores were not the way we think of corner stores here. They were abounding with fresh produce; they were community centers; they were these really wholesome, healthy places to feed your family and to feed yourself. In Detroit, and I think in most of America, gas stations and corner stores are entirely the opposite. It’s ways to get a quick fix of sugar and processed junk to keep you feeling bad and unhealthy. We looked at the model, and we thought, “Why does a gas station and corner store have to be an unhealthy food retail location? Couldn’t it be a healthy food retail location?” If you could figure out a sustainable model to get healthy foods into corner stores and gas stations, now you have 1,000 new healthy food retailers that are literally on every single corner in Detroit. That could really address the proximity issue for people to healthy food retail versus unhealthy food retail. We spent a few years trying to tackle that problem. Within the first year, we were in 45 gas stations and corner stores. We grew really quickly; we were really excited. We got a lot of press; we got a lot of pats on the back, but what we found out once we settled down and looked at the numbers is that we were losing about $7,000 a month just servicing these gas stations and corner stores. A great model if you’re non-profit, maybe, and you think about the dollar invested per healthy meal sold. We were trying to function as an L3C, which is a Limited Low-Profit...

Chelsea Koglmeier of O.R.O.  on Bonfires on the Move Jessica Robinson, our mobility expert, interviews Chelsea Koglmeier of Bicycles O.R.O. http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Koglmeier.jpg ()     Chelsea Koglmeier, founder of Bikes ORO, joins us on this episode for a conversation about bicycles as a vehicle for social change. Her own product is a bicycle that's thoughtfully designed with inspired simplicity and beautiful utility to make riding simple and fun. By partnering with World Bicycle Relief, she has also built a social mission into the core of the company, proving that bikes can be engines of social and economic change for people globally, enabling kids to get to school, families to access professional opportunities, and anyone to reach quality health clinics.     Program Links Bikes ORO: http://www.bikesoro.com/ (http://www.bikesoro.com/) World Bicycle Relief: http://www.worldbicyclerelief.org/ (http://www.worldbicyclerelief.org/) United Nations Girl Up SchoolCycle: https://girlup.org/schoolcycle/ (https://girlup.org/schoolcycle/)   More Links  Jump over to the website for the podcast at http://www.bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com (www.bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com ) Give us a question to the mailbag! Find us on Facebook and Twitter http://www.twitter.com/bonfirespodcast (@bonfirespodcast) Our Blog and Content http://gingrasglobal.squarespace.com (gingrasglobal.squarespace.com) Find more about Gingras Global at http://www.gingrasglobal.com (www.gingrasglobal.com) and http://www.gingrasglobalgroups.com (www.gingrasglobalgroups.com)  and http://www.facebook.com/gingrasglobal (Facebook of Gingras Global) and Twitter http://www.twitter.com/gingrasglobal (@gingrasglobal)  

Season 2: Impact Investing Inglenook with Tom Doescher #55 Romy catches Impact Investor,  Tom Doescher, for an interesting conversation on how he thinks about laser outcomes of creating and keeping jobs, the opportunity for impact in Flint and why advisor support is so critical in impact investing. Tom leaves the conversation with great advice for people transitioning from traditional careers to supporting impact investing as a second stage career.  Listen to the great artist, Eryn Allen Kane, and her song, Sunday, to close the episode. http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/DA_-_Barbara__Tom_November_2014-1.jpg ()                       http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/DAC_Back_to_the_Club-1.jpg () Barbara & Tom Doescher     Read Full Transcript Full transcription Romy: Welcome to the Impact Investing Inglenook of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise Show. This is our first Impact Investing segment of Season 2, and we plan to publish monthly. Now, I am going to be a little disruptive here to some of the impact investing conversations. While financial capital is critical in impact investing, it is certainly not the end all and be all solution. You see, a truth I have come to understand is that without people support in the form of skill building, advice, brainstorming, networking, it is almost impossible for the social enterprise to succeed. I am not saying that it can't happen. What I am saying is this: I have watched capital placed into social impact ventures over and over again for the last five years. My truth is this; the best outcomes are smaller dollar amounts put in over-time with high-powered people support to walk through the decision matrix of everyday business planning. So, my point here is that lending time and advice and people skills are just as important, if not more important than the money. The scenes have played out in front of me like Hollywood movies. With as much as I have witnessed, you would have thought I would have done a show on this earlier. Haha, sometimes it takes me a minute to realize it is an actual pattern. So, on this episode, you are going to meet Tom Doescher. Tom is a great friend and has been a council to our firm, Gingras Global, for a long time. I am so thankful. Tom and his wife, Barbara, use their financial capital to both support non-profit charities and impact investing. They have a long history of sharing their resources with others around the world. I have asked Tom, for this episode, to hone in on what impact investing means regarding giving your time and helping with skill-building and advice. You will learn that Tom's focused outcome of impact investing – whether it is his time or money – is to create and sustain jobs. He is very interested in supporting the city of Flint, Michigan, specifically. And, as a treat for any of you that may be listening that are leaving a long somewhat traditional career – thinking about transitioning to support social enterprise, he gives some great tips at the end on how to navigate that transition. Okay, let's listen in to my interview with Tom Doescher. Tom Doescher : My business background is I was a partner in a consulting firm for over 40 years and worked in the last 20 years with manufacturing in businesses, auto suppliers, and built a very substantial practice and really loved working with businesses. On a personal side, Barbara and I led over 30 mission trips all over the world and we did medical teams, construction, children's ministry, and other sundry activities so that was the other part of our life. Really as we were looking at what we call our next season, we said "What do we feel that we're being called to do?" Believe it or not we melded together our business activities with our ministry activities because really we're all about helping businesses create job. We have to have profits to have jobs, but our real focus is on creating jobs...

Buy The Change Romy Kochan interviews Kari Hughes of Buy The Change in Detroit, Michigan.  Listen and learn about what inspired Kari to begin making a market for women entrepreneurs around the world. Kari discusses why she wanted to become a B Corporation and remain a for-profit company. She discusses the importance of acknowledging your successes over your gaps. Kari is a  woman on a mission to help make markets for inspiring women and mothers who are overcoming around the globe. A for-profit example of great social enterprise. http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/FullSizeRender_8.jpg ()   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/FullSizeRender_7.jpg ()   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/FCE36C6E-42E7-4EE6-91D8-BDB93ABDE5FA-2.jpg ()   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/IMG_0014-1.jpg ()   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/FullSizeRender_10.jpg ()         http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/IMG_0599_1.jpg ()     http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/FullSizeRender_9.jpg ()     http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/IMG_0559_1.JPG.jpg ()   Full Transcription: Romy Kochan: Welcome to the Bonfires of Social Enterprise. This is Romy. On this episode, we learn from Kari Hughes of Buy the Change. Buy the Change is a for-profit social enterprise in the Detroit area that helps to make a market for women entrepreneurs around the world. Kari, unfortunately, lost a daughter. We didn’t spend much time discussing that in the interview here, but I can tell you that she’s dramatically empowering women while she continues to heal her own heart. I believe what you’ll hear is a woman with a mission to help, a woman making a big impact. Let’s jump right in now where I’m asking Kari more about the very basics of Buy the Change. Kari Hughes: Buy the Change is a retail company. We sell accessories and home goods that are all handmade by women in the developing world. The two main benefits, I think, that we offer are the opportunity to have income and economic opportunity for our artists and partners around the world, but also the ability for our customers to have a direct impact on the lives of women on the other side of the world. I think lots of times people want to have an impact, but they don’t know how, or they aren’t sure where the money that they donate, or spend goes. Every time we sell a product, we use the profit for sure, but a majority of that money to buy another product. It results in the direct income and all of the opportunities that income brings for our partner artisans. Romy Kochan: Let’s go right to how you got started. What originally trigger tripped your heart, as I like to say, to do this? Kari Hughes: I think most of the time in life there is 100 different paths that come together in 1 point of clarity that brings you to make a decision. I had worked in public health and in the non-profit sector for many, many years and had worked as a therapist at an organization that ran a shelter for women living in domestic abuse situations. It’s just like all of these things that I was very focused on, women, and women’s issues and I was at a point in my life where I really had the freedom to do something that gave back at a higher level. A friend recommended the book Half the Sky. It was written by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn and really motivated me. Their call to action was amazing. I knew I wanted to do something, but I really didn’t know how. Then, I read another book called Global Girlfriend. It’s written by Stacey. I don’t even remember her last name at this point. I’m sorry. Her company is called Global Girlfriend. She documented how she did it. All of that together with my genetic...

 Season 2: Vostel of Berlin with Hanna Lutz Romy interviews Hanna Lutz of social enterprise Vostel in Berlin.  Vostel is an online platform matching volunteers with Berlin organizations. Hear about how they found a way to engage tourists, refugees, and everyday talented people to help their city. http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Teamfoto-vostel.jpg () Hanna Lutz and Stefanie Frost of Vostel   Transcript Romy:  Welcome to this episode of Bonfires of Social Enterprise . This is Romy and I had a chance to interview Hanna Lutz in Berlin, Germany. Vostel is an online platform designed to match up volunteers with the serving needs of some of the organizations in Berlin. I found it interesting that Vostel was created out of an idea to help tourists engage in a healthier manner with the beautiful city of Berlin. As you will learn, Vostel now engages many of the refugees as volunteers. Prior to the interview, Hanna and I had a chance to talk about the fact that everyone from the locals to the government officials were attempting to figure out how to have a better relationship with the tourists, and who would have thought that it would be to ask them to get involved beyond their tourism! To leave something behind in the form of serving instead of just take pictures and memories. By the way, if you have never tried something like this, we suggest you attempt it. Working side by side with the local residents is a wonderful way to make lifelong relationships. And, I would note, good relationships are something we all could use more of these days. So, let's listen in to a part of my interview with Hanna Lutz of Vostel.   Hanna: Okay, Vostel is a social business from Berlin. It aims to connect people that want to help get involved in social, ecological and cultural projects in Berlin, but organizations and initiatives that are easy just to get involved with a few clicks. So what we do is actually show them the schedules of the different organizations that say, oh we need to help every Wednesday from nine to twelve. And so all the volunteers in our page can actually just sign up and go to the projects right away… For instance, if you were in Berlin and you would like to get involved tonight you can just type in the date of today, and you will definitely find a project where you can hop in and do valuable help. Hanna: Exactly. So far it has been rather tough for people to actually find projects in Berlin. Especially if they’re non-German speakers. Just your clicks through all the websites and actually find possibilities where they can get involved without actually need to speak any German. Now they have Vostel and can easily find a bunch of projects that sometimes even need help from non‐German speakers. Yes. Romy: Wow. And how did you get started with this Hanna, as the co‐founder? Hanna: Like, three years ago a very good friend of mine, and me, we actually met in Canada, and we were doing our studies abroad. We did some traveling through Latin America and by this time in Berlin was a big conflict concerning the tourists because there is more and more coming and we really appreciate that. But there is a lot of people who say, oh, they just come and consume the city and really leave nothing but rubbish and noise, so to say. Then we decided to create a volunteering platform that allows people that are in Berlin only short term and don’t speak German actually to get involved in the good communities and get to know the city from a different perspective. So what we did was just kind of collecting a bunch of projects that didn’t demand too many skills and didn’t demand long term commitment and didn’t demand German skills. So we decided we should really build up this project, not only stay as an initiative but actually become a company. A social business and to spread the word and get bigger and get more people involved in local...

Mailbag for May 19, 2016   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/mailbag_image.jpg () Time for the Mailbag! Romy answers three great listener questions followed by a light-hearted full song by Tim Schumack of Detroit.   Full Transcript Thanks for tuning into our mailbag episode. This is Romy and I will answer three of our listener questions.  Let's get right to it… Question #1 From: Melissa Question: How do you pick your guests? Answer: Our guest selection is somewhat process and somewhat random! We are looking for primarily for guests that are social entrepreneurs but we also like to talk to those that are connected in some way.   If they are a social entrepreneur, we then look for a couple of things such as: 1- Do they have an enterprise going (selling some type of product or service) or plan to do so in the near future? 2- Is their social mission focused? 3- Are they willing to talk about what challenges they are or have faced (along with the good stuff). We are trying to have real issues and stories discussed so we can all learn together and inspire 4- Do they have a way to be reached by our listeners/willing .. 5- Would they enjoy some free PR For support systems such as investors, funders, consultants, etc., we are developing niche monthly segments, etc.   Question #2 From: Matt B. Question: Where do I put my environmental cost savings on my profit and loss statement? We know, from our community reports, that our organization helps to save our community $350,000 last year. Answer: Yes, this one comes up a lot. So, the short answer is ‘ you don't put environmental cost savings in dollars on your profit and loss.  Two parts to this answer:  one has to do with cash accounting and the other has to do with environmental social enterprises (or, what some people refer to as triple bottom line businesses). It all has to do with what runs through your bank account and what does not. Part one: Your profit and loss is, essentially, a report of all of the cash that came in from sales of products and services and a list of the cash expenses that went back out of your bank account. The bottom of the profit and loss shows you if you had some left over – or not- at the end of that period. So, the first part of this answer is to anchor on the fact that your bookkeeping, accounting, and financial reporting are tracking monies coming in and out. For the purposes of this answer, we are not going to pay attention to money that you owe or are owed. Just assume we are tracking cash. This brings me to part two of this answer: In general, when you operate a social enterprise that is having a positive effect on the environment, that effect is usually in the form of savings. Your organization is probably reducing a cost somewhere either internally, in your community, or for the broader globe. For example, by using a certain type of packaging for your retail products, you may be reducing the amount of trash in landfills and other toxic ramifications. You may even be saving money locally, such as our friend with this question. Now, this environmental savings effect is real and, most likely, has a dollar value. Here is where the confusion comes in: even though the dollar savings are real, you will not be recording it in your organizations expenses or revenue or on any of the traditional financial statements. Why?  Because traditional financial statements are tracking cash coming in and out of your bank account. The environmental saving dollars are not coming in or out of your bank account. Now, there is a great place to record your environmental savings and reductions and that is on your social impact reporting!  This is the one and only place to record them. As a matter of fact, anytime you are reducing a cost to a government, a local agency, another non-profit, person, or community, you will record those savings in a social impact report. So, let's...

Scott Francisco & Jessica Robinson discuss Pilot Project’s Green Garage Hub – Bonfires on the Move  In this episode, Jessica and Scott Francisco, Director of Pilot Projects, discover a mutual fascination with the unloved city parking garage and explore what a current design for today's urban neighborhood might look like. Pilot Projects' Green Hub concept is an adaptive reuse that reimagines parking structures as vibrant community spaces with parking for bicycles, coworking space, a cafe, and even a rooftop garden with solar panels. Scott and the team partnered closely with a number of community organizations in New York to put this design together, and we hope that a network of parking garages like the Green Hub will eventually be built.   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/SFrancisco_Headshot_BBF-2.jpg ()  http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/greenhubbanner-1.jpg ()        http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Pilot-Projects_GreenHub_2015.jpg () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Early_Green_Hub_Sketch.png ()   Full Transcription: Jessica: Scott, it is so good to talk to you this morning. I have to confess that we are about to dig into one of my favorite topics but it's an obscure one for sure, and that's parking garages. Welcome, and thank you for joining. Scott: Thanks for having me. Jessica: Yeah. Scott, you’re the Director of Pilot Projects out there in New York. I was looking at the website, and I see you guys describe the work that you do focus on people, spaces, culture and infrastructure and certainly parking garages are one of those pieces of cities that we don't often think a lot about and don't appreciate. Thank you again for joining me on this journey today. I'll give a little context here; the reason I love parking garages so much is I spent a ton of time in them when I was managing parking for Zipcar out in San Francisco and had a chance to see lots of different designs and think about the neighborhoods that they were located in. When I heard about the Green Hub project that you guys are working on I just had to hear more. Tell me first a little bit more about Pilot Projects and how Green Hub came to be and what exactly are you thinking about for parking garages today and in the future. Scott: Jessica, we have something in common that’s our love of parking grudges because I also have a bit of history with them. When I was a very young architecture student, I spent a summer doing assessments of parking garages for an engineering firm where we dragged chains around on the surfaces to test whether the concrete was still intact. I spent a whole summer in parking garages in Canada. Pilot Projects is a design company that focused on how infrastructure in all its different variations can support culture and look at the dialect and connections between what we build and how we use the buildings and spaces in a way that has a deep cultural impact. In our neighborhood on the lower side of New York City, there's an old parking garage that was built in 1970. It's one of the most unloved, unlike the looking structure it doesn't seem to contribute anything to this streetscape and yet there it is, and it has space for about 300 cars. It's the kind of thing that we walk by very regularity and would look at it and say, “What could be done with the structure to bring life and vitality to the neighborhood.” We’re also avid bikers and are involved in some bike related projects. One of the first things we thought about is how we could bring bicycling and bike culture into this parking structure. Why has it just for cars? It seems completely out of sync with the way the city is going and the way neighborhoods are embracing bike transportation. Jessica: That's so interesting to me how you're bringing it back from just being a place for...

 Southwest Solutions of Detroit Romy interviews John Van Kamp of Southwest Solutions. John has been the leader and visionary of Southwest Solutions since 1973 and has successfully established a village of partners to address mental health issues. The incredible collaboration and partnering  led initiatives into entrepreneurship and other related systemic change. This is an incredible story of community partnering and change!   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/JVCamp.jpg () John Van Kamp, Southwest Solutions   Read Full Transcript Full transcription Romy: We are here with John Van Kamp at Southwest Solutions in Detroit, welcome John. John: Well, I'm very pleased to be here, thanks very much for coming here. John: And for this interview, I really appreciate. Romy: So, let's first give a feel of what Southwest solutions is. John: Sure, at this point and time we would see that we are a family of agencies that are in partnerships with others, working in Detroit's neighborhoods. Both at the people level and at the place level. But it probably takes a story from the beginning, because when we started we had ten staff and we now have about five hundred. So, it's a story of the evolution that brings sense as to what we are. Romy: Yeah, I really want to unpack this a little bit. Just real quick at a service level, you said you work with people and places in the neighborhoods, is it veterans mostly that you work with or all kinds, right? John: Yeah, it's with all kinds. I mean, we really started in 1972 as a small community mental health agency. It was not long after the Kennedy administration had created the concept of community mental health and it put together a funding model for community mental health, and Monsignor Clement Kern and Rev. Bill Moldwin and Rev. George Veneto, by Faustino Romero, Snoal and others, saw the concept of community mental health and saw the dollars available. They did a lot of work, and we opened our doors in 1972, with a staff of ten and a budget of two hundred thousand. John: So that's where we started. I shouldn't say we because I didn't start until 1973. I started as a grad student from Wayne State in the school of social work, community organizing and placed with the agency. But what attracted me and not only the clinicians but kind of some the community oriented people is that context of community mental health. It started with mental health rather than mental illness. So, the treatment of somebody's mental illness is a key part of mental health but so is housing, so is healthcare. John: So is a job, so is education. All of those things are a part of, if you will, my emotional well-being or my mental health. Romy: Yeah, definitely. John: But community mental health, what they realized is that because of the myths and the stereotypes and the stigma about mental illness, those community values are in a community and people either open them up or don't. John: So they divided the country into catchment areas to implant a community mental health agency in each. So you could work in a community context to have the community open up their values to their brothers and sisters who had a mental illness. So we started at the very beginning. John: Creating a system of care for people with mental illness. What that meant is we came to the table, providing treatment services, but we had to find healthcare. We had to find housing; we had to find workforce development. And in that, some things we partnered, and some things we did ourselves. But when you realize you can create a system of care for a vulnerable population, you could do it for another population. And maybe that's the first evolution of business thinking. Romy: Yeah, right. John: Right? Wow, we could create a system of care for people with mental illness. We can also do it for people who are homeless. John: So we and our partners then created a pretty comprehensive array...

Season 2 –  Better Life Bags Social Enterprise Romy interviews Rebecca Smith with Better Life Bags in Hamtramck of Detroit. Hear the incredible story of how she launched a business of making custom handbags hand-sewn by local women who had previously had cultural barriers to employment. Rebecca shares how she grew, used social media, and created dynamic relationships with her now 16 employees~   http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Pose-5.jpg ()Rebecca Smith of Better Life Bags http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/BLB-58.jpg () Transcription beginning with Fun Fuel: Jentzen: Hey, guys. This is Jentzen with your fun fuel for this episode. Now, today’s fun fuel is going to be about Coach Handbags and the history behind them. The Coach Company was originally created in 1941 by the Coach family out of a small shop in Manhattan. The Coach family had a small team of six, and they were making wallets and billfolds out of leather, and they were doing all these by hand. Five years after the company was created in 1946, the Coach family joined up with a man named Miles Cahn and his wife, Lillian, who owned their own leather handbag manufacturing business. Fifteen years later in 1961, Miles Cahn and his wife ended up buying out the Coach family and making the two companies one company. Now, Miles was amazed at the leather baseball glove and how over time, the leather of the baseball glove becomes more flexible, softer, and more supple. He attempted to mimic that leather in his own leather of wallets and handbags. Through attempting to mimic this, Miles ended up creating leather that was stronger, softer, and more flexible. Now, he also found ways to color the leather. Little did he know that leather itself actually holds color incredibly well. Now, it wasn’t until Miles’ wife suggested to him that they not only make wallets and bags for men but they start creating accessory bags for women. Now, this is when their company really boomed. As the company grew more and more successful, Miles and his wife hired sportswear and fashion designers to add more creative elements to their bags making them even more successful and growing into the famous Coach bags we see around the US today. This is Jentzen, and this was your fun fuel for today’s episode. Romy: Very nice. Thank you, Jentzen. Let’s transition. Please meet Rebecca Smith from Better Life Bags. Welcome, Rebecca to the podcast. Rebecca: Thank you. Thanks for having me. Romy: Now, let’s talk about what Better Life Bags is. Rebecca: We make custom leather and fabric handbags. We manufacture them here in Detroit, Michigan, actually in a little city called Hamtramck which is surrounded by Detroit on all sides. We hire women who have barriers to traditional employment, and they work here in our workshops. Some of them work from their homes. Whatever their specific need is, we try to work with them in that. Then, our customers go on to our website, and they customize and design their own bag. Then, we make it to order for them here and shop. Romy: Social enterprise at its finest. We’ll come back and dig in. Let’s let listeners know where we’re doing this interview. Rebecca: Right now, I’m actually in our workshop. If you hear background noise, it’s a working manufacturing studio. Pretty small, I’d say 1600 square feet. Actually, big to us. We just moved from a 700 square foot space into this space. It feels enormous. We’re right here in Hamtramck. We’re cutting leather, we’re cutting fabric, we’re sewing, we’re shipping, and all today. Romy: For those who might not have some knowledge about the community and the neighborhood of Hamtramck within Detroit, would you mind giving us a feel of the demographics because, in my opinion, it’s incredibly unique. Rebecca: Yeah, it’s super diverse....

Detroit Horse Power founder and equestrian, David Silver, is interviewed by Romy. Learn about the passion for children behind the vision and the expansive potential impact of this great social enterprise! http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/DetroitHorsePower_1.png () http://bonfiresofsocialenterprise.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/63.jpg ()   Full transcript Romy: Let's get started. David, will you first tell us about Detroit Horse Power? Then, we'll dive back into the history. David: Sure. Detroit Horse Power is a nonprofit I started to expand opportunities for kids who live in the City of Detroit by teaching them valuable life lessons through riding and caring for horses. Our long-term goal is to combine this powerful youth development opportunity with vacant land revitalization by building a new urban riding center on some of Detroit's vacant land, the unused space in the city. We've experienced significant population decline over many decades, and it's left a real burden on communities and turning that burden into a community asset. It's a really exciting opportunity for our long-term plans. Romy: That's good. Right out of the gate, we got two really cool social missions. Here we go, the youth development with caring for horses and rehabbing the vacant land. I know you've got a background in horses because we've talked a lot. Will you take us back to how this evolved? David: I grew up as a competitive horseback rider in Westchester, New York. The sport I grew up riding in is called Three-Day Eventing which is actually an Olympics sport. I was fortunate to have a supportive family and a horse of my own. We were able to get a lot of training, traveling, and competing, and setting goals, and working hard to achieve them. It wasn't until later, I ended up taking a bit of a break from horses to make the most of my college experience. I went to Dartmouth. Then, I moved to Detroit in 2012 through Teach for America. As I was seeing the tremendous needs for our kids in the City of Detroit who have so many obstacles stacked against them whether it's unstable neighborhoods or families moving around a lot or not able to meet kids' needs, I saw a real important need for more safe and enriching space outside of school that are giving kids skills that set them up for future success. All of this was going on while space I had from my childhood experience with horses allowed me to reflect on the powerful ways horses have shaped who I am today. Things like the confidence that comes with riding, responsibility for another living being, and perseverance to not give up when things get hard. There’re so many powerful life lessons that horses can teach us. It became a natural next step for me to combine this powerful background in my story with my passion for expanding opportunity for Detroit to use. Romy: That's good. Before we go further into the social mission, what made you think about staying in Detroit to do it because there’re not horses walking around the city? David: It's a unique opportunity. First of all, I feel very fortunate to have been placed in Detroit. I didn't know very much about the city, and I don't have any family in Michigan, but I feel a very strong connection with the City of Detroit and the hardworking people who are doing incredible things to build a strong future for residents. What became the most compelling opportunity, in my mind, is horses combine the research-based therapeutic effects for at-risk youth, among other populations, in need with a large space requirement. They're big animals, and they take up a lot of space. In most cities, that would be a deal breaker because most cities don't have large amounts of open space for a large riding center. In Detroit, that actually really matches a big need that's going to help build a strong foundation for all of the Detroit to have a strong future. Where this wouldn't be possible hardly anywhere...