B Local Series: Stepping into the Right Room with Nathan Stuck of B Local Georgia

Have you ever found yourself in the right room at the right time, and it remarkably changed the course of your life? That's precisely what happens most days to our guest, Nathan Stuck. An unexpected invitation to the B Summit in Amsterdam shifted his career and led him to start championing the B Local movement in Georgia. From his vibrant upbringing across the United States to his philosophy of placing oneself in the right situations, Nathan’s story is a testament to the transformative power of serendipity and proactive engagement through networking.

Nathan’s journey has seen him ignite a spark in the B Local movement in Georgia, growing it from a modest group of eight into a robust community of 30. Learn how his collaborations with Twanna Harris injected fresh energy into the organization, and how an old boss played a critical role in the early stages. From tackling the tricky dynamics of board membership to the importance of a structured approach and delegation, you'll gain a rare insider's perspective into the evolution of B Local Georgia and the significance of B Corp certification in this process.

But don't think that Nathan's impact stops at community building; his knack for networking is truly awe-inspiring. Known for his omnipresence at events, Nathan shares his unique approach to creating significant connections and staying top of mind. Hear about his different experiences and his unyielding passion for connecting people. We wrap up our intriguing conversation by discussing the reimagination of capitalism and the power of fostering supportive relationships which all will be taking place at the B Corp Leadership Development Conference (BLD) in the Southeast  in the fall of 2023. If you've ever wondered about the possibilities that come with stepping into the right room, this episode is your invitation.

BLD Southeast website
B Local Georgia website
B the Change Georgia podcast
Nathan's Ted Talk - TEDxFolsom
Nathan's Book - Happy Monday: Designing Your Dream Career

Board Members
Nathan Stuck, Chairperson - Profitable Purpose Consulting
Scott Sadler - Boardwalk Capital Management
Ceddrick Lovins - BetterWorld Technology
Jake Mosley - University of Georgia
Stuart Wood - Last Bottle Clothing
Zack Godfrey - Benevity
Twanna Harris - Tribal Good
Garrett Warmbein, MBA Board Fellow - UGA
Ally Hellenga, Community Manager
Riley Moran, MBA Board Fellow
Sally Lorimer, MBA Board Fellow

Dirigo Collective Website

Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:12

Welcome to the responsibly different mini series exploring the different B locals around the United States and Canada. B locals are placed based communities of people that are using business as a force for good in their region. B locals are made up of people and businesses that are helping to transform the global economy to benefit all people, community and the planet. Throughout this series, we will hear from different B local leaders in their community and we will learn about the work they are doing and how others can get involved. In this episode, I will be talking with Nathan Stuck, with B Local Georgia.

Speaker 2: 1:00

Welcome, nathan, to the podcast. We are so excited to have you on. I feel like you're one of those people in this community that, like everybody knows but maybe doesn't know very well, so I'm excited to dig into a little bit more of like what makes Nathan Nathan. And for those of you who are listening, if you can't place who Nathan is, think of the guy that's in the room that's always wearing red. And to honor that, nathan and I are both wearing red today for our podcast recording and hence like podcast recording, but we're still assuming everybody can see us, so we're wearing red and we are dressed very well today for you all.

Speaker 1: 1:37

Oh, I have the famous red TEDx jacket that has now become apparently my thing. Between that and the red beard, too, it's like I almost thought about naming my consultant coming in Red beard consulting.

Speaker 2: 1:49

But everybody would have known who you were.

Speaker 1: 1:51

So but yeah, no, it does, it does. Sometimes it gets a little, it gets difficult because everybody knows you, so like, and there's. You know you're not inconspicuous at all, so people come up and be like.

Speaker 2: 2:02

Hey Nathan.

Speaker 1: 2:03

And you're like where's their name tag? Where's their name tag? Who are you?

Speaker 2: 2:07

Yes.

Speaker 1: 2:08

But I don't need a name tag People just like I've met that guy before I remember you.

Speaker 2: 2:12

You just have to wear red, and then people will recognize you.

Speaker 1: 2:15

Yes, somebody asked me that the other day we were whiteboarding and my friend Lavani goes what color? Uh, dry erase marker you want me to use for your section? And I was like, look, lavani, did you just ask me that? Like and the best is, I looked down that day and I was wearing no red and I was like, oh, because I was going to just be like, well, I mean, what am I wearing? Oh, I'm not wearing red. The red marker, please the red marker.

Speaker 2: 2:41

So, nathan, besides the fact that you love the color red, um, tell us a little bit more about you. Where are you from? What brought you to the B court movement? What's your, what's your story?

Speaker 1: 2:52

Um, I was born on a cloudy day in Michigan, no, um, so I was actually born in Michigan, uh, which makes it fun because I have all these connections to all these B court places. Like I'm going to Madison this summer. I lived in Madison when I was one. Um, I go to, you know Southern Ohio and Northern Kentucky a lot. And like, I lived in Evansville, indiana, as a little kid and then I grew up in Miami and then I came here in 2001 for undergrad and I lived out in Vegas for five years after I graduated and I came back. So, like all these places, I'm kind of even Boise Idaho like I, that was my sales territory for three years. So like Idaho for good and Russ and all those people like I, just it's, there's a natural fit when I travel to a lot of these places where I have some sort of connection.

Speaker 1: 3:37

Um, but yeah, I got into the B court movement by I don't want to say by accident, because you know I mean I wrote a whole book about putting yourself in in rooms that you need to be in and giving yourself experiences that might add value to your career later in life, and I went to a B court meeting with net impact club my first year, second semester of my MBA at UGA and it was a um.

Speaker 1: 4:04

It was the company I ended up working for was Jeff Jones and I have Victorian Solutions, still a B corp, working on their second research certification right now.

Speaker 1: 4:09

Now as my client Um and and they came in and they had like eight employees and like we want to certifies it B corp more like I have no idea what you're talking about, but sure, whatever like seem cool and like I was just like mesmerized by Jeff and his wife Alice, and I was like these people are cool, like I want to spend time, like it was just I don't know. They were inspiring and you follow leaders and um, I wanted to work on whatever they wanted to work on. And that semester ended and we kept working on the project and I was like can we keep going when we get back from summer internships? And he was like please, because otherwise this will probably die on the vine and by like January 7th of the next year, basically a year to the day after our first meeting he had offered me a job and I did all the financial operations and operations and all the stuff, for this company is now as 20 employees.

Speaker 1: 4:52

I finished the B corp cert and then 2018, he sends me to by accident, to the B summit, which, for those new to the community, is more of a European gathering of B corps. Um, but it sounded global to us, so I went to.

Speaker 1: 5:07

Amsterdam spent a lot of my boss's money. Um came back and realized we needed to go to champions retreat in New Orleans. Um, begged them for some more money, went to champions retreat and after that I was hooked. I mean, I was just in and I came back, started to be local Georgia. I started the B culture call a guy that things been around for five years. Um, and like, I think our first call was October 18. Well, wow, uh, time flies when you're having culture fun.

Speaker 1: 5:34

Um, so I did that and and just kind of continued to do B corp stuff and just kind of always was in the room. If it was conscious capitalism, if it was go beyond profit, it was. And you know. Then I started podcasting and I've been on like 50 podcasts because I'm like do you want somebody, do you want to hear me talk about B corps? Um, just to anybody that will listen to me talking about B corps. And eventually somebody asked me like, hey, can I pay you to do my certification? And that's when I was like, uh, and my old boss did the most B corp thing ever where he encouraged me to start my own LLC and see if I can grow it, and that took about a year and a half till I sat down in his office less like 11 months ago, right after I got back from building one. Then we made the decision that I think I was ready to fly out of the cage. So here we are and everything's good. I have my first employee and everything all grown up.

Speaker 2: 6:25

Yeah, so tell us more about that. So, um, so you do own your own business and you help people certify for their B corp certification. Are your clients all local to you? Are they all over? Do you have a special, a special type of client that you work with?

Speaker 1: 6:41

You know, I mean I love professional services firms, just cause it's my, my background and I speak that language, and obviously, having a consulting firm. You are a professional services firm and I did my own certification and Advic was a consulting company and so anyway, so I like, I love those, but I've done, um, I've done like a they don't really manufacture, they're more of the sales agent but I've done, you know, like cleaning, like a cleaning supplies company. I've done an accounting firm. I've. I mean we've worked with um, an ACT prep company. Um, it's a really cool company, by the way, I can't wait for her to certify, oh, my God. Um, uh, we've worked with, I mean just across the board, a small like farmer who does popups and and internet sales and the black belt of Alabama, um.

Speaker 1: 7:27

And then I literally was on a podcast with a guy in Heidelberg, germany. I had dinner with him last year when I was in Heidelberg and then he calls me and says so you do B Corp consulting. So now I have a client in Germany, um, and honestly, I had my first. I got my first paid client in Athens, georgia, which is really cool Cause I get to go. Do we do onsite meetings? So I drive to her office, which is like it's Athens, so maybe six minutes if there's traffic, um, and I'll fly out of my house like eight minutes before the meeting starts and scream in. You know I love the city, um, but so yeah, it's expanded beyond just regional. I'd say I mean I love clients in Georgia because I know them. I've done a lot of work in Birmingham, Um, but yeah, I've got we're kicking off with a client and I want to say New Hampshire real soon and then one in Colorado real soon. So yeah, all over the place.

Speaker 2: 8:17

Awesome, awesome. Okay, so let's switch to talking a little bit about Be Local Georgia. You dropped a little bit of a hint there that you helped found the Be Local in Georgia. I'm wondering what's your role now? What was your role? How has that changed and give us a little bit more of the history of how Be Local Georgia was when it started.

Speaker 1: 8:40

Yeah, so I got back from Champions, Actually.

Speaker 1: 8:43

I think, it might have been before we went. No, Scott and I met afterwards. Anyway, at Champions Retreat there was. So Zach Godfrey was there, who was an NBA at the time, who kind of picked up the ball for me. I created some random help us prepare for our audit project to keep some B-Corp momentum going. And then Zach just took it to a whole different level where he was going to get funding from the school. And so Zach came to New Orleans, got funding to go to New Orleans and Jake was there from UGA and Zach's running around like tracking down Georgia B-Corps where he's like trip Pomeroy's here from Cafe Campesino and you're like who is trip Pomeroy? Fun fact, I just went to visit trip down in America's Georgia a couple of weeks ago, Like anyway, so there's five of us there and we ended up having Sazarex at the Roosevelt. I saw the receipt somewhere. It's over here somewhere.

Speaker 2: 9:34

What are Sazarex?

Speaker 1: 9:37

It's like in New Orleans, old fashioned, If I can. Okay, yeah, Now I'm like killing me. I'm like where is that? I know that receipt's over here. Anyway, don't get distracted, Nathan. It's like, pardon me while I look for this receipt. So that was like our first like. I have the receipt and I wanted to find it because it does say B-local Georgia at the top, because I reimbursed those drinks or I expensed them.

Speaker 1: 10:01

And I came back and met with Scott Sadler and we were like, dude, we need to do this. Scott loves the joke that he's not the co-founder and I was like, well, he were at the happy hour where it decided we were going to do this, so you get co-founder status. So it just, I don't know. We got a meeting together that first, like probably a month after Scott and I had dinner and we just had B Corp CEOs at the time they were like eight or nine and we met at the newest B Corp down in Clarkson, which is the most diverse square mile in America. It was a refugee staffing agency still around, got acquired, not a B Corp but still sponsoring Build Southeast plant and seed. And we just had dinner. We had one of his, like a Syrian restaurant down the street founded by Syrian migrants. They catered the event.

Speaker 1: 10:44

It was awesome and I just laid out like an eight slide deck of like here's why you're all here, here's what I want to grow, here's what I want to do. And everybody was emphatically in and my old boss, to his credit, like funded a lot of that early stuff when I was like I'm doing an event at Sweetwater Brewery, he's like how much. So he kind of helped bankroll us at the beginning and it just slowly grew and I just kept doing events and going and speaking and doing quarterly events and doing a UGA event and keep the momentum going up there, but just wanting to keep the momentum. So we started doing an annual event and Athens that we still do this day and it just kept. It just kept building and building and building and you know, went from eight to 12. And I remember we couldn't get past like 16 and then we're 20. And now I think we're at.

Speaker 1: 11:30

We got up to 24 and we had one company get acquired, so we went back down to 23. We have another one where it's official. We just can't announce it yet. Time this podcast comes out, it will be announced. Yeah, we'll be at 30 by the end of the year. So it just continues to like blow me away that I mean we have classes at UGA and Emory and trying to get into, had a meeting literally two days ago with a with an entrepreneurship lecture at Morehouse, Also trying to work with our HBCUs to bring B Corp curriculum there, and it's just I don't know that I ever envisioned this when I started it a little alone that I'd also have my own company. I think I was just trying to I don't know be a connector and the connecting led to some amazing stuff.

Speaker 2: 12:18

Cool, I love that. Okay, so you mentioned a little bit about the culture down in Georgia for the B Corp community and I'm wondering if we can dive into that a little bit more. It sounds like the culture is pretty strong and that a lot of people are involved, but I'm just wondering for those of us who maybe have never been to Georgia myself included or don't know the B Corps that are down there, what's the culture like? What's the community like? How do you all stay connected?

Speaker 1: 12:49

Who? Well, I'll burst some bubbles. I don't play the banjo, I don't own a spittoon and my partner is also not my cousin. So there you go. Myths dispelled about the American South. Great, let's see.

Speaker 1: 13:10

Honestly, the culture, especially Georgia, is awesome, like I mean, it is a I love, like the only reason I don't live in Atlanta is because I love Athens and everybody moves to Atlanta and Athens has this perpetual circle of, like this really beautiful university with like $100 million, like indoor training facility for our back to back national champion football team, but then, like, the county is the poorest per capita in the state. So you're like, oh um, so I like refuse to leave. And there's another up and coming B Corp startup that is in all the accelerators in Atlanta and she lives down the street from me and we're, you know we're we both think the same way about not wanting to leave Athens, because we want to build the Athens, we want to see and create opportunities for students that do love Athens and want to stay, to stay and have good jobs and that type of thing. So anyway, that's an aside to explain that I love Atlanta, I love the, I love the, the culture there and the diversity there, and it's uniquely. I mean Twana tells the story better than I do, but Twana Harris and I have collaborated on a bunch of stuff and we're always working together. She's on the B local Georgia board and she talks about coming up here from North Florida as a kid, spending the summer here, I think, with her aunt and being like.

Speaker 1: 14:33

It's the first place where I saw black wealth and I knew when I, as soon as I could, I was moving to Atlanta and like. So Atlanta is this like unique place where, like I mean, I had that reputation as the city too busy to hate. There's a lot of, there are a lot of examples of like intentionality, working like when they built the airport, who they did the contracts with and you know, you go back into the seventies and some of the mayors of Atlanta like it's, it's, it is a center of black excellence and I think that culture has been as permeated through to the rest of the state. So Atlanta just has this like energy and this, like this vibe to it of like abundance and people trying to collaborate don't get me wrong and they're just going to run into examples of scarcity mindset, but like some of the some of the stuff that's happening down here with, like, joey Womack at Goody Nation and what they built at the gathering spot and a BAM Joiner with Atlanta, influences everything. I mean just some, just some, really, really, really.

Speaker 1: 15:34

The Russell center, which was Herman Russell who helped build that airport and his legacy now is this, the Russell Innovation Center for entrepreneurs. This that is a black startup focused accelerator space meeting gathering spot. I mean it is just, it is an incredible. There's. There's some really cool stuff happening that you know. I think our reputation sometimes makes it seem like it's this backwards place but in reality, like, if you talk about, like the forefront of DEI and community building and inclusive business is happening in Atlanta, is happening in Georgia.

Speaker 1: 16:13

So I'll come check it out and we use y'all a lot.

Speaker 2: 16:16

I started using y'all a lot too. That's great. I'll fit right in.

Speaker 1: 16:19

The best is when you, when you drop an all y'all, all y'all, yeah, all y'all is a good one. By the way, the apostrophe goes after the A in y'all, so it's Y apostrophe, all y'all. Oh, okay, yeah, there you go.

Speaker 1: 16:33

There's your fun fact of the day Fun fact for the day, I'm going to out myself and probably get my Southern card canceled. But I don't really like sweet tea, it's like sugar water. Oh man, but some Milo's lemonade, oh, shout out to Milo's and Birmingham. One of these days I want to make them a B.

Speaker 2: 16:50

Corp. We'll be here when you do. Okay, so give me some more of, give me more about Georgia, in the sense of who are the B Corps that are there, and I'm really wondering, like you mentioned, that you all have this like great diversity in Georgia and I want to know, like, what are the conversations with the B Corp players in Georgia that are involved in the conversations and what are you all learning and doing and growing from that? Maybe some of the other B locals who don't have the diversity that you all have right now, how can we learn from what you're doing? Thank you, thank you make our communities, our states, more inclusive, so people know like they're welcome here too.

Speaker 1: 17:44

Intentionality putting yourself. Anastasia Simon was on my podcast recently and that clip was just on LinkedIn this morning and I love the. It's a clip where she's talking about, like you know, sometimes with networking we're looking for people immediately that can add value, like can they buy from me? Can they, you know? Or for, in her case, the tech stars, like you know, do they make sense in our cohort, like you know, and it's like versus just talk to people man Like don't be looking for value all the time. What can I get out of this person? What can I like just talk to people that look interesting and don't look like you and that you want to meet and like see where you can add value to them and their lives and their careers and their businesses, and like just build trust. Like I think I think we go into it looking sometimes too much for like we need to check a box for this or we need something this and we need that, and it's like just kind of go in and just kind of just be present and be, you know, and add value and don't look for anything in return, and I think you know I mean for me, that's built me a lot of trust. You know that I mean I was at the Russell Center on Tuesday, like all these places that like welcome me with open arms and see me doing the work, and I don't really that's probably the most I've ever talked about it. So I think that's a big piece is, like you know, you got to be in the room first and you've got to demonstrate your intentions and that you're just kind of there and what you're looking to do, and I think that goes a long way. But then the intentionality too, of like making sure, like you know, how do you, how do you start to, once you've built that, like, how do you? You know, like Levani is on my board Now. She also teaches entrepreneurship at Morehouse. How do I, how do we work together to bring a B Corp class to the AUC Morehouse, clark Spelman, how do we? How do we? How do we do that? You know I just the call I was on right before this was the Fayetteville State University, another HBCU up in North Carolina. How do we? You know, and we're talking about potentially me guest lecturing, potentially a spring B Corp class.

Speaker 1: 19:54

I don't know, we're kicking we're. You know we're kicking the tires on some things right now, but you're just having those conversations, and not even necessarily that it's a long play, just so that it's a. It doesn't need to be a play, it just just needs to be authentic and just needs to be looking to connect and looking to help. And you know, if right now I mean even in the business community if right now the B Corp piece doesn't make sense, like just make friends, invite them to the event, like connect them to somebody who might be a potential source of funding for them, you know, have those VC friends in your pocket that you know are legitimately impact VCs and not just wrote another website, you know. So I think that's it. It's just like I think we need to stop like trying so hard and just do a little more like authentic, connecting and finding common ground and meeting people and having conversations and you know, and just kind of, just again, not a slow play, not a long play, just not even a play, just being and being present.

Speaker 2: 20:54

Mm-hmm, hearing you talk a little bit about the B Local Georgia and the work that you're all doing, it is making me think. Can you give me a little bit more of the background of, like, the structure of the board? Like how many people are on it? Are they chairs? Are they committee members? Like, what does your board look like? Do you meet once a month? Do you meet bi-weekly? Is it a formal meeting? Is it come being whatever and bring whatever you want to bring? Like what is, yeah, what are your gatherings look like?

Speaker 1: 21:27

We've gotten a lot more formal. I'd say the first couple of years was a board that I mean. That's it that I did. Some of it I take and that's some of it, a lot of it I take to blame on, because at the beginning it was me pushing up hill both ways in the snow. But you don't have snow. Oh yeah, what we do? We shut it down. I remember that Snowpocalypse 2014, or the 13th yes, january 2014. Anyway, stop.

Speaker 1: 21:54

Nathan Focus. Everybody did make fun of us for that. So it was me, though, doing a lot of the lifting, and not necessarily I don't think I had found myself either necessarily as a leader, like on delegation, on trust, on giving you know even the things I picked up on my job at Advoc, doing like a thousand disc trainings and predictive index of like realizing people's like what they're gonna be good at and how to set them up for success in that role. So, yeah, I mean and it's not like we were failing, we were getting everything done. And you know I had a really awesome marketing director, committee chair that you know built out the website and got us linked in and got us on Facebook that I really haven't used in three years because I put in a Facebook. So it's gotten more structured. It's gotten a lot more structured.

Speaker 1: 22:46

Last year we did our first board retreat, but again, the nice part about social good fund is it's an advisory board, so we're not like boxed in by like oh, we have to have these formal term limits in this and that like technically the board and a fiscally sponsored board is the board of the sponsor. So my advisory board, like Zach Godfrey, has basically been on it since day one. Jake Mosley has been on it since day one. Scott Sadler, who the co-founder who says he didn't co-found anything he has been on it since day one. I've been board chair since day one and we're starting to think about things of like what does this look like five years from now? But I don't know that. We're at a spot where it's it would be healthy to transition. But then I've also added board members, so and we've had some. Like you know, bre Decker was on our board. She moved to California. Apparently she's moving back to.

Speaker 1: 23:33

Alabama. Anyway, I'm really excited I miss Bre.

Speaker 1: 23:36

But, you know I do like hey, you don't even live here anymore, do you mind if I take you up these meeting invites? And then we had a couple others where it just seemed like maybe they were not checked out. But like I learned I have to check in with some of these board members too. Like you've been on this board for a while. We're grateful, like do you need to roll off? Like cause I'm okay with, like you're not going to hurt my feelings, cause I get it, I'm on like way too many boards. And sometimes you're like when is my board term end, from love of God? So having those conversations being productive, when you see somebody's kind of checked out, like hey, you're, like we're great, like you don't have to, like, like You're not gonna hurt our feelings and we're still gonna high five you and thank you and hug you and invite you to every event. So starting to learn like when's the right time to do that when you don't have formal board terms. But then also like bringing new energy into the board, like when a couple was it three years ago we were Cedric Lovens, who is at Better World Technologies. He's not even at a b-corp anymore, but he still like brings, brings the energy and he's there every month and till text me afterwards Do you need help with this, do you need help with that? So he'll show up. I'll MC that event, you know.

Speaker 1: 24:44

And then we added last year, I added Twana because we were starting to do more work together and I was like 20, you need to be a part of this, this board, like you need to be a part of this community on a regular. And she went to chin and from there it was like she was at champions retreat. Now I feel like the whole b-corp community just want Harris. That is funny because a lot of people will like, like Adrian Gordon jokingly says all the time, she's like sometimes when I'm feeling very introverted, I'll stand next to Nathan so I just meet everybody that he knows. I Was expecting like I'll show Twana a good time and make sure she meets everybody to one gone. She's gone, like she's off. Oh, I went to this happy hour and then I'm at this one and it and have you met, so-and-so, and I was like God bless, 20 more. I should ridden, I am.

Speaker 2: 25:30

Well, twana was on the responsible different podcasts before you were, so that's where to God I To.

Speaker 1: 25:39

I had to reach out to bring it be like, hey, you know, I've never met a podcast, I didn't want to be on anyway. No hard feelings, but yeah. But we had a Twana. And then this year I had a friend who was running well, lavania, who I've mentioned multiple times. She was running, she was the executive director of G sick and that contract was expiring. So when she told me she's like I don't think we're gonna renew and blah, blah, blah, I'm just been too busy to do everything. I'm like, well, do you want a lower commitment on be local George's board? And she's like, yes, I'm in.

Speaker 1: 26:14

So like, literally, we whiteboarded the other day, I'm like, my vision for be local Georgia, where it fit in with what she does and her company and her job at Morehouse, and like all these different pieces. And that was literally how we spent six hours of our life along with Another company who's certifying as a B Corp and where she wants to go and how B Corp's playing into all of this and this ecosystem that we're building. So like, yeah, I mean we're, we're, I'd say we're growing up before Our eyes like we. You know it's like most, but you know, I think you know it'd be local Texas, so a completely different approach. Where they came in and like they have all these chairs and everything's buttoned down and I'm like, yeah, we'll figure that out later. I think it also speaks to, like, the founders vision of like I'm not a detailed person, so I didn't really care, like, and it's not a right or wrong, I'm not knocking Texas like some people. If you're a detailed person, running it like I have would probably Stress you out like it.

Speaker 2: 27:06

It totally is stressing me out.

Speaker 2: 27:07

I'm like Nathan, but how do you?

Speaker 2: 27:11

So my follow-up question is Tell me about the work that you all are doing, because From my time on B local Boston and then like what I know of some other B locals around the region, they have the event chair and they have the engagement chair and they have the operations chair and People are very much in their lane and they do their work and they ask other committees to help them.

Speaker 2: 27:37

So if they're planning an event, everybody's helping, but the event chair is like the sole leader of planning that event. And what I'm picking up a little bit from you, what you're saying, is it sounds like your board members are very Involved in the work that's closely tied to the work of their B Corp. And I would say Again, like that's not the past knowledge that I've seen on B locals, it's like you have maybe like a marketing manager of a B Corp helping with marketing but then like the head marketing person maybe is at a tech firm. So Give me more information and like explain to me about the work that you're doing and how People are like filling those roles and do you all just like work together. What a, what a weird concept working together.

Speaker 1: 28:30

Yeah, I mean, and this year it's funny because we have started to get more Like somewhat committee focused. I mean, diane Peeples was our marketing chair forever, but that was probably the only chair we had. And then Amanda Schaefer was like I'll do events chair, and so like man, and we did like two or three events with a man in charge and like she'd be there, she'd rope her partner and setting up with her, just like he's like I'm just here for the ride, just what more ice? All right, I'll be back, like you know. And he like I mean it was. But and then, of course, right after the third Event, she's like, hey, I have big news. And I'm like, and they had just gotten married. I was like, is there a baby on the way? And so like she stepped off the board and she was like this way, she was so like afraid to tell him like Congratulations, like don't worry about be local, georgia, let me know. And the baby's old enough that you can come to an event again. We'd love to have you. But she said that foundation For like real me realizing the beauty of like I'm bad at details, like here's the event, here the logistics. I didn't pull the last one off with the caterer. I was proud of myself.

Speaker 1: 29:41

But now Ali Helenga, who was at creature and is now at Chick-fil-A, she's taken on that role. She just left creature, which is a b-corp, and she's like do I have to step off the board? Ali, if you're listening, I hope you know that you're still on it. You love details, so anyway. So, but we had, you know, ali stepped into that role. And then I've got an NBA board fellows from UGA who I meet with him, like, what do you want to do? So we had one who just finished his to your NBA, who Took on a lot of the marketing duties and like and then the two that joined last year, who'll be going into their second year? They created a marketing con, like a content calendar, and they, garrett, created the newsletter. And so now we so now all I get is an email going like, what do you want to put in the newsletter? You know who's our b-corp of the month, who's this? And so it's.

Speaker 1: 30:29

I mean it's Again, it's growing up before our eyes and starting to get there, like Tawana was. Like I'll take on the Jedi work and making sure that you know what we're doing and what our strategy is. And Because I'm passionate about that work, but I shouldn't be the one doing that work, I should be the one supporting that work. So I don't know it's starting to get a lot more formal. But yeah, events sometimes I mean, there's still an element where I'm like I reluctantly say like yes, sometimes it is still like, hey, here's what we're doing, here's our plans, and then, but I think the board retreat was good last year and even you know Zach wants to move to doing more regular events, and so I think what we're gonna do this year is I don't wanna saturate our events where you're doing one a month and then people kind of like, well, there's one next month, and then you know the value of the networking of like who's in the room, the CEOs, the founders, like those people stop coming and then you end up with just a bunch of students who are eager to learn more about vCourses great.

Speaker 1: 31:33

But we're gonna probably stick with quarterly networking events but move to. We already do a quarterly trash cleanup in Athens, where we adopted a highway, because I'm, the well as of two weeks ago, I'm no longer the board chair of Keep Athens, clark County, beautiful. I'm just back to being a board member, but I adopted a highway for B Local Georgia. And then in Atlanta there is a community farm in a community called Mechanicsville, run by a friend, erica, so Umi feeds Umi is her name. Like she runs Whitehall Terrace Community Gardens and I volunteered there a bunch. My old company. I used to set up volunteer days for us and so we're gonna make that our other quarterly projects. So we'll have an event a month, but two of them will be service and one of them will be networking and content and that.

Speaker 1: 32:22

So and I'll probably see if, like, can we get a volunteer chair next, Like, who can we, you know, do to kind of help run those events? So it's happening, but I, you know, and being on a lot of boards too, and you know this, like, sometimes it's and it's not a knock, by no means is it a knock. It's. You recognize that it's a volunteer board and you recognize that some of your volunteers you know I don't have kids, Like you know, I'm not going to baseball practices. I'm not, you know, or I don't have a newborn Like. So, like, sometimes it is easier for me to work from 10 to midnight to knock something out and make sure that the event bright is ready and the canvas graphic was made, and so trying to delegate more of that, but also trying to maybe it's part of me just trying to, like take work off other people's plates. I don't know, maybe I'm having some like serious life reflections right now. Like, do I need to delegate more? Am I just falling on a sword? Like am I?

Speaker 2: 33:17

I don't really know what that is hey, no, no, no, no, no, no, be local, george is doing great.

Speaker 1: 33:21

Do I need to lay on an couch right now? Are you my therapist?

Speaker 2: 33:25

Okay, let's, let's turn this and keep the energy flowing, the higher energy, going. Bld Southeast is right around the corner. It feels like it's going to come up tomorrow. It's not tomorrow, it's in September. Give me some details about BLD Southeast. What can people be excited for? Why should our podcast listener in Northern Maine make the flight down to Southeast for this build?

Speaker 1: 33:55

You know I mean. Well, first of all, let me, let me shout out to people because, like Christy Tisdale and Mel Hubner have been like moving mountains. I mean the rest of the executive is great Adrian Wanny, jackie Beth, like everybody's been doing a lot of work but, like Christy and Mel deserve a serious shout out because, yeah, it's a lot of work, holy cow, wow, why do I do this to myself? I told Christy in an email yesterday, said this is the part of conference planning where I will never plan a conference again. But then on September 23rd, that Saturday, when it's over, I will be hey, do you guys want to set up a meeting so we can start planning 2024? So we're in it right now. It's going to be awesome. I am incredibly excited. I am not shocked. I knew this was going to happen.

Speaker 1: 34:42

I'm a little bummed that our capacity is capped at 225, because I'm telling people now like, if you'd like, I mean I have some regular community I'm like, buy your ticket. I did the count last night, speaking of working at late into the night. We're trying to get all the speakers and sponsors and everything added right now. So it was a late evening and I think our official count right now is that we have 64 tickets left to sell. And that account includes we have 10 student volunteer tickets, nine still available. And then we're doing an HBCU ticket slash travel stipend. So we're going to do 10 HBCU students, we have a form, they can fill it out and then we give them $500 to travel to Raleigh. If they're not local, if they're local, we're going to figure something out that works. But so we've got Fayetteville State, we've got Winston Salem, we've got Fisk and Nashville, we've got the AUC in Atlanta, miles College in Birmingham.

Speaker 1: 35:38

So, anyway, we're trying to get, you know, thinking about long-term systemic change to the sustainability industry too, of like, how do we intentionally look upstream, where you know, five, 10 years of like and I'm totally, with permission, borrowing the idea from HBCU force Tiffany Spencer, who just had her conference, dreaming in color, which is trying to do the same thing in the Salesforce ecosystem of like, how do we get college students at HBCU interested in a career in technology and so kind of the same thing? How do I, you know, and it's like, let's bring some B-Corp curriculum, let's expose them to this community and let's be, you know, going back to that intentionality question. So anyway, so that was a lot and didn't answer your question. The conference is going to be great, so we have an event Thursday night. We have a little a couple of optional excursions Thursday afternoon, then Friday we go all day, and then Friday night we have kind of a celebration. Julie Fanon stocks coming from New York City, which terrifies me because that means there will probably be an after party.

Speaker 2: 36:35

And it will go straight into Saturday morning.

Speaker 1: 36:37

Might just want to book, like a Saturday afternoon flight home. So but I mean the content itself. We've got really great speakers. It's very interesting doing a regional event because you're trying to make sure you also have regional diversity and that it matches kind of your B-Corp population as well. So getting speakers in from Kentucky and Tennessee and the Mid-Atlantic and you know the triangle, asheville, georgia, you know Alabama, you know New Orleans, florida, like making sure that we're hitting all these pockets that are considered kind of at least for this conference, our region, so making sure we have that.

Speaker 1: 37:11

You know we have a panel on being intentional. So you know, buying from other B-Corps and, like you know, not only as individuals but as like businesses, how do we source, how do we like keep this, that dollar in the community? We have an impact investing panel. That sounds I probably will change the name it's not impacted. It's all the way from, like, to leave from Birmingham who does a black and bankable workshop, like it's all the way from getting bankable to exiting where so big path capital will be on there. You know, like so we'll have the full game at NFC and everything.

Speaker 1: 37:42

We're going to have a panel called diversity and action, embracing the hard work, so what you know, thinking intentionally about those long-term. You know what does this look like five, 10 years from now? And let's start acting towards that and kind of like the next step after the last three years where it's like great work, everybody, but now like we really need to roll up our sleeves. We're going to have a networking hour, so just all the B-Corp network, so we the change, the BIPOC network, white men for racial justice, b2b B-Corps, b-culture and talent, collective B-Academics we have all of them there. Everybody gets a pit.

Speaker 2: 38:15

How would you just remember all of those?

Speaker 1: 38:18

I'm on like half of them. I'm on the B-Culture and talent collective. As my baby, I'm on the board of B-Academics. Yeah, I'm on the planning committee for B2B B-Corps.

Speaker 2: 38:29

I need some new hobbies.

Speaker 1: 38:31

And then in the afternoon, I mean we go into just some really cool stuff too. We have a building the movement panel, which will be a main panel, just kind of like how we do this in the South and not in a bad way. But like you know, I mean we all know what's happened in the state South of me right now and that's creeping, and it's in Texas and it's creeping kind of everywhere of like don't say DEI anymore. Like how do we build this movement, how do we keep doing the work and how do we not get caught in the crosshairs? We have a panel on social impact burnout. We have a panel for more just kind of directed towards action. So action to change start locally, like people that have run for office, people that are on nonprofit boards, like how to just get involved and instead of being overwhelmed by all the world's problems, we have a really exciting. I just ask people.

Speaker 1: 39:19

So like I met Kate Williams and I told her about Build Southeast and I was like Kate, you wanna come down? I bet I can get Jorge. Y'all could do like fireside chat. So Kate's the CEO of 1% for the planet. Kate was like how do you make that? And then she's like okay, I juggled some airfares around, I'll be there. And then I ran to Jorge and Amsterdam because where's my invite? I'm like I'm following the rules. I filled out your form.

Speaker 2: 39:41

I did everything I haven't heard back.

Speaker 1: 39:43

So, jorge, and over in Amsterdam, I was like, by the way, I got Kate Williams, so I'm guessing you're in for that fireside chat. So we have a fireside chat before our keynote, and our keynote will be Fenwick Brogier from Creature Comforts and Athens, who, I like to say, delivers sermons. He's just I mean, he's just a passionate like you will be out of your seat by the time he's done talking. I've heard him speak in Athens and you like his voice, like raises and raises, and raises and raises, and you're just like, what do you? Yeah, come on. Like let's go do it. And you're like, where's the wall that I run through? I'm like the Kool-Aid man right now, like I just need to run through a wall.

Speaker 1: 40:16

So Fenwick will deliver the keynote and then we're going to party and I'm sure I'll say something at some point. But I was going to do keynote and I was like I'm planning, I don't want to do keynote too, and then nobody wants to hear the event plan or do the keynote. It's kind of cheesy. So so I talked Fenwick into it.

Speaker 2: 40:32

I will say I was very excited to come down for the conference and now I'm even more excited to come down for the conference. So thank you for the very detailed overview.

Speaker 1: 40:45

Very, the very detail. We didn't need that much detail.

Speaker 2: 40:48

Nathan. No, it's great because now, by the time this podcast probably comes out, the ticket number will be down to like 30 or 20. So if you're listening to this podcast, act now, go get your ticket. I will see you at the build Southeast because Diego is going to send a few team members, so we're excited to be there as well. So, nathan, I've had a blast talking with you, but we were coming up on a on some time here, so I want to ask you a few more questions, a little bit more about you and what it's like being Nathan who travels the world and networks and knows somebody everywhere.

Speaker 2: 41:27

And I guess, when I'm asking you this question, I have our listeners in mind, and a lot of our listeners are those young professionals that are just getting started in their career. Maybe they're at a great company, maybe they're not, maybe they're trying to get to the next point in their career. And I always hear people say like networking is so important, and I really think that you hold networking to be like the number one, most important thing. I mean, every time I see you on social media, you're like I was here networking with this person and it's very obvious, like even as you're telling your stories on this podcast. You're bringing in so many names of people that are helping you along your journey, grow and expand, and I think that's awesome, so I guess my quote to wrap that into a question. My question is why is networking so important to you? What's the value that you see out of it?

Speaker 1: 42:23

I love that my disease infected you and now you're a woman of many words. I think it goes back to the question you asked too about like that. You know we were talking about intentionality and like showing up and just being there. I've gotten kind of a reputation as the guy who's just there and yeah, I mean there's some, you know, I mean there's an expense to it. But you know, even when I was at Ad Vic, there was like I was investing in my future. I was investing in some of my brand. I was also occasionally bringing in a deal for the company even though I wasn't in sales. But they were like wait, nathan, that company does Salesforce implementations and so I could meet people and we ended up doing business and I was just there to like hang out and talk B Corpse. But I've been doing it for years now and last year it really took off.

Speaker 1: 43:08

And then this year I remember being in Amsterdam and standing somewhere like in the middle of the Be For Good Leader Summit and Jorge walks out and just goes what are you doing here? And I just turned to him. I said I don't know, I have no idea. I was just in Madrid and I saw that this was happening. So I changed my travel around and I'm here now in the red jacket.

Speaker 1: 43:28

So you know, but I think a lot of it. It's like I don't go into any of those meetings or any of those things really looking for anything. And I feel like a lot of people go in to networking situations like trying to count business cards how many business cards did I get? You know? Who did I meet? And they're looking past you as they're talking to you because you're trying to see if there's somebody more important in the room that they need to break away from you. And I just kind of go in because I just like meeting people, I just kind of interested in hearing your story and where you're from, and people love to talk about themselves too. So you get people rolling, like me.

Speaker 1: 44:02

Like sometimes I have to catch myself because good networkers. All of a sudden I'm like oh, you're doing what I do, you're just letting me talk. So I'm like nice, nice, attempt, tell me about you. So I think that's the magic, though is like you just just being likable, and you know, then people want to like oh, nathan, does you know B Corp consulting this company's thing? Well, let me send them over to you. So like it all like works itself out. But you don't go in really looking for that, I just go. I mean I don't know that I've done any business in Cincinnati, but I've gone the last two years and I've really enjoyed meeting everybody and becoming a part of that B Corp community and same thing with Idaho.

Speaker 2: 44:39

I was like I just going on.

Speaker 1: 44:40

My, it was my weaponized anniversary trip and I emailed Russ Stoddard and, like Ann Wilson, and I'm like I'm coming, and so next thing, you know, russ is playing a happy hour and like people playing happy hours when I'm there, berlin B local Germany playing a happy hour while I was there.

Speaker 2: 44:57

Like you want to say a few words.

Speaker 1: 44:58

I'm like can I do it in German? So like it's just, it just kind of happens. Naturally, I think when you put just good energy out there and you show people love and you genuinely care about them and you want to see them be successful and you follow up and I mean when I'm meeting people, all I'm thinking about is like who do they need to meet? You know? And like these bells go off and I'll pull my phone out and be like sorry, I'm emailing myself right now. I need to introduce you to somebody I don't want to forget.

Speaker 1: 45:29

And then when you get you know, three hours later, when you get back to your hotel room or whatever, and boom, that intro is in their inbox. Like you're going to stay, you're going to be remembered as like wow, like that's intense, versus you meet a lot of people and like you never hear oh, let me get your card, I'll follow up with you you never hear from them ever again. So I think there's a lot of that. So if you can be that person who actually does follow up even if it's just that it was great meeting you, making sure that you connect on LinkedIn so you stay front of mind, you build your network, like just you know, be intentionally, intentionally good.

Speaker 2: 46:03

I love that. All right, nathan. Well, we have gone all over the map Georgia Florida. Anyways, nathan, is there anything else that you wish to enlighten and share with our audience before we wrap this up?

Speaker 1: 46:21

No, I think you know I mean I love this community. I think everybody knows that I'm grateful for this opportunity to come on. I appreciate you having me. It's been great getting to know you over the last really like two years, as we got to know each other in those build planning calls and now we're like old friends, you and Ben, and it's like it's just fun to see your face and watch your success.

Speaker 1: 46:42

And yeah, I just hope everybody, like you know, come to build Southeast. You know, come down if you're ever in Atlanta. Like some people from Climate First Bank are coming up next week. Like I'm happy to try to set something up or plan something or get you out, get you to a happy hour, like meet some of the community, so like, whatever I can do, and obviously keep your your your eyes on your inbox because you might get a note from me saying I'm coming. But yeah, I just, I just continue to all be intentionally good and let's all support each other and do business with each other and open doors for each other and and reimagine capitalism. I think that's what we're trying to do, so we can do it together.

Speaker 2: 47:19

I really love that. What a great note to end on.

Speaker 1: 47:22

Just plug them. Just plug them. My Ted talk really Still watch that.