[00:00:00] Money Secrets Intro
This episode is one part of a series unpacking my brand campaign, Peachopoly. I cannot wait to share the behind the scenes of how we pulled this crazy thing together. You're going to be hearing from everybody who was involved in the campaign, because I wanna really show what goes into creating something like this. I really hope you enjoy.
Fi
We are back with another episode talking about my campaign, Peachopoly, where I showcased real clients of mine working through real business challenges, but in a little bit of a different way. We built and designed a life-size game board. We created four different worlds: money making, money management, money psychology, and impact making, because those are the areas that I help my clients in.
And what I wanted to [00:01:00] showcase in this campaign is that small business can be really fun even when it's hard. I hope you're enjoying the episodes and these little behind-the-scenes snippets that we're showcasing on the podcast. And today I'm here to talk about episode four, which is impact making. So of course, I invited one of my all-time favorites, Richard Seymour from Mount Zero Olives, to work through this challenge with me.
So Richard and I have worked together for, I think it's nearly 15 years now. Um, the origin story of my business actually started when I met his mum at Mount Zero in the olive grove in the Grampians, and I became her first client, and the rest is history. Rich and I have worked through so many different things.
Um, we've worked on the Mount Zero marketing, business strategy, the finances. The business has grown [00:02:00] significantly in that time. The team has grown significantly in that time, and so has the impact that the business is creating. And one of the things that I love about working with Mount Zero is that impact is baked into everything that we do.
It's not a side quest. It's not some marketing spin. It's not greenwashing. It's actually baked into every decision that is made through that business. So now I want you to go and listen to the episode, and I'll come back on the other side to talk about it a little bit more.
Peach-opoly episode #4
Vroom, vroom.
Oh, the impact making zone. Great. Do you reckon we can make a bigger impact? Of course. We've got this. Come with me. Mount Zero is profitable, sustainable, and has an awesome team culture. Impact is baked into your business model, and it's why I love working with you so much. Yeah. We've deliberately [00:03:00] chosen this path over a long time.
For me, impact isn't a side quest. It's the conscious choices that we make that create real impact. For me, sustainability doesn't finish at the farm fence. It's about everything we do. Exactly. You've looked at your whole supply chain from farm to table and made it way more sustainable. You've only ever sold healthy, natural produce, and you've been investing in sustainability and innovation for decades
See, I know you think we're an awesome company doing great things, but surely that's a bit of bias. Yes, I am biased. We think we're pretty special, but maybe it's time to prove it. I like the sound of it. What are you thinking? I'm thinking the next step for Mt Zero is to become a B Corporation. It's time to let somebody else assess what we're doing and whether we can make it any better.
Love it. Time to measure up. I'll make sure the business strategy and [00:04:00] finances align with this plan. It's not gonna be quick or easy, but we'll do it together. Let's get back to the board. We play to win
Fi
So Are you a business that is trying to create impact? And maybe you've been taught that growing your business, growing your income, and growing your impact aren't things that you can do at the same time, but it's absolutely untrue.
From my observation, my perspective, and my experience, which has been the last 26 years working with small businesses, is that income is impact. So when you are a small business owner who is trying to do amazing things for the world like Mount Zero, every dollar of income that you bring into your business becomes impact as you deliver your products and services.
Now, with Mount Zero, they really do have this kind of farm to table mentality. They [00:05:00] think about how the olives and olive oil and some of their other pantry staples, how they're grown, how they are transported, how they are packaged, and how they are then delivered to restaurants and to, you know, people's homes.
They have electric vehicles. They have solar panels on the roof. They have a battery for storage. You know, they've gone so b- far beyond the surface level impact and sustainability things that other businesses do, and it's not tokenistic at all. It's not a side quest. It's something that Mount Zero has chosen really consciously over a very long time.
And some of the impact that we make is small. Like every-- The first Monday of every month, we have a staff lunch where somebody from the team cooks a meal for the team, and it's such a great way of seeing different cultures and [00:06:00] different cuisines and getting together. We also have a really inclusive bonus structure where everybody in the organization is eligible to receive a quarterly bonus if we hit all of our targets.
We have a really diverse team, people from all different ethnicities, cultures, birth countries. It's just an amazing business. But at some point, I've gotta stop waxing lyrical about how amazing this organization is to work for, and we've gotta start thinking about how can we actually let somebody else assess what we are doing.
That's where the recommendation that Mount Zero become a B Corp comes from. And now B Corp, if you're not aware of it, they've been around in Australia for, I'm guesstimating here, maybe 10 to 15 years. I've been following along the whole time. When they first launched into Australia, you couldn't become a B Corp if you were a sole trader, um, or working as a solo in your business, [00:07:00] which is me.
So unfortunately, I was not able to become a B Corp in earlier years. But now that has changed, and I... It's definitely something that I'm looking into as well. And it's something that I plan to help Mount Zero work through over the next year or so, because it's a really rigorous process. And what I really love about it is that it comes at small business from a really wide range of lenses.
It looks at things like supply chain, pay parity, sustainability, economic impact, what kind of clients you work with, who you sell to. It's really, really extensive in terms of how it looks at a business. I have had clients before that are B Corps, and I really love the certification. I love the whole kind of process.
And, um, yeah, so that's something that we'll be working with for Mount Zero. But I suppose if you're listening to this episode and you're thinking, "Cool, but Mount Zero Olives has been around for a long time-" [00:08:00] How the hell can I start making an impact in my business? And it's such a good question to ask.
What are you trying to do beyond making money? Because making money needs to be at the core of what you do because you are a business owner, and money is fuel. It is how you get to deliver your products and services. In Mount Zero's case, that is really high quality olives and olive oil. And in your case, maybe it's really high quality services or product.
Maybe you do things in a really special way. And so you wanna be thinking about the income that comes into your business becomes impact when you turn it into your incredible products and services. When you are improving lives and businesses with your products and services, your income becomes impact.
Some of the things that you can do to add more impact into your business is to start thinking about it. [00:09:00] What I really love is seeing organizations, social enterprises, and regular small businesses doing is declaring what impact they want to make. Thinking about like, what is the impact that I wanna make beyond making money for myself?
Who is it that I wanna create that impact for? How will I measure it? And how will I know that it's happened? There are some things that are really easy to measure, like number of podcast downloads, number of social media followers, number of emails that have gone out, um, as an education through your business.
These are all things that I measure in my impact report. And if you're interested, you can go back to an earlier episode where I talked about my impact report on the podcast. It's something that I measure and report on at least once a year, and it's something that I teach my clients in Good Money Club and my one-on-one clients.
We talk about how to think about impact [00:10:00] and how to measure it, because it's one thing to say that you are led by impact or led by purpose, but it is a whole nother thing to be able to explain what that impact is, what that purpose is, and how you are going about measuring it. Now, this is something that the social enterprise world has been, and the not-for-profit world have been doing well since the beginning of those types of organizations.
So if you're looking for some inspiration, go and think about one of your favorite not-for-profits or social enterprises, and have a look at how they're talking about the impact that they make. I guarantee you, if they're a good organization, they will be sharing their impact on their website, probably even on their homepage.
But we can be doing that as small business owners too, once we actually decide what is the impact that you want to create. Now, the impact you wanna create might be about making change in your industry For example, Mama West is a previous client of [00:11:00] mine. She's a hairdresser, and her mission is about developing the next generation of hairdressers.
So she puts a lot of time and effort and money into training her apprentices to make them as good as they can be in their career. My mission is about getting more money into the hands of good business people, and that is something that I measure through the education that I deliver. But something that I'm also really passionate about is small businesses investing in other small businesses.
So I measure how many dollars I invest into other small businesses who provide me with products and services What are the things that are important to you? Is it something about how you wanna impact your team? Is it something about how you wanna change your industry? Is it something about how you wanna impact yourself and your family?
Is it, uh... Is there an impact goal that you have around your community? Are there certain causes that you're really [00:12:00] passionate about that you'd like to be able to make generous and, you know, regular donations to? Another example of an incredible impact-making organization is Project Rockit, another past client of mine.
So Project Rockit has, for 20 years, worked alongside young people to challenge bullying, hate, and prejudice, and create safer, more inclusive communities. They think about young people as the solution to this problem, not a problem to fix. And what they do is they give young people practical tools to challenge bullying, support each other, and create more inclusive communities, and they see that impact immediately with the school students that they work with every single day.
There are so many examples of small businesses like Project Rockit out there creating a social impact and generating employment, being profitable, having a growing business that supports its team and [00:13:00] is profitable beyond that. And Mount Zero, of course, the person that this episode is about, what an incredible business.
They have a team. They have healthy produce. They sell this incredible Australian produce to really great retailers and hospitality venues, and you can use it at home in your own kitchen. They are... There are so many opportunities for small business owners to create an impact beyond just being profitable.
I don't know if anything I've shared in this episode has been useful, but maybe I've sparked an idea of something that you wanna sort of go a little deeper into in your business. What is the impact you're trying to create? Are you measuring it? How will you know if it's happened? And are you talking about that actively with your customers and in your marketing and sharing with people what it is that you are trying to do in the world?
This episode was [00:14:00] so fun to put together with Rich. He was such a good sport. He wasn't feeling very well on the day, but he still came and gave it his all. And yeah, I really hope you enjoyed us exploring this concept of how do I create more impact, and where do we go from here? I will see you in the next episode
