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Meet Tony Loyd, a Conversation with Host of Social Entrepreneur Podcast, CEO of Culture Shift Companies

In this series of unique episodes, we meet Tony Loyd, host of Social Entrepreneur Podcast and CEO of Culture Shift Companies. We learn about his unique journey, path, and perspective into social entrepreneurship and why he feels it holds so much potential for the future.  And, instead of the usual interview format, in these episodes, we take a “podcaster to podcaster” approach by asking  each other questions and share our honest thoughts about everything from how we became interested in the space, to collaboration v. competition, and the importance of authenticity.

Listen to the Podcast Episodes 


Meet Tony Loyd

Over the past year, Tony Loyd has become a valued thinker, contributor, and facilitator of social entrepreneurship. His path and journey, spanning executive roles at large corporations to coaching leaders and entrepreneurs, along with his personal consciousness journey have led him to not only see immense value in the intersection between entrepreneurship and social impact, but also to find clarity about his role and purpose to support the movement.

His purpose? To help compassionate people gain the clarity, confidence and courage they need to commit to being a changemaker.

Tony Loyd has provided leadership to Fortune 500 and mid-size organizations for over 25 years. He has extensive experience working with senior executive leaders to direct global initiatives that align talent solutions to corporate goals. Through his innovative approaches, he has enabled his clients to achieve significant improvements in processes, productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction while reducing costs and improving bottom line results.

Tony is currently the Host of Social Entrepreneur where he spends his time with changemakers who are making an impact on the world.  Social Entrepreneur has aired over 90 episodes including interviews with Bill Drayton of Ashoka, and leaders at RSF Social Finance, Noora Health, Ogunte, and many more.

Before launching Social Entrepreneur, Tony worked with global brands such as Buffalo Wild Wings, Medtronic, Diversey and John Deere. He has conducted strategic planning, led organizational design, created talent management strategy and conducted high potential development workshops. Tony created the learning strategy and led the start-up and operation of two world-class corporate universities. Tony has directed the development of up to 120,000 personnel in sixty countries. His breakthrough ideas enabled companies to dramatically increase worldwide training participation, while transforming the training organization from a cost center to a revenue neutral operation.

Show Notes

Here are a few articles mentioned in this episode.

 

More About Tony Loyd & Social Entrepreneur Podcast

  • Website: www.tonyloyd.com
  • Value Proposition: “To help compassionate people gain the clarity, confidence and courage they need to commit to being a changemaker.“

More About Culture Shift

 

 

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Meet Solène Pignet, Founder of Creators for Good–Guiding Global Citizens in Sustainable Business

Meet Solène Pignet, a French born business graduate who moved to Turkey and launched an online global consulting firm focused on supporting sustainable business entrepreneurs. She is a facilitator, author, and enabler of social enterprise globally!

Listen to the Podcast Episode 

Meet Solène Pignet

Solène Pignet is a strategist for global citizen entrepreneurs, founder of Creators for Good

A globetrotter, committed to sustainable development and passionate about alternative entrepreneurship, Solène founded Creators for Good in 2014.

Creators for Good offers 1-to1 accelerator programs, to help individuals find and validate their impactful and sustainable idea, launch their own alternative business efficiently, as well as reach break-even rapidly.

 

Show Notes

Here are a few articles mentioned in this episode.

More About Creators for Good

  • Website: http://www.creatorsforgood.com
  • Value Proposition: “Helping value-driven individuals around the world transition from successful-yet-unfulfilling careers to create their own profitable & impactful business.“

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Interview with Valerie Mosley, Investor and Co-Founder of Heart Beings

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Meet Valerie Mosley

Valerie MosleyThis episode of the Innov8social Podcast features an interview with Valerie Mosley, who has achieved a successful career in investing and wealth management and most recently is turning her attention to her inner passion and vision for building a platform to tell and share stories, build community, and becoming a brand around self-love and love for others.  That platform is Heart Beings, and we hear not only her story but also she defines a “heart being”.

Valerie was inspired to start Heart Beings based on the encouragement of her paternal grandmother, Rose “Pumpkin” Mosley, who was a driving force and source of unconditional love. Before launching Heart Beings, Valerie was a Partner, Investment Strategist and Portfolio Manager at Wellington Management Company, a global investment management firm, where she invested billions of dollars through various market cycles and began to observe amazing parallels between managing money and managing life.

Valerie has been selected as one of the most 50 Powerful Women in Corporate America and the Top 75 African Americans on Wall Street by Black Enterprise magazine. Her most prized accomplishment is being mother to her three children.

 

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More About Valerie

 

More About Heart beings

 

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Interview with Kristine Unkrich, Millennial Social Innovator and Educator in Vietnam

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Meet Kristine Unkrich

In this episode of The Innov8social Podcast, we sit down with Kristine Unkrich, a recent graduate from Whitman College and current educator and Lead of Special Projects at Everest Education in Vietnam. She has been motivated by social impact throughout her time at her alma mater, Whitman College, and through various internship and work experiences in France, Indonesia, and currently, in Vietnam. Abroad, she has worked on issues around womens’ rights and education and also interned with an LGBT refugee organization in San Francisco.

Kristine provides perspective on the ecosystem for social entrepreneurship in Vietnam, including information about a new legal structure for social enterprise recently passed in the country. Also insightful are her thoughts on the evolving global workforce as millennials not only enter, but now make up a majority of the working economy. She reflects on her own guiding desire to create social impact in her career and the roles she takes, and also observations of what she has noticed in her peers.

 

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More About Everest Education

  • Website: http://e2.com.vn/en/
  • Value proposition: “Everest Education prepares students mentally and academically for rigors of an international education.”

More About Millennials in the Work Force

  • Fortune article, “Everything You Need to Know About your Millennial Co-Workers”
  • Inc article, “Millennials in the Workforce: They’re More Different Than You Think”
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Interview with Nicolas Hazard, President of CALSO and Vice Chairman of Groupe SOS

Meet Nicolas

This episode of The Innov8social Podcast features Nicolas Hazard, one of the foremost global social innovators, whose roots are in France, but whose impact is resoundingly global.

Nicolas is President of Le Comptoir de l’Innovation (CDI) which supports social enterprises throughout the world via an impact investing fund and an international network of incubators. He also leads CALSO, a non-profit organization based in California, which focuses on workforce development.

Nicolas serves as Vice-Chairman of GROUPE SOS, Europe’s largest social enterprise, which has over 12K employees and a turnover of $1B.
The story of Groupe SOS is a notable one for global social impact, and one that is not nearly well-known enough. In this interview, we dive into Nicolas’ own story, and particularly, the work, history, and reach of Groupe SOS in France, Europe, and globally.

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More About Nicolas

More About Groupe SOS

  • Website: http://www.groupe-sos.org/en
  • Value proposition: “Basing its actions on the fight against different forms of social exclusion, GROUPE SOS has diversified its activities over the years and is able today to provide solutions for people at all levels in society, and especially those with few or no resources.”
  • Background: “With its 12,000 employees and 350 structures, GROUPE SOS is one of Europe’s foremost social and societal undertakings. For 30 years now, GROUPE SOS has been putting economic efficiency at the service of the interests of the general public. In so doing, it provides responses to the issues of today’s society by developing innovative solutions in its five main fields of activity. The actions undertaken by GROUPE SOS influence the lives of over a million people every year.”
  • Key Areas of Engagement – Youth, Employment, Social Inclusion (Solidarity), Health, and Seniors.

More About CALSO

  • Website: http://www.calso.co/
  • Value proposition: “CALSO is a California-based social enterprise that aims to preserve the environment and to break major barriers disadvantaged people face on their journeys to success.”

 

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Interview with Neil Patel, Social Entrepreneur and Founder and CEO of Awaaz.De

Meet Neil

This episode of The Innov8social Podcast features Dr. Neil Patel, a social entrepreneur with a doctorate in Computer Science, who grew up in northern California and then relocated to India in 2010 where he launched and is scaling an innovative impact venture, called Awaaz.de.

Neil Patel

Neil Patel

Awaaz.De connects mobile voice-based technology with a social platform to provide low-cost, voice messages that can be shared with hundreds or thousands of people. Neil has described it as a “voice twitter”.
Awaaz.De originally focused on working with small farmers in rural Gujarat, a state in the central India, to enable the sharing of best farming practices and agricultural information.
The company’ has scaled and grown, won a number of awards, has facilitated over 4M calls to 400K people, is now in 6 countries, 9 languages and is constantly finding new applications for their technology.Neil received a Bachelors in Computer Science from UC Berkeley before pursuing his Ph.D at Stanford University. His doctoral thesis focus was designing voice-based virtual communities which led to the co-founding of Awaaz.De, along with his Ph.D advisor and UC Berkeley Professor, Dr. Tapan Parikh.

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More About Neil

More About Awaaz.De

  • Website: https://www.awaaz.de/
  • Value proposition: “We provide content to our partners and users in their local language to communicate with important stakeholders and beneficiaries for a variety of purposes and goals. Our clients include businesses, rural communities, schools, NGOs and many more.”
  • Awaaz.De Streams – group voice messaging for everyone
  • Awaaz.De Surveys – enabling rich data collection via phone survey surveys
  • Awaaz.De Voice Forums – moderated voice message “chat rooms”
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Interview with Brandon Smith, Social Entrepreneur and Co-Founder of CauseDate

Meet Brandon

Brandon Smith

Brandon Smith

This episode of The Innov8social Podcast features Los Angeles-based Brandon Smith, a dedicated serial social entrepreneur.

Brandon leads the Child and Family Guidance Center’s social enterprise development efforts toward diversifying the agency’s revenue streams. He also recently served as President of Net Impact Los Angeles Professional Chapter.

And, Brandon is working on a number of impact initiatives. One such social innovation is CauseDate– a dating platform for the sustainably conscious.Brandon also co-founded Awesomework.org — a database of nearly 6500 impact organizations, and  is working with student organization Oxypreneurship at his alma mater–Occidental College– to help establish a student scholarship for social entrepreneurship
I met Brandon at a Net Impact conference a few years back and have enjoyed connecting over social media and learning more about his expansive view of impact from the articles and content he shares.

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Interview with Preeti Vissa, Chief Operating Officer of The Greenlining Institute

adapted from IndiaWest

adapted from IndiaWest

Meet Preeti Vissa

This episode of The Innov8social Podcast, features a conversation with Preeti Vissa, Chief Operating Officer of the Greenlining Institute — and a good friend.

For over 20 years Greenlining Institute has been empowering communities of color and other disadvantaged groups through economic and leadership development.

Prior to her current role, Preeti served as Director of the Economic Equity team, where she led Greenlining’s efforts to ensure that the country’s largest financial institutions serve the needs of diverse communities.

Preeti graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles and has a Master’s in Social Work from Columbia University.

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More About Preeti

More About The Greenlining Institute

  • Website: http://greenlining.org/
  • Vision: “The Greenlining Institute envisions a nation where race is never a barrier to economic opportunity and communities of color thrive. Because people of color will be the majority of our population by 2044, America will prosper only if communities of color prosper.”
  • Key Issues
  • Take Action!

Fellowship Programs at The Greenlining Institute

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Interview with Kelsey Suemnicht, Founder of The Foreign Policy Project

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Meet Kelsey

What does it take to make a passion and idea into something more? Founder and Executive Director, Kelsey Suemnicht, is learning first-hand.  She recently launched a bold initiative, The Foreign Policy Project, to empower and inform girls to pursue paths in international relations and policy.

Kelsey SuemnichtWhen she reached out via social media and explained her work and vision, we connected on our experiences working and interning with the U.S. State Department. In the process of doing an interview for the website, she also outlined the problem she sees with the lack of engagement of women in foreign policy careers, and her long-time desire to address the need and build a network and community to support and foster girls to engage in the space.

Kelsey is a Master of Public Diplomacy graduate of the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. She is currently the co-founder of the Young Professionals in Foreign Policy San Francisco hub and has worked for the U.S. State Department, Foreign Policy Magazine, World Affairs Council, the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, ICANN, and The Leadership Program.
She is innovating in a well-established space by finding unique ways to bring new voices to the conversation. Just as any early social innovator, she is building and learning as she goes. It was exciting to discuss both her own path and mission, the need for resources, her vision for the new venture, and how logistically she sees it progressing (i.e. legal structures, growth, etc.).

We caught up before Kelsey’s 3 month trip to Southeast Asia where she hopes to meet and interview thinkers and doers with a background in international relations in addition to exploring and experiencing the region.

Learn More About The Foreign Policy Project

You can find out more at TheForeignPolicy.org and follow Kelsey’s adventures on Twitter .
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Interview with Nyna Caputi, Director, Petals in the Dust and Founder, The Expat Woman

Earlier this month we had a chance to interview Nyna Pais Caputi, a director of the upcoming social SF_Docfest_Petals_official_movie_posterimpact documentary Petals in the Dust: Endangered Indian Girls which is set to have its world premier on June 6, 2015 in San Francisco.Petals in the Dust examines themes of gender discrimination and violence against women—through the lens and stories of incredible individual women from India and across the diaspora. The project has been one of passion and commitment by Nyna, taking over 7 years to make into reality.

Meet Nyna

Nyna Pais Caputi has the incredible knack of taking Gandhi’s quote “be the change you wish to see in the world” to heart. When her own journey led to her to explore adopting children from India, she was confronted with stark gender inequality norms and difficult realities such as infanticide. Instead of standing by, she began the epic project of writing, directing, producing, and releasing a documentary that explores the layers of gender inequality in India—and also tells the stories of women who have found ways to overcome difficult realities.

As she researched her film and learned about atrocities such as killing of women and girls in India and globally, she took a bold step to galvanize attention and community by founding the Global Walk for India’s Missing Girls. Now in its fifth year, it has become an inNyna_cameraternational awareness campaign on the violence and genocide of Indian women that has taken place in over 25 cities and five countries.

And again, when she moved to San Francisco and couldn’t find a group for international women interested in pursuing entrepreneurial endeavors, she took it upon herself to launch “The Expat Woman” as a group where women can hear from other women, can showcase their own ventures and products, and (soon) can pitch their startups in a “Shark Tank”-like pitch event.
I had the chance to speak on one of Nyna’s Expat Women panels focused on the experience of entrepreneurship in the SF Bay Area.
Nyna has been recognized for her leadership and tenacity with honors including selection as a “2015 Woman of Distinction” by Soroptimist International of Diablo and was selected for a “Women of the Year” award by the California State Assembly in 2015.

Listen to the Interview with Nyna

See the Trailer for “Petals in the Dust : The Endangered Indian Girls”

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