193. Lead with We: The Business Revolution That Will Save Our Future - Simon Mainwaring
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Overview
Meet Simon. He's a global brand expert who's on a mission to see social good brands embrace a radical, reimaged and reengineered way to do business based on the idea of collectivized purpose. By showing how we live, work, and grow together in new ways that restore and protect the social and living systems on which all of our futures depend, he believes the future of nonprofit is bright if we can be brave enough to seize it. This is the future of collaborative leadership. We have to build together. Tune in and prepare for your jaw to hit the floor - like ours did. Preach Brother Mainwaring🙌
Today’s Guest
Simon Mainwaring, Founder & CEO, We First, Inc. and Author, Lead with We
“It’s focused on how we reimagine the way we show up in the world, as nonprofits, as businesses as individuals, to live and work and grow together in ways that restore and protect the natural and social systems on which all of our futures depend. Why? Because brands and nonprofits cannot survive in societies that fail.”
Episode Transcript
Download Full Episode Transcript Here
Episode highlights
Simon’s story and journey to where he is today (2:20)
Living a purposeful life (7:00)
Selfishness vs. being “Self-Ish” (12:00)
How nonprofits can seize this moment in time (18:00)
Revolutionizing partnerships in today’s world - how to position your organization (20:00)
Simon’s new book: Lead with We: The Business Revolution That Will Save Our Future (31:00)
A powerful moment of philanthropy in Simon’s life (37:00)
Simon’s One Good Thing: Look inward, as much as you look outward. (42:00)
Powerful quotes
“I was worldwide creative director at that time, and you come away from all of that going, Wait a second, the global economic meltdown is happening. Everything's falling apart. We need people to behave differently, think differently, show up differently, and buy differently.” -Simon
“For the last 10 years, we've been working specifically and only with purposeful brands that why they either want to kind of re engineer where they are, connect the dots between what they're doing, or define their purpose in the first place.” -Simon
“There was no planning, no strategy, it was all an accident, and I failed my way forward.” -Simon
“I've been lucky enough to speak on stages with some people that are well known and so on. And you get to chat to them afterwards. And invariably, at some point, they've reached a threshold, a point of intolerance in their life where they realize they've got to do something different.” -Simon
“If you do get the opportunity to live, breathe, speak your truth, you're already so far ahead of other people who are still struggling with finding that. And then when you do it, the more you lean into it, the more you go, Oh, wow. If I really want to get the most out of life, for me, selfishly, I've got to give as much as I can of myself to others. And I live by that rule.” -Simon
“There is selfishness where your success comes at the expense of others, and then there's “self-ish”, where you're being more true to yourself, you are being “self-ish” in what you do, you are expressing your truth.” -Simon
“I mean, seriously, when are we gonna wake up? We are literally putting ourselves out of business. So Lead with We is a whole different proposition, my new book, it's about as opposed to building on through social media, you know, business as usual. It's about a wholesale reimagining and reengineering of business around the idea of leading with we.” -Simon
“Everyone chooses to lead, we are in this mess together, because of my choices, your choices, the cars, we drove the products we bought. It's that connective tissue between all of those relatively incidental acts that have led us to where we are today. The only way out of it is if we're all going to use our agency in life to do something about it.” -Simon
“The book lays out a step by step roadmap for nonprofits, small companies, large companies on how to do that, based on all the work we've done over the last 10 years.” -Simon
“This is all about the future of collaborative leadership, we need to lead together. Nonprofits have the boots on the ground, the expertise, or the experience that all of these corporate partners and others need as all stakeholders rally together to collectively solve these issues. So you are not less important. But at the same time, the competition has gone through the roof, because every for profit company, or younger social enterprises now talking about the good they're doing.” -Simon
“Too many nonprofits mistake their cause for their purpose.” -Simon
“Secondly, the way you pitch in the nonprofit world, there's a huge opportunity here for improvement.” -Simon
“You've got to put the work in upfront, reach inside your pitch deck, pull it inside out and start with them. And then reverse engineer what you offer to be a solution to what they need.” -Simon
“Too many nonprofits, despite the best of intentions, because they do such meaningful work with limited resources, they talk about the work that they're doing in a self directed way.” -Simon
“You have to show up in a very huge human way to your potential partner, not in a transactional way.” -Simon
“I think one of the most powerful things that a nonprofit can do and it has a prospective corporate partner and say, look at the stakes. Right now. Business is on the hook in a way you've never seen before.” -Simon
“It's focused on how we reimagine the way we show up in the world, as nonprofits, as businesses as individuals, to live and work and grow together in ways that restore and protect the natural and social systems on which all of our futures depend. Why? Because brands and nonprofits cannot survive in societies that fail.” -Simon
“If you want to grow your nonprofit, that also do a better job with greater partnerships and collaboration to scale your impact, do take a look at the book because it it's all the gold that we've got the wheel shoved it right in there.” -Simon
“This is not a moment in time where they're going to solve it on their own. They need to work with someone like a nonprofit. And here's the good news. We are not being asked to do something new. We are just remembering what we forgot. Which is, we are just part of one human family. And we need to make sure our community thrives.” -Simon
“We're going to suddenly realize that every one of these marketplace challenges is a marketplace opportunity.” -Simon
“If you actually as a nonprofit, find those corporate partners that want to walk their talk more authentically, all they're doing is positioning themselves to be on the right side of history, the right side of those market forces that will reward them for doing so they will deepen your partnership.” -Simon
“As these issues get worse, unfortunately, they will increase their commitment to you because they're going to be more and more dependent on what you bring to the table. So it's a double edged sword. It's terrible that we're at this moment in time that necessitates this type of, you know, this momentum behind these partnerships. But at the same time, there's momentum behind these partnerships.” -Simon
“When you really commit to what your heart tells you that you need to do and you're the role that you can play, people will show up, and they will show up when they have nothing to gain from you other than enabling that vision of the future that you have. So really believe in the innate goodness of people and lean into that that always, really stayed with me.” -Simon
connect with simon
LinkedIn / Website / Twitter / Instagram / YouTube / Medium
connect with we first, inc
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