There’s so much value that can be used within the ecosystem. I think corporates can play a really important part.

Yeah. And to see a strategy so quickly come to bear with Minister Fentiman is delight for me because…

Likewise.

…it’s not necessarily painting the true picture of the future, but it’s just opening the gate to fertile ground. So, you know, let the harvest begin.

Just last week that Minister Fentiman announced $450,000 of grants available for social enterprises across Queensland. So matched funding between $5,000 to $50,000 if you’re based in Queensland. You might want to check those out.

Leanne, you’ve spoken with over 150 social enterprises across Queensland, so what advice would you give to the social entrepreneurs listening who are working very hard to create impact?

I live in this utopic world of hope that potentially by 2030, and let’s even say 2025, that social entrepreneurship is not called out as a separate category. That it is just how we are and who we are as a society. We need social innovation to be diffused within every sector so that we can adopt and adapt and diffuse and scale what is societal’s research and development, right? What is possible and how is it sustainable?

But the biggest call out for me in early stage social entrepreneurs is to ensure that you lead with impact-first impressions, but to be able to truly understand the accounting.

The triple bottom line is starting to become known globally by large financial institutions like BlackRock and even Fidelity.

So I would spend as much time on the purpose as you will need to spend on the profit, because they do go hand in hand to ensure a sustainable model.

But in all of that, there has to be an ecosystem of pioneering actors who share a common purpose. And I’m glad that we’re in a place where we can see this so very clearly across the threading of Queensland.

I 100% agree with the fact that I think social entrepreneurship as a term should be made redundant. It should just be business as usual, right?

Let’s hope. Let’s hope this is the case, that it becomes digitally ubiquitous as they say. Right?

You highlighted BlackRock and Larry Fink, in his letter a year or so ago, did highlight purpose and impact as being a really core part of business.

So what inspiring projects or initiatives have you come across recently, which you believe are creating some great positive social impact?

Well, I know I’ve only got about 60 seconds to answer that question but I can speak for about 60 minutes. There are incredible companies. One of the call outs for me on my flight back from Indonesia to Brisbane last night on the documentary channel from Jetstar was Orange Sky Laundry. Orange Sky are celebrating their fifth birthday next week. So happy birthday guys.

Big call out to Luke [Terry] and Vanguard Laundry. Both of them of course are pioneers when it comes to social entrepreneurship.

Xceptional; they are exceptional. In fact, they just won Pitch@Palace. They’re working with adults and children with autism and enabling them to bridge across into well-versed careers in software testing or gaming.

Brisbane Tool Library. Big call out to Brisbane Tool Library. It’s incredible. In fact, you know the Social Enterprise World Forum in Ethiopia is the third biggest in the [Australian] delegation with 60 odd people attending, and the founder of Brisbane Tool Library will be front and centre main stage exampling the work that has been brought about. I was in Townsville more recently, and in fact Townsville also has a tool library, so I’m hopeful this catches on.

One of the biggest surprises to me, which is really starting to create an impact boom in Brisbane is World’s Biggest Garage Sale. Yas [Grigaliunas], is certainly one of the guiding lights for a great entrepreneur and a founder’s spirit that runs deep, but impressive and incredible is the work that she’s done in such a short period of time. There’s Bertonni, as well as PowerWells, who I just left in Indonesia and I experienced first-hand the impact that they’re making, particularly in countries with vulnerable women. So well done guys. Well done.

Plenty of really inspiring projects there, Leanne.

So to finish off, what books or resources would you recommend to our listeners?

Ah, books and resources? To be honest with you, I’d love to say that I can rattle them all off from Reid Hoffman right the way through to Elon Musk on Twitter. But the reality is I spend a lot of my time in Harvard, so I go every year as a part of an executive program there. So I enjoy the resources of Harvard.

I do do a lot of reading. World Economic Forum, of course, holds an incredible amount of resources in education, and no better being more recently appointed as an Adjunct Professor for QUT. Then our very own universities right here. So I’d like to say that I read a lot of books, but the reality is I immerse myself only in three or four different channels and that’s where I spend most of my time.

That itself, I think, is good advice, right? Cut all the crap.

Totally.

Focus on the channels that provide the value and stick to them.

That’s true. That’s very true. And I think gaining access to academics provides for a good, solid foundation to not necessarily lead out in an education sense, but to also challenge the current thinking.