When you level with them, see, validate, hear and empathise with them, they are just awesome. They’ve got so much knowledge and inner strength.

They actually just need a place and a space to be heard.  To wrap that up as well, there’s no blame in that either. It just is. Generations have gone before and done the best they can at the time with the knowledge that they had. There is an opportunity to change that narrative, and that’s really why Talk Revolution exists. 

You’ve recently completed the Flow Forward Social Enterprise Accelerator on the Sunshine Coast where you’re based. What were some of your biggest learnings that you could share with other impact led entrepreneurs?

The fact that social enterprises are perceived as something to be taken seriously. In the past there’s been a sentiment that if you’re doing good, you’re not really a proper businessperson. The program was a place where you can actually take yourself and your business seriously. There is an emerging community and a speedily emerging industry that is gearing itself up for people with social impact led businesses. I think that is really exciting and that’s also something perhaps people don’t realise yet. My biggest learning from that is this is the real deal, and you can actually do good and make money as well.

What opportunities exist for impact-led individuals like yourself, corporates or other organisations to create change?

I think opportunities are growing for partnerships, which if you’re in this business is all you want to do. You want to collaborate with epic people in order to get your message across. I think the beauty of people in this space is you’re not in competition with each other. You’re literally thinking, “how do we lift each other up? How do we support one another to continue to build this beautiful industry where people are genuinely being helped?” Let’s face it, money is not an evil thing and it’s required in order to make massive change.

Combining good intentions with organisations that potentially have been seen as the bad guys in the past can create huge amounts of impact with everybody just coming together and appreciating that we’re there for the same outcome.

Then you can leverage what exists and say, “okay we’ve got an idea that is open to a massive audience and something that is going to impact our employees, stocks and customers.” Let’s all start working from the same mindset of wanting to do good, uphold and help. That’s where impact can happen on a grander scale. I understand that chaining yourself to trees and fences can be effective, and I’m not taking that away from anybody in terms of a way to protest or create change and awareness, but at the end of the day you actually have to actions things in a way that society has been set up to respond to by using systems that already exist and then improving them to do good. 

What inspiring projects or initiatives have you come across recently that are creating a positive social change?

There’s so many, aren’t there? How you choose to look at that as well is important, because what is the definition of creating positive social change? You could argue that someone starting up their own local brewery is creating positive social change on some level, because it’s showing someone else down the road who may not have the qualifications or skills that they could do it too. It also allows a place for community, and that means more people are coming out and mixing with their community. I just find there are so many ways of answering that. You could say an organisation like Who Gives A Crap in terms of the good that they’re doing are amazing.

I just think anybody who is backing themselves to start something that people might see as very small are as important. It’s just good people doing good stuff, and there’s so many people out there who have just totally renewed your faith in human nature.

There’s too many organisations, and I don’t want to just plug the obvious people that are doing good stuff.  If everybody looked around in their own backyard, they would genuinely see the little underground movement of awesome people creating positive social change, whether that’s on your doorstep or overseas. It’s happening everywhere and it’s like fungi. It’s under the surface and growing, but it’s happening from grassroots.