Jules Laidlaw On Uplifting Indigenous Australians Through A Social Impact Business

Julie Laidlaw is the founder of The Clay Society, a social impact studio located on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, which designs and produces ceramic products for boutique retailers across Australia and New Zealand.

This bustling studio is in its second year of business and while it has faced challenges like most businesses in the past two years, they have come out stronger than ever, in part due to their resilience and their mission to create positive social change.

Founder Julie Laidlaw is an ex-emergency nurse who believes in getting her hands dirty for the greater good. Julie has always loved beautiful homes and products and has combined this with her passion for giving back. She founded The Clay Studio out of a desire to create beautiful treasured homewares while also helping those in need. Helping Indigenous communities is at the heart of The Clay Studio’s purpose and it provides a deeper meaning behind their work. The studio’s ‘purchase with purpose’ ethos was born out of their love and respect for Australia’s First Nations people and their genuine desire to help others.

Jules discusses delivering healthcare outcomes to Indigenous communities through social enterprise and the value of surrounding yourself with impact led entrepreneurs.

Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)

[Isabel Croker] - Could you please share a bit about your background and what led to your interest and work in the social enterprise space?

[Jules Laidlaw] - I'll start right at the beginning, so people can understand my journey. I created The Clay Society when I left my nursing career, so I was an emergency nurse for 15 years. I’ve worked in some pretty intense places, including emergency departments and a high security prison. When I left that environment, I was quite tired and really worn out. I guess when I sat for a little while and started to peel back the layers of what was really important to me, just as a person outside of anything else that I was going to do, right at the top of the list was my need to help other people.

I knew that if I was going to do a business, that part of my core value as a person was that I had to help other people and that would really fulfill me.

I have a deep passion for health projects, I'm really passionate about homelessness and social issues in our communities. I guess that drove the base of my business forward, and then I built on top of that.

As the founder of The Clay Society, could you tell us a bit more about the social enterprise itself and your mission?

The Clay Society is on Gubbi Gubbi country on the Sunshine Coast. We produce products for over 95 boutique retailers across Australia and New Zealand. Anyone that comes into my studio believes that we get our hands dirty for the greater good. Our products are very high quality and they're very sought after, so we're always really busy which is great. But we all believe in helping other people, so I think with that basis, we work together as a team really well. I think for me personally, with what I was going to do with the business and what I like to share with our staff is helping people here within our own country first. This means really looking after our Indigenous communities, because I feel that they're an area that is somewhat forgotten and they really need a helping hand. In our first year of business we looked at how we can help Indigenous communities, and we worked with Remote Laundries to help remote communities up in the Northern Territory have access to washing facilities.

They are a really amazing not-for-profit charity that we were really lucky to work alongside with for the first 12 months of our business. They have a strong health impact behind what they do. They put shipping facilities and washing machines into really remote Aboriginal communities to help prevent scabies outbreaks. As an ex-nurse, I know scabies can cause staph, which can cause a renal disease, which can cause blindness, cardiac issues, long-term health impacts and even cause death. In Australia, we have the highest rate of scabies for a developed country in the world, and that's due to the lack of ability to wash clothes in community. I was really happy to join with them, I think it fitted really well for me as a business owner and just the mission of what they were trying to do.

At the end of last year, we also did an independent pledge to that community, so Barunga was the first community to get the remote laundry. Additionally, we provided 250 presents for 250 kids that we raised the money for in the studio ourselves.

Some of these gifts were donated, but the majority of them we paid for ourselves. I think that was at the start of COVID, and we couldn't get freight, so I had 70 kilograms of presents to take up to the Northern territory. I ended up jumping on a plane, and Jetstar were great. I'm going to do a little call out for them because they didn't actually charge me for any extra luggage because they knew I was going for a social impact reason! I took 70 kilograms of luggage up to Darwin and then drove a truck with my twin sister from Darwin into community. Then we gave out the presents ourselves to the children there. I think that was really impactful for the first year of our business and personally I think it's very confronting to go into community. Just that one trip up there with my sister [I've been multiple times] and the children definitely keeps me passionate and drives me forward each year to help our communities.

Where have you seen immediate opportunities to create positive change and tackle some of the disadvantages that you have seen in community?

I think it's really important for everyone to understand that remote Aboriginal communities are very different environments than you've ever experienced before. I think the need in community is so massive it can be very overwhelming. For myself, I'm a bit of a tough little peanut, but it is still really emotional for me. The overcrowding in houses is super confronting. Food security is a massive issue because of the government rebates placed on food in remote Aboriginal communities. A lot of the people in community don't have access to fresh food.

They also don't have access to essential items such as baby nappies or sanitary items for the woman. That should be a really high priority for the government, and it needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

The last time I was in community, and I had other people with me including a filming crew and some other friends, it was really hard to believe that we are still in Australia as a developed country, because the poverty is like a third world country from my overseas travels. A lot of the houses didn't have running water and we've got Indigenous children sleeping on the ground. There's a massive amount of work to be done, but I do think that if we all stand together, we can make change through tackling one issue at a time. Collectively, real change can be made. I see lots of areas for immediate help. Next year, we're going to look at beds and linen in community and see if we can get some beds and linen for the people that need them the most. In terms of washing facilities, the Remote Laundries are doing a great job. I see a lot of opportunity in community for food programs to grow food and to get rid of the government rebates from the general stores and community while employing people from these Indigenous communities back into the stores. The Aboriginal Investment Group does a really great job at that.

Next year we're starting a new business, I won't tell you what it is, but it's a brand-new endeavour, and we’re going to look at setting up with an indigenous social impact organisation that will help provide the beds and the linen for these people in community.

I think there's a lot of false and misunderstood information out there about communities. The people in community are amazing. They're beautiful people, they're so welcoming and loving, and the children are just gorgeous. At the end of the day, we're all just people, regardless of what colour skin that we have. My children will ask for the same things for Christmas as the kids in community will ask for Christmas. There's no difference, we're all just people and we all need to work together because they really need us.

What advice would you give to early-stage social entrepreneurs seeking to get their idea off the ground and make the social changes that you have made?

The most important thing for people to remember that are looking at doing a social impact business is just to be genuine. A consumer, business partner, or someone you're going to work with on whatever business platform that you're setting up can really feel when you come from a genuine space.

To be transparent and build trust with your customers and clients will inspire others and drive motivation in other people.

We put lots of information up on our website, we are super transparent with how much money we donate and where it goes to, and if we do a pledge, we always put up a post and say that “we've raised $10,000 for Remote Laundries, thank you to everyone.” Then, everyone gets a receipt. I think all of those things are super important for people then to be able to continue to follow your journey. Also, just surround yourself with great people. There's lots of power in standing together, and I think try not to be afraid to ask people for help. For our first Christmas pledge, I was hesitant to put it out there that I needed funding for the children in community, but I knew financially I wasn't able to afford the 250 presents that we needed. When I asked for help, so many beautiful people came forward with just such gorgeous hearts, and they just wanted to help the kids in community. Don't be afraid to ask other people for help and just get amongst it. Surround yourself with great people.

You’re an alumnus of The Refinery Incubator, what was one of the key lessons you learned throughout this social impact program?

I was really lucky to be part of that program because I was just at the start of looking at my business and what I wanted to try and achieve. I'm super grateful for The Refinery, it's an amazing course. I think the things that I learned out of that course was through networking with great people. I'm really good friends still with Frankie Ratford, and she was one of the mentors on the course. She's now literally like family to me. She's an amazing entrepreneur, she's done amazing things and travelled the world, so it goes back to surrounding yourself with really great people.

I had a bit of an identity crisis when I was on The Refinery because I'd only just left my nursing career, so it also helped me to find myself and a bit of confidence, which I really lacked when starting the business.

I guess I also learned not to just tick other people's boxes. I think it's important to be yourself. You don't need to worry about fitting into a certain box or having to do something that meets the criteria to get a grant or whatever you need. I think just being yourself is magic.

What other organisations have you worked with or seen that you believe are creating a strong social impact?

I'm really lucky that I have a totally different group of people around me who are just really beautiful people. Also, we have those 95 stores supporting us, and all of those women that own those stores are amazing little cheerleaders. They tell all our customers what we do and why we make stuff. I've recently collaborated for a brand from here on the Sunshine Coast called Eat For You, and they produce healthy snack bars. They are amazing women that own that business, 50% of their profit goes back to areas of need. I worked recently with the Patty Mills Foundation, and they helped a remote Queensland Aboriginal community. We cross-promote each other on our social media platforms, and this financial year, we also worked with Happy Boxes.

Happy Boxes is run by a beautiful girl named Emma, she was a remote school teacher and she has set up this non-for-profit charity business where you can send essential toiletries to women in really remote areas all across Australia. We make lots of Happy Boxes that go out to these communities that have deodorant, soap, shampoo, cute little nail polishes and we write handwritten cards in them. She's just an amazing human being, and she just comes from such a genuine place where she wants to help other women. I'm really lucky that I work with her. It’s just about finding your people, but I think they're probably the main organisations that we work with. Remote Laundries that I've spoken about are really great people, and they have a really strong social impact with food security, employment within community and scabies.

Including the Aboriginal Investment Group, I think these organisations are our little tribe at the moment, and we always keep our eyes open to see what other people are doing in the social impact space to just make sure that they're genuine and that there's no green washing.

We have a label that goes on our products that says when you purchase our products, that you purchased them with purpose, and that really means that I'm not putting a swimming pool in my backyard with the profit that we make! It means that I'm going to use that profit to help the kids in community, and it goes to other places other than just us. I think just finding genuine people that are doing really great things is important.

What books or resources would you recommend to our listeners?

I actually read a lot of books, even though I'm really busy! I probably read a book a week, I'm a really big reader and me and Frankie Ratford share our books. I also share my books with my twin sister, so we're all huge readers. The Four-Hour Work Week is a really great book, it's all about managing time. I think everyone should buy that book; I think it's like a staple item. $100 Hundred Dollar Startup was a good book, Happiest Man Alive is great, and that is the life story of a Holocaust survivor. I think that story doesn't directly go towards social impact, but it's really good to gain perspective. I think I have a different perspective on life because I worked in emergency for a long time, and I understand that life is very fragile. I think reading books also helps you with your business because you can keep everything in perspective.

Would you like to add anything else or do you have any final pieces of advice for our listeners?

Be mindful of the energy that you put out, because it's always the energy that you get back. Being kind costs nothing, so that's our little motto in our studio. I never say no to an opportunity, and I find people to be our cheerleaders. I guess last but not least every year we create a vision board, so I've got one in my office and one in the studio. I write down all the goals that I have for the studio and then we have colour palettes and cute little things on them too. If you believe in yourself, other people will believe in you. And when you tick goals off, it's really empowering.

I think everyone should have a little vision board and just be very mindful of the energy that you put out to the universe.

It's been really hard for business over the last few years, and we started our business in the middle of that pandemic! Just brush yourselves off, we're resilient, we're strong and we'll get it done.