Joe Kelly On Finding Adventure Through Social Impact And The Role Of Charities In Creating Change

Joe Kelly is an educator, consultant, and innovator focused on sustainability and social change.

He teaches university courses and corporate workshops on thinking and acting like a change-maker and has written articles for mainstream media and academic journals, as well as speaking to audiences around the globe. Joe’s professional career encompasses twenty years of experience providing consulting and advisory services to businesses, governments, and nonprofit organizations. He holds a PhD in Resource and Environmental Management and is the founder of Project Change Foundation, which provides financial and mentorship support to early-stage charities in Canada. The Gandhiana Jones Project is his first book.

Joe discusses how to engage in social change through embodying the impact you want to create and where opportunities exist for aspiring entrepreneurs and change makers.

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

[Indio Myles] - To start off Joe, could you please share a bit about your background and what led to your interest and work in social enterprise?

[Joe Kelly] - I'm a bit of a jack of all trades. I've been a consultant, entrepreneur, college instructor, and most recently the founder of a public foundation in Canada. I've had a number of different roles and worked in several types of organisations. When I was thinking about this question, the thing that weaves together these different roles is that I’ve tried to find projects and opportunities that bring together some of my core personal values. In particular, three values that come to mind are community, contribution and creativity.

I define community as connecting with others. Contribution is about making an impact and the world a better place, and creativity is about bringing new ideas to life.

Professionally, I think the thing that's similar between these different roles and projects is that they encompass these three values, whether that's creating a new course in which students learn to think like a changemaker, a community event that brings people together in support of a great cause, or even the entrepreneurship that I've done through creating a software company that helps companies reduce their environmental impacts. I think all those projects encompass these three core values of mine. By doing so, the result for me personally is I've had a lot of rewarding and fulfilling experiences while making a difference to the world as well. I have to be honest with you, you had mentioned that the whole podcast is about social enterprise. However, it's a new term to me! I had to research what exactly it means. I looked at the definition online and I thought, " I guess I've done that; I can speak to this to a certain degree." But I’ve never really thought of myself as an entrepreneur involved in social enterprise, but I guess I have in retrospect.

You're the founder of Project Change Foundation, so what is this organisation's social purpose, and how important are charities in instigating social change?

We started Project Change Foundation in 2015, and it's a Canadian public foundation. Ultimately it serves as a catalyst to help kickstart new or emerging community-based charities in Canada. We focus on, supporting charities that are in the early stages of development, and which have a clear vision for improving their community or the environment. We help them by providing small grants and mentorship support to help them get through those early hurdles in the first stages of development. We often find that these charities have great people involved with them and awesome visions of what they want to achieve. Then there's all these obstacles that young charities face, whether that's organisational structure, raising money to sustain themselves or HR issues, anything that most organisations grapple with. Our board goes in and helps mentor the people involved in the charities to get through some of those obstacles early on. You asked about the role of charities as well, and it's an interesting question.

I think that charities do play a very important role in our society and in our communities, particularly when there's some issue that is beyond the scope of government.

By this I mean when there are no government programs or there are inadequate programs that might be involved in a particular issue. Maybe the problem is outside the scope of for-profit businesses as well, or at least it's hard to envision how a for-profit business might scale with respect to some of these issues. One example that I highlight in my book is a charity that's based in Quebec, Canada. It's called the Dr. Clown Foundation, and what they do is they have a team of specially trained clown doctors, and these clowns go into hospitals, care homes and other health institutions and help provide some levity to the patients that are grappling with major health issues. Scientific research has shown that providing some joy and moments of levity can really help improve the quality of life for the patients, but also their families, the hospital staff and doctors as well. The work the Dr. Clown Foundation does is very important, they provide a very valuable social impact in their communities. But the work they do is outside the scope of traditional government programs, at least in Canada.

It's difficult to imagine how a for-profit business that's accountable to shareholders and is focused on generating profits would scale to provide certain services in a significant way, and this is where a charity can provide a service that’s driven by mission and not profit.

Where do you believe opportunities currently exist for individuals to engage in projects or businesses that create a positive social or environmental impact?

I think a lot of people have this mindset of searching for this rare golden opportunity in their life. They want to find that one thing, something that they're passionate about and that the world needs, and it's like searching for gold. But I think the question needs to be flipped on its head, so we don’t just look for these ‘rare’ opportunities. I think at least for many of us who have been blessed with adequate access to education and other resources, there's almost an unlimited number of things you can do, and opportunities are abundant. The question isn't how we can find this rare opportunity, but what lens or mindset should you take to whittle down all of the opportunities that are out there and do something that is suitable for you? There's an exercise I include in the book which is called give what you need.

In this exercise, I asked the reader to list a few things that they personally would find helpful in their life or that they'd like more of in their life, and then brainstorm some ways to give this very thing to others. By doing this you’re looking at what you need and then giving that to your community. One of the examples I include in the book is from one of my past students, a woman by the name of Kaya Dorey. When she graduated from university, she started looking for professional opportunities. She was really passionate about clothing, the apparel industry and also sustainability. She wanted to work for a company that was making sustainable apparel and that was suited to her casual West Coast style. She wanted to find a company that was producing apparel made from natural or organic fibres, but also manufactured locally and in an ethical way. But it had to be something that was cool, hip and stylish as well. She couldn't find a company that met her criteria, so she just decided to venture out and create the business herself. Fast forward to today, and she's created a company called NOVEL SUPPLY CO., which makes stylish, sustainable clothing. It's ethically sourced and the processes she uses are all safe for the environment. Moreover, the clothing is cool and stylish. Again, I think this is a good example about how a person, Kaya in this instance, looked for an opportunity by pinpointing what she wanted more of in her life or in the world around her. Then she decided to provide that very thing. This is just one way that a person might come at the challenge of looking at all these opportunities and then finding something that you might do and commit to it.

You've just published your first book, The Gandhiana Jones Project, an eight-week course teaching people how to embody social impact. If you were to summarise the key learnings from this book into three main lessons to help entrepreneurs create impact, what would they be?

I should first say is that the title comes from the mashup of two characters. One is Gandhi and the other is the fictional archaeologist Indiana Jones. One of the main ideas (and this ties into the first lesson I'd like to share) is that Gandhi is an archetype representing service, impact and creating change. Indiana Jones is this swashbuckling character that represents fun, adventure, passion, and doing things with style.

One of the key points in my book is it's not a question of one or the other. You can pursue a life that combines both of these archetypes, and I think it's important that we don't need to be 100% Gandhi all of the time. It's important to also be Indiana Jones or whoever that character is for you.

You need to have fun and an adventure, life should be full of those things as well, and so how do you find opportunities to bring those together? My first lesson from the book is to find ways to align your passion, your sense of fun and adventure with things that also are providing impact in the world. If you can do that, then you're hitting the sweet spot where you're able to live this rich, rewarding and awesome life, while also creating positive change in the world. That's my first tip or lesson from the book. I'd say the second tip (and this came from interviewing a lot of amazing people and change makers for the book) and one of the things I think most of these people had in common is they all had a way of articulating a compelling vision for the change they wanted to see in the world.

if you want to be a change maker or an entrepreneur, it’s important to have a clear, simple and heartfelt vision, and offer a practical way for others to get involved with what you're doing.

If you can do that, you're able to provide something of real value to people. There's a lot of people out there who want to engage in opportunities that are meaningful and make a difference, but they don't necessarily know how. If you can step into their circles and offer them not only a clear vision of what you're trying to achieve, but also a practical way to get involved, then you are providing an amazing opportunity for other people as well. That's my second tip, having a clear vision. The third piece of advice is the importance of building bridges within your community. It doesn't really matter how passionate and skilled you might be, it's almost impossible to build your vision by yourself, at least if your vision is grand. There's just not enough time in the day. Not to mention there's usually other people that are much more talented at certain tasks than you. It's vital that you get out there and engage with others by making your vision a shared vision that other people can get involved with pushing forward. I would say the third lesson that's interwoven into the book is that if you want to create real meaningful change, one of the best ways to do that is to build your network and engage with others to make a difference within your community.

What would be the best advice you could give to an aspiring entrepreneur or changemaker?

There are so many little pieces of advice to choose from, but the one that I kept coming back to was (it might sound a little cliché) it's so important not to let fear stop you from pursuing your dreams. It's been said before, this is nothing new. But the big question is how do you do that when you're encountering the vice grip of fear? One way, and this also isn't necessarily new (but I think it's worth repeating and it might be a little bit counterintuitive) is to embrace your own mortality and the impermanence of life. Let me give you an example. Let's say you're a writer and you've got an inspirational story to tell, and you want to do this in front of an audience, but you're afraid of public speaking. That's a common fear amongst a lot of people, but if you think about it, this is a bit of a stoic mindset, but what's the worst that can happen? In that instance, you could get a frog in your throat, sweat buckets, freeze up and perhaps feel completely embarrassed. But ultimately, so what? It doesn't really matter. In a hundred years’ time, you're going to be dead and buried, no one's going to remember or be thinking about that! Like life itself, fear is transitory. But there's a silver lining. This shouldn't be like doom and gloom, right? Why do anything if nothing really matters?

The silver lining is by embracing the impermanence of life, you can free yourself to go after your dreams. If nothing really matters, ultimately you can do anything! If you want to start your own business, do it. If you want to make beautiful art, create it. If you want to go overseas and volunteer, buy your ticket.

Don't let fear stop you, fear is just a temporary hurdle, and if you can find a way to work through fear, really anything is possible. I think that's my top piece of advice for budding entrepreneurs or anyone that wants to follow their dreams.

What organisations do you believe are creating a strong social impact?

There's a lot of organisations out there, it's really quite something. This space used to be something that was more niche, the idea of companies and organisations that were also heavily focused on social and environmental impact. But now it's more common. I shared the example of the Dr. Clown Foundation, which is a great example of a charity, and there's all sorts of charities that are focused on mission and creating impact. There's also a lot of examples of for-profit organisations. These range from small privately owned businesses, such as Kaya Dory’s company NOVEL SUPPLY CO. (which I talked about earlier) all the way up to larger companies. Tesla is an example of a big public company that's creating incredible change in the automobile industry. Another company that I feature in the book is Upside Foods, which used to be known as Memphis Meats. They're a biotech company based in California that makes cruelty-free meat from cultured animal cells instead of the traditional way of raising and cultivating meat, which is not only inhumane to animals, but also heavily impacts the environment in terms of land, energy and water. Their processes are helping to reduce and eliminate a lot of those negative environmental impacts. This is a great example of a company that's trying to find a way to not only make a profit, but also create a strong positive impact in the world.

there's a ton of examples out there, and I think that more and more organisations are realising that when you're aligning your strategies, direction, mission, and vision with core values that go beyond just generating a profit, they can realise many benefits.

One benefit is the ability to attract good talent when a company or an organisation is clear about their values and the vision that they have, they're able to and attract talented people that share those values. This is consistent with the idea of giving an opportunity to others who share your vision and offer them a practical way to help realise that vision, in this sense through a traditional job. This is a wonderful example of how companies can benefit as they should. I think that the companies that are out there doing good should benefit while making a positive change.

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

At the end of my book I include a list of twenty books which I highly recommend, and I went through that list and pulled out five (but of course there's many more). The first one I've listed is Start With Why by Simon Sinek. That's a great book to try to understand what's your why and why are you doing what you're doing? That's an important question to ask yourself when you're thinking about your vision. The second book is Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky. This is a book that talks about how to bring your vision to life and how to work from vision to reality. I think that book does a great job of clearly outlining what's required to bring a vision to fruition. The third book is one of my all-time favourites, it's called The Great Work Of Your Life by Stephen Cope, and it's a bigger picture book if you're trying to think about what you want your life to be about and your legacy to be. If you're grappling with that question, I can't recommend this book enough as a place to start. The fourth book I've got is a classic, Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Again, a wonderful book to read if you're grappling with questions about what life is about and what do you want to do with your life. It's a wonderful book, everyone should read that book as it'll change your life. Then finally, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. Again, this is a classic business book that looks at seven key habits a lot of highly effective people have embraced. One of the habits in that book which I think is important is the idea of living a life that's highly principled and based on values, and obviously all the habits are important, but that habit stands out for me.