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Pride: Inclusivity and Sustainability in Business with Tim Frick · Responsibly Different™

• 0:02
  Tim Frick: I try to figure out like what can I do with the tools and resources at my disposal to make change happen, and that is to make my business the best resource it can possibly be for people in this community?
• 0:34
  Benn Marine: Welcome In this thought-provoking episode.
• 0:37
  Benn Marine: Tim Frick, founder of Mighty Bites and a long time leader in the B-Corp movement, and I delve into the importance of pride and building inclusivity in business.
• 0:47
  Benn Marine: We explore the challenges faced by the LGBTQ plus community in rural and urban areas, the evolution of pride celebrations and the significance of listening to LGBTQ plus employees.
• 1:00
  Benn Marine: Tim shares valuable insights on using business as a force for good, supporting local organizations and prioritizing impactful initiatives.
• 1:09
  Benn Marine: Tune in as we navigate the complexities of pride, allyship and creating meaningful change.
• 1:17
  Benn Marine: Alright, well, tim, so excited to have you on and to have this conversation To kind of kick us off and get us started, will you tell us a little bit about Mighty Bites and what led you to start the company?
• 1:32
  Tim Frick: Sure, So Mighty Bites is a digital agency.
• 1:35
  Tim Frick: We're based in Chicago, although our team is virtual, so we are kind of sprinkled throughout the Midwest.
• 1:42
  Tim Frick: I'm in Upper Michigan, i have another developer who's in Lower Michigan.
• 1:46
  Tim Frick: The most of the rest of our team is in the Chicagoland area.
• 1:49
  Tim Frick: I started the company in 1998 to help nonprofits and purpose-driven organizations improve their digital literacy In the mid to late 90s.
• 1:59
  Tim Frick: I was a burgeoning digital professional at the time and I saw a mad dash towards for companies to get on the internet And there is a lot of technological banter going back and forth and I was finding that a lot of nonprofits and other purpose-driven organizations were being left out of these conversations, and so the organizations that were really making a difference in the world were being left behind in this conversation in favor of whatever the latest tech startup would be, and so my goal with creating Mighty Bites was to help organizations like that find success.
• 2:35
  Tim Frick: So from the very beginning we focused on working with purpose-driven organizations like nonprofits and social enterprises.
• 2:42
  Tim Frick: Later that evolved into working with other B-corps and educational institutions and that kind of stuff, and generally we've had a purpose-driven bent since the company began.
• 2:53
  Benn Marine: That's so cool.
• 2:53
  Benn Marine: I'm curious was there like an organization that was the kickoff that kind of set you on this journey?
• 3:00
  Tim Frick: Well, actually, that's an interesting question.
• 3:02
  Tim Frick: Mighty Bites rose out of the ashes of another agency that I had with a business partner And the last project of that agency became the first project of Mighty Bites and it was creating an interactive game for the robotics line of toys from Learning Curve.
• 3:18
  Tim Frick: And so I was working on that And, like I said, it became the first project of Mighty Bites and realized I really enjoyed that and I enjoyed working with organizations that had, you know, as an educational toy company that had all kinds of different brands, not just the robotics line.
• 3:34
  Tim Frick: But the idea with the robotics line was that you could, you know, take machines physical, you know, physical plastic robots basically and, like transformers, make them into different kinds of things, and so they wanted a game that allowed you to do the same thing.
• 3:51
  Tim Frick: And so we created a game with the help of a couple of the programmers and stuff, and that really led me to, you know, wanting to work in education and for purpose-driven organizations.
• 4:03
  Benn Marine: That's so cool.
• 4:03
  Benn Marine: Oh my gosh, that's amazing.
• 4:04
  Benn Marine: And speaking of you're a big advocate of using business as a force for good and the B Corp movement, which is how we connected, How did you hear about B Corp certification and why was it important for you to pursue and maintain that certification?
• 4:19
  Tim Frick: Sure, Yeah.
• 4:20
  Tim Frick: So we became a certified B Corp in 2011.
• 4:24
  Tim Frick: And in 2010, I was doing a climate ride, which is a multi-day like kind of endurance cycling event that raises money for environmental charities, And Hardik from climate or from B Lab was actually giving a presentation on this climate ride about B Corps.
• 4:39
  Tim Frick: And at the time, in 2010, it was, you know, the app craze was kind of in full swing And we were finding that, you know, in addition to the kind of purpose-driven organizations that we work for, all of our ideas for apps and similar things was coming from, you know, like purpose-driven apps.
• 4:59
  Tim Frick: I mean, we were wanting to do create apps that were doing good in the world, And so we realized very quickly that if we were to get funding to build some of these apps that you know, the funders were going to be focused on specifically on the business model and specifically on, you know, how can we make scale as fast as possible, How can we make as much money as fast as possible?
• 5:21
  Tim Frick: And well, you know, that's fine for some organizations.
• 5:23
  Tim Frick: We really wanted to make sure that we were driven by the you know, kind of purpose, entity of it and stuff, And so learning about B Corps seemed like a natural fit for Mighty Bites, since we do serve mostly purpose-driven organizations.
• 5:36
  Tim Frick: So I came back and, literally three days after climate ride, had coffee with a friend and her business she had just certified her business as a B Corp and talked about the process And so I got like a firsthand experience And so right after that we became the ninth certified B Corp in the state of Illinois.
• 5:52
  Tim Frick: And then you know, obviously that was 2011.
• 5:55
  Tim Frick: It's now 2023.
• 5:57
  Tim Frick: So we've had a lot of time to make mistakes and learn things and, you know, get ourselves on the path of continuous improvement.
• 6:04
  Benn Marine: Yeah, i mean speaking of continuous improvement.
• 6:06
  Benn Marine: You all started with a score of 98 and your current score is 168, which I think is even higher than Patagonia I don't know.
• 6:14
  Benn Marine: That's like one of the highest scores I've ever seen.
• 6:15
  Benn Marine: And you've been best for the world from B Lab for nearly every year since 2017, except for 2020, but there was no list released due to COVID-19.
• 6:25
  Benn Marine: So every year that you've been eligible, you've gotten best for the world.
• 6:29
  Benn Marine: I'm so curious what did that progress and growth look like in practice?
• 6:36
  Tim Frick: I should clarify actually, our very first, like in 2011, when we were certified, i think we only had 85.
• 6:41
  Tim Frick: And then I don't think that's listed on our B Corp profile or 84.
• 6:46
  Tim Frick: Sorry, i think it was 84.
• 6:47
  Tim Frick: We got up to 98 and then we took a tumble down and then we kind of, you know, realized that the tumble was kind of one of the things we're like, oh well, we thought this was going to be easier because we were doing as I'm sure anybody who's certified their company as a B Corp what can attest to the fact that it gets harder every time you certify?
• 7:04
  Tim Frick: And so we, you know we're doing the same things as the first time that we certified, but then we actually lost points because the certification itself got harder, and so we were, you know, trying to figure out how to get our kind of you know, our groove on in terms of continuous improvement, and we had a couple of false starts in the first few years after that first certification.
• 7:28
  Tim Frick: But then we kind of got into the cycle of focusing on that And, more than anything, i think, committing to failing forward.
• 7:37
  Tim Frick: We wanted to try new things and do more of what works and less of what doesn't.
• 7:42
  Tim Frick: As a digital agency.
• 7:43
  Tim Frick: We've been focused on agile practices, which are very cyclical and very based on continuous improvement, for a long time, and so we wanted to do the same thing with our kind of organizational agility.
• 7:56
  Tim Frick: Eventually it was paid off, but we did have a few, a few fits and starts on that And mostly kind of over committing ourselves to be in comparison to the resources that we actually had.
• 8:07
  Tim Frick: But, that being said, every B Corp certification presents an opportunity for a business to improve its previous impact efforts, and so we use them as a chance to go and improve our score.
• 8:21
  Tim Frick: But more importantly, ask ourselves are we becoming a better company?
• 8:25
  Tim Frick: Are we getting better at creating shared value for our team and for clients and community, et cetera?
• 8:30
  Tim Frick: And just kind of, how are we improving over time?
• 8:33
  Tim Frick: And also, i think probably it's important to note that we're a small organization, so being small allows us to be more nimble.
• 8:41
  Tim Frick: We can pivot more quickly and move on to new things more quickly than a much larger you know scaled organization can do.
• 8:49
  Tim Frick: So we really focus on quality over quantity in all of our interactions within the company.
• 8:54
  Tim Frick: That's really cool.
• 8:56
  Benn Marine: And I'm curious is there in that progress, do you have one moment or piece of progression that you're most proud of?
• 9:05
  Benn Marine: They're like, oh gosh, this wasn't unlocked for us.
• 9:07
  Benn Marine: That I feel really great about.
• 9:09
  Tim Frick: Yeah, i think that actually came early on In 2013,.
• 9:13
  Tim Frick: We created a tool called EcoGrader, which is a digital sustainability tool that helps people understand the environmental impact of their website, and that kind of came out of our B-Corp assessment, and so we took the assessment, learned a lot of things about where we needed to improve the company and then promptly said, well, all right, we build the internet for a living as a digital agency, and the internet has this massive environmental impact.
• 9:40
  Tim Frick: What can we do about that?
• 9:41
  Tim Frick: And so we started by creating like kind of a sustainable product manifesto, and then, shortly after that, we realized that people didn't need to understand what we were talking about when we were talking about digital sustainability, so we wanted to create a tool that would help them very quickly understand it, and EcoGrader was inspired by HubSpot's website grader, where you can put a URL in.
• 10:02
  Tim Frick: It'll crawl that URL.
• 10:03
  Tim Frick: Hubspot's tool will tell you how good of a marketing tool it is and where you can improve it.
• 10:07
  Tim Frick: Our tool was basically focused on the same thing, but on focus on environmental metrics, and so we launched that on Earth Day of 2013, and we have been improving on it ever since, and we actually just launched a new version for the 10 year anniversary of EcoGrader on Earth Day of this year.
• 10:26
  Benn Marine: Oh way cool And is that just something we'll definitely link to it in the show notes?
• 10:30
  Benn Marine: Is that something that people can just?
• 10:31
  Benn Marine: is just a URL we can give folks?
• 10:33
  Tim Frick: Oh cool, anybody can use it.
• 10:35
  Tim Frick: Yep, it's just ecogradercom and you can put any URL in it and it will crawl that URL and it'll give you a carbon score, a user experience design score, a page weight score, as well as a whole bunch of metrics and things that you could potentially do to improve those scores and reduce emissions.
• 10:54
  Benn Marine: Wow, that's amazing, it actually so.
• 10:58
  Benn Marine: That's a perfect segue because, speaking of accomplishments, you're also an author of several books, one of which is Designing for Sustainability, which I know people can't see because this is audio.
• 11:08
  Benn Marine: But I have right here And I'm only like ankle deep into this thing.
• 11:14
  Benn Marine: But this book is so dense and there's so much good stuff in here, like I feel like it just came.
• 11:22
  Benn Marine: Mine just came in the mail yesterday and I've already, just like in cracking it open, have learned so much.
• 11:27
  Benn Marine: I'm curious, you know.
• 11:30
  Benn Marine: So the book is Designing for Sustainability, a guide to building greener digital products and services, and I think a lot of folks don't realize the environmental impact that the internet has.
• 11:40
  Benn Marine: Can you share a bit about that and share maybe a couple pointers for the audience of how they can reduce their carbon footprint on the web?
• 11:48
  Tim Frick: Sure, yeah, yeah, so, as I mentioned after your last question, we created EcoGrader in 2013.
• 11:52
  Tim Frick: That ended up leading to TEDx Talk in 2015.
• 11:56
  Tim Frick: And somewhere in there, i got a book deal to actually put all of these concepts together into a book, which came to the one that you had.
• 12:04
  Tim Frick: Thank you for supporting it.
• 12:05
  Tim Frick: I really appreciate it.
• 12:06
  Tim Frick: Yeah, the idea was that, you know, we learned quickly that people didn't understand a lot of this and we wanted to.
• 12:13
  Tim Frick: You know, ecograder was meant to help them give that, get that high level knowledge very quickly, whereas a book is much more dense and obviously has the ability to you can dive in and dig into the statistics and stuff, and so I wrote, you know, designing for Sustainability, specifically for that.
• 12:30
  Tim Frick: So, for people who wanna, you know, it's more for, like, web designers, web developers, product managers, digital product teams and stuff, and so that's really who the team is for, whereas EcoGrader itself, those teams can certainly use it, but also it's EcoGrader's meant to be in simple enough language that anybody in business leadership can understand it.
• 12:54
  Tim Frick: So, that being said, you know, established per our B Corp certification, that the internet is a complicated ecosystem.
• 13:00
  Tim Frick: It uses a huge amount of energy.
• 13:02
  Tim Frick: The most commonly recited statistic around, that is, that its environmental impact is on par with that of the commercial airline industry, which is pretty major when you think about it.
• 13:12
  Tim Frick: But it also has a lot of social and economic issues, such as data privacy, inequality, misinformation and disinformation, accessibility for people with disabilities The list kind of goes on and on.
• 13:25
  Tim Frick: And so when you look at the internet through an ESG sustainability lens environmental, social and governance there's a whole bunch of things that organization can do.
• 13:34
  Tim Frick: For instance, you can support open access to information by making your website accessible for people with disabilities, people for people on older devices, people in low bandwidth areas, et cetera.
• 13:45
  Tim Frick: You can prioritize truth, transparency and data privacy in your online communications and marketing.
• 13:50
  Tim Frick: You can power websites with renewable energy by using a green web host.
• 13:54
  Tim Frick: You can improve performance and efficiency so that your website uses less energy.
• 13:58
  Tim Frick: You can track and reduce digital emissions associated with your website use over time, support long-term digital resilience using tighter security, ongoing maintenance, et cetera, building team capacity.
• 14:10
  Tim Frick: I mean the list goes on and on.
• 14:11
  Tim Frick: There's a whole slew of things.
• 14:13
  Tim Frick: Hence it was easy enough to write a book about that, and actually the book mostly focuses on energy and the environmental components and less on the social and governance components.
• 14:24
  Tim Frick: If I were to rewrite it, i would definitely do it through an ESG lens, and unfortunately, most organizations aren't doing a lot of these things, which is really, i think, where purpose-driven businesses like B Corp can lead, because there are a lot of things that you could do and many organizations aren't doing them, and so, you know, our B Corp community could certainly jump on that.
• 14:46
  Tim Frick: Yeah, absolutely.
• 14:47
  Benn Marine: And I'll say too, for folks in that design, that web design space, something that I think thought was really cool about the book is there's a lot of really great visuals.
• 14:57
  Benn Marine: I'm also a very like, visually-driven person, And so it also helps digesting a lot of that information, which is really cool, really, really cool.
• 15:06
  Benn Marine: It's awesome to hear Yeah, yeah, You're also a certified LGB-TBE.
• 15:13
  Benn Marine: Can you share with us what that is, what that means and why that certification was important to you?
• 15:19
  Tim Frick: Sure, So it's a whole lot of acronyms.
• 15:22
  Tim Frick: Glcc is the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and they have a business certification, which is an LGBT business enterprise.
• 15:30
  Tim Frick: We decided in 2017, i think to go through that certification, mostly because we wanted to just put it out there that this is kind of the business that we are and what we stand for.
• 15:42
  Tim Frick: And you know, i've never I haven't been closeted since I was in my early 20s and I'm 56 now.
• 15:48
  Tim Frick: So you know I haven't been.
• 15:51
  Tim Frick: You know I haven't, i didn't like lead with my sexual orientation in business conversations or anything like that, but I did want to.
• 16:00
  Tim Frick: You know people to understand that.
• 16:02
  Tim Frick: You know I own a business that prioritizes inclusion, prioritizes diversity, and so going through that certification it really kind of helps us put that out there to the world, that like, hey, these things are priorities for us, this is what we stand for.
• 16:15
  Tim Frick: And you know we're looking to partner with organizations that stand for similar things.
• 16:20
  Tim Frick: And you know it is interesting because the NGLCC really focuses on getting LGBTQ plus owned companies as suppliers for large, large businesses like Shell or UPS or you know really big, you know multinational corporations and stuff, and those companies aren't really our target market, as I talked about earlier.
• 16:40
  Tim Frick: So you know well, we don't get a lot of you know kind of business value out of the certification because of that you know kind of incongruous target market.
• 16:50
  Tim Frick: It is important, you know, i think, that we just put it out there and who we are and what we stand for.
• 16:57
  Tim Frick: I do think it's also important that a lot of LGBTBEs would also find value in aligning their companies with the business community that shares their values of inclusion and diversity, similar to the B Corp community.
• 17:09
  Tim Frick: So I like having both stratifications because it, you know, it really kind of puts it out there like here's who we are and what we do.
• 17:16
  Tim Frick: I think that other LGBTBEs and there are several of them in the B Corp community that kind of cross align, similar to, you know, b1s, the B Corp and 1% for the planet members, which we also are a member of.
• 17:29
  Benn Marine: That's really cool And I'm curious so B Corp has this whole kind of community behind it.
• 17:33
  Benn Marine: Do the LGBTBEs also have like that community aspect, like is there any of that synergy?
• 17:40
  Benn Marine: I?
• 17:40
  Tim Frick: wouldn't say it's as strong as the B Corp community.
• 17:43
  Tim Frick: In fact, I would say the B Corp community is part of B Corp certification's strongest assets, You know.
• 17:49
  Tim Frick: I mean the community is what makes the change happen.
• 17:51
  Tim Frick: The community is where the inspiration happens, It's where the knowledge sharing happens, It's where all the kind of innovation happens within the B Corp you know world, Whereas, as I mentioned earlier, the NGLCC really focuses on can you be a supplier for Shell or can you be a supplier for UPS?
• 18:09
  Tim Frick: And well, there are a lot of businesses that want to do that And I don't know that they have done as good of a job as B Lab, for instance, at fostering and nurturing community.
• 18:19
  Tim Frick: They do have like an annual conference, But I don't, like you know, to me the champions retreat, which is the B Corp annual conference, is the, you know, one of the most inspiring events I attend every year.
• 18:31
  Tim Frick: I can't say I've had any interest or desire to attend an NGLCC event.
• 18:36
  Tim Frick: Maybe I will someday And, you know, perhaps I can get some inspiration out of that.
• 18:40
  Tim Frick: But I haven't been, to be frank, impressed with, you know, kind of their approach.
• 18:45
  Tim Frick: Like you know, why wouldn't we want to share, you know, align ourselves with companies that share our values.
• 18:51
  Tim Frick: And is Shell that company?
• 18:53
  Tim Frick: I don't think so.
• 18:54
  Tim Frick: You know what I mean.
• 18:55
  Tim Frick: Yeah, for sure I'm sure they have a great DEI program, you know and everything.
• 19:00
  Tim Frick: But, like you know, are they truly aligned with my values as a business owner?
• 19:04
  Tim Frick: No, And do I want to work with those companies to do?
• 19:06
  Benn Marine: Absolutely.
• 19:07
  Benn Marine: Yeah, no, that makes that makes a ton of sense, you know, speaking of kind of LGBTQ community.
• 19:15
  Benn Marine: We're in a political climate that is pretty scary right now And I'm curious have you received any negative blowback for being a certified LGBTBE?
• 19:26
  Tim Frick: I have an experience in firsthand discrimination, although unfortunately, in the Midwest especially.
• 19:32
  Tim Frick: I don't want to sound like this is a dig to the Midwest, but they do have that idea of Midwest nice which is a smile to your face and watch out what they say behind your back.
• 19:42
  Tim Frick: That being said, if I have, i don't know that I've actually been cognizant of it because nobody said anything to my face.
• 19:49
  Tim Frick: We haven't received any kind of direct discriminatory practices or anything like that.
• 19:56
  Tim Frick: You were lucky to be headquartered in a pretty progressive state of Illinois.
• 20:00
  Tim Frick: There's a lot of other companies, and LGBTIBEs especially, that are not so lucky that they're in places where this political environment is really toxic right now.
• 20:10
  Tim Frick: The one thing I will say is that Mighty Bites has made it on to Conservapedia's list of liberal corporate tyranny not once, but five times for the progressive policies that we have supported in the past.
• 20:20
  Tim Frick: So that, personally, is a badge we wear with honor.
• 20:23
  Tim Frick: I'm happy.
• 20:26
  Tim Frick: That totally works for me, but a lot of that is for signing petitions around inclusion and diversity and access to trans-inclusive healthcare and abortion and all these kind of progressive politics things that we support That apparently the Conservapedia feels that they need to call us out on that which is fine by me.
• 20:48
  Tim Frick: I'm in good company on that list.
• 20:51
  Benn Marine: Yeah, absolutely.
• 20:51
  Benn Marine: I mean, the fact that there's a list of liberal corporate tyranny in general is a thing all into itself.
• 20:58
  Tim Frick: What they consider is tyranny.
• 21:00
  Tim Frick: I mean, to me, tyranny is inclusion, tyranny is wanting a better future for everybody, and that's just hilarious to me.
• 21:08
  Benn Marine: Yeah, yeah, i know you've also mentioned that you've done some community organizing within the LGBTQ community.
• 21:14
  Benn Marine: Can you share a bit about what that work has looked like?
• 21:17
  Tim Frick: Yeah, i think it's mostly been within the B Corp community.
• 21:19
  Tim Frick: You know, when I was younger I came out in the 80s AIDS was in full swing, so it was a natural and it was a pretty, pretty problematic environment in the 80s and early 90s.
• 21:33
  Tim Frick: So I participated in a lot of protests and marches and parades and all of that kind of thing.
• 21:37
  Tim Frick: But now, as I'm older, i mostly use my businesses to support progressive causes, including those listed on the conservative media list, as well as LGBTQ plus rights and equality and stuff like that.
• 21:51
  Tim Frick: Within the B Corp community.
• 21:52
  Tim Frick: I partnered up with several other LGBTQ led businesses to create the B Proud Group in the Beehive, which is a closed social network for B Corps, and that came out of a session that we ran at the 2019 B Corp Champions Retreat to basically invade the community.
• 22:07
  Tim Frick: We basically invite people from the community to come in and talk about what is concerning to them, what the B Corp community can do better to support our community, and generally just kind of a listening session so that we could understand what is important and what might we do about it.
• 22:24
  Tim Frick: And then, of course, two or three months later, covid hit And I don't want to say those efforts went on hold, but we businesses everybody had a different set of priorities for a while.
• 22:37
  Benn Marine: Absolutely, I'm curious.
• 22:38
  Benn Marine: So this is more of just my own looking for inspiration here For myself as a trans person.
• 22:47
  Benn Marine: I feel like we're in this really scary time, But then I think back to what activists like yourself in the 80s had to deal with and how scary that was, And I'm just so curious how did you navigate fear in those moments?
• 23:02
  Benn Marine: Because I know it's something that I just truthfully I'm struggling with myself at times And, yeah, how did you navigate that?
• 23:13
  Tim Frick: I think, yeah, i don't.
• 23:14
  Tim Frick: I mean there's a that's a many-layered onion right there, one.
• 23:18
  Tim Frick: It was through anger, you know, and that's where those protests and yelling and screaming and marching all took place And that was a venting kind of procedure for a lot of people.
• 23:33
  Tim Frick: I also think that many gay men, especially who lived through the 80s, have probably not processed their trauma of that time, i mean, especially when it comes to AIDS.
• 23:44
  Tim Frick: I mean there's a lot of challenging rhetoric and bullshit basically around all of that, and you know, the government did not have our backs, nobody had our backs, and so the answer was civil disobedience.
• 24:00
  Tim Frick: You know, it wasn't even peaceful protest, it was civil disobedience.
• 24:03
  Tim Frick: It was the work of ACT UP and the people who made you know that that issue, you know front page news And that's really, i think, from my personal experience, that's really what made change start to happen as the 90s continued to progress.
• 24:21
  Tim Frick: You know we had those big marches on Washington and we had a lot, of, a lot of, you know, people coming together to saying, no, this is not all right, we do not accept this and we want change.
• 24:30
  Tim Frick: You know, again, i don't know that.
• 24:33
  Tim Frick: You know, a lot of people probably haven't processed their trauma around all of that.
• 24:37
  Tim Frick: I do every now and again kind of tap back into that anger.
• 24:42
  Tim Frick: But as I've gotten older, gentler and wiser, i think it's really more about like well, you know, now that I have you know, i've established myself as a human and kind of know who I am and own a business, and so I know what my business can do.
• 24:55
  Tim Frick: I try to figure out, like, what can I do with the tools and resources at my disposal to make change happen?
• 25:02
  Tim Frick: And that is to make my business the best possible resource it can possibly be for, you know, people in this community and the business community overall, like I'd like to consider myself an inspiration to a lot of other business leaders who might want to look at saying, hey, i want to, i want to operate a business like that, you know.
• 25:21
  Benn Marine: Yeah, at least I hope that's what the that it is.
• 25:24
  Benn Marine: I love that.
• 25:25
  Benn Marine: Oh, thank you, And thank you so much for sharing that.
• 25:27
  Benn Marine: We're at the time that this is airing.
• 25:30
  Benn Marine: We're in June.
• 25:30
  Benn Marine: Do you have any special pride plans for Mighty Bites?
• 25:36
  Tim Frick: I don't, although I do plan to, you know, continue to sign as many pro LGBTQ plus petitions as I can and be active in the B Corp community, especially around policy activation and that kind of stuff.
• 25:52
  Tim Frick: Our company works virtually.
• 25:54
  Tim Frick: as I mentioned earlier, i live in a pretty rural area of Michigan And this is a cute story.
• 25:59
  Tim Frick: I saw a sign for a Pride Fest where in the closest town like the closest town of any size to where I'm at is about 45, 50 miles away And they have a Pride Fest there and it's a potluck picnic, which I think is great and amazing and probably would be a lot of fun.
• 26:18
  Tim Frick: I think I contrast that with the many pride events that I attended in Chicago when I lived in Chicago for 30 plus years, where 100 plus thousand people would attend and basically fill the community neighborhood in Chicago, clogging streets and everything.
• 26:37
  Tim Frick: And it is really interesting to compare a potluck picnic in a rural area with a Pride festival.
• 26:46
  Tim Frick: that is 100,000 people.
• 26:47
  Tim Frick: And honestly, i think, when it comes to actually achieving true equality and kind of bridging that gap between rural and urban existence, which is a big issue for many people in our community because rural environments tend to be so toxic and hostile towards us.
• 27:03
  Tim Frick: we really do have to figure out how to cross that barrier and figure out how we can provide support to people who live and come out in and grow up in rural areas where it's very, very dangerous.
• 27:19
  Tim Frick: And we have to figure out how to bridge that gap, because the two experiences are incredibly different?
• 27:28
  Benn Marine: Yeah, absolutely.
• 27:28
  Benn Marine: I mean, we see that here in Maine too, where folks in rural communities that are in those dangerous spaces don't have any access to resources to get them safely out of those spaces.
• 27:38
  Benn Marine: So it's, Yeah, you're absolutely right.
• 27:41
  Benn Marine: I'm curious.
• 27:43
  Benn Marine: I was in the car with my brother recently and he turned to me and he was like how do you feel about Pride?
• 27:48
  Benn Marine: And I was like well, I have some complicated, mixed feelings about it, And so I'm curious how do you feel about Pride in general?
• 27:57
  Tim Frick: I love what it stands for.
• 27:58
  Tim Frick: It is protest, and I like what the Stonewall Riots stand for.
• 28:05
  Tim Frick: That being said, in many big cities, especially, that has been completely diluted into a celebration, which is fine and totally okay, but in a lot of cities it's a drunken free for all.
• 28:17
  Tim Frick: At least, i can speak about Chicago in that regard, and I'd love to see us go back to protesting peaceful protest around issues that matter to our community.
• 28:30
  Tim Frick: We're lucky in Illinois that we have an environment that supports our community and provides protections to our communities and all that kind of stuff, but not everybody's that lucky, and so I would love to see Pride be focused on.
• 28:49
  Tim Frick: How do we help lift up all boats, so to speak?
• 28:53
  Tim Frick: How do we help everybody, especially in the places where there are no Pride festivals, where there are no options or access to resources or anything like that?
• 29:02
  Tim Frick: I think that's what I'd love to see Pride evolve into.
• 29:07
  Benn Marine: Yeah, absolutely.
• 29:08
  Benn Marine: I think that makes a lot of sense.
• 29:10
  Benn Marine: So, speaking of as an LGBT BE, what advice or guidance would you give to other businesses looking to build more inclusive policies for LGBTQ folks?
• 29:20
  Benn Marine: And also, i kind of want to abridges to like Also thinking about, since we're in pride and businesses are trying to navigate, wanting to show up and how they show I feel like that's where a lot of my fixed mixed feelings come in is around that commercialization, knowing that, like Some of that's needed to help keep these organizations going and there's, you know it's important to navigate that with care.
• 29:44
  Benn Marine: What would, what would your advice to folks be?
• 29:48
  Tim Frick: and and to do it outside of June.
• 29:50
  Tim Frick: Yeah, You know, i think, yeah, i think, first and foremost, if this is you know, if we're talking about other businesses, listen to your LGBTQ plus employees.
• 30:01
  Tim Frick: You know, find out what's important to them, listen to them and enact policies accordingly.
• 30:06
  Tim Frick: You know, but also learn what's going on in your local community.
• 30:10
  Tim Frick: Are there organizations or policies that you can support, to kind of be an ally and, and you know, supporting local legislation that promotes equality for our members of our community is really important.
• 30:25
  Tim Frick: There are, as you noted, increasing number of bills what almost 500 now in in 2023 alone That have been brought up that you know we need business allies and organizations to actively Fight.
• 30:39
  Tim Frick: And then I think there's also just kind of the nitty-gritty tactical stuff.
• 30:42
  Tim Frick: You know, don't pride wash, be an ally all year long.
• 30:46
  Tim Frick: You know, support to support our community Whenever and whenever you can, and then do do tactical things like educating people on prone, on use, or getting general Nutri bathrooms, or supporting trans inclusive health care, like there's a whole variety of things that an organization, you know, whether it's a nonprofit or a business, can do To to support our community.
• 31:09
  Tim Frick: Um, but first, did you know?
• 31:11
  Tim Frick: at first and foremost, it starts with listening, so I'd start there.
• 31:14
  Benn Marine: Yeah, absolutely, and I love that that you pointed out to like get to know your local communities because there's so many incredible non-pro like LGBTQ led nonprofits all around the country.
• 31:25
  Benn Marine: I Know personally, I mean, I got nothing against the human rights campaign you know, which is.
• 31:30
  Benn Marine: They do great things and I feel like sometimes If companies don't know you rather just default to donating funds there And it's like your local community could use those dollars and go so much further and do so much.
• 31:41
  Tim Frick: What is?
• 31:41
  Tim Frick: what is that phrase?
• 31:42
  Tim Frick: think global, act local.
• 31:43
  Tim Frick: Yes, yeah, and I think you know That's a really good point with the B Corp community.
• 31:48
  Tim Frick: You know I've been a leader as of a B local group in Illinois Which is basically focused on the geographic region of Illinois and supporting B Corps in that area.
• 31:57
  Tim Frick: I think you know supporting local organizations is so important and also, as a for-profit business, you don't know everything.
• 32:06
  Tim Frick: In fact, you probably don't know a lot when it comes to actually, you know, creating change and creating impact.
• 32:12
  Tim Frick: That's typically been historically the purview of the nonprofit sector or the charity sector, and so partnering with those organizations to create, you know, shared value is really, really important.
• 32:23
  Tim Frick: I think that's probably one thing I've learned top of anything else within the B Corp community Is that like finding those strategic partners Who you can share resources with and you can share you know knowledge with and all of that kind of stuff, and that really makes a huge difference to actually creating, you know, collective impact.
• 32:41
  Benn Marine: Absolutely Yeah, and building those relationships over time?
• 32:43
  Benn Marine: Absolutely Sure.
• 32:44
  Benn Marine: What advice do you have for other folks looking to use business as a force for good in general, even outside of Pride and all that?
• 32:53
  Tim Frick: Sure, yeah, i think you know probably first and foremost, do what you can with the resources at your disposal.
• 33:00
  Tim Frick: I think one of the biggest mistakes I made is that You know we got excited about being a B Corp and wanted to do all the things.
• 33:08
  Tim Frick: And you know We're a tiny little company and we really didn't have the resource to do all the things.
• 33:13
  Tim Frick: And you know Focus on prioritizing the things that are most important and that you can do within the resources that you have, and and and then partner with organizations or other B Corps or whatever on things that you know That you don't have the resources to do on your own.
• 33:30
  Tim Frick: There's a huge amount of collaboration within the B Corp community between B Corps to share resources, to share knowledge to, to create joint campaigns, all of that kind of stuff, and so You know Finding out, finding those partners is really important.
• 33:44
  Tim Frick: Also, it's worth noting that the B impact assessment is free for any Organization to use.
• 33:49
  Tim Frick: You don't have to become a B Corp and in fact, non-profits can't become certified B Corps, but anybody can use the B impact assessment to kind of help Prioritize what to focus on when they're creating, you know, impact for various stakeholder groups.
• 34:04
  Tim Frick: So that's a really great resource, i think, finding communities that are focused on similar priorities and then joining those communities, offering support, listening, etc.
• 34:13
  Tim Frick: And then, you know, building community around shared values and topics and stuff like that is it's really about, you know, collaboration and meaningful collaboration and kind of building trust between your business and the people that you want to help, help and and see succeed.
• 34:36
  Benn Marine: Thanks so much for tuning into this series.
• 34:38
  Benn Marine: If you want to learn more about mighty bites Tim's books or be local Illinois, i've provided links to all three in the show notes for you.
• 34:47
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• 34:55
  Benn Marine: Till next time, be responsibly different.
• 35:00
  Benn Marine: This episode was produced by yours truly, ben Marine, with music from B Corp certified Marmoset music.
• 35:09
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• 35:13
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• 35:18
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• 35:30
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