Latest / The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson / Building Meaningful Community Partnerships for Business with Lisa Gruenloh
Transcript
- 0:37Jennifer Johnson: Today, we welcome back into the studio Lisa Gruenloh.
- 0:40Jennifer Johnson: Lisa is a mission-driven entrepreneur with a passion for helping individuals and organizations achieve sustainable well-being and success.
- 0:48Jennifer Johnson: She is the founder and president of Purpose Journey Consulting, training and coaching.
- 0:54Jennifer Johnson: Lisa recently launched a journaling venture which includes a collection of unique writing journals, a subscription box and a membership community.
- 1:02Jennifer Johnson: Welcome back, hi again.
- 1:05Jennifer Johnson: I loved our last podcast that we did.
- 1:07Jennifer Johnson: It was amazing, very impactful.
- 1:10Lisa Gruenloh: Oh good, it was fun.
- 1:12Jennifer Johnson: Yes, it was.
- 1:13Lisa Gruenloh: Yeah, you can't talk about this stuff.
- 1:15Jennifer Johnson: Enough, really, I know, the more you talk about it, the better, because people then is at the forefront of their mind, right, right?
- 1:22Jennifer Johnson: So when I thought about doing this podcast, you are the first person that came to my mind, because I want to talk about collaboration with community partners and business, and I see how you orchestrate that very well.
- 1:42Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, and it was perfect to have you in to talk about that.
- 1:46Jennifer Johnson: Thank you, and it's one of my favorite topics.
- 1:48Jennifer Johnson: Well that is even better.
- 1:49Jennifer Johnson: So, when we're talking about collaborating with businesses and community partners, what are the biggest benefits that come out of that?
- 1:56Jennifer Johnson: What are the biggest benefits that come out of that?
- 2:00Jennifer Johnson: So?
- 2:02Lisa Gruenloh: I want to start with what's the purpose of community partnerships.
- 2:06Lisa Gruenloh: First, because, yes, there are benefits, but you start with the purpose.
- 2:12Jennifer Johnson: The why.
- 2:13Lisa Gruenloh: You start with your why, right?
- 2:16Lisa Gruenloh: So why I get involved in community partnerships is because I am interested as a business owner, community member, human being, in accelerating and amplifying positive impact.
- 2:29Lisa Gruenloh: And can community partnerships help your business, um, increase your visibility and and, uh, enhance your reputation and maybe get you some sales or business?
- 2:42Lisa Gruenloh: Of course it can have that impact.
- 2:45Lisa Gruenloh: But I would really challenge any business owners out there, or entrepreneurs, to check your intention when you're interested in looking at community partnerships, Because to me it's that purpose of partnerships and because to me it's that purpose of how can I be a model for community impact, how can I be a part of something bigger in my community to accelerate and amplify positive impact, and we know that the most effective projects in anything are the ones that have public, private nonprofit partnerships.
- 3:29Lisa Gruenloh: And that's really what it's about.
- 3:31Lisa Gruenloh: And I'm not saying, hey, don't partner with people in a way that's good for your business, but that's like what strategic alliances are for affiliate programs.
- 3:42Lisa Gruenloh: That's the way I differentiate community partnerships versus these other things that we do to help our business.
- 3:50Jennifer Johnson: And you know I mean, everything comes around right.
- 3:52Jennifer Johnson: It does you get what you give, kind of thing.
- 3:55Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, so you know, but I loved your.
- 3:58Jennifer Johnson: You said amplify, accelerate.
- 4:01Lisa Gruenloh: Accelerate and amplify.
- 4:03Jennifer Johnson: Positive impact.
- 4:04Jennifer Johnson: I like that.
- 4:05Jennifer Johnson: You're being a change maker, absolutely Right, right, and I agree.
- 4:11Jennifer Johnson: Your why can't be the dollar signs behind it?
- 4:14Jennifer Johnson: That's not the purpose.
- 4:17Lisa Gruenloh: Yeah, and that's true for any business, right?
- 4:20Lisa Gruenloh: I mean, if you're really looking at your mission in a business and it starts with making money, you might want to rethink what you're doing, because that's not a real sustainable place to start.
- 4:35Jennifer Johnson: And you know, before we delve into the benefits, the one thing that I think of is that you can get so much more done when you collaborate and you work with someone else.
- 4:49Lisa Gruenloh: It's the only way really To get anything meaningful and sustainable done.
- 4:55Lisa Gruenloh: It's always through collaboration steps that I think you know a lot of businesses or government agencies, nonprofits make is not recognizing the wide range of stakeholders that need to be engaged in.
- 5:16Lisa Gruenloh: Whatever you're doing right and that's again why coalitions and partnerships are so important because you are making an intentional effort to get everybody at the table right.
- 5:31Lisa Gruenloh: So when big things happen and big decisions have to be made, we've got all kinds of problems to solve right and people to serve.
- 5:41Lisa Gruenloh: You want everybody who has a stake in that or who can be helpful or who's going to be served, to be part of that effort.
- 5:50Jennifer Johnson: Why do you think more people don't necessarily jump to that?
- 5:54Jennifer Johnson: Do you think it's out of a fear of I don't want to be out there and be seen?
- 5:59Jennifer Johnson: I don't want to be seen with that group, or if I'm affiliated with that group it's going to be polarizing to my business or what is around?
- 6:09Jennifer Johnson: Why people don't do that?
- 6:11Lisa Gruenloh: more.
- 6:11Lisa Gruenloh: You mean get involved in community partnerships, Correct?
- 6:14Lisa Gruenloh: You know I don't want to judge anyone, because sometimes I think it's.
- 6:19Lisa Gruenloh: We're all trying to do a lot of things, Entrepreneurs and business leaders.
- 6:26Lisa Gruenloh: There's just a lot on our plates.
- 6:30Lisa Gruenloh: It can just be hard to fit that in with the wide range.
- 6:35Lisa Gruenloh: Everybody's got a personal life too.
- 6:37Jennifer Johnson: Oh yeah, there's that.
- 6:39Lisa Gruenloh: Families and things.
- 6:40Lisa Gruenloh: This isn't about judgment at all, but um, uh, I think you know it's really kind of cultivating, um that, that sense of purpose and um that desire to have impact beyond just my inner circle, my workplace or business or my family.
- 7:06Lisa Gruenloh: And we know from the research that the more that we give back, the people who volunteer live longer and happier and healthier.
- 7:21Jennifer Johnson: So that's a benefit, a direct benefit, right.
- 7:23Lisa Gruenloh: It is such, it's a huge benefit.
- 7:25Lisa Gruenloh: It's a huge benefit.
- 7:26Lisa Gruenloh: Does it create more work?
- 7:27Lisa Gruenloh: Sometimes?
- 7:28Lisa Gruenloh: Well, sure, but and for you know companies, getting your team involved in meaningful activities like a community partnership doesn't necessarily mean that you have to devote, you know, 10 hours a week to sit on a, you know, a special committee or, you know be part of a kind of a longer term thing.
- 7:52Lisa Gruenloh: You know start small.
- 7:53Lisa Gruenloh: You know do some volunteer work.
- 7:56Lisa Gruenloh: You know help build a habitat for humanity home right, which we did in Leadership, collier, we've done that, we've done that together.
- 8:04Jennifer Johnson: But you know, going back to your organization, okay, and getting your employees involved to perhaps in some collaboration, like, let's say, it's building a house right For Habitat Nowadays and it's become, it's come more to the forefront now than it ever has.
- 8:21Jennifer Johnson: I feel like more to the forefront now than it ever has.
- 8:25Jennifer Johnson: I feel like people that that work, they are.
- 8:26Jennifer Johnson: You know, your individuals, your employees, want to have a purpose right that if they don't have a purpose, you know outside of what they do in their day-to-day job they, they, you know that and they want to have a purpose in their day-to-day job Right.
- 8:43Jennifer Johnson: I mean it's both.
- 8:44Lisa Gruenloh: It is, it is both.
- 8:45Lisa Gruenloh: But just because you worded it that way, it's like you know, there are these young people now they're creating these TikTok videos that are hilarious about, like how oh, they're sarcastic.
- 9:00Lisa Gruenloh: I'm not into sarcasm, but they're kind of funny where they're like oh man, I was dreading going to work today, but I just think about all those shareholders and I can't wait to go and make money for them.
- 9:15Lisa Gruenloh: But it's kind of a funny way of saying hey look, I need to feel like I'm having meaningful impact in my work day to day and, by the way, I expect my employer to be doing something beyond what we're doing here in the workplace.
- 9:32Jennifer Johnson: It's expected, you're right.
- 9:33Lisa Gruenloh: Yeah For this, and I kind of always have been that way, even though I'm Gen X, I've always been that way.
- 9:42Jennifer Johnson: I'm pretty sure I'm Gen X.
- 9:42Lisa Gruenloh: I've always been that way.
- 9:43Lisa Gruenloh: I'm pretty sure I'm Gen X, but especially this generation coming up, they just want to have a more meaningful work experience.
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- 10:22Jennifer Johnson: Welcome back, friends.
- 10:24Jennifer Johnson: We are in the studio with Lisa Gruenloh and we're talking about collaborating with community partners and your business.
- 10:31Jennifer Johnson: And once you know your why, your purpose and you start collaborating and everything, how do you measure what you're doing is being impactful?
- 10:45Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, you know.
- 10:46Lisa Gruenloh: I think that's one of the advantages of working in community coalitions, like two of them that I'm involved in.
- 10:55Lisa Gruenloh: Uh is blue zones, southwest Florida and David Lawrence center, and those are two incredible examples of public, private uh, non-profit, citizen uh partnership right, and I I think um getting to um.
- 11:16Lisa Gruenloh: You know the, the impact, the measurable impact.
- 11:21Lisa Gruenloh: You know when you're working with coalitions they've got the metrics right and so it's fun to see those impact reports, like at the end of the year because those coalitions are measuring it.
- 11:35Lisa Gruenloh: But I think what you're getting at is you know how do I measure my personal impact, and you know that's a little bit harder in the context of you know somebody else's uh uh mission.
- 11:49Lisa Gruenloh: But I think it's important to measure things you know cause if you want to put focus on something, having your own metrics as an organization like you know how many, how many meals did we serve when we were at meals of hope?
- 12:04Lisa Gruenloh: Right.
- 12:04Lisa Gruenloh: You know and just measuring the things that you're doing by people we're serving, organizations that we're involved in, maybe events we sponsored dollars we donated in-kind donations.
- 12:16Lisa Gruenloh: There are so many different ways to impact nonprofits in our community and get involved, you know, and it really depends on what resources you have and are willing to expand right, because not everybody is in a position to be the you know $50,000 title sponsor for you know whatever nonprofit.
- 12:44Lisa Gruenloh: You know fundraiser right.
- 12:46Lisa Gruenloh: But like for me what I can do.
- 12:48Lisa Gruenloh: I'm like the title sponsor for two years now and hopefully a third year.
- 12:54Lisa Gruenloh: David Lawrence Center has a Sunset Cruise.
- 12:57Lisa Gruenloh: You know that's a fundraising event and I love being the title sponsor for that.
- 13:02Lisa Gruenloh: It's within my price range to do that, and then, of course, I donate writing journals.
- 13:06Lisa Gruenloh: So I do in-kind donations as well.
- 13:11Jennifer Johnson: So, going back to resources, okay, what type of resources are there out there to actually, I don't want to say support the business in doing these collaborations?
- 13:24Jennifer Johnson: But you know, okay, I want to collaborate with someone.
- 13:26Jennifer Johnson: How do I figure out who I want to collaborate?
- 13:29Jennifer Johnson: I know it goes back to what my purpose is, but you know, is there a way that I could try to mine in the sea of, you know, nonprofits or whatever organization it is out there to figure that out?
- 13:44Lisa Gruenloh: Whatever interest or passion you have, there's somebody to help.
- 13:48Lisa Gruenloh: There's an organization to serve.
- 13:50Lisa Gruenloh: So I think you know, again, it's the self-awareness as an organization and a team.
- 13:54Lisa Gruenloh: It's like, well, what do we stand for?
- 13:55Lisa Gruenloh: What are we passionate about?
- 13:57Lisa Gruenloh: Where do we have alignment between what we do and you know who we might serve?
- 14:03Lisa Gruenloh: And so I think that's the first thing.
- 14:06Lisa Gruenloh: And then you know, united Way is a great resource in terms of researching nonprofits.
- 14:12Lisa Gruenloh: The Chamber does every year they do this amazing volunteer expo there's, there are all kinds of, you know, events in the community that that can help you connect up with nonprofits.
- 14:27Jennifer Johnson: Okay, so what advice would you give?
- 14:30Jennifer Johnson: Because you have collaborated with a lot of different organizations, what advice would you give to another business owner that's like you know what?
- 14:37Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, I want to collaborate with somebody.
- 14:38Jennifer Johnson: I want to be able to collectively help.
- 14:41Jennifer Johnson: What advice would you give them that perhaps you have learned?
- 14:47Lisa Gruenloh: Yeah.
- 14:47Lisa Gruenloh: So I think, think again it's that alignment.
- 14:49Lisa Gruenloh: You know about what I'm passionate about and, um, you know the type of um problems you know I uh connect with in terms of, you know, collaborative problem solving, um, and I think also I don't have like a, a big team, but a lot of organizations do, and engaging your employees in making some of those decisions I think is really important.
- 15:15Lisa Gruenloh: So you know you can, even if you're not involved with animals, you know a lot of people on your team may be really passionate about humane society, Right.
- 15:27Lisa Gruenloh: So you know, just, I would say, just be really open.
- 15:30Lisa Gruenloh: I think from a business perspective, it can be helpful to your business when you're aligning with things that relate to your business, right.
- 15:38Lisa Gruenloh: So, and that's one of the- reasons why I aligned with Blue Zones and David Lawrence, because we have a shared passion for wellbeing and mental and emotional health.
- 15:48Lisa Gruenloh: But it might be something like homelessness.
- 15:52Lisa Gruenloh: It really could be anything.
- 15:55Lisa Gruenloh: But I would encourage people to really engage their whole organization on some of those decisions, especially when they're the one-off events where you're going out and participating.
- 16:10Jennifer Johnson: Right.
- 16:10Jennifer Johnson: It's team building too.
- 16:12Jennifer Johnson: It's great team building, sure, because you're doing good Right and you're doing good together.
- 16:18Jennifer Johnson: That's right, amen, lisa, I have thoroughly enjoyed this conversation as well with you and you just you offer so much to our community and you do so much.
- 16:30Jennifer Johnson: If our listeners love what they heard and want to reach out to you and get ahold of you, how can they do so?
- 16:37Lisa Gruenloh: Great Thank you for that.
- 16:38Lisa Gruenloh: Probably the best way is is just shoot me an email at Lisa@ Lisa Gruenloh.
- 16:44Lisa Gruenloh: com, and you can also reach me through LinkedIn, of course, and my websites purposejourney.
- 16:50Lisa Gruenloh: com, purposejournal.
- 16:52Lisa Gruenloh: com and purposeful scribbles.
- 16:57Jennifer Johnson: Awesome.
- 16:57Jennifer Johnson: There's so many ways they can get ahold of you.
- 16:59Jennifer Johnson: That's wonderful.