People often compliment the fact that I do #socialimpact work. They post, ‘good for you’, or ‘thanks for taking that on’, as if I am thanklessly taking on some chore while the rest of the world goes about business as usual. 

The thing is, it’s incredibly satisfying, the only thing I have ever done, or could imagine doing. 

In Yvon Chouinard’s  recent interview about Patagonia‘s efforts toward impact, The 80+ year old Founder asks a great question:

“Let’s say you’re a gasoline company, selling gas at the pump. There’s a gas station on every corner, basically. 

Would you go out of your way to go to the one that was a member of 1% for the Planet,? (and on your receipt it said, ‘Thank you for spending $40 on gasoline. Forty cents of that is going to go to planting trees, saving the planet’)

He added:

“I mean, be very specific about where it’s going to go.”

His question, would you drive the extra mile or two to buy from that gas company? is the question that has driven many brands to put forward a product, service, cause or innovation that challenges the status quo, that does less bad or attempts to take on some of our biggest 21st century challenges as part of its brand promise. 

His second point though, about being specific where it’s going to go – is what separates the leaders from the imposters when it comes to social impact. 

Being specific means having an impact over time. It means having partners that are in it for the long haul. It means being able to tell a story that you have tried things, failed, improved and improved again. Then, you can be truthful, vulnerable and genuine to your customers. They will value you and always come back. 

This is the work we do. It’s not martyrdom, but rather helping brands on the specific part. We call this being TRU2U. 

We designed a process to help small brands get there after working with many progressive companies, non-profits and entrepreneurs and discovering that the most successful ones were relentless. 

Patagonia, Stonyfield Farm, Ben and Jerry’s, The Body Shop and Honest Tea, as well as many successful non-profits, were growing, scaling and having impact. 

Why?

It wasn’t enough to take on the issues. 

We helped each of the brands that we worked with develop a truth meter that was deep, vulnerable and relentless about how often, when, where and why they were communicating. Because they were small brands, they were focused on story-telling, not PR; they wrote articles and blogs about their efforts, not ads, and they used the places to communicate where their consumers showed up – packaging, stores, shelves, sides of trucks, flyers, coupons, mailers, events, parades, stages, speeches, holidays, birthdays and Sunday dinners. It was everything to them – not just say we are taking on ________, but to help their customers understand it, feel it, experience it and be able to communicate it to their friends and neighbors. This is what social impact work looks like for me. (hardly a thankless chore). 

And this is what it means to be TRU2U.  

So, if you are a brand or entrepreneur looking to be relentless, tireless, pragmatic, clear, compelling, optimistic and, most importantly, in it for the long haul, reach out. We love relentless. 

We work with brands who are intentional about doing work that matters, work that is tackling some of the biggest challenges of our day, Work that is changing the status quo. Get started here.