137. Using Tech for Good: Celebrating + Growing Everyday Philanthropists - Brian Ford

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Overview

Meet Brian. He's the host of the Self Improvement Daily podcast (you know, a podcast with a casual 8M+ downloads where each episode lasts less than 2 mins 😲😱🤗) as well as the founder of For Purpose - a social impact platform modernizing what it means to make a difference. This self-professed Social Impactivist is breaking down how to capture impact and amplify it for good. Tune in and learn how to activate everyday philanthropists for your mission.

Today’s Guest

Brian Ford, Founder, For Purpose and Host, Self Improvement Daily Podcast

“What I’ve learned around being a content creator, and also just a communicator, in general, is that your perspective does matter.”

— Brian Ford, Founder, For Purpose

Episode Transcript

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Episode Highlights

Brian’s story and what led him to where he is today (2:00)
For Purpose: the founding story and mission (4:20)
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and the connection to social good (6:00)
How For Purpose functionally works - and how you can get involved today! (9:00)
Leveraging storytelling to share impact (14:00)
The Four Pillars of Impact (16:50)
Brian’s podcast and other speaking experiences (20:00)
Personal development hacks (22:00)
A moment of philanthropy in Brian’s life that deeply moved him (25:00)
Brian’s One Good Thing: Do it now. 100% of the things you do right now get done (28:00)

Powerful quotes

“It was really based on observations that I was having for many, many years about culture and society and the way that we value things and how materialism plays a role for unnecessary reasons, and just kind of how that ends up manifesting in our everyday lives.” -Brian

“I feel like there was that collective awareness that was then putting people in the right frame of mind in order to consider something larger than themselves.” -Brian

“We have this inherent need to belong.” -Brian

“What I recognize and I think is a far more potent solution to the need to belong is instead of flaunting materialism, how about we flaunt the things that we're doing that are good for the world?” -Brian

“There are certain stigmas and associations related to people identifying with social impact being public about what they're sharing, etc. So what we did is we created this platform where people can tell us what they did that's making a difference. And again, big or small, regardless of your means. So we celebrate someone who donates $5, the same as someone who donated $500,000, because it's about your intentions to give.” -Brian

“We are providing this vessel for people to talk about the things that they're doing that are making a difference in the world.” -Brian

“We're normalizing the conversation around what it means to be a philanthropist so that people recognize, oh, I don't need a million dollars to make a difference, I can take out my neighbor's trash.” -Brian

“What I've learned around being a content creator, and also just a communicator, in general, is that your perspective does matter.” -Brian

“Our subconscious controls 95% of the behavior that we do.” -Brian

“Emotions have a very important role in society allows us to communicate allows us to express ourselves allows us to get the things that we need, that's what emotions do. But it's also very influential in our decision making. And it creates this lens around the context in which we're making decisions.” -Brian

4 Pillars of Impact by For Purpose

Choices
Conscious buying, Environmental sustainability, Cause advocacy
Profession
Conscious hiring, contribution business model, effort applied
Resources
Giving away goods, donating money, transferring education
Time
Formal volunteerism, spending meaningful time, local community service

Connect with Brian and For purpose

LinkedIn / Podcasts / For Purpose Website and Impact Newsfeed

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Watch the full Family Reach story mentioned in the midroll below! 🎉