87. Doing Business Better: The Founding and Mission of Simple Modern - Mike Beckham
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Overview
Meet Mike. You're about to meet one of the world's most kind, giving CEOs. When your company's mission statement is "we exist to give generously," you know everything that comes afterward is going to come from a pure place. We're sitting down for a founder's story about a socially good company that's turning the water bottle industry on its head, and each measure of success is getting poured back into incredible philanthropic missions. It's a thought-provoking discussion about doing business differently.
Today’s Guest
Mike Beckham, CEO and Founder of Simple Modern
“Generosity isn’t just giving to charitable causes, it’s also how are you generous with your customer?”
Episode Highlights
Mike’s entrepreneurial journey (5:18)
Simple Modern’s not so simple start (11:04)
The Core Values and Work Culture of Simple Modern(11:52)
Simple Modern’s Good Mission and commitment to giving back (17:28)
Getting through the pandemic while simultaneously growing your company (25:10)
Negotiation Tips (28:27)
Partnership opportunities and Fundraising (34:31)
Mike’s One Good Philanthropic Moment (43:22)
Mike’s One Good Thing: Focus on multiplication. (46:55)
Powerful Quotes:
“I really value growth, personally. I really value learning.” - Mike
“Skills can be taught… but value alignment can’t be taught.” - Mike
“You have believed in me more than I’ve believed in myself.” - Mike
“I wanna be one of those voices in the lives of younger people saying, ‘Hey, you really can do this.‘“ -Mike
“All of us should exist to give generously.” - Becky
“The goal here is to impact the world in a positive way.” - Mike
“Affirmation is great, but we can be so stingy with it sometimes.” - Mike
“The things we do can impact people we will never meet in an incredible way.” - Mike
“You need to pretend like the person who you’re negotiating on behalf for is there.” - Mike
“We have to be capitalism 2.0 where it’s not we’re just providing value to the top of the top, we’re creating value at other levels and we exist to impact.” - Jon
“I am always looking for people who are good students.” - Mike
“We hire people that are good stewards.” - Mike
“You gotta tell stories and we need to invest effort in becoming really good storytellers.” - Mike
“People desperately want vision.” - Mike
“That idea that if you really believe you have been a recipient of just outrageous generosity, how can that not transform the way that you think about being generous towards other people?” - Mike’s One Philanthropic Moment
“Grace is really just this idea of undeserved favor and undeserved gift.” - Mike
“We tend to repeat the things that we have seen that we think are good.” - Mike
“Focus on multiplication.” - Mike’s One Good Thing
“Successful leadership is about developing and empowering other people.” - Mike
“The more I let go of things, the more I see people grow.” - Mike
“How many leaders are you developing?” - Mike
Connect with Mike and Simple Modern
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Jonathan McCoy, CFRE, Mike Beckham, Julie Confer, and Becky Endicott, CFRE
