Carrie Rich: Author of Impact The World

Episode 272

Carrie Rich, Author of Impact The World: Live Your Values and Drive Changes as a Citizen Statesperson and CEO of the Global Good Fund, shares more about her new book and the tools that can help anyone drive social change for the better. Carrie also shares stories of her own journey investing in social entrepreneurs. This episode is sure to get you inspired and give you plenty of ideas. On this episode! On this episode of #TheKaraGoldinShow

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Transcript

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be I want to be, you just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked down knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control control control. Hi, everyone and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi, everyone, it’s Kara Goldin from the Kara Goldin show. And I am so thrilled to have my next guest here. We have Carrie Rich, who is, first of all, my friend, but also an incredible, incredible business person. And a four time author, her latest book is called impact the world I have it right here. She co authored it with Dean fall. And it is such an amazing, amazing book, it is called impact the world live your values and drive changes as a citizen states person. And it is not only awesome, but I learned a ton in here. There’s all kinds of tools in the book too. And it is just really, really worth worth it worth it worth it. Definitely, definitely worth it. So she is the co founder of the global good Fund, which is dedicated to investing in socially impactful businesses primarily led by black, brown, and women founders. And as I mentioned her book impact the world live your values and drive change as a citizen states person was recently published and is now a Wall Street Journal and Amazon Best Seller can’t wait to discuss Kerry’s amazing journey, and how she has scaled to where she is today. And overall, just hear more about her awesome book and how we can all be doing much more impactful things. So welcome, Carrie,

Carrie Rich 2:14
thank you so much for having me Kara.

Kara Goldin 2:16
Super, super excited to have you here. So let’s start at the beginning. So tell us a little bit more about Carrie, uh, did you always think that you would be working and social impact tell us a little bit more

Carrie Rich 2:29
I grew up, I’m the daughter of two federal employees. And our big adventure was moving next door when I turned one year old. So a life full of adventure. And the idea I didn’t even know what an entrepreneur was a really stable, wonderful upbringing. I cared about health, I developed an early interest in health and at the time, social entrepreneurship did not exist when I was in school. But the idea of learning the business of helping people and investing in the health of communities that was as close to social impact and social entrepreneurship that I could find it was the business of doing good by the community. So I thought what I studied, I learned about health. And then I realized that the health of communities is really determined by access to education to work, to clean air to breathe, and clean water to drink. And, you know, those are influenced by entrepreneurs. And that’s where this idea of social entrepreneurship came to play in my life.

Kara Goldin 3:30
Totally, totally agree. So your first job? Yeah, so

Carrie Rich 3:35
I actually had an internship. And when I was in graduate school, and I got the worst jobs in the hospital setting where my internship was, I mopped the floors, I folded the laundry. And my best task was I got to take attendance, because who should walk in the room for the meeting, and had to introduce himself to me, but the CEO of the whole health system, and he ended up hiring me in a Chief of Staff type role. And it dawned on me that I had this amazing mentor and a platform and responsibilities in a way that accelerated my career a lot more quickly than it would have they not had such a fabulous mentor. And there are so many people out there who never get that shot. So that was the impetus behind the global good fund.

Kara Goldin 4:18
That’s amazing. So let’s talk about the global good fund. So you ultimately decided to start this like how did you have the courage to just go do that? I mean, it’s just did somebody I mean, you mentioned your mentor and and kind of just so happened to find this person along the way, but was there anybody else that you kind of looked at? That was definitely influential and helping you decide that you were gonna go start this fund?

Carrie Rich 4:48
You know, the most influential part for me was sitting down with my mentor and writing a financial life plan. Because there’s nothing more scary than starting a startup nevermind a nonprofit Startup, I mean, there’s no liquidity, there’s no chance at the financial means that could be created from a for profit. And so that was scary because I had life goals that I wanted to achieve, and they cost money. And so I actually sat down with a stack of napkins, and wrote out what the cost of the things I wanted to do with my life are. And that was with my mentors encouragement, and he really helped me understand that, you know, you have goals, you set financial goals along with them. And it gave me the courage to understand that I could do this, that it was a big leap of faith, and that health care will always be there, the society always needs health care, but the opportunity to make such a global impact may or may not be before me. And as you take this chance and have a board and advisors who would be there to support me along the journey, because it’s been an up and down journey.

Kara Goldin 5:55
Explain a little bit more about what the global good fund is to Sure.

Carrie Rich 5:59
So we’re a nonprofit organization, about 10 years old. And what we do is identify social entrepreneurs across the United States and in 40 countries globally to date, who are using their business for good. And when we say social entrepreneurs, we’re talking about companies where you cannot remove the mission from the company, or else the company ceases to exist. That’s the whole reason for the company’s founding in the first place. And the difference for global good fund is we support the individual, we believe that by investing in the individual, that individual goes on to scale their business, and positively impact the world. And so we provide access to executive coaching, business mentoring from people leading 40 million to $60 billion companies, for one on one mentorship, and philanthropic grant to be used on the individual entrepreneur for their personal development. And what we’ve found through third parties is that our entrepreneurs are two to three times as effective at raising capital as other social entrepreneurs, because we’ve invested in them as human beings.

Kara Goldin 7:00
That’s awesome. Really, really great. So the world is navigating extraordinary times, and people are leaving the workforce, right and left. I’m not sure where they’re going, necessarily. But I know that there’s a shortage everywhere, globally, everywhere. So you believe that a renewed civic spirit is here. I’d love to hear a little bit more of your thoughts on this and what you see happening amongst the workforce out there. And why is the shift so important?

Carrie Rich 7:32
Yeah. So people seem to be distrusting of institutions. And there’s there’s a big difference between advocating on the street and protesting and then aligning with organizations, institutions, businesses, that can create and drive positive change. And so we’re, the reason we wrote this book about becoming a citizen stays person is it’s often people who say, I don’t like the way something is running, I don’t like the way things are, I want to create change. And I think the way to do that most effectively is by partnering. And that was the impetus behind writing this book. And we also were able to showcase theirs, their social entrepreneurs, and all kinds of citizens, states, people who have used their platform or built a platform, to partner with all kinds of people and institutions to positively impact the world.

Kara Goldin 8:24
I learned so much from your book, I mean, it really, as you know, I had given you a quote for the book and had read parts of it. But it was, I really dug in, especially getting ready for this interview looked a little bit closer. I love this term citizen states person and defining, you know exactly who this person is, and why it matters so much. But can you give a little bit further description on that,

Carrie Rich 8:55
we’re looking at people who want to roll up their sleeves, and be responsible for the changes that they want to see. And there are people who want to do so in a way that’s professional and not going to threaten other people and are going to be respectful of the organizations and institutions that are already created that they can leverage to make positive change. So these are people going to roll up their sleeves and advocate in a way that involves volunteering to be the change and make the change that they want to see.

Kara Goldin 9:32
So you share a ton of stories in your book about various people who are effective citizens states person what’s one of your favorites from the book?

Carrie Rich 9:44
Okay, so the way we open the book is with a company and two leaders. The company’s name is a Su Su and the leaders are Rumiko Abby and senior goal and they are first generation American and immigrant from the southern Nigeria who came to the US to pursue to opportunities and were denied access to loans because they don’t have a credit score. And they thought this isn’t right, they ended up borrowing from a predatory lender at 400% interest rate. And they said this should never happen to anyone else. So they created a business called a Susu. That just become a black and brown lead unicorn. Recently, and a they’ve created hundreds helped hundreds of 1000s of low income Americans establish credit scores through their monthly rental payments at no cost to the tenants. So these are folks who are paying rent anyway. And what they did is they partnered with landlords, commercial landlords, which is a vehicle that already exists, because it was in the landlord’s best interest to prevent evictions. And so sue Sue created a vehicle that not only benefits the landlords, but also benefits the tenants who now that they have credit scores, and those credit scores have increased as a result of a Susu. They’re able to now go out and start their own companies pay for school, buy their own homes, create the American dream, create a life for themselves that wouldn’t otherwise be accessible. So that’s a very inspiring story for me, and they were a global good, fun fellow back in the day.

Kara Goldin 11:15
Oh, that’s awesome. No, I loved that story, too. And it’s also just so great that you actually bring these stories forward. Because I think that there’s so many stories out there of really awful things happening like that, that you just don’t hear the stories too, because how do these people voice exactly what is happening? And I think that the way that you encourage people to really go and create and change versus actually just deciding, well, that’s just the way the system works,

Carrie Rich 11:49
right. And for those of us who work within the system, there’s there’s still an opportunity to create change by partnering with the organizations as they exist today.

Kara Goldin 11:58
Well, and that was my next question, which is, what are the steps that anyone can really take to kind of be helpful and be able to work alongside maybe somebody who is or is doing something to create change?

Carrie Rich 12:14
Well, I can say, personally, when I’ve rolled up my sleeves and asked to volunteer, or add value, in a setting where I wasn’t invited, but I saw an opportunity to add value that’s often been received with open arms in ways that I wouldn’t have expected. And that can be menial tasks, like taking attendance. But if you’re adding value, where there’s a gap, it is the value to the organization or the cause. And so the first step is really getting in there. And closing the gap with your your time or your perspective,

Kara Goldin 12:53
you brought up a really interesting point, because I talk about this all the time, when you’re actually doing something that is helping people in a way that gets them unstuck. That is, you know, we do it in the name of health, right? We’re helping people by creating great products with hint to, to really get healthy and stay healthy. But I think that when you are volunteering, no matter what you’re doing, you’re mentoring, whatever it is to really sit alongside that person or open doors for that person. And they come to you and say, Wow, you really helped me there is it hits you in all the right places, right, like you feel needed, that you’ve created impact. And it’s it’s a great thing. So I love it. And I love your tools, if you want to just talk about the tools that you’ve given in the book, some of you know, the next steps for people.

Carrie Rich 13:49
system, salesperson is a big concept. And that was actually Dean’s idea. And the thought was how do we make that a little more tangible and concrete. So throughout the book, we’ve woven a variety of tools. And we also have a website called impact the world.com, where you can download individualized tools that can help you on your social impact journey.

Kara Goldin 14:10
Now it’s super, super great. So going back to you and sort of your own personal journey, you spin in a number of different roles and done incredible things. I always think that there is a group of people who look at people who have been successful or or who are successful today and think, carry just snap your fingers and everything was fine. Everything was perfect. Everything’s great be no challenges, no failures along the way. And so one of the things that I always ask people to share is a story where you hit a challenge you hit a bump in the road, you didn’t know if you were going to be able to fix something and share a little bit more about that. But also what did you learn either a about the issue or about yourself and sort of how to, you know, move forward.

Carrie Rich 15:05
One of the opportunities that we saw as a nonprofit was to create revenue streams that are sort of untraditional, and eight years ago, we came up with the idea of creating a venture capital fund that invests in companies for social good, and produces phenomenal financial returns that are at least as good as what traditional, well, performing funds perform. And this was an idea, but we’ve been working on it for eight years. And we started out with a pilot fund where I asked about 100 people, if they would each give me just a little bit of capital to make investments in social impact companies. And most people about 100 people said no, but 10 people said, Yes. And I went about managing this fun with guidance from one of the global good funds board members who is a venture capitalist. And that fund performed really well, it produced financial returns that are about three times what a solid performing venture capital fund would perform. The companies that portfolio are 100% socially impactful investments led 80% of the companies are led by black, brown, or women are so in a variety of ways that was impactful and financially lucrative for our investors. And so it was time to raise a second fund. And I thought the right thing to do to to lead and raise a second fun would be to have someone with a really long track record making money for investors to lead the company. And so I went out and find a really qualified, amazing human. And I brought him to the LPs, the investors, and we fell flat on our face after a year of Trump trying, we just we failed. I mean, we just failed. And you can have, you know, a variety of reasons why maybe the market wasn’t ready. Maybe people just weren’t that interested in social impact, you know, we can have a variety of reasons. But we failed. And I went home, and I just, I stopped, I kind of gave up on the idea that it was the right thing to do, or the right thing for me to do. And then someone basically shocked me, and hit me over the head. And helped me see that the problem is that you were not the one leading the fund. And I started giving excuses. I said, Well, I don’t have a track record of leading a venture capital fund, I’ve managed a non profit for the last 10 years, my backgrounds in health care. And she said, No, no. Investors want you to lead the fund. And she must have said that to me four times before I actually heard her. And we then had an opportunity to get an anchor investor at 20 million to create a big fund and you know, the values just the alignment wasn’t there. What it was a lot of money to go build the fund of our dreams, but it wasn’t the right alignment. And from a value standpoint, and so here I was with this, be haven’t been shaken to say you are the right person and zero capital and an idea. And I just put together an Excel file with some help from an intern and went out and tried. And 400 rejections later, we raised $10 million. We’ve produced 5x net value for investors after a year and a half. 100% of the companies are socially impactful. 80% are led by black, brown, and women entrepreneurs were women and black LED fund. Half of our investors are black, brown, or women. So we’ve been inclusive in terms of creating wealth for new investor base, and had I just given up when I felt like it. None of that would have happened. Some I’m grateful for the chance to go low in order to dig deep and and build.

Kara Goldin 19:00
I love that story. That is that’s incredible. So, you know, I think so often, too, you have to find the challenge. Is there something that you can do? Is there something you can try more than anything? Because I think I could imagine in that situation where people would, maybe they’re going to give you suggestions, they don’t really know whether or not but the fact that you actually decided, you know, what do I have to lose? So I might as well go try and see if this is really what it is and and it’s scary, right? There’s a lot of fear behind it, especially when you’ve already failed when you’ve already failed. But then, you know, as my dad used to say, like when you’ve already failed, what’s the worst that can happen? You’ve already failed, right? So it’s a Yeah, such a lots of stuff to think about and that for sure. So let’s talk about leadership. So, you know, obviously you’ve been leading teams you just share are a great example of sometimes even great leaders make mistakes along, line away. Can you talk to me about like core principles and values that you’ve seen have really helped you to kind of continue leading and not just developing awesome business, but also just being able to raise money, being able to have a great team. But what is a great leader in your mind? Well,

Carrie Rich 20:27
one of the principles that has served me best in terms of leadership and building a team, is I try to only hire people that I would want to work for. Because what I’ve learned is that I am working for our team. And a lot of times, you know, I, I cast a vision, but then day to day, they’re the ones making sure I do you know what needs to happen. from a leadership standpoint, they tell me they know the details of the day to day better than I do. And so I am serving them, I am working for them. And so hiring people who I want to work for, has been really fundamental to my leadership strategy, especially in terms of building a team.

Kara Goldin 21:08
No, I love that. I think that’s, that’s a really, really important piece. Because if you’re hiring people who you can’t imagine being able to, you know, you don’t want to listen to for example, then you’re actually thinking about it incorrectly upside. That, I think it’s, it’s, the whole model ends up being upside down. So I love that example. So Carrie, thank you so much for coming on and talking with me. And everybody needs to pick up this book. As I said, it’s, it is so good. I’ll show it again. It’s got an amazing reddish orange circle on here, impact the world live your values and drive change as a citizen states person. And definitely everybody who is listening, please give this podcast a five star rating this episode, I should say and make sure that you grab a copy of this book and definitely follow carry on. What? Definitely LinkedIn, I know you’re on there. But also, what’s your handle

Carrie Rich 22:16
on at miscarry rich on Instagram, and Carrie rich on LinkedIn. And we’d love to see you at the Global good fun, too.

Kara Goldin 22:23
Awesome. And find me on all social platforms at Kara Goldin. And don’t forget to pick up a copy of my book undaunted, where you can hear more about my journey and building the company. I found a tent and we’re here every Monday, Wednesday, and we just added a third day Friday, which is very, very exciting. And thank you everyone globally for listening to this podcast. And thank you again, Carrie and everyone have a great rest of the week.

Carrie Rich 22:50
Thank you so much for having me care.

Kara Goldin 22:52
Before we sign off, I want to talk to you about fear. People like to talk about fearless leaders. But achieving big goals isn’t about fearlessness. Successful leaders recognize their fears and decide to deal with them head on in order to move forward. This is where my new book undaunted comes in. This book is designed for anyone who wants to succeed in the face of fear, overcome doubts and live a little undaunted. Order your copy today at undaunted, the book.com and learn how to look your doubts and doubters in the eye and achieve your dreams. For a limited time. You’ll also receive a free case of hint water. Do you have a question for me or want to nominate an innovator to spotlight send me a tweet at Kara Goldin and let me know. And if you liked what you heard, please leave me a review on Apple podcasts. You can also follow along with me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn at Kara Goldin. Thanks for listening

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