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In this episode, I was delighted to have the opportunity to chat to Helen McEachern, CEO of Cherie Blair Foundation for Women who just happened to be stopping by Hong Kong.

As a charity dedicated to economic empowerment of women in developing countries through supporting women entrepreneurship, Helen will be sharing more about the challenges of gender discrimination that leads to financial exclusion for women, the importance of education, and her work in ensuring that women entrepreneurs have the skills required to build successful businesses through connecting them with mentors from around the world. 

What we talked about:

• Why economic empowerment is an important part of women’s rights and equalities particularly in developing countries
  
• Unique challenges and opportunities for women entrepreneurs
  
• How to combat against gender discrimination that leads to financial exclusion
  
• The role of education in empowering women entrepreneurs 
  
• Connecting mentors from around the world to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries remotely by leveraging their online community platform and video calls
  
• Their biggest challenge as a charity: Funding 
  
• Creating awareness as a charity foundation and leveraging technology to increase the reach of their online learning content
  

Helen’s advice for Social Entrepreneurs:

• Think through the impact you want to have, is there anyone else doing it? Can you join forces with them? It’s great to start your own business but also look into partnerships, collectives and social enterprises. There are lots of different models to make social impact and create a livelihood for yourself.
  

• Running a business/charity is not always easy – make sure you can get access to the learning you need to be successful

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Other podcast interviews from The Innovate for Growth Podcast you might like:

Ep 001: “Should your brand be podcasting?” with Sam Book & Surmayee Tetarbe, Sassy Media Group

Ep 002: “Innovation in Hong Kong – where are we heading?” with Patti Hung & Kate Okrasinski, MAKE Studios

Ep 003: “The Business of Fine Art” with Jaime Lau, The Spectacle Group

Ep 004: “Making of the real life Marvel Tesseract and the artist entrepreneurial journey of a world renowned cold glass sculptor” with Jack Storms, The Spectacle Group

Ep 005: “Discovering the Uncharted Territories of Helicopter Aerial Hyperphotography – a story of chance and serendipity” with Antoine Gaussin, The Spectacle Group

Ep 006: “How can brands adopt sustainability and scale positive impact on the environment? ” with Sonalie Figueiras, Green Queen

Ep 007: “When Creativity meets Sustainability” with Diana Chen, The Purpose Business & Creative Mornings HK

Ep 008: “Will Fashion ever be Sustainable in the Future?”with Kate Padget-Koh and Kanch Porta-Panjabi, Fashionable Futures

Ep 009: “Reducing Fashion Waste and Pollution at Scale” with Christina Dean, Founder & Chair of Redress, Founder & CEO of The R Collective

Ep 010: “Making Fashion Recycling Easy and Rewarding for Parents” with Sarah Garner, Founder of Retykle

Ep 011: “From Print to Digital First – Transformation and Innovation in the world of News Media” with Malcolm Ong, South China Morning Post

Ep 012: “Solving Social Issues through Kindness” with Jeff Rotmeyer, ImpactHK & Love 21 Foundation

Listen to the full episode on your favourite podcast player:

I fight for people that are held back by society, people that are judged, and that’s something that really resonates with my heart.

Jeff Rotmeyer, ImpactHK & Love 21 Foundation

In this episode, I talked to Jeff Rotmeyer, an extraordinary school teacher turned social entrepreneur who started two NGOs on the same day. Jeff is the Founder & CEO of ImpactHK, an NGO that is tackling the homeless issue in Hong Kong, and Love 21 Foundation, a charity working with the Down’s syndrome and Autistic community in sport and nutrition.

He shares with me more about his motivation and challenges of running two NGOs, the system they’ve developed to get the homeless off the streets, and how sports and art play a big part in holistically supporting their communities.

What we talked about:

• Why Jeff decided to run 2 charities
  
• What motivated him to work with the homeless and Down’s syndrome/Autistic community
  
• Biggest challenges running the two NGOs
  
• How his business evolved from his blog and personal volunteering experience with the homeless that made a huge impact on him
  
• Whether language is a barrier when helping the homeless
  
• Their system of getting the homeless off the streets and into housing and employment, supporting them holistically with classes and community activities, eventually becoming independent, resulting in lives being saved through the work of volunteers
  
• How ImpactHK and Love 21 Foundation are funded and supported
  
• Getting corporates and volunteers involved through sponsored Kindness Walks and other CSR programmes
  
• Why they offer mentoring for the homeless and their vision for the future of Impact HK
  
• How Sports and Art programmes are beneficial and important for both the ImpactHK and Love21 communities

Practical tips

• Adapt quickly, especially in the early stages. Being flexible is important.
  
• If you want to make it happen and follow your dreams, it’s gonna take a lot of work. (…) You have to be ready to seriously grind. You can’t feel sorry for yourself (…) you just gotta go for it and really attack it if you want it.

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Brand sponsorship is a great way for your brand to reach and engage with its target audience in a relevant way while adding educational value. For more information, please email us at hello@internetofstories.com

If you’d like to support us on an ongoing basis:

Become a Fan:

Show your love and support for The Innovate for Growth Podcast.

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Become a Sponsor:

Help us keep the podcast up and running at a high quality.

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Become a Super Fan:

Get exclusive access to in person Q&A sessions with selected guests each month.

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Other podcast interviews from The Innovate for Growth Podcast you might like:

Ep 001: “Should your brand be podcasting?” with Sam Book & Surmayee Tetarbe, Sassy Media Group

Ep 002: “Innovation in Hong Kong – where are we heading?” with Patti Hung & Kate Okrasinski, MAKE Studios

Ep 003: “The Business of Fine Art” with Jaime Lau, The Spectacle Group

Ep 004: “Making of the real life Marvel Tesseract and the artist entrepreneurial journey of a world renowned cold glass sculptor” with Jack Storms, The Spectacle Group

Ep 005: “Discovering the Uncharted Territories of Helicopter Aerial Hyperphotography – a story of chance and serendipity” with Antoine Gaussin, The Spectacle Group

Ep 006: “How can brands adopt sustainability and scale positive impact on the environment? ” with Sonalie Figueiras, Green Queen

Ep 007: “When Creativity meets Sustainability” with Diana Chen, The Purpose Business & Creative Mornings HK

Ep 008: “Will Fashion ever be Sustainable in the Future?”with Kate Padget-Koh and Kanch Porta-Panjabi, Fashionable Futures

Ep 009: “Reducing Fashion Waste and Pollution at Scale” with Christina Dean, Founder & Chair of Redress, Founder & CEO of The R Collective

Ep 010: “Making Fashion Recycling Easy and Rewarding for Parents” with Sarah Garner, Founder of Retykle

Ep 011: “From Print to Digital First – Transformation and Innovation in the world of News Media” with Malcolm Ong, South China Morning Post

Listen to the full episode on your favourite podcast player:

In the internet world, information is available on demand whenever and wherever you want. So we have to start thinking about, beyond just creating content, how do we understand how the content is packaged, and how the content is delivered.

Malcolm Ong, Head of Product, South China Morning Post

In this episode I’m pleased to have the chance to explore the world of news and media tech, an industry that has gone through rapid transformation over the last 10 years. I got to find out more about the innovation that’s been happening in the media business with Malcolm Ong, Head of Product at South China Morning Post.

Malcolm has an incredible background having been a successful tech entrepreneur himself as a co-founder of e-learning startup Skillshare. We had a very interesting conversation about SCMP’s digital transformation, the role of Artificial Intelligence in the newsroom, their latest experiments innovating with different content formats inspired by new technologies and consumer behaviour, and his thoughts on the future of the news media business. 

We talked about:

• SCMP’s experimentation with different content formats and tech inspired by new ways and behaviours in consuming news content, e.g. smart speakers, podcasting, short form videos, real time live blogs

• Role of Artificial Intelligence in the newsroom

• Digital transformation at SCMP going from print to digital first media company

• Considerations when designing for audio experience
  
• Geographic and Regional differences in user behaviours and preferences for technologies, where they are and how they consume content
  
• Monetisation of their digital innovation and SCMP’s transition from paywall to free online news model
  
• How startups and corporates differ in their approach to innovation
  
• Thoughts on future of media and what’s next for SCMP

Practical tips

Malcolm’s advice for creative entrepreneurs who are just starting out:

Step 1
Find what problem you’re passionate about solving and focus less on what makes money. There’s always going to be challenges, roadblocks, days when you’re super stressed out and not sure if it’s going to work, and what’s going to push you through is your passion about solving that problem.

Step 2
Take risks and try everything. There’re always so many reasons to make things fail or reasons to doubt yourself, reasons to say no to certain things, but if you’re creatively resourceful, there’s always ways around it and ways to move forward. Don’t be afraid to take those risks and those steps, and do what it takes.

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If you’d like to support us on an ongoing basis:

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Show your love and support for The Innovate for Growth Podcast.

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Help us keep the podcast up and running at a high quality.

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Other podcast interviews from The Innovate for Growth Podcast you might like:

Ep 001: “Should your brand be podcasting?” with Sam Book & Surmayee Tetarbe, Sassy Media Group

Ep 002: “Innovation in Hong Kong – where are we heading?” with Patti Hung & Kate Okrasinski, MAKE Studios

Ep 003: “The Business of Fine Art” with Jaime Lau, The Spectacle Group

Ep 004: “Making of the real life Marvel Tesseract and the artist entrepreneurial journey of a world renowned cold glass sculptor” with Jack Storms, The Spectacle Group

Ep 005: “Discovering the Uncharted Territories of Helicopter Aerial Hyperphotography – a story of chance and serendipity” with Antoine Gaussin, The Spectacle Group

Ep 006: “How can brands adopt sustainability and scale positive impact on the environment? ” with Sonalie Figueiras, Green Queen

Ep 007: “When Creativity meets Sustainability” with Diana Chen, The Purpose Business & Creative Mornings HK

Ep 008: “Will Fashion ever be Sustainable in the Future?”with Kate Padget-Koh and Kanch Porta-Panjabi, Fashionable Futures

Ep 009: “Reducing Fashion Waste and Pollution at Scale” with Christina Dean, Founder & Chair of Redress, Founder & CEO of The R Collective

Ep 010: “Making Fashion Recycling Easy and Rewarding for Parents” with Sarah Garner, Founder of Retykle

Listen to the full episode on your favourite podcast player:

Within the first 6 months of my son’s life I’m sure I had at least 100 items of outgrown clothes, and it was a problem I can create a solution for.

Sarah Garner, Founder of Retykle

For those of you with young children, it can be frustrating to have barely worn baby clothes piling up at your house from your kids having rapidly outgrown them.

In the last of our mini series featuring sustainable brands, I talked to Sarah Garner, Founder of Retykle, who started the company to take the hassle out of resale of second hand children’s clothes to make life easier for parents. In this episode, Sarah shares with me more about the environmental issues caused by fast fashion, some exciting innovations and trends that are happening in the fashion industry, how Retykle enables parents to make money while offering a solution for conveniently recycling kids clothes, and her own entrepreneurial challenges as a non technical founder.

Key talking points:

• How her personal frustration with going through baby clothes quickly as a new parent led to her starting Retykle
  
• The definition of ‘Fast Fashion’ and how media and brands play a part in generating the demand for it
  
• How Retykle enable parents to make money while providing a convenient solution for recycling kids clothes that no longer fit
  
• Challenges of being a non technical founder when optimising and scaling efficiency without a playbook
  
• Local consumers’ changing attitude to second hand clothing
  
• Growing trend of fashion resellers and brands incorporating sustainability
  
• Innovations enabling sustainability happening in the consumer space, rental/reseller business models, and within fashion brand supply chains
  
• Simple habits that you can incorporate into daily life with kids to be more sustainable as a parent and cut down on waste
  
• Creating a brand community with influencers that stand for values they believe in in order to change consumer mindset at scale

Sarah’s tips for creative entrepreneurs who want to make a difference:

• Be constantly learning and stay curious
  
• Find something that you feel extremely passionate about and a problem that’s worth solving

Links

Retykle

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Become a Fan:

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Become a Sponsor:

Help us keep the podcast up and running at a high quality.

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Become a Super Fan:

Get exclusive access to in person Q&A sessions with selected guests each month.

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Other podcast interviews from The Innovate for Growth Podcast you might like:

Ep 001: “Should your brand be podcasting?” with Sam Book & Surmayee Tetarbe, Sassy Media Group

Ep 002: “Innovation in Hong Kong – where are we heading?” with Patti Hung & Kate Okrasinski, MAKE Studios

Ep 003: “The Business of Fine Art” with Jaime Lau, The Spectacle Group

Ep 004: “Making of the real life Marvel Tesseract and the artist entrepreneurial journey of a world renowned cold glass sculptor” with Jack Storms, The Spectacle Group

Ep 005: “Discovering the Uncharted Territories of Helicopter Aerial Hyperphotography – a story of chance and serendipity” with Antoine Gaussin, The Spectacle Group

Ep 006: “How can brands adopt sustainability and scale positive impact on the environment? ” with Sonalie Figueiras, Green Queen

Ep 007: “When Creativity meets Sustainability” with Diana Chen, The Purpose Business & Creative Mornings HK

Ep 008: “Will Fashion ever be Sustainable in the Future?”with Kate Padget-Koh and Kanch Porta-Panjabi, Fashionable Futures

Ep 009: “Reducing Fashion Waste and Pollution at Scale” with Christina Dean, Founder & Chair of Redress, Founder & CEO of The R Collective

Listen to the full episode on your favourite podcast player:

80% of the environmental impact of a product is laid down at the design stage.

Dr Christina Dean, Founder & Chair of Redress, Founder & CEO of The R Collective

In this episode, we have the very inspiring Christina Dean who runs not just one but two very successful companies in her mission to combat fashion pollution. Christina is the Founder & Chair of Redress, a charity working to reduce waste in the fashion industry, as well as the Founder & CEO of The R Collective, a sustainable women’s fashion brand that rescues luxury waste fabric and work with award winning emerging designers to turn them into beautiful garments.

Christina’s own career journey has been incredible, having been a dentist and a journalist before venturing into the world of fashion. We talked about her inspiration and motivation for running two companies simultaneously, growing her fashion brand into a media empire to make a difference at scale, and her thoughts on how slow fashion and sustainability will play a big part in the future of fashion.

In this episode, we talked about:

• Christina’s career path going from dentistry and journalism into fashion
  
• How it became her mission to combat fashion pollution and waste
  
• Why she decided to run two businesses simultaneously
  
• Christina’s biggest challenge, inspiration and motivation for running The R Collective and Redress
  
• Whether Sustainable Fashion is a good business to be in
  
• How she leverages media to scale positive impact and the reach of her brand’s message
  
• Cultural influence on consumers attitudes towards second hand clothing and sustainability in fashion
  
• The importance of educating emerging designers about sustainability
  
• How brands can change fashion consumers’ behaviour to become more sustainable
  
• Her thoughts on the future of fashion – Will slow fashion remain niche? Would High street brands integrating sustainability into core business convince small fashion boutiques to do the same?

Links

The R Collective

Redress

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Help us keep the podcast up and running at a high quality.

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Become a Super Fan:

Get exclusive access to in person Q&A sessions with selected guests each month.

$1,000.00 USD Monthly

Other podcast interviews from The Innovate for Growth Podcast you might like:

Ep 001: “Should your brand be podcasting?” with Sam Book & Surmayee Tetarbe, Sassy Media Group

Ep 002: “Innovation in Hong Kong – where are we heading?” with Patti Hung & Kate Okrasinski, MAKE Studios

Ep 003: “The Business of Fine Art” with Jaime Lau, The Spectacle Group

Ep 004: “Making of the real life Marvel Tesseract and the artist entrepreneurial journey of a world renowned cold glass sculptor” with Jack Storms, The Spectacle Group

Ep 005: “Discovering the Uncharted Territories of Helicopter Aerial Hyperphotography – a story of chance and serendipity” with Antoine Gaussin, The Spectacle Group

Ep 006: “How can brands adopt sustainability and scale positive impact on the environment? ” with Sonalie Figueiras, Green Queen

Ep 007: “When Creativity meets Sustainability” with Diana Chen, The Purpose Business & Creative Mornings HK

Ep 008: “Will Fashion ever be Sustainable in the Future?”with Kate Padget-Koh and Kanch Porta-Panjabi, Fashionable Futures