Episode 90: The Power of the Small, Every Day Action with Masami Sato
Lauren Tilden
Welcome back to Making Good, the podcast for small businesses who want to make a big impact. I'm your host, Lauren Tilden, and this is episode 90. I have such a treat for you today. I know I say this a lot, but this is one of my favorite interviews that I've done so far for this podcast. My guest for episode 90 is Masami Sato. And in our conversation, we discuss the power of the small everyday action when it comes to changing the world through your business. I was so inspired by everything Masami shared in this interview, and after recording, I felt more excited than ever by the power of small businesses like yours and mine.
But before we get into the episode, I am so so so excited to tell you about my new membership program Making Good Happen. Last week, I opened the doors to Making Good Happen, and I am so excited. I've had such amazing business owners sign up to be members already, and I'm kind of freaking out about how good this is going to be.
So what is Making Good Happen? Well, one thing I know all too well is that it is one thing to learn the things we know will take our businesses to the next level. And it's another thing entirely to actually take the actions that we need to take. It's the action that changes things for us, not the learning by itself. And that's what Making Good Happen is all about. Making good happen is a monthly membership designed to help you custom build a marketing plan for your business. And more importantly, take the actions you plan to take month in and month out. Actually take the steps necessary to see the results you dream of.
Making Good Happen includes a private members only podcast called, you guessed it Making Good Happen. There'll be short and sweet episodes every weekday ranging from mini pep talks, to journaling prompts and action items. It also includes deep work sessions, so these are kind of like co-working on Zoom but with no video or audio so that we can minimize distractions while we work together. It includes guided monthly marketing plan creation and an online community of other like minded small business owners. Accountability tracking of your most important deadlines, guest expert presentations each month, and more stuff that is a surprise because I just like surprises.
And so that we can all kick off 2022 with a bang making good happen is officially launching the first Monday in January, January 3 2022. If you are interested in joining head to makinggoodpodcast.com/happen and sign up for an email that will give you all the juicy details on the program. Because this is the first time this program has ever been offered. You can join and lock in this monthly price for as long as you're a member at the lowest rate it will ever be available, if you sign up by December 18.
This is a ridiculously good deal and I would so love to have you join again. You can get all the details at makinggoodpodcast.com/happen.
Okay, so let's talk about today's episode. My guest is the amazing Masami Sato. Masami is the founder and CEO of B1G1, a social enterprise and B Corp based in Singapore, B1G1, also known as buy one give one helps businesses around the world integrate effective giving into what they do. Today B1G1 works with more than 2800 businesses. And these businesses have created over 220 million giving impacts to date together. Masami has a diverse business background, is a two time TEDx speaker and the author of four books. She is also a mother of two teenage children. Her work originates in the belief that businesses with a real sense of purpose can make a real difference in the world. In our conversation, we discuss the power of the small everyday action, three critical components of business giving the most beautiful analogy I've ever heard of businesses as pollinating bees, how to overcome procrastination when it comes to making impacts, how to make giving a habit, unique, creative ways to give back, the power of kindness, and much, much more.
I learned so much and was so inspired by this conversation, and I am so excited to share it with you. Here it is.
Hey, Masami, welcome to Making Good.
Masami Sato
Thank you so much for having me, Lauren. Great to be here.
Lauren Tilden
I'm really excited to talk with you. We have tried to get this scheduled for a while and I'm so glad the day has finally come. So I'm really looking forward to this conversation. I would love for you to introduce yourself to me and more importantly, the listeners of this podcast. And I know you have a long history in business so I would love to hear the story about where your current business B1G1 one came from, and then maybe what got you started as a small business owner even before that.
Masami Sato
Okay, so you know, it's hard to decide where to begin the story. I think, you know, talking about small business in particular, I think it's good to start with my first interaction with a small business. And so that was actually my grandparents' business back in Japan, in Tokyo. So my grandparents had a small family business. And growing up as a young child, and my own parents were very, very busy working for different companies. So me and my sister both mostly spent our school holiday time with grandparents, staying with them and helping their business every day. So serving customers, or cleaning the shop, so being in a business environment, small family business environment, I learned so much. And even though I was like a shy, introverted child, but still, for me, business gave me a door to the world where I understood a lot of things that I couldn't learn at school. So that was kind of my beginning of an entrepreneurship journey.
Lauren Tilden
What kind of business was it?.
Masami Sato
Oh, it was just like a general shop and like selling food items, or it's like, almost like a convenience store in today's sense. But it was sharp, like, deep rooted in the community. So people are living in the neighborhood that will pop by on the way to work, they stop. Other than serving customers, like, as a business, there was this social interaction element, because, you know, we knew a lot of customers who lived around us.
So, yeah, so that was the kind of beginning. And then what happened was, when I finished studying in Japan, I had the opportunity to travel around the world. And up until then, I was this scared person, and who didn't know anything about what was happening outside of my own little world. But when I stepped out and without being able to speak English, because, you know, that was when I really started to learn English as well, I started to really like, enjoy connecting with others, and being very, very simple, because I didn't have complicated words to use. I really loved interacting with people in very simple ways.
So we're in that time, when I was backpacking, and not having much on a very low budget, and often like staying at people's homes or doing exchange work or so, in that time, I started to become aware of the different kinds of challenges people face around the world. And I started to question why we were all doing what we were doing, you know, like my parents working so hard in the growing Japanese economy, and trying to go up in the corporate world. And then at the same time, there are people who have so little, and it just didn't make sense. But they were still able to smile and still able to share their limited food with me, like inviting me to eat with them or stay with them. And so I felt really quite confused and conflicted. And eventually at that, at one point, I thought, like, well, this consumerism is the source of all evil. So I will just let go of everything and try to find self sustainable living, you know, so I moved through the countryside in Japan at one point and spent a couple of years living with traditional farmers, you know, trying to create self-sufficient life.
And after all, like, after two years, I realized that actually I was, you know, wrong, because there was no way that I could have a totally disconnected self sufficient life. And if I was trying to, not to do the wrong thing, and try to justify, you know, myself, then there was no goal like, I could reach happily. So then I continued on my journey, and eventually, I became a mom and I was traveling, and I eventually settled in New Zealand and gave birth to my own first child. And that was, then I really felt that I wanted to do something, rather than saying, like, well, I had so many issues, and there were a lot of stray kids or, but I couldn't do anything like that was how I felt before.
By having my own child, I realized that it was really important to me to do something and not to just be the mum for my own child, but to do something for other kids too, if I could, as much as I could. So that's when I started my very first business which was food company, and eventually in the evolution of food, business and all that and as a result of all that, hard work that we did, we were growing and our company was in Australia then distributing packaged frozen healthy meals to more than 150 retail stores at one point. And that was when this very simple idea of B1G1 came to me. Because, you know, I realized that I started my business because I wanted to do something and then give, but our company was always, you know, growing. So we had to put all the resources back into business, and I never felt we were ready to do something great. So I thought, what if instead of trying to do something big in the future, we did something small, and did it every day. And so that buy one give one concept of, you know, every time we sell a meal, we contribute a small proceed small part, or proceed to help feed and educate a street child. And so that was the kind of first time I connected with the idea of B1G1, buy one, give one. And then eventually, several months later, I finally decided to sell my company in Australia back then, and move to Singapore to start B1G1 as the business giving initiative to work with many businesses around the world to do this form of, you know, embedded Giving. And it's been 14 years since then. So that's the kind of beginning.
Lauren Tilden
My gosh, so amazing. One thing I really loved hearing you say was, you know, initially, when you started this food business, you wanted to make a positive impact. But like, as time went on, and you grew the business, you just didn't feel ready, like you were at the point where you could really make a difference. I think this is something that a lot of small business owners, particularly like really small business owners will relate to, because, you know, a lot of them start making their own product. And, you know, you start your sales are low in the beginning, and it feels like how could I possibly make an impact when my business is so small. So I love your philosophy, I guess that like, it's kind of never too early to do that, right? Like, just bake it into your business embed it, sort of is already use into your business, and you don't have to wait till you reach a certain point, you can just start making an impact now.
Masami Sato
Totally agree.
Lauren Tilden
Yeah, I would love for you to share a little bit more about your current business, B1G1 and the kind of work that you do with businesses.
Masami Sato
Okay, so I like the fact that you mentioned the word business, like your current business, because sometimes like people, you know, talk about the charity, because what we are doing is fundamentally are giving the initiative so the closest word you can use to describe this kind of activity could be like charity, you know, traditionally. Actually B1G1 initiative has two parts. One is the business part. And the second one is the charity part. So for the facilitation of all of the giving, that we do, then we actually have charity organizations, you know, registered in US as a charity to actually manage that. But at the same time, actually, this entire initiative has this like business component at heart, because you know, we are social enterprise, like we believe in the fact that the businesses with a real sense of purpose can really change the world together. And so when we came up with this idea of B1G1 and how to make it work, we started out, you know, thinking that this is a social business, this is a business.
And so the model of B1G1 has like a very much a business thinking about how to deliver value to businesses that we work with, and make their social contributions as impactful and effective and meaningful as possible. So we really thought about, you know, what was really missing in the general form of giving or business giving. And then we identify the three things which was impact the habit and connection. So first of all, like, you know, traditionally, the humanity was always giving, and they were always charity organizations for like, you know, years and years, decades. I don't know how many hundreds of years charity organizations and social organizations existed, but there's always generosity in us that you know, would give and, but at the same time, what was kind of missing in the convention or giving space was the impactfulness that people were giving just for the sake of giving amount of money to charity ABC but they didn't quite understand what they were helping achieve with their giving. So we realized that we wanted to make the giving very impact based. So in B1G1 today, we have more than 450 high impact projects that were broken down into tangible, like micro units. So you could help, for example, plant a tree, you know, tangerine tree in Malawi, or forest, a tree in the rain forest park or so. So that's a very impact base. And another thing is the habit that if we do just ad hoc giving, just because we feel like then, you know, we need to wait until like a massive natural disaster or something happens to just to give or we have to host a massive like charity bowl, to raise funds. But that might cost a lot of money to us to do those things.
And so we realized that if we could embed the effective giving in our day to day activities, that's already happening, such as business activities, because business is here driving our world, so we thought, what's the key?. And then finally, we wanted the giving to bring the sense of connection. And when we do this with businesses, then basically businesses are all connected with each other, and also with our everyday act. So we realized that helping businesses to connect and make a difference together and creating the sense of connection with their team and customers. So those things really mattered. So we developed a business initiative and membership model, where businesses of all sizes and types can come together, and contribute together, so we develop the systems, you know, we have widgets that can count the number of impacts in so many different ways, and businesses can embed those widget on their website, like, you know, embedding a YouTube video, and then to share the impacts that they are creating, or they have a certificate of gratitude that they can download and send. So we always continuously think about the meaningfulness of and the value of creating a giving culture for businesses and try to drive value to them, whilst making it simple and easy for them to give. And then we pass 100% of what they give to the causes that they choose to support through us.
Lauren Tilden
So awesome, so cool. So this is one way obviously that a small business could consider implementing a giving aspect to their business is to join, like, work with someone like you. What would be for someone maybe just starting out who might not feel like they're quite there again? Do you have a process that you suggest for sort of figuring out how to incorporate or embed, like a do good component?
Masami Sato
Yeah, like, it's actually, you know, the most important idea or perspective to have here is to make it just as simple and easy as it starts, because it's so easy to postpone things like when we overthink it, or over complicated. So when businesses have the intention, like we want to do good, then just the thinking about, you know, one thing that happens in the business that is symbolic, or that is important to you. So for example, one of the examples of early adopters of big one, because we've been doing this for a long time. But you know, some of the early stories always very, very precious to us. And many of those businesses are still with us today.
And so one company, as an example, was a fashion business. But when this lady called the currents that her business, she was just doing it because she liked, you know, doing things in fashion. And she used to just take some of her fashion items to the weekend farmers market so where she sold those things. And she didn't even have a physical shop or anything. And she discovered to B1G1 and then even though you know, she thought like, it might not make sense to me to be doing this because I'm just starting out and we are not making much money; but she did it because she resonated with it.
And then in the beginning she decided that for every piece of product which she sells, she wanted to contribute toward the girls education to help girls continue to study in some countries like Cambodia, so that they don't get affected by the risk of child trafficking. So that's what she did. So she gave a little bit for each product. And you know, in the old days we used to notice her giving because it was very, very frequent, she was giving like every day. And we thought, you know, we used to think like, oh, that must be taking so much of her time. And she could actually accumulate the giving and do it like monthly or something.
So one day, we asked her, like, Why do you give every day, then she said, actually, it mattered to her because it reminded her of why she was doing what she was doing. So she continued to give regularly, then we then started to notice that the impacts in giving started to get bigger and bigger over the years, that we were not kind of quietly noticing it. And then what we discovered later years later was that, you know, basically with that, in our commitment to make a difference and do good and attracting the right people in her own business mission, she started to grow, and she had retail stores. And then she eventually pivoted also to more doing online business, and she is doing a multi million dollar business now. And her giving is so much bigger, and she is still with us and giving. And she still talks about how that part really mattered to her.
So I think just the thinking about, you know, simplicity of what you resonate with, like, what problems do you care about? And it can be all sorts of things, right? Because it's overwhelming to see all sorts of things like around that and feel powerless. But if you know that, well, actually, every call in a meeting that you have, you could be planting a tree to celebrate that nice conversation we have, and they might just cost you a couple of dollars to do you know, in our company, too. We do all sorts of creative giving. So every email we send, we actually do make an impact, because impact in B1G1 can start with just one cent. So actually, anything is possible.
Lauren Tilden
Oh my gosh, I love that with the email so much. Do you have other, so now that I'm excited about this, these two ideas, the emails and the calls, like donating for each of those? What are some other kind of like creative ways that we can give? That's not just, I guess, like, my personal way of donating currently is I donate 5%, which is great, and I feel good about it. But I love this creative approach that you have. So are there other ideas similar to the donate per email? Or donate per phone call?
Masami Sato
Yeah, yeah, so there are all sorts of things you could do some, like really creative things is to really like tune into the opportunities to do good together. And so, sometimes like things like, the fun ones could be, every time somebody is caught the typo in our article we gave them all because then it makes people go like, you know, have fun, like, and it was at every opportunity. And also, to actually celebrate the moments together, you know, like, whether it's high moments or low moments or learning moments. And so we, you know, we hear so many different creative ideas, some businesses choose to do things like whenever the team members are having a birthday, instead of just giving a conventional present, we let them choose that giving that they want to do.
So giving can be a great way to open up like the generosity inside the culture of business. And also, you know, even when somebody is running your business alone, right, like, then it's sometimes very lonely to be doing it alone. But the moment you are able to celebrate the things together, because every time like business interact with people, whether it's customer clients, or suppliers or so if we are able to use these moments to do something generous together, then instead of like just doing business, and you know, always talking about business deals in the traditional sense, like how much does it cost? Or how quickly can you deliver this, like those kinds of conversations, like that's important, but at the same time when we actually can step out of that and to do something together for something greater than ourselves something that outside of our own like interest, then actually that sense of a connection that gap that can be created could be very interesting.
So I think I highly recommend to start with a simple, like it because we don't need to do too many things at once because then we will delay, but just pick one first, and then do something or just let's say you know, certain budget for social goods like so if you had a target like oh you are happy to allocate to just 1% of your business, you know, resources, whether it's revenue or you know, product to sell or just 1%, but to social good, and then once you have that kind of target, then it makes it makes it really easy for you to think about what you want to use that 1% for. And then the idea is endless, because you know, you can actually like, you can stick with one thing before long term, that's really also good too. But some of the things you might want to do it, the more creatively ad hoc, so sometimes, like, you might think about, okay, season of giving is coming. And this year, we want to involve our community or our clients in choosing the type of giving that we want to do together to celebrate it. And so we can thank everybody for the part that they play. So that, like, I would leave it to the imagination and the feeling of each entrepreneur. But the most important thing is not to delay and do it now and start soon. Because, you know, in life, we kind of know that we never know what happens, like in the long run. So if we can celebrate our everyday wins, rather than trying to delay our greatest pleasure to a later point of time, then that is definitely better than, you know, trying to do something big, but not do it now.
Lauren Tilden
Yes, I'm glad that the conversation brought us here, because one of the things I wanted to ask you about was the role of procrastination in doing good. Which, for me, I think that procrastination is really connected to perfectionism. Like, we want to do it big and do it perfectly. So we're just gonna wait until that moment comes. But what do you think holds businesses back from just taking that first step to, you know, make us take a small action, even if it doesn't feel huge, maybe, but is important to get started, like you say, so what holds people back from doing that?
Masami Sato
I think like, everyone has a good intention, but we also have a distraction on a day to day and I like to, you know, look at the things like behavioral economics, because, you know, all the good intention that we have, or all the goals that we set, like, why do we actually fail? We are all capable individuals. So learning about that is very interesting. And I don't blame anybody, because I have the same problem of some of the human weaknesses in achieving my own goals as well. So I think that the key part is, you know, definitely that simplicity, because we generally like over complication, or, you know, thinking a lot about what goes wrong. All that kind of things are prevented. So, actually just, at one point of time, we realized, oh, actually, we want to do this, then just identifying one small but tangible action, and then find a way to stick with this whether to have some form of delegation, or automation, or peer support.
So if, for example, making a different method, but you are very busy, then, oh, maybe you just set the automatic monthly recurrent giving to the carbon offset. So every month, you just at least offset the cover for your team, you know, by doing that, then it happens automatically. So that's one way. Another thing could be like, if you have some people working for you, then instead of you trying to do everything, not just the saying, okay, somebody in our team may love to actually be the giving champion. And then the moment you delegate, your role changes to somebody, you have to do it because somebody supports somebody else, you know, in doing it and then get the maximum joy out of it. So I think when we understand our own weakness or distraction, finding a way quickly to just mitigate that, like, take away that complication or distraction, and just do one small simple thing, but do it in such a way that you can continue to do and to turn that into a habit is really, really useful, I think.
Lauren Tilden
Yes. Such great suggestions. I think we've covered this a little bit, but one thing I know you talk about is the power of the like the regular everyday action. And I guess how small things add up. Could you go into that and just maybe I'd love to hear what you have to say on that. I know it'll be super inspiring.
Masami Sato
So um, I like using metaphor in many things, because that makes the things like it easy to understand. So, for me, when we think about the power of everyday action, or power or business, then I think about the pollinators of the world, like bees. And so, when we look into the world of bees, what we discover is that these tiny, tiny creatures that we don't even notice on a day to day basis, responsible for majority of our food production, so we depend on them so much, and they are tiny, but the power that you know, they have is, in the day to day things that they are doing, which is they're going out flying out and pollinating flowers as they collect the nectar. And they're doing it as a part of who they are, you know, they're not doing it for social responsibility. It just, that's what they do naturally. And so when we think about our day to day action, and the businesses are doing what they do, actually, businesses are designed to be the pollinators of the world, to create the abundance shared abundance for us and to make our life better. So there is fundamentally the structure of business being the kind of abundance creators, but over the years of, you know, business development, we started to go off that initial intention and became so focused on maximization of profit alone.
So when we do that, then what happens is we are trying to extract more nectar without the pollinating because pollinating slows us down, or, you know, we have to carry more stuff on our legs, as bees, when we became so smart to extract more, but forgetting that the business's day to day activities actually involve the giving back and nurturing the soil of our you know, ground and so that we can have a continuous abundance. And that's why we realized that the effect of giving and the sense of generosity and caring for the world need to be coming back with their business activities day to day, because then, even when we are not even thinking about the social responsibility, actually, those good things can happen through the everyday things that we automatically and naturally do everywhere around the world. And those businesses and day to day activities can overcome all of the differences and barriers that we have, like borders, or different idealism or culture because businesses are actually everywhere, touching people's lives. So that's why I believe that, they do the things that the businesses do and people do, if we could do more good to spread that sense of caring and generosity through this, that's going to be very, very powerful.
Lauren Tilden
Mm hmm. I love that metaphor. And I love just the way that you talk about businesses being like pollinators of abundance, I think that's just such a really beautiful way to think about small about business. And for me, small business. I, I don't know, I think business kind of can get a bad reputation. I think growing up, I used to feel like I could either do something that would make the world a better place. Or I could work in business, you know, that they were different. So I just love how you kind of know, like, just the lens that you view business, it's like business can, business has created a lot of problems in the world, and in my opinion, but it can also solve a lot of problems. And it's really just a matter of like, all this intention that you're talking about.
Masami Sato
Yeah, definitely like so, you know, back then, like, I think businesses and charities are very different things. And they they seem to operate in the opposite way or something. But I think the new form is the hybrid organizations. Some of them are called social enterprises, but some are just businesses which had a stronger social mission or some charities which have very good commercial acumen, you know, and creativity to create the sustainability without being 100% dependent on like, people's good intention to donate money or so I think the more we can come to the middle, the better the world becomes. Because businesses you know, caring and making different decisions actually can have a huge impact in the world. And then also certain problems may not be solved by businesses, because there is no money to be made, so charity models are still important. But then charitable organizations also need to move more toward the value generation model so that they don't need to be worried always about the sustainability of the work that they're doing. So, yeah, so I think that is kind of like a path that we all get to play as entrepreneurs and even running small businesses, we are actually creating this new movement and trend, and every thing do or say, and share actually matters.
Lauren Tilden
Yes, yes. So you talks about different forms of businesses, your business is a B Corp. Is that right?
Masami Sato
Yes.
Lauren Tilden
Okay, so I would love but can you just share a little bit about what it means to have a B Corp and what kind of businesses it might be a good fit for?
Masami Sato
Okay, so because earlier I talked about B1G1 having two parts. One is the commercial enterprise and another one is the charity. So the B Corp, certification is given to the business entity, because we are social enterprise. And then for initiative like ours, you know, just because we are social enterprise, we cannot easily just get the B Corp approval, because B Corp has many different elements in giving that gravitation. So you go through all sorts of assessment and then verification process. And so attaining a B Corp status is actually not very easy, but it's a good thing that we actually reflect on because, you know, B Corp assessment, the test can be taken by anybody for free. So if you're interested, then you can just go to B corp website, and then take the assessment, free assessment. And then you can see your rating and which part of your business practice you can improve.
Some of the expectations that the B Corp set may be more suitable for like larger companies, I believe, but actually, even smaller businesses too, we can have the big indicators as like a goal not to work toward so when you are setting like a new employment, the process, you know, hiring process, or when you are crafting the company handbook, and these are the things that you will enjoy doing through business development. So when as your business grows, and some more team members start to join, then you might set the project, like let's identify our culture, you know, much more clearly and start to crafting company handbook, which incorporate all this kind of fairness policy, in our employment practice, or so at least like as a, you know, key external measurement, that would be a very useful thing to look at. And then if any companies successfully became B Copr, then that's great news, and I think together if we inspire more businesses to think about their business practice, not to just about their own product and service and how to make it more socially responsible, or environmental friendly, like those are important things that we could all do. But at the same time B Corp also gives us like, other factors, like you know, how you are treating your employees, or what kind of policies that you are setting. And so that's actually very interesting thing to look at. So definitely highly recommend that. If anybody interested in B Corp, or want to learn more than you can visit their website.
Lauren Tilden
Awesome. Thank you. Um, one of the sort of final questions I have for you, I have a few questions left. One is, how can kindness change the world?
Masami Sato
Well, I think, everyone may have different answers for that. But what we may not disagree with, is that actually, kindness creates so much good in the world and in our environment. So if we think about the world, like imagining two types of world, one is the world of, you know, giving and care and getting kindness and the other one is the world of, let's say, self interest and the competition and, you know, being unkind and trying to win the game, everybody trying to get more from each other, right? Like and then think about which world do you want to belong to? And then I feel like not many people will choose to dislike, unkind, vicious world where everybody's trying to get more steal from each other and not trusting each other. And I think people generally want to be in a place where people can be kind to each other, help each other, support each other, share more with each other.
And so, what happens sometimes is that even though we all understand that this importance of like, you know, humanity kindness and caring, but just because of what we see in front of us, sometimes we go, oh, you know, everybody else is doing this, or nobody else cares. So I will behave like this. And then we get the kind of acting that because of this, it's okay for me to do this kind of, you know, thinking, but at the same time, if we totally just step out of that thinking, and then we go, like, what makes me feel the best? and to be the best of me today, then, no matter what happens, no matter how others react or do or say, if we decided to be kind, to be open minded, to listen, to respect people, to enjoy life, to smile, to have fun, and to care, and to love. And if we could do that, if we just could do that no matter what happens, then we just know that we have a better world. Because we can come together and work together, we can have open conversations and discuss issues. And when we disagree, we could still listen, we could still be open minded, still ask the questions, still try to understand and still try to come up with a compromise. So I think kindness is really such a catalyst like kindness or caring or empathy, generosity, you know, these are things that really do matter. And that's why I think the more of this we can incorporate in our day to day things like business, then it's going to be the biggest change maker, I think, because you know, the world already has a great technology, great knowledge, and great power, creativity, amazing, amazing skills of people. Like we have all these amazing things already. It's just that sometimes we lose that sense of why we are doing what we do, and why we are all here together.
Lauren Tilden
So beautiful. This question, I feel like we have spent most of the conversation answering but how do you do good through your business? I feel like we have talked about that in a lot of different ways. But I mean, I guess what is your, like, if you could make one impact on the world through B1G1, what would that be?
Masami Sato
Probably the most important thing for the world or for moving forward together is to not to judge, and you know, like not to judge immediately, because what is happening in the goodness of the world, or social impact world, we are all trying to create good. And then sometimes with all the good intention too, sometimes certain things will be implemented, there could be like unintended consequences, and we've seen that in the social space, too. I don't know if you'll recall things like when, you know, famous iconic company like TOMS shoes were very admired for what they were doing for, you know, giving pairs of shoes to children, to prevent them from getting the disease and things like that. But then years later, people started to discover that when TOMS Shoes, were giving the massive number of shoes, it was causing problems for local like, production and the trade of the local people. And so sometimes it's great intention over the years, they may learn something else was there. And but the thing is, it's so easy for us to jump on to like judgment, and then to go like that was wrong. And, you know, they did it wrongly, and point the finger at some someone.
But when we, when we do so, it might naturally discourage people from taking any action because people don't want to be criticized or people don't want to make mistakes or be wrong. And so all of that judgment might take away the potential to do good. But I think what's more important in doing good to space is to actually do something and then to be open to learn from it and open to be sometimes wrong. But then to come up with what's better, how to collect it, how to adjust our approach, and because the world is continuously changing the approach that worked last year or you know, last decade may not work in the future, and we may need to change things. So that's why I feel like even though we talk they're all about doing the things, well I think is really important is that if we actually are open to learn and to do good in a way we think it's good today, but to be open to the potential change coming up that we will continue to do our good with the right, the genuine intention to help people, but at the same time, when you can be humble, and then not to be like, like, you know, trying to just do few things too quickly, because taking small steps, like we learn more along the way, and then click the Actions and keep going. And then to actually appreciate the small moments and every person that helps us make that journey. And so yeah, so that was a nice question.
Lauren Tilden
Yeah, that was a great answer. Thank you. I think that's such an important point. That, yeah, to just do the best you can, and when you know, better, you know, you might learn that there's a better way to do things, and to just do it better when you can. But I mean, I think what you're describing is just sort of like, yeah, the humility and the willingness to be wrong, and to not, maybe get defensive about it. But just try to do the best thing you can in the moment. I think that's, that's such a great point to make. What is one small business that you admire?
Masami Sato
Oh, one small business. I don't know, there are so many businesses and small businesses I admire because actually, like, you know, why would anybody start a business when they could be working elsewhere, and probably better money. And you end up working so much more. And, you know, you may have no clear line between life and work, family and work. And that's like, small business. And that's why every person who runs a small business, I admire them. And also because I grew up, you know, seeing my grandparents run their businesses, and for them, it was just like, the things of their life, like the way of being because their shop was at their house. And also, when we were having breakfast together, we could see a customer walking in, then we would go out and help the customer. So I really admire people who run small businesses, because they have this embodiment of, you know, business and the family together, and that family value naturally conveys into the way they run their businesses. So I wouldn't pick any one single particular business, but I admire every person running their own small business.
Lauren Tilden
What is one book you would recommend?
Masami Sato
Oh, book? That's a challenging question for me, because I read like, generally I like reading books that talk about behavioral economics and things like that, because it's always those like findings around human psychology and how we behave. Yeah, it's very interesting to me. So there are lots of books that relate to that. But then, because I knew you were going to ask this question, I was just looking at my bookshelf before this call. And then I just picked up two things. One is actually the book of Adventures of Tintin. Because I used to read this with kids. And I was like, really into this. So these kind of books gives like...
Lauren Tilden
What book was that?
Masami Sato
The Adventures of Tintin.
Because I love these stories, and you know, because it just takes you out into the world into different realities and makes you feel creative and open. And another book I picked up from my bookshelf is Bucket List. And this is not a book written by somebody, but it's an open book that you can write in, then I thought, oh, bucket list, like I left it in the bookshelf for so long and didn't actually look at it. So thank you for asking that question. Because this book is about us filling in what we want to do in our life and actually do it. I will look into this now.
Lauren Tilden
I love that. What a great, what a great reminder. Where can people who are interested in learning more about B1G1 or just learning more about you in general, where should they go to connect with you online?
Masami Sato
So if you're interested in finding out more about the B1G1 initiative then you can go to b1g1.com and if you forget it then you can type buy one give one on Google then we will still come up. And another place you can find me as a person is probably LinkedIn is the best place so you can go to LinkedIn and search for me.
Lauren Tilden
Amazing, Masami, thank you so much for having this conversation with me. This has been one of my favorite episodes, I just could listen to your talk forever. So. Wow, I'm just excited to share this with everyone. Thank you so much.
Masami Sato
Thank you. And it's been a pleasure talking with you and thank you for all the lovely questions as well.
Lauren Tilden
When I finished editing this conversation, I had literally pages of ideas and notes. I hope you're as inspired as I was by Masami's story and work. Learn more about how you can join B1G1 at b1g1.com. And more details on this episode can be found in the show notes at makinggoodpodcast.com/90.
If you enjoyed this episode, I would so love for you to leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. And finally, I would love to work with you inside of Making Good Happen. My brand new membership kicking off in January to reserve your spot and lock in the lowest monthly rate that will ever be available, get the details at makinggoodpodcast.com/happen. And again to lock that price be sure to sign up before December 18. Thank you for being here and for focusing on making a difference with your small business. Talk to you next time.