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Episode 2: Talking B Corps with Tim Frick of Mightybytes
17 Plays8 months ago
For Episode Two, this week we have Tim Frick, founder and President of Chicago-based and long time B Corps Mightybytes in the BetterWorld booth to help us celebrate B Corp Month and much more.
Mightybytes is a digital agency and Certified B Corp located in Chicago. Since 1998, we have helped conscious companies, social enterprises, and large nonprofits solve problems, amplify their impact, and meet business and marketing goals. We have helped hundreds of organizations achieve real, measurable results.
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Transcript
00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome to the Better World Podcast, a weekly journey into the world of managed services, cybersecurity, communications, and other aspects related to the mission-critical infrastructure for small and medium businesses and organizations. We also take a regular deep dive into our work in the B Corporation movement, as well as the incredible mission and work by our customers and partners. Our goal is to bring business owners, directors, and managers, take home value, helping them to make better decisions regarding what has become the backbone of many enterprises and organizations. I'm your host, Matt Bauer, and this week we have Tim Frick, founder and president of Chicago-based Mighty Bytes, in the Better World booth to help us celebrate B Corp month and much more. Welcome to episode two of the Better World podcast. At Better World Technology, we're excited to be celebrating March 2020 as B Corp month. For those of you Better World podcast listeners who aren't familiar with B Corps, certified B corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance both profit and purpose. Better World's participation in the B Corp arc traces all the way back to the first discussions and ideas, most notably on a dark, cold wintery eve in suburban Philadelphia circa 2004, where an intrepid group of social entrepreneurs got together and asked the question, what if we're to create a group helping both frame and set the context of this space? So first it was more small and medium-sized companies, and then larger companies would follow, all with a triple bottom line focus and mission. Then some months later, Better World was part of a group of seven or eight companies that presented the concept to a closed meeting on Martha's Vineyard, a little bit warmer on that trip of what was then the investor circle. That led to our presence on the main stage at the 2007 Bali Business Alliance for Local Living Economies Conference in Berkeley, where Better World stood tall with the founders and CEOs of about 20 other companies like Seventh Generation Method, Give Something Back, and other founding B Corps. So fast forward to 2020, and there are now more than 3,200 certified B Corp companies across 150 industries in 71 countries. And in most states in the U.S., you can now file your company as a benefit or B Corporation, larger and larger. Companies have come along like Tom's and Eileen Fisher and Patagonia, The Body Shop, all having now joined the movement. But today, we're excited to have in the Better World booth, a pioneer in his own right, a B Corp warrior, Tim Frick, founder and president of longtime B Corporation, Mighty Bites. Tim is also a noted and well-published author in areas of content strategy and sustainability. He's given a TEDx talk and has also founded and helps run a number of other great orgs like B Corp Illinois, Climate Ride, and Content Jam. Welcome, Tim. It's great to have you on the show. Thanks very much. Appreciate you having me. Our listeners are so excited to hear about your journey, Tim. But if you could just step back and give us just a little bit about you and Mighty Bytes, and then we can start talking about the B Corp stuff. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. So Mighty Bytes is a digital agency, which means we've been helping companies find success using the internet. The internet has been the kind of sole technology platform that we've been using since we started in 1998. So this is our 23rd year in business. So we've been around and we've been doing this for a long time. We've been a B Corp for nearly a decade and a public benefit corporation. In other words, we altered our legal structure in 2013. We were one of the first public benefit corporations in the state of Illinois. And we have been best for the world, which B-Labs list is annual and it comes out and it kind of recognizes the top 10% in all categories of the B-Impact Assessment. We've been best for the world every year since 2017. So we've been doing a lot of this. We've been doing this for a long time. We've been a mission-driven organization since we opened our doors in 1998. Of course, we didn't know what B Corps were then, but we've always worked with mission-aligned clients, large nonprofits, social enterprises, other B Corps, et cetera. And that's really, once we've discovered B Corps, we were the ninth B Corp in the state of Illinois. I think we were like somewhere in the 400s in terms of what B Corps overall. Ever since finding B Corps, it was like it was the for me, it was just kind of the yellow brick road to to a better way of doing business. You know, it was a really clear path towards, OK, great. I want to I have a blueprint blueprint now for creating a better business and, and this is a way to do it. And as someone who went to art school and, and founded a creative agency, as opposed to a kind of a more traditional business route, you know, that's, that was really incredibly helpful. Awesome. Well, congratulations. And thank you for your commitment and, you know, having it in your DNA from from, day one. And then, you know, looking at how you got your start and reading a little bit about that, you know, take us back to that, you know, when you're joining your local neighborhood chamber of commerce and green business certification and that, you sort of list that as sort of your beginning of your journey. So I think that was, you know, around the late 2000s. We, as I said, we've been working with mission-driven organizations since our inception, but most of the work we had been doing prior to that was kind of instinctual. You know, it was kind of, you know, we knew we wanted to be this kind of business. We knew the kind of clients that we wanted to have, and that all just kind of happened and fell into place, which is a lot easier to do when you're a small business and in kind of startup mode, which we were for the first five to seven years of our existence. When we joined our local neighborhood chamber of commerce, Andersonville is a neighborhood on the north side of Chicago. And their eco business certification was kind of a forerunner for many neighborhoods around the United States. And Andersonville was really well known for its kind of eco-driven local business. You mentioned Bale a little earlier. Ellen Shepard. Ellen Shepard, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just going to mention, yeah, she was a huge, huge part of all of that. So, yeah, so we, you know, we became a member and we went through their Eco Andersonville certification. And it was great. And it was really kind of eye opening. But it was also focused a lot on kind of the physical office space. So we put in low flow toilet flushers and we put in LED light bulbs and, you know, kind of all that kind of stuff. But shortly thereafter, I went on, you mentioned climate ride earlier, I went on a climate ride and Hardik Savalia from B-Lab was actually on that climate ride. And he was talking about this new kind of company called a B Corp. I had been looking for a way to kind of take what we learned in the Eco Andersonville certification and bring it to the next level. And so learning more about B Corps and how they actually work kind of, you know, on an entire, holistically on an entire business, as opposed to maybe just the physical office space, that was really exciting to me. And I often joke around with Ellen that her certification was the gateway drug to us becoming a B Corp. And yeah, it was really like, to me, it seemed like the way that we wanted to go as a company. And so in 2011, I rolled my sleeves up and went through the certification. And holy crap, was it hard. I was like, whoa, going in thinking we're this awesome, amazing, eco-certified company. And then really having this eye-opening experience of like, wow, we have a lot of work to do when we have a lot of, you know, a lot of places where we can improve. It was really, it was really eye-opening and really helpful as well. That was always one thing for me as well as I did a number of VARs in early days, is that you think, you know, wow, we're out there, you know, we're really doing this. But then by getting through the survey, you realize how comprehensive it is and how much work you have to do. There's many other opportunities as a company, right? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So it was nice to have a clear path towards what we thought we needed to do. But it also, I think this is pretty common with many B Corps. We finished our first certification and we're like, now what, you know? And at the time, the B Corp community wasn't what it is right now. It wasn't getting the press that it does right now. It wasn't, you know, there wasn't easy access to a lot of resources. And so we just randomly started calling B Corps. You know, we kind of like blindly looked into the B Corporation Corporation directory and were like, well, that sounds like an interesting company. And so we just made cold calls and said, not for any sales type purpose, but we just were kind of wanting to learn from other B Corps about how they operated and what they learned through their B Corp certification and stuff like that. And every single company we called, no matter who it was, they took our call and they called us back. And I thought that was the most amazing thing, that everybody was so forthcoming and giving and willing to share their experiences and happy to help you learn. And at that point, I hadn't had a business experience, a business community experience like that. So it was really eyeopening and really wonderful to experience. And I just realized at that point that I found my tribe. I like, these are my people. These are, you know, these are, and I want to be a part of this. And so, yeah, we went from, you know, certifying as a B Corp to learning how to operate as a B Corp, which are two different things. And a lot of that had to do with those initial phone calls where we just randomly call other B Corps and they were also forthcoming and giving of their time. We really learned a lot and I appreciate that to this day. Cool. Awesome journey. Go ahead. Yeah, I was just saying in terms of what it actually means to my actual business, one of the things that came out of all of this is it really retooled how we do business. So, you know, a lot of people don't realize this, but the Internet has a larger environmental impact than the airline industry. And, you know, quite frankly, when we were first going down the like Eco Andersonville certification and B Corp certification, neither did I. And the Internet is a thing that I build for a living. And so, you know, we started kind of using this like path that the B Corp, you know, certification had carved out for us to start exploring, well, what does this actually mean to our business? How do we take our business and, you know, create what they call an impact business model and make sure that we're doing well and doing good at the same time and making sure everything is aligned with this, you know, greater vision. And so we started coming up with a whole set of practices to build websites more sustainably. And that ended up leading to a TED talk and it ended up leading to a book and all of this other stuff. And now, you know, you're starting to see these kind of nascent communities popping up all over the world, talking about sustainable web design and how you can create a more sustainable internet, which has been really kind of exciting and cool to see. Can you, even if it's anonymously done, can you give an example of sort of taking your product, if you will, and what you do at Mighty Bytes and how you put that into action for a company or an organization. Sure. Yeah, it's been an evolution alongside our B Corp journey. We immediately went in with the kind of green value proposition saying this is more sustainable and it's really awesome. And what we quickly found out was that our clients were like, and how much extra does it cost? You know, there's, this was like 2012, 13. And so people were starting to, you know, understand the green value proposition is something that's potentially more expensive. And so they immediately went to that. And so what we learned over the time, over time was, A, there was a huge hurdle in terms of awareness of, of the environmental impact of the internet. And B, the green value proposition wasn't necessarily the most worthwhile selling point or advantageous way of selling it. However, clients could get around the fact that their website was faster, it worked better for users, it was more efficient on all kinds of ways. They could completely wrap their head around that. And so we started leading with the kind of efficiency, speed, and user-friendly aspects of sustainable web design. And that people seemed to kind of wrap their head around. And then that also meant we needed to create awareness tools. So we built this tool called EcoGrader, which is ecograder.com. And anybody can go and put their URL in and put their website address in and hit submit, and it'll give you a report on how green it is. And that has helped with awareness. And then we went through and we kind of have retooled our process numerous times to kind of fold these practices into what we do on all of our projects so that it's just kind of part of what we do as opposed to this kind of extra add-on. Awesome. Awesome. Well, let's shift gears a little bit. We've both already mentioned the local aspects. So B Corps were born on the stage of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. Andersonville Chamber of Commerce, led by the amazing Ellen Shepard, is one example of those which you were involved with heavily. But now you're turned the focus and you're working a lot as the B Local chapter in Chicago. Tell us about what that's all about and how that's going. Sure. Yeah, happy to. We actually produced our first B Local event shortly after Mighty Bites became a B Corp. There were, like I said, we were B Corp number nine and we knew a few of the other B Corps in town. And so we got together quickly and decided we just wanted to have a happy hour. And the idea being that, you know, we knew there had to be other people in Chicagoland who were interested in this way of doing business and using business for good. And we wanted to figure out who they were. And so we just started having a happy hour and inviting people. And that was 2012, I believe. We had a lot of people, despite it being a blizzardy night in February in Chicago. We had a ton of people come out to this one place and say that they're really interested in this. And out of that spring, you know, many other events. We've done dozens and dozens of events over the years and have grown our B Corp community and supported our B Corp community too. I think our community, Be Local Illinois, has two missions. One is to grow the community of B Corps in the state of Illinois so that we have a broader pool for people to do business with. And then the other is to support that community, you know, and make sure that they're getting value out of their certification and that there's, you know, local resources to collaborate with, buy from, invest in, partner with, et cetera. So we've been doing that. I've been a co-chair of that since, like I said, 2012. We now have a Be Local advisory board of nine people, including John from Better World. And yeah, we meet monthly. We actually have our monthly call tomorrow. We produce quarterly open events for anybody. You can find those at illinoisbcorps.org. And those range in terms of their content and topics. We try to do topics that are open to the broader spectrum of what using businesses, of course, for good is like. And then we do B Corp breakfasts and other events to serve the B Corp community. Our next upcoming event is on Earth Day, and we're doing a beach cleanup down at North Avenue Beach in Chicago. So we have two kind of goals working in parallel, serve the B Corp community that we have and grow it as well. Fantastic. Well, that feeds right into my next question, which, and I'm sure you, as part of that activity, have had to do this a lot. Companies that are inside the tent, that's one thing, right? But if a company is outside the tent, why would I do this? What's the benefit to me in the world or however the perspective might be? I mean, how might you answer that? Sure. I think my answer would be that anyone should want to have a blueprint for creating a better business. And if you can create a better business that works for people, planet, and profit, I mean, why wouldn't you do that? To me, there's no real reason that we wouldn't do that. A business that works for all stakeholders, a business that works better for the long term, those are all, to me, very compelling reasons to become a certified B Corp. That being said, every business is different. Every business exemplifies what being a B Corp is like in their own unique way. And for some companies, being a certified B Corp isn't maybe realistic. Anybody can use the B Impact Assessment. You don't necessarily have to go through the certification process, but I would say going to bimpactassessment.net and just poking around and seeing what kind of questions you would be asked, whether you wanted to certify or not, is something that anybody can do. And I would definitely recommend it for the eye-opening moment that I had when I first certified in 2011. And for companies that aren't on the B Corp path, but would rather kind of align their work with something global like the UN Sustainable Development Goals, B Lab in January released the SDG Action Manager, which is at sdgactionmanager.com. And that really helps you align your organization, whether it's a business or nonprofit, with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Because these tools are built for business or built by B-Lab, they are more useful for businesses than, say, for instance, civic organizations or nonprofits. That being said, an organization is an organization and there are common threads that run amongst all of us. And so I would say that anybody who opens up the B-Impact Assessment or the STG Action Manager and pokes around and wants to use it as a business tool would be able to find a way to do that. Well, you know, closing out on looking ahead, looking forward, you know, where do you see B Corps in the future? Where do you see the movement going? And what are your thoughts on that? I think in terms of the future of business is B Corp. I don't necessarily think that, like I said earlier, all businesses are going to become B Corps, but I do think that business in general is moving in the direction of B Corps by leaps and bounds. Every year we've had a letter from Larry Fink of BlackRock saying that businesses need to be, if you want some of our money, you need to be more mindful of your stakeholders. You know, the business roundtable made their statement last August about redefining a business for the purpose of stakeholders as opposed to shareholders. So I see, you know, lots of positive trends and lots of things moving in the right direction. I think because we focus on long-termism and we think, you know, longer term about the decisions that we make, I also think that we take calculated risks. We're not foolishly risky, but I think that we are risk takers and innovators in ways that many traditional businesses are not, which is exciting to me. I own a creative agency, and so innovation and redefining success in business is something that really gets me excited. And so it's really, really wonderful to see that happening in the broader business community as well. Well, and, you know, this morning's news, just to put a capstone on that, BlackRock is valued more than Goldman and Morgan Stanley put together, I think, as of all the craziness that's going on. So their path is definitely accelerating that change and it's being well-received. So you're spot on. Yeah, it's really exciting to me. I think that there are going to be B Corp business models that we haven't even dreamt up yet, that we haven't even thought of, that the B Corps are going to go in and say, hey, this is a really unique way to do this, that serves this shareholder group in this unique way. And I think that's really exciting and really gives me hope for the future. And if we want to create a brighter future for all of us, that starts with the things that we do every day. And so some of the things that we just talked about are absolutely ways forward. Well, thank you, Tim. This has been an amazing 20 minutes. What incredible take-home value for our customers and our ecosystem at Better World and the B Corp ecosystem as a whole, which I'm hoping everyone will get to hear this. And for those of us that don't know you, how can we learn more about Mighty Bytes and you and how can we get a hold of you all? Sure. I am at Tim Frick on Twitter, T-I-M-F-R-I-C-K. I tweet there regularly. I respond regularly there. Mighty Bytes is at Mighty Bytes on Twitter. You can also find us at MightyBytes.com. And we are also regularly in touch there as well. Okay. And to clarify, it's B-Y-T-E-S. Yes. Not the other bytes. Yes. Good point. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. All right, Tim. Well, appreciate it. And all the best to
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many years to come sounds great likewise thanks right but by
00:22:39
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you.