Purpose on Purpose with Rob Sinclair of Conscious Brands
Companies without a clear purpose are incapable of making an impact and reaching their full potential. In the words of today’s guest, the trick to becoming an impactful brand is to know that your “purpose is on purpose.”
In this episode, we speak with Conscious Brands founder Rob Sinclair about creating conscious businesses that pursue meaningful impact in the world. We open our conversation with Rob by exploring his varied business background and the period of self-discovery that led him to found Conscious Brands. After discussing the deeper ‘why’ behind Conscious Brands, and their mission towards creating responsible and regenerative businesses, Rob unpacks how their online tool can help organizations to hone their sense of purpose. We wrap up our discussion by touching on the vital role that an organization's ‘internal brand believers’ play in aligning brands with their purpose.
Tune in to hear more about what you can do to build a purpose-driven, conscious, and impactful brand.
Key Points From This Episode:
Rob’s extremely varied background and business career.
How his lavish lifestyle in his earlier career didn’t give Rob a sense a fulfillment.
Rob’s journey of self-discovery and the creation of his show, Vegan in a VW.
How Vegan in a VW became Rob’s gateway into the natural products industry.
Reflecting on the ‘expensive education’ resulting from Rob’s business failures.
We discuss Conscious Brands’ early direction and challenges.
Rob talks about the deeper ‘why’ behind founding Conscious Brands.
Rob’s views on how B-corp evolved over the last decade.
The differences between regenerative and sustainable practices.
Is your purpose on purpose? We look into Conscious Brands’ value proposition.
Learn about the six pillars of a conscious brand.
How Rob’s tool helps companies to focus on their purpose.
The role of communication in co-creating an industry of conscious companies.
Insights into how Conscious Brands developed their services as separate from their consulting offerings.
Using the pandemic as a time to reflect and rethink our roles in the world.
Why Conscious Brands has centered its attention on internal brand believers.
Tweetables:
“I’ve always had this knack for wanting to do things a bit differently.” — @rob_sinclair [0:02:04]
“We’re told that we should have expensive cars and expensive clothes. And have this lifestyle. I had all of that and it wasn’t fulfilling. I wasn’t happy.” — @rob_sinclair [0:08:33]
“I trusted my intuition and knew enough to take the little money that I had to register the domain and trademark for Conscious Brands. I knew there was something there and I needed to commit in a large way.” — @rob_sinclair [0:13:50]
“It took me a long time to admit my failures in business. The failure of losing $300,000 of my money and other people’s money. What I gained was business wisdom and to not overextend.” — @rob_sinclair [0:14:40]
“The deeper ‘why’ behind starting Conscious Brands was knowing that there was some shit going on in the world that didn’t align with me.” — @rob_sinclair [0:18:20]
“If business is the problem, then the solution isn’t no business. The solution is business operating in a different way.” — @rob_sinclair [0:19:58]
“Sustainability is just one aspect of what a conscious brand is. We need to move into something that’s more flourishing and regenerative.” — @rob_sinclair [0:30:05]
“One of our guiding principles is if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go further, go together.” — @rob_sinclair [0:33:11]
“Regardless of what you think about this current time that we’re in — this is a time to rethink our roles in the world.” — @rob_sinclair [0:38:20]
“We can empathetically connect to customers. But if we don’t know who we are — or if our purpose isn’t on purpose, then how can we be conscious as an organization?” — @rob_sinclair [0:42:50]
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Rob Sinclair on LinkedIn
Rob Sinclair on Twitter
Conscious Brands
Ron Pickarski
The International Culinary Olympics
Carbon Trust
Whole Foods Market
Method
Guayaki
Burning Man
B-Lab
B-Corporation
Larry Fink
BlackRock Capital
Natural Products Expo West
