A Better way to work together

Business gets a bad rap. 
Plenty of the heartaches in this world have come from exploitive business practice, but good businesses are still the best key to overcoming some of the world's most challenging social, economic, and environmental issues.

To tackle these challenges, the world needs a daring new breed of entrepreneur. My purpose is to help you discover the art of building businesses that do well, by doing good.  

Business is better when we work together

WISHING WELL: WATER FOR THE WORLD

Humble Beginnings

In 2005 my brother and I, both college students at the time, first learned that more than a billion people lacked access to clean water. Waterborne illness, brought on by drinking or lack of access to sanitation, was responsible for millions of deaths every year. Children were especially vulnerable, many of whom had to walk hours every day to bring water back to the families, missing out on school in the process.

We were devastated, but not hopeless. As daunting as this problem was, we also heard a fantastic solution. A host of new clean water technologies were being developed and implemented all around the world. These new initiatives needed funding, encouragement, and public support. My brother and I talked to our friends and decided that we could do something about these needs. In order to right the wrongs of the water crisis, restore dignity to the poor, and create a better future for thousands of children, we created a student club, "the Wishing Well," with a goal of funding clean water projects in Africa and beyond. 

Wishing Well soon became a movement of students at more than 50 universities, from Hawaii to Yale, using their creative gifts to give clean water to those in need. 

The Movement

We produced documentaries, put on art shows, concerts, and poetry slams. We used every gift at our disposal to create a conversation with our friends, family, and community. We knew that changing hearts and creating a family of people who care would give us the results we were after.

Our first feature length documentary, One Drop, premiered at the Town Hall Theatre in Times Square, NYC and went on to screen at hundreds of venues, including an official selection at the LA film Festival

The photos, a breakout work by Esther Havens, and art were featured in galleries across the country with special shows at Yale and Sachs Fifth Avenue, NYC. The photo work remains some of the most widely seen and used photos of the water crisis in history. 

Our Legacy

By the time I finished my education at Oklahoma Christian University, Wishing Well had provided clean water to more than 40,000 people in ten different countries around the globe. We had united thousands of students in a movement that gave the permission to be extraordinary. Our alumni continue to be counted amount the brightest minds of their generation and all of us remain actively engaged in serving our global community.

The Great City Project

A better way to find great talent.   

The Great City Project was a purpose driven talent acquisition service I co-founded and ran during my time with the incredible minds at Strata Leadership. 

The Challenge

The great cities of United States were built by generations of hopefuls seeking good work. Good jobs led to happy homes, better health, and social empowerment. Rampant unemployment now decimates families and communities throughout the US. Still, thousands of successful companies are laboring to find and retain qualified candidates. Since the recession of 2008, the market for talent acquisition has grown from $60 billion to $130 billion dollars annually (2014) with the upward trend projected beyond 2020. For all this investment, most qualified millennials struggle to find gainful employment. The leaders of the millennial generation are uninterested in or wary of traditional career paths, forsaking them for lifestyles that allow them to pursue purpose, passion, and lofty social goals, but these grand aspirations will be hopelessly crippled without gainful employment and corporate partnership. A better America requires reimagining the “land of opportunity.” Creating jobs that empower service minded millennials will reduce unemployment, develop healthy economies, and allows them to affect positive social change.   

The opportunity

Above all, millennials value purpose, passion, culture, and work/life balance. In 2012, the PEW Workforce Poll found that 76% of employees between the ages of 21 and 33 would be willing to take a 15% or greater reduction in pay to work at a company with values they share or a cause they champion. Another survey published by Deloitte University press found that 58% of executives are “currently revamping” their hiring process, but are unsure how to do so. They do not know how to communicate with and engage millennials. The Great Cities Project bridges this gap by creating an array of talent acquisition services designed with millennial values in mind. 

The Solution

The Great Cities Project has created a platform to reconnect millennial talent and corporate America. Our work matches hand-picked millennial leaders to a customized list of jobs ranked by culture, lifestyle, compensation, and purpose driven opportunities. The community is populated through speaking tours, events, and exclusive referrals s.

The project was designed to help corporate clients and motivated millennials work together under a new social contract. Along with talent acqusition, the GCP also provided training and consulting services for retaining and developing top talent.