Embracing the Solidarity Economy: Revolutionizing Business & Community in 2024

As we embrace the new year, let's not just make resolutions; let's revolutionize the way we engage with the world of business and community. With heartfelt gratitude, I welcome you to join us on a journey through The Mindful Marketplace, where we celebrate the transformative lessons gleaned from the trials of the pandemic and share our excitement for the content evolution that lies ahead. Aaron, my ever-insightful producer, pulls up a chair to unpack how our station's emphasis on community-centric programming is reshaping the landscape of Biz Radio US.

This episode is a tapestry interwoven with threads of personal growth, technological leaps from audio to engaging video storytelling, and a website revamp that mirrors our commitment to a more seamless and vibrant listener experience. We open the doors to the solidarity economy, a concept that promises to recalibrate the scales of finance to weigh community impact alongside profit. Be prepared to be enveloped in discussions around local investing, financial cooperatives, and other collective endeavors that put your money to work for the greater good. It's all about connection and progress as we tease upcoming collaborations with Main Street Journal, Neighborhood Economics, and Impact Alpha—get ready to be at the forefront of a year marked by shared prosperity and innovation in 2024.

This program is brought to you by:
Arc Integrated

Be sure to visit BizRadio.US to discover hundreds more engaging conversations, local events and more.

Transcript

Joel: 0:33

What if investing in each other could change the world? I'm Joel Skeen with biz radio dot us, and this is the mindful marketplace. Happy new year out there to everyone. Thank you for listening here on the mindful marketplace, on this radio us. I am your host, jules skeen, and this is a new year. We have moved from twenty twenty three to twenty twenty four.

Joel: 0:59

I hope that the time that you had out there was restorative, was healing, was joyous, was generous, and I hope that you are excited for your next year moving forward. I know I am. I can actually just wanted to take this first episode of the year to do a little reflecting on the year that we've had and also take a look at what's going on moving forward. If this is your first episode with us, thank you welcome. I'm very glad to have you.

Joel: 1:31

This is the show where we talk to the entrepreneurs, the industry leaders, the economic experts, the advisors, the entrepreneurs who are all not just I'm really questioning the assumption that there's just one bottom line in business and who are not only solving a market problem to, you know, make it make a profit, but they're also solving a social problem to make an impact.

Joel: 2:01

So it's really where we learn to connect our values and our Communities and ourselves to our businesses, to our, to our money and to our investments, and we just had such an incredible year and I wanted to just thank a few people. I first wanted to thank you, the listener. There are millions, millions, millions of options when it comes to content that you can spend your time listening. To answer the fact that you decide to spend that here with me, I don't take lightly, and I truly do my best to bring you the best content that we absolutely can each and every week, but it couldn't happen without all of you listening, and it excites me when I get to see what we were able to do as far as our listenership goes this year. I'm also really grateful to Biz Radio US, and actually, aaron, my super producer, is here on the line with me. I'll invite you into joining here in this discussion here, aaron, how?

Aaron: 3:01

are you today? Hey, I'm good. Thanks for having me on. It's fun to get out from behind the board and behind the mic every once in a while.

Joel: 3:10

Well, you should do it more often, man, you've got a good voice, you've got a lot to say and you've been doing this a long time. But Biz Radio US, as far as I know, is kind of the only independent business talk show out there and so a station, I should say, out there, and I'm just incredibly grateful to get to partner with an organization where our values align so much and where I just think it's been an awesome partnership. Aaron, and I'm just really grateful for you, really grateful for your dad, really grateful for the rest of the cohort, all the other hosts, and so thank you for all that you guys do.

Aaron: 3:49

Really appreciate it. I mean, our purpose and our goal is to give people like yourself a platform to share your stories and, most importantly, highlight the achievements and the positive impact of people in the community, especially in your realm, and I can't say enough how appreciative we are and how much we've seen you grow over the last couple of years and really lean into integrating this into your daily life and giving people an opportunity to really make a difference. That's kind of the whole enchilada, that's kind of the purpose of being in our minds to be able to make those types of impacts.

Joel: 4:48

Yeah, no, I think it really has been an excellent alignment for us. Before we get into kind of what we've gone through here on this show this year, I'm curious if you could share a little bit about kind of the growth and the change that we've seen as a station, because I think we don't usually get to kind of zoom out in that way.

Aaron: 5:11

Yeah, oh gosh, it came quick. I was taking a sip, my bad, I'm used to pushing buttons, yeah. So there has been a lot of development in the station over the last year. So during the pandemic, we had to pretty considerably downsize our staff and the various platforms that we were on distribution and whatnot. Just, like everybody else, we had to worry about cost saving and getting through it without an actual end date, and from that what we learned is the ability to lean on the community, and lean on not just the actual area but regionally to help spread the word.

Aaron: 6:15

As long as our mission and our purpose for what we're trying to achieve is genuine and honest and transparent, then you'd be surprised how much support just kind of falls in. And so 2023 was a prime example of that. What we did is we started switching over some of our systems and processes to be more communication based with not just the host but with the community as well. We started a basically like kind of a integrated outreach program where members of the community can actually have input on what type of content is recorded and distributed from the station, as well as getting all the hosts together and having conversations. That either. Hey, what would we like to see out of the station or have we ran into any issues? Whatnot? And that's utilizing EOS, which you're familiar with. I think we've talked about EOS here and there on air.

Joel: 7:34

Yeah, it could be. I know that I've seen just I've definitely been seeing the growth kind of from the outside and I've been seeing the positive changes and I'm just excited where the station is headed. My man and I'm just really, really grateful to get to partner with you guys.

Aaron: 7:52

Not just partner, but you've really stepped up and spearheaded some of that growth and the things that we want to achieve, which hopefully we get to talk about some of the exciting stuff you're doing in 2024 and here in the last couple months.

Joel: 8:10

Yeah, there's been a big shift kind of behind the scenes here that I'm excited to kind of get to shed a little bit of light on, at least in preview light on here as we go forward. But yeah, I mean, 2023 was, let's see. We first let's hit on the numbers. I always think this is fun. So in the year we had 178% growth and so just awesome to see that. Just really love, love, getting to experience that. We had 100, we had 1700 downloads, 1707.

Joel: 8:44

We were, we were listened to in 29 countries. That was probably the biggest surprise to me. We put out 47 episodes over the year with just over 1100 minutes of content. I decided to look at that countries thing because I was like, where are people listening to us? We are mostly listened to in the US, which is where I'm based, so no surprise there, but we all. The next most listened country was Germany and then the United Kingdom and then Italy and France. So who knows man? You know, as they say, sue, sue, levue, right, that's what it is. Something like that Glad to have our listeners from everywhere is is my point, you know. So that was. That was just neat to see all of that.

Joel: 9:30

We also hosted our first event as a as as the mindful marketplace, we we put on a community financial education course where we had four different experts in a variety of fields, including budgeting and household planning, including debt elimination, including the finances of entrepreneurship, and we put that event on public for the you know, for the public for free back in in spring of this last year and it was just really great to see you know kind of the impact that that had had on the community there and what it led to as far as some other partnerships across the station. So, yeah, I mean that was just that that was definitely a big learning experience, but it was. It was a really, really neat thing that we got to do and I'm really grateful for the opportunity to help serve the community in that way. We also had on a lot of great guests. Let me let me pull them up here. But Aaron, is there, was there any guests this year that really like that you remember the most or that stood out to you?

Aaron: 10:39

yeah, I mean so personally. I record, you know, dozen shows every week. Yeah, all the names kind of blend, blend together, but I do. There are some conversations that that really stood out and you know the things, the things for me personally would be you know kind of the the debt elimination strategies as well, as you know ways to have your, have your dollar make an impact.

Aaron: 11:11

I said it from the beginning when, when we first started recording together, you know, saying your, your dollar is, is your vote really resonated, and so, you know, over over it's in the development of the show and listening to these conversations, I've been a lot more deliberate about about how my money is spent and and, as well as developing my own, my own projects outside of this radio have been very much focused on on keeping, keeping that that money circulating in the community and and not just, not just that, but also start setting the stage for, for financial growth and stability for both my family and for anybody else that that we touch with the business and and I mean that's a that's, that's no, that's no small type of impact, you know yeah, well, no, I I'm glad to hear that because you know, honestly, it's a little difficult to kind of narrow down exactly sometimes what it is I'm talking about.

Joel: 12:21

Like you know I, because there's so many when it comes to finances and it comes to the economy and it comes to, you know, families, but also businesses, and also you know systems. Sometimes it's a little difficult to figure out, like what is the exact right voice and what is the most important thing for people to learn about. But I think that that spirit that you're talking about is, you know, is really at the heart of it, because you know we, um, we live in a world that we live in because it is a world that we have created. You know, in one way or another. And you know, when I was going through kind of my own personal transformation, I remember learning things where people said, you know like, hey, if you want to, if you want things to change, you have to change. You know. It was kind of like a hard truth, you know, kind of one of those difficult things you have to swallow. Sometimes it's like, oh yeah, sometimes I'm the problem and I need to change. But I think that being able to look at how we use our money. What that transformation, what that, that that reality facing that reality does, I think, is it gives us the opportunity to actually change.

Joel: 13:33

Carl Rogers is a psychologist and he says that there's this paradox that true change only happens when we both accept where we're at. You know, like we have to. We have to accept where we are in order to change it. We can't fight where we are in order to change it. And so the reality is we have to like we have to. If we want a better world, we've got to do better, and so that, to me, has really been evident in the evolution of the show. You know I'm looking back and you know we so.

Joel: 14:05

For example, we had on Peter Krull, who is a environmentally sustainable investment advisor, and he's been doing this for like 15, 20 years. He's been helping people invest their money into, you know, renewable energy companies, into, you know, companies that don't pollute and all those kinds of things, like he's been. You know he's been doing this for a long, long time and helping people do that by, you know, creating the world they want with how they invest their money, not just with how they spend their money. You know we also had on, like Bruce Waller from the, who owns Grind Coffee here in Asheville, but he's also the founder, co-founder of Black Wall Street Asheville, which is helping young entrepreneurs who come from disenfranchised and red-lined communities grow their businesses, gain independence, build wealth, and so just seeing that kind of commitment back into the community with his business is just such an inspiring story of the kind of thing that we're that we're really looking to highlight here.

Joel: 15:12

You know, I remember who else did we have that really kind of spoke to that issue in particular was Max Mintz this summer.

Joel: 15:19

He is another investment advisor that helps people invest their retirement savings not only just not into, you know, businesses that pollute or, you know, not just divesting, as they call it, but also looking specifically for the place-based and the cause-based investments that they can make to not only have a money ROI you know, a dollar ROI return on investment but to also have a social return on investment where it helps their communities get better in the process.

Joel: 15:57

You know, and I think that that's really what led up to me getting to interview both Kevin Doyle Jones one of my favorite episodes we've ever done in November, alongside his colleague, jeremiah Robinson with the next episode. Both of them are working with an organization that we're going to be talking about more called Neighborhood Economics, and really got to my eyes, were pretty open to a new vision of how investment could be done to not only get it return on investment but to actually like make some real positive changes in the world. I'm actually gonna be joining them and partnering with them, and there's an upcoming conference that we'll be talking about and there's a whole special series that we're gonna be doing with neighborhood economics. I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but yeah, it's just exciting seeing the kind of everything sort of coming together in that way.

Aaron: 16:57

Yeah, and I mean I would. It'd be a missed opportunity to kind of share my perspective too with the show. I'm sure I'm sure people who've been, who've been listening since the beginning and now watching the evolution of just the quality of your content, you know watching, watching you, you provide a better product and this is kind of my producer hat on. You know, watching you grow the show with and not just in a focus on bringing bringing more, more applicable guests to to strengthen your, your, your mission, but also Grow the quality of the content as well, really diving in head first, providing video and and and of course, you know that that comes along with a little more exposure and and what not. But you know I can't tell you how many times You've you've tell me like you know I just I just feel like it really drives the point more when, when you can see their face and see their facial expressions and and I really think that enhances the experience for the listener. And that type of response to you know, to what, what you're doing, creating content, that's not very common.

Aaron: 18:22

A lot of people are looking. A lot of hosts, a lot of you know content providers in in this industry, are just trying to to formulate the best strategy to produce the the most amount of of clicks or views To sell ads. And that's, that's the last of your concern. You're like, oh wait, we need an advertiser, so we can, we can afford this, this program done, I'll go get it. And you know that go get it attitude has has translated to I mean, look if, if, if you guys haven't been to Joel's website lately.

Aaron: 18:58

Go to his website, the, especially if you've, if you've been, you know, earlier, in twenty twenty three, it has had a complete overhaul and it looks really good. Your art schemes are, are, are consistent with, with your, your guest photos, and you know it's, it's just very clean and it looks good and that's you know. All this, all this put together really Drives in the nail of of what you're doing here for the community and and focusing on being the best and giving the best product, just just as as essentially a service, and, and you know that the that's that's very rare and you don't. You don't see that a lot, especially in this industry.

Joel: 19:49

Yeah, and I'm. I appreciate you saying that. You know, I think some of it has also come from me. You know, one thing that I really loved about this year is I feel like I was more solidified around. You know what this show is about, what sort of that mission that you mentioned kind of is. You know, and I think that what I really understand now is that what the show is really about. And local investing is part of it, impact investing is part of it. Those are things that I, you know, get excited about right now because I'm learning a lot about them, but they're not the only things.

Joel: 20:24

And I think what this show is really about is what I think we could call the solidarity economy. So what I mean by that is that includes things like local investors and impact investors, but it also includes things like member-owned credit unions and financial co-ops. It means things like consumer co-ops that we've talked about, things like mutual aid networks, workers unions, community land trusts, social enterprises, which we've gotten to talk man Andy Bobowski, one of the best conversations we've had all year, incredible social entrepreneur, if you want to learn more about that Housing co-ops, worker co-ops. What this show is really about is about the community finance and the way that we can use money to support our communities as well as, like I said, get that return on investment. Because there are ways to do it. There are better ways to use our money, where our money can actually do two things at once, where our money can go to make a profit but it can also grow to make an impact at the same time. And these are the ways that I see that. Actually do that like that, actually get that done, and so I'm really grateful to get to kind of solidify this.

Joel: 21:37

We have some really exciting things coming up in 2024. And I realize we're running out of time with it now, so we're going to I'm actually gonna do another monologue in a few weeks here to introduce a special series we're doing with Neighborhood Economics. So I'll touch on more about them then. But I did want to let you all know that there is an upcoming partnership that I'm just gonna tease with Michael Schumann's, the Main Street Journal, kevin Jones', neighborhood Economics and the Magazine Impact Alpha that we're gonna be announcing and talking more about in the coming weeks here. So thank you all for listening, thank you all for your year, looking forward to the next one with you and until next time, remember we are each other.