April 28, 2026 • 20 mins
Gay Browne, Founder & CEO of Greenopia, sits down with us on this episode of CEO's You Should Know: Bay Area
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're back again with CEOs you should know, presented by iHeartMedia.
This is your chance to get to know the CEOs
of major companies, smaller companies, startups, what makes them tick,
what makes them great leaders, tips, advice.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
And the update on their companies.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
This is Marcus in the Morning from Star one oh
one three iHeartRadio, San Francisco. We are here in studio
with Gay Brown, who is the CEO of green Opia,
and you're also an author wrote a book called Living
with a Green Heart, how to keep your body, your home,
and the planet healthy in a toxic world.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Welcome Gay, Marcus. I'm delighted to be here. Thank you
so much for inviting me.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
This is so exciting for me because this is a
cause that is very near and dear to my heart.
I talk about it all the time on the radio
show Taking Care of Mother Earth.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
The other thing I talk about is how lazy.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I actually am in life. And so what was our
phrase that we coined. It was a how to be
an effortless environmentalist. And you have done a couple of
things to help people do that with your company Greenopia.
So Greenopia is an app to help you find those
green businesses.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Marcus, we love or less environmentalism. We want to make
it easy for everybody. Yeah, we believe whenever you go
out to use a business in your community that if
you look for a business that's good for you, good
for the planet, and good for the community. Right, then
those are the businesses that we want you to find,
and those businesses we want to use because those businesses
are trying hard to offer you something healthy as well
as the keep the planet in the community healthy as well.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Right, let them do all the work.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I just want to hit one button and go, oh,
I should go there for lunch.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
You're an ideal consumer.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
This is why you need to download the green Opia app.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I want to talk about your journey, gay because when
you sent into your bio, there's a line in here
that I am completely in love with, which is being
a mom is a great training for being a CEO,
because I know there are people out there listening who
have always wanted to have an idea or start a company,
begin a journey, and they don't know where the first
step is. And you're giving us all hope. So let's
(01:50):
bring it all the way back to the origin story.
You said you basically were born into a leadership role.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I'm the oldest daughter of one of four or three
younger Okay, so when you're the junior mom, you learn,
you start doing everything. And when my mom had my
youngest brother, Ben, he was nine years younger and my
dad literally handed him and to go on my hip.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
I don't think he left my hip.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
For quite a few years, junior mom. I love you.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Managing three younger brothers, as most older sisters would know,
is a joke because they never listened to you. And
they do listen to you, but they don't want you
to know it. So you say it's time to do
your homework, they'll actually go in their room, turn on
the stereo and then later, you know, turn it down,
st are during their work. So it was always sort
of how do you convince them to do what you
want them to do?
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Individuals are different, they all require different motivation. I get it,
you're maximizing your workforce. And then you were involved in
other things that might have.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Taught leadership skills.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Girl Scouts comes to mind, babysitting, paper route outdoor leadership camps.
You worked in a restaurant at an early age and
then going into sales and advertising and things of that nature.
Now let's get to the point of how being a
mom helps training you to be CEO.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
I think being a mom is great training.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
To be CEO because it's a CEO, you have to
keep three people happy, the shareholders, your customers, and know
what's going on in the marketplace to be up to date.
So as a mom when you have three kids, or
even mom with one, or even with dogs of moms,
and it's important to know your audience so and understand
what's going to make them happy and what you need
(03:21):
them to do in terms of every day living. And
I think the important thing is to inspire them to
be the best people that they can do. When I
learned how to keep my kids happy, it was because
I needed to keep my oldest son safe. My son
had some learning issues in the second grade, and that's
how I became aware of this whole world of environmental toxins.
I was working at the time at the LA Times
(03:42):
and I got a call from his teacher. It said,
come on down to school before you pick him up.
I walked in the door and she said, sit down.
He's having a hard time. It turns out, but he
had some auditory processing problems that once we cleared up
his heavy metals, he was mainstream back into everything and
he's now as an end flies his own plane that's
super successful.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
So was that a kind of a watershed moment in
the kind of formation of the thought of doing something
like green Opia Because Ana you had mentioned also going
to a lunch that kind of changed your trajectory as well.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Once I learned about his toksin and then how it
affected his life in a positive way, I realized that
we were living in an environment that could be very toxic.
The time, I was living in la and I went
out to lunch with a guy named John Adams, who
was head of the ENERGC at the time, and he
was telling me about his friend Al Gore, who created
a movie called The Incommune Truth.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I've heard of Al Gore so at.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
That time in and at that age two thousand and four,
two thousand and five, he wasn't very well known, But
it just floored me, and I realized the most important
thing that we could do as parents is keep our
family and our children safe and happy and healthy. I
was a mom on a mission to find the healthiest
life I could provide for them. In Santa Monica and
Pacific Palisades at the time. So I was creating a
list of businesses in places that we could go to
(04:58):
that would be healthy for us. In those days, organic
was not a phrase people used a lot.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Right, So your own personal list, my own personal list.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
I created a shopping list of places to go to
every day that would keep me us healthy and safe
with no toxins. And eventually I realized that shopping list
could be a book and help others in the community.
The easiest way to get people to do what you
want them to do is offer them choice and give
them good information. So we created criteria for what made
businesses healthy, are good for you, good for the planet,
(05:27):
and good for the community. Those assessment forms are how
we base our criteria.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
So if I am a mom or a dad and
I've got an idea that I want to turn into
an app or start a company, where is the first
step for that?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
How do I start that journey?
Speaker 4 (05:40):
After you have a.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Passion for wanting to start something right and the most
important thing after that is to find people to help you, Okay,
And so I reached out to a friend in the
community and I said, I need to find local green businesses,
and they said, there's a guy named Ferris Kowar who
works in Santa Monica with a Santa Monica Green Business Chamber.
You should talk to him. In fact I did, and
that was how the company was born in the back
yard the fourth of July in a friend of mine's
(06:02):
house in Brentwood. With that support, we were able to
work together and then we developed a company together.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Can we talk about cost?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Sure, Like, if I'm trying to launch a company, I
know it varies probably like crazy, But is there a
number target to launch something like that?
Speaker 4 (06:17):
I think it's different for everyone.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
I think you can launch a company with zero dollars
or you can launch a company with a million dollars.
I had money accessible to me. My husband believed in
this and saw what happened to my son when we
detoxed to him and we a.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
Kilated him, so he believed in it.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
So we took a little money out of our retirement
fund okay to fund it. But we got to the
point in the company after we had sold seventy five
thousand books, we couldn't find any VC money from Silicon
Valley because people weren't paying for media at Meetia was
just free at that time, so I had to get
creative and I went back to my old roots in
American Express Sales exactly ad sales, went back and rolled
(06:53):
at my sleeves. I wrote a pitch and I started
going out to other businesses that I thought would be
helped by our green listenings, and so I just started
selling the listing. So we created a very robust licensing
situation with our listings, which today, if you look at
our revenue, is going to be. One of the strongest
streams is taking the listings and licensing them to United
(07:13):
Airlines or Delta or American Express, Red double point shopping green.
My dream is to create a virtuous circle of green
shopping so that when you go out to look for
something the green and you get an organic coffee, that
you can get points back on your credit card for
actually doing the right thing in the business ones as
well for.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Saving the earth.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Let's talk about where Greenopia sits today, and again it's
the Greenopia app. You can also go to greenopia dot com.
And the reason why I love it is because, like
you said, I'm the perfect consumer. I don't want to
put forth that much effort, but I want to have
maximum return and take care of the planet as much
as possible. So the App Store or Google Play. Where
is Greenopia today?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
We've been out in app store for an entire week.
Oh yeah, So we are in the business of getting downloads.
So I'd love for everyone who's listening to this today,
Marcus Yes, to download Greenopia app. We are only in
San Francisco because that's our pilot. We have some listings
from our original guide, but we're reassessing them. Okay, so
we're just in San Francisco, but we want the more
likes we get, the more downloads we get, the better
(08:09):
off our future investors will.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Think sure, and then the idea would be to scale
up nationwide. Yes, at some point.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Our original green City book guides yeah for La San Francisco,
New York. So the bulk of our listenings are in
those three cities.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
You know what else we should talk about?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Can I still invest?
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Can we can we talk about where?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
That is?
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Matter of fact, you can do it for one hundred dollars,
I know, go on to net capital and we have
a crowdfunding program because we believe that this app is
for people just like you and people around the world
that won green businesses right, so please go and invest
it in netcapital dot com through April thirtieth.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
I understand Greenopia. Let's talk about being a CEO. What
are the top things that you like to keep in
mind when you're leading people?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
As My leadership style is a mom and knowing my audience.
Important thing is also to know your limitations. And I'm
a connector and I'm a visionary, but it's important to
have a good COO and I have the best CEO,
John Cross.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
We have to give John a shout out.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
We're gonna act like he's not sitting right here throwing
up notes for you. I love it and me the
show is now called Toos.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
You should know John. What is your pedigree, sir?
Speaker 5 (09:12):
Pedigree is British and from Google. I spent twenty years
in Google, partly in London and partly in the Bay Area.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
What brought you to Greenopia? Like, what was it that
connected you?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Guys?
Speaker 5 (09:24):
I was already into sustainability, I was already into tech,
and I was already into the ads business.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, but when I left, I really.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
Wanted to combine all of those passions into something that
I felt there's a real need to make sustainability easier.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
And also to reward people for it.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
Sure, And so I was kicking around this idea and
when I met Gay, I wanted a vehicle to get
my idea off the ground. Is to do with points
and rewards, and I saw Greenopia as a real opportunity
to be able to do that. And so we we met,
we got on and we kept talking, and you know,
a year later, we're getting the apple.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
There it is and we are right at the startup
of this startup is very exciting.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
I feel like this is going to be massive.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Gay, can you give people like five different ways to
be an effortless environmentalist in addition to like, you know,
getting on the app and supporting the proper businesses.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
But what can you do at home? That's really easy.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
The easiest thing to do is to do what's in
front of you. So break it down into three pillars.
What's good for you, good for the planet, and good
for the community. So I say, every day, do that's
good for you planet in the community. So good for
you would be to try to eat those foods that
are healthy for you. If you can find organic in
your market, stand great. If not, try to reach for
an apple or peanut butter rather than a power bar.
So really just taking care of your body, because environmental
(10:40):
health it starts with the health of your body. That's
part of my main messaging even for CEOs to take
care of their own personal health first.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Put on your mask first.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Second thing is to take care of the planet, so
not to use any plastic. If there's one thing that
I can leave people with today is please don't buy
a plastic bottle water, right, you know, try to bring around,
which almost everybody does. Plastic is one of those things
that doesn't break down. You've heard about everything, so it's
really the easiest thing you can do is just to
avoid that.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
So microplastics we all know about, but I'm now hearing
about nanoplastics, which you can't even see with a microscope,
like it's just there. And the easiest way to get
nanoplastics into your body is just by breathing.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
That scared the crap out of me.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Just not to be too scared. There is way you
can relate nanoplastics out. It's something you just we could
talk about later. But for people who are interested, they
coul probably talk to the local homeopathic doctor about that
they're hard to get out of your system, but it
is possible. Okay, so, but the best way to do
is just avoid that plastic bottle just speaks for a
glass bottle. Bring your own bottle. And the third thing
about your community is part of Greenopia's app and what
(11:46):
we believe in, what I fundamentally believe in life is
be kind to mother Nature and kind other people, because,
believe it or not, being kind is one of the
best things you could do to improve someone's mind or
wherever they are in life.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
We never know.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
You meet someone where they've been or what they're thinking about,
is if you're kind to them, they will radiate that back.
And I think that that's where we're all being kind
of the planet and coming up with Earth Day. It's
important to be kind of the planet and kind to
each other.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Interesting that you say that, because my father was a
big proponent of that. There's a saying in Spanish sum
mundo every head is its own world, meaning everybody's always
got something going on. And my producer Taylor always says
the same thing when we're talking about, hey, should this
person be doing this this way? She always is very
quick to say, you never know what they have going on,
(12:32):
a reminder to be kind. And also there's nothing that
fills your day better than when you're kind to somebody.
So like I live in half Moon Bay, right off
Highway One. It's tough to get in and off the road.
When I slow down and let somebody go, it's a
pretty cool feeling.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
I don't know, I can't explain it.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
I live in Napa Valleys and I don't do it's
the same thing. And so the other day I was
driving in actually yesterday, one time I let a car
and I thought gay Brown. I mean I started to
not let the car in.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
I think gay Brown. Let the car in.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
The next time, I left the car and I went
to the gas station and got gased. And what I
looked right down the ground?
Speaker 4 (13:04):
What was there? A shiny penny heads up.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
So I think the thing is is that if we
all do the right thing, which we know how to do,
you know, And that's part of being an environmentalist. In
part we're Gonobia's journey, which is to make it easy
for people to do the things that they know they
want to do.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
That takes time.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
So we are here to make life easier and to
make them feel good about it, because we want everyone
to live with a green heart.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
We know the world is rough.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
If you snap out of it for a second and
just give a helping hand or a high five, it
actually feels really good.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Again, we're here with Gay Brown.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
She is the CEO of green Opia. Here on CEOs,
you should know. I want to talk about being a
CEO because it's a very demanding job. So tell me
about how you structure your day. Are you an early
morning lady? Are you midday? Are you up all night?
All of the above? Two hours of sleep.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
I have done all the above, but my preference is
I have a pretty I've had the same schedule I
had since my kids are a little Back to being
trained as a CEO's mom, I go to bedtime, sort
of read, shut it down on the phones an hour
and a half before.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Bed hour hour and a half, so you're better than
the rest of them.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Nine nights, well, I try nine nine thirty, shut it off,
try to get in bed by ten, and then I
like to read. As a I wager didn't create a
writing in college, so I had to read a lot.
So I love to read, so I never bar from
a good book next my bed, so and try to
turn off the lights somewhere between ten thirty and eleven.
And then I'm a big meditator. So I get up
in the morning at six thirty and I hit the
floor and I sit down and I do my stretches
(14:28):
and my meditation, and every other morning I do yoga poses,
and the other mornings I do sit ups and push ups.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
And how long does this process last between the meditating
and the and the and the It.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Takes somewhere between forty five minutes to an hour.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Not bad.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
So yeah, it's really forty five minutes if I tight,
if it's tight. But when I was a mom, I
had to get a little extra early, but I still
did it. And I think that what happens when I
do that and I start my morning with meditation, It
grounds me and it keeps my mind calm and focused.
And when you're got a lot going on to see you,
I think the key thing is to focus your eye
on what important things are and get it done.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Are there a couple of different ways knowing yourself that
you can regain focus, because I know sometimes I'm all
over the place, you know, And I think that's how
the world is these days, we're all kind of all
over the place. How do you resenter yourself?
Speaker 4 (15:12):
I listened to music.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Part of the meditation breathing is I do this in
and out breathing with my nose, okay, and so that
sort of regulates my airflow, which is I think the
most important thing that you when you're anxious and you're.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Not focused, to regulate your airflow. However, you box.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Breathe and breathe in for, hold it for for, and
breathe out for you know whether it's that or you
just do hold in your breath and breathe in and
out slowly to focus on your breath. That's the first
thing I do, okay. And the second thing I do
is I turn on classical music. I don't know if
there's a study about classical music. I'm sure there's been plenty,
but it actually just puts me right in my zone.
It's something about classical music.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
So I saw a follow up on that study and
they basically said, whatever style fits you works. It's literally
music in general, which for me, based on what I
do for work, this is why I'm always whistling at work,
because I just enjoy it all so much. With the
music and everything else. So then are you an intermittent
faster or you a breakfast eater.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
I am an inner manifester.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
But i's your window.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
I mean, I try to stop eating by eight, seven
thirty or eight. I have my last bite off.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Occasionally I'll sneak a piece of teeny tiny square of
dark chocolate, which is my big sin. Okay, every night
and for people have known me, no, I do not
go to bed without a cup of herbal tea Camma
meal tea your sleepysign.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
It's my ritual with a teeny tiny piece of chocolate.
And yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
And then because when you meditate, after you meditate, sort
of the plan is the you know, to keep the
meditation sort of ingrained in you for the day. You
don't have anything to eat or drink for half an hour.
It's sort of an hour and fifteen minutes after you
wake up, can you have your first sip of anything?
That's usually about for me that's about eight o'clock. Okay,
so from sort of eight to age or yeah, you know,
it's about so I know, I guess that's twelve hours
(16:44):
mostly so except for my chemamelte.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
It works, it works easy.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Then cama meal tea or intermint invest.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
I think I'm an incidental intermitte faster because we get
in here and I forget to eat, and so sometimes
at about nine o'clock or nine thirty, I'll be God,
I got to eat something, and I have have you know,
giuc bars and things of that nature, and then we
will eat ribs or meatballs first thing in the morning.
That's the crazy part about getting up this early, by
about eight o'clock, Like I had, I brought in some
(17:10):
homemade meatballs the other day and we were having meatballs
at like eight am.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
What time do you get up?
Speaker 1 (17:15):
I get up at three forty five four am. But
I see I don't have time to do all the
meditation and all the I'm sorry, let me rephrase. I
don't give myself time to get up and meditate and
do yoga and things at the nature literally the sun's
not shining. So I'm actually low key jealous of people.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
That can be like, oh, yeah, I get up at
six thirty. That's that's adorable.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
You know what John was looking at me probably, I
mean he gets a lot earlier than I do. What
happens you develop your body rhythm. It just was one
of those things. Yeah, whatever, I mean, I think, yeah,
it's just both My kids were always, especially when they
were little, when they were you know, babies, I would
be in then I was up in the middle of
the night, so I think I sort of trained myself
to sort of go back to sleep till yeaheah.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
I want to talk about your leadership style, and then
you had talked about you find what your limitations are right,
and then you hire people around you like my man John,
who's very tech savvy. For example, you admittedly are not
a tech person and that's okay. We all have our strengths.
What do you do in the event of a interpersonnel conflict?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
How do you resolve those?
Speaker 4 (18:14):
Well, in any relationships, there's conflicts.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
So I think the important thing in a relationship when
you have any conflict with either someone who you report to,
like you know, for me, shareholders, or in people who
work you know with me, I'm pound on my team,
it's important to listen to where they're coming from and
to hear what they're saying beyond what they're actually saying.
Sure they listen to what's underneath that. And I think
when a startup, we're constantly battling. You know, we're looking
(18:38):
for money. She sort of you know, gets things going,
and there's a lot of tension around money usually in
today's climate too, financially, So I would just say that
important thing is just to listen to what they're saying
and then sit down and try I'm a big proponent on.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
Working things out. Listen what they're saying, and then try
to find common ground. So that's what say.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Listen really to what's coming from their heart, because they
think their heart is really speaking through what they're saying,
and then find common ground and then find positive steps
to take from that so to climb out from that.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
It's amazing that you said that, because I did get
that piece of advice one time. Somebody said to me,
Marcus in an argument, everybody comes from somewhere. You have
to know the somewhere. You may not always see eye
to eye, but everybody's coming from somewhere. So I like
that tech quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Kay Brown. She is the CEO of Greenopia, which.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Is an app that has been designed to help you
be an effortless environmentalist.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
The app is chock full of how do you describe
the business? Again, I like how you do it.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Greenopia is about businesses that are good for you, good
for the planet, and good for the community there.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
It is also the author of Living with a Green
Heart to help you do it better at home. You
can download the Greenopia app on the App Store or
Google Play, share it with your friends, go to greenopia
dot com, and, frankly, if you're so inclined, like I said,
we are at the very start of the app, you
can actually invest in the company right now through April thirtieth,
so just in time for Earth Day. For another week
(19:57):
or so, on netcapital dot com grab shares of the
company for just one hundred dollars. I think it's pretty fantastic.
So again, greenopia dot com was where you need to be. Yay,
thank you for your time.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Thank you margin it's been a real pleasure.
We're back again with CEOs you should know, presented by iHeartMedia.
This is your chance to get to know the CEOs
of major companies, smaller companies, startups, what makes them tick,
what makes them great leaders, tips, advice.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
And the update on their companies.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
This is Marcus in the Morning from Star one oh
one three iHeartRadio, San Francisco. We are here in studio
with Gay Brown, who is the CEO of green Opia,
and you're also an author wrote a book called Living
with a Green Heart, how to keep your body, your home,
and the planet healthy in a toxic world.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Welcome Gay, Marcus. I'm delighted to be here. Thank you
so much for inviting me.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
This is so exciting for me because this is a
cause that is very near and dear to my heart.
I talk about it all the time on the radio
show Taking Care of Mother Earth.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
The other thing I talk about is how lazy.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I actually am in life. And so what was our
phrase that we coined. It was a how to be
an effortless environmentalist. And you have done a couple of
things to help people do that with your company Greenopia.
So Greenopia is an app to help you find those
green businesses.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Marcus, we love or less environmentalism. We want to make
it easy for everybody. Yeah, we believe whenever you go
out to use a business in your community that if
you look for a business that's good for you, good
for the planet, and good for the community. Right, then
those are the businesses that we want you to find,
and those businesses we want to use because those businesses
are trying hard to offer you something healthy as well
as the keep the planet in the community healthy as well.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Right, let them do all the work.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
I just want to hit one button and go, oh,
I should go there for lunch.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
You're an ideal consumer.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
This is why you need to download the green Opia app.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I want to talk about your journey, gay because when
you sent into your bio, there's a line in here
that I am completely in love with, which is being
a mom is a great training for being a CEO,
because I know there are people out there listening who
have always wanted to have an idea or start a company,
begin a journey, and they don't know where the first
step is. And you're giving us all hope. So let's
(01:50):
bring it all the way back to the origin story.
You said you basically were born into a leadership role.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I'm the oldest daughter of one of four or three
younger Okay, so when you're the junior mom, you learn,
you start doing everything. And when my mom had my
youngest brother, Ben, he was nine years younger and my
dad literally handed him and to go on my hip.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
I don't think he left my hip.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
For quite a few years, junior mom. I love you.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Managing three younger brothers, as most older sisters would know,
is a joke because they never listened to you. And
they do listen to you, but they don't want you
to know it. So you say it's time to do
your homework, they'll actually go in their room, turn on
the stereo and then later, you know, turn it down,
st are during their work. So it was always sort
of how do you convince them to do what you
want them to do?
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Individuals are different, they all require different motivation. I get it,
you're maximizing your workforce. And then you were involved in
other things that might have.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Taught leadership skills.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Girl Scouts comes to mind, babysitting, paper route outdoor leadership camps.
You worked in a restaurant at an early age and
then going into sales and advertising and things of that nature.
Now let's get to the point of how being a
mom helps training you to be CEO.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
I think being a mom is great training.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
To be CEO because it's a CEO, you have to
keep three people happy, the shareholders, your customers, and know
what's going on in the marketplace to be up to date.
So as a mom when you have three kids, or
even mom with one, or even with dogs of moms,
and it's important to know your audience so and understand
what's going to make them happy and what you need
(03:21):
them to do in terms of every day living. And
I think the important thing is to inspire them to
be the best people that they can do. When I
learned how to keep my kids happy, it was because
I needed to keep my oldest son safe. My son
had some learning issues in the second grade, and that's
how I became aware of this whole world of environmental toxins.
I was working at the time at the LA Times
(03:42):
and I got a call from his teacher. It said,
come on down to school before you pick him up.
I walked in the door and she said, sit down.
He's having a hard time. It turns out, but he
had some auditory processing problems that once we cleared up
his heavy metals, he was mainstream back into everything and
he's now as an end flies his own plane that's
super successful.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
So was that a kind of a watershed moment in
the kind of formation of the thought of doing something
like green Opia Because Ana you had mentioned also going
to a lunch that kind of changed your trajectory as well.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Once I learned about his toksin and then how it
affected his life in a positive way, I realized that
we were living in an environment that could be very toxic.
The time, I was living in la and I went
out to lunch with a guy named John Adams, who
was head of the ENERGC at the time, and he
was telling me about his friend Al Gore, who created
a movie called The Incommune Truth.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I've heard of Al Gore so at.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
That time in and at that age two thousand and four,
two thousand and five, he wasn't very well known, But
it just floored me, and I realized the most important
thing that we could do as parents is keep our
family and our children safe and happy and healthy. I
was a mom on a mission to find the healthiest
life I could provide for them. In Santa Monica and
Pacific Palisades at the time. So I was creating a
list of businesses in places that we could go to
(04:58):
that would be healthy for us. In those days, organic
was not a phrase people used a lot.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Right, So your own personal list, my own personal list.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
I created a shopping list of places to go to
every day that would keep me us healthy and safe
with no toxins. And eventually I realized that shopping list
could be a book and help others in the community.
The easiest way to get people to do what you
want them to do is offer them choice and give
them good information. So we created criteria for what made
businesses healthy, are good for you, good for the planet,
(05:27):
and good for the community. Those assessment forms are how
we base our criteria.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
So if I am a mom or a dad and
I've got an idea that I want to turn into
an app or start a company, where is the first
step for that?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
How do I start that journey?
Speaker 4 (05:40):
After you have a.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Passion for wanting to start something right and the most
important thing after that is to find people to help you, Okay,
And so I reached out to a friend in the
community and I said, I need to find local green businesses,
and they said, there's a guy named Ferris Kowar who
works in Santa Monica with a Santa Monica Green Business Chamber.
You should talk to him. In fact I did, and
that was how the company was born in the back
yard the fourth of July in a friend of mine's
(06:02):
house in Brentwood. With that support, we were able to
work together and then we developed a company together.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Can we talk about cost?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Sure, Like, if I'm trying to launch a company, I
know it varies probably like crazy, But is there a
number target to launch something like that?
Speaker 4 (06:17):
I think it's different for everyone.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
I think you can launch a company with zero dollars
or you can launch a company with a million dollars.
I had money accessible to me. My husband believed in
this and saw what happened to my son when we
detoxed to him and we a.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
Kilated him, so he believed in it.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
So we took a little money out of our retirement
fund okay to fund it. But we got to the
point in the company after we had sold seventy five
thousand books, we couldn't find any VC money from Silicon
Valley because people weren't paying for media at Meetia was
just free at that time, so I had to get
creative and I went back to my old roots in
American Express Sales exactly ad sales, went back and rolled
(06:53):
at my sleeves. I wrote a pitch and I started
going out to other businesses that I thought would be
helped by our green listenings, and so I just started
selling the listing. So we created a very robust licensing
situation with our listings, which today, if you look at
our revenue, is going to be. One of the strongest
streams is taking the listings and licensing them to United
(07:13):
Airlines or Delta or American Express, Red double point shopping green.
My dream is to create a virtuous circle of green
shopping so that when you go out to look for
something the green and you get an organic coffee, that
you can get points back on your credit card for
actually doing the right thing in the business ones as
well for.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Saving the earth.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Let's talk about where Greenopia sits today, and again it's
the Greenopia app. You can also go to greenopia dot com.
And the reason why I love it is because, like
you said, I'm the perfect consumer. I don't want to
put forth that much effort, but I want to have
maximum return and take care of the planet as much
as possible. So the App Store or Google Play. Where
is Greenopia today?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
We've been out in app store for an entire week.
Oh yeah, So we are in the business of getting downloads.
So I'd love for everyone who's listening to this today,
Marcus Yes, to download Greenopia app. We are only in
San Francisco because that's our pilot. We have some listings
from our original guide, but we're reassessing them. Okay, so
we're just in San Francisco, but we want the more
likes we get, the more downloads we get, the better
(08:09):
off our future investors will.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Think sure, and then the idea would be to scale
up nationwide. Yes, at some point.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Our original green City book guides yeah for La San Francisco,
New York. So the bulk of our listenings are in
those three cities.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
You know what else we should talk about?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Can I still invest?
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Can we can we talk about where?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
That is?
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Matter of fact, you can do it for one hundred dollars,
I know, go on to net capital and we have
a crowdfunding program because we believe that this app is
for people just like you and people around the world
that won green businesses right, so please go and invest
it in netcapital dot com through April thirtieth.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
I understand Greenopia. Let's talk about being a CEO. What
are the top things that you like to keep in
mind when you're leading people?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
As My leadership style is a mom and knowing my audience.
Important thing is also to know your limitations. And I'm
a connector and I'm a visionary, but it's important to
have a good COO and I have the best CEO,
John Cross.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
We have to give John a shout out.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
We're gonna act like he's not sitting right here throwing
up notes for you. I love it and me the
show is now called Toos.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
You should know John. What is your pedigree, sir?
Speaker 5 (09:12):
Pedigree is British and from Google. I spent twenty years
in Google, partly in London and partly in the Bay Area.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
What brought you to Greenopia? Like, what was it that
connected you?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Guys?
Speaker 5 (09:24):
I was already into sustainability, I was already into tech,
and I was already into the ads business.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, but when I left, I really.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
Wanted to combine all of those passions into something that
I felt there's a real need to make sustainability easier.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
And also to reward people for it.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
Sure, And so I was kicking around this idea and
when I met Gay, I wanted a vehicle to get
my idea off the ground. Is to do with points
and rewards, and I saw Greenopia as a real opportunity
to be able to do that. And so we we met,
we got on and we kept talking, and you know,
a year later, we're getting the apple.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
There it is and we are right at the startup
of this startup is very exciting.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
I feel like this is going to be massive.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Gay, can you give people like five different ways to
be an effortless environmentalist in addition to like, you know,
getting on the app and supporting the proper businesses.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
But what can you do at home? That's really easy.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
The easiest thing to do is to do what's in
front of you. So break it down into three pillars.
What's good for you, good for the planet, and good
for the community. So I say, every day, do that's
good for you planet in the community. So good for
you would be to try to eat those foods that
are healthy for you. If you can find organic in
your market, stand great. If not, try to reach for
an apple or peanut butter rather than a power bar.
So really just taking care of your body, because environmental
(10:40):
health it starts with the health of your body. That's
part of my main messaging even for CEOs to take
care of their own personal health first.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Put on your mask first.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Second thing is to take care of the planet, so
not to use any plastic. If there's one thing that
I can leave people with today is please don't buy
a plastic bottle water, right, you know, try to bring around,
which almost everybody does. Plastic is one of those things
that doesn't break down. You've heard about everything, so it's
really the easiest thing you can do is just to
avoid that.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
So microplastics we all know about, but I'm now hearing
about nanoplastics, which you can't even see with a microscope,
like it's just there. And the easiest way to get
nanoplastics into your body is just by breathing.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
That scared the crap out of me.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Just not to be too scared. There is way you
can relate nanoplastics out. It's something you just we could
talk about later. But for people who are interested, they
coul probably talk to the local homeopathic doctor about that
they're hard to get out of your system, but it
is possible. Okay, so, but the best way to do
is just avoid that plastic bottle just speaks for a
glass bottle. Bring your own bottle. And the third thing
about your community is part of Greenopia's app and what
(11:46):
we believe in, what I fundamentally believe in life is
be kind to mother Nature and kind other people, because,
believe it or not, being kind is one of the
best things you could do to improve someone's mind or
wherever they are in life.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
We never know.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
You meet someone where they've been or what they're thinking about,
is if you're kind to them, they will radiate that back.
And I think that that's where we're all being kind
of the planet and coming up with Earth Day. It's
important to be kind of the planet and kind to
each other.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Interesting that you say that, because my father was a
big proponent of that. There's a saying in Spanish sum
mundo every head is its own world, meaning everybody's always
got something going on. And my producer Taylor always says
the same thing when we're talking about, hey, should this
person be doing this this way? She always is very
quick to say, you never know what they have going on,
(12:32):
a reminder to be kind. And also there's nothing that
fills your day better than when you're kind to somebody.
So like I live in half Moon Bay, right off
Highway One. It's tough to get in and off the road.
When I slow down and let somebody go, it's a
pretty cool feeling.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
I don't know, I can't explain it.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
I live in Napa Valleys and I don't do it's
the same thing. And so the other day I was
driving in actually yesterday, one time I let a car
and I thought gay Brown. I mean I started to
not let the car in.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
I think gay Brown. Let the car in.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
The next time, I left the car and I went
to the gas station and got gased. And what I
looked right down the ground?
Speaker 4 (13:04):
What was there? A shiny penny heads up.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
So I think the thing is is that if we
all do the right thing, which we know how to do,
you know, And that's part of being an environmentalist. In
part we're Gonobia's journey, which is to make it easy
for people to do the things that they know they
want to do.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
That takes time.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
So we are here to make life easier and to
make them feel good about it, because we want everyone
to live with a green heart.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
We know the world is rough.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
If you snap out of it for a second and
just give a helping hand or a high five, it
actually feels really good.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Again, we're here with Gay Brown.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
She is the CEO of green Opia. Here on CEOs,
you should know. I want to talk about being a
CEO because it's a very demanding job. So tell me
about how you structure your day. Are you an early
morning lady? Are you midday? Are you up all night?
All of the above? Two hours of sleep.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
I have done all the above, but my preference is
I have a pretty I've had the same schedule I
had since my kids are a little Back to being
trained as a CEO's mom, I go to bedtime, sort
of read, shut it down on the phones an hour
and a half before.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Bed hour hour and a half, so you're better than
the rest of them.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Nine nights, well, I try nine nine thirty, shut it off,
try to get in bed by ten, and then I
like to read. As a I wager didn't create a
writing in college, so I had to read a lot.
So I love to read, so I never bar from
a good book next my bed, so and try to
turn off the lights somewhere between ten thirty and eleven.
And then I'm a big meditator. So I get up
in the morning at six thirty and I hit the
floor and I sit down and I do my stretches
(14:28):
and my meditation, and every other morning I do yoga poses,
and the other mornings I do sit ups and push ups.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
And how long does this process last between the meditating
and the and the and the It.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Takes somewhere between forty five minutes to an hour.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Not bad.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
So yeah, it's really forty five minutes if I tight,
if it's tight. But when I was a mom, I
had to get a little extra early, but I still
did it. And I think that what happens when I
do that and I start my morning with meditation, It
grounds me and it keeps my mind calm and focused.
And when you're got a lot going on to see you,
I think the key thing is to focus your eye
on what important things are and get it done.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Are there a couple of different ways knowing yourself that
you can regain focus, because I know sometimes I'm all
over the place, you know, And I think that's how
the world is these days, we're all kind of all
over the place. How do you resenter yourself?
Speaker 4 (15:12):
I listened to music.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Part of the meditation breathing is I do this in
and out breathing with my nose, okay, and so that
sort of regulates my airflow, which is I think the
most important thing that you when you're anxious and you're.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Not focused, to regulate your airflow. However, you box.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Breathe and breathe in for, hold it for for, and
breathe out for you know whether it's that or you
just do hold in your breath and breathe in and
out slowly to focus on your breath. That's the first
thing I do, okay. And the second thing I do
is I turn on classical music. I don't know if
there's a study about classical music. I'm sure there's been plenty,
but it actually just puts me right in my zone.
It's something about classical music.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
So I saw a follow up on that study and
they basically said, whatever style fits you works. It's literally
music in general, which for me, based on what I
do for work, this is why I'm always whistling at work,
because I just enjoy it all so much. With the
music and everything else. So then are you an intermittent
faster or you a breakfast eater.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
I am an inner manifester.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
But i's your window.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
I mean, I try to stop eating by eight, seven
thirty or eight. I have my last bite off.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Occasionally I'll sneak a piece of teeny tiny square of
dark chocolate, which is my big sin. Okay, every night
and for people have known me, no, I do not
go to bed without a cup of herbal tea Camma
meal tea your sleepysign.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
It's my ritual with a teeny tiny piece of chocolate.
And yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
And then because when you meditate, after you meditate, sort
of the plan is the you know, to keep the
meditation sort of ingrained in you for the day. You
don't have anything to eat or drink for half an hour.
It's sort of an hour and fifteen minutes after you
wake up, can you have your first sip of anything?
That's usually about for me that's about eight o'clock. Okay,
so from sort of eight to age or yeah, you know,
it's about so I know, I guess that's twelve hours
(16:44):
mostly so except for my chemamelte.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
It works, it works easy.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Then cama meal tea or intermint invest.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
I think I'm an incidental intermitte faster because we get
in here and I forget to eat, and so sometimes
at about nine o'clock or nine thirty, I'll be God,
I got to eat something, and I have have you know,
giuc bars and things of that nature, and then we
will eat ribs or meatballs first thing in the morning.
That's the crazy part about getting up this early, by
about eight o'clock, Like I had, I brought in some
(17:10):
homemade meatballs the other day and we were having meatballs
at like eight am.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
What time do you get up?
Speaker 1 (17:15):
I get up at three forty five four am. But
I see I don't have time to do all the
meditation and all the I'm sorry, let me rephrase. I
don't give myself time to get up and meditate and
do yoga and things at the nature literally the sun's
not shining. So I'm actually low key jealous of people.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
That can be like, oh, yeah, I get up at
six thirty. That's that's adorable.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
You know what John was looking at me probably, I
mean he gets a lot earlier than I do. What
happens you develop your body rhythm. It just was one
of those things. Yeah, whatever, I mean, I think, yeah,
it's just both My kids were always, especially when they
were little, when they were you know, babies, I would
be in then I was up in the middle of
the night, so I think I sort of trained myself
to sort of go back to sleep till yeaheah.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
I want to talk about your leadership style, and then
you had talked about you find what your limitations are right,
and then you hire people around you like my man John,
who's very tech savvy. For example, you admittedly are not
a tech person and that's okay. We all have our strengths.
What do you do in the event of a interpersonnel conflict?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
How do you resolve those?
Speaker 4 (18:14):
Well, in any relationships, there's conflicts.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
So I think the important thing in a relationship when
you have any conflict with either someone who you report to,
like you know, for me, shareholders, or in people who
work you know with me, I'm pound on my team,
it's important to listen to where they're coming from and
to hear what they're saying beyond what they're actually saying.
Sure they listen to what's underneath that. And I think
when a startup, we're constantly battling. You know, we're looking
(18:38):
for money. She sort of you know, gets things going,
and there's a lot of tension around money usually in
today's climate too, financially, So I would just say that
important thing is just to listen to what they're saying
and then sit down and try I'm a big proponent on.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
Working things out. Listen what they're saying, and then try
to find common ground. So that's what say.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Listen really to what's coming from their heart, because they
think their heart is really speaking through what they're saying,
and then find common ground and then find positive steps
to take from that so to climb out from that.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
It's amazing that you said that, because I did get
that piece of advice one time. Somebody said to me,
Marcus in an argument, everybody comes from somewhere. You have
to know the somewhere. You may not always see eye
to eye, but everybody's coming from somewhere. So I like
that tech quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Kay Brown. She is the CEO of Greenopia, which.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Is an app that has been designed to help you
be an effortless environmentalist.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
The app is chock full of how do you describe
the business? Again, I like how you do it.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Greenopia is about businesses that are good for you, good
for the planet, and good for the community there.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
It is also the author of Living with a Green
Heart to help you do it better at home. You
can download the Greenopia app on the App Store or
Google Play, share it with your friends, go to greenopia
dot com, and, frankly, if you're so inclined, like I said,
we are at the very start of the app, you
can actually invest in the company right now through April thirtieth,
so just in time for Earth Day. For another week
(19:57):
or so, on netcapital dot com grab shares of the
company for just one hundred dollars. I think it's pretty fantastic.
So again, greenopia dot com was where you need to be. Yay,
thank you for your time.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Thank you margin it's been a real pleasure.
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