July 7, 2024 • 22 mins
Welcome to another inspiring episode of Conversation of Change, the podcast that spotlights social entrepreneurs creating positively impactful work. Hosted by Nabilah from Make the Change, a social enterprise in Singapore, this episode features a special guest, Dave, the founder and CEO of The Colibrily Crew, a US-based ethical digital marketing agency.
In this engaging discussion, Dave shares the journey of The Colibrily Crew, celebrating their 10-year milestone, and delves into the core values and challenges of building a purpose-driven business. Learn how his agency supports small to medium organizations aiming to make a social impact, and how his diverse, global team maintains a balanced lifestyle through innovative practices like mind-body benefits and continuous personal development plans.
Dave also opens up about his personal career transition from corporate America to becoming a changemaker, the importance of mental health, and his philosophy of sustainable growth over rapid expansion. This episode is packed with valuable insights for aspiring entrepreneurs and anyone interested in making a meaningful difference through business.
Join us on this journey of exploration and discovery, and be inspired by Dave's commitment to creating a better world. For more information on Make the Change, visit makethechange.sg. To learn more about The Colibrily Crew, check out colibrily.com.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Music.
(00:07):
Hello everyone, welcome to Conversation of Change, the podcast that features
social entrepreneurs that create inspiring and positively impactful work.
My name is Nabilah and I am a changemaker with Make the Change,
a social enterprise in Singapore offering learning programs to tertiary students
(00:27):
and persons with disabilities, latest,
offering creative services to businesses, as well as educating corporates about
creating lasting impact and attaining their targeted CSR goals.
Today, we have a very special guest joining us this time.
He is Dave, the founder and CEO of the Calibrile Crew, a marketing agency based in the States.
(00:54):
Welcome, Dave. Hello, hello. Thank you for having me on the program today.
It's a pleasure to have you here with us.
Before we start, I do notice that your company is reaching a huge milestone,
which is your 10th year anniversary, a whole decade. Is that right?
Yeah, it's been a wild ride. We started with just me, just doing the solo entrepreneurial
(01:18):
work and then growing it over time, mostly in the last five years.
But yeah, we've got a team of four Four and a half right now.
Had a team of six recently with some changeover.
But yeah, we're small. Small but making big impact is how I like to say it.
Definitely. Congratulations on hitting your 10th. Yeah.
Thank you. All right. So let's kick off with today's conversation with a self-introduction
(01:40):
of you, Dave, and what the Colibrile crew does.
Sure, sure. So we're an ethically conscious digital marketing agency.
Our intention is to work with small organizations that want to make,
well, small to medium organizations that want to make social impact in the world or social justice.
Essentially, they want to do good work for improving the lives of people,
(02:04):
not just in the United States, but anywhere in the world.
So we focus on anything digital marketing related, mostly around website design,
content creation, email marketing, ghostwriting, ads, that sort of stuff.
A lot of coaching in there as well.
And yeah, we've got clients mostly in the States.
(02:25):
My staff and the staff, we're actually all over the place in the world.
I'm in Spain, Madrid, and I've got a team in Kyiv, Ukraine, Dubai,
Cape Town, South Africa, Granada, Spain, and the UK as well.
I see. That's nice. Okay.
But we would like to know you a little bit better. What about your career journey
(02:47):
and what led you to start the Calliope Crew?
Yeah, great question, Nabila. My career path is one of a very traditional American.
I started in corporate America, working in digital marketing there,
and spent about 10 years doing that.
And quite frankly, found that there was not a good path for making purpose or helping people.
(03:15):
If we talk about the three Ps, it was just about profit, mostly in Fortune 100 companies.
And I I felt like there was a lot missing in the world.
It's pretty easy to say, let's just make as much revenue as possible,
as much profit as possible. But I felt like there was a huge thing missing.
My career path involved me going back to school and getting a master's in sustainability.
(03:36):
Quitting my jobs in corporate America, traveling the world for two years by
bicycle throughout South America and Europe with my ex and our dog,
coming back and realizing,
wow, there's a lot of good people doing good work in the world,
but they need help. They can't do it all themselves.
It's really hard to launch a small business or to launch a business in general.
(03:57):
And so I started the Coley Brealey crew with the intention of saying,
how can I help people that want to do good work, get their businesses off the ground?
How can I help them launch them? How can I help them market those products or
projects and just offer any support that otherwise they wouldn't be able to
afford because they're usually bootstrapping or they're very small. I see.
(04:17):
Okay. You mentioned that you started off the Colibri crew as a small team,
like just you and one or two other individuals, right?
So would you say that or something else would be the biggest challenge that
you have faced while building this company?
Growth is a huge challenge. And I talk about this a lot with startups where
(04:39):
everybody thinks about the long-term goal or the three to five-year goal,
but they don't really have the path of getting to that place.
They just want to jump to 10, to level 10. And I think that,
The challenge is people have their visions and their perspectives,
but they don't think about what the problem is that they're trying to solve.
(05:00):
And I encourage anybody who wants to take on a startup or do their entrepreneurial
thing, think about a service or something you can offer where you're solving
a problem for a business.
I think that's the easiest thing to do. I think oftentimes we're thinking about
our craft or a product that we want to develop.
But if you can solve a problem for someone, you've already got your foot in the door.
(05:24):
You already know that this business can be successful because you're able to prove that.
To just answer your question, Nabila, for me, it was just by myself.
The problem I found was that small businesses didn't have the money or bandwidth to create a website.
So for me, it was, okay, I can work with really small small businesses,
(05:45):
help them create their digital footprint upfront.
They may not have the budget initially, but they'll have budget later.
And oh, by the way, they'll want to hire me to do other work for them like social
media or email marketing.
And so for me, it was a proof of concept. It was really simple.
I'm just going to go solve a problem for somebody.
I don't need to plan on total world domination from step one.
(06:07):
I can start at the very, very basics for someone.
Yeah, I do agree what you're trying to advocate for. Would there be certain
values per se that in your own personal lifestyle that you try to put it into the company as well?
Well, that's a great, great question. I'm a big fan of the concept of Kaizen,
(06:27):
continuous improvement that Toyota came out with when they were developing their cars.
I want to say it's like in the 90s. And actually, I wrote a manifesto for my
team a couple weeks ago, maybe about three weeks put it online in the B Corp
world, as well as on our website.
And one of the things in there is all about continuous improvement.
And even for me personally, I know that I'm only as good as my team.
(06:50):
And I tell my team that all the time, fail fast, fail often.
That's the way you learn. I have a five-month-old kid and I see this all the
time through him that he only learns when he makes mistakes.
For example, he has a little toy that he's shaking and he wants to move it around
in the air. Well, he might hit himself in the knee or the head or the eye.
(07:13):
He's going to learn, oh, I shouldn't do that next time. It's the same thing with any work that we do.
You have to try, try, try, try. And failing, I think, is seen as a step of progress
in my personal opinion and for me personally.
And then I try and instill that in my team. It's okay to make mistakes.
The lesson is, what do you learn from those mistakes and how can you apply that
(07:33):
to the future work that you're doing?
Definitely. I love that what you're doing with your team members,
because you mentioned about how everyone is around the world, right?
Like for you, you're in Spain and then another team member is in Ukraine.
So then how do you ensure that all your employees maintain a balanced lifestyle
and there's a continual growth as well?
(07:55):
Oh, that's a great question. So I'm a big fan of developmental plans,
personal dev plans. We've started rolling that out this year.
Which is easy. You can find many of them online, but holding ourselves accountable
to saying, okay, here's what I know right now. And here's what I want to become.
How do I get there? I'm building a roadmap.
And then also to your question about how do we ensure that everybody's kind
(08:18):
of on the same page and operational and maximizing themselves.
We launched something called a mind body.
I don't, benefit is probably the best way of saying it in the last few months
where everybody Everybody gets a stipend in my organization to go work on something
for themselves outside of work.
(08:39):
So they could take a class, they could therapy, they could take English classes, whatever it is.
I noticed for myself, I was out on a run a few months ago and I was thinking
about a client and a project and I thought, man, Einstein said he did his best
thinking on his bicycle.
And I totally feel that that biochemistry of what's going on when you do exercise
(08:59):
or anything for your mind or body is phenomenal.
And so I pinged my team and I said, hey, I'm thinking about doing this.
Would everybody be interested? And the feedback was overwhelming. Yes, yes, yes.
And now we're a few months in and yeah, the productivity has gone up,
general happiness and wellbeing has gone up.
It's interesting to see the diversity of things that people do to continuously
(09:23):
improve themselves and keep themselves as efficient as possible.
I know for myself, it's going to the gym.
Someone on my team wants to take Pilates classes.
I think you just invest in your team. I don't feel like this is anything new,
right? I think it comes back to that people and purpose.
If you invest in them, they're going to be happier. The happier they are,
they're going to do a better job in their jobs. They're going to enjoy their jobs more.
(09:44):
The more they do that, the less turnover you have. The less turnover you have,
the more productive they are. And it's just this constant positive feedback loop.
Absolutely. I love what you're implementing, the welfare and happiness of your team members.
I based in singapore generally i would
say that we singaporeans very much focus
(10:05):
on work and we rarely take the
time off to focus maybe doing yoga like what you
say pilates or just something simple going down having a walk in a park yeah
so i love that so now let's dive deeper into the operations or maybe the services
that the collaborative crew have sure sure yeah we we We tend to be a full service
(10:30):
digital marketing agency.
That's what I like to frame us as. We definitely take a holistic approach.
I know oftentimes in marketing or in business in general, people get really
focused on one particular thing that they need.
I can't tell you how many times someone's come to me and said,
we need to run Facebook ads.
And I'll kind of laugh and say, why? Why do you think that? How did you come to that conclusion?
(10:53):
Is that the best use of your time? Is it best to use your budget?
Where do your target market, where do they play online digitally?
Where do they spend their time?
So all of that's wrapped in a holistic.
Flywheel model, I would call it. The services we offer, we talk a lot about
what's the best use of your budget.
And I think that from a B Corp purpose-driven organization standpoint,
(11:17):
that's a good approach to take.
I think a lot of times people come to us with one idea and they find out that
that's not really the best use of their time, energy, or money.
So from a services perspective, it's everything digital marketing.
Like I said, sometimes we do coaching because, Because for example,
I got into a conversation with a client this week about their internal management
(11:38):
of their staff and their culture and the problems they're having.
And that led to a conversation of how do you up the game of the culture in your company?
So my team calls me Uncle Dave often because I feel like I'm that uncle who
just kind of comes in and offers advice, but doesn't have to do any of the too much hands-on work.
(11:58):
I could just kind of say, have you thought about this? Have you thought about
this? You should talk to this person. So you should talk to that person.
And it ends up being very helpful and fruitful.
I see. Were there any particular memorable clients that you love working with?
That's a great question. I'm a huge fan of, I'll call it like alternative workforce clients.
(12:21):
It's a very strange term. I just came up with it.
There's, what I mean by that is people that look to staff and hire,
hire people that would otherwise have strong barriers to be employed for employment.
For example, with my organization, we've hired a Ukrainian specifically in the
(12:41):
last few years because of the war that's been going on over there.
And I've had a particular client, Catspring Yopan, which I really love out of Texas.
Abby Ann's the founder. And they've hired, So they've created in North America,
what was an indigenous plant, a tea out of it and called Yopan.
(13:01):
And it's really cool because they've really focused hiring on formerly incarcerated
people to help them do their agriculture. culture.
And I always was really taken back by this because you're helping people that
would have strong barriers to reenter the workforce. You're also giving them.
(13:25):
I don't want to say a lifeline, but there's a better word I can't think of right
now. You're giving them access to something that would be very, very difficult.
And you're also helping them on their personal lives.
I think that's phenomenal. There's lots of companies that do this.
There's lots of companies that work with at-risk youth, formerly homeless people or population.
In my case, like I mentioned, it's not necessarily refugees per se,
(13:48):
but it's people that are having extreme circumstances in their lives.
So to answer your question, Nabila, I'm I'm a fan of people that say,
how can we go above and beyond by just our services, but also through the employment that we're offering.
I agree with you. That was definitely inspiring. I think I myself do resonate
with you that when I see companies,
whether it's Singapore or overseas, when they have employees or team members
(14:12):
who have certain barriers, like what you said, maybe a PWD, a person with disability,
and then he or she still makes the effort to go to office, turn up,
be themselves. ourselves. And I think that's a huge respect.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it comes with some additional work
and some additional obstacles, but I think at the end of the day,
(14:33):
it's all about impact. And that's what I always come back to.
How can you impact the planet more, the people more, and leave the...
I tell this to my staff all the time.
Whatever you're doing right now, are you going to look back on the work you're
doing five years from now and say, hey, I'm really proud of what I'm doing?
If that's your driver, then good on you keep going with it. But if you're not
(14:54):
going to be proud, what are we doing?
Life is short and precious.
What about the future goals for the Colibri crew? Are there certain,
maybe like a five-year plan, let's say?
Yeah, that's a great question, Nabila. I completely changed our five-year plan in this last year.
When we became B Corp certified last March, I had intentions of wanting to grow
(15:19):
the business and getting it to a point of, I jokingly called it total world
domination, although that's clearly not the goal.
And it dawned on me that I think we.
We in traditional business think growth is the end goal, think that is the definition of success.
And I'm not sure that that's right. I think sustainable growth is the goal.
(15:44):
And so when I tore up the plans of our five-year objectives,
I rewrote it with the intention of saying, what does sustainable growth look like?
Not 3Xing, 10Xing, becoming a unicorn, not making as much money as possible.
It's how do we help the right amount of clients while being true to ourselves
(16:04):
and also maintaining a balanced life that doesn't incorporate overly heavy amounts of stress and pressure.
So for me, that looks like not the hockey stick growth is what we call it in
the States, but just that nice, steady, slow growth.
I know for those that are listening, can't see my hand gestures,
(16:27):
but it's a 45 degree angle, if not a 30 degree angle going up. It's nice and slow.
I'm a big fan of doing that in any business. I mean, obviously you need to have
financial freedom and you need to be meeting certain financial goals,
but when you can establish those baselines, meet those baselines,
get your product launch or your services,
take it nice and steady, develop your processes, develop your plans,
(16:50):
put things in place so that you can grow, but do it in a way that's healthy,
not detrimental to your mental health or your physical health or your team.
Yes. I think mental health is one of the topics that is currently being more talked about.
And I'm glad that your company is actually advocating that too.
Massively. And there's a story behind that. I had a mental breakdown,
(17:12):
let's see, in 2011, 2012.
So that's over a decade now.
I was a full-time MBA student working full-time and strung out,
doing too much at the same time in a bad relationship, personally speaking, with a partner. And...
That was a huge lesson to me coming out of that. It took me a good year to really come out of the fog.
(17:38):
And I always put mental health first in my team. That's why we do the mind-body support.
That's why we do monthly check-ins, not even, I mean, individual monthly check-ins, weekly one-on-ones.
We do four-day work weeks, flex time, flex vacations.
I'm only as good as my team. And I know that.
And I always tell them your personal life is more important than your professional
(17:58):
life. And that's 100% true.
So yeah, mental health is a big topic. I'm glad to hear people talking about it.
For me, I have a diagnosed anxiety disorder and some days are harder than others.
And I think it's always important to be mindful, come back to the why, why are we doing that?
And like I said, we're human centric. And if you're not feeling well,
(18:22):
what kind of work are you're going to be producing. Not great work.
So long story there.
Thank you for sharing, Dave, especially about your personal journey.
I think it's not easy for you to speak up and be brave about it and actually
input it into your lifestyle today. Yep. Thank you.
So before we wrap up, there are entrepreneurs out there who are listening in
(18:44):
and they are looking for some sort of advice or guidance.
So what would you tell them when they have this goal of building a company with
a similar mission of yours?
You know, I think it's a, it's,
Nabila, that's a fantastic question. And I get this one often.
I think when people think about business, they think about money,
(19:06):
money, money, money, money, or growth, growth, growth. And I've mentioned that.
There's a term I'm very passionate about. I don't know if I'm going to pronounce it correctly.
Another Japanese term, ikigai, I-K-I-G-A-I.
There's a great TED talk on this. It came out 10 years ago.
I think when you can mix vocation, passion, can you make money doing that?
(19:27):
Are you helping the world and are you good at it? And that's the Venn diagram
of Vicky Guy, generally speaking.
That would be my recommendation to anyone who's thinking about starting a business
is think about, are you meeting all of those criteria?
There's a lot of tools online. You can go look this up, online tests to see
if you're doing it, but it's not just about passion. It's not just about making money.
(19:49):
Think about the impact. Think about, are you good at it. Think about, does the world need it?
That's one of the big components of any entrepreneurialism.
So that would be my component is take that passion you have, which is great.
Keep it locked up and always tap into that, but also make sure that you're checking
all the boxes of your Ikigai and is that something you want to be doing?
(20:11):
And then also just to add something to that, also your right livelihood,
which is another term for Ikigai, is going to change over time.
What I thought was my passion 10 years ago may not be my passion now,
and that's okay. okay, be open to being flexible and pivoting and changing whatever
business ideas you have.
I think it's like the average successful business changes or pivots five times,
(20:32):
three to five times. And so just welcome that change. Welcome.
Don't get too hung up on the idea you have as having to be the idea.
Know that that idea may change over time and that's okay.
Embrace it, hug it, approach it with radical acceptance. And I think you'll
be a lot more successful and happy.
There is a book out there. Let me check. It's called How to Live, if I'm not wrong. Yeah.
(20:53):
There's several of them. And it's been translated into a lot of languages for
sure. So highly, highly recommend that.
Yep. All right. Now that we have come to the end of our podcast,
are there any lasting words from you, Dave?
I think everybody needs to practice smiling. Just keep smiling.
(21:14):
You got a great smile. Keep doing it too. I think anybody out there needs to
keep doing it. I'm smiling right now.
Every day, put on a smile and you know good things will come from it.
I know it sounds cheesy, but I'm a believer in humor and laughter.
Thank you, Dave, so much for being a part of this episode. So now as we draw
close to this episode, thank you to our listeners for joining us on this journey
(21:35):
of exploration, discovery, and especially the topic of mental health.
So for more information on Make the Change, please visit our website at makethechange.sg.
And to know more about the Colibri crew, be sure to check out colibri.com.
Stay tuned for our next episode of Conversation of Change, where we will continue
(21:58):
to bring you captivating stories and thought-provoking discussions.
Until then, see you next time.
Music.
Music.
(00:07):
Hello everyone, welcome to Conversation of Change, the podcast that features
social entrepreneurs that create inspiring and positively impactful work.
My name is Nabilah and I am a changemaker with Make the Change,
a social enterprise in Singapore offering learning programs to tertiary students
(00:27):
and persons with disabilities, latest,
offering creative services to businesses, as well as educating corporates about
creating lasting impact and attaining their targeted CSR goals.
Today, we have a very special guest joining us this time.
He is Dave, the founder and CEO of the Calibrile Crew, a marketing agency based in the States.
(00:54):
Welcome, Dave. Hello, hello. Thank you for having me on the program today.
It's a pleasure to have you here with us.
Before we start, I do notice that your company is reaching a huge milestone,
which is your 10th year anniversary, a whole decade. Is that right?
Yeah, it's been a wild ride. We started with just me, just doing the solo entrepreneurial
(01:18):
work and then growing it over time, mostly in the last five years.
But yeah, we've got a team of four Four and a half right now.
Had a team of six recently with some changeover.
But yeah, we're small. Small but making big impact is how I like to say it.
Definitely. Congratulations on hitting your 10th. Yeah.
Thank you. All right. So let's kick off with today's conversation with a self-introduction
(01:40):
of you, Dave, and what the Colibrile crew does.
Sure, sure. So we're an ethically conscious digital marketing agency.
Our intention is to work with small organizations that want to make,
well, small to medium organizations that want to make social impact in the world or social justice.
Essentially, they want to do good work for improving the lives of people,
(02:04):
not just in the United States, but anywhere in the world.
So we focus on anything digital marketing related, mostly around website design,
content creation, email marketing, ghostwriting, ads, that sort of stuff.
A lot of coaching in there as well.
And yeah, we've got clients mostly in the States.
(02:25):
My staff and the staff, we're actually all over the place in the world.
I'm in Spain, Madrid, and I've got a team in Kyiv, Ukraine, Dubai,
Cape Town, South Africa, Granada, Spain, and the UK as well.
I see. That's nice. Okay.
But we would like to know you a little bit better. What about your career journey
(02:47):
and what led you to start the Calliope Crew?
Yeah, great question, Nabila. My career path is one of a very traditional American.
I started in corporate America, working in digital marketing there,
and spent about 10 years doing that.
And quite frankly, found that there was not a good path for making purpose or helping people.
(03:15):
If we talk about the three Ps, it was just about profit, mostly in Fortune 100 companies.
And I I felt like there was a lot missing in the world.
It's pretty easy to say, let's just make as much revenue as possible,
as much profit as possible. But I felt like there was a huge thing missing.
My career path involved me going back to school and getting a master's in sustainability.
(03:36):
Quitting my jobs in corporate America, traveling the world for two years by
bicycle throughout South America and Europe with my ex and our dog,
coming back and realizing,
wow, there's a lot of good people doing good work in the world,
but they need help. They can't do it all themselves.
It's really hard to launch a small business or to launch a business in general.
(03:57):
And so I started the Coley Brealey crew with the intention of saying,
how can I help people that want to do good work, get their businesses off the ground?
How can I help them launch them? How can I help them market those products or
projects and just offer any support that otherwise they wouldn't be able to
afford because they're usually bootstrapping or they're very small. I see.
(04:17):
Okay. You mentioned that you started off the Colibri crew as a small team,
like just you and one or two other individuals, right?
So would you say that or something else would be the biggest challenge that
you have faced while building this company?
Growth is a huge challenge. And I talk about this a lot with startups where
(04:39):
everybody thinks about the long-term goal or the three to five-year goal,
but they don't really have the path of getting to that place.
They just want to jump to 10, to level 10. And I think that,
The challenge is people have their visions and their perspectives,
but they don't think about what the problem is that they're trying to solve.
(05:00):
And I encourage anybody who wants to take on a startup or do their entrepreneurial
thing, think about a service or something you can offer where you're solving
a problem for a business.
I think that's the easiest thing to do. I think oftentimes we're thinking about
our craft or a product that we want to develop.
But if you can solve a problem for someone, you've already got your foot in the door.
(05:24):
You already know that this business can be successful because you're able to prove that.
To just answer your question, Nabila, for me, it was just by myself.
The problem I found was that small businesses didn't have the money or bandwidth to create a website.
So for me, it was, okay, I can work with really small small businesses,
(05:45):
help them create their digital footprint upfront.
They may not have the budget initially, but they'll have budget later.
And oh, by the way, they'll want to hire me to do other work for them like social
media or email marketing.
And so for me, it was a proof of concept. It was really simple.
I'm just going to go solve a problem for somebody.
I don't need to plan on total world domination from step one.
(06:07):
I can start at the very, very basics for someone.
Yeah, I do agree what you're trying to advocate for. Would there be certain
values per se that in your own personal lifestyle that you try to put it into the company as well?
Well, that's a great, great question. I'm a big fan of the concept of Kaizen,
(06:27):
continuous improvement that Toyota came out with when they were developing their cars.
I want to say it's like in the 90s. And actually, I wrote a manifesto for my
team a couple weeks ago, maybe about three weeks put it online in the B Corp
world, as well as on our website.
And one of the things in there is all about continuous improvement.
And even for me personally, I know that I'm only as good as my team.
(06:50):
And I tell my team that all the time, fail fast, fail often.
That's the way you learn. I have a five-month-old kid and I see this all the
time through him that he only learns when he makes mistakes.
For example, he has a little toy that he's shaking and he wants to move it around
in the air. Well, he might hit himself in the knee or the head or the eye.
(07:13):
He's going to learn, oh, I shouldn't do that next time. It's the same thing with any work that we do.
You have to try, try, try, try. And failing, I think, is seen as a step of progress
in my personal opinion and for me personally.
And then I try and instill that in my team. It's okay to make mistakes.
The lesson is, what do you learn from those mistakes and how can you apply that
(07:33):
to the future work that you're doing?
Definitely. I love that what you're doing with your team members,
because you mentioned about how everyone is around the world, right?
Like for you, you're in Spain and then another team member is in Ukraine.
So then how do you ensure that all your employees maintain a balanced lifestyle
and there's a continual growth as well?
(07:55):
Oh, that's a great question. So I'm a big fan of developmental plans,
personal dev plans. We've started rolling that out this year.
Which is easy. You can find many of them online, but holding ourselves accountable
to saying, okay, here's what I know right now. And here's what I want to become.
How do I get there? I'm building a roadmap.
And then also to your question about how do we ensure that everybody's kind
(08:18):
of on the same page and operational and maximizing themselves.
We launched something called a mind body.
I don't, benefit is probably the best way of saying it in the last few months
where everybody Everybody gets a stipend in my organization to go work on something
for themselves outside of work.
(08:39):
So they could take a class, they could therapy, they could take English classes, whatever it is.
I noticed for myself, I was out on a run a few months ago and I was thinking
about a client and a project and I thought, man, Einstein said he did his best
thinking on his bicycle.
And I totally feel that that biochemistry of what's going on when you do exercise
(08:59):
or anything for your mind or body is phenomenal.
And so I pinged my team and I said, hey, I'm thinking about doing this.
Would everybody be interested? And the feedback was overwhelming. Yes, yes, yes.
And now we're a few months in and yeah, the productivity has gone up,
general happiness and wellbeing has gone up.
It's interesting to see the diversity of things that people do to continuously
(09:23):
improve themselves and keep themselves as efficient as possible.
I know for myself, it's going to the gym.
Someone on my team wants to take Pilates classes.
I think you just invest in your team. I don't feel like this is anything new,
right? I think it comes back to that people and purpose.
If you invest in them, they're going to be happier. The happier they are,
they're going to do a better job in their jobs. They're going to enjoy their jobs more.
(09:44):
The more they do that, the less turnover you have. The less turnover you have,
the more productive they are. And it's just this constant positive feedback loop.
Absolutely. I love what you're implementing, the welfare and happiness of your team members.
I based in singapore generally i would
say that we singaporeans very much focus
(10:05):
on work and we rarely take the
time off to focus maybe doing yoga like what you
say pilates or just something simple going down having a walk in a park yeah
so i love that so now let's dive deeper into the operations or maybe the services
that the collaborative crew have sure sure yeah we we We tend to be a full service
(10:30):
digital marketing agency.
That's what I like to frame us as. We definitely take a holistic approach.
I know oftentimes in marketing or in business in general, people get really
focused on one particular thing that they need.
I can't tell you how many times someone's come to me and said,
we need to run Facebook ads.
And I'll kind of laugh and say, why? Why do you think that? How did you come to that conclusion?
(10:53):
Is that the best use of your time? Is it best to use your budget?
Where do your target market, where do they play online digitally?
Where do they spend their time?
So all of that's wrapped in a holistic.
Flywheel model, I would call it. The services we offer, we talk a lot about
what's the best use of your budget.
And I think that from a B Corp purpose-driven organization standpoint,
(11:17):
that's a good approach to take.
I think a lot of times people come to us with one idea and they find out that
that's not really the best use of their time, energy, or money.
So from a services perspective, it's everything digital marketing.
Like I said, sometimes we do coaching because, Because for example,
I got into a conversation with a client this week about their internal management
(11:38):
of their staff and their culture and the problems they're having.
And that led to a conversation of how do you up the game of the culture in your company?
So my team calls me Uncle Dave often because I feel like I'm that uncle who
just kind of comes in and offers advice, but doesn't have to do any of the too much hands-on work.
(11:58):
I could just kind of say, have you thought about this? Have you thought about
this? You should talk to this person. So you should talk to that person.
And it ends up being very helpful and fruitful.
I see. Were there any particular memorable clients that you love working with?
That's a great question. I'm a huge fan of, I'll call it like alternative workforce clients.
(12:21):
It's a very strange term. I just came up with it.
There's, what I mean by that is people that look to staff and hire,
hire people that would otherwise have strong barriers to be employed for employment.
For example, with my organization, we've hired a Ukrainian specifically in the
(12:41):
last few years because of the war that's been going on over there.
And I've had a particular client, Catspring Yopan, which I really love out of Texas.
Abby Ann's the founder. And they've hired, So they've created in North America,
what was an indigenous plant, a tea out of it and called Yopan.
(13:01):
And it's really cool because they've really focused hiring on formerly incarcerated
people to help them do their agriculture. culture.
And I always was really taken back by this because you're helping people that
would have strong barriers to reenter the workforce. You're also giving them.
(13:25):
I don't want to say a lifeline, but there's a better word I can't think of right
now. You're giving them access to something that would be very, very difficult.
And you're also helping them on their personal lives.
I think that's phenomenal. There's lots of companies that do this.
There's lots of companies that work with at-risk youth, formerly homeless people or population.
In my case, like I mentioned, it's not necessarily refugees per se,
(13:48):
but it's people that are having extreme circumstances in their lives.
So to answer your question, Nabila, I'm I'm a fan of people that say,
how can we go above and beyond by just our services, but also through the employment that we're offering.
I agree with you. That was definitely inspiring. I think I myself do resonate
with you that when I see companies,
whether it's Singapore or overseas, when they have employees or team members
(14:12):
who have certain barriers, like what you said, maybe a PWD, a person with disability,
and then he or she still makes the effort to go to office, turn up,
be themselves. ourselves. And I think that's a huge respect.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it comes with some additional work
and some additional obstacles, but I think at the end of the day,
(14:33):
it's all about impact. And that's what I always come back to.
How can you impact the planet more, the people more, and leave the...
I tell this to my staff all the time.
Whatever you're doing right now, are you going to look back on the work you're
doing five years from now and say, hey, I'm really proud of what I'm doing?
If that's your driver, then good on you keep going with it. But if you're not
(14:54):
going to be proud, what are we doing?
Life is short and precious.
What about the future goals for the Colibri crew? Are there certain,
maybe like a five-year plan, let's say?
Yeah, that's a great question, Nabila. I completely changed our five-year plan in this last year.
When we became B Corp certified last March, I had intentions of wanting to grow
(15:19):
the business and getting it to a point of, I jokingly called it total world
domination, although that's clearly not the goal.
And it dawned on me that I think we.
We in traditional business think growth is the end goal, think that is the definition of success.
And I'm not sure that that's right. I think sustainable growth is the goal.
(15:44):
And so when I tore up the plans of our five-year objectives,
I rewrote it with the intention of saying, what does sustainable growth look like?
Not 3Xing, 10Xing, becoming a unicorn, not making as much money as possible.
It's how do we help the right amount of clients while being true to ourselves
(16:04):
and also maintaining a balanced life that doesn't incorporate overly heavy amounts of stress and pressure.
So for me, that looks like not the hockey stick growth is what we call it in
the States, but just that nice, steady, slow growth.
I know for those that are listening, can't see my hand gestures,
(16:27):
but it's a 45 degree angle, if not a 30 degree angle going up. It's nice and slow.
I'm a big fan of doing that in any business. I mean, obviously you need to have
financial freedom and you need to be meeting certain financial goals,
but when you can establish those baselines, meet those baselines,
get your product launch or your services,
take it nice and steady, develop your processes, develop your plans,
(16:50):
put things in place so that you can grow, but do it in a way that's healthy,
not detrimental to your mental health or your physical health or your team.
Yes. I think mental health is one of the topics that is currently being more talked about.
And I'm glad that your company is actually advocating that too.
Massively. And there's a story behind that. I had a mental breakdown,
(17:12):
let's see, in 2011, 2012.
So that's over a decade now.
I was a full-time MBA student working full-time and strung out,
doing too much at the same time in a bad relationship, personally speaking, with a partner. And...
That was a huge lesson to me coming out of that. It took me a good year to really come out of the fog.
(17:38):
And I always put mental health first in my team. That's why we do the mind-body support.
That's why we do monthly check-ins, not even, I mean, individual monthly check-ins, weekly one-on-ones.
We do four-day work weeks, flex time, flex vacations.
I'm only as good as my team. And I know that.
And I always tell them your personal life is more important than your professional
(17:58):
life. And that's 100% true.
So yeah, mental health is a big topic. I'm glad to hear people talking about it.
For me, I have a diagnosed anxiety disorder and some days are harder than others.
And I think it's always important to be mindful, come back to the why, why are we doing that?
And like I said, we're human centric. And if you're not feeling well,
(18:22):
what kind of work are you're going to be producing. Not great work.
So long story there.
Thank you for sharing, Dave, especially about your personal journey.
I think it's not easy for you to speak up and be brave about it and actually
input it into your lifestyle today. Yep. Thank you.
So before we wrap up, there are entrepreneurs out there who are listening in
(18:44):
and they are looking for some sort of advice or guidance.
So what would you tell them when they have this goal of building a company with
a similar mission of yours?
You know, I think it's a, it's,
Nabila, that's a fantastic question. And I get this one often.
I think when people think about business, they think about money,
(19:06):
money, money, money, money, or growth, growth, growth. And I've mentioned that.
There's a term I'm very passionate about. I don't know if I'm going to pronounce it correctly.
Another Japanese term, ikigai, I-K-I-G-A-I.
There's a great TED talk on this. It came out 10 years ago.
I think when you can mix vocation, passion, can you make money doing that?
(19:27):
Are you helping the world and are you good at it? And that's the Venn diagram
of Vicky Guy, generally speaking.
That would be my recommendation to anyone who's thinking about starting a business
is think about, are you meeting all of those criteria?
There's a lot of tools online. You can go look this up, online tests to see
if you're doing it, but it's not just about passion. It's not just about making money.
(19:49):
Think about the impact. Think about, are you good at it. Think about, does the world need it?
That's one of the big components of any entrepreneurialism.
So that would be my component is take that passion you have, which is great.
Keep it locked up and always tap into that, but also make sure that you're checking
all the boxes of your Ikigai and is that something you want to be doing?
(20:11):
And then also just to add something to that, also your right livelihood,
which is another term for Ikigai, is going to change over time.
What I thought was my passion 10 years ago may not be my passion now,
and that's okay. okay, be open to being flexible and pivoting and changing whatever
business ideas you have.
I think it's like the average successful business changes or pivots five times,
(20:32):
three to five times. And so just welcome that change. Welcome.
Don't get too hung up on the idea you have as having to be the idea.
Know that that idea may change over time and that's okay.
Embrace it, hug it, approach it with radical acceptance. And I think you'll
be a lot more successful and happy.
There is a book out there. Let me check. It's called How to Live, if I'm not wrong. Yeah.
(20:53):
There's several of them. And it's been translated into a lot of languages for
sure. So highly, highly recommend that.
Yep. All right. Now that we have come to the end of our podcast,
are there any lasting words from you, Dave?
I think everybody needs to practice smiling. Just keep smiling.
(21:14):
You got a great smile. Keep doing it too. I think anybody out there needs to
keep doing it. I'm smiling right now.
Every day, put on a smile and you know good things will come from it.
I know it sounds cheesy, but I'm a believer in humor and laughter.
Thank you, Dave, so much for being a part of this episode. So now as we draw
close to this episode, thank you to our listeners for joining us on this journey
(21:35):
of exploration, discovery, and especially the topic of mental health.
So for more information on Make the Change, please visit our website at makethechange.sg.
And to know more about the Colibri crew, be sure to check out colibri.com.
Stay tuned for our next episode of Conversation of Change, where we will continue
(21:58):
to bring you captivating stories and thought-provoking discussions.
Until then, see you next time.
Music.
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