Using Superpowers For Good
The Saturday Huddle is a weekly column that features opinion, analysis and reflections on Huddle stories, podcasts and business news in the region. Mark Leger is the editor of Huddle and the Director of News Content for Acadia Broadcasting.
Blair Hyslop, the co-CEO and co-owner of Mrs. Dunster’s, likes to talk about using our “superpowers for good,” harnessing what we do well to help build better businesses and stronger communities.
I worked on two recent Huddle podcasts – one that I hosted and produced, one that I edited – with New Brunswick entrepreneurs who embrace that ethic in their professional lives and community work. They were very inspiring, each in their own way.
On the most recent “Home Office” podcast, I interviewed Debbie Rathwell, the co-founder of 100 Women Who Care of Greater Saint John. Rathwell’s company, Red, does corporate event planning as part of its services, so she has the “superpowers,” or kinds of skills and experience, you need to make this kind of initiative successful and sustainable.
PODCAST: Debbie Rathwell On 100 Who Care Of Greater Saint John
Since 2013, Rathwell has been convening large groups of women to raise funds for non-profit organizations that do essential work in the community. They meet four times a year and each time select an organization to support after hearing live pitches from three of them.
At the last meeting, which took place online because of the pandemic, the group awarded $26,000 to an organization called The Compassionate Grief Centre, which works with people struggling with illness, grief, loss, and life’s challenges. That meeting took the 100 Women Who Care group over the $900,000 mark. It expects to surpass $1-million in the next year.
In our chat, Rathwell talks about the power and inspiration of women coming together to help people in their community.
“I always start our meetings with an inspirational quote to set the foundation for the meeting. When I think of the power of women, this quote sums up what our organization is all about. It’s by Phylicia Rashad, Clair Huxtable from The Cosby Show, and it goes like this: ‘Any time women come together with a collective intention, it’s a powerful thing. Whether it’s sitting down making a quilt, in a kitchen making a meal, in a club reading a book, or around the table playing cards, when women come together with a collective intention, magic happens.’ I truly believe that. Magic happens every quarter with 100 Women Who Care.”
Magic happens. Sounds a lot like using your superpowers for good.
The same thing occurred to me as I was editing the most recent “Insights” podcasts hosted by David Campbell and Don Mills. David was interviewing David Shipley, the CEO of Fredericton-based Beauceron Security. Late in the interview, Campbell asks Shipley, an expert on cybersecurity, about why he was so active on social media, something Campbell found rare in other corporate leaders too focused on their work to engage in those online spaces.
Shipley is engaged in a wide range of public education activities, including social media, interviews with news outlets, and speaking engagements. He knows it builds his profile and is good for business, but he understands he can use his experience and knowledge about cybersecurity issues as a “superpower for good.”
“I do this for more than just to grow the business,” he says. “I deeply, deeply care about these issues and so I’ll take the time [to engage]. Most recently, I did a media interview about a horrific series of crimes that were committed against young women in Fredericton and Oromocto with a perpetrator using Snapchat. We don’t sell solutions around that particular problem. We’re not in the residential cybersecurity space. But it’s important to help put people in control of technology.”
“So when I talk to parents about the need for them to play a more active role, that’s not about me selling more Beauceron [services]. That’s about me doing the right thing.”
PODCAST: David Shipley On How People Can Play Superheroes In The Fight Against Cyber Crimes
Using your superpowers for good is also about building great companies that create employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for people in your community, something Shipley is very motivated to do.
Beauceron now employs nearly 50 people. It’s grown from around $100,000 in annual revenue to nearly $3-million. Shipley wants to increase that yearly total to $10-million and ultimately $100-million in a competitive but lucrative global market. He wants Beauceron to have the same impact as Q1 Labs and Radian6, which created jobs and other entrepreneurial opportunities in the province.
“The dream for me is to chase … the Q1 Labs legend and to try and follow that same trajectory,” he says.
“How do we create hundreds of jobs in New Brunswick and then tie them to something even larger, and create even more opportunities and fuel that cluster, that expertise, that virtuous cycle that includes not just the good payday to your early investors and the angels that believed in you, but you’re also creating the next generation of entrepreneurs.”
As podcast hosts, Campbell, Mills and I have very different styles. Mine is personal; I like to get to know the people I interview and what makes them tick. Knowing, for example, that Rathwell was a figure skater with big dreams as a little kid helps me understand how she grew up to become an accomplished entrepreneur and community fundraiser.
Mills and Campbell are more focused on the issues; they want “Insights” to be a vehicle for advancing conversations about economic development in Atlantic Canada. We do share a common objective, though: giving a platform to the entrepreneurs that make this happen.
I hope you’ll listen to these two podcasts, and follow our shows and listen to other episodes too. You’ll learn a lot and be inspired. Mills, Campbell, and I enjoy chatting with people, and mining for insights on building better businesses and communities. You might say we’re using our superpowers for good too.
Have suggestions for inspiring and insightful podcast guests? E-mail Mark Leger: [email protected]