The Determined Ones Podcast

We just got back from a whirlwind tour of 3 climate-focused conferences; SOCAP19, Verge19, and RES19. In this episode, Marc and Sarah contrast and compare the three crowds and discuss patterns and trends in today’s climate-action movement. We bring up questions like…

• Would we even call everyone at these three conferences “environmentalists”?
  
• Is this even still one “movement”?
  
• Are we working to save this planet, or are we working to save the ability for humans to thrive on this planet?
  
• How do we make regular Joe and Jane care? (Is that even the right question?)
  

Links mentioned in this episode

We love hearing from entrepreneurs with amazing visions to build a better future. And we hate when those visions fail before they’ve even gotten started. So in this 9 minute episode we discuss a few strategies to help entrepreneurs make real forward movement on those big ideas. We’ve got a few tricks up our sleeve you may not have thought of, so give it a listen!

Links mentioned in this episode:

We get a lot of random questions about our process and what it’s like working with us, since we’re not your typical design studio. This week, we sit down and record a quick 12 minute episode to answer some of the most common questions.

Links mentioned in this episode:

“There’s a new breed of designers emerging… designers that want to focus their creative talents towards solving our climate crisis. We’re calling them climate designers.”

In this episode,  we talk about the role that creativity and design play in addressing our climate crisis. We don’t need to sit and wait for a client to ask us to make something eco-friendly. We have the ability and perhaps the responsibility to take a stand with how we use our skills and talents.

You’re not helpless when it comes to climate action. Listen to find out what you can do as a designer or creative professional in any industry.

In this 14 minute episode, we hope to empower concerned designers and aspiring entrepreneurs to have the tools they need to confidently go out in the world and pursue a career path that helps them take climate action.

Learn tips on building a climate project portfolio, growing your network, and applying circular design principles to everything you create.

In this 20-minute episode we sit down with Justin and Maarten of Business Models, Inc. and talk about strategy, innovation, and business models. BMI helps larger companies drive innovation and entrepreneurship inside the organization to create greater value for customers.

We talk about strategies companies can use to win funding and help keep things clear and tangible throughout the ideation process.

In this 27 min episode, we cover 10 mistakes we see climate startups and other orgs making on their websites, and we include simple tips to solve these errors and polish up your website.

We’ll leave you:

Armed with knowledge you can use to audit and improve your website, see what’s not working, and make it more professional looking so it does the job you need it to do for your business.

In this 23 minute demo, Marc and I run through a sample website test, sharing how to set up and run a quick test so you can prototype your own website, pitch deck, or marketing and test it quickly to make sure it works.

Here is a photo of the prototype we’re testing, an imaginary sweater company selling sweaters made from wool from regenerative sheep farms.

We talk to startups, accelerators, and investors who are creating products for B2B (or mentoring/investing in), and we get this question:

• Is Human-centered design valuable when I’m a B2B company? I just want to develop a product that works and get acquired/licensed

They don’t think design, branding, or human-centered messaging techniques apply to them because they’re not going to direct to market as a consumer product.

We say, if they thought about their customer’s point of view when crafting pitch decks or sales messaging, they’d have a much easier time acquiring the funding/partners they want. Their pitch would be powerful and resonate emotionally with the people they are pitching to.

We give a few examples in this 6 minute podcast episode on how we might use human-centered design to solve B2B challenges. Listen now for all the fun!

Links mentioned in this episode:

In this 16 minute episode, we walk through an exercise you can do with your team to:

• Give you some direction towards building a stronger brand
• Empower you to work with a designer to create something more “you”
• Give you a really solid foundation you can base branding decisions on in your business
• Not just redesigning the logo or what colors to use, but also how to put together a funding deck, what kind of conference room to choose for events, Voice and tone for messaging, etc.
• Get to the very DNA of what your company is, and help you build confidence in every aspect of your work.

In this 12 min episode, Marc and I discuss how design can be invaluable when starting a business, and why it shouldn’t be left for the very end (and what happens when it all too often is an afterthought.)

We’ll cover easy and simple ways you, the climate rebels doing kick ass work, can start to incorporate design into your business plan without breaking the bank.

In this 11 min episode, Marc and Sarah discuss how Thinking Wrong can amplify work that challenges the status quo. We’ll go into a few examples that can get climate entrepreneurs thinking about ways they can stand out, be heard, and kick ass by Thinking Wrong.