Full Vlog - Walt Freese, Former CEO of Ben & Jerry's on Leadership & Company Culture

Walt Freese, former CEO of Ben & Jerry's, shares insights on leadership, company culture, and business transformation.

Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.

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Key Takeaways

Company culture is critical to business transformation and must be understood thoroughly.
Hiring for attitude and potential can be more valuable than hiring for precise experience.
Cross-functional experience helps develop well-rounded leaders at all levels.
Open and honest communication within teams is essential for effective leadership.
Leadership requires balancing business demands with personal and community responsibilities.

What the video covers

Walt Freese transformed Ben & Jerry's from a low-growth U.S. ice cream brand into a fast-growing global leader.
He emphasizes the importance of understanding company culture deeply before making changes.
Freese advocates hiring the 'best available athlete'—people with drive, attitude, and team orientation who can learn quickly.
He shares experiences from leading large corporations, startups, and PE-backed businesses.
Discusses how culture impacts business success and the failure of roll-ups more than just financials.
Explains the value of cross-functional experience for mid and senior managers to grow into leadership roles.
Highlights the importance of honest communication and feedback within leadership teams.
Describes his approach to assessing culture and aligning it with business goals early in his tenure.
Mentions the significance of involving all team members in strategic discussions to foster engagement.
Touches on balancing business leadership with personal life and community involvement.

Chapters

What is Walt Freese's approach to hiring?

Walt Freese prefers hiring the 'best available athlete'—individuals who are bright, driven, team-oriented, and have an infectious attitude, capable of learning quickly and growing within the company.

How does Walt Freese assess company culture when joining a new organization?

He takes time to deeply understand the existing culture by engaging beyond direct reports, assessing the social and economic systems, and aligning culture with business goals before implementing changes.

Does Walt Freese believe cross-functional experience is important for senior leaders?

Yes, he believes that mid and senior level managers benefit from experience across different functions, which helps them grow into better all-around leaders.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

[Music] In this episode of Investors and Operators, we sit down with Walt Freeze. Walt has run iconic values-led brands like Ben and Jerry's, Celestial Seasonings, and Stonyfield. As CEO of Ben and Jerry's, he transformed the company from a low-growth, marginally profitable U.S. ice cream business to the fastest-growing global brand in the category. And there is a lot more to his story. Today, we're going to be talking about how to transform companies, leadership, culture, and just general advice for having an awesome life. So buckle up and let's rock and roll. Walt, it is awesome to have you here, and my first question is—

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u.s ice cream business to the fastest growing global brand in the category and there is a lot more to his story today we're going to be talking about how to transform companies leadership culture and just general advice for

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Great to be here with you, Jordan. What is your second favorite flavor of ice cream?

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ice cream ooh okay that's one i don't get asked that's second favorite um i would say half baked there we go and uh i won't ask what your favorite is and i won't ask what your least favorite is okay

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Ooh, okay, that's one I don't get asked. That's second favorite. I would say Half Baked.

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i managed to discontinue my wife's and my daughter's two favorite flavors to which my wife said this is a great response she said either you don't love me or you don't have half the responsibility pretend to because one of those is true

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There we go. And I won't ask what your favorite is, and I won't ask what your least favorite is.

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when we did a fireside chat with transitioning veterans and i know that's a cause that you and i care a lot about put a ton of hours into and it really gives us a lot of fulfillment um it came

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Okay, actually, let me. Is there one that you killed off? Is there a particular ice cream flavor that you said, "You know what, that one's gotta go"?

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position that came up through the right track and brought them here today and they just happen to be a perfect fit because they've done virtually everything required for this job already that's one school of thought it's not one i particularly uh

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I will have you know, in my first year as CEO of Ben and Jerry's, I managed to discontinue my wife's and my daughter's two favorite flavors, to which my wife said—this is a great response—she said, "Either you don't love me, or you don't have half the responsibility." Pretend to, because one of those is true.

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driven who is team oriented who has a great and infectious attitude and they can learn just about anything but finding those qualities in an individual assures not just that they're going to be able to do that first job

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And you're like family. Listen, sample size of two. I'm sorry, I gotta listen to the numbers.

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mid-level and senior positions i think it can it can apply to mid and senior level positions and i've applied it there before so in fact it's not uncommon at for in large corporations for somebody to be let's say in a manufacturing role taken

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Like, all right, we were losing money on every pint. Well, let's—

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they're going to grow into those positions and be a better all-around manager as a as a result so i think it can work for mid and senior level managers you want more of an experience base so in terms

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Let's kind of dive into a question that we discussed about a year ago when we did a fireside chat with transitioning veterans, and I know that's a cause that you and I care a lot about, put a ton of hours into, and it really gives us a lot of fulfillment. It came up when you were discussing just the best available athlete model. So what does that mean?

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leadership roles first can you set up the context into which you came and then discuss how did you start to re-organize how did you start to reorient how did you start to really transform the business i've done this in

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Well, so often when people are recruiting for positions in business, they tend to look for precision—somebody with precisely the right background, the right number of years in position, that came up through the right track, and brought them here today, and they just happen to be a perfect fit because they've done virtually everything required for this job already. That's one school of thought. It's not one I particularly subscribe to.

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learned to do um over 20 years ago now at this point when i came into an organization was to take the time to really get the culture and understand what i'm starting with and where we want to go

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Let me say that again: subscribe to.

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in hey finance or operations you'll help me understand gross margin help me understand efficiencies help me understand product raw material cost well culture's a little more nuanced but to understand it first don't just talk to your direct reports if you're an

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So what I learned over time was this, and I learned through experience: it was, give me the best available athlete. And by that, I mean give me somebody who is bright, who is driven, who is team-oriented, who has a great and infectious attitude, and they can learn just about anything. But finding those qualities in an individual assures not just that they're going to be able to do that first job, but that they're going to be an asset to the company longer term.

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happens very often is that there's a culture that most people would agree defines the business as a social system um and you really can't divorce that from the economic system either because the two you're really intertwined as a banker

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Does that apply only to junior positions, where the junior skills can be trained up, whether it's in finance or consumer-oriented brands or Unilever? Or does that also apply to mid-level and senior positions?

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diligence on a business to prospective buyers it's so transactional and clinical in terms of you know show me the finances show me you know this part about inventory and a lot of questions related to that but i don't

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I think it can. It can apply to mid and senior level positions, and I've applied it there before. So in fact, it's not uncommon in large corporations for somebody to be, let's say, in a manufacturing role, taken out of sales at a senior level VP of sales, given an assignment in marketing, given an assignment in finance or HR to groom them for the future, to prove—it's the same way. Yes, they have the support structure around them, but they're going to grow into those positions and be a better all-around manager as a result. So I think it can work for mid and senior level managers. You want more of an experience base, so in terms of experience, having led or experience having managed can be critically important. But by the same token, whether it's experience, having specifically been a VP of marketing before, not necessarily when you're coming into a new company.

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do you convey the culture that they are buying the team not just the management like all the way down how do you convey that so true would you consider the fact i look at it now and i consider the

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You know, when you came into these leadership roles first, can you set up the context into which you came and then discuss how did you start to reorganize, how did you start to reorient, how did you start to really transform the business?

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roll-ups fail as a result of culture than fail as a result of we just got the numbers wrong you so often it's something that people just don't take the time to understand and if cultures are incompatible something's going to give

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I've done this in large corporate roles, I've done it in startups, I've done it in PE-backed businesses. I can also share from my perspective as having been a PE operating partner. So they've looked at it from a lot of different angles. But one thing that I learned to do over 20 years ago now at this point, when I came into an organization, was to take the time to really get the culture and understand what I'm starting with and where we want to go.

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assess this in the early months uh with stonyfield ben and jerry's or celestial seasonings i mean is there a framework is there a process that you had to really say okay here's where we're starting from yeah it's you

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Now, when I say where we want to go, it sort of underscores being one of the first points that I'll make: don't give culture short shrift in terms of going for the quick understanding. You know, we will tend to do that a lot in, hey, finance or operations. You'll help me understand gross margin, help me understand efficiencies, help me understand product raw material cost. Well, culture's a little more nuanced, but to understand it first, don't just talk to your direct reports if you're an incoming CEO or a private equity firm. Get a sense from the people that make up the business because for it to work, it's got to operate and have impact at every level of the business. And what you may come to find—and this happens very often—is that there's a culture that most people would agree defines the business as a social system. And you really can't divorce that from the economic system either because the two are really intertwined.

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across the company and get a really strong feel and then even better if you've got the if you're an operator you usually have the time unless the house is on fire you take the time to really ask people to define the culture in

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As a banker, part of what I would do when we're selling companies is to put together, you know, the 50 to 75-page deck, you know, the SIM, and you send that to buyers, right? And it's interesting, and when you're doing diligence on a business to prospective buyers, it's so transactional and clinical in terms of, you know, show me the finances, show me, you know, this part about inventory, and a lot of questions related to that. But I don't—

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brand or what people believe about our company from the outside and can get at its heart after about a dozen steps right down to what is the essence of our business uh and you get into things like what are our values

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It's interesting that so little of the process highlights team and culture. It's more on numbers and metrics, you know, the products, the product mix, the revenue, the sales of that, the margins of that, as opposed to, like, how do you convey the culture that they are buying? The team, not just the management, like all the way down. How do you convey that?

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on and how it compares to the organization you intend to integrate it with if you do can can we talk about engagement you know it's easy to see when someone on the team or the whole team is just

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So true. Would you consider the fact—I look at it now, and I consider the financial part, which I used to focus on, as the easy part compared to the culture part. But I will tell you, having been on the operating end from both multinational and startups and PE-backed companies, is that more roll-ups fail as a result of culture than fail as a result of, we just got the numbers wrong. You so often it's something that people just don't take the time to understand. And if cultures are incompatible, something's going to give on one end or the other. And whichever side gives, you're going to see a proportionate decrease in the motivation, the aspiration, the engagement of the employees. And then you're going to wonder what happened to the business.

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highly engaged culture i think it's really important to tie back your culture to your values but also your metrics so for example just ben and jerry's for instance ben and jerry's was unique in having a social and environmental mission

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How did you assess this in the early months with Stonyfield, Ben and Jerry's, or Celestial Seasonings? I mean, is there a framework? Is there a process that you had to really say, "Okay, here's where we're starting from"?

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your own role in this business that will help to express and advance the social mission so we call it social media for sure um and an example of that might be some people would say uh this was around the time of hurricane

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Yeah, it's—you first of all, I devoted about six months of this at Ben and Jerry's. It was taking the time to understand what defines the culture through the eyes of, I mean, both senior leadership, mid-management, your entry-level positions across the company, and get a really strong feel. And then even better, if you've got the—if you're an operator, you usually have the time, unless the house is on fire, you take the time to really ask people to define the culture in words. And there are a number of different approaches that you can use to do this, but it might be everything that starts out as something as generic or typical as the positioning of the business and brand or what people believe about our company from the outside and can get at its heart after about a dozen steps ri—

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church and i'm going to take these steps to make it happen and in each case there needed to be something of you a clear definable uh objective with metrics around it like how many homes do you want to really

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tackle in new orleans how many people um what's the goal of the program at the church what's the impact how much money do you intend to i mean it would be that kind of thing so we really put teeth

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into it and it was one very tangible way to see people put into action what we were talking about at a very sort of organizational level but all sometimes didn't feel as personal yeah it's um and it's interesting to see how you're

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you know discussing that for a large business and how we're wrestling with the exact same thing as a six-person business um and what we have discovered and and are now implementing is you know why values and principles matter because

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it's the essence of who we are you know part of our core principles is authenticity and that is throughout our linkedin posts that we do for clients our brand videos our portfolio company videos if we're shooting a video on site and it

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feels like it's corporate bs we will say this feels like boring corporate bs and that goes back to our principles and that's interesting because it's making me think the you know the reason why it's important is that as the organization scales you can't be

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there for every single part of every single project but you can have a shared vision so everyone knows this is how we do what we do and what makes us hopefully unique um absolutely i think so too jordan so when

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you reach a point where you as an organization you're in a conference room you're making a decision you know it's great what things you may say matter to you in terms of your values but unless you your team and eventually everybody in

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the organization are applying those values in meetings expressing them making them topics of conversation with how they relate to a decision it doesn't feel authentic you know it's when you make hard decisions sometimes that it becomes most apparent what your

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values truly are how do you reposition a company or brand what are what are some of these enduring principles for any company and any industry at any size and shape what have you found you know 20 plus years into your

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senior leadership at companies to be these kind of foundational principles for not necessarily starting a business but for maybe turning around a business one is this is the easy part of positioning but so often um especially in earlier stage companies

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they'll tend to forget it you know one is getting down the basics of what positioning is is to understand have you defined your target market or markets you know and that so often i'm i'm amazed by the fact that

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what people don't understand about a target market or markets is it is meant to be exclusionary at times in other words this is where you can get the best the most efficient bang for your buck it's not who is everybody that might conceivably

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buy a product or service it really is who are the people that are most likely to um adopt and continue as loyal customers of that product or service that's where you get the financial return so that that's it's it's just

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that's a basic blocking and tackling type of thing but so often i'll see especially startups um get the target marketpiece wrong and as a result they may struggle with um they may struggle with really driving the kind of efficiencies

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they need to on their own i think it's it's equally applicable to the buyout scenario in an industrial manufacturer or healthcare products business or consumer products business because you know whether you are a startup and figuring stuff out or

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you're buying a business that's been around for 20 30 50 years it's it seems like it could be such a healthy discussion to go rigorously into that questioning of who is your true granular customer and why is that is that really

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we've been doing this for 20 years but is that how we should be doing it going forward and and that like that deeper analysis um and and just understanding every part of your demo um yet the more specific you could be without going

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to the you know head of a pin is the better off you'll be so it needs to be something that's actionable in terms of your ability to invest but you know but it's got to be something that's going to

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drive roi as well and drive your messaging your communication to them everything else uh the the second thing is just being really clear about what business you're in you know what's i'll call a competitive frame of reference but you know many of us in business

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school will remember the um the example of the railroads you know the railroads at the time in the united states that the you know internal combustion engine came on the scene were enormous in the us and of course

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they defined themselves as being in the railroad business well that was that was absolutely um the trap they fell into when they didn't pivot to anticipate that there was also going to be a big piece of the supply chain

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that was going to start moving via the internal combustion engine so you know that little difference of are we in the railroad business or are we in the transportation business was you know fundamentally change that industry have you found that companies which are

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more mature face the similar um lack of strategic thought or have you found that yeah i think they can because i don't want to project my own day-to-day focus on tactics just as the nature of being a small business three

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years old you know but what have you found for companies that are are more mature i think if you don't get these aspects of positioning right and question them over time and come back to them they will come back to bite you

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so you need to constantly as the economy evolves as society evolves you know as technology evolves you'll really be looking at okay now what business are we in you know i mean you just saw this this week uh you know

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people may hate or love uh facebook but you know all over the news was they're talking about a name change yeah you know and of course it's like at one you know in one sense it's what a convenient time but if the other on the

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in the other sense it's also mark zuckerberg and cheryl saber and the team they're saying hey do you know what we used to be that social media business you know on a you know on a certain platform but now we're moving into this

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metaverse that's going to mean we're good we're going to need to become and pivot and become a company that's far broader in its capabilities and so we're going to name it meta as it turns out um but you know things like that are

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critically important not because the you know a name chain necessarily matters but because of the you know that underlying business model pivot that sometimes it can illustrate once you get that point of difference you there are two other things that i'd

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really stress one is very textbook one is really make sure that you are filling an important unmet consumer and customer need it's not enough to make sure that it's you know um fulfilling a need you have to make sure it's an important

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need that's not being satisfied by the companies or brands in the space that day so that's a really big one um now the the second thing the reason i particularly wanted to come back to this is now that i've told you everything i

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believe about positioning i'll go one level deeper that i graduated to over time which is by the time i became ceo of ben jerry's i would not allow people to use the word positioning in the building we just stopped talking about it

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and why is that because while those tips i gave are really useful to a business just starting out at the end of the day if it comes across as positioning um you aren't being authentic you aren't being true to yourselves so

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at the end of the day what was really authentic about ben and jerry's the brand was that it was absolutely an extension of the people who walked through those front doors every day it was that clear who we were you know what we were and

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what we were and so one test of authenticity for us was okay is this something we would do is this something we would say is this something we would advocate for and if the answer was no that's all we needed to know

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and you talked about this earlier and i think it's really important to to emphasize again is you need to be you need to surround yourself that with people that will challenge you around those things you you need to have these

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discussions and none of us gets it right all of the time so especially in a senior role if your ceo thank god if somebody comes up to you and tells you the truth you don't want to hear that is the best thing that can happen

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to you in your job and hope it happens every day because that means you've developed a culture where people feel empowered to bring their best thinking and they realize that you don't believe that because you're in the most senior role that you've somehow

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got a monopoly on great ideas there's nothing further from the truth i i think that is a call to action for anybody who is watching and listening to this asking your team senior mid-level junior everyone just finding a good enough

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sample set of what is the truth that i don't want to hear but i need to hear and if you create a culture through team diet like really open team dialogues you know company really open company dialogues where that can start to happen

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you've created magic and those are the kinds of cultures that change entire industries i love that did that evolve for you or like did you have a what's a piece of uh what is something maybe that you heard that was you didn't want to hear

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but maybe you knew or that you didn't know and you didn't want to hear but you realize in retrospect that was exactly what i needed okay so this was when i was at a level of heading up uh

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marketing initially at ben and jerry's we came in and this was immediately um following an acquisition but we we came in and the ceo at the time said we need to have a you know across the board 10

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uh cut in in head count dollars you know and we need to do it in the next three months and i want each one of you to come back with me on my leaders to come back to me

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on my leadership team and tell me who's going so i that was a gut-wrenching process for me it really was a tough one because this wasn't about individual performance any longer where there were shared understandings and agreements this was about

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you know i believe an arbitrary decision that said we're going to be a stronger business if we can reduce our overhead dollars by this much uh and i went through that process we went ahead and very respectful individual meetings

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you know let people know who um weren't going to be on the team going forward and uh then once that was done needed to have a meeting with uh my entire team and talk about the changes that had taken place

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now we had been together for probably about six months at this point but people had learned that they could um they could challenge me they could that i was willing to hear the tough news so when i talk to them about the changes

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that have taken place there's one person uh i remember who peter peter nolan who stood up and said walt he said i really wish that you had told us up front what the challenge was because he said we might have had some

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good ideas too and there are certain insights we might have been able to offer that might have helped in the decision making and i thought about that it was i thought that would be like a radical level of transparency

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you know not just that i would have had to have also accepted that some of those people were going to have a few weeks of being very much on edge because they know something's coming down but a decision hasn't been made yet

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and yet i realized afterward after listening to peter and saying peter i really want to think about that and digest it because i wasn't prepared with a response on the part but i said i really want to thank you for what you

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just said so it's really going to give me something to think about and i came back about a week later and said to everybody i want to own the fact that i could have handled this better that i could have been a bit more

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inclusive about the process i could have solicited more input and i might have made a better decision and i believe i would have i don't think it would have changed it night and day but there were a couple of critical

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decisions i made just two people but i remember him to this day you know who i let go um and only realize you know over the course of a year i made a mistake and peter nolan was one of them

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you know the other one was somebody i wasn't able to get him back he accepted a role in chicago and another person there was a second person named sean greenwood sean i was able to get back to ben and

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jerry's but it's like to this day all these years later i remember the two individuals the conversation you name it left that big a mark yeah and and that brings up a that one of the takeaways or many

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takeaways for me on that is is asking the team for example like what's the biggest challenge we face and how can we work together to get through this because sometimes like jing and i who run our six-person business

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we're pretty transparent about basically everything finances sales that are coming in etc um but to that point on challenges you know asking the team what do you see is the biggest challenge that we are facing right now even though things are

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going really well um but being proactive about asking about challenges and like how can work through this um but also i think it's the interesting takeaway from that is you know that it sounds like that scenario presumed there were no other options

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that the team couldn't have thought about creatively and another part of it is it makes them have agency in whatever is happening which helps if it goes down the path of you know having to separate at least there's some agency

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and they could be part of that as opposed to the feeling helpless right they were heard and that's the big difference did they feel heard i think you're absolutely right the other thing that i've learned is you can

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give people agency even in larger organizational settings so at ben and jerry's you know at um our headquarters location which we called central support uh but at bettingers we would get we had a big room sort of auditorium

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style room and we could get over 100 chairs in there and we would routinely meet as a group and there were times that they'd be more informational meetings let me share with you what's going on strategically in terms of results and there's always time

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for for questions and you know in those meetings in discussion but we build into those meetings breakout sessions of typically about six to ten people they go into separate meeting rooms and they would address whatever the big strategic question was

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of that day you know and it might be you know let me give you an example um how do we create a better sense of connection between ben and jerry's employees and our consumers that might be just one and every

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every four weeks it would be another strategic question and what that does is it gives them an opportunity to have input but it also takes into account that people are both introverts and extroverts so introverts will tend not to share a lot

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in big public meetings but if they do it in a small group you're going to get their input they're going to feel heard but they're not going to feel on the spot and then allow each team to present

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we got more first of all we got a ton of great ideas but then more than that by the time a year was over most of the key aspects of strategy you had been discussed and everybody had an opportunity to weigh in on it

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yeah i oh i love that and it's um it's really making me think about this difficulty around finding time to be holistic and finding time to be strategic when we're very focused on the day-to-day tactics and i'd like to say that it's

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a challenge of being a small business you know not finding that time to block out friday morning or set friday afternoon to think about that but i'm assuming that people of larger businesses have the same issue where it's not like

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you know like hey walt you're ceo of ben and jerry's and 90 of your time is to think in a chair and to be strategic and to have these fingers in the steeple and just think strategically you're dealing with the day-to-day

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tactics as well um how did you find um how did you work in that time to be holistic with managing the business how did you balance that well over time i realized that um what i was doing wasn't

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even though i believed it deeply in that sense it was altruistic it wasn't uh it was also selfish let me put it this it's the fact is by doing these things we became a consistently better business i can guarantee you we were able to like

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double the size of the business within the seven you know seven year period we were able to take it from this you know business that was just squeaking by in terms of profitability and wasn't growing in terms of sales in terms of

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fastest growing brand ice cream brand globally and you the with the best operating profit margin uh so we did that because we made those changes not in spite of it so some people look at this and say oh it's the softer side

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of the business come and ask everybody how they think or feel you know it's like hell no if you can get a high level of engagement from those people and if you are over time through your reputation as a business and brand able

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to attract incredible employees and retain them your business is gonna outperform the market it's you know what i used to call it just this virtuous circle you have to do it for the right reasons but when you do it you get paid in

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spades so but in terms of more mechanistic like what specifically did i do i didn't want to have to wing it and remember to do these things so we built them into standing meetings if there was a quarterly all hands meeting well then it

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would be at the quarterly meetings if there was a you know once a month i'd have i'd buy pizza for everybody and we'd sit down and this time it was open to whoever wanted to attend and the agenda was no longer my agenda

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or our leadership's team agenda it was the agenda of everybody else in the room so what did you want to express opinions about what did you want to ask questions about what do you want to propose ideas about that was the topic of that meeting

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i love this it's it's making me want to do a series of short interviews call it like less than five minutes where i interview call it 10 to 20 operators at different pe firms just ask them how do you

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assess culture how do you work on culture what's the real priority of that when you're working with your five portfolio companies from the beginning middle or towards the exit because i i think it'd be super fascinating topic to see how they do it

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right too often in my experience it doesn't happen you know there's no assessment of of culture or time spent really understanding that culture even though it can be absolutely critical to the success of a business and i would not have believed

Speaker A

it when i was in business school but i came to sort of live and breathe that peter drucker quote that you know culture eats strategy for lunch you know it's just the truth i don't care how brilliant your strategy

Speaker A

is if you don't have a motivated team behind you to make it real it's just a nice presentation you've had this pretty interesting career and most would consider it very successful within the consumer product space and if you're going to write a book what will

Speaker A

be the title of the book oh wow finding culture one scoop at a time no it would be more probably something like mr toad's wild ride you know it's just been one you know i've always talked about it in

Speaker A

terms of my next adventure you know and i've looked at it in terms of that that wrote so it was just a series of unfolding chapters i'm not one of those people that can say oh i knew when i was in the fifth grade

Speaker A

i wanted to like run a business or run ben and jerry's one day it's no i probably would have been happy to run any ice cream business in the fifth grade but you know but that wasn't it it

Speaker A

was a series of things that i aspired to do learning integrating and and sort of digesting that and then thinking about what was next so what is your next adventure oh man there are a whole host of them

Speaker A

for um for me but i think the biggest thing right now is in my life is coming back to uh my spirituality right now and it's sort of what am i on this planet for what can i do

Speaker A

to make myself a better version of myself and in this world and that's a constant way for me to grow so i've been meditating on and off since i was 17. i've gotten away from that i'm getting back into my meditation practice

Speaker A

and i find that brings incredible clarity to me you know so it's a lot of internal work but by the same token you know i'm still motivated to serve so you know serving the veterans community is still really big deal for

Speaker A

me being able to uh sit on a couple of boards but the only time i do that is when i'm also in an advisory role with the ceo and and fortunately for me i'm able to like specialize in

Speaker A

um young sort of values-led ceos and that's a really fulfilling thing for me to do too to give back that way i love that have have you found throughout your career where there was a trade-off between the work that you were doing

Speaker A

and serving others in community and where you know there were may have been did you find balance or was it imbalanced you know and i'm asking that because you know we're growing our business it's we barely have time with you know

Speaker A

two-year-old and a five-year-old to to you know just do the stuff with the family much less think about community and so you know we've had to really we're figuring out how to balance the business the family our non-profit

Speaker A

work with veterans and pursuing our you know our endurance goals um but i don't want to be like oh i'm going to give back to the community when i'm over 55 and i have and i'm part of the tres comas club and i can have a

Speaker A

foundation and then i'll give right right you know how you know maybe that you you've thought about that and how that's evolved for you i i have throughout my life and there have been different answers at different times

Speaker A

so at you know coming out of business school i was very much focused on uh on career and i'm business and i was single and that was easy to do and i enjoyed it but over time i felt too that well

Speaker A

gee this whole service and giving back to the community that very fellow man what that piece wasn't fulfilled so i started thinking about what kinds of businesses would really fuel that for me and you in my way i integrated it by

Speaker A

saying okay well if i could do values led business which was still a relatively uh new thing at that point i mean companies like ben and jerry's body shop we're just getting started it reminds me of uh one of

Speaker A

the other vlogs we've done with um someone named jay jester at plexus capital i was like what you know he talked about how you think about community impact he's like he's like i don't know how to say this but like my

Speaker A

day-to-day job in growing small businesses and helping to do big things like i that's literally part of my mission and he's like i get my community impact by helping out that small business through our company and it it didn't

Speaker A

really hit home for me until we started to see what we were doing in forming quality relationships in the content we are doing or this one person got on the forbes 50 over 50 because of the vlog inspired her to speak more openly and

Speaker A

then we started to realize like oh like we can create more meaning and be impactful you know we don't have to have a foundation around that we're not practicing we have to have that but you can still be

Speaker A

values led you can still be impactful and do that in business i have no question about it no and i think there's a you know in fact it's harder to do you know some people will think of you know values

Speaker A

like businesses the softer side of business no it's just the opposite you have to do everything a normal business does and more hold yourself to a higher standard not less so yeah i couldn't agree with you more well

Speaker A

and and and so i think the call to action for me and for hopefully others who are listening to this is taking time to see are you service oriented do you have a mission do you have a mission to the

Speaker A

business that is impactful and in finding a way to maybe discover that it can be impactful it is absolutely fantastic to have you on here and always going to be forward a part two

Topics:Walt FreeseBen & Jerry'sleadershipcompany culturebusiness transformationvalues-led brandshiring strategycorporate cultureteam engagementexecutive leadership

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