Strategic Social Impact – Ep.42

Founder of Good Worx, Kristyn Nimmo joins the show to discuss engaging with partners to promote social impact initiatives, using rebranding campaigns as an opportunity to educate the community, and explains how organizational shifts affect business strategy.

Melyssa Barrett:  Welcome to the Jali Podcast. I’m your host, Melyssa Barrett. This podcast is for those who are interested in the conversation around diversity, inclusion and equity each week, I’ll be interviewing a guest who has something special to share, or is actively part of building solutions in this space. Let’s get started.

Kirstyn Nimmo is an award-winning social impact strategist, speaker, and facilitator. She has over a decade of experience partnering with global corporations and nonprofits to build equity driving campaigns and programs. Kirstyn founded social innovation consultancy Good Worx to equip companies and communities to generate equity, act with accountability, and shift culture toward equality. Her work has been recognized by the Obama White House and the Shorty Social Good Awards. And she’s a 2008 graduate of American University’s Kogod School of Business.

All right, this week I am so excited. You know, I say all the time that one of the benefits of having a podcast is meeting such wonderful people that you seem to just instantly connect with, especially they seem to have the same principles as you, but they are doing such wonderful work in leaving this world better than the way they found. And Kirstyn Nemo is no different. She is a powerhouse for sure, social innovation consultant, and so I am pleased to have you on the podcast this week and looking forward to our conversation.

Kristyn Nimmo:  I am as well. Thank you so much for having me.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yes. So normally I typically start out by you telling me a little bit about how you even got here, because I have to say, you are a young woman, but you have done so much in a short period of time. And the accolades that you have are just amazing and you are teaching the world how to connect diversity, equity, and inclusion with social impact in a way that is significant. So I would love for you to tell us how you got here, where that comes from, and then maybe we can talk a little bit about some of the impact you’ve had so far.

Kristyn Nimmo: I would love that. And thank you so much for that very, very kind introduction. That was so, so sweet because I really love this work. But I’m happy to share my journey. And as you mentioned, my name is Kristyn Nimmo and I am the founder and principal consultant from Good Worx Social Innovation Consultancy. And I like to think of us as an equity driving machine that is really helping to shift culture toward equality. And my path here has been definitely a winding road, as I mentioned, and really, I think I kind of have to tell the whole story to make it all make sense.

Melyssa Barrett:  All right.

Kristyn Nimmo:  So I’ll take it back to when I graduated from college, American University, in 2008, and I returned to the Virgin Islands where I had grown up half of my life. So I grew up between New Jersey and the Virgin Islands, and I started my career there. And it was such an interesting place to work, it’s got a very unique tourism driven community, and was really excited to work with some different companies in their marketing departments. And because it’s a small market, I really got to do everything which was so cool coming out of school. So I did everything from advertisements and working with newspapers, to events, to government relations and all the different pieces in between there.

And that really allowed me to see how the business had the opportunity to support that local community. So while I was there, I was a member of Rotary, of the chamber of commerce. I partnered with a team to start a chapter of the Make a Wish Foundation to serve local kids there, and was just so in love with that connection to the community and seeing how business could be part of that relationship. So after around eight years there, I decided to move to New York, and I was so excited to have a much larger market to work with and bigger clients available and to get really specific about what I wanted to focus on.

But what I found is what a lot of people have found. I started working at a creative agency and the opportunities were so exciting, but the work is intense. And I was spending lots of time eating meals at my desk and doing really great work, but not able to do so much of that community work that I wanted to do. So I started understanding that if I wanted to really grow my career in that environment, but also still focus on initiatives, causes and communities, that I would really need to find a way for that to be part of my work. So as I started going into meetings with clients, I would bring up different initiatives they could be part of, different causes that they should be educated about out that their consumers were likely thinking about, and just pushing and inching my way closer and closer to impact work that I was doing.

And gratefully, there were some clients that were really excited about that opportunity and open to it. One that comes to mind that is my favorite story is with Nestle Purina and the Urban Resource Institute, where we saw that 48 percent of women who are in abusive relationships don’t leave those relationships because they can’t bring their pets with them. And you would think where’s that intersection between like a pet company and domestic violence, and that’s exactly where it is. And so bringing that opportunity to them ended up creating the first pet friendly domestic violence shelters in New York, which you would think that New York has everything figured out. That was still a need, and giving them an opportunity to be part of that conversation was huge for the company, was huge for their consumers, and really pushed a proof point that this was very important.

And this was over 10 years ago when the social impact space was still shifting and evolving, really made a very strong case and provided evidence that this was a place that the agency could lean more into. And so I had the opportunity then to partner with the CEO and some other members of their leadership to launch Deep Impact, a social impact division. And I would say that that is really what kicked off my career in this space.

Melyssa Barrett:  Well, and how cool is it that when you think of Nestle and chocolate, and then all of a sudden you’ve got pets and domestic violence, you wouldn’t necessarily connect them. But kudos to Nestle for just embracing that community impact. I mean, amazing. Especially a decade ago.

Kristyn Nimmo:  Yeah, absolutely. Working with Nestle, they are just such a huge company and owns so many different brands. So there were so many opportunities for them to get involved and it’s been so nice to see other companies understanding all the different intersections where they can be giving back.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yes, I love it. Well, and you’ve done a bunch of things with respect to Samsung and the Chan Zuckerberg initiative, and so how did all that come about? Was that some of what you did as a result of that original campaign or?

Kristyn Nimmo:  Yeah. So after forming that division, led an initiative around justice reform, which was recognized by the Obama White House, which was incredible. And then after that point, decided that it was time to find some new opportunities and that’s where a lot of those other projects popped up. At that point, again, social impact as a space was still being defined. It was still kind of siloed by philanthropy and CS [inaudible] that operated separately. And I was having trouble finding opportunities that allowed brand and marketing and cultural influence to be part of that conversation. So I spent the next several years going back and forth between full-time work when it was pushing in that direction or consulting work on my own to try to bring those opportunities together. And again, so grateful for the clients that I was able to work with during those years.

But some examples were I worked on maternal mortality campaigning with the Rockefeller Foundation during that time, with HBO on mental health, as you mentioned, Chan Zuckerberg around education and reforms that need to be made to make education more accessible to different types of students. L’Oreal and women’s empowerment. So that was a back and forth winding journey of finding places where people understood what impact could happen when brands are pushing into the impact space and using that to shift culture. And that starts to bring me closer to the launch of Good Worx, because in 2020, like so many people in New York, I found myself home under lockdown, but also witnessing a racial reckoning in this country and understanding the pain that was happening, global reaction to things that needed to be urgently attended to, and really thinking about my role as someone who had pushed so hard in this impact space to impact my community and others in this exact time and understanding that I was uniquely positioned to drive some conversation around the black experience in America and how brands could be part of that.

And we all saw brands posting those black squares and making different commitments. And I just felt like I’ve been a player in this space and I’ve been a partner to brands and I have a really big opportunity to link arms with them and make sure that these commitments are followed through. And that’s what I aim to do in launching Good Worx. And so generally we offer four different things to our clients. The first would be campaign works so that brands can reach their consumers, talking about their impact in a thoughtful way, and measuring that impact. We also offer workshops and training. So bringing communities together for them to navigate some of these more difficult topics and learn about each other and think about application to their environments.

We also do coaching. So supporting figures and leaders on navigating a lot of these topics with confidence. And then we also have a creator collective, which I’m so excited about. We’ve got over 20 people and growing an inclusive group of creators that have a range of skills from strategy, to directors, to producers, to editors that we work with on these different projects and are able to build custom teams to deliver whatever we’re supporting a client with. So Good Worx was born in 2020 and has really flourished and grown since then. And we kicked off with a partnership with Yahoo, which was super exciting, but that’s really how I got to that point.

Melyssa Barrett:  Wow. That is amazing. And I love how you just gloss over, it was recognized by the Obama administration. And by the way, I started a company during the pandemic. You are just the powerhouse. It’s just phenomenal to hear all the things that you’ve done. And you meant a lot of companies that came out with supporting, wanting to be allies to the black community and all the things that happened with respect to George Floyd and afterwards. And I think a lot of companies struggle with, what should they be doing? How can they get it done? And really make it the impact they want.

Because I do think that companies are looking to figure it out, but a lot of times the culture at a company, it requires changes in behavior and it’s not that easy. Sometimes you’re literally turning a Titanic. And so can you talk a little bit about, everybody started talking about measurements and how do we measure success in the space? Can you talk a little bit about how you measure success or your clients measure success, and what some of those successes have looked like?

Kristyn Nimmo: Absolutely. And before I go there, can I comment on something you said a little earlier about companies wanting to be part of this conversation? I just think that that is such a big opportunity for companies. And one thing that I have found definitely in 2020 and 2021 was seeing companies take that step to declare their stance even though that can be a sticky conversation for some, and being very clear about what they felt was right and what wasn’t right. However, delivering on that is difficult sometimes. And I just want to encourage any people representing brands out there to really understand what inclusivity means for their organization, how to have the right people at the table, and to ensure that there’s diversity of thought and experience and background there, to be able to contribute to those kind of conversations, and to really ensure that they find their place in that conversation.

Different brands have different opportunities and it’s not a blanket kind of solution. And I think that’s why it’s so important to work with an organization like Good Worx. And there’s so many out there. There’s lots of consultants that are incredibly skilled in this space. One thing that I’ve noticed is some of this responsibility being placed on ERG groups, which ERG groups are great, but really important to remember that those employees are not hired initially to do this type of work. So working with an organization that can really partner with a company, help them dig in, I think is so, so important. So I just wanted to put that out there.

Melyssa Barrett:  Absolutely. No, I’m glad you did, because I think it makes all the difference very well said.

Kristyn Nimmo:  But yes. Your question about measurement. Oh man, I think that as now I’m recognizing that I had the opportunity to be a pioneer in this space, way back when, when it was still kind of figuring it out. And at that time measurement was hard and I think it is still hard, and we measure everything that we possibly can, but real impact is definitely a sticking point, and companies are getting better and better at it. I remember years back, different tools being introduced that were like, this will tell you the real impact of the work. And I think this conversation comes back, again, to who is sitting at the table to help you create that partnership because those who are tied to the community that you aim to serve, or those who have been directly impacted by the cause that you’re investing in, they will know what real change looks like and where to find it.

And so I think that’s a really big part of ensuring that a campaign measures up. So again, I would definitely say that measurement has been something that’s been difficult. We track it the best as we can, but I think inclusivity is a really great key to getting [inaudible]

Melyssa Barrett:  Yeah. I mean, literally, you are creating the business case for inclusivity as you execute on inclusivity. So it makes such a difference. I know you also did a campaign for Absolut, if I remember correctly, for LBGTQ community. And I love the fact that you are also looking at, I think you did an article on Aunt Jemima and PepsiCo and Quaker and kind of their whole rebranding effort and the missed opportunity that they had to really highlight black women as they transitioned that branding to, I think it’s Pearl Mining Milling Company.

Kristyn Nimmo:  That’s it exactly.

Melyssa Barrett:  And I loved the fact that you are so vocal about helping companies understand these missed opportunities, because I think a lot of times we think about the revenue, but we don’t think about how missed opportunities can actually impact the brands as well.

Kristyn Nimmo: Absolutely. And I’m so glad you brought that up. That Aunt Jemima case study is just so, so interesting. It’s hundreds of years of history and so many pieces, but I think such a really interesting look at how to address some of these changes, because companies are being called out. We all know that. We’ve seen that. But I think the most important thing is what happens after that. Being called out is uncomfortable, but how do you then use that opportunity for good? And when I heard the news of the Aunt Jemima rebrand and saw that it had been replaced by the Pearl Milling Company, I was like, hmm, this is just doesn’t feel like they really got to all the opportunities here.

Because there were a few things that popped up in my head and one was I think the context and cultural narratives in this country definitely tend to omit certain topics. And one of those is the legacy of slavery and Mami culture is a part of that. And for many people, I think that a very popular association with that is Gone With The Wind and seeing enslaved characters there just being completely loving and supporting of the white family that enslaved them without a regard for their own safety, their selves and their families. And it’s such a dangerous concept. And that’s really what Aunt Jemima was representing. When I did research into it, I saw that at the world’s fair in the late 1800s that they had an Aunt Jemima character that would walk around and sell this pancake recipe. And if you think about the prevalence of Aunt Jemima pancake mix, this was a global brand that you could find anywhere with a very racist character right on the front of the box.

And I don’t know that if you were to grab the typical person on the street and say, “Hey, tell me what this character represents,” that they’d be able to tell you. So I thought there was a missed opportunity for education there. Why couldn’t the brand have been a champion of sharing this is the history of this and we need to know about it so we don’t repeat it, and people need to know that this is harmful and not something that we should be continuing to include in representation of black women. And the whole reason why the Aunt Jemima character was so beneficial to building that brand, and that’s equity and connects to financial success of the company, is because of what black women have been able to represent in the culinary space. And so then you’ve got black chefs, that could we have then supported some black women chefs that are doing incredible things? One that I brought up in the article was B Smith.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yes.

Kristyn Nimmo:  Incredible model and restaurateur. And she had like a home line and has incredible recipes that I use myself during the holidays and has an incredible, powerful legacy. Why not celebrate her once we’re shifting who’s on that box? And so it just felt like there were missed opportunities around education, around equity, attributing some of the financial success of the company that comes from, in part, that brand to the black community, to black women, elevating black women. There were just so many things that could have happened. And in a lot of opportunities like this, I think that there’s a plethora of ways to make good on the damage. And that’s what I was really hoping to see there.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yeah. And it’s interesting, especially when you think about all the work certainly that you’re doing with respect to allyship, and I think the elimination of story is so despicable. I think you become so much more free when you can tell the story and just own the story, whether it’s you as a person who may have participated in things you shouldn’t have and whatever, but we can take a lot of lessons. When I think about South Africa and the things that Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, I mean the power of forgiveness is just incredible.

Kristyn Nimmo:  Absolutely.

Melyssa Barrett:  And so in the United States, I would certainly love to see the fact that, let’s just own. I mean, yes, we don’t teach it in schools. We get one type of history in school, but there’s so many stories that can be told that really free that burden and shift us into a whole different light, different focus, and really kind of really begin to embrace black excellence.

Kristyn Nimmo:  Yes.

Melyssa Barrett:  At its height. So I think your article was fantastic and of course I love B Smith, and being able to just showcase these iconic black women such as yourself. I mean, you are out there pioneering the way through. So I just applaud you for all the things you’re doing. Can you talk a little bit about engaging partners because I think what’s interesting to me is we have a lot of large companies as well as smaller companies that are now trying to engage in the community with nonprofits or others. What does that process look like and what should they be careful of perhaps?

Kristyn Nimmo: Yeah, that’s such a great question. And partners are definitely something I have been very invested in thinking about Good Worx and how we work with different partners. And it’s been awesome to work with a wide range of partners from smaller startups, to individuals, with our coaching work to larger brands. And as I mentioned, we were able to kick off in 2020 with Yahoo on a nine month partnership, which was just incredible to see come to life. But as we continue to engage with partners and aim to drive awareness with especially larger partners, there’s definitely some challenges. I love the fact that we were able to do that work, but it generally is a harder thing for smaller organizations to do. And something that’s really important about that is that many organizations owned by people of color are smaller or medium enterprises. And so that barrier does tend to weed a lot of us out of having that opportunity to collaborate and to embrace that type of scale and reach, because working with those really large brands allows you to impact so many people and increase whatever you’re aiming to shift.

So I’d love to see an environment where some of those different requirements and all the different pieces that are necessary to work with a larger brand are reduced. And I think that those larger brands also have a really big opportunity in what they’re able to receive from a smaller or medium sized organization, especially one run by someone who identifies as a person of color and can really shed authentic light on a lot of the issues that these brands have made really big commitments to changing. Our organizations are led by people who really understand these issues at the very, very smallest detail and to the largest impact. That’s something that we’ve dealt with personal. But then also we are moving in a range of spaces that some of these larger brands may not have as much access to. And so I feel like we bring a really important intersectional insight to them that allows them to really deliver in a deeper way.

And I think that our partnership with Yahoo was such a great example of what that can mean. I am so proud of the fact that we were able to partner with them for almost a year. And that was incredible because in a time when so many brands were making these commitments, they tend to be, unfortunately, donations, or shorter term things. And the fact that the team at Yahoo was ready to dig in for almost a year, and I mean, this is in 2020 when quite a few things happened that we navigated together, was really inspiring. We work together to build an immersive platform that educated, they’ve got an audience of over 800 million monthly viewers, which is the largest, and helped that audience to understand more about the black experience in America. And the way we did that was by storytelling. Storytelling captures people’s curiosity and educates from a different and more insightful and compelling way.

So we built some content for them, video content that featured people from some really incredible organizations like Color of Change. We had some very, very prominent, amazing black voices in that space like Dr. Cornell West, Sonya Renee Taylor. I think the were about 12 different partners that we brought in, and we built an experience and supported influencers on how to talk about the black experience in America, on their platforms. And so Yahoo being open to working with a smaller organization like Good Worx, I think brought incredible value to them. We had thousands of video views on their site of that content, lots of people interacting with it and sharing it. Over an 80 percent positivity rate in reactions from their audience, which was huge, and really just brought that insight to their audience. And so I think there’s just so much to gain that larger partners can have access to when they are open to who they work with.

Melyssa Barrett:  And I think if I remember correctly, the coordination of the allyship pledge associated with it was also kind of interesting because to me, we educate ourselves, we educate others, but what they do with that education is what really makes the impact. Leveraging that knowledge, as my coach would say, is how you really connect and make movement and impact in the community. So I think that is so awesome, and kudos to Yahoo for being open to that and certainly making an impact to educate people, which is really the beginning. I mean, you mentioned ERGs earlier and how a lot of ERGs are feeling a lot of the pressure because they are being looked at to facilitate lot of these initiatives when they actually have day jobs doing other things and they want to be engaged, but you end up working like 18, 20 hours a day.

Kristyn Nimmo:  Right.

Melyssa Barrett:  Because you want to make an impact, but you also have to pay your bills and do what the day job is that they hired you for.

Kristyn Nimmo:  Yeah.

Melyssa Barrett:  Let’s pause for a moment. We’ll be right back. Are there things that you would tell employee resource groups, business resource groups, as they transition into more business integration? I love the fact that you’re talking about supplier diversity and really making change so that companies can interact with minority owned companies that maybe they are a little bit smaller. That doesn’t mean that they can’t deliver and execute on the initiative that you’re looking for.

Kristyn Nimmo:  Right. Right. Absolutely. Especially given the number of consultants that I think came from larger companies to do this work in 2020. I think that a silver lining of this great resignation that so many people are talking out is people really pushing into where they are most passionate. And so tapping into that bank of people that are really excited to dive into this is so important. And so also important not to place this burden on people who didn’t necessarily come into an organization with that as their purpose, right? Equality for them also means them being allowed to completely focus on their area of expertise that they want to bring to that company.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yeah, no. Well said. So tell us a little bit more about, and Good Worx, spelled W-O-R-X.

Kristyn Nimmo:  Yeah.

Melyssa Barrett:  I want to make sure people know how to reach you, follow you. How can they get hold of you for your expertise in the space?

Kristyn Nimmo:  Absolutely. Thank you for that opportunity. The best place to find us is on Instagram. You can find us at Goodworxco. So as you mentioned, good, worx with the x, C-O. And that’s got links to our site and to all the other places, LinkedIn, that’s a really great landing spot for us and me directly. My account is kirstynimmo, with only one N between the two words. So that’s K-I-R-S-T-Y-N-I-M-M-O, but you can kind of find links to everything there.

Melyssa Barrett:  I love it. And I don’t want to let you go because I think this conversation is just so interesting. One of the things that you talk about is missing the chance to transform, as I quote you in one of your articles. So what do you think companies can do to really transform? What’s the best way to get started? Do you think that the first thing they should be doing is picking up the phone and calling a consultant or where do they start?

Kristyn Nimmo: I think that picking up the phone and calling the right consultant is a great step, but I think that before doing that, they really need to ensure that they are ready for transformation and ready to understand that that includes lots of self examination that can be uncomfortable. But that on the other side of that, the opportunities for them to expand and grow and increase their ROI and increase their employee happiness and retention, there’s just so much on the other side of that. So I think having a committed team that understands that change is necessary and being ready to take the of steps is very, very important. What you mentioned really brings up one of my favorite topics and my theme for 2022, when I think about how Good Worx wants to serve our partners, and that’s around education, and that’s a big part of that transformation process.

I think that so much of the work we do, especially in the first stage, really educating our partners and helping them see what they’re not seeing, right? Calling out those blind spots and seeing the opportunities for shift. And in the past few years, we’ve seen our culture have to react to very urgent things that have been happening, and that was very important. But I feel like some of what we’ve gone through is a little bit of a trauma reaction where we swing from one extreme to the other, trying to balance things out, and that, as we move forward, I’m so excited for Good Worx to be a partner to clients in helping them to create sustainable change that leads to that deeper transformation, because that needs to be proactive. It needs to be intentional and very focused, and education is a big part of that.

So we’re really excited to continue to support our clients and the general public with education. One thing I think of as we approach Martin Luther King Day, he’s so celebrated in this country and it’s a pleasure to celebrate him every year, but one thing that’s missing from the typical narrative around Martin Luther King is the fact that the FBI and their counterintelligence COINTELPRO operations were aiming to basically come down and that’s we don’t hear that in our history books.

Melyssa Barrett:  Gloss that over. Yeah.

Kristyn Nimmo:  So being able to have that full story is something that I think will allow people to fully understand why our country looks like it does today, understand our past mistakes so we can avoid them, and also how we can create that sustainable and lasting change with that full knowledge and the context of our history. So education, big thing that we offer to our clients, big thing that clients should be ready for, and then lead into that transformation.

Melyssa Barrett:  I love that. And you mentioned, with respect to education, there’s so much work to be done, because I think there’s so much education that hasn’t been relayed.

Kristyn Nimmo:  Right.

Melyssa Barrett:  I can’t even tell you how many people called me after George Floyd. And it was like, I had no idea. And it was a positive thing that people were embracing fact that they didn’t know.

Kristyn Nimmo: Right.

Melyssa Barrett:  For me, it was like, how could you not know? You know? But I felt really good about the fact that people were expressing that thought process and really trying to understand when they had their eyes closed. So there are so many things we can do when it comes to education and just showcasing the stories that haven’t been told. And you know me as a big fan of storytelling, my husband was a professional storyteller, and spent most of his time focused on diaspora in story, mostly because there weren’t a lot of storytellers.

And so telling that story in our schools, in our libraries, in our houses, in some cases we’re educating ourselves because we might not have learned it right. So I think there’s just so many things, and the fact that you call yourself Good Worx is just so awesome to me, because I think about all the things that are happening. I had a conversation with Bobby Jones, who’s also out of New York. Good is the new cool. And they spend a lot of time really kind of creating a lot of the collective that you’re talking about, the movement in about being good and embracing that sustainability. So one of the questions, long-winded question, as you think about sustainability, I know there’s a lot of companies that are looking at ESG, environmental, social governance initiatives, but they’re also pulling together, sustainability, corporate responsibility, social impact. How are you seeing those types of organizational shifts change the way that companies are coming to the table?

Kristyn Nimmo:  Hmm. I would say that the most important shift that I’m seeing, which we mentioned a little bit earlier, is the combination of those different compartments of an organization. A really great way to understand where a company is in their journey on social impact is to understand where does social impact sit in the organization? For them, does that mean CSR? Does it mean some philanthropic arm? Does it mean brand? Where does it land? And I think that that is a really great indicator of how widespread the commitment to social impact is within the organization and the priority it’s being given. I think another is to see on the leadership team who is responsible for social [inaudible] does that responsibility sit at the level of leadership? And those things really help to understand how an organization is really embracing or tolerating social impact. And hopefully we see the former of those two.

So I think that the shifting of where this falls is definitely a key thing that I’m seeing, and that really tends to inform how an organization thinks about impact in a sustainable or not so sustainable way. And so, so excited to see more and more companies understanding that impact should be a part of their brand strategy. It should be a part of the way their brand looks out on the world and engages with consumers. It should literally be wrapped into every piece of engagement that they have, internally and externally, not to forget the employee part, right? Because employees want to know that the place where they are spending their time is a place that is helping to deliver on what is important to them as well. So I would say that those are the things that really intersect with sustainability when I’m looking at an organization from the outside.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yes, yes. I love it. And it’s so nice to see the evolution, right? Because there are a lot of companies, even now, that don’t have social impact.

Kristyn Nimmo:  Right.

Melyssa Barrett:  It’s like, what is that? Social impact? We do sponsorships.

Kristyn Nimmo:  Right.

Melyssa Barrett:  And so it’s wonderful to see kind of a real focus on what initiatives a company can do in the communities that they are in, to really create the impact that they want.

Kristyn Nimmo:  Right. And not only to reverse damage that they’ve done, but to help push progress in other areas where they just have an opportunity where they have the influence and the reach to be able to create, redefine the purpose of a business being more than just profit. To see how that is continuing to shift the landscape and also how gen Z takes that and runs with it. As we know that they are very, very committed to ensuring that the companies they support are aligned with their values and having that woven throughout their lifestyles as well. So really excited to see all of this evolution. And it’s just really interesting to look back on when I started and was really conflicted wondering, can I make a career that I will really enjoy focusing on this? Is there a space for me? And now there are just so many, there’s a multitude of spaces that are ready to support people who want to push this forward and a business community that understands the need for it. So it’s a very, very exciting time to be doing this work.

Melyssa Barrett:  Yes. Well, congratulations to you, again, for all the work that you’re doing in the space. I’m super excited and can’t wait to see what you’re doing in 10 or 20 years compared to what you’ve already achieved. And I know your focus through allyship and anti-racism action is to partner with brands and really play a role in fighting racial equity. But really, you’re doing so many other things when it comes to equity as a whole in serving the community. So kudos to you and your team. And as you grow as a small business owner, because I think we always look at big brands and big companies, but clearly Good Worx is right in there amongst them. So thank you for all you’re doing.

Kristyn Nimmo:  Thank you so much. I really appreciated having this conversation. It’s such a really great thing to be able to look back and discuss the space and the changes that have happened and I’m really proud of what we’re doing. So thank you for elevating that and thank you.

Melyssa Barrett:  Absolutely. Absolutely. Any last words you want to leave us for where you want to see 2022 go or the impact that you want to see this year?

Kristyn Nimmo:  The thing that just came to mind for me is that, again, people are having a bit of a realization around where they want to be spending their time. And although the social impact space has become more filled lately and more defined, I would just encourage anyone who feels really passionate about this work to push in and to take their place there, because there is so much work to be done. And I am so grateful for all the people that are doing different things and leveraging their different skills and talents and expertise to push for equity for different communities for different causes. And so I would just encourage anyone who really feels called to have a presence here and to help drive this forward, to look for that opportunity because it’s there and we need you and we need all of us, right? So I would just encourage people to feel like they can be part of this as well. We need everyone.

Melyssa Barrett:  Absolutely. Well again, kudos to you. Can’t wait to spend more time and see where Good Worx is going. We will be checking in with you and for anybody who’s looking for a consulting company in the space, black owned, who really has expertise in the space, please go and find Good Worx. And that’s W-O-R-X.

Kristyn Nimmo:  Yeah.

Melyssa Barrett:  So check them out. Kirstyn. Thank you so much for joining me on the Jali Podcast.

Kristyn Nimmo:  Thank you, Melyssa. This was great.

Melyssa Barrett:  All right. Take care.

Kristyn Nimmo:  Bye.

Melyssa Barrett  Thanks for joining me on the Jali Podcast. Please subscribe. So you won’t miss an episode. See you next week.