Why Brands With Purpose Make More Money & Cause Impact w/ CEO Luke Faccini

Show notes in order of appearance:

• Luke Faccini an Italian Aussie?
• How Luke and Seb meet on Instagram
• Luke’s last oh shit moment
• What is an unconscious business? Or a non-purpose-driven brand? We’re surrounded by them…What does that look like?
• Are most brands not driven by a bigger purpose? And why is that the case?
• Spiral dynamics
• How brands responded and are responding during Covid
• Luke had a “purpose moment” that caused a shift in his life.
• The True Cost movie
• Agency life and partying
• Luke shares how the universe tested him with a big opp that he had to turn down.
• The importance of brand story and how this ties to brand purpose.
• B Corps 101. Luke gives the elevator pitch on Certified B Corps and why he decided to get involved.
• And 1 basketball brand
• Purpose-driven brands typically have more costs…Besides bringing good to the world and ourselves, how can leading with purpose make more money?
• Luke shares concrete examples of purpose-led brands making more money
• Purpose in employees leads to more creativity and less turnover.
• Stats on buying from purpose-led brands
• Luke’s 2 most important traits for a conscious leader to embody
• Appetite for being wrong and presence and how they tie into leadership
• The Sponge and Good North.
• And if you liked this episode please make sure to actually hit subscribe and share it with a homie!

Visit The Sponge and find Luke Faccini on Instagram. 

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SebastianNaum.com

Below is a transcript of the video podcast created by Seb’s Robot buddy, Zekton. He tends to make mistakes so please forgive him if you find errors or some funky sounding sentences. For the real deal, watch the video or click on your favorite audio Podcast platform above! Enjoy!

Sebastian Naum (01:35):
What’s up Luke? Welcome to the show, man.

Luke Faccini (01:38):
Thanks for having me, man.

Sebastian Naum (01:40):
You know, look [inaudible] for an Australian. It’s a very Italian name.

Luke Faccini (01:48):
It is a very Italian name and unfortunately I can only speak English, but at least you’ve got a bad-ass accent, I guess. So for us, it’s a pretty common place for us.

Sebastian Naum (02:03):
It was a cool accent and you come to America and everybody’s already like listening to you, like, Oh my gosh, that’s such a sexy accent. And that whole thing, you know

Luke Faccini (02:10):
On.

Sebastian Naum (02:12):
So I got to give up. Uh, so I had, I want to tell my listeners how we met actually, cause it’s pretty funny. So we followed each other on Instagram and Luke slides into the DMS, you know, and he says something like, you know, I, you know, I really, I feel like we really resonate with each other’s, you know, content or missions or something like that. And I, so I started looking at what you put out there and I was like, wow, truly, truly do. And then, so some time pass, we followed each other’s content engage a little bit. Then I was like, I kind of want to like have a beer with this guy, you know? And then, uh, and then he’s like, but he’s in Australia. So I’m like, should we have a zoom meeting and be friends?

Luke Faccini (02:51):
It’s like

Sebastian Naum (02:55):
20, 21, uh, a way to meet somebody, I guess. But, um, anyway, so here we are and I thought it would be great to have you on the pod and uh, talk to us about who you are and what you do. So I always like to start by asking my guests look is when was your last, Oh, moment. What is the first thing you think about when I said last, Oh, moment. Good or bad? Anything,

Luke Faccini (03:18):
Uh, yeah, what’s popping to mind is, um, so in October last year I started this gratitude challenge and it was, it’s been really good for me. It was get out of the funk of COVID and really take time to contemplate what was, what’s been awesome in the day and not all days are awesome, but you can always contemplate and that act of contemplation changes your state. So, you know, those days where you’re just grinding away and you get to the end, it’s like, did I get anything but really amazing. Yeah. But then the reflection changes everything and you find it, but that’s not the, that’s not the old moment. Oh, moment. Is that, um, I’ve got a vision board I’m very big on visualization and meditation and Joe Dispenza’s like the universe doesn’t give you what you want. It gives you what you are. Right. The, Oh was, I kind of dropped out of the gratitude challenge to focus on creating content, which you’ve seen. Um, then daily content is just, um, it’s a time-consuming.

Sebastian Naum (04:26):
Oh yeah, yeah.

Luke Faccini (04:29):
I still, I want it to reflect on gratitude. So I got myself some little beads that every time I looked down, I can just like, feel the gratitude and the shift towards the Oh. Was that what I’d been doing was reflexive. Like it was reflection. So it was living in the past. Whereas now it’s like being grateful, feel the gratitude, but put something from the vision board into that. Um, I’m so grateful. Thank you for this and that shift. I’m not, I’ve got a motorbike up on the portal I ride, that’s my play. And um, I’ve been thinking about this particular bike for months. And then I shifted to thank you for this beautiful motorbike in my garage right now. And within a week, that bike is in my garage and it’s like better than the one that I’ve got on my vision board. So the OCI, it was not the reflection gratitude, but the projection gratitude be that feel that you have that. And it’s so simple, but it’s,

Sebastian Naum (05:36):
That’s killer. That’s awesome, man. That’s not that simple. I mean, it is simple, but for somebody to grasp the concept of being grateful for something that isn’t there, or you didn’t have and already feeling and embodying the gratitude now for something that’s not there yet, because that’s how the universe works and that’s what it will provide. It’s pretty Whoa. And that not necessarily people are going to grasp that, but it’s beautiful and it fricking works and that’s sick that you got an even better motorbike and it came from that. That’s an old. That’s awesome, dude. Okay.

Luke Faccini (06:08):
Yeah. Yeah. It’s pretty cool. So there’s, there’s a bunch of other things that, uh, the little reminder there is to feel it cause yeah, big plans.

Sebastian Naum (06:18):
That’s great, man. I love it. I love that. Look, what is, what is unconscious business or non purpose-driven business? What does that?

Luke Faccini (06:30):
Yeah, it’s uh, the Gordon Gekko greed is good. Milton Friedman. The purpose of a company is to maximize shareholder returns. That’s what it is. That’s just what that separation from business and personal, you know, it’s nothing personal. It’s just business. That’s. That’s. It’s unsustainable. It’s um, exhausting and it’s no longer enough.

Sebastian Naum (06:59):
Hm. Are most brands, do you think most the majority 51% or more still non purpose led brands? Okay.

Luke Faccini (07:09):
I would say yes because the old guard is reluctant to change and we’ve still got a lot of 60 plus, um, old people at the helm. So the new generation feel it and S and seek it, and we’re seeing CEOs come in and then, you know, they’ve got to deal with the board. They’ve got to deal with the bureaucracy and, and transform these organizations. But there is a groundswell, I’d say we’re not even close to like, uh, if I had to guess, I’d say like 10 to 15% of businesses are actively doing that being a conscious business. Um, but yeah, majority,

Sebastian Naum (07:48):
Yeah. I wonder what it really is. I’m sure there’s some sort of data out there that I’m going to nerd out on after, after this pod. But, um, yeah, I really wonder what that is. And it really depends on where you are. I’m sure. Um, I feel that places like Australia, places like New Zealand, I think that they’re actually more forward-thinking with this stuff even. And I think, uh, the U S is starting to come around to it as well. I mean, at least when it comes to like the CPG world, when you look at that, like if I do a lot of business with New Zealand and like, there’s just so many great Kiwi brands, and I think that so much of it has to do with the culture of respecting the land and that kind of whole thing. So maybe it’s a little higher down there, but, uh, and I know it’s very different. I am very aware that Australia and New Zealand are very, very different. The rest of the world were kind of like, Oh, you guys are down there at all homies, you know, very different. But in terms of like the quality of brands that I’m seeing, I think that when it comes to a least consumables, maybe there’s a little bit more consciousness.

Luke Faccini (08:45):
Yeah. Yeah. We can go deep on this. I mean, there is a, are you aware of spiral dynamics? No. Okay. Let’s at the levels consciousness, spiral dynamics is just another, um, or model to put on what there is. And it’s just that, uh, the reflection of cultures and, um, well communities, um, having needs met allows you then to ascend and become a servant leader. Essentially, the more that the community that we’re in has those basic needs met. We’re not fighting for survival. We’re not in ego state we’re. So that allows that’s the shift, right? And the reality is there are many countries, and even now, especially with COVID, uh, so many countries, so many communities, so many cultures struggling that they’re not even, they’re not even close to thinking about how you can be altruistic through business. They’re like, there’s not enough money to pay my people to sort of, you know, to survive.

Luke Faccini (09:45):
So it’s all about the, the cost, right? So, uh, it’s a luxury the, until it becomes the, the way and people’s expectation of what things should cost, you know, we can’t just go into target or Kmart or Walmart or whatever it might be and buy something awesome for Jack, right? Because our expectation is that shouldn’t cost much more in reality, the person making it, the co the people, the community that’s providing it, the resource may not be replenishable. Therefore the cost of it ought to be more. And until we’ve got that education, that people appreciate that true cost of things, and we’re going to keep, um, going to Walmart or whatever it might be and buying cheap stuff.

Sebastian Naum (10:37):
That’s very interesting concept about the spiral dynamics, where you were just saying too, because it makes so much sense in terms of having those needs met, and then being able to then start to grasp the concept to evolve into that way of thinking. Versus if you don’t have those needs met, man, I’m just trying to survive, you know? Yeah. Which is interesting. So like when you mentioned, you know, COVID and survival mode, when all of this first started, well, let’s say March, 2020, I remember doing some content, some videos speaking to some brands. Cause I was having some of my clients come up to me and say, you know, what w what do we do? Right. So from a marketing standpoint, what do we communicate? What do we do? And it was just such a time of like, this is the toughest time that people are going through this exact opportunity for you to be an elevate and to be the most conscious you have been from a, from a brand perspective to lead with purpose. Now, during the toughest times, it could be, people will remember that because people remember how they were treated during the toughest time. So if they’re brands that they associate that you’ve just created this connection that you can lose, otherwise, if you don’t do it that way during times of need.

Luke Faccini (11:45):
Yeah. I saw that two people that were brands that were just maintaining the status quo and you see these ads and you go, but yeah, the empathy, where’s the, where’s your humanness. Right. So how can you relate to me? And those that do relate. Yeah. And he’s like, wow. Okay, cool. Totally. There’s humans behind this spring.

Sebastian Naum (12:06):
Yeah, exactly. I was happening to me with like little things such as like, you know, the yoga studio or the gym memberships or something. You could see some react in one way and just being like, screw you too bad, whatever scribble and Ellis involved versus others, like figuring out ways to gather the community to still support, to still give you a service. Like, it was pretty interesting to see how different brands, how they, how they responded. Um, so Luke, you claimed to have had a, you had a purpose moment. What is this purpose moment, uh, caused the shift in your life, but what, what does that, what was that like, share that with us.

Luke Faccini (12:38):
Yeah. So I, um, I started my agency because I was, uh, I enjoyed the party scene. So I thought you have an agency and you make money, you do awesome design, you win awards and you party like an animal. And that was what things were like. So this is like 20 years ago. I started. So, um, yeah, it was fun. I have to admit I’m not gonna lie. Um, but it felt a bit like I was in a hamster wheel shape, making money, buying expensive watches, clothes, you know, you name it. It was, it was a very, uh, capitalist, very, um, shallow world for me. And until one Saturday morning, it was a December. So summer in Sydney. And I was in my Villa by the Bay. And I was just flicking through Netflix for something to watch. And I just hit play on this thing.

Luke Faccini (13:35):
And it just looked watchable. Like I was saying to this point, I hadn’t really stopped to think about the true cost of things. Supply chain for me, I was blissfully ignorant about that. And this documentary I hit play on was called the true cost. And before it was done, I was done. It was like sitting there with tears streaming down my face and what it was is fast fashion revealed. So it showed the building collapses in darker, showed the devastation of ecosystems because there’s no processing of the dyes and the chemicals and showed the disruption to local trade with the overwhelming, um, Goodwill shipments going to Haiti, for example, right. So decimated their trade, their rag trade. So it’s just like, you see this ripple effect and it’s like, how is this happening? And it comes down to it. It’s the race to the bottom for costs.

Luke Faccini (14:30):
It’s that separation that, um, ignorance and greed for maximizing shareholder return. So, yeah, I was sitting, I was changed before it was Donald decided I could no longer work for brands that are about profit at all costs. Um, which set that was, that was my purpose. My manager sent me about and firing a whole bunch of clients. And, um, it was very, very polarized. Only wanted to work with angels, which, um, in 2015 there weren’t as many as they are now. So I was a bit like tumbleweeds roll by trying to get these clients that was very challenging, but rebuilt the business purpose, led values driven. And, um, yeah, now we work exclusively with businesses that have a positive impact in the world. And I’ll tell you what it feels good to, to, uh, be that way and exclusively help people that are making changes in the world.

Sebastian Naum (15:27):
I love that there was a moment, um, that I believe the universe tested you several times. I’m sure you and I, when you and I chatted, uh, you touched on something and I wanted to bring that up. That basically when you were making the shift and, you know, after you had this purpose moment, you were tested with like a big contract. And so what happened?

Luke Faccini (15:55):
Yeah. Yeah. I’m, I’m, I’m a big believer of when the student is ready, the teacher appears and the same goes, so if you make a commitment, right, so you change your values or you change something about yourself. I believe the universal God, whatever you go. Oh really? Yeah, let’s see. So that was in my only want to work with angels. And, um, then this, uh, opportunity came up to rebrand 11 brands for this large us organization. And it was like

Sebastian Naum (16:29):
Seven 11.

Luke Faccini (16:32):
It was to rebrand, or it was to refresh and update their brand style guide for all of their com their brands. And it just, it just didn’t, it, it just didn’t feel right. So it was that contract. It was juicy. It would have, yeah, it was very, very juicy. I don’t wanna, um, share numbers, but it’s, uh, it was seven figures and, um,

Sebastian Naum (16:58):
I haven’t figured contract for a look and just to put it out. I mean, it’s not like we’re not talking about a, a, you know, a 500 person agency we’re talking about, you know, uh, a boutique agency per se, right.

Luke Faccini (17:15):
Yeah. It was. But, um, it didn’t feel right. And, um, yeah, just had to pass and yeah, I don’t regret that. Like it, the thing, the thing about it is like the money would have been nice, but I w I want to help people become the best brand that they can and have positive impact. I think it’s Judy of all businesses to do something good for a world. And I don’t want to have to be attached to something that isn’t that. Yeah. So I wouldn’t feel good about helping them increase their market share when they could be doing good too. So, um, yeah.

Sebastian Naum (18:01):
You passed on the seven figure contract, the universe tests, you, do you really want to do purpose led branding projects and rebrand project. Here’s the seven year contract say no. So you

Luke Faccini (18:16):
Say no,

Sebastian Naum (18:18):
Elevate, do things start falling into place after that?

Luke Faccini (18:21):
Yeah, not immediately. So you can get the, like that

Sebastian Naum (18:31):
You break up with the wrong girlfriend or something, and then the perfect person pops in or something like that. Right.

Luke Faccini (18:37):
You dropped your job and you

Sebastian Naum (18:38):
Get offered $5 million salary with the best job ever.

Luke Faccini (18:43):
Yeah. Instantly, that’s it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sebastian Naum (18:50):
That eventually started happening essentially. Where you started getting his ideal clients, all of a sudden. Yeah.

Luke Faccini (18:56):
Well, I wouldn’t say all of a sudden it has happened at the pace that it needed to. Yeah. I needed to with our team work out our process and, um, I wrote a book that helped me crystallize that process. COVID uh, and that was good though. We helped a lot of businesses with that on, um, COVID also gave us a bit of breathing space to revisit our methodology and now it’s even better. So, um, yeah. Things are things going amazing now, like we’ve grown the team, um, by two people this last quarter and we’re hiring another, an account manager right now. So things are going well. I’m very happy. Yeah. And we’ve got we’re about culture fit. So it’s not about scaling. It’s not, we’re not about, um, you know, we’re not about the money. Like I want to clarify something there. I’m not saying no to money.

Luke Faccini (19:55):
I’m saying that’s not our drive up profit is not the driver profit is a driver. Um, if you don’t have profits, and this is one of the things that like, we work with a lot of social enterprises, not-for-profits, we’ve got our doubles of goodness grant, which we, um, dollar match up to 10 grand for impact businesses so that they can have, uh, you know, the commercial help that they need. What I look for with that is how we can help these impact driven businesses become more sustainable. And that’s the balance of profit because you need, you need profits and more profits you make, the more, the more longevity you have as a brand, the more positive impact that you can make. So it’s not a dirty word. It’s just needs to be taken in context with the other stakeholders, your people, the planet. Yeah. Well, so I

Sebastian Naum (20:45):
Wonder how many times I’ve said that last sentence that you just said, continue to repeat that I it’s so true. You know, the more, the more you can bring in the more you can help. Absolutely. Um, look, what’s the importance of brand story. How does brand story tie to brand purpose?

Luke Faccini (21:03):
Okay. Yeah. So I’ve got a mantra that, uh, awesome is no longer enough. And what that means is you might have the most awesome product or service and most awesome value for money, most awesome team, most awesome marketing, you name it, right. Somebody else opens up in your market that is also as awesome across those things, but they do something cool for the world that at no extra costs that your clients love your customers, your market loves all of a sudden you’re irrelevant. So I will providing the cost of change is low one off. There’s some, you know, relationships and things, right. You can, right. But you’re on shaky ground. So what we do is help businesses find that thing that, um, knowable cause the, that is relevant for their business, for their market. So they can be that disruptive brand. They can be that brand.

Luke Faccini (21:57):
I mean, not, I don’t think it should be disruption. I think every business should do. It’s just about finding what it is that’s right for your business. Now, I’m sorry. The question about story is every brand is telling a story, right? It’s getting interpreted by the marketplace, whether you are curating it and controlling it and massively doing that so that it is beautiful across every touch point or you’re leaving it totally up to the market to decipher based off what they experienced or hear. And most brands do the latter or many brands through the ladder, and they wonder why there’s this mishmash of things coming back to them as being made about their brand. So it is about really defining that story and then telling it, and, um, that, that takes work takes rehearsal takes definition. So, um, one of the things that is popping up is Seth Godin says this thing about brand story.

Luke Faccini (22:58):
It does one of two things for us when we buy the brand one, it validates who we believe we are, um, or it helps us become who we want to be, who we believe we can be. So when you tell that story right, and make it an empowering and add that purpose, add that impact into it. So that the listener goes, yeah, that’s that’s me. Then the blinkers go on and I’ll never leave you, right. Or who that’s, who I want to become. Also, you can take them on that journey there and help them be who they want to be. That’s,

Sebastian Naum (23:32):
That’s powerful. That’s really powerful. That’s showing that’s, you know, two, two sides of the coin there it’s this represents who I am, or this further helps me become who I want become. That’s really cool concept right there. And it’s, it’s so true. And I think that at least for me, from a personal standpoint, both are happening all the time. As I’m making purchasing decisions. It’s either I’m purchasing something because it represents me or I’m pursuing something because I want it to represent me, or I want to become that as well. That’s really interesting. And that’s why the brand story tied to brand purpose is more and more important each and every day. The brands today. Yeah. I’m just reflecting

Luke Faccini (24:22):
On the brands that have bought lately.

Sebastian Naum (24:25):
Yeah. You’ve started thinking about it.

Luke Faccini (24:27):
Yeah. It’s like, it’s always contemplation. I was going to ask the question, but I think about which brands and why, which, what did I do? So, you know, like I wear a Patagonia when I’m like wearing, I don’t like wearing the big sort of, um, artwork on there that makes it look like I work at there, but I wear this cause like, and it’s got little subtle, subtle branding on the bottom of it, but like, I’ll wear it because I know the brand and it, and it validates that I, I give a and I’m conscious about my purchases. It’s interesting. Right. It’s not about, but the other thing there is, if you tell the story well, and you make it juicy enough for the listener, it’s the story they’re going to tell. And that’s that, it’s a brand story.

Sebastian Naum (25:10):
Yeah. I think, um, yeah, that’s, that’s very true. And it’s such a good example. Patagonia is a great example. They’re probably the most well-known example in the world of a purpose led brand. That’s that massive that can actually cause that much impact and represent something. I actually never really, I didn’t really grow up really caring for Patagonia too much or liking it. I just didn’t like the style. Right. And now, because of what it stands, I actually think it’s an awesome brand. And if it didn’t stand for that, I just wouldn’t like it. You know what I mean? So it’s interesting how that worked and then obviously it happens, the opposite happens where you grew up loving something and you’re like, Oh, this stands for. This is not my jam anymore. You know? Um, really interesting. And then it, it, it also is important.

Sebastian Naum (26:03):
You know, it actually came to, I think I would say Toms was the first, you know, introductory brand for me. And, you know, just kind of being the first well-known one for one model. And also they had the, the Argentinian flag as the logo. Cause that’s where it started in Argentina. And I kind of all just re you know, it hit me, it hit home for me. And, uh, and then the difference, the, what I noticed was that after a while, they actually started making some really cool that I started really liking, not just the one model of shoe or whatever it may be. Right. And then I, more recently, I see all birds, uh, you know, doing that as well in the shoe game, but it definitely, it is important. The product and the awesomeness of the product is super important because you have to have a great story, but if your products so-so then look, you know, it’s just not going to happen. So you kind of need both now. That’s, that’s what we’re, we’ve evolved. So let’s transition into, um, a little B Corp one Oh one. I actually had, um, someone on early on, um, in the beginnings of conscious profits, unfiltered about, uh, B corporations one Oh one, but, uh, I, you know, why don’t you give us, give me the elevator pitch of a certified B Corp.

Luke Faccini (27:19):
Uh, I’ve got to do this justice now.

Sebastian Naum (27:23):
Hey guys, I just want to remind you, if you want to find more content like this, you can visit Sebastian nom.com, that’s Sebastian and a U m.com. You can also get a ton of other marketing resources for myself and my agencies ranging from SEO to social media, influencer, marketing, branding, web development, and more again, that’s Sebastian nom.com. Thank you. And enjoy the rest of the show.

Luke Faccini (27:44):
A B Corp is a certification, uh, in the U S it’s a big corporation, which is a legal form in Australia. It’s not in some countries. It is essentially, it was created by these guys that had a, uh, basketball, uh, accessories of clothing company, shoe company called Antwan. And they, when they sold the business, the new owner, first thing they did was remove all the social goodness that this company had. So they had, um, full court in full basketball court in the office. They were giving like 5% of their profits to local initiatives to educate kids, um, all of these benefits. So it was, it was before its time and then all got stripped away and these guys were devastated. So they, this, they wanted to create this structure, um, that enabled businesses to embed and protect the purpose of the organization. So they said about the legal form in the USB corporation, they set about this, um, these standards, which, uh, B Corp certification.

Luke Faccini (28:53):
And you have to score a minimum of 80 points across 200, and that spans, um, governance, customers, um, leadership, uh, community and something else. Right. But it’s all about sustainability and ethics. And, um, it’s hard to get certified is a rigorous process. So we were a B Corp certified as a B Corp. Um, we recertified again last year. It’s honestly, it’s, uh, the process of doing the certification is valuable in itself. There’s a free B impact assessment. You can Google B impact assessment, jump online and do it. I think there’s been something like 45,000 companies do. The impact assessment is nearly 4,000 certified B Corp’s, uh, around the world. And they’re all doing something amazing through their business. And yeah, I’m a big fan. And, um, yeah, it is B Corp month this month or March is so my content every day has had some kind of [inaudible] elements. So if you wanna to learn more about, B-Corp jump on to look sponge on Instagram, you can see that the last month worth of content there. So I go into detail in it

Sebastian Naum (30:06):
Recommend, I love the content it’s beautifully designed, beautifully put really simple and understands it. Definitely anyone listening. If you’re interested in B Corp, check out, look syncs to cram, for sure. And obviously there’ll be in the links and the notes. Um, and look at that. This is something that we touched on earlier in terms of, so you said the doc you watch was true cost, right. You know, the true costs, true costs. So purpose driven brands, certified B Corp’s typically have more costs, right? So the natural, well, a lot of them do it. So the natural thing to think as well, more costs means less profits, but, um, that’s not necessarily true. So how are brands making more money, being a purpose led brand, being certified B corpse? Um, you know, talk a little bit about that.

Luke Faccini (30:56):
Yeah. It’s, it’s a good conversation, actually. So there’s a, there’s a few ways you look at, um, costs for the organization. One of the major things, and there’s a lot of studies out there at the moment. So I’m going to bastardize some of these, but there, um, one is about purpose. Uh, people want to choose nine out of 10. People want to choose a purpose led brand, uh, to support them, to buy from them. How many, nine out of 10, nine out of 10 people would. And I’ll share the link with you this, um, study. So you can see there’s also loyalty. Eight out of 10 people are loyal to a brand that has purpose led and, um, seven out of 10 people would actually choose to buy from a purpose led brand. Even though they have, uh, they’re loyal to another brand, that’s not right.

Luke Faccini (31:50):
So if you think about that from an acquisition perspective, people want your business, your purpose led people will stick with your business. If you’re purpose led and people will churn over to you, if your purpose led and their existing brand, isn’t so grand, they’ll tell people about you. So there’s that there’s that acquisition standpoint. But then if you look at, um, top talent, right, you want a team that sticks with you and is completely fulfilled. If there is big, Corp’s have lower, lower, um, have a higher retention rate of top talent because people want to work like today. People want, and there’s their stats. I’m going to bastardize this, but you Google. I think it’s like 63 or 70 something percent. Um, want to work with a brand that has meanings now stick around with that brand if it gives them meaning. The other thing is that, and this is the one I play because on a,

Sebastian Naum (32:50):
And by the word turnover costs a lot big companies, a lot of money. So that’s about a cost reduction right there.

Luke Faccini (32:57):
Exactly. And that’s, that’s where I’m sticking on this one a little bit. So one is the cost of hiring someone, um, is ridiculous. Replacing someone, training someone, plus the disruption to business that is like a massive problem for organizations and also attracting top talent, top talent, want to work with brands that given that meaning, the other thing is if you are a culture driven brand, so you’ve got purpose, you’ve got values that your team aligned with and you’ve got impact. What that does is it unlocks the creative and discretionary energy of your team. And what that means when your team is engaged for a low level role, the difference between a engaged team member and a disengaged team member is 300%. So that’s three times more productive, right? For a mid-level role. It’s 12 times, 1200% right. Started it. This, this one, like it got me, gave me goosebumps when I read it.

Luke Faccini (33:55):
It’s why I’m so passionate about this is why every branding project we start with, we’ve got this foundation where it’s, um, includes culture and impact you do that. And then you embed it and you hire for it. And your team is on fire. We’ve got this client, um, that’s gone from, they started with 25 people in their team. Five of them were misaligned. And you can use that as a simple term, then that was creating subconscious sabotaging of the culture, right? So people don’t realize, but when they’re not a fit, they vocalize it. And it like the motivates everyone, we focused on the values, focused on the impact, built the rituals so that they could celebrate it each week. And this is what became the norm. Those five people self-selected out within a year, five people came in that were the right fit, the energy in this organization. It’s absolutely fricking popping right there. They it’s palpable. I can feel that when I’m on a zoom meeting with them, I can feel it when, when I’m with them. And they’ve gone from number nine in their city to number two. And, and they’ve opened another office in another city. So they are going absolutely nuts. And it’s because it’s like, it’s, it’s a tactile, real example of you get your culture. Right. You attract awesome ness and they stick. So, yeah. That’s

Sebastian Naum (35:18):
So I was literally going to ask you if you, you know, to give me a concrete example, and that was an awesome, awesome example. So

Luke Faccini (35:25):
Yeah, why I love the work, right? Because people just need permission to be good at work. You know, G get rid of that. It’s nothing personal. It’s just business. Now you want fulfillment at work. Yeah. Do something awesome with your business. And then it’s not work anymore. It’s like, it’s, it’s passion. It’s and people want to join. You. People want to buy from you. You tell the story. Well, they’ll like, you talk about tongs. I’ve got, I’ve got some in my cupboard. I like, that’s an example. I use, I talk about the impact brands that I wear whenever I can. And that just is free advertising. Tom’s their valuation. When was it in 2015, 600 and 650 million or 615 million or something like that. Us dollars, zero advertising. Right. That was all word of mouth because people buy it and go, yeah. Like I’ve, I’ve, I’ve given somebody a pair of shoes by buying this brand. Right. So yeah, it’s, it is lower cost marketing. It is customer loyalty. It is attracting and retaining top talent and, um, yeah. Having real fulfillment at work. So yeah, that’s, that’s the upside

Sebastian Naum (36:40):
That’s. That’s great, man. I mean, it’s, I think a lot of people think about just what’s seen on the outside from a marketing perspective or what they’re just thinking about one stakeholder, they’re thinking about what it may do to the customer, but what it does internally is huge. And, and, and, and it’s so it’s, and it’s beyond fulfillment and actually is increasing the profits because of what you’re just saying, because when they’re engaged, the productivity goes up. Yeah, man. That’s that you threw at me was mind blowing.

Luke Faccini (37:13):
Yeah. It’s um, yeah. It’s

Sebastian Naum (37:15):
What was it? 1200%. You said four mid-levels

Luke Faccini (37:18):
1200% for me level a high high-level role. It’s it’s unmeasurable it’s off the charts. So it’s, it’s phenomenal. I know with my team, like, we, we w we, so look, I believe that every team member has the potential to be a rock star, right? So that means getting on stage and cranking out a hit song, but that doesn’t happen by accident. Right? You can’t just get off on the stage and bang out a hit song. You need to rehearse the out. You need to write the fricking song first. Right. You need to write it, you need to refine it, and then you should rehearse it as a band until everyone’s in flow. And it’s natural and that’s brand story, right. Your impact brand story, you get that. Right. And when everyone is rocking it, everyone that comes to contact with, with the band in any aspect, you’re going to experience that. So, yeah, we rehearsed the out of our song every week at our team meetings and in, through all of the decisions about ritualizing it. So I need to do that. And when you do it, there is an energy, there is a real

Sebastian Naum (38:24):
City and all of that I think starts with motivation. And so if their purpose is there, that’s the seed for the motivation. Yeah.

Luke Faccini (38:33):
Maybe it’s this, this, and this, some techniques that you need to do, everyone needs to feel part of the decision part of direction. So, yeah, there’s, there’s, there’s, it’s not as simple as I make it out to be, but, um, it is definitely a rewarding.

Sebastian Naum (38:50):
Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. Luke, you’re an example of a conscious leader yourself, big time. So what do you believe are the two traits, the two most important traits that a conscious leader must embody today?

Luke Faccini (39:14):
That’s that’s a good question. So I’ve just been listening to Adam, Grant’s think again, and that’s, he talks about your appetite for being wrong and learning. Um, I think you you’d need to be, um, unfixed, so open and, um, have the humility. And the second is, um,

Speaker 3 (39:43):
Presence. Yeah.

Luke Faccini (39:47):
Present. And I say that, I say that, and it’s, it’s making me think of an analogy. So, um, I, you, you had this, we had this last year, March, the toilet paper fiasco, right. Everyone, um, sphincter really contracted and thought the same thing happened with marketing. Right? You would have felt this too. So many people go, yep. Got, gotta stop spending on our advertising. So that, that really shook us up as a company. Um, and it made me like a spine a little bit. So I was like, is, uh, um, who says Eckhart Tolle? He says that his, um, stresses living in the past and anxiety is living in the future. Right. Um, whereas if you’re present, you can then choose your state of consciousness and solutions come out of creativity. And creativity is an above the line thing that you can have when you’re, when you are curious and conscious.

Luke Faccini (40:48):
So I took a friend of mine to remind me that, and then I got into that creation of state. And, um, I hate this word because it’s overused, pivoted, pivoted, some workshops changed the direction, made it about, um, storytelling for a lot of our focus about storytelling for self. So the founders were working for that are also going through this, the most important person that they need to focus their story on is themselves until that positive creation story versus like, Holy, what are we gonna do? Things are collapsing. Um, so consciousness being present and relevant. Yeah. Yeah. I haven’t heard

Sebastian Naum (41:29):
That one yet from anyone that I’ve had on. So I love when I hear a new one and that’s, uh, that’s really important. Definitely what you said. I think about, I mean, about creativity and the ability to pivot, because you cannot do that. If you are in the past or the future, you cannot do that. The only way to truly have a unique thought, which is what creativity depends on is to be fully present. Otherwise you’re just taking from something else. So, um, that’s cool. Which is probably the same reason. I’m not a musician, but that’s probably why, you know, when a musician is creating music, he has to be in flow fully present to actually be creating something new that’s coming out. So it’s super interesting. So Luke, tell us about, uh, the sponge and a good North and where people can find you.

Luke Faccini (42:22):
Yeah. So the spine, she is a branding agency. We choose to help the next generation of business owners to rebrand with purpose. We’ve got clients from Tasmania to Astonia. So it’s a, our model works remotely and we love wait. I honestly love nothing more than talking with my tribe, which are people that are purposeful purpose. Curious. Um, that’s a, that’s a label that it’s curious.

Sebastian Naum (42:53):
I have a board meeting tonight with, uh, conscious capitalism LA, I’m going to totally bring that up.

Luke Faccini (42:58):
Definitely, definitely. So the purpose curious came around because as a business, we can work one, two months a while I’m on too many, we’ve got a workshop that we’re developing at the moment that is like a one to many thing. And it takes people through our methodology, which is cool. And I’m looking forward to working with leaders around the world on that one. Um, but as, uh, as an initiative, as part of our B quirkiness, our impact, we, uh, I am kind of the local, the local leader and your audience might be familiar with being local, to be locals, uh, communities be co-ops, um, in cities. Um, there’s, uh, I know of a few and in the U S here, we set it up as like I’m an advocate or a believer of what your Marine says. You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

Luke Faccini (43:45):
And if you want to be more awesome, you need to surround yourself with awesome people. And if you can’t find a tribe of awesome people then create it. So for me, it was like, I found that B Corp was a pre-qualifier for awesomeness, because anyone that goes through that process is a legend in my books. So we started good North to, um, gather the, the equal ops in this area together so we can connect and collaborate. And that’s what that ended up being is very, very small market. So we went, all right, we’re not here just to like sell shoes to a gold medalists. Right. It just felt like if we need to bring people in that haven’t run yet. Right. So it’s like, yeah. So it’s curiousness, right? Bring, bring people in, invite them warmly, welcome them. If they become a B Corp certified, fine.

Luke Faccini (44:35):
If they’re conscious capitalists fine. If they 1% for the planet, fine. I don’t care. The methodology just come be with those that are also feeling that the high vibe people that are doing something cool in the world. So good North is that, and we’ve got events on, well, online events are speed networking events, and we’ve got an in-person event next week. So yeah, I love it. It’s it’s um, it’s electric. So if you, um, want to connect with me, I’m on Instagram and I’m on LinkedIn as primary channels. Uh, my name is fairly unique. So if you search that, you’ll find me

Sebastian Naum (45:10):
Good for Cine. Yeah. Yes. I love that note. Yeah, definitely. Anyone listening, check it out if you’re purpose curious, love that. That’s, that’s really cool. And if you enjoyed this episode, please share with a homie, put her in your story, subscribe, do something cool like that, write a review. Um, but anyways, thanks so much for being on Luke. Uh, this was super cool. I loved it. And, you know, I, I always learn new things and this is like my jam, like, you know, you know, purpose led brands, conscious capitalism, like this is my thing. And just talking to you for, you know, 40 minutes or so here. Like I, I get reinspired and refueled and I learned more about it. So thanks for being on brother and, uh, keep doing you, man, man,

Luke Faccini (45:59):
My pleasure and I feel the same way. So thank you. Thank you for having me and keep it up.

Sebastian Naum (46:04):
Thanks brother. Thank you.