Impact entrepreneurship (aka “social entrepreneurship”) happens when we bring together the mission and heart of a charity model of change and the efficiencies and accountability of a business model. In “Corporate Social Responsibility” models, the main focus is often still profit, but in impact entrepreneurship the “profit” is sustainable impact for the common good.

In this episode, I chat with Michael Martin, Google’s APAC Energy, Infrastructure & Sustainability Data Center Portfolio Manager and the Founder - John E. Martin Fellowship & Mental Healthcare Challenge. Michael shares his lessons learned in sparking innovation in workplace mental health with national social enterprise-style innovation challenges among some of our brightest groups of students.

Here are his three tips:

1. Vulnerability = courage.

2. We don't fail, we learn.

3. Catch people doing good things.

John E. Martin Mental Health Challenge Video

About Michael Martin

Michael, a first-generation college graduate and Vanderbilt, Berkeley, and Harvard alumnus, is a goal-oriented and detail-oriented systems and strategic thinker, consensus builder, self-starter, and problem-solver who has a wide breadth of professional and volunteer experience across the APAC region, the U.S.A., Latin America, and Russia. He has held a diverse set of leadership positions in the energy (renewable and traditional), sustainability, infrastructure, philanthropic, and start-up spaces, where he has utilized robust stakeholder management skills to drive meaningful action that has resulted in long-lasting and measurable impact.

Outside of work, Michael, a husband and father, has dedicated himself to: 1) his family; 2) establishing both the John E. Martin Memorial Fellowship and the John E. Martin Mental Healthcare Challenge; 3) participating in and leading Habitat for Humanity International - Global Village trips; and 4) competing in ultramarathons and endurance races throughout the world.

His guilty pleasure is theater. He is a devotee of Broadway. Without a musical (or play) a month his soul feels incomplete.

Show Notes

About Michael Martin and the John E. Martin Mental Health Challenge

Michael Martin

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelpmartin/

John E. Martin Mental Health Challenge: https://www.healthcareathaas.com/mental-healthcare-challenge

About Impact Entrepreneurship

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Definition of Social Entrepreneurship: Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition https://ssir.org/articles/entry/social_entrepreneurship_the_case_for_definition

Ashoka on Social Entrepreneurship: https://www.ashoka.org/en-us/focus/social-entrepreneurship

Duke University: Social Entrepreneurship is About Innovation and Impact, Not Income https://centers.fuqua.duke.edu/case/knowledge_items/social-entrepreneurship-is-about-innovation-and-impact-not-income/

Social Enterprise Alliance: https://socialenterprise.us/