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We interview sustainability leaders across industries to learn what they are working on and how they are steering their companies toward a climate-friendly world.
Alex - 00:00:12:
Welcome to Open Source Sustainability. I'm Alex Lassiter, CEO of GreenPlaces. On this show, I talk with Sustainability leaders to learn how companies are adapting their business models to be in line with Sustainability goals. We believe Sustainability has to be open source to be successful. And these leaders have offered us a glimpse inside their strategies in the hopes that we can all move forward together. We're fascinated by some of the unique challenges these Sustainability leaders face and are excited to dive deeper. In this episode, I'm talking with Annie Field, head of Community Impact at Contentful, a Content Management Platform that enables companies to create, manage, and distribute content seamlessly. While helping businesses build and deliver digital experiences, Contentful is also driving positive change within the tech industry. Contentful has set ambitious Sustainability goals, including achieving carbon neutrality and becoming a zero waste company. They actively encourage remote work to minimize commuting related emissions and embrace sustainable travel practices and are dedicated to ensuring that their supply chain and vendor partnerships align with their Sustainability values. I'm excited to talk more about how they're shaping Sustainability in tech. Annie, thank you so much for joining us on Open Source Sustainability. Very, very excited to have you. I guess to start off, would love to hear a little bit about yourself and your role and then talk to us a little bit about who is Contentful.
Annie - 00:01:36:
Yeah, well thank you for having me. I am over the moon to be, this is my podcast debut. I am the head of community impact for Contentful and I oversee our volunteer strategy, our pro bono program and our climate strategy. So that is my current billing. My whirlwind background was I spent a decade in the nonprofit sector doing everything from food banking to low income housing, refugee resettlement, microfinance and about six years ago, I moved into tech.
Alex - 00:02:08:
Congratulations. It's quite a journey to get to that point. And, you know, I think it's funny at in seeing your title, it includes a number of acronyms related from CSR to ESG. But ultimately, I feel like a lot of these things are related to the same thing, which is, you know, today, businesses can't just purely think about maximizing the bottom line. It's about optimizing for our total impact beyond the revenue that we make, but how we serve customers, employees, investors, Stakeholders, and things like that. But I'm really curious, given the fact that you moved from nonprofit world to profit world. I'm just curious, and I want to dive in a little bit more on that. But but what is like, I guess, at the beginning, what is the biggest difference that you feel like driving impact in the nonprofit world and then driving impact in the for profit world?
Annie - 00:03:03:
Yeah, that's a great question. So it's funny that some things are very the same and some things are very different. So for one, I think in the nonprofit world, when I came into it, it was like, If I want to make a change in the world, my job is the easiest vehicle to do that because I will be there. eight plus hours a day. So eight hours a day of social good and utility equals more impact. So this is the best way to like have positive change in the world. And then, you know, as I went on and I got older and you would like encounter more people like, oh, some people in nonprofit sector are very jaded. Rightly so, they've been doing really hard work for a really long time, likely slightly underpaid or under benefited. And so then I came over into the corporate side and it was interesting because, you know, there's similarities in the sense of I think people are looking for still that purpose, right? And we can say, oh, our purpose is to meet customer needs. And as a person of the business, I'm like, yes. And as a human in the world, I'm like, is that all we get? Is that the best we can do? It was like, I'm gonna spend all these finite heartbeats serving a customer that seems a little bleak. So I think this look for this, everybody is looking for that purpose mountain, right? That's something deeper. And the revelation to me was, how do you find that in the corporate side? If you're not just having eight hours a day devoted in your job description that says you can do that, absolutely, I will always uphold the work of nonprofit workers. They do such critical and important work. And I think it would be, I always say my utopia is not that we all quit and go join nonprofits. My utopia is that wherever you land in whatever sector, you find a way to have positive change and be a part of something bigger. The other part that's been interesting is, I used to joke, if you've ever looked at job descriptions in the nonprofit world, it'll be like, we want a master's degree and you're gonna be the head of marketing and fundraising and run our website and manage 40 like clients and we're gonna pay you $45,000 a year. Wow, that's like a tall, that's a lot, that's a lot under one umbrella. Cut over to the corporate side, I will say, I love my company, they have great benefits. They take good care of me. And I think in the ESG and Community Impact Space, there's a similar sort of like long list of things to do that we're putting under one position. So I've been kind of joking and saying like my nonprofit roots are serving me well. Because even volunteer strategy, pro bono strategy and climate strategy under one person to start and I know, you know, we have big plans to grow. But that's also a tall order. So that's been helpful.
Alex - 00:05:46:
So before we get too much into this, because I really want to dive more into that, talk to me a little bit about Contentful. Who is Contentful? What do y'all provide to customers? And then we can kind of walk from there into what does Sustainability mean to a company like that? But tell us a little bit more about the company.
Annie - 00:06:05:
Yeah, so Contentful is we are a Content Management Platform. And so we sit in your tech stack, right? And we are, if we do our job well, we are where all of your content sits and we can push your content out to different end points. So as I give this brief explanation, and keep in mind, I used to be in sales, I can already hear a technical will be being like, that's not what we do. Like, oh my gosh, my ears are bleeding as she describes this. But basically, let's say that you're a business and you have your website and you also have your mobile app. And currently what it would look like for you to have content is you need to push that out to the web. So you probably have some web developers doing that. You have content editors and you look at it. If you have an app, you also need to have your app developers who are taking care of that and a lot of back and forth with those editors. And then them trying to sync up and make sure that what you see in the app and what you see on the website actually matches each other is a lot of manpower and back and forth. So we work in like the Headless Content Management space, which means all of your content sits in our platform and you can connect using APIs to different outputs. So that cuts down on the number of developers, the number of editors you need. People can just do it in our platform and then push it out to all different points that they need. So at the end of the day, we're like really awesome plumbing that connects your content where it needs to go. So we're not creating your content or writing your content for you, but we're where it sits and where you can push it out to all these different endpoints. And as far as the company goes, actually we were founded in Berlin. So we had two co-founders. I have a phenomenal co-founding story, but they're really the ones, particularly Sascha and Paolo. We're our co-founders. Sascha is the one who's been like this phenomenal champion for our concept of handprints and footprints. And as he's grown and developed the business, he's been like, look, business needs to be a vehicle for like broader good in the community. And when you think of our footprints, like our climate and our footprint that we leave in the world and our handprints, how do we shape the world? How do we shape our communities? So it's been cool because we've had these great tenants of our program that just got formalized this year under the creation of my role and under us signing the Pledge back in August.
Alex - 00:08:12:
That's great. I love the footprints and handprints analogy. We had kind of the functional head of ESG and Sustainability at a company called Yext recently as another Software as a Service business. In more words than that, he described a lot of this journey of first, understanding our impact, and then second, understanding our opportunity. It's this chance that tech companies, albeit not the largest producers of carbon on the planet, have this unique opportunity to help others and to help make this available to people and to inspire the movement and to just use the relationships and where we sit on the planet to be able to help maximize the impact that all of our vendors and customers and employees can make. So maybe talk to me a little bit about why is Contentful, a content plumbing system, why are you all thinking about the same thing? Why is this a part of it? Like why now you're not the biggest producers of emissions on the block by any means? Why are you all tackling Sustainability and what does this mean to, where is this coming from?
Annie - 00:09:22:
Yeah, so it's a great question and I think, you know, it's one of those that like, yeah, from a girl's standpoint, it isn't like, we're not the most mature one in the space written industry. So the why now and the urgency around it. I also think, you know, Sasha, at our last company kickoff, he was telling a story about one of their very early use cases with Jack in the Box. when Jack in the Box would get new employees, they would like print out this massive training manual and they would send it to everybody. And that's how they maintain updates and they would send it all out. And then the realization that they could take that and that using our platform, which can also do localization based on languages and everything, that they could have these endpoints and say, hey, it can be digital. It's kind of like the classic, we cut down on reams of paper and those are all these trees that we are saving. So it's one anecdote, but I think that that, planted the seed to say, oh my gosh, like many tech platforms, we have the ability in the nature of our product, to have this really positive impact on climate and Sustainability. The value proposition of part of our whole platform are these things that we can do to reduce costs, which as we know often then also comes with a reduced carbon footprint. So I really think it's like in our bones and our DNA and then trying to now formalize it and say, hey, what does it look like to not just say, well, it's good enough that it's built into the platform, but as a maturity point and as we, like all the rumors of what lies in the future for us is it just seems like whether you're talking about it from being compliant in Europe. So again, we have a hub in Berlin, that's where we were founded. And so we're really gonna have to be compliant with legislation coming in 2024-2025 So it's like, let's do the right thing and let's not wait until we have to do it, so let's get out in front of it now.
Alex - 00:11:14:
I think that's smart. And I think one of the things that I like about this is... There's a real like pragmatism to this, to some extent, right? When you're helping a client like Jack in the Box or another business do this, you're helping them operate more efficiently. And you're right. There. Most people, lots of people, I think sometimes view Sustainability as this premium. It's, if I'm going to do this, you know, it's going to either, it's going to, it's being a cost center. Like it's going to cost me a lot. So if I'm going to do this, it needs to really be good because this will make us unprofitable or this is going to, we're gonna have to pull up our bootstraps in other places. But there's many cases in like what you're discussing where. being making them more sustainable choice for the planet is actually also one that helps you save money. It's like connecting the dots between reducing dollars and emissions, just wasting less. And I think that's something that a lot of people I feel like don't see as much. I think the reams of paper is a good example of that, but maybe not as much in the application of training platforms. I think that's really smart to think about it that way and it makes it easier for people to do.
Annie - 00:12:19:
Yeah, I agree.
Alex - 00:12:21:
Maybe this is a piece from your coming from the nonprofit side to the for-profit side. These are things that are also really good for business as well. So is one of the things that you've had to do as you've moved from a nonprofit to a for-profit, do that work to say, hey, we can connect the Sustainability goal to the business goals. How much of that is on your shoulders of how do I connect these two things between dollars and tons or dollars and impact?
Annie - 00:12:50:
Yeah. Yeah. I think, as I'm coming to find out, like many things, at the 30,000 foot view, everyone's like, yes, we love impact. We want to help communities. We want to save the earth. And you're like, we're all in agreement about what that looks like. And as is the case with many things in the real world, if you're like, okay, on the count of three, let's all say how we're going to do that. And on the count of three, everyone blurt out wildly different strategies. And you're like, wow, okay. So love that we all see where we want to go. There is not alignment and agreement about how we're going to get there. So that's where I'm like, enter any field. Let's have some conversations about what steps we're actually going to take. And it's interesting too, because it reminds me a lot of the nonprofit work of, I'm sure you're familiar with NIMBYism, right? Not in my backyard. So yes, we should help homeless people. Just keep it away from my house. Not my neighborhood shouldn't do it, but somebody's should. So I think it's one of the, it's a similar phenomenon of you start having conversations and you're like, okay, let's talk about carbon reduction. And people are like, well, you know, but we're going to have to travel. I mean, that's just the part of it. Like they start to get protective of like, yeah, you should go talk to that department or that department about what they can do, but like, don't come at me, you know? So I think it's really sort of a, it's like reframing the conversation. This is also where I'm really grateful. You know, looking back, had you ever told me I was going to end up in sales enablement? I would have been like, wrong crystal ball. I don't think I'm your girl for sales enablement. I am so, so thankful for the time that I've spent in sales enablement and learning sales and learning the business side, because my best path to success, it's a deal, right? It's a big deal that I'm trying to put together. I'm trying to bring Stakeholders on board. We're trying to get alignment. And so, you know, that mentality and really thinking of yourself as a problem solver and getting other people to buy in is to me, how you become just an altruistic, nice to have add onto the business versus baked into the culture of what we do with people releasing the value. And so I think that there's a bit of the, you know, taking a beat to bring people on board and say like, no, I'm not coming to shut down your travel budget. Like that's like, we will need to look at what our carbon footprint is. But there's a lot of things that we can do from a business perspective that are going to not only be good for the climate and be good for our social mission, but also be good for the business. So I think that that is like, that's just been an interesting way to try to approach the work.
Alex - 00:15:25:
Do you find yourself? floating around between different departments. I mean, there's a lot of the thing about Sustainability. I feel like it's so hard is like you said, you have so many hats, but you have to communicate across a lot of different pretty entrenched business verticals between the needs of sales, the needs of finance, the needs of customers, needs of tech, executive needs. Do you find yourself just like playing a mediator between all of that? Like how do you, because I have to imagine that you're having to connect a lot of dots for a lot of different Stakeholders constantly.
Annie - 00:15:57:
Yeah, so it's been it's been an interesting shift for me and my own mindset, as well as just, you know, how I approach the work. So I currently sit in our people team, and I have my boss is a phenomenal champion. figuring out, it took me a minute to get out of the mindset of I need to make the case to the lens of my department versus this is a business position. I mean, I'm the head of community impact. It's a global position. So still respect the authority of your department. But me doing my job means that I'm really spread out over every single department. So and the way that the position was designed, it like I have to be, right? So with compliance and reporting, like that's really coming. That's really a legal issue with cost savings. Like that's a real financial thing that's coming up with our own customers asking us for all of us to fill out RFPs talking about, well, what is your documentation on Sustainability? What do you have? That's a real field organization, sales organization function. So yeah, it's been, I've been calling it sort of like my grassroots campaign. Like in the ideal world, the executives would like wave their magic wands that I know they don't have and be like, ta-da, like we put all other business functions on hold just to double down on everything we put in your position. And the reality is everybody wants to help again, foot view. But when it comes to the details and implementation, I'm very much doing my grassroots, you know, okay, go to the director of ethics and compliance and work with him on this. Okay, go over to the person who's running our RFP software and talk about the clauses that we have around our CSR language. It is more work, but I would like to think that that's how you build something that has state power, right? Because then it isn't just one person said we do one thing and if they change their mind, it crumbles. It's I tell everybody my success is laying myself over everybody else's business objectives. That's how you get like sticky CSR and ESG.
Alex - 00:18:05:
One of the ways somebody described to me one time is I think there's a corporate tendency to make Sustainability like a vertical function, meaning I can hire Annie and we can solve this. But in reality, it's a horizontal function. It's a piece of everybody else's goals and it has its unique expertise and sometimes unique data to be able to help influence it. But you're right. It's legal needs to know some things, but not everything. People ops needs to know some things, but not everything. And it's sort of like going in department by department, helping them understand what the stuff is. But it's not this sort of isolated vertical like you can do with a lot of other business functions, which makes it challenging. But you're right. It also makes it pretty core to what people, how people will build businesses in the next 20 years. Cause the things that you're mentioning between compliance, it's obviously a very big deal between customer contracts. So you're seeing this and stuff in RFPs and part of contract deals with folks. Are you seeing that with like, like any specific types of companies, like who's requiring this stuff in terms of RFPs.
Annie - 00:19:07:
You know, it's, personally, I think it's awesome because it isn't limited to just one vertical or one company size. We've had smaller companies who are like, what are your commitments? What are your science-based targets? Like, why don't you, you know, show me, send me the documentation. And then we'd have large enterprise deals who are, you know, like we're competing with big shops out there and they're like looking for exhaustive RP processes and they wanna see what our commitments are. And that to me has just been, I mean, if ever there was a business case for climate change, that's probably been one of the most like heartening, uplifting pieces to me is when everyone's like, well, what can I do? I'm just a small whatever. And you're like, ask your supply chain, ask your vendors, tell them. And it doesn't have to be an outright, like we refuse to do business with anyone, but they have grading skills, you know, and we get dinged and it makes us less competitive in the eyes of our customers. So that's been awesome. And again, just to see it from everything from other tech companies all the way to fashion industry, car companies, like across the gamut, people have been asking for it and looking for it. And so, you know, selfishly, I'm like, however much money we invest into our climate strategy, I'm like probably starting to make bets I may not be able to cash in, but I'm like, I guarantee we'll bring in, you know, a $5 million deal that's gonna have paid off what we invested. But I really believe that. And I really think that if enough people do it, like that's the whole point, right? Is that we all agree this is just how business should be done, so.
Alex - 00:20:36:
somebody asked me one time on the same subject, they said, you know, don't you think that's wrong for a company to get like a benefit like that? For doing this, doesn't that feel like greenwashing? I said, no, I mean, isn't that kind of like what we want? know, for decades, companies have gotten benefit for polluting the planet, you know, or gotten benefits for doing the wrong thing. Like, don't we want to be in a world where if you do the right things, and you can, you don't have to be perfect, but you can at least be transparent and report it that you actually win contracts. And it does become something where business and the planet sort of aligns together. That's when you unlock like, to me, like real adoption beyond, beyond the obvious view of folks that are kind of branded in that way. I think this is more about a mass market thing of like, how does everybody else begin here? And that makes a ton of sense.
Annie - 00:21:22:
Yeah, and I love to think about that, you know, I always say like I'm not a big one for sort of like the litmus test or the purity tests of like, you know, well, like absolutely greenwashing, not good. And we need to not have people just having hollow statements at Playgate. And on the spectrum of people who are like, look, I'll do this, but I'm only doing it so that we win more deals. I'm like, great, you know, come have a seat at the table all the way to the other end of the spectrum or the purity players of like, we have to do it because you know, and I'm and supporter of everything and you're like, yeah, well good, we're all aligned then. Again, that means we have a real goal that we're all really marking towards even though we have different reasons for doing it.
Alex - 00:22:00:
I like the idea of aligning those goals and those objectives with everybody. If you can help everybody understand where it is, then it becomes the, of course we would do this motion. It doesn't mean the, hey, we have to go buy something or we go have to go invest into it. It's like, of course we're gonna do this. Just like, of course my company is gonna be SOC II compliant, because if we're not, we don't treat data very well. We're not gonna win any contracts and we're gonna open ourselves up to risk. Of course we're gonna do this other stuff related to impact and Sustainability, environmental footprints. We're gonna do that because of course you would, because everybody wants us to do it and it's gonna make us a better company. It's gonna make us hire better, win more deals, be more valuable as a business. And I think that's great. What is the hardest part about mobilizing this? Cause we have a lot of folks that I think listen to this podcast who like ourselves have the heart here. They know they wanna do this stuff. It's not like I didn't know this was something that's important, but they do have a tough time aligning those objectives. If you were to talk to somebody in your shoes, maybe 12 months ago, who didn't have the system built out, but was looking to try to activate this in their own business, who's the first department that you go to and what do you say to them to be able to create to the executive leadership? this is in line with what we have to do anyway.
Annie - 00:23:16:
Yeah. Um, that's a great question. I also am like 12 months ago. What about like four months ago? I am like, there's something that I could do.
Alex - 00:23:24:
Four months ago is fine.
Annie - 00:23:26:
No, I, I totally, I, I so want to iterate. It's funny because I used to, so I used to teach, um, it's called the business Launch Bootcamp shout out to Rocky Mountain Microfinance Institute. Uh, it's a great nonprofit that I worked for. Um, and, and I was a practitioner of microfinance and I taught people how to start running their business and cut the clients would always come and they would say, Oh, you know, but let's just say they, they sold burritos. Well, I might not, I'm, I'm not the best burrito maker out there. So why will my business make it? And I always used to say, you don't have to be the best one out there, but you need to be the one doing it. Like by default, if you commit and you follow through on this and you show up every day, I would, I would wager that you're already in the 80th percentile because you didn't drop out, right? Because you didn't say like, it's too hard and like objectively, someone else may have the better recipe to do it. And if they're sitting in their basement and they never act on it, well, guess what, like now you're, you're the top burrito person. Um, so I think that that feels like. That's sort of the mindset that I embrace sometimes of like, are there people better equipped for like the strategy or with better framework for me? Absolutely. Like I would be the first to say, like I am learning on the daily in this job, particularly when it comes to climate strategy. And I'm the one doing it, right? So that's, so there's something to be said for like that persistence. And I would, for me, you know, I came with the advantage of, I've never made it a role shift of going from one totally different job to another within a company. So it's sort of like you get the cheat sheet, right? When you started a new business and you're like, you have no idea all the politics and dynamics, I came with that blueprint already in mind. So I got a lot of speed when I started. And in terms of like what department, where do you go, where do you start? Probably to a foolhardy degree, my advice is start. Like start somewhere, start, have the conversation. If you know somebody, float it to them and say, you know, hey, why should legal be caring about this? And I start all my meetings telling everybody I don't know what I don't know. Don't assume that I have any, you know, expertise or domain coming from your side of the fence and tell me why this isn't gonna work. And it's been really fruitful because I think people, people really wanna help. Fortunately, like knock on wood, I haven't encountered many climate deniers that are like, get out of here. This is a fool's errand, okay. And then I think you slowly, like, you know, you start putting the puzzle pieces together and you start to reveal who your real champions are. And there's a lot of people who wanna help, but they don't have the bandwidth or they wanna help, but they, you know, aren't a decision maker or a position of authority. But they often have knowledge that's also valuable. So to me, it was less of the like, what's the right starting point and just not letting the paralysis overtake you of saying like, well, I don't know the right starting point so I just won't start anywhere. So I think that's probably the biggest one. And then as you go, you fill in the pieces and you come to find, you know, what are the things really holding people up? And what I've come to find is everybody wants to help and everybody's afraid of one more thing being put on their plate right now. So they're like, I'm all about this, I'm all in. But like, please don't come knocking fast. You know, like I've already got my like.
Alex - 00:26:47:
I can't do anything else.
Annie - 00:26:48:
Yeah, like I'll sign what you need. You know, I can do an hour or two here. So, you know, I think that wherever you start, take the ball as far as you can, do as much of that legwork for them, set up the agenda, like have your specific asks, have as close as you can to saying, look, this is specifically what I need from you. I need this data. I need to know that your team can integrate this one thing for me. And then like, I promise I'll, you know, I'll go to a different department. So yeah, and I think that as you have those conversations, it becomes apparent to you like, well, what is the reason your company hasn't done that so far? You'll start to hone in on like the truth of things. And then again, I credit the sales enablement background be like the first objection you get is seldom the real objection about why people aren't like dropping everything to come help you.
Alex - 00:27:38:
It's interesting. I think of one, I feel like I can just see the nonprofit background coming out of just the resourcefulness of like, how do you do something with one 100th the amount of resources that you actually need to do it? Like, like you just, you just start like that's it. Like it's the same way you like eat an elephant, you just get one piece at a time. Um, the other thing is, is, you know, and I think about this, I guess I laughed to myself with this a lot is like, every year I keep thinking, this has got to be one of the hardest years to, to, to be in tech or to run a business, you know, and then it's like the next year it just gets harder or more confusing, you know, and it just never really does get easier. But I mean, there's a lot of, I have a lot of empathy in that perspective. It, people are overwhelmed because you're right. There's like, profits are constrained right now. Like growth is hard. Valuations are, are, are, are very much different than they were a year and a half ago. That has real implications for businesses and it can be harder. So there is a ton of layoffs. It's not like this is going to get solved in three months. Um, at the same time, you have these realities of, of the planet that aren't going anywhere. And I think there's half of the camp that just says, we just need to scream louder, you know, and, and, and then people will realize, but the conversations I have with folks is similar to yours. It's like everybody I talk to pretty much says, I get it. Like, I know I want to. But it's one of those things where you have, we know we need to do this, but our resources are dwindling. And I was thinking about it, it's like, okay, and then what? Like, it's not gonna get easier next year, but, so what do you do? You either scream louder, you give up, or you just get started and do what you can. And that's just it. You just gotta get started. And as you do, you learn, as you said, you'll find champions, you'll find people that can do a little bit here and there, but I'm a big believer in your mentality around this. I think just like, like getting people together. being practical, taking the ball as far as you can so that people don't have to do everything on themselves. That's how things get started, whether it's Sustainability, whether it's impact, whether it's anything in a business. It just starts by starting. That's it. We used to call it the Patagonia effect, which is everybody, we talked to so many people and they would just say like, We're not this. It's like, we're not patty gunny. We're not Starbucks. We're not meta. We're not. It's like, of course you're not like, you think those things like happened overnight? That's hard. And no one's expecting you to, but get started. Everybody can start. Everybody can do one thing, you know? And if everybody does one thing, everybody takes one step forward. We're, we're a million miles ahead of where we were, you know, six months ago.
Annie - 00:30:13:
Yeah, I joke with my, you know, some of my friends that I talk about like, oh, how's the job going? And on my frustrating days, I'd like, you know, I just want to put everybody in a room and be like, I want to show you this little film. You may remember it's called an inconvenient truth. And like, let's talk about why this is an urgency, you know, cause like that, that's the cynical side. Like you said, you want to be shouting in the wind and you're like, what do you mean this doesn't impact you? Like last I checked, we were all citizens of planet earth. So I'm pretty sure this impacts you. And I get it. Like in your day to day, you know, everybody is like trying to do, everybody is trying to do more with less and me showing up and asking for one more thing. But the good news is, is that, you know, I I'm lucky because I say, I get to see the best of Contentful every day. I get to see people raising their hand being like, I want to volunteer. I want to do this thing for a pro bono customer. I really care. Like, how can I in my own time help for this initiative, which like love me some sales enablement, nobody ever raised their hand being like, how do I just help with sales enablement, you know, their mission? I'd love to on my own time. And you're like.
Alex - 00:31:14:
Well, it's probably the same thing for your solution too, right? I mean, you can build the world's greatest product, but until you can explain it to somebody in a way that they can understand it and they can see that aligns with their goals, you know, that's the only way that actually happens. I mean, the best products in the world if developed in a vacuum and nobody can communicate it. It doesn't happen there either. So this is, this is just like anything else. Somebody, we met with somebody the other day. He said, you know, I, I really per he was a CEO. He said, I really personally care about this. Like I really do. So you don't have to explain that to me, but, but I employ people. My, my employees need to put food on the table tonight. And so it's not that this issue isn't relevant. It's not even that this issue isn't important. It's just, there are a lot of issues. And in order for me to do anything, it, you have to do the work. You have to bring it to me in a way that makes sense to be able to satisfy multiple of my goals. I can't just do it just for the sake of doing it. You've got to be smarter than that. And I always think is like, okay, that's great. This is a challenge. It's a problem. It's a, it's an obstacle you've got to figure out. And that is sales enablement. I mean, that is exactly what that is. So, okay. So this is one of the questions I love to ask because, you know, Contentful, I mean, y'all do so many different things. You're in such a unique place. Love the mission of what you're trying to do in terms of footprints and handprints. What is the most unique challenge that you've faced in this industry? Like what is something that you've had to come across to say that this is maybe as you're doing it, you think, I can't imagine anyone else has had to deal with this challenge.
Annie - 00:32:52:
Yeah, so I think something that has been really awesome is that, you know, there's the pillars of what I do. So volunteer, pro bono, climate. And we signed the Pledge, which is awesome. And outside of that, you know, people are like, we're so excited that you're here. And I'm still doing a lot of education around like, well, what does that even mean? Like, what do I do? And what do we, and so there has been, I have dealt with such a broad spectrum of people wanting to make impact, which I love. Because my ask to everybody at the end of the day is like, for the love of God, put good in the world. I don't care if you're gonna go pull weeds. I don't care if you are like a technical wizard who's gonna volunteer with a pro bono customer to help accelerate their time to launch on this project. I don't care if you're the one that approves my full, you know, like we're gonna like purchase the whole Amazon rainforest. We're not gonna do that. But if we did, if someone could approve that budget, like whatever you can do, go do it. The world needs more good. the in response to that, the spectrum of things that I've gotten that people care about is like, I think in the same day, you know, I got someone was like, Hey, are you the right one to send this to? And it was like, a handwritten note a solicitation from somebody running like the Korean Arts Festival in Denver, Colorado, where I'm located, like, can you help sponsor like our event coming up? And it was like them soliciting funds to be like, it's great. handwritten letter to a corporation. Oh my gosh. And then like an hour later, I'm on the phone with our investors talking about like, what's our ESG strategy, our KPIs. And then you know, the next day is like, I have people the things I found out about other like, you know, volunteer, like gaming competitions that some of like, can I use my volunteer hours to enter in this, you know, like, like online gaming competition, like, okay. And then people are like, can we donate like parkas to someone's school soccer team? I'm like, oh my gosh. So the, like the scope of things that people wanna do is some days like comical. And in my head, I'm like, y'all, if I had a staff of 50 we could entertain a lot more than we can, but like, I gotta stay at my scope for now. And it's also just like so affirming that people care about their communities and they look at the title community impact and they're like, oh, clearly that means we would do this thing, that's important to me. And so I always say that like, you know, if I do my job well, then I will be able to harness the wind that we call them contentful errors. I'll be able to harness the wind of contentful errors and like let them through the ship of impact. I'm like the project manager and the alignment maker. And so, but I tell you, I mean, the spectrum of the requests that I get are people that in their minds, they're just like, man, if there's one thing we could do, it would totally be like, you know, this like donating to this Korean Arts Festival, which again, I'm pleased. quite see the alignment and unlocking digital content.
Alex - 00:35:45:
But I kind of love that because what it says is impact is universally requested or universally important but it's also universally independent. Everyone is going to have their different view of whatever it is and the challenge of this role is like, I mean, technically anything is possible. I mean, to some extent. It could be empowering the Korean Arts Festival, you know, locally in Denver. It certainly could. And who's to say that it isn't the most impactful use. And that's the part that's so challenging, but it's great because you've got so much to work with. Yeah. Because part of this is about trying to create something I'm imagining. You know, you have, you have a specific number of hours that you can work. I'm sure you're trying to find more if you can, but it's where do you spend that to be able to maximize the impact? It's like a, like a different ROI, like a Return on Impact. You know, if you have one minute to spend. Where can you make the most universal impact to the most people to drive the furthest with the limited resources you have? Because the only two things you can guarantee is that there's an unlimited amount of things you can do and there's an unlimited amount of, I guess there's an extremely limited amount of time that you can spend to do it.
Annie - 00:36:54:
Yeah.
Alex - 00:36:55:
So we're kind of getting towards the end of this. This has been an awesome conversation. I feel like I've gotten through like two of the hundred questions that I would have liked to ask you. Maybe we think about this in the next year. Is there anything that anyone can do for you, whether they're customers of Contentful, whether they're employees, investors, Stakeholders, whatever it is, what can someone do to help you achieve your mission faster? Like if there was one thing that somebody could do, what would it be?
Annie - 00:37:26:
Yeah, I think. You know, I... I make this ask, I realize it's a double-edged sword, and I am earnest when I say people who approach the relationship with Contentful Community Impact as a partnership. The very first customer call that I had in this role, someone reached out and was like, hey, this customer, they wanna talk about Sustainability. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is it. This is my debut customer call as head of Community Impact, here we go. And I come on, I have my notes and how we're gonna work together and how we're gonna partner. And they basically, they were like, hey, where's your reporting? And I was like, ooh, hey, we're working on it. We actually had our scope, one, two, three missions, and then the company we were using went under, and so we've had a little pause, but we're getting back on track. And so I was like, so that's coming, but what else can we do? And they were pretty much like, that's kinda all we want. And I was like, oh, okay.
Alex - 00:38:24:
I felt a little shot down.
Annie - 00:38:26:
It was a half an hour call. I have my notebook and we're like eight minutes in, and they're just kinda like, nah, we're good. I just need some numbers. And I'm like, sweet, well, then nevermind. But as I'm earnestly putting into RFPs right now, people are saying, what's your Sustainability program? I put together a documentation. I said, here's our milestones. Here's what we're doing. Here's where we're heading. And I mean it when I say, I'm looking for you to help us partner into not just make this a big, I get it. Again, going back to everybody is strapped and has a million KPIs and OKRs and they're all trying to drive towards and they're like, just give me the data. And I'm over here and I'm like, I'm looking for serious partners and thought leaders who like, how cool would it be? Like I'm new enough and naive enough to be like, let's all work together. But I'm over the moon at the thought of like, the first RFP that comes back that they, and they're like, hey, look, you got a D on the RFP cause you're not as advanced, but we're going with you anyways because we have the ability to help shape your Sustainability program. That would be a total win for me. And that's coming around too with pro bono customers. So we have over 250 pro bono customers using our platform for free. They're phenomenal. And to me, they're just like this untapped goldmine of customer stories of how are they using us? And I sent out, I got myself a little Calendly link and sent it out and was like, meet with me. Like, I wanna know, how are you using us? How can we better serve you? And I think a couple of them are like, yeah, whatever. And I get why people would be jaded about that, but I'm just like this eager kid over here, like come talk to me. And the ones who have comes, really cool stuff has come out of it from people getting into like our early access programs, people who are doing interviews about, early feature releases on the days that it's frustrating to not to have structure and framework and certainty. The flip side is like, I'm in the formative stages, you know? Like, it's this like come pitch and come be a real partner that really wants to do cool things. That's what I think I'm like most excited about both internally in my organization and externally in the community to say like, I don't wanna just do reports. I wanna do cool new stuff. That's like leapfrogging what we all thought we could do in community spaces.
Alex - 00:40:48:
Um, that's amazing. I feel like my head spinning. I'm going to go home and come up with some ideas and just send them to you.
Annie - 00:40:54:
But I'm ready.
Alex - 00:40:56:
look, I am the ultimate like, dreamer and like fan of just dreamers have just like, maybe it is naive, whatever, like, that's how things happen. Like, so put it out there, go for it, whatever it might be, like you'll attract some really random idea, and it'll turn into something, you know, beautiful. And that's that's how everything starts. If we all just sort of check the box, it's all we're gonna ever do. So I sincerely hope that you get that I know that you will, if not, I'm going to come up with something as well. And so they're over to you.
Annie - 00:41:27:
Please do. Like I said, the suggestion box is like me sitting there. There's a box. Yeah. And I'm waiting and I'm eager.
Alex - 00:41:35:
Well, thank you so much for joining today. This has been a fantastic interview. I really appreciate it. What I love about this so much other than just meeting you and kind of hearing your story, you've got, one is this idea that y'all as a business are not just thinking about your impact on the planet. You're thinking about your opportunity for impact, how you'll shape this planet. I think that's amazing. And two is I think there's so much like practical advice here and that's a story that just hasn't been told enough. There are so many people that want to do this stuff but they don't know how, they don't know where to begin. They're nervous about not being perfect. They don't have the budget. They don't have the support, whatever it is. They have a million reasons not to do it. And I think just getting started in any way that you can is such simple, straightforward, and clear, but it is exactly how this stuff works. And so I'm really glad to hear that that's been something that's helped you and my hope is that this inspires other people too. So I really appreciate you taking the time.
Annie - 00:42:37:
Thank you so much for the opportunity, Alex. I really appreciate it. Anytime if someone drops out, you need filler. You hook it up.
Alex - 00:42:44:
Oh, guest host. We've never had a guest host.
Annie - 00:42:46:
I would love it. I would love it. Crush it. I will crush it. We will bring all of my, we can just go through my suggestions for volunteering opportunities and we can discuss them. But thank you so much for this opportunity. I really appreciate it. And yes, may everybody just go run, you know, foolishly into something that 10,000 reasons I'll tell you not to, but like, go do it. Go be the one to do it. And you know, best of luck.
Alex - 00:43:11:
Thank you. I love it. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you to Annie for joining us and thank you for listening. If you liked this show, please be sure to leave us a review and follow this podcast wherever you like to listen. So you don't miss an episode. This Podcast is powered by GreenPlaces. If you're looking to reduce your company's environmental impact and reach your Sustainability goals, visit GreenPlaces.com to learn more. I'm Alex Lassiter, and I'll talk with you next time on Open Source Sustainability.