Ep. 98 - Jillian Ryan's passion translates into action! She's built a great business . . . but WHY? Because the proceeds help support teaching sustainable skills to abused women! Jillian stands up for what she believes in - corporate social responsibility and making a difference! In her podcast, the Good Office Podcast, she gives companies the blueprint on how to use a business as a force for good. On her podcast website, she provides worksheets and assessments. She feels that, for the first time, we are really seeing large businesses and organizations care deeply about where the products they are giving out are made and who they are supporting. And she and her company, Marie Mae, with practical, professional gifts that give back, are perfect examples. She teaches skills to women who have been abused and sex trafficked to build their esteem and their earning power.
Top Takeaways:
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- Teaching women in Rwanda to think of what to do with their lives and not just survive
- How to grow a side hustle business to a full-time functioning business
- Helping troubled immigrant women with business knowledge and resources to navigate the US job market
- The importance of diversity and ethics when producing for a brand that supports and teaches diversely
Listen to this entrepreneur with a purpose! Learn how Jillian helps support domestic violence and human trafficking victims learn both work and business skills and find a purpose for their lives again.
"Be intentional with your spending; every dollar you spend is a vote for the type of world you want to live in."
Jillian Ryan is the founder and CEO of Marie Mae company and host of the Good Office Podcast. After spending decades advising Fortune 100 clients on how to conduct and facilitate responsible investment in Africa, Jillian Ryan wanted to do more to support entrepreneurs in these emerging markets. She blended her business expertise with her passion for fine paper products to create Marie Mae to make a difference in the world. While launching Marie Mae, she realized that starting a business involves far more than the theory she learned in business school. That gave birth to the Marie Mae Business School which focuses on providing practical business training taught by people who have started businesses themselves.
Marie Mae is more than a simple give back company from their vendors to their customers and clients to the people in their business school. It equips each of its stakeholders to make a sustainable impact through business.
Hear how she is making a difference! Now!
Key Moments:
[2:56] How she got started helping Fortune 100 businesses setting up in Africa, how she started Marie Mae, and what they're currently doing
[5:54] The support that the Rwandese government shows women in business and how Jillian and team helped these women figure out what they wanted to do
[7:37] How she started Marie Mae as a side hustle to fund her business boot camps and then it expanded
[11:22] How her love for paper products led her to start a business on the same and how she's been conducting business
[13:29] She explains how business always found her and how she wanted to create and provide unique amazing products for her clients
[16:27] Helping domestic violence and human trafficking women survivors with business courses to help navigate the job market
[19:20] Entrepreneurship vs. working skills- the advantages of training women with working skills before business skills
[20:35] The artisan groups she works with from Rwanda to Haiti and how her other products are designed and ethically produced
[23:37] Why you should take the leap and just pursue what you want to do
[24:15] She advises young people to ask for help and try not to go in business alone
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