Intro/Outro (00:02):

Welcome to Logistics with Purpose presented by Vector Global Logistics. In partnership with Supply chain. Now we spotlight and celebrate organizations who are dedicated to creating a positive impact. Join us for this behind the scenes glimpse of the origin stories change, making progress and future plans of organizations who are actively making a difference. Our goal isn’t just to entertain you, but to inspire you to go out and change the world. And now here’s today’s episode of Logistics With Purpose.

Enrique Alvarez (00:35):

Welcome, welcome, welcome, and good morning to another episode of Logistics With Purpose. I’m your host, Enrique Alvarez, and today, unfortunately wouldn’t have Christie. So shout out to Christie. She’s been my co-host for many, many interviews, and she is finally on vacation. She’s a incredibly workaholic, so I’m happy that she’s somewhere resting and taking good care of herself today. And without further ado, I have a really good friend with me, a person that’s not only incredibly successful, but very interesting and continues to push the boundaries of giving and purpose-driven organizations and entrepreneurship With me today. Masami Sato Masami, how are you? Doing

Masami Sato (01:17):

Great. Thank you, Enrique. And I’m today in London tuning in from London, and it’s beautiful over here.

Enrique Alvarez (01:24):

And we’ll talk a little bit about that because Masami spends her time between London, New York, Singapore, and she travels around quite a bit, but we’ll talk a bit more with her in a second. Let me give you a little bit more context around her. She’s a remarkable social entrepreneur, a great speaker, a change maker. Masami is the founder and CEO of B one G one by one, give one originally, and we’ll talk a little bit more about that during our interview. Global Giving Movement and B Corp certified organization that helps businesses create impact into everyday activities. BYG one has also become an official 1% for the planet giving partner and has been recognized with the Sustainable Business Award for SMEs, small and medium sized enterprises. Masami is a two-time TEDx speaker, an Amazon bestselling author of not only one, but not 3, 2, 4 books. And then finally is for the Inspired Leadership Award. Our work is a powerful reminder that small actions done consistently can change the world, which is I’m a huge, huge fan of this kind of compounding philosophy that you just have to do something even small, but just if you do it consistently and it’s compounded over time, it’s basically unstoppable. So Masami, so great to see you here.

Masami Sato (02:41):

Thank you so much for having me. Enrique,

Enrique Alvarez (02:44):

Before we started recording, you’re telling a story a little bit about why you’re in London today, and it has to do a lot about tennis and Wimbledon for all those sport fans out there. Can you tell us a little bit more why you’re in London?

Masami Sato (02:56):

Well, I’m in London for multiple opportunities such as speaking as well. But one interesting thing I got involved in, or I got invited to was to be part of this interesting mentoring program that goes on for the next year, and group of mentors, including me setting out to mentor some of the top tennis pro players existing and just retired players to work with them on the next year to explore their future career. So when tennis players, when they graduate from the main tennis career, then many of them may consider entrepreneurship today. So I’ve been privileged to actually be part of it and just had a really beautiful private tour into the backstage of Wimbledon where we went through all the canteen or treatment room or ice bath or the corridors where the players walk through. And so that was actually just a fantastic experience.

Enrique Alvarez (04:00):

It sounds amazing, and I think you like tennis too, right? So

Masami Sato (04:04):

I love tennis. I play at a hobby level, but tennis is such an interesting sport and you may not notice, but they say that the people who play racket sports, including tennis, tend to live longer,

Enrique Alvarez (04:18):

Definitely longer than people that are playing soccer and use their feet for sure.

Masami Sato (04:23):

Well, yeah, but there are some interesting studies, so if you are interested, you can check it out.

Enrique Alvarez (04:30):

Absolutely. Well, and it must have been dream right for a good tennis player to come to basically the most iconic side for tennis in the world. Did you picture yourself having a professional tennis career as you were visiting all the No, no, no. Well, I’m not. Did you feel like part of the how I

Masami Sato (04:52):

Love playing tennis because it’s such a lovely social thing to do. I love also running, and instead of just playing sports or doing your own exercise, when you get to do sports socially, it opens up a lot of interesting conversations too. So I love tennis, but it’s very special to actually be in the space. And it wasn’t even during the tournament because it was a pre-tournament time that we went through the back gate, so it was pretty quiet, but then it was kind of filled with this sportsmanship spirit and some part of tension before the tournament and championship began as well. And we were just bumping into people like Kovi, Alcaraz Sinner, and Naomi Osaka, Coco golf. And so it was really surreal, but actually what we experienced and took away was interesting because we realized that the sportsmanship, if you think about this and thinking about how many of the sports players or artists might also consider entrepreneurship as the part of their kind of ongoing career is interesting because I think in the space of entrepreneurship as well, there is a lot of this learning to perform at the top level, but there is so much that we do together with our peers and to advance our spirit of mastery of something that we totally believe in.

(06:17):

So I think the tennis involvement in tennis is such a unique way to actually reflect on the spirit of entrepreneurship at the same time.

Enrique Alvarez (06:26):

Well, congratulations again. I mean, you’re breaking a new barrier and of course you’re setting another example for a lot of people out there. You’re inspiring them with this entrepreneurship spirit. And of course, I’m sure that the tennis players that are talking to you and you’re having a chance to mentor them are going to be very happy and glad they have met you. So congratulations again, Masami. Very quickly changing gears a little bit here. Let me start with some quick questions. You don’t really have to think about this, it’s just whatever comes to mind first and let’s see how you do. There’s no wrong answers, of course. And let’s just start a couple of questions and we’ll start with the regular interview. You ready? Sure. Alright, let’s do it. What is your favorite book?

Masami Sato (07:09):

Actually, I like this compound improvement. So for example, part of habit is one of my favorite book, which really shows us how changing the little things that happens in our everyday life has a significant impact in our future.

Enrique Alvarez (07:24):

What about a quote that inspires you?

Masami Sato (07:27):

I think there are lots of quotes, but I think some of the simple but the powerful ones, first of all, Maha Ma Gandhi said, be the change. Just simply be the change. And another thing that Mother Teresa said was that the problem of this world is not that we have just big problems we cannot solve, but it’s that we set our family cycle too small.

Enrique Alvarez (07:50):

That is powerful. Early bird or night owl? Oh,

Masami Sato (07:53):

Early bird for sure.

Enrique Alvarez (07:55):

What is your favorite place to be?

Masami Sato (07:58):

Oh, place to be here.

Enrique Alvarez (08:00):

And last one, your food.

Masami Sato (08:02):

Oh, favorite food. Oh, it’s hard to say, but I would pick two things. One is this smelly, stinky Japanese fermented beans called a nato and another one that’s a dessert. Oh, no, no, no. It’s a savory food. We eat it all the time and it’s apparently very good for hot health and gut health. But another thing that many people also is perhaps avocado. I am a big avocado

Enrique Alvarez (08:28):

Fan. Avocado’s from Mexico.

Masami Sato (08:31):

Yes.

Enrique Alvarez (08:32):

Thank you. Thank you so much for your answers. And now if you don’t mind, let’s start from the beginning. Tell me a little bit more about your background, your childhood. Where did you grow up, what kind of started to inspire you to become the leader that you’re

Masami Sato (08:46):

Now? So I’m Japanese and when I was growing up I was extremely shy and introverted. So for me, expressing myself was enormously difficult and speaking up in the class, I was terrified.

Enrique Alvarez (09:07):

I became such a great speaker. You have two TEDx thoughts and get invited to speak. Go ahead. So you were shy when you were younger?

Masami Sato (09:14):

Yeah, I was still shy by the way, but when I was growing up, my parents were very hardworking and they were hardly at home. And also my dad under the stress and the pressure of being in the corporate world, he was often at home being angry. So I grew up feeling that I didn’t have a place to fit in, but there was one place I really enjoyed being in, which was at my grandparents little family business. So they had a little tiny shop in Tokyo. And so from the age of two or three, I started to help my grandparents in their business and sweeping the floor.

Enrique Alvarez (09:57):

What was the shop about? What did you

Masami Sato (09:58):

Guys, oh, it’s just a general store in the neighborhood. They might sell bread or general supplies and stuff like that. So the business itself wasn’t extraordinary unique, but it was embedded in the local community there. And so I learned from my grandparents about running a business and how everything worked. So during that time I became very curious about how everything worked because business is also learning about how everything worked, how customers come and how suppliers deliver stuff, how to stock the shelf in the right way. So I questioned a lot of how or how come or so when I graduated from school and had an opportunity to either apply for a job or do something else, I chose something else. And

Enrique Alvarez (10:52):

Yes, I love that there’s something else for sure.

Masami Sato (10:55):

Yes, and that’s something else, but pretty much of an unknown. But I decided to go out of Japan. I was of course scared, right, because I was introverted to person, but then I was just so curious about what was happening in a bigger world. So I left to Japan initially planning to spend eight months in Canada to study English, but that eight month ended up few years or several years of traveling. So I never wanted to go back anymore after I left. Well,

Enrique Alvarez (11:26):

Before you run too ahead of this, I just wanted to touch a little bit on your grandparents and your parents. They seem to have given you the tools that you needed to go out, not you say it very casually, but to live in Japan never been out and then just deciding to go eight months out, which turned into years and we’ll find out more about it in a second. It’s not as easy as it sounds. So do you remember a quote or a story from your parents maybe that kind of shaped you in that way that you were able to overcome the fear, guessing that’s what it’s, and then just go by yourself and do what you needed to do?

Masami Sato (12:04):

I don’t think the challenge was the fear, but challenge was probably money. For example, how do we have enough money to do something like that? And so throughout my school life, from starting from high school every year and every day I had multiple part-time jobs to manage so that I can keep saving up more and more money to do something. So then another thing was, another motivation was because I just wanted to leave. I didn’t feel I fit. And so initially to me it was kind of running away from what I didn’t want or so that was a strong motivation for me to actually be able to go out of my country. Today I feel different, but then at that time it was the reason. So anyway, I am feeling very grateful now of all of the things that happened. But again, sometimes in life you do things because there’s a strong motivation that’s driven through pain or fear or difficulty.

(13:06):

So for me, when I left Japan and feeling that I didn’t even fit in my own community or own school or own family, what I experienced once I left was amazing because I started to live with people I didn’t know or connect with people, total strangers. And these total strangers became my lifeline because I couldn’t speak English or I didn’t have a lot of money or I didn’t have friends, so I had to rely on strangers a lot. But then during that time, some of the people who helped me everywhere I went but enormously kind and I started to feel that I didn’t have to try so hard to pretend to be somebody else, so I let go. And without being able to speak the language, because that also helped me in terms of letting go because you just couldn’t keep trying to say the right thing anymore because you couldn’t say anything much.

Enrique Alvarez (14:07):

You really couldn’t speak the language.

Masami Sato (14:09):

So I just became a simple person and I was definitely vulnerable because I didn’t have a lot of money and I am small person and I was young at that time. So actually being vulnerable and open allowed me to actually experience people’s kind of kindness and magic of human spirit in a totally open way. So that’s the time where I started to feel that actually world was amazing place with amazing people and instead of seeing each other as different, I started to see that we all had something in common.

Enrique Alvarez (14:47):

Wow. It’s amazing that when you, and this happens to a lot when I travel, right? I mean you realize if you’re open, which is the hardest part, you’re right, try to be open and let go and kind of put your guard down and make sure that you experience the world for what it is and you feel that people are a lot more similar to you and a lot more kind and happy and thoughtful and caring as opposed to what we’re somewhat used to read in the papers and reading all the news and all that. So that must have been a very incredible and powerful experience that I’m sure you then used to continue your successful career.

Masami Sato (15:28):

So at that time I didn’t know what I was really looking for and I think I was on my soul search, but I really didn’t have a specific aim or purpose or destination. But what happened was during that time when I was experienced this profound sense of connection, I also started to see some of the disconnects in the world, such as in some part of the world people are living in very nice houses or have bigger cars, but then many of these people, some of these people want totally fulfilled with what they had. And same as my parents, they worked so hard and our life was becoming a little bit better off materially, but then actually we didn’t feel fulfilled by that. But then when I went to another part of the world, there were people who had very little no living on the mud house with mud floor and they had a little to eat, but there were very happy to share what they had with me.

(16:26):

And when I got invited to eat with these people who seems to have so little, I initially feel conflicted. I didn’t know whether I should be taking their food, but sharing in their giving spirit brought us all close together and felt all of us feel more abundant. So I just started to feel like why is this happening in one part of the world? Even young children are working and they can’t even complete primary education or people with a physical disability had to fend for themselves on the street, but then the world is not there to help them. So I didn’t know what to do in this process, but then I just kept moving and moved on saying to myself that, oh, I’m just a little person. I don’t know how to solve the big problems in the world and help everyone. So that’s how I went on.

(17:16):

But then several years into that, when I became a mom by accident and I had my daughter, and one day I was looking at my daughter in my arms and feeling this enormous sense of love and connection that I never felt. And at this point of time for me, the faces of children of my backpacking days came back to me and I started to think I am committed to do anything and everything I could to make sure my daughter grow up safely, happily healthy and have great opportunities in life. But there are so many other kids who don’t have that. And if my daughter happened to be born in that circumstance by chance, and if the entire world gave up on her and said, we are all too small, we can’t help. We don’t know how to fix big problems, so do nothing, then I felt that it shouldn’t be. So I decided to do something whatever small that I could do, and at that time, three month old baby on my back, I started my first business that was 24 years ago.

Enrique Alvarez (18:23):

That is unbelievable and very powerful. Thank you so much for sharing the story. I mean, people can listen if they’re not watching you, just how comfortable you are being who you are, and I think that’s an incredibly powerful thing for people to have and it’s so hard to pull off, but you make it just look so easy and gracefully. Is there any trick? I mean you mentioned a little bit about when you found out that you had to let go, you had to be vulnerable, and then you just decided to this is who I am. I cannot give a lot, but I can give a little and I’ll just keep going. Is that ingrained in some type of mindset? I mean, what do you attribute that to? Because it’s something that’s very powerful and it comes very naturally to you.

Masami Sato (19:07):

I don’t think it came always naturally to me because when I was younger, I was quite judgmental about what was happening in the world. So after traveling around the world and seeing some of the kind of a negative impact activities of businesses or consumerism had on the world, I felt that perhaps consumerism was the source of evil. And then I decided at that point of time, I decided to not be part of consumerism and then said, I’m going to move to a countryside, so I’m going to figure out how to create a self-sufficient life. So in a two year period when I was in Japan, I moved to a countryside of Japan and lived with farmers trying to find sustainable way or self-sufficient way of living to grow food, to make everything. And I did that for two years. During that time, what I learned didn’t end up making me successful in what I thought I was going to do, which was to become totally self-sufficient, to be able to make everything and not buy anything. I didn’t become successful in that, but I learned so much from farmers

(20:20):

And I learned very simple essence of how they created sustainability or abundance, long-term abundance, which was very, very simple, which is to give back to the soil, create fertile soil, and respect the nature, go with the circle and the cycle of nature and create a trusting community around you. So we would be working together and helping each other regardless of good times and bad times. When I had that experience, my perspective really changed over time and I started to realize that I was wrong, to be so judgmental and to say my parents were wrong because they were doing this or their businesses were creating issues. But what I realized was that actually everybody wanted to create the same thing, which was happiness for themselves, happiness for their own family and loved ones and long-term abundance for the people they cared about as well. But it’s just that sometimes what we were doing wasn’t naturally leading to the outcome we wanted to create. In a way, when I moved on from the farming period of my life, I became pretty curious about the roles that the businesses could have in the world and because perhaps that in the business world, the same philosophy existed just like the farmers businesses are here to create abundance, but then in order for us to create a long-term sustainable abundance, we have to create a fertile soil,

(21:55):

Which we are based on, and that is to really take care of global ecosystem market to place the people in the supply chain and everywhere around the world. So that’s kind of like back, right?

Enrique Alvarez (22:07):

You got to give back to the soil in order for the soil to continue to give to everything else.

Masami Sato (22:12):

Yeah, correct.

Enrique Alvarez (22:13):

With that perfect analogy, and for our listeners that don’t necessarily know what B one G one is, tell us now you come through all those different stages of your life, you come to realize you have to let go. You realize that you have to be vulnerable, you have to trust people, and then you came up with the perfect kind of way of doing it with BYG one. So tell us what is it, and then what inspired you to start this journey and how has the mission evolved over the last year?

Masami Sato (22:43):

Okay, so just going back to that part where I started my own food business, for me, food was my passion because I believe that the food really brought people together. Food was a source of our wellbeing, the connection and family life. And so for me, it was natural to go into food business.

Enrique Alvarez (23:04):

So this was your farmer face

Masami Sato (23:06):

After the farmer when I became a mom and I was at one point of time living in New Zealand and I gave birth and I started my very first business that’s after pharma, so was Canada,

Enrique Alvarez (23:18):

Japan, you moved to Canada, you stayed there for almost two years, then New Zealand,

Masami Sato (23:23):

Then New Zealand at one point I in New Zealand and with a baby, and I started my initial business with three months old baby on my back. But the idea was that when this business succeed, I was going to give all the prophets away to help street to children so that they can have access to education and nutrition. So that was why we started the business in the first place. Then what happened was fast forward five, six years through all of the struggles and the challenges which we went through through our business endeavor. At one point of time, my company has grown to a frozen meal, healthy food, frozen meal production business in Australia, and I had a distribution channel of our wholesale frozen meal product to over 150 stores in three different states across Australia.

Enrique Alvarez (24:17):

That’s incredible. Wait, what kind of food were you selling?

Masami Sato (24:20):

We were doing organic, natural, organic frozen meals pre-made, so families could just pop that into oven and eat. Then at that time, even with the business growing, we were always busy. We always had no time, and we were putting all the proceed back into the business to have another freezer room or better packaging or all sort of things. At one point of time, I pause for a moment and pondered that on the fact that even though we worked so hard seven days a week, 16 hours a day nonstop with two young children, and we were still saying to ourselves that we were not ready yet to do great things because we had to grow our business bigger or have a more profit or better distribution and so on. So anyway, this thought came to me and then I thought, what if instead of trying to do big thing one day in the future, what if we did something small and did it every day?

(25:27):

So yeah, the idea was the kind of origin of V one G one because that was every time we sold our food we give a meal. So that was kind of initial buy one, give one story. But then about seven months later after we implemented that in our own business, another realization came to me and I thought this has been so transformative for our business to be able to make active kindness and tangible positive impact into as one of the ingredients of our food product. That was very special, but what if we did this with so many other businesses together? That was the kind of moment I realized the profoundness of this concept, and then we eventually decided to sell our business in Australia and move to Singapore to start V one G one as the initiative that created the model and the platform and system and the process to help small to medium sized businesses around the world to implement these active kindness in what they do. So that was 2007, so it’s been 18 years of working.

Enrique Alvarez (26:36):

Wow. Well, congratulations once again. Going back to the food company that you had and how you were selling it, it seems to me that the fact that you were a purpose-driven organization and you realized that at some point and you started to kind of buy one and you gave one, it was the first B one G one model. So how can you link success and the fact that you ended up exiting and selling the company very successfully to the fact that you were, and we get a lot of this question in the conscious capitalist community and the B Corp community and all the purpose-driven communities out there. It’s like how do you make the business case for being purpose-driven?

Intro/Outro (27:14):

We

Enrique Alvarez (27:14):

Have one example of how just this idea you had of giving one for free helped your company and accomplished a lot more than maybe saving those meals.

Masami Sato (27:25):

Okay, so that’s an interesting question because I would not say yes to that question on that point, but I can say something kind of even more profound. That was 18 years ago. So at that time, I don’t think the world was looking for the same thing such as purpose drivenness or ESG social impact. There was no awareness. So in terms of foodbot or food business and whether or not that having this additional purpose element was the attraction for them, I would not be able to say yes to that. At the same time though, there was something much more profound for me because through the journey of that food company over the five or six years when we experienced some of the most kind of profoundly challenging moment, I always came back to this thinking that when I used the travel and the backpacking and when those families took me in when they had so little, they were willing to share their meals with me. And when I reflected on some of the challenges these people went through in their life, all of the challenges that we experienced in our own business and our own endeavor became such a little thing.

Enrique Alvarez (28:44):

You can’t compare yourself to the real problems that some of these families are facing,

Masami Sato (28:50):

And that gave me a profound sense of strength and resourcefulness in terms of coming up with a positive and optimistic views of what else we could do to keep going. And I was not willing to give up if I had this business, that business just for the aim of exiting for more money or making more profit for my own family and own business myself, I would’ve given up many times around, but it was not a question. And I also feel that I managed to go through those challenging times in a positive and joyful and optimistic ways, even though sometimes, yeah, of course undeniably you could get stressed, but actually everything becomes much more joyful. You fundamentally start with sense of gratitude for what you already have, and it is actually the same thing. We experienced some profound, amazing contributions from our team members. We had people coming to work with us, and even though we weren’t nowhere close to paying a fair wage to them, everybody was feeling like they were part of this big mission.

(30:06):

So in a sense, when you yourself experience this profound sense of connection to the mission and the purpose of why you do what you do, you actually somehow attract people who actually resonate with that frequency. And that part I can strongly vouch for the benefits of having the strong sense of mission and the purpose, but how does that get translated into the financial outcome that will be depending on all sort of situations, and then also if you have a genuine intent to do this rather than how do I use this social mission and the purpose into moneymaking outcome? But if you are doing it genuinely and calling for people, customers, team members, stakeholders, even shareholders to come in on the mission and the purpose, I think the benefit can be even more sustainable.

Enrique Alvarez (31:02):

Wow. Well, that’s the answer, right? That’s everyone out there that’s kind of looking for a business case to this. I mean, they can replay this over and over. So thank you for the answer and I really love the way that you actually phrase and the analogies that you use like attracting people from the same freight waves and from the same, that’s just very powerful and you have successfully done that. So you moved to Singapore at that time and then you had the idea, you proved it, you still had something that you wanted to prove, so you sold the company and how did you start B one G?

Masami Sato (31:38):

It was definitely challenging and even more challenging than the food business, even though during the food business we did all sort of crazy things to keep the business going in the difficult times. But B one G one was another case, no comparison because if you are running more traditional business, then you could look at other successful case studies or models and you can try to do better one on

Enrique Alvarez (32:06):

Someone else’s back,

Masami Sato (32:07):

But nobody was doing what B one G one was set out to do. So we had to really learn from scratch and we were determined that this was not just going to be another charitable initiative because if we had to say, oh, we are going to do good things, so please donate to us that way of doing that, that didn’t resonate with me because I’m an entrepreneur. So we totally believe that the initiative itself need to run in a way that adds value to businesses, and then as a result, we actually ask them to pay for the value. But then at the same time, that should create the sustainability mechanism so that when great impacts are created through the work of charitable partners we work with, all of the money should go to them rather than we take a percentage of donation and stuff like that.

(32:57):

So it took a number of years to actually establish the model, learn to figure out how to actually choose the project to bring into our model or how to build the systems and processes and the platform to make it really easy for businesses to say every time something good happens in our business, something great can happen in the world. And then how to create impact report, how to create live impact counters, how to run meaningful event conferences and even study tours to make the social impact and act of creating impact really meaningful for all of the businesses we work with. Not like all of those things took time and that’s why in 18 years of journey, we are just so grateful for the amazing businesses that came on board to work with us even when we didn’t have a lot of value proposition in the same way as today. And today we are still here and those businesses have created more than 375 million impacts and delivering a lot of help to more than 450 projects around the world in over 50 countries. So yeah. So it’s been

Enrique Alvarez (34:11):

Have proven the model, right? I mean, you now have the track record. Now you have actually accomplished so many things. You can prove it. It’s easy, you have the numbers. What is it? I mean, at the end of the day for people that are still listening to this interview, I’m sure they’re incredibly attracted to what you’re saying and you, your personality and your culture that you’re building. So what is BYG one? How does it work? Tell us a little bit more on the practical side of things and then I’ll ask you a couple other questions regarding how well you’ve done so far.

Masami Sato (34:40):

Okay, let me just give you an overview of the initiative. B one G one has a two part organization model. One entity is called B one G one by one K one, it’s a social enterprise, which is also certified B Corp registered in Singapore, works around the world. So this entity build the platform technology, the membership initiative so that the businesses can choose to belong to this initiative as V one G one member. And then they subscribe to this for annual membership fee based on the company side. So we make it still super easy for even startups and tiny micro businesses, but larger companies might want to do more and work with us on the strategic level. So we provide more services, but they contribute more to the entire movement fund. Then we take that to deliver all of the things, including all of the marketing collateral template, impact widget and so on.

(35:38):

So anyway, then when businesses have a B 1 21 account, they can find the project that they want to support and they could actually link that with their regular business activities through API Zapier integration or just automatic monthly recurring impact. So the purpose is to make it impactful but also habitual and then share that with teams and the customers. So it really helps businesses engage their team and the customers and clients into the kind of a moment of impact creation. So then on the other hand, we have a B one G one giving, which is US 5 0 1 C3, and then the entity would manage the giving program. And so the charity organizations can apply to join the B one G one initiative through one G one giving, and if they pass all of the criteria, then they can be invited to list their project and we work with them to look at the project statistics of finance and then do the project breakdown.

(36:41):

So instead of charit saying like, oh, please donate to us like we are doing good, they would say, okay, the cost of delivering access to education to this disadvantaged use is how much, and we can actually quantify it based on the day of access to education week, year and so on, or one tree being planted or one square meter of forest being protected and so on. With that model, we make sure that the contribution coming from businesses amalgamated every month into a reasonable amount and passed on to the charity partners with the breakdown of impact. And then those causes give us updates through our platform so that when members B 1 21 businesses are making an impact, they also understand the meaning behind every single impact that they get to create. So that’s the model of B one G one.

Enrique Alvarez (37:37):

Wow. And it’s like all kind of great technology. I mean, you need technology to actually make this work as efficiently as you guys are doing it. The one part that I am most impressed with is that you don’t have to be a bigger company. You don’t have to be entirely successful, yet you can give at whatever level you feel comfortable giving. And I think that’s one of the big secrets of what you’ve done. You don’t have to be big, you don’t have to be successful. You can just give a little bit every now and then so that you can help others. And I think giving as you go is definitely a very successful model to change a world.

Masami Sato (38:12):

And this comes very much from the learning from farmers as well, because when you understand the creation of real sustainability is about the ecosystem working with the ecosystem and strengthening the ecosystem, then it’s almost like the everyday business actions and activities are part of almost like this microorganism activities, even the pollinations by the bumble bees, because every time bees collect a nectar from flower for their own wellbeing and sustainability, they are naturally pollinating flowers. So that natural act of pollination can be brought back into business too. So it’s not like we are just maximizing the profit at all cost and exploiting our future sustainability. We just need to do micro pollination every time something good happens in our business. And if we do that all together, then we get to see more flowers in the future.

Enrique Alvarez (39:11):

I love that analogy as well. What are some of your most proudest accomplishments so far?

Masami Sato (39:16):

I don’t tend to say I’m proud so much because I feel I’m grateful for the part that everybody plays, but I think some of the moments that made me extremely rewarded to see is, for example, when people who are giving have this profound transformation in their feeling when they realize that the act of giving wasn’t really about helping somebody who had less or lesser. Because often when we are giving, we might think that we better than somebody else, so we would help the people who have less or less opportunity or less skills or knowledge. But then sometimes when we go with a small group to visit the projects and see what kind of amazing transformation people on the ground are creating when we become part of this as fellow human beings rather than people who came to donate money or help people. And when we have this ability to become a learner and recipient of that goodness, and then what happened was that unlocked amazing, profound giving spirit in everyone.

(40:31):

And so the people who, the women in the community who are learning to wear goat and then with the goat that they have in the community, they run goat business and they do accounting to make sure we go and see some of these things and they go like, oh my gosh, how amazing is this? We get to learn so much from the spirit of what they’re doing. These are probably the moment of greatest inspiration and also the pride because I feel like people, when they become the best that they can be, they become the next givers.

Enrique Alvarez (41:08):

Absolutely. And I think you’re right, and it’s something that I try to instill in my kids and I’m telling them this over and over throughout the many years that it went with me. I mean, the more you give, the more you get, and it, it feels similar to me when you say that when you’re trying to go and help other people, you’re thinking of, Hey, I’m better off. I’m helping you because you’re coming from less. But if you really think hard about what you’re doing after you help someone you can see, or at least I see it very clearly, that they help me as much if not more than what I’m trying to do for them or try to help them. It’s a really, really important part of giving, right, making sure that you understand that you’re getting probably more than what you give anyways, so why not keep doing it? Let me change gears a little bit because running out of time, and I’m enjoying this conversation a lot, but I have to talk a little bit about your books. You have written four powerful books, right? From giving business to better Business, better Life, better World, how do you see your writing? And first and foremost, do you enjoy writing? Are you a good writer? And how do you see the writing and speaking, because you just mentioned that you didn’t like speaking when you were younger, but

(42:19):

You were incredibly powerful with words. How do you see that as part of the bigger idea, the bigger strategy behind what you’re trying to do? How are you bringing others into this movement through writing and speaking?

Masami Sato (42:32):

I didn’t realize I enjoyed writing or I enjoyed speaking even before it took time. And I’m 50 years old now, so I wouldn’t pretend that I mastered this early or anything. And even now I’m still learning. But I luckily had some amazing people around me who mentored me, guided me, showed me examples, and I started to gradually believe in myself more, which was probably the most difficult part I have. And I had imposter syndrome, which is very common among many people. So I struggled to believe in me, but then one of probably the most significant moment where I started to change was finally realizing it actually wasn’t about me. And so when you hold onto your own identity or yourself, then you become conscious and afraid of showing yourself or sharing yourself because you feel it’s about you have to prove something. But when you realize that it’s not about you, it’s about this profound magic of an idea that can bring everybody together then for me to share what I a hundred percent believe in and find so much joy in.

(43:59):

And through this idea, I connected with some amazing people, including you and Nick, I get to meet with these amazing people like you. So to me, there was never a shadow of doubt of the magic of the idea, even though I had lot of doubt about myself and myself. So that continued to encourage me, and especially when I stand on the stage in front of big audience, I just remember that it’s not about me, it’s about everybody in this space to feel this profound sense connection and the potential that we all have. Then nothing feels scary to me anymore.

Enrique Alvarez (44:37):

Wow. First and foremost, I am delighted to have met you. So I thank our mutual friend for the introduction and of course, very powerful words. You have a very powerful career, and you actually are really, by giving yourself and being vulnerable and not making it about yourself, you’re really setting up an incredible company, an incredible organization, and it’s amazing. Now with everything that’s happening in the world, media and political challenges and conflicts and policies and all this and wars, where do you see the world going? I mean, what examples or what do you focus on? And then also where do you see the world going? Are you positive about it? What kind of gives you all this amazing positive energy? Tell us a little bit about how you see the next 10 years of the world.

Masami Sato (45:25):

I think of course, when we focus on some of the things happening or news or bigger challenges, it’s easy to feel depressed or pessimistic as well. And I wouldn’t pretend that I don’t have those moments. But the thing is, I think we can only control what we can control, and we can only do what we can do within the limited time we have. And no matter how much or how hard we try, we cannot control the fact that we have limited time on this planet, even if we live long and take care of our health, it’s not infinite. So that means then our responsibility or our opportunity is to make the most of every moment and every day. And so I think if we think about what makes joy and sense of meaning and the purpose in our day and light ourselves up, then we could actually focus on spending more of our time doing those activities that lights us up. And so I think being kind, being compassionate, but having this feeling of connection and connecting with people, not judging and respecting and accepting other people with other views and other things happening, but still taking positive action that we can take today and then to be grateful. So I think that’s kind of the ways that I continue to try to live myself with

Enrique Alvarez (46:53):

Masami. Thank you so much for those listening who I’m pretty sure feel incredibly inspired by your conversation today. How can a business become a B one G one member first and foremost? What’s the easiest way of doing that? And then at the end, what would you tell everyone that’s listening right now so they can go out there and do something simple, small caring act that could actually continue to grow your movement and grow the organization and of course make the world and our communities better?

Masami Sato (47:24):

So first of all, you can learn more about B one G one and join us through our website to b12 one.com. Also, Enrique, if you’re happy to share in the show note, then I’m very happy to share the ebook, the copy of my book in a free format. I’m very happy to share with the audience here. Then also, if anybody’s interested in following my updates or some other insight post, then please find me on LinkedIn. And for all of you that feels that doing something like you don’t know where to get started, then I would say that let’s start small. Because when you actually just take the first action without procrastinating, then we can do it today. Even if it’s a small thing, it’s fine because that takes us to the next opportunity and next action. So if you enjoyed this episode, then please reach out to me or do something, be kind, spread the joy, and spread the kind of kindness through what you are doing, and hopefully we will see you in B one J one as well.

Enrique Alvarez (48:31):

Thank you so much For everyone listening, if you’re as inspired as I am and if you like conversations like the one that I just had with Masami Sato, please don’t forget to subscribe. Thank you so much and we’ll see you on the next episode of Logistics with Purpose. Thank you so much.

Masami Sato (48:46):

Thank you so much too.