Jan 15, 2021
*Explicit language warning in this episode
"You don't have to solve all the world's problems in one go... You
can't solve it all once, but just start doing any something better
than nothing."
–Stephen
Lease
Stephen Lease is the CEO and Co-founder of goodr, a company that
makes sunglasses that are fun, functional, and affordable.
Sunglasses for people who think running is fun. Stephen is an
entrepreneur at heart and after five failed businesses, goodr
became the one that soared. In this episode, Stephen and Tina
reflect on his company's response to a controversial social media
post and its evolution since. Stephen shares his own journey as a
runner and what it means to merge his love of the sport with his
knack for being an entrepreneur, and doing good for the
planet.
Pineapple Gate and Owning Mistakes
Companies are people, and sometimes people make mistakes. Stephen
recounts how a few years ago, goodr posted a photo on social media
that received a lot of backlash. It was a result of not having the
right checks and balances in place. Since then, goodr has been
doing a lot of behind the scenes work to ensure this doesn't happen
again, and to have much more empathy for the
world.
“It was not okay,” Stephen said.
“We
didn't have the checks and balances that we do now, but we got to
learn from it. We now review everything as a committee so that
multiple eyeballs are on it. There’s an approval process of names
and copy so that this doesn't happen in the future.”
Fail while daring greatly
We live in a world where it's easier to point fingers than it is to
look inside. Stephen quotes Theodore Roosevelt’s famous“A Man in
the Arena” speech reflecting on how sometimes it's better to fail
while daring greatly than not playing the game at
all.
Running Journey
Stephen didn't start running until later in life. He ran his first
marathon when he was 30 then got into ultras in
2017.
“One of the funnest things about running,” he says,
“is
there’s just always somebody around the corner that is way faster
than you. And I remember meeting people who are 100 mile runners
and then saying outlaid to myself,
‘there's
no way I would ever do that.’ And flash forward to being around
enough people. Enough friends. Then all of a sudden, something that
seemed unobtainable in a moment is like, this
is
obtainable. It's not gonna be easy, but I could prove to myself
that I could do it.”
The Perfect Storm
“I love entrepreneurship and starting companies and business
culture. And I loved running. So talk about a perfect storm of
things. It all enabled me to marry two sides of my life that I
love.”
Stephen also admits to his privilege as a white heterosexual male
in America. He says he grew up in a lower middle-class family, but
his parents didn't push him to be anything he didn't want to be. He
was problem-solving for himself early on and met his co-founders of
goodr back in high school.
goodr
For the Planet
goodr is part of 1% for the Planet, a nonprofit founded by
Patagonia for businesses and individuals to commit to donating 1%
of their top-line revenue to causes that benefit the Earth.
Additionally, goodr has purpose projects where everyone spends 10%
of their time on nonprofits or art-related projects. That's where
the idea came for becoming a carbon-neutral company. To the team at
goodr, it’s important for them to offset their carbon footprint as
a way to allow athletes– runners, cyclists, golfers– anyone who
wears their sunglasses, to feel they too are protecting the
outdoors.
“You can't solve it all once, but just start doing any something's
better than nothing. Progress, not perfection. That's the I think
that's the biggest message with the environmental movement,”
Stephen says.
Resources:
Go here
to get 15% off at goodr
Thank you to my wonderful sponsor Momentous, Tina podcast ad,
Athletic Greens for sponsoring this episode of the Running for
Real Podcast.
Here is a brand new sponsor,
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Launching my new podcast with my co-host Knox Robinson from my 200th episode in
February. These episodes are going to go a bit deeper when it comes
to the running world and the problems we are facing. I am very
excited to have Tracksmith funding this project for us. If you want
to sign up to be the first to know more about this new podcast sign
up here to get more information.
Thanks for listening! I hope you enjoyed today's episode.
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Thank you to Stephen, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on
the show.