Business Innovators Radio - Carolyn Pistone: How to Use Your Business As a Force for Good

Episode Date: January 9, 2024

Carolyn is a committed Earthling dedicated to saving the planet using her real estate license! Carolyn is the President and Managing Director at Clear Blue Commercial. She has held numerous senior positions in the entertainment, real estate, and hi-tech industries. These experiences have inspired her to work to build a supportive, innovative, and collaborative environment for clients, team members, and, yes, even the planet, to thrive.Learn more at: clearbluecommercial.comRebelpreneur Radio with Ralph Brogdenhttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/rebelpreneur-radio-with-ralph-brogden/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/carolyn-pistone-how-to-use-your-business-as-a-force-for-good

You're Bar-B-B-B-Hodding. The station of the planet. Resistance is futile. The revolution has begun. You're listening to Revelepreneur Radio, helping you break the rules and build the business you need for the life you want.

And now, broadcasting his pirate signal from somewhere beyond the status glow. Here's your host, best-selling author, marketing and media strategist, Ralph Brogden. Hello and welcome to Rebelpreneur Radio. It's the show that helps you build the business you need so you can live the life you want. I'm Ralph Brogden. I have talked about using business as a force for good, creating the business you need so you can live the life you want and support the causes in your life that are important outside of business, above and beyond business.

If business is your whole goal in life, wonderful, but I think when business gets tough, it's helpful to be helpful to be helpful. Remember that there is a larger purpose that your business can serve besides just making money. At some point, after you've made money, it's like, well, you know, that's great. But what else am I going to do with my life? What's the money for? Business as a force for good. Today's guest is actually going to discuss how she turns her business and uses it for good. And I think this will be inspirational to you and to me as well.

I'm here with Carolyn Pistone. She is a committed earthling dedicated to saving the planet. using her real estate license of all things. How about that? I thought that was impressive. I love that. Carolyn is the president and managing director at Clear Blue Commercial. She has held numerous senior positions in the entertainment, real estate, and high-tech industries.

And these experiences have inspired her to work to build a supportive, innovative, and collaborative environment for clients, team members, and yes, even the planet to thrive. Carolyn, welcome to Rebel Burnour Radio. Thank you so much for that lovely introduction. I will strive to live up to it. Well, I think you're doing a great job so far, so good. Can't wait to find out more about how you think we can use business as a force for good. I love that you are a committed earthling. What does that mean to you?

Explain that to our listeners. Well, it's been interesting because that term committed earthling is on my bio on our website. And I have had, when I have submitted proposals, I have had competitor competing proposals that made fun of that phrase. And it just makes me think, well, what are you if you're not a committed earth? earthling. I try to look at at who I am and what my purpose is in all things. And I am an earthling

first. I'm an earthling first. And then I'm a human. And then I'm a female. And then I'm a citizen of the United States. And then I'm a Californian. And then I'm a business owner. And so when I look at it that way, but I am an earthling first. I am

committed to this planet. You were born and raised on this planet, right? Pretty much, you know, I haven't left it that I know of. And everybody I know, too, and everybody I serve. And as much as we would like to be excited about extraterrestrial travel and life, the fact is that we are living on such a unique and special planet with a diversity of life that to our knowledge is unmatched. certainly in our universe and perhaps in our galaxy and beyond. So I drive around in my electric car.

I drive around every day and no matter what else is going on, I look around and think, look where we get to live. It's also amazing and beautiful. beautiful. So that's what committed earthling means means to me. Yeah, wonderful. Well, it sounds like that you have recognized the stewardship of our planet and the stewardship of your life on this planet and then creating a business that helps you leverage that stewardship for the greater good. So tell us about your business and how you are saving the planet using your real estate license. Well, I'll give you a really brief origin story. In general, I like to think I'm a really good person, and I want the world to be a better place because I was here. But I was working for a large real estate company, and we were on the 47th floor in a building in San Francisco that overlooked the Bay Bridge. And I was doing property management for them. And I used to love sitting in my office and looking at it.

out over the bay and seeing the port of Oakland and the port of San Francisco, which are two of the busiest ports in the world. And that Golden Gate Bridge is the gateway to Asia and the whole Pacific. So a ton of commerce comes in and out of there all day, and I used to love to watch the ships. And I was there the morning that you may have heard about this on the news, but an oil tanker called the Costco Busan. It was a very foggy morning. It actually hit the bridge. It hit one of the pylons on the bridge. And it drifted off to the side. And when the fog lifted, we could all see this tanker leaning over on its side just spilling its contents into the bay. And I watched it sit there for seven days. And, And I continued to see all the traffic coming in and out. Traffic did not slow down, hundreds of ships coming in and out, dragging that oil back out into the Pacific Ocean. And it's polluting the whole rest of the bay and going up the Delta.

And I thought, you know, if I had dropped a bottle of cooking oil when I was bringing in my groceries, I would close off the front door, I would clean it up, and then I would let people come in and out. There was no mechanism to do that, to shut down that golden gate. And it made me think that, you know, as humans, we have put ourselves above the planet, above animals, above plants. and but now we have put commerce above humanity. Yeah. And that made me really, really want to use my life and my business as a force for good. So now I have a commercial real estate business.

We do primarily large-scale property management and some brokerage for big corporations and government entities. We also are in the process of launching Clear Blue Consulting, which would allow us to operate outside of the state of California and work with big corporations and government entities to do sustainability assessments and look at how they can use their businesses as a force for good, often just by documenting and codifying. what they're doing already. It's often when I talk to clients, they're very, very concerned that green is more expensive. And my first question is, well, compared to what? Compared to not having, compared to sea level rise

and not having clean water to drink and air to breathe and not having a planet that can sustain life, seems pretty expensive to me. But the other thing is that. Exactly right. Yeah. That's kind of expensive. So anything is more cost effective than the annihilation of our planet.

Right. But the other part of that is that the meme, I'll call it, this notion that sustainability initiatives and initiatives towards. reducing carbon emissions and in social justice and all of these things, they're not inherently more expensive. And I've really set out to prove how we can actually increase our clients' ROI and increase our client's bottom line. By doing some of these green initiatives and these changes, there are some interests in the world that profit greatly from this not happening, which is how this green is more expensive thing has been so propagated.

There are so many things we can do every day. And I should go back and say that Clear Blue Commercial is, we're a certified green business, We are a certified woman-owned business. We're a certified small business, and we're also a B-Corp. And for those of your listeners that don't know what a B-Corp is, first of all, Google it. It is a large growing movement of people who are using business as a force for good. So it has made us part of a community of people and businesses. and you may be surprised to note that there are some very large businesses whose names you would recognize,

who are B-corp's. When we first became, when we started our company in 2014, we did it with the intention of getting all of these certifications. We were really planting a flag of, you know, here's what we want to do with our company. We were one of, I think we were B-Corp number 1900 in the world. And this is a worldwide global initiative. There are now a little bit over 7,000 B-Corps in the world, and it's growing on a regular basis. Ben and Jerry's is a B-Corp.

Patagonia is a B-Corp. There are some other big companies that have also signed on to the B-Corp movement. And the B-Corp is really the understanding that we are agreeing to a much larger responsibility than just financial return to our shareholders. We have to prove every time we recertify, we have to prove that we're providing benefit to the environment. We're providing benefit to our communities. We're looking at our supply chain. We're looking at how we treat our employees and who our employees are, who our clients are. What do we do? And what do we do for them? So it's a legitimate way to document the good that we want to do in the world and also join together.

with all these other businesses to do business a little bit differently. Sure. Because there are mandates starting to happen from these big corporations. And part of the impression of Green being more expensive has to do with the fact that there are large systems in place that aren't used to adapting to change quickly. So what are some examples of things that a company might do? I mean, I've got a little bit of experience, not a whole lot, but some knowledge based on previous working with clients. For example, I now forget, geothermal, for example.

Instead of using coal or gas to heat your building, you lay pipe underground, you recirculate the water through the pipe. That helps to offset. It makes it cooler in the summer. It makes it warmer in the winter because the ambient temperature is about the same. same underground regardless. So sure, there's some investment up front to get that system, but then it's eventually you get that back in savings. So, yeah, there's some cost at front.

You save the money in the long run, and you're doing better for the environment. So that's one example of a green initiative or something that would work. What are some others? Yeah, I was going to say I'm pretty agnostic in terms of how we get there. First of all, the greenest building is one that's already built. Because it is, I don't want to say easy, but it is very simple to take land and build a building or a facility with, the greenest innovation with passive solar, with active solar, with geothermal, with all the different things with non-BOC carpet and paint. And, you know, all of these kinds of things.

There's plenty of technology around that. But we have to look at what have we already built and how can we make that as there's a term in real estate called highest and best use? And what it really means is how can a landlord squeeze every last dollar out of their space? You know, can we lease the roof? Can we, you know, lease air rights? Can we, you know, what's the most we can possibly charge? Right. And what's the biggest tax write-off we can get?

And in our business, we've kind of expanded that to the highest and best use is how can we honor the ecosystem in which this building is? And I'll give you one example. There continues to be a huge drought in California, which everybody should be much more concerned about than they are because they don't realize that California is a huge agricultural. state, among other things, we feed a good portion of the world, and we're the fifth largest economy in the world. So we're competing with, you know, we're ahead of about 80 other countries in terms of what we're contributing. Right. So in this drought, we all over.

all the municipalities in California had rules about not watering your lawn. So I worked in a giant office park and I drive in in the morning and you see all the sprinklers going and, you know, running out into the gutters and down into the storm drains. And I reached out to our landscaper on one of the buildings that we manage and said, I want to do a turf conversion. It feels like a sin to have a lawn. Let's remove the lawn. Let's remove the sprinklers. Let's put in a drip system. And then add some drought tolerant planting and something that serves a purpose.

And so we did that. We saved a little water. We were able to do it within the landscaping budget of the building itself. So it was a win-win for. everybody. I didn't even have to ask the landlord because I stayed within budget. It was all great. So we started to do that in every building we managed. I was hooked. And then finally we got to the biggest building that we had that was, that we were managing that was owned by a real estate investment trust out of the East Coast. And I got my landscapers out there and it was going to

cost a quarter of a million dollars to do this. And I, did the math and I was like, okay, that will, first of all, that's about a hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars more than my landscaping budget for the year. And it will pay for itself in water savings in 32 years. And that's kind of a non-starter for any investment landlord. Yeah, I don't want to wait 32 years to get my money back. So how do you overcome that? What we did is we reached out to the city and the water, the water district, because it was during a drought and they were giving all kinds of incentives. And then I reached out to a local nonprofit that was helping people transform their lawns at their homes. And we, and then I went back to the landscaper and said, look, this bid is largely,

it's almost completely labor and materials. If I can get the materials donated and I can get you volunteers for labor, would you do the prep work? Would you take out the sprinklers and do that part of it? And they came back and they said yes, and they gave me a bid that was exactly what that landscaping budget had been.

It was originally supposed to take six weeks We did it in six hours. We got 150 volunteers. We had two bands. We got, we had, there was a massage school across the street. We got them to bring all their chairs over and everybody who volunteered got to get a little massage. There were snacks.

It was, it was a big party. And that, that one, now I did get some questions. When I put in all the invoices, like, why are there massage therapists on the landscaping budget? And who is the bad apple string band? Now, luckily, my husband and I come out of the entertainment industry, so we made this great film about it that explained it and showed us doing it. I explained to them what we had done. I sent them the film. and not only were, not only did they get it, they showed it at their annual shareholders meeting.

And so what we did is we took something that had just been a line item on somebody's investment spreadsheet and turned it into an investment that people all over the country that were investors could feel really good and excited about. Yeah. All of a sudden they're like, yeah. That's a whole publicity thing on top of all the good that you're doing and all the good that you're doing and all the, the financial benefit? Yeah. So it was a win-win. And we did a similar thing on a large,

we just installed, and I say just, I mean two years ago during the pandemic, we installed 100,000 square foot solar array on three buildings that we manage as a subcontractor for a division of the state of California. we were able to do that with no out of pocket from the landlord, no out of pocket from our client, and no out of pocket from the state. We were able to simply get them cleaner, cheaper energy right away that is going to save them money for years to come and is a hedge against inflation because the price of the sun does not go up. That's a good point.

And so I like to say if you're a taxpayer in the state of California, you're welcome. So, but now what you're doing is expanding beyond California and consulting with other companies who could make these changes and also see the benefits financially as well as the goodwill, the publicity, and the satisfaction of giving back to the planet. there are also a lot of there's a lot of legislation and a lot of mandates both from government contracts and big corporate contracts where you have to account for what are you doing what are your green initiatives what are you doing for sustainability what are you and i actually had a client of mine that that is a national organization, call me up and say, we're doing this proposal and they want to know, they want to know what we're doing. And we don't even have a department for that for green stuff. So tell me about those solar panels that you did again. I'm like, well, first of all, here's a video.

But that's what got me started thinking, wait a minute, this is something where we could really help. I get the question a lot. Do you only work with green buildings or do you only work with like-minded clients? I hate the term like-minded, by the way, because it sort of negates that anybody could have a differing opinion and it takes away respect for that. I also feel that we don't get as much impact preaching to the choir. if a large corporation, regardless of what else they're doing with their time and money and product, if they can see an opportunity to get bigger contracts and get more contracts by following some of these mandates,

then we can come in and help them. And what I found is that humans overall are great and they love the earth. and we're finding ways to align business objectives with the objectives of the planet and humanity. Yeah. And that's what we can offer to other companies. Very powerful. What do you think is the greatest challenge? I mean, why doesn't everyone just jump on board with this?

What's the obstacle that you face in getting this message out to the world? world. I think that particularly climate change and climate change leads to a lot of other things that we are suffering from now. Certainly, you know, the pandemic can be linked to this pandemic, because it's only the most recent one, can be linked to climate change. I think that as individuals, we feel like, oh, this is such a huge problem, I can't possibly do anything. Right. And it shuts them down right there. And what I want to tell people is, first of all, don't listen to anybody that tells you you can't change the world.

You absolutely can. You just can't do it alone. And that's why I need to be talking to people like you and you need to be talking to other people. and collectively we can do a lot. And we can also change big business because big business is a giant chip that turns slowly. We can help with that.

And so can all the other B-Corps that are out there, all the different organizations that are trying to do stuff. The only thing we really do because I speak as though I'm a subject-man expert, but what I really am is passionate about this work because, as I told you earlier, I'm agnostic. I don't think everybody needs to do geothermal or everybody needs to do solar or

everybody needs to do this or that. And I and my business are imperfect in many ways, as we all are. And we need to celebrate and document and codify what we're already doing that's good. And then we need to look for opportunities to expand on that. And just by doing that on a daily basis, we're improving the planet and we're improving humanity and we're improving life for us all. I love it. So the website is Clearbluecom in case you want to find out more about that. And you can also Google B-Corp and see what's up with that.

Definitely. Carolyn, what are you working on right now that's got you really excited? Well, I just wrote a book that's going to be coming out in May of 2024. And I was part of an anthology that is going to be coming out in March of 2024, where I talked a lot about the planet, but also. about life in general. My book is called Open for Joy. And it looks, I was originally going to write two books.

I was going to write one that was just about business and one that was just about my personal journey. And I had two notebooks and I found myself holding both of them in my hand frequently, trying to figure out where something goes. And for me, all personal is business and all business is personal. They all live in this same body and soul. And I'm looking at increasing joy in my own life and increasing joy in the world as a result. So I'm very excited about that. I'm very excited about how our business is growing and how more and more people seem.

to be jumping on board and wanting help and wanting to be able to have a positive impact in the world more than just money. And I'm not saying that money is a bad thing because I know this is a business broadcast. Money is just a tool. It's not even really a real thing. That's true. It's not a real thing. And so much of what we spend our focus and our efforts on have to do with money.

And I've been a millionaire and I've been bankrupt and I can tell you I'm still the same person the same way. I didn't change my name or my address. I am still married to the same wonderful person. So it's really been freeing to look more at the overall benefit that can be created through our living activities. And that's what's been the most exciting for me. And we just won 2023 Women Business Enterprise of the Year for WBEC Pacific. So people are listening. Wonderful.

Well, it's really a good thing. and I'm glad that you were able to come on and share your passion for it because it's, I think people do get overwhelmed at the, as they do with so many things, where the problem seems so big and the scale is so large, they don't know what to do. And I think you really have a good gift for breaking down those things that seem complex and overwhelming, making them achievable and doable. not doing everything all at once, but let's start with what we have. Let's start with what we can do and let's do those things. And yeah, so it's going to be exciting to see how far you go with this. Any final thoughts or words of wisdom you'd like to leave with our listeners?

I frequently find that people, when I talk about what I do, people will come up to me and confess. all the things that they do wrong, that they feel bad about, that they really love their, you know, their board F-150 and, you know, or all these different things. And what's important to me is that we celebrate what we are doing. And we don't, all of us are imperfect. And sometimes we like to tear each other down. I will confess to you that I can't live without my long. hot bath, as often as I can. We had,

one of our employees was vegan. And everybody used to tease him all the time about all the exceptions and it was like, oh, you wear silk and you wear leather and you have, you use honey and your tea and, you know, all these things the vegans are not supposed to do. And I thought, why are we pointing out and tearing him down for his efforts when we're not doing anything?

We need to celebrate and learn from that. See, if there's something we can incorporate into our lives. And I'm not saying everybody should be vegan. I'm just saying that we need to look at what we are doing and what we can do and celebrate that. and accept the fact that we are all imperfect in many ways. But that doesn't mean that these problems cannot be solved. Wonderful words of wisdom from Carolyn Pistone using business as a force for good. She is a committed earthling, as we have learned,

dedicated to saving the planet using her real estate license, clear blue commercial.com to find out more about Carolyn and her work. Thank you so much for your time and for being on the program today. I really appreciate it. You bet. Thank you, Ralph. It's a pleasure talking to you. You've been listening to Rebelpreneur Radio with Ralph Brogden.

Download the show notes and much more at Rebelpreneur.com.