Business Innovators Radio - The Inspired Impact Podcast with Judy Carlson-Interview with Tamra Ryan, CEO, Tamra Ryan

Episode Date: July 8, 2025

From 2003-2025 Tamra Ryan was the CEO of Women’s Bean Project, a social enterprise providing transitional employment in its food manufacturing business to women attempting to break the cycle of chronic unemployment and poverty. She serves as the Coors Economic Mobility Fellow for Common Sense Institute Colorado.Named as Most Influential CEO and Ten Most Influential Women in Business 2023, Tamra is a former partner and board member for Social Venture Partners-Denver and Social Enterprise Alliance. Congressman Mike Coffman (R-CO) recognized Tamra’s servant leadership and entered it into the Congressional Record of the 115th Congress, Second Session in May 2018. She was honored by the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce as one of the Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Colorado, and in 2022 and 2023 as a Titan100 CEO and Social Entrepreneur of the year by the Colorado Institute for SocialImpact. She was a presenter at TEDxMilehigh and is a highly sought-after speaker for topics such as compassionate leadership and social enterprise.Tamra is the author of The Third Law, a book which highlights the societal obstacles and internal demons that must be overcome for marginalized women to change their lives. The Third Law has won eight awards for women/minorities in business and social activism. Tamra’s latest book is Followship: 16 Lessons to Become a Leader Worth Following.Tamra received her undergraduate degree from University of Colorado Boulder and her Master of Arts and Sciences from Adelphi University. She lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband, two teenage children and two goldendoodles.https://www.tamraryan.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamraryan/**********************************************************Judy Carlson is the CEO and Founder of the Judy Carlson Financial Group, where she helps couples create personalized, coordinated financial plans that support the life they want to live – now and in the future.As an Independent Fiduciary and Comprehensive Financial Planner, Judy specializes in retirement income and wealth decumulation strategies. She is a CPA, Investment Advisor Representative, licensed in life and health insurance, and certified in long-term care planning.Judy’s mission is to help guide clients with clarity and care, building financial plans that focus on real planning built around real lives.Learn More: https://judycarlson.com/Investment Adviser Representative of and advisory services offered through Royal Fund Management, LLC, a SEC Registered Adviser.The Inspired Impact Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-inspired-impact-podcast/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-inspired-impact-podcast-with-judy-carlson-interview-with-tamra-ryan-ceo-tamra-ryan

Welcome to the Inspired Impact Podcast, where dedicated female professionals share how they inspire impact every day. Authentic stories, passionate commitment, lives transformed. I'm your host, Judy Carlson. Welcome to today's episode of the Inspired Impact Podcast. Today's guest is a woman who has a passion for social impact and social enterprise. For 22 years, she led the Women's Bean Project, which provides transitional employment to women attempting to break the cycle of chronic unemployment and poverty. Tamara, Ryan, welcome to the podcast. It's great to be here with you.

I am so excited to learn more about who you are, how you got to be where you are, and all of these people that you've impacted over your life and career. Well, I'm delighted to share. It's been quite a journey. I can't wait. So where do you want to start? Well, maybe we start with what attracted me to Women's Bean Project to begin with. Okay, great. In part because I'm not, by career, I'm not a nonprofit person. And so I, in fact, I started by getting two science degrees. And then I had, an opportunity to work for a social enterprise that was a subsidiary of a hospital in Chicago. And I liked the idea at the time that we were taking ideas from the medical center and taking them to market. And then I did that for a number of years, then worked in tech. And I was in tech from 2009 to 2003. And that was a really interesting time to be in that space. Because, you know,

the bubble was bursting and our company was becoming profitable during that time. And yet, you know, while it was super exciting, I didn't have a connection to the community. And by then I'd move back to Colorado. I'm a fifth generation, Colorado. And I really was craving a connection. So I started volunteering at Women's Bean Project. And I loved the idea that there was a business. There is a food manufacturing business with distribution all across the U.S.

And the better the business does, the more women can be served. And I thought that was a really cool way to operate a business and have an impact on people's lives. And it was about as much knowledge as that at the beginning. It just seemed pretty intriguing. So I found out that they were looking for a CEO as a volunteer. I went on to the search committee. And then I tried to talk a girlfriend of mine into applying for the job. And according to her, I went on and on about what a great place it was.

was until finally she said, why don't you apply? It's just, you know, silly. You're trying to sell me on this. I think this, you're meant for this. And my first response was, I'm not a nonprofit person. And she said, it's a business. And which is funny because that's what I liked about it to begin with. So we know how, yes, exactly. So we know how it turned out. I was the CEO. I just recently stepped down. I was the CEO for almost 22 years to the day. Wow. which is bananas to think about because you never start a job. I don't think anymore. You don't start a job ever thinking 22 years.

And I think initially what I loved about the organization from the outside, I began to really love from the inside because once I was in the organization, I got to meet the women. And so it was very abstract from the outside. but then I got to meet the women as they first started in the program. And then at that point, they weren't really sure what was going to happen. But they were hoping that their life could be different as a result of the Bean Project. And then over a period of six to nine months, that's how long the program is. And so it's six to nine months of employment and program services and stabilization. I literally got to watch women blossom.

And I think, you know, there's not very much. many jobs, even in the nonprofit world, where you get to see the impact so directly. And that's really what got me hooked. As I was there longer, I'd see women who had graduated years before. And maybe when they were at Women's Being Project, they had really young kids. And then their, you know, 10 years later, you know, their kids never knew a time when their mom didn't work. Or they were graduating from college at the same time as their kids. Or, you know, there was just so many amazing things that happened as a result of their time at Women's Being Project. And so that's a big part of what kept me there.

And also, I started in a situation where it really needed to be turned around and grown. So during my tenure, we grew 10x from the starting point. And we, a couple years ago, moved to a new building where. And a month later, we were able to pay off the bridge loan. And so going from a financial crisis to this place where the organization was really solid, it occurred to me last year. Now is a good time, right? I have done my work. And it's time to see what someone else can do.

Wow. So how do women find out about the project? A pretty wide variety of. ways. Women's Bean Project was founded in 1989. And so it's very well known in the community, and particularly for women experiencing chronic unemployment. So often, most common ways a woman finds us is by being referred from someone else who's been in the program. And somewhat, that's an indicator of intergenerational poverty, too, because we would have a woman and her aunt and her cousin and her sister, you know, over the years recently.

there was a woman whose aunt and mother-in-law had both been in the program previously. And so on the one hand, that's really awesome, that we could be there for multiple generations. On the other hand, I think that I wanted to make sure that I went to work every day trying to ensure we provided services so effective and far-reaching that every woman who came to us was the last in her family to need us. You know, wouldn't it be awesome to run out of chronically unemployed women in Denver? And we'd have to do something crazy like hire men. You know, I thought a lot about that.

But back to the referral sources, it's also the justice system. It might be a parole officer or a judge. There are lots of relationships with housing partners. And the great thing about that is when someone's in a housing program, Women's Bean project provides case management while they're working. The housing project provides case management while they're at home. And so that wraparound support is really beneficial. Wow, for sure.

Huh. So they find out about it. And is there some type of a process they go through to see if they qualify for the program? Yeah. There's an application process, just like any job. They can either fill it out. online or go in person to fill out the application. And then we hire four times a year. Right. And every time it's time to hire, we go through all the applications we've received

since the last hire date. Okay. And screen them for, screen them and then reach out to to them and do a phone screening. And a big part of that is to make sure that the timing is right for them. So in a phone screen, they might share that they're looking for a job, you know, after the summer's over because they have to be with their kids. So the July hire date wouldn't be the right one, but we might encourage them to apply for the September one. We're also trying to assess readiness for change because Women's Green Project isn't a place women come to stay the same. Because staying the same hasn't worked for them. Yeah, that's right. And so one of the criteria is that a woman who is hired typically wouldn't have had a job longer than a year in her lifetime.

So the average age is 38. I was going to ask you. So when you think about that in terms of, you know, think about, you know, how many different jobs or how many years you'd worked by the time you were 38. So there's a lot of trauma. More than 90% of the women hired at the Bean Project have felony backgrounds. most have spent time in prison. They're perhaps trying to get custody of their kids back. There's so many things that have gotten in the way of their ability to get and keep employment.

We're looking for women who are ready for that to be different. Wow. So then from the screening, there is an in-person interview. It's a group interview day in that a group of women are invited to come. And then they have one-on-one interviews. And so then from there, they are hired or made an offer. What ends up happening today, less than 10% of applicants are hired. So from a pool of 200, then that narrows down to maybe 40 are invited for the group interview day.

And then from there, 10 to 12 are hired. it is and what that ends up doing is it I think the women who are then hired realize it's kind of like winning the lottery a little bit and and I think that that recognizing that this is your shot this is your opportunity and you are chosen I think sort of helps with the success as well and the and the desire to stick with it because they know that the spot they're in is precious Mm-hmm. So then every quarter, about 10 to 12 are hired, so it's kind of a rolling six to nine months of women. Yes. So it's a cohort model. So if the women who were hired in February are all going through the program together, those who are hired in May, et cetera. And this tricky part of trying to operate a business and a program at the same time is that the hiring, hiring really needs to be relative to the anticipated business needs.

Because you don't want to hire a bunch of women. You know, it would be awesome to hire 30 women at a time or, you know, but you, A, because of the cost of labor. Yeah. And we're in Denver County. So it's, it's expensive. And because of the cost of labor and also because you need work, you know, it's not a job if there's not work to do.

That's right. So the leading indicator for success for Women's Bean Project and how many women are hired is sales or projected sales. And that's also a really interesting thing because on the one hand, the model for the program is very inefficient. We are intentionally hiring women. We don't know if they're going to come to work every day. Like almost by definition, they're going to have challenges. Because if they didn't have challenges related to going to work, they wouldn't need to go to Women's Bean Project. There you go.

And so it's trying to find that balance. And yet at the same time, because Women's Green Project is an employer, there are a lot of questions that would be nice to know before they come up board, but you can't ask. Wow. And so you're trying to assess readiness for change based on what kinds of messages they're sending during the interview process. It's a super interesting and challenging way to run a business.

I can't even imagine all the different facets that you've gotten into. So there must be a sales department that rolled up to you? Yeah, it's an interesting model because it's like having two businesses under one roof. So there is sales and then fundraising because the sales cover about 50 to 60% of the operating budget. Okay. And the women spend 70% of their paid time. They're hired for a full-time job. 70% of their paid time on balance is working in the business in some way.

So that could be on the production line or in the shipping department or at the front desk working in the retail store. It could be anything related to the production and the sales. Then 30% of their paid time is in program activities where they're, as the CEO, I thought a lot about that's kind of non-revenue generating activity. And yet we were still paying them. and then paying providers or partners to come in for some of the programming. So we would fundraise to cover that portion. Okay. Okay.

So there's kind of two sales departments. One is fundraising and one is sales in the traditional sense. And then there's the operations side of the business, which, you know, all of the sales, creates the work for the operations. And then there's the programming side of the business. And do the programming activities take place at the same place that their work takes place? Yes. And that is actually one of the things I think that works really well for Women's Bean

Project. Some of our peers around the country are kind of forced to separate the two, perhaps because the work that the transitional, what we refer to the women as transitional employees because they're in a program that does not last more than nine months. those transitional employees, maybe they're going out and doing landscaping or neighborhood cleanup. And so the programming has to be kind of divorced from the work. In our case, we can have, the women can work on the production line all morning and then be in a computer skills class in the afternoon. And that's really nice just from a management standpoint and efficiency standpoint to be able to split their time under the,

under one roof. It also means you have to have a much larger facility than you might otherwise. Right. So is there like a curriculum for the program activities? Yes. How do you manage, you know, the periodic hires and the program activities so that everybody eventually gets through all of them? Or maybe they don't. Well, hopefully they do. I was going to I was going to joke and say very carefully. Yeah. It must be quite a management of people. Well, there are phases to the program.

So the first 30 days is phase one and that stabilization. And so during that time, it's almost exclusively programming. And it's things that are really about basic needs and things that will get in the way, whether it is what I think of more as the psychosocial barriers to employment. So for instance, even understanding that in all my previous jobs, when my supervisor spoke to me in that way, it made me quit. Oh. And then what would happen at Women's Bean Project is they would do some exploration

of what their triggers for trauma are and be able to then make the association, oh, now I understand. That reminds me of this past traumatic experience, and that's why I would always quit. Or, you know, conflict and how they have managed conflict in the past. And then also during that time, we're working really hard to make sure that all their basic needs are stable. So stable housing, safe and stable transportation, a safe place for their kids to go every day. So that first 30 days is really all about that. And we use a tool to measure that.

Because those aspects are referred to as self-sufficiency. And ultimately, the goal is to move the women towards self-sufficiency. And so there's a tool that's used. It's 18 measures of self-sufficiency on a five-point scale. Wow. And at the beginning, one day in, every woman completes this self-sufficiency scale. And then that helps decide what each. woman needs to work on because of course no two women are going to be alike.

Right. You know, if somebody is the average age 38 and her first child was when she was 16, she might have grown children who also have children. However, if she's in her early 20s, she may or may not have kids. She may or may not have custody of her kids. So it's every woman's needs are different. Then after that first phase, then we, Phase two is really the longest phase.

It goes from months two through six. And there's specific programming that happens during that time. And it's really about, we think a lot about soft skills. And I mean that in the traditional sense that your listeners might think of, as well as things that we would define us soft skills. So there is a whole series on adult literacy and numeracy. I kind of believe that almost all Americans could, prove their reading and their mouth skills.

Absolutely. And so we have a series. And if getting her GED during the time she's at Women's Bean Project is realistic, a woman would also get support in getting her GED. There's also computer skills. And again, we're meeting every woman where she is. If we have a woman who's in her 50s, she never had a computer during her time in school. And she might have a smartphone, but, you know, understanding how.

to create a resume, how to attach that resume to an email, how to apply for a job online, really basic Excel skills. Those are things that they'll work on. And as well as continuing to work on communication skills, how to interview for a job, what are employers looking for, how to show up. So it's a pretty wide variety of different things. At six months, then they move into phase three, which is then when they're starting their transition out. So any time between the month, the beginning of month seven and the end of month nine, they would, they might leave us. And and during that time, it's about learning the skills of job search. And we think about it as as a toolbox. And you're putting lots of tools in your toolbox. The important thing about the

toolbox metaphor is that they take the toolbox with them. And so they, they're, they, they, they, they, taking the skills with them. So we're not finding them the next job. We're helping them learn the skills of how you find a job because they can do that again and again and again. If they graduate, do they, like what percentage of them do have a job to go to? Oh, all of them. All of them do. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, wow. And so for us, it's also then, it's about their progress during the program. In addition to that self-sufficiency matrix, there's a job readiness assessment that's done monthly. And that's measuring progress in job readiness on about 10 different measures. Then it's, you know, completing the program is, of course, an important milestone.

But I want to know how much she makes when she leaves in that next job. Does she have, get promotions? Does that first job work out? because a lot of times she'll choose a job. Maybe that's not so great, but she's worried that she's not going to get a job. So she takes one that's just so-so, and it doesn't last. So we track at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after the woman leaves us. And we pay her just to check in.

We pay $50 at 6 and 12 months, $75 at 18 months, and $100 at two years just to check in. Wow. that's awesome. And why that's important is because we want to know what progress she's made. We want to make sure she's still employed. It doesn't have to be the same job because, again, she has the skills to find a job. And what we found, and one of the things that put women's being project on the map nationally,

is over 95% of women are still employed at one year. Okay. And so, you know, when you look at that compared to the fact that at, that one of the criteria, when she starts is typically she wouldn't have had a job longer than a year in her lifetime. Okay, right. And then recently we were able to get wage data from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, which ultimately is that's truly the best measure. Right.

And we were able to compare Social Security numbers to the data they had in their system. So anybody who's driving Uber or something like that, who's a W-9 wouldn't show up. Right. But we were able to look at eight quarters before the women started at the Bean Project. and then 12 quarters after. So far after the time that they left the Bean Project. And what we saw was that before they came to the Bean Project, there were very few matches, which would make sense.

Because if she's not employed, her Social Security's the number is not going to be in the system. And it was like less than 25% of the women matched. And that was at some point in those eight quarters. And then after the Beam project, over 90% matched. And what we saw was a median wage increase of 181%. Oh, my gosh. And that's anybody who came through the program. Wow.

Of course, right away, I started thinking, well, wouldn't it be really interesting to look at the length of time in the program and what that did to wages. But then I think I discouraged the researchers because they were like, you'd have no idea what it took for us to do this report. Because immediately I was like, oh, and then we could. Right. Yeah. But, you know, I'm still very proud of that because that truly is, is demonstrable. It is. Like, we were able to show that the program, for the vast majority of the women who go through the program, it makes a difference. For the people who are doing the program, programs, are those outside people that either are paid or volunteer their time to be part of these programs with the women? Yeah, so it's a combination. Sometimes it's internal staff who does some

of it. Sometimes it is, so for the math and reading skills, that's an organization we contract with. We have a relationship with Dress for Success, and they come in and do and offer a series around what employers are looking for. And so I think it's also helpful for the women to hear from more than just us. And also to feel this sense that there are lots of people in the community who are contributing. So then we also have a dental hygienist who comes in once a quarter who just cleans women's teeth and takes Medicaid. So that's how she gets paid.

So it's free service to the Bean Project. We have an optometrist who does eye exams and make sure every woman who needs glasses has them. So it's a pretty wide variety of different program services. And some are led by people from companies where the company signs up for corporate sponsorship. And then they bring employees in, for instance, to do financial literacy or for computer skills. So it's, let's just say we're very creative with how we do that programming. Yeah. And I just think it's important to engage community members. For sure. It was ultimately for a woman, I believe if you change a woman's life, you change your family's life.

Oh, for sure. And when you change a family's life, that makes our community better. It does, yeah. Because her kids are the future of our community. Yeah. What was my next question? I just have so many floating through my mind here. I don't remember what my next question was, but I do want to ask you about the books you've written. Would this be a good time to talk about those? Sure.

My first book is called The Third Law, and I wrote it because what I saw when I first started at the Bean Project, first of all, I was really confronted with a lot of biases and prejudices. I didn't even know I had before I went in. And it was because, you know, I grew up a middle-class white girl in Colorado, Springs. And I didn't have a reason to know why, for instance, so many women were ending up in prison. I didn't have a reason to understand that, and one of the things that really struck me is that you could look at a woman who comes to the BEAP projects and say, she made bad choices. But it's never

as simple as that. Because a lot of times that bad choice, maybe was the best of five bad choices. So I really felt like I wanted to find a way to share what I had learned in the most humble way I could while in the context of telling the women's stories. Because the reason I learned the things I did was because I was curious and I asked questions. Sure. And I saw the women's struggles. So throughout the book, it addresses the various challenges the women face. Okay. And I talk about their internal demons because sometimes it is her lack of belief she's worthy

of a better life that gets in her way. And then also societal obstacles where she's doing everything she can or she's being asked to. She's keeping a job. She's, you know, feeding her kids, et cetera. And then all of a sudden she starts to make money and they cut her off at the knees. You know, that's one of the challenges in our system is that there. are there are not is not tapering of benefits they are true cliffs sure and all you have to do is make a dollar too much to lose that benefit and as i was learning these things you know i thought there are

other people who are like me who don't know this also and so that's that book was really kind of a labor of love in that regard which is i have an opportunity to help tell the women's stories And so there are 75 different women's stories in the book. And the book culminates in the story of my husband and an eye adopting a child. And he came to our family when he was two. And his birth mother could have easily been a woman at the B-A project. And that was never planned. And it was just one of those things that happened.

We had a daughter already. and so it really, but it really needed to be a part of this story because I think that through working at Women's Being Project, we became, me working at Women's Being Project, we became the kind of people who would adopt a child. And I don't know that we were before that. Okay. The demons, the mental game, the not feeling worthy, is that all flush? out in the first 30 days and are there professionals there to help them overcome some of that?

It definitely takes longer than the first 30 days. It really is about coming to what we call a safe and accepting work environment. And where many women have said to me, this is the first time that somebody's been more focused on my future than my past. Because by the time they come to the Bean project, they've been told all the things they can't do. That's right. And now, Now we're saying, okay, so, yeah, so there's some things that you may not be able to do, but let's focus on what your skills and talents are and help you imagine what your next chapter could look like. And they start to have some successes where they, you know, they're setting goals and

they're accomplishing some amazing things. And so that by the time they leave the Bean Project, they believe they're worthy of a better life. And I think that's a hard thing to measure, but you sure know it when you see it. Wow. So we have, there are a couple of social workers on staff. And then every woman has a case manager who is a master's of social work intern. Oh, okay.

And so there are a lot of social workers around. Okay. And you find a bunch of them, huh? Yeah. And I think it's, you know, the social work is an important part because social workers, they're not studying to be therapists. Some may end up doing therapy, but during the time that they're at the Bean Project, they're really learning about systems. And I think that that systems thinking is really important for the Bean Project because what I think too often what happens is whether it's legislation or it is services, everything siloed. And we're not thinking about things in terms of how people are part of systems.

And it shows up in terms of the benefits and also their involvement with the justice system. So they have their parole officer and then they have their case manager for food stamps or SNAP. They have their case manager for their housing. And none of this is treated as a system. These are all being treated, you know, in silos. So a little bit of a soapbox thing for me just in general is to begin to think about human services and employment in general and economic mobility as a system. Sure. That makes a lot of sense.

It does, but I haven't made a lot of progress yet. But maybe when your podcast aired. And they'll hear it from that. That's good. Yeah, no, I mean, I understand that. I understand the silo thing versus the overarching piece of it. do they know what kind of a job they could get or want to get or when they're in the process? I mean, because everybody's got different passions, different skills. So how is that direction for the women carry out?

Well, that's part of the process also. And that's the third phase of the program. Because, you know, you think about we have women who come to the Bean Project with a third grade reading level. and we have others who have completed college. And the job prospects for those two people, regardless of their background, are going to be very different. So, you know, the work at Women's Bean Project is making food products. They might go on to food manufacturing, but that's not really the point. The point is the skills are coming to work every day and on time and all of those things.

And then we work with each woman to help her identify her talents and skills. And sometimes she has an idea of what she wants to do. We had a woman a couple years ago who had during her addiction, she'd lost her insurance license. And all she really wanted was to get that back. And then there was recently a woman who graduated who thought that she had been a cosmetologist in the past. And she thought maybe she'd go back to that. And then during the time she was at the Bean Project,

she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had treatment. So she ended up going and working for a mammography center. Oh, wow. And so, you know, just like for anybody, you know, that your personal experiences inform the kind of job you want to have, your education level, you know, your skills. And so the women do an assessment. Okay. And that assess. And then from that, it's assessing talents and skills.

And then it literally spits out a list of possible jobs, which I love because then it's coming from a place of possibility. rather than limitation. Absolutely. The other part of that third phase is that every woman is assigned a job coach, and that's a volunteer from the community who works one-on-one with her to help her prepare her resume, help her coach her when she's getting ready for interviews, help her look for jobs. All of that support comes from that job coach, in addition to all the services that the Bean project is providing.

So does that job coach to meet with that woman? at the facility that she works at and they come. Yep, they come for an hour a week. And so it's a pretty significant volunteer commitment. And yet I'll tell you that the people who do it love, love, love it. And as soon as they have someone who completes the program, they're ready to have the next woman assigned. Wow, that's great.

Because it's, you know, just like working in a nonprofit, a lot of times in your volunteer work, you don't get to see the impact on the individual. I mean, that's just not as common in volunteering. Yeah. Wow. How do you run the fundraising arm of your business? Well, we aren't big believers in lots of events. So there is one big event a year.

Okay. It's called Ready Set Grow, and it happens in April. Okay. And it's a graduation celebration and fundraising. launching. And some of your listeners may have been to events before where there is a, it's a free event to attend and there's a person who is referred to as a table captain and their job is to invite nine people to join them. After, hopefully, they've had some introduction to the organization. And so that's the model Women's Bean Project uses about 500 people in a room.

Nice. And it's, you know, it's not just about, it's not the same model as selling. tickets. This is kind of a nine-month cultivation process to get people in the room on that day and then ask them for money. But if we've done it well, they're ready. It's not going to be a surprise. Sure. And so that's a big part of it. Then the Bean Project's fortunate to be supported by lots of foundations. So there are a number of grants. And then there are several thousand individual donors who support the organization. So it's a pretty, well, it's a pretty diverse, you know, funding. It's not, has not historically been dependent on government funds, which, you know, in this current environment is a good thing. It is a good thing. Yeah. You've mentioned a couple times,

like other projects around the country. So, like, how do you know about all of them or are you all connected? Or do you all go to a conference once a year to, you know, swap stories and learn? Well, it's a combination of things. Fairly early on, I realized that the things I woke up every morning worried about as the CEO of a social enterprise were not necessarily the same things as someone who was in more a traditional nonprofit organization. And so I started looking for groups around the country to knowledge share with. I also always have the mentality that whatever problem we have, somebody else has had it already.

And so even if their solution didn't work, I'd love to know what it is. So, you know, we could try something different. So we found a group, there is an organization called the Social Enterprise Alliance, which is social enterprises all across the U.S. And then there are some similar organizations internationally. The U.K. actually has a very robust social enterprise. ecosystem. So the U.S. is learning, is still learning a lot from them. And then there is an organization out of California that specifically supports employment social enterprises. So the kinds

of organization, the kinds of social enterprise women's bean project is. And so we do get together and we knowledge share. And we, I do some coaching for other social enterprises that are maybe trying to expand their business line or are trying to launch a business, a new business. And so that's been really fun to get connected with people all across the country. There are not a ton of women only serving employment social enterprises. Women's Bean Project is, at least in terms of being large enough to be on the radar, you know, maybe there's a dozen across the U.S. where they only serve women. And so that, so it's important to know other organizations so that you can knowledge share. Because there are things that are specific to women. Sure. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, I could just

keep on asking you questions. You're so full of knowledge and experience. And I love this conversation. So what if someone wanted to get involved in the Women's Bean Project? What would the best way for them to do that be? One of the best ways to get engaged initially is to go for a tour. And there are tours on the first Friday of every month at noon. And Women's Beam Project's location is 1,300 West Alameda Avenue in Denver. And so it's a couple blocks west of I-25 on Alameda. Super great location, parking lot and everything. And the way to let them know that you'd be going for a tour is tours at Women'sBeanproject.com.

Okay. Or there is a place on the website, which is women's beanproject.com where you can RSVP for a tour. So that's a really great first step because if you were to contact Women's Beem Project and say, I'm kind of interested in volunteering, they're going to invite you for a tour.

Perfect. That's a great way to kind of capsulize it once a month. Yeah, once a month. first Friday of every month at noon and then it lasts one hour. So we really are conscientious about being respectful of people's time. Okay. And the women are working there at the time? The women are working. They're all good tours starting end in the gift shop.

So you can pick up some snacks and some other goodies. Okay. That sounds great. I might have to get a group of people to come on a tour. Oh, I think they like it. I mean, I think it's cool to see. well, first of all, you walk in and you smell the great smells of, well, I didn't smell them after a while, but I'm told there's cumin and, you know, some really awesome smells in the facility.

And then we intentionally built the facility to overlook the production floor. And that's when you really get a sense of, holy cow, this is a legit manufacturing operation. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Well, that's great. terrific. Well, is there anything else you want to share before we close today, Tamara?

I think I just like to say for the people who are listening that women's Bean Project is successful because of support from the community. And that support can look like a lot of different things. It can look like buying the product because sales create jobs. And so one way to support the organization is to buy the product. and the great thing is it's yummy food. And then you have to get more. Right.

That's right. So you create more jobs or give the product as gifts, you know, send it to people around the country. And that's really how the Bean Project has grown because then those people become customers and they do the same thing. And it just grows and grows. And Women's Bean Project is in stores all across the U.S. Wow. So that is really, I'd love for people to finish at the end of listening to the end of listening to this know that there are lots of ways to support the organization and buying the product is

a fantastic way. Sure. Yeah. And that's an easy way for people to do it, right? Yeah. That's great. Well, thank you so much for your wisdom and sharing everything. I loved hearing from you, Tamara, and looking forward to what's ahead for the world to see.

Yeah, it's great to be with you. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks so much for joining us for the Inspired Impact Podcast. To listen to past episodes, please visit the inspiredimpactpodcast.com.