Ownership Is Key (with Sam Polk)

How To Citizen with Baratunde

Everytable founder, Sam Polk, wants to change the way we do business by not only creating jobs, but going a step further to create wealth-building, ownership opportunities through a social franchise model. In this episode, we follow Sam’s journey from Wall Street tycoon, to nonprofit connoisseur, to social entrepreneur, and how he found himself with a new mission to transform the food system by making it delicious and profitable for everyone.

Guest: Sam Polk CEO of Everytable

Twitter: @SamPolk

Bio: Sam Polk is the founder and CEO of Everytable, a social enterprise on a mission to transform the food system to make delicious and healthy food affordable and accessible to everyone, everywhere. A former hedge fund trader, Sam left a successful career on Wall Street to follow his heart to fight food injustice and inequality in America.

SHOW NOTES + LINKS

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We are grateful to Sam Polk for joining us! Follow him at @SamPolk on Twitter, or find more of his work at Everytable at everytable.com/about.

ACTIONS

PERSONALLY REFLECT

Show Me What a Business Owner Looks Like!

Think about the businesses in your neighborhood. Are they mostly local small businesses or national chains? If more of one than another, why do you think that is? Who works there and who owns them? When you hear the word entrepreneur or business owner, what do you see in your mind? Who is that person? What do they look like?

BECOME INFORMED

“Exit to Community” a new model that shares the wealth

Success for entrepreneurs often means selling their business to a bigger company or going “public” on the stock market. These “successful exits” can generate a lot of wealth for the few people at the top: owners and investors. What if there was another path for those entrepreneurs to take? One that rewarded those most connected to and impacted by the business including employees, customers, founders and investors? There’s a movement called Exit To Community which is doing just that. Learn more about it by visiting e2c.how.

PUBLICLY PARTICIPATE

Join or support an effort to build an economy that serves the many

Consider joining or giving to a few of the community movements working to build a more inclusive economy. Here are two we are fond of: ZebrasUnite dot coop believes the most urgent human rights project of our time is to reimagine business. Then there’s the effort to make the Doughnut Economy real in communities and countries around the world. Join the Doughnut Economics Action Lab here. Hint: it’s not about pastries.

If you take any of these actions, share that with us - [e-mail]. Mention But … Why Is Our Economy So White? in the subject line. And share about your citizening on social media using #howtocitizen.

Visit the show's homepage - www.howtocitizen.com - to sign up for news about the show, to learn about upcoming guests, live tapings, and more for your citizen journey.

Also sign up for Baratunde's weekly Recommentunde Newsletter and follow him on Instagram or join his Patreon. You can even text him, like right now at 202-894-8844.

CREDITS

How To Citizen with Baratunde is a production of iHeartRadio Podcasts and Dustlight Productions. Our Executive Producers are Baratunde Thurston, Elizabeth Stewart and Misha Euceph. Stephanie Cohn is our Senior Producer and Alie Kilts is our Producer. Kelly Prime is our Editor. Original Music by Andrew Eapen. Valentino Rivera is our Engineer. Sam Paulson is our Apprentice. This episode was produced and sound designed by Alie Kilts. Special thanks to Joelle Smith from iHeartRadio.

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