Ep. 78 | Turn Purpose Into Your Growth Engine - Grecia Medina

Jack sits down with Grecia Medina of Bloom Innova in Panama City to unpack how companies can bake measurable environmental and social impact into the core business without sacrificing profitability. She lays out a practical roadmap, strategy, partnerships, and concrete activities that help founders unlock grants, risk capital, and impact investment, with real SME wins and a KPI mindset that tracks both revenue and impact. Zooming out to Panama’s SME-driven economy, they connect climate and biodiversity pressures and national priorities to why private-sector execution, aligned with clear goals, can move faster than public programs, and how to build around the problems that frustrate you most.

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Bloom Innova 

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Transcript

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Welcome to Shakin’ Hands, where we provide the platform for entrepreneurs and thought leaders to share their stories in order to hopefully influence others to get out of the rat race and chase their own dreams. If you have any recommendations for guests or questions that you want to be asked, please don't hesitate to reach out. Anyways, if you enjoy the podcast, please like, comment, subscribe and share in order to keep the podcast growing. Otherwise, I'm your host, Jack Moran and this is Shakin’ Hands. Panamanian independent Panama. We have a lot of innovative business here. Yeah. And it's growing really fast. It's like 98, 97% of the companies here are SMEs. Like, what is SMEs already said for small and medium companies? Okay. Enterprises. Gotcha. The small and medium enterprises. SMEs. Yeah. What was your business again? I heard you expanding into those areas. I do blooming. I make, business bloom. I integrate impact inside the business model. Like impact, social impact, environmental impact. So they become, new business, like a social one. And we were with mostly SMEs, I believe. Like, business is not done in the right way, like extractive. We want to regenerate, how business is done. So that's what we do. There is a lot of, development right now in a social company. Social entrepreneur. So there are a lot of, you know, like, just emerging, but we create them. We work with others. Like, they have their business model. They're doing fine. They're already, you know, making, making a living from it. And but they want to do something better. Maybe they do some philanthropic, maybe they donate, maybe they they try, you know, maybe they educate. But we we connect them with the real country goals. And we made them bloom and they bloom. You said before that, many businesses aren't doing business the correct way. What are they doing in properly? Well, extractive is like, if you see how the world is right now, we have, climate change problems and we have, our social problems. And it's like really, everywhere you see in the society, something like, oh, we need to fix this, or we need to fix that. And, well, is the same, in business, we, we few years looking for yourself like, believing that there is not enough for others in the competition. You will kill other business. Other business. And and I think you can thrive together like the the environment. There's abundance. But you need to work like an ecosystem, like connecting. And there's space for everyone. So, that is what I think that it's not doing right. Like big, big enterprises, they have like their social responsibility departments and, that's, that is, that is like, like an accessory. Like an accessory, like they put it on or off when they need it. And if they need to cut, you know, something that is the first thing they're going to cut of the budget, the, that department. And it's very much for the picture and for the, you know, the how I look good and to sell more and without really, really thinking in how can I be positive for the world or for the society or for the environment for like for the within. And, that is what is going on. And that is nobody's fault. I don't think it's like I need to point anyone is just like, we grow like the industrial sector and everything grow like we believe, like the world was, like endless. And the resources and everything was endless, and it's not. So, we make it like we made it like that within you at the moment. We were just trying, you know, to be better after the world and, you know, like, then the Australia's rising and and then everything happened, you know, global warming and climate change and now things, with poverty and, and everybody's trying to do something and the governments are trying to do something. The scientists are trying to do something. There's business are trying to do something with some resources, but nothing is connected. And the things are not sustainable. They're not you cannot, if the government change, maybe you have a new president that says, oh, that's not true. I'm going to do it in different ways. So something, just and, and business are lasting more than governments, more than human life. So, if business like, put inside in their DNA there. So they really like the purpose to be good for the humanity and for the environment and do business and make money. I it's not philanthropic. It's just like you can make money with that, but also you can make money with Alliance and working all together. The way we do business will change and maybe the world will change for the good. I'm a dreamer, but it works, I done it. What does that look like in actuality? So, like, what impact are you having on a business? What are you doing? Like cause branding and changing the businesses, messaging or it's more on the ground like action in business model. I had, today, a long day talking with, our communication agency about that, about what? What I do because they were saying, like, you're a consultancy company. I'm like, I'm not a consultancy company because I work from the within of the business, and I don't say anything to the business. I just make them look what they can do. Connecting to the country goals and without limits. Like, if you work with the SMEs, a small and medium enterprise, they think, well, this is what I do. I don't have resources. I need to survive. I need to pay my, you know, my providers and, you know, they're struggling. But maybe when they do, this work with me, they, they see what they can, what they impact can be done. So we empower them and, and they get to see them in the future impacting in positive two things, different things. It depends on the business. It's not like I, I work just for the environment. Maybe something social, maybe something with the packaging, maybe something with, science. I don't know, it depends. But they get to understand. What is that and they integrate it with alliance and maybe, with a plan of growth. But like really structure. And they do the, the work plan for the future. And after you make it like that, would like step one. Step two. And this is the activities you're going to do, and this is the alliance you're going to have to do. And this is like it's really easy to raise the funding I raise already almost half $1 million for some business here in Panama. Just with that, just make them see what they can achieve. And, making the really good, business plan and work flow that what is the way and they, then get the investment or the grants. And right now in the world, there's, new way of investment. It's like impact. We have impact investors right now. Impact investors are the ones that are looking for social or environmental, impact numbers, KPIs, but also they're looking for revenue and that's good. I want the companies to have a good revenue. I also want to make money myself. So, these, these investors, have the heart bigger than just that, making money. So they want to see how the investment is going to make the impact grow and how the investment is going to make the company grow. So if they have these two together, we can we do it with the blooming Nova program is called Bloom Accelerate. They the money from the investors or grants or different sources even, I don't know, a loan from the bank. Yeah. To date, what is the biggest success story that you've had with a client? Oh, my God, I have, I've, I have some, the the first one, the first company. What would they want when I work? They were a company that they do. They do, furniture from, recycling from plastic. They do really nice furniture, but beautiful one. And from Hdpe plastic. Okay. And, they were trying to raise, to, to, to fund to have it was a grand here in Panama, for eco innovative, companies and that was the my first, the first time when I, I saw, like, okay, there's something that is missing here because I saw, like, this company working with, circular economy and working with, solutions for the environment and not receiving the funding and I was, like, surprised because I said, why? Nobody's helping you because you're doing amazing. And your your your furniture is amazing, and you're selling and you growing like 50% each year. It's like, why? Nobody's like, you know, helping you. And I saw like, they didn't know how to connect what the country wanted that they were doing, but they didn't know how to say it, to connect it, to connect with the goal. And we just help them and make them. I do an alliance with the university to, you know, to, make, students understand about circular economy or recycling or, you know, business. And after that, just a couple of little things. They got the grant. That was the first time. And I was like, okay, this is amazing. We need to help more, business, more small and medium companies. And I was frustrated because I came from the NGO sector. So I was almost a decade working with the NGOs, environmental NGOs. And I know everything about, you know, the government and the goals and how to, fundraise and everything. And I was like working with huge, huge enterprises that they were just, using sometimes the NGO to greenwash, like, let's do a beach clean up. And then they went to the NGO to give them discount. And I'm talking about huge enterprises, like a beach clean up at $2,000. Like, please give me a discount, please. Can you do? And I was like frustrated. Like, oh my God, you are polluting the environment so much and you're asking for a discount for a beach clean up for an NGO. And, and we were giving that discount because the NGO needed money and it's like, oh my God, this is crazy. And, then, with that frustration, I found, like, there are other companies that are working differently and they have good solutions, but nobody is helping them, so I'm going to help them. So that was the first one. And then I work with another company is from the tech sector. They do these amazing computers using rubbish. And, and they were doing like huge computers and they were asking for, the game funding and there are funds in Panama for that. And they were not receiving the funding. They were with me. And I was like, okay, let's see what the country wants. And they were, circular economy and recycling was like, no, no, no, there's something else. And I am sure because this is tech and everyone wants to work in tech right now. So let's search. And we found that Panama wanted to, to develop the semiconductors, industry. And I was like, okay, this is what the country wants. They want to develop semiconductors industry. And you are working with that. So what can you do? And they say like, okay, in Panama, nobody's like, working with microchips in that. Let's do a lab for that. And that will help me a lot because, I could I can repair more that the one that I'm repairing there now, and I'm getting the funding and we do that work plan for that. And they got the funds and now the this this little company, my God, they're they're growing. The first one that I took, they they made their production grow by nine. Just just with one funding. And this other company is now thinking about doing, these microchips in the country. And, developing a brand of new computers, Panamanian ones. And they're like, you know, their minds and like that I have another have. Yeah, I have, more where companies that we bloom. That's what I say we do blooming. It's like they keep doing business, but then their flowers go through the ears and they bloom. Yeah. It's like, now you connect with what the country wants. And would you develop, invest. How you say, do you develop, research? Sorry, you develop on research and also, you go innovative. And. Yeah, and you also connect with them environment or social and. Yeah, that's what we do. What does the government want in Panama? Every government you, we have the, the Global Development Goals. Everyone is there is, yeah. You know, donation goals. So all the governments have, different plans connected to these goals. So, right now, the government, in this moment, they want to make the, small and medium enterprises grow. They want to develop, economics. And they're looking to that's to that sector. They're they're doing fine. I think we need to be more, strategic because, if we make these companies grow. But we something good for the society, you know, just them grow, is going to be more impact, right now. We have, million dollars, from the, Inter-American development, bank in in some national banks here for, for the small and medium enterprises because, you know, banking, they look at them like really risky business. Yeah. Like, the venture is there. Look, there is risk capital. So, the government is like, you know, doing things like to, to to help this is small and medium enterprises to get, loans and that interest rates and. Yeah. And that, that is what they want right now. I think we can do it better. And their companies like me, I'm really innovative. Like I say, people always ask me, ask me like, what did you do? I do, consultancy. I'm like another consultancy. I just make business, bloom from the inside. So, I can say, like, I'm a platform from regenerative, business models, so. Yeah. Right now, that is what the government wants. We can do it better with this radical, thinking. And also, there are different goals in in for the environment. Panama is more for the climate change and, yeah, climate change that is, impacting a lot of the country because we have a lot of, cycles as. Yeah, everything is like is a goes here. So the sea level is rising. So a lot of the island are going to be under the weather in the next ten years or 20 years. So there's a lot of people living there, indigenous people. And. Yeah, yeah, we have a lot of work to do that in that, in that area. So we also have problems, well, challenges with, water and to maintain the water levels in the kind of Panama Canal and also with, with the forests and the biodiversity in Panama, there's some that is amazing is one of the best in the world and with the social and with the education. So there's a space for everyone. I believe I can, make any company. Bloom is like, everyone has something good to give to the world. Like everyone is something natural from their humanity. We all want to make the world better. But we don't know how to do it. We think the government is the one that has to do it. And we just, you know, keep living the life and maybe complaining about things. But maybe we can be the social and the the world changers about, you know, the things that we don't like that much. And yeah, it's more efficient to do it in the private sector than in the public sector. Right. My God. So more is very much and, and and it's also you can make money with that. The new generations are looking for that kind of business. Everybody is looking for that kind of business. And if you measure what is your impact and you communicate it well, that is amazing for your business. You know, if you just, like, interesting. Yeah. Nobody measure and nobody people just they don't, realize sometimes what they do. I was talking with, ad tech company that is helping me to. Yeah. Right now we are, like, working together because I make. I'm going all digital right now. And they I said, like, okay, you have a huge impact because you're educating. And they were like, no, but I charge for that. And I was like, so what would you are a business? You have to charge for that. But you are educating, so you are making education more available for everyone. So you have to measure that. And maybe with your education that is going through tech, you can measure some things from the life of the students. And maybe that information is good for the government to make good. Decisions about the rules or the, you know, what the goals that they going to have in the future. So you have access to people you educate them. Maybe you can do a little survey and ask about the life hood, whatever. And that information is going to be good for the decision makers of the country so we can connect. Maybe we have an, And university in the middle, like they they're searching about that, someone doing the research about that information. We just need to know what they're looking for and connect. That is just like, Michelle Lyons from the funk. The funky, world. Like, they connect and they communicate, and they grow and they regenerate the ecosystem. Also the the the neurons, they do connections and they regenerate is the same is not different like the the ecosystem in the business model. But right now it's like, okay, we need to just, make this go away and just be me in the monopoly, and everything is for me. It's not like that. You don't need that. And that is what, Yeah, I think that, like, what happens. I think that most people rationally, if they have an ethical option to make money and an unethical option to make the same amount of money, most people would choose that ethical, ethical option. Yeah. But when your top priority as a company is maximizing revenue, a lot of times that unethical option becomes the ethics is second or secondary to the revenue, and that unethical option becomes more fiscally, has a bigger fiscal reward in the short term. So that gets picked. And I think that it becomes the responsibility of a company like yourself to present that long term case study, to say you're actually it's counterproductive to make that on an ethical, decision. Because it's going to cost you because if their top priority is the finances, it's just building that case that over time this is going to pay off dividends more. And I agree with that. I think it's, you know, when you do the right thing, like that's when you get the biggest return on investment. Yeah. But it's a difficult case to make to some people because they only see in the short term. Yeah. If you see in the short time yeah. Sometimes you cannot see the whole picture and how you're impacting very bad to other people's life. And, I don't know, I disagree a little, because the, the small medium enterprises that my clients mostly, they usually, choose the ethical one, even if it's longer term, just because there's funding for that. You know, that's the hook. There is funding for people that is doing the right thing. It's funding from them. Multilateral banks, funding from investors. There's an incentive for the right thing. Yeah, that's an incentive because I know that if there's not incentive is maybe oh, maybe this way easily. I have to think a little bit more. And maybe that's the government, you know, like, my responsibility is not mine. But when they know they have an incentive, they go for it because, small companies, they're looking for money. They they need money. I do too. So, when you connect that and when you measure and when you have the good work plan and everything, the funding comes, it will come. There's a lot, a lot of funding everywhere for that. And that's the hook. The next part, when they start doing it, when they start like realizing and they put it inside their DNA, they bloom there. They go, like, wow, Grace. Yeah. Now I believe I have a different company now, I, I feel like this the first day. That's why when clients say, like my company has been going on for 5 or 6 years or something and I doing fine, I'm really expanding my business to other countries. I'm doing fine. But, you know, I was losing that spark, and now I have the spark again. I see what I can do for the world and the new, you know, goals and that. And everything is like making me with purpose. And I believe the most important thing in a business is purpose. And making money is good, but it's not the purpose because you're going to make money. Everyone is going to do to make money. And after you make money, what what are you going to do? But what is the next? So there's something like, empty inside. And that is what is happening. The world, everybody wants to make money and it's good. But after you have the money, there's more money and more money and more and and extractive. Extractive and without purpose, without, you know, connecting to a huge, you know, go beyond you for the society, for the humanity. And that makes you, makes you bloom like, yeah, the, the business change. So that is what happened after they do the process, they do the, the program. I need some program right now. I'm becoming, you know, as I say, digital, I'm doing everything at this moment, in a, synchronic way, like, with group of, of enterprises working with tens then enterprises right now and then then then, you know, change changing groups and but I need to scale because, this for Latin America, that's the same problem everywhere. Small and medium enterprises need needs funding. So we need to scale and we need to make the good business to, you know, go to the next level. And they they very, very good. They want they need to go to the big next level because I believe that is where, the world is going to, they're going to be the, the mature business in the future, like the grown ups and the in the future. And for the big ones, after what they believe, after they see what the little ones are growing and how they're evolving and everything, maybe you say, okay, maybe I need to change something more like more than the, social responsibility department, more than the philanthropists and a lot of, big companies. They're also like connecting funding for the little companies, like, maybe they want to innovate in tech and they do, call for small and medium enterprises for a solution in tech, for whatever they need. And that is also our way of, you know, of making their, everything go together for the same goals and, and not just fighting each other and competing and, you know, thinking there's not enough for for everyone. What's the biggest limitation you encounter? When trying to perpetuate your vision, people understand me. They don't they don't get it. Yeah. The biggest one. Well, off to today, I was, like Ducky with, I been I've been talking with, few, communication companies for the communication strategic, strategy for my company, and they don't get it. So it's like, okay, I have to do it. Oh, I cannot do it because I'm. I'm busy, you know, like making things happen. And I found this new company today, and they were with the, development sector and the NGOs. And I say, okay, these ones are the ones. And I was really, like, hopeful. I, they full of faith that they were going to help me and maybe they will, but they were like trying to convince and convince me that I was I consultancy company. And it was like, no, no, no, you can do, you know, a communication line about how Blooming Nova is not a consultancy company and you can develop in that way because I believe consultancy companies are. They work with you like they they look at you and they say, okay, let's look at you how you are in the outside and you want to change. Maybe you need to change your shirt and you need to change your studies and you need to change. But from the outside and you still you and and then they give you like, this is your test, this is your grades, and that's it. And goodbye. And there's like, $50,000 for that. It's like an audit. Yeah. And we don't do that. And we don't say what you have to do. You say you find that in you, and that is what empower you. Because I don't do the work for you. I help you find that. And we use a lot of AI for that because, thanks to the AI right now, we can, see beyond limits. Everyone thinks like, my AI end here because it's too hard to go to the next level. And then we find, like, we can do a little search in the AI and we can chat a little, and then we see, oh, there's options for me. And yeah, the challenging thing for bloom is to people to understand us, people to not not to put us in a box that this is what they do us some other people think like we change business like everything. Like, you have a furniture company and we make you be, I don't know, like a school. We don't do that. And that happens when you have something very destructive and that is different. Just imagine what someone, like invented the computers. Like. Nobody knew. Nobody saw the importance for that. And maybe people say like, why should I need these girls? This crazy and my engineer this crazy engineer to say and to make my business bloom. I'm fine like this. I can do whatever. And I believe is, because this disruptive is, is, is very dreamy. But, yeah, if we don't have dreams like there were no planes here or computers or AI or anything, for sure, I believe that 100%. Yeah. Steve Jobs says, it's the people that are crazy enough to think they can change the world. Yeah, are the ones that usually do. Yeah. And I am. What is your biggest motivator outside of financial gain? But because motivator is is the is the goal. I want to change the world. I want to change how business is done. I want to make business regenerative. Not more extractive. That's enough. I believe, there's abundance there. There's not, scarcity. I believe there is enough. I believe, we have we are an ecosystem. I believe that when businesses bloom from the inside, even the people that works in the business, they bloom themselves. They see their or their own, like power. And I believe that that's an amazing way to make a good society. And yeah, I have two girls. I'm a mom and I want a better world for them. And how the way things are going right now, I don't see it. We need to change a lot. So yeah, it's not like, everybody is going to be philanthropic or, you know, we going to all going to live in them. Not, you know, to, in the, in the fields. And we willing to, to row our food and it's not like that. We, we still have CDs and we have tag and that is good. We have people to, to row our, our food. And we have also people that develop furniture and tech and everything. So I think there is a space just with little changes in the way that we work right now. It's not that hard. You know. It's not that hard. And we want to make it easy. It's, it's like a democracy. We want to democratize the democracy just like democratize the democratization, hard work. We want to democratize, that kind of assessment, that kind of, transformation. Because right now thing, there's also people say, oh, you're like a B corp, like, like what they, they certificate you are, B company. And I'm like, no, I don't do that. Because they're like, do a certification of of what you are. We need to be more in to inside in your DNA and. Yeah. What when moves me is a better word for my girls. And, yeah, I also believe I have, like, contract with, with the Earth. I love nature, and I love, the environment. I, I found, medicine in the forest, and when I, I need something, I need to be clear on my mind or and I need, you know, I we I just go to the beach or to the forest. I live in this amazing country where it's always a good weather. So, but we need to, to conserve nature because, next generations in the way that we are going, they're not going to have the nature that we have right now. Just remember, when was it Covid, the pandemic, everyone, everybody. One wanted to go out to nature. Everybody was inside their houses and they were like, oh, I want to go to the beach. I want to go to the forest. I don't think people wanted to go, I don't know, to drive in, you know, alert traffic or. No. Everybody wanted to, you know, breathe fresh air. The sun that's there and that then nature in the humanity. And that is what most moved me is, is everything in that. And when bloom was born, it was not like what we are doing right now. It really different. But always, always the mission was the same. It's just we are after we are going, you know, to the through the path is like the path is like, oh, this is the way. Oh, we need to work with impact. Oh, there is impact investment. Oh we need to measure impact. Oh my God. And that's how we are. Oh. Now we have, huge accelerator from the US giving us a curriculum for the companies. Oh, and people are willing to help us. That is the most amazing thing. So yeah. And better world. Yeah. That's a great mission that I align with wholeheartedly. My final question is what would be the single piece of advice that you've learned through your own experience that you would pass down to maybe your two daughters? To have a purpose. To have a purpose in life? How do you find that purpose? Oh my God. I believe you find your purpose with what frustrates you. That's very interesting. Yeah. If something frustrates you and you are mad about something, like you are frustrated. You don't want things that go in this way. You don't complain, you do something about it. Think about that. That is what you, that is your purpose. There is like yelling at you and, we all can be changemakers, but we need to step a little bit out of the comfort zone, and we need to take a little risk and do something. And sometimes it's just to know what is your goal? Like, I want to impact in this way because I as me, I didn't like how huge companies were dealing with the NGOs. I was very frustrated. I was like, this is crazy. I cannot believe this. Like, no. And, and then I found this small, like this small company and it was, okay, there is something here. And you know, everything, you know? Yeah, everything. Lights. And we all can find the purpose in the frustrations of daily life. We've had a lot of people on this podcast talk about how important it is to find your purpose, but I've asked a lot of times, how do you find your purpose? And it's a very difficult question to answer. And that's the first time that anyone's really given a true methodology, which is look at what you're frustrated by, which is pretty intuitive, and it makes a lot of sense. So I think that's very valuable, to where if people want to connect with you or interested in your businesses and your service, your business and your services, where can they find you? Blooming nova.com. Also bloom duck in Nova in Instagram and also in LinkedIn. Blooming Nova. So bloom like blooming bloom in nova.com. Yeah. Awesome. Well, you have a very inspiring mission and I look forward to seeing your success. Thank you, thank you I hope I, I really, really, really want to success because I want to change the world. I thank you well thank you. For.