Social Entrepreneur Giselle Waters Shares How She Helps Clients and Her Company Keep Purpose at the Forefront of Work
Giselle Waters is the associate director of content strategy and social impact at Mad Fish Digital, a purpose-driven digital marketing agency in Portland, Oregon. Waters was responsible for Mad Fish becoming a Certified B Corporation in 2018. She has implemented a pro bono program that offers premium marketing services to underserved communities. Waters spoke at the B Corp Champions Retreat on how to grow and market a purpose-driven business, which is how she connected with the Grow Ensemble team.
Growing up in San Francisco, where she was homeschooled, Waters developed a strong interest in nonprofits, particularly after she spent her college years at UC Berkeley during the Occupy Wall Street movement. She thought she would end up working at a nonprofit theater company, but she soon discovered a love for marketing, especially for purpose-driven businesses concerned about their social impact. While moving to Portland from New York, she learned about Mad Fish. Developing a deep respect for the company’s code of ethics, she opted to join the team, where her role has expanded in the past few years to include social impact as a key aspect.
In this episode of the Grow Ensemble Podcast, we discuss how and why Waters joined the Mad Fish team, her initiative to champion B Corp certification, and a step-by-step process to craft a fantastic content strategy for a purpose-driven business.
Want more episodes that focus on marketing and purpose in the impact-driven space? Listen to:
- #33 — Using Differentiation to Capture More Market Share and Find More Fulfillment in the Process with Michèle Soregaroli
- #22 — Sustainable Agency CEO, a Published Author, and a True Agent of Change with Tim Frick, CEO of Mightybytes
- #30 — The Three Basic Principles of SEO for Social Enterprises
- #10 — LOACOM Cultivates Chemistry with Purpose-Driven Clients to Make the World a Better Place with David Fortson, CEO & Co-Founder
Bonus material: Get the full show notes and extras for this episode
Mad Fish Digital is part of the community of Certified B Corporations that have used a third-party verification of their impact. Use the free B Impact Assessment to evaluate your company’s impact on all stakeholders, including the environment, your workers, your community and your customers.
A few key takeaways from our conversation with Waters:
- Her background in social entrepreneurism.
- How and why she joined Mad Fish.
- Her initiative to champion B Corp certification and a few tips on achieving certification for your business.
- How to create a successful content strategy for purpose-driven businesses.
Bonus material: Get the full show notes and extras for this episode
B the Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.
Putting Purpose First in Business was originally published in B The Change on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
