Episode 359 – Shelby Kardas – Build a Business Bigger than Yourself
“It kills more people every year than HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria combined.”
In this episode, Tim sits down with Shelby Kardas (Executive Director, StoveTeam International) to talk about the smoky-kitchen crisis affecting half the world’s population—and why supporting a cause bigger than your bottom line might be the smartest business move a hearth retailer can make. Shelby joins from Cuenca, Ecuador, where StoveTeam has helped install over 80,000 clean-burning cookstoves across Central America since 2008.
In this episode, Tim and Shelby cover:
- Why a $250 stove changes everything for a family in rural Guatemala—and how the hearth industry has already funded more than 2,000 of them through the 1,000 Stove Challenge
- How supporting a cause wins the “coffee table battle”—when customers compare brochures at home, over ninety percent will choose the business that stands for something beyond profit
- Why taking your team to stand in a smoky kitchen—or offering an extra week of vacation for volunteer work—builds the kind of committed employees no training seminar ever will
Don’t miss this conversation if you’ve ever wondered whether generosity actually moves the needle for your business—Shelby and Tim make the case that doing the right thing and doing good business aren’t just compatible, they’re the same thing.
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Links from this episode: https://youtu.be/hFIFLkQfiso
StoveTeam International: https://www.stoveteam.org/
WhyFire Fireplace AI Visualizer: http://whyfire.com
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