Heather Terry, our CEO and founder, was asked to be a guest on a recent episode (Episode 35, to be exact) of Regenerative Rising Podcast: Elevating Stories, Activating Change. Heather was able to share GoodSam’s mission: protecting the planet to protect the people, and also got a chance to chat about her journey as a female founder. Heather discussed the challenges she faces in trying to make a positive impact in the supply chain industry, with consumers demanding more transparency from companies, and how GoodSam is able to deliver what conscious consumers want, with sustainable food. 

Listeners will also learn about Heather’s life experiences and how they have shaped her passion, from her time as a professional actor on Broadway to becoming a co-founder of her first chocolate company, NibMor. With each step along her path, Heather developed a deeper belief in the principles of regeneration: independence, mutuality, and evolution, and how each of those resonated with the mission of her future companies. Her goal within each of her prospective companies was ultimately the same — to connect on a more empathetic level with farmers, families, and their communities, and to use this energy transformatively. 

Building Trust By Creating Human Equity

At GoodSam, we firmly believe that the process of commercializing organic food should be as clean as possible. Heather talks about our approach hat allows us to align these thoughts in practice, by developing fairtrade processes with our farmers. 

By acknowledging that the context for supplying sustainable food for other consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies in other countries is different from what GoodSam wants to do, we are capable of making a substantial change in the perpetuation of modern colonization patterns. We’re also giving agency to the farmers and their indigenous communities, who truly should be leading the conversation about regenerative agriculture and sustainable farms.

Creating a Positive Impact in Communities 

Our business model is meant to empower these indigenous communities by investing in them and continuing a cycle of mutual growth. By working with our farmers, their points of view, and cultures and driving business forward around collaboration and alliance, we can build systems with these communities to help them to create spaces where they can develop their abilities in a way that actually aligns with their interests.

We also aim to amplify the voices of the indigenous and farmers, since they contain generations of knowledge around agriculture and restorative practices in their communities. With the right resources, practices that consider the environment and the people can uplift generations to come.

There’s Enough Room for Everybody 

Heather highlights the importance of creating partnerships that allow the collective growth of everyone involved. Recognizing this connectedness and giving it room to grow is essential to GoodSam’s mission. Our overall goal is to create a network where every person involved in the supply chain knows their worth and the importance of their role in helping us to accomplish our goals. As Heather says, it is extremely important to be aware of how unique every individual is on this planet and translating that in a way to connect us and create personal and work relationships. It is deeply fulfilling when you are able to share well-being within social circles. 

Listen to Heather’s feature on the Regenerative Rising Podcast and get to know more about what drives our company to create safe, fair, equitable dynamics with every member within our organization. Learn what changes we want to keep making in the world in order to make a positive impact for future generations.