Humans of Purpose

This week Melanie Greblo and Colleague Bella Borello,

Two purpose-driven leaders at Humans of Purpose, working at the intersection of storytelling, marketing, and social impact.

In this episode, Melanie and Bella step into a different format, a shared conversation rather than a traditional interview exploring what it really means for organisations to communicate purpose in a way that is honest, credible, and impactful.

Best known for their work supporting purpose-led organisations, they unpack how storytelling can move beyond polished messaging to something far more meaningful: the creation of community.

In this episode of Humans of Purpose, we explore:

what truly changes when organisations implement effective storytelling

how to distinguish real impact from “impact washing”, and why the “so what” question matters

what makes purpose in business lived and credible, rather than performative

and how brands can build trust by embracing honesty, tension, and imperfection in their stories.

The conversation also looks ahead to the future of storytelling in an AI-driven world, where content is becoming increasingly abundant, and authenticity may become the most valuable currency of all.

Melanie and Bella reflect on a potential shift away from traditional social platforms toward more human, connected ways of sharing stories from in-person spaces to deeper, more meaningful conversations.

This is a thoughtful and reflective episode for leaders, marketers, and purpose-driven organisations looking to build connection, credibility, and community in a rapidly changing landscape.

🔗 Explore more from Humans of Purpose here:
https://www.humansofpurpose.com/

Growing Your Business and Impact
Talk to us today about how we can grow your capacity to level up your business and impact with our fully trained and managed outsourced marketing solutions — delivered by our digital heroes armed with good strategy, the latest tech and big smiles.

Learn more at humansofpurpose.com

Promotional Partnerships
Like what we are serving up on Humans of Purpose? Our promotional campaigns have delivered great marketing and sales outcomes and ROI for our partners to date.

Whether you're seeking a 1-month, 2-month or season sponsorship, follow the flow below to become a partner before we run out of our remaining promotional slots.

Click Here to learn more about collaborating on a custom campaign package. Ready to partner? Just complete this short Partner Enquiry Form and we'll be in touch.

Gold Membership
Want a premium listening experience that directly supports us to keep making the podcast?

Join current members Michael, Pravati, Noel, Kathy, Andrew 1, Andrew 2, Chris, Nikki, Margaret, Ben, Misha, Sarah and Geoff and enjoy our range of member benefits:

Premium dedicated podcast feed
Removal of all three ads per episode
Early access to all episodes
Full transcripts of all episodes
Brokered intros to all podcast guests
Ask me anything page access

To take up this great offer, just head to our Gold Member page today.

CREDITS
Music intro and outro on this podcast was written and performed by Keyo Rhodes, with Harrison McGregor on drums and percussion.
Sound engineering and mastering by Lachlan McGregor.

My guest this week is Charlie Syme — a marketing strategist, founder of Pigface Marketing, and chair of the Common Ground Project, working at the intersection of marketing, creativity, and social impact.

Charlie’s work is grounded in a simple but powerful idea: marketing should be a force for good. Through Pigface Marketing, they partner with purpose-driven organisations, B Corps, and social enterprises to help them connect with the right audiences through authentic storytelling and clear strategy.

Charlie is also deeply involved in the Common Ground Project — a regenerative farming social enterprise that grows, cooks, and shares food while creating pathways into hospitality for migrant women and building connection within the community.

In this episode of Humans of Purpose, we explore what marketing looks like when it’s driven by purpose rather than growth for growth’s sake. Charlie challenges the idea of perpetual growth and instead advocates for finding your audience, building relationships, and using storytelling as a genuine tool for connection.

We also discuss:

why authenticity and conviction are essential in a content-saturated world

how leaders can build trust and cut through by standing for something specific

why CEOs should prioritise their personal profile and thought leadership

and how the concept of stakeholder primacy — central to the B Corp movement — is reshaping the role of business in society.

This is a thoughtful and practical conversation about how organisations can move beyond traditional CSR models and build deeper, more meaningful connections with the communities they serve.

🔗 Explore more from Charlie’s work here:
https://www.pigface.au/

Growing Your Business and Impact
Talk to us today about how we can grow your capacity to level up your business and impact with our fully trained and managed outsourced marketing solutions — delivered by our digital heroes armed with good strategy, the latest tech and big smiles.

Learn more at humansofpurpose.com

Promotional Partnerships
Like what we are serving up on Humans of Purpose? Our promotional campaigns have delivered great marketing and sales outcomes and ROI for our partners to date.

Whether you're seeking a 1-month, 2-month or season sponsorship, follow the flow below to become a partner before we run out of our remaining promotional slots.

Click Here to learn more about collaborating on a custom campaign package. Ready to partner? Just complete this short Partner Enquiry Form and we'll be in touch.

Gold Membership
Want a premium listening experience that directly supports us to keep making the podcast?

Join current members Michael, Pravati, Noel, Kathy, Andrew 1, Andrew 2, Chris, Nikki, Margaret, Ben, Misha, Sarah and Geoff and enjoy our range of member benefits:

Premium dedicated podcast feed
Removal of all three ads per episode
Early access to all episodes
Full transcripts of all episodes
Brokered intros to all podcast guests
Ask me anything page access

To take up this great offer, just head to our Gold Member page today.

CREDITS
Music intro and outro on this podcast was written and performed by Keyo Rhodes, with Harrison McGregor on drums and percussion.
Sound engineering and mastering by Lachlan McGregor.

My guest this week is Meghal Shah — CEO of Action on Poverty, an Australian international development organisation focused on tackling global poverty through innovative, scalable solutions.

Meghal brings an unusual perspective to the social sector. Originally trained as a chartered accountant, he began his career in the corporate world at PwC and Commonwealth Bank before making a bold pivot into purpose-driven work. His hypothesis was simple but powerful: the non-profit sector often struggles to scale impact because it lacks the commercial thinking needed to build sustainable funding models.

That belief led Meghal to take a major risk early in his social sector career, stepping in as interim CEO of a struggling disability services organisation during the rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. By focusing on financial sustainability and strategic growth, he helped turn the organisation around and secure an acquisition that expanded the entity by 150%.

Today at Action on Poverty, Meghal applies venture capital principles to global development challenges through a model known as venture philanthropy,  identifying high-potential solutions, supporting them through stages of growth, and ultimately helping them become self-sustaining systems that continue delivering impact long after philanthropic funding ends.

In this episode of Humans of Purpose, we explore:

Meghal’s journey from corporate finance to international development

why commerciality is essential for lasting social impact

how venture philanthropy helps scale solutions to global poverty

and the powerful stories behind initiatives tackling issues from clubfoot treatment in Bangladesh to dengue prevention through the World Mosquito Program.

This conversation is a thoughtful look at how bold ideas, strategic funding, and local leadership can come together to create solutions that don’t just help people today but transform systems for the future.

🔗 Explore more from Meghal’s work here:
https://actiononpoverty.org/

Growing Your Business and Impact
Talk to us today about how we can grow your capacity to level up your business and impact with our fully trained and managed outsourced marketing solutions — delivered by our digital heroes armed with good strategy, the latest tech and big smiles.

Learn more at humansofpurpose.com

Promotional Partnerships
Like what we are serving up on Humans of Purpose? Our promotional campaigns have delivered great marketing and sales outcomes and ROI for our partners to date.

Whether you're seeking a 1-month, 2-month or season sponsorship, follow the flow below to become a partner before we run out of our remaining promotional slots.

Click Here to learn more about collaborating on a custom campaign package. Ready to partner? Just complete this short Partner Enquiry Form and we'll be in touch.

Gold Membership
Want a premium listening experience that directly supports us to keep making the podcast?

Join current members Michael, Pravati, Noel, Kathy, Andrew 1, Andrew 2, Chris, Nikki, Margaret, Ben, Misha, Sarah and Geoff and enjoy our range of member benefits:

Premium dedicated podcast feed
Removal of all three ads per episode
Early access to all episodes
Full transcripts of all episodes
Brokered intros to all podcast guests
Ask me anything page access

To take up this great offer, just head to our Gold Member page today.

CREDITS
Music intro and outro on this podcast was written and performed by Keyo Rhodes, with Harrison McGregor on drums and percussion.
Sound engineering and mastering by Lachlan McGregor.

My guest this week is Bruce Maynard — a leading voice in regenerative agriculture and landscape restoration in Australia, known for pushing beyond “doing less harm” and into farming systems that actively rebuild nature while still producing food.

Bruce shares how his journey into regenerative practice wasn’t just an idealistic shift, it was forged through pressure. In the late 1980s, severe economic hardship and changing seasonal reliability made one thing clear: conventional farming often drives further displacement of natural systems, and it’s farmers (and communities) who carry the cost.

Best known for his work on regenerative grazing, animal behaviour, and the controversial innovation of no-kill cropping  producing broadacre grains in grassland without external chemical inputs, Bruce makes the case that the future of agriculture depends on creative, practical pathways that deliver results across a triple bottom line: social, environmental, and business outcomes.

In this episode of Humans of Purpose, we explore:

what “regenerative” really means (and how it’s evolved from conservation and sustainability)

why progress can’t be measured by economics alone

how animal distribution shapes landscape health and what happens when animals choose where they spend time

the human side of farming: wellbeing, leadership, and staying connected to country

why no-kill cropping challenges everything we think we know about growing grain

and what a “desirable and plentiful” future could look like if we stop treating nature and productivity as an either/or.

 

🔗 Explore more from Bruce’s work here:
https://soilsforlife.org.au/no-kill-cropping-restoring-grasslands/

Growing Your Business and Impact

Talk to us today about how we can grow your capacity to level up your business and impact with our fully trained and managed outsourced marketing solutions - delivered by our digital heroes armed with good strategy, the latest tech and big smiles.

Learn more at humansofpurpose.com

Promotional Partnerships

Like what we are serving up on Humans of Purpose? Our promotional campaigns have delivered great marketing and sales outcomes and ROI for our partners to date.

Whether you're seeking a 1-month, 2-month or season sponsorship, follow the flow below to become a partner before we run out of our remaining promotional slots.

Click Here to learn more about collaborating on a custom campaign package. Ready to partner? Just complete this short Partner Enquiry Form and we'll be in touch.

Gold Membership

Want a premium listening experience that directly supports us to keep making the podcast?

Join current members Michael, Pravati, Noel, Kathy, Andrew 1, Andrew 2, Chris, Nikki, Margaret, Ben, Misha, Sarah and Geoff and enjoy our range of member benefits:

Premium dedicated podcast feed
Removal of all three ads per episode
Early access to all episodes
Full transcripts of all episodes
Brokered intros to all podcast guests
Ask me anything page access

To take up this great offer, just head to our Gold Member page today.

CREDITS

Music intro and outro on this podcast was written and performed by Keyo Rhodes, with Harrison McGregor on drums and percussion. Sound engineering and mastering by Lachlan McGregor.

My guests this week are Professor Paul Lacaze and Jane Tiller - two leading voices shaping the future of public health genetics in Australia.

Professor Lacaze is a Professor of Genetics and part of the team behind DNA Screen, a major initiative exploring how preventive DNA testing could help identify people at high genetic risk of cancer and heart disease while they’re still young and healthy. Jane Tiller is a lawyer and genetic counsellor with deep expertise in the policy and ethical frameworks needed to make genomic screening safe, trusted, and accessible at scale.

Best known for their work on the DNA Screen pilot study, Paul and Jane are helping drive a shift from reactive healthcare, where genetic testing often happens after disease appears to anticipatory healthcare that uses genetics as a preventive screening tool, alongside existing public health programs like mammograms and bowel cancer screening.

In this episode of Humans of Purpose, we explore what preventive DNA screening could mean for Australia, including:

what the DNA Screen pilot found (including the number of young adults carrying high-risk, actionable genetic variants)

why early screening gives people time to make informed decisions about surveillance, prevention, and family planning

what “actionable” genes really means (and why lifestyle changes alone can’t remove certain risks

the importance of protecting Australians from genetic discrimination

and why data governance, privacy, transparency and participant choice are essential if a program like this is to earn public trust.

Tune in to hear how Paul and Jane are working to mainstream genomic risk management into the health system and what it could take to move from pilot to national scale.

🔗 Explore more from Paul and Jane’s work here:
https://dnascreen.monash.edu/our-team.html

 

Growing Your Business and Impact

Talk to us today about how we can grow your capacity to level up your business and impact with our fully trained and managed outsourced marketing solutions - delivered by our digital heroes armed with good strategy, the latest tech and big smiles.

Learn more at humansofpurpose.com 

 

CREDITS

Music intro and outro on this podcast was written and performed by Keyo Rhodes, with Harrison McGregor on drums and percussion. Sound engineering and mastering by Lachlan McGregor.