Impact Interview: Zach Weismann
Name: Zach Weismann
Role/Function: Founder, The Impactful
What are you working on these days?
We have relocated our business (aka me and my family!) to Copenhagen last year and are getting ready to launch something big — a product of our own! I’m super excited to share with everyone when it is live very soon.
What was the “aha” moment that sparked your interest in social and environmental impact?
I think two come to mind. One was of course An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore. My brother sent me a DVD (we are that old!) and I watched it alone in my college dorm room huddled over my laptop. It turned my world inside out. It took this narrow, privileged view of the world I had and made me say oh my goodness. The world is not what I thought it was, and how fortunate I had been to experience it in that manner. It was at that moment I dedicated the rest of my career to sustainability and climate.
The second was more recent but I still can't get over it: My Octopus Teacher. It was the middle of the pandemic and I watched it with our second son who was five months old asleep in my arms. I cried in a way I had not cried in a long time. I think there is so little we truly understand about the natural world, about animals, about how connected we are and I thought this documentary highlighted that in such a beautiful, incredible manner.
How did you break into the impact space? What career advice would you give to professionals who are just starting out or looking to transition?
I had actually studied finance and accounting in undergrad and graduate school (that Inconvenient Truth DVD didn't arrive fast enough!) but I knew my heart wasn't in it. Once I finished studies, I had a job offer already at PricewaterhouseCoopers. I took it with the intention of using that time to also figure out what could be next. A college professor of mine had started an NGO in Puno, Peru and after chatting with her a few times, I quit my job, moved to Peru for about a year and started to immerse myself in sustainability and climate. Then, it became a matter of finding a job in the environmental sector!
The advice I would give is you ALWAYS have a story to tell and experiences to lend to the climate fight. I think there is no skill or experience that cannot be translated, applied or helpful to what we are up against with climate change. And it’s important to remember that our stories continue to unfold and change and so do how we present and share those relevant skills and experiences.
And one stat that always reminds me of this — did you know the average age of a successful startup founder is 45 years old! The average!
Working in impact is often about driving change. What is the skill or trait that has been most important for your work as a change agent? How did you learn or hone it?
Not taking no personally. This is a tough one because we often forget that when it comes to environmental issues or our work or a new product we just put out into the world, since it relates to impact, to a cause or causes we care deeply about, there is a lot of emotion wrapped into it (as there should be!). But over time I had to learn to separate a "no" from a client, or customer or jerk as not personal to me. Recognizing that I myself am not a product or a latest offering or the company. That helped create the emotional distance necessary to take the "no's" — and there are plenty — on the chin and keep going, keep not settling. If all of us in impact gave up when we got a no, we wouldn't get very far! But learning to separate the "I" or the "me" from the product or service was important. Almost as if saying, this is my idea, my thing for now but it doesn't define who I am as a person
What most excites you about the impact space right now?
You know, this is a tricky one. I was going to say almost nothing but then I realized that answer in itself helped me find my answer: what interests me the most about the impact space is it is prime for complete overhaul. I think so many things are going to get turned inside out (and quickly) due to compounding issues that this will create a lot of challenges but also a lot of opportunity. I think the impact space is being forced to take a good hard look in the mirror and answer the question: is this enough? is this it? And I think through that disruption, crises, a lot of new, super important and meaningful change is going to emerge (I hope...).
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