At an event at Brisbane’s Wandering Cooks a handful of Tuesdays ago, a friend of mine told me I had been described to him as “that energetic guy who puts on those GoodNorth events”.
Energised really sums up how I feel about GoodNorth, and conscious business in general. Yes, that’s the C word I’m talking about, obviously!
I love to help conscious people connect, and help them grow their impact. And yes, I do get a little animated at our events. If you haven’t been to one yet, you ought to! The air is electric.
The Sponge is the agency I founded in Sydney back in 2001. We are an impact brand story agency that specialises in renaming, rebranding and brand refreshing conscious businesses and organisations.
To put it simply, my team and I “help good businesses become better brands”. That’s our purpose. And we are selective about working with businesses that have a positive social and/or environmental impact, or the intent to come on that journey with us. As well as making a healthy profit (because profit sustains positive impact!).
I love witnessing business owners and leaders light up when they share with me what they are truly passionate about changing in the world. It’s my favourite thing! Then I can help them connect that passion and impact to their brand story. With it ingrained in their brand story we can amplify that impact, increase healthy profits, and ultimately create fulfilment.
The Sponge team are brand storytellers, helping businesses refresh or rebrand around their purpose, values and impact model. That is where we start, right at the heart of their brand. When we get these fundamentals aligned, the brand story we develop together and tell through the branding and marketing can meaningfully connect with the market.
Our team is a healthy mix of strategists, designers, developers, content creators and techs. Every role that is needed to develop a world class brand story and bring it to life, awesomely. We are all purpose and values aligned and love what we do.
The Sponge is almost 20 years old now, so we have been in this game for a while. But we haven’t always been a purpose led and conscious branding agency. We used to be guns for hire, working for any brand that paid. Regardless of what they sold.
Things changed for us in 2016 after I watched The True Cost (an expose on fast fashion), which had me in tears. I was a changed man before the documentary ended. I see this as my purpose moment. And afterwards, I went on a firing spree.
The Sponge could no longer work for businesses that were only about profits. This started us on a journey of self discovery, finding our new purpose, brand story, and ultimately B Corp Certification.
Certifying on Jan 1 2017 was just the beginning. Meeting 200+ incredible people at B Corp Leadership Development day later in the year was the clincher. This was my tribe! Selfishly, I wanted more. I believe we are the average of those we associate with. And I want to be surrounded by awesomeness.
Skip forward to 2019, The Sponge is based in a different city (Brisbane), surrounded with a new and growing community of awesome people doing amazing things. Some were at that event in Sydney. Many are new faces. All are awesome.
The Sponge is proud to be involved in growing the GoodNorth Good Business community, and to help good businesses become better brands, both locally and around the world. As a company we are living our brand purpose. I am personally living mine. And I am loving life.
Yes, we will be re-certifying as a B Corp. To us, it is a pre-qualifier for awesomeness.
I am Luke Faccini, founder and chief brand storyteller at The Sponge. I am here to help you connect with this awesome community of ours, and become a better brand.
P.S. At the time of posting this, tickets have gone on sale for GoodNorth’s Earthbound event at The Farm Byron Bay. It is set to be epic.
