063: Shawn Askinosie - Meaningful Work: A Quest To Do Great Business, Find Your Calling And Feed Your Soul

This episode had a huge impact on my life, and I know if you listen to it, do the work, it will change yours too and have a beautiful rippling affect.

Shawn Askinosie is the founder and CEO of Askinosie Chocolate, a small business based in Springfield, Missouri. Their chocolate is world-renowned, award winning and Forbes recently named them as “One of the 25 Best Small Companies In America”.

But this episode isn’t about chocolate, it’s about chocolate. (something that you’ll understand once you’ve listened).

You see, the way Shawn does business is the way it should be taught in business school. Shawn’s beautiful business model is all about direct trade with farmers of coco beans in the Philippines, Tanzania and Ecuador, about open book management, profit sharing, reverse scale, kinship and community.

Shawn and I dive into all of those topics and how his company sustainably feeds thousands of children who were once malnourished, without donations, simply giving money or charity.

We talk about the notion of enough, and to ask ourselves, “What is enough”. That individually and in business is it easy to get caught up in the striving for more, but enough is where we can do the work we love with people we love.

Towards the end of the podcast Shawn talks about and guides you through a visioning exercise. It is something that he does, and something that he has his chocolate university students, his farmers, and the school students he works with in other countries do. It is powerful and if you want to create personal change in your life, I recommend you do it as well.

Shawn has recently written a book, with his daughter Lawren, titled - Meaningful Work: A Quest To Do Great Business, Find Your Calling, And Feed Your Soul. I don’t recommend many products but I can’t speak more highly of a book than this one. I personally purchased the audio book version through Audible and I loved hearing Shawn narrate each word and tell his story. I have links below in the show notes to where you can purchase it. If you’re thinking of a little something for someone for Christmas, or even better for yourself, I highly recommend it. And make sure you reach out to Shawn and let him know what you thought of the book. I know he’d love to hear from you.

Shawn is a beautiful human who has crafted a way to do meaningful business and live life with love and passion.

I hope you enjoy x

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