Cultivating Kind Humans and Building Brands for Impact with Justin Wilkenfeld, Co-Founder & CEO of KindHumans

Mixing up the ingredients that turn lifestyle into purposeful brands for fun, impact, and more kind humans. 

Show Notes

Justin Wilkenfeld is a friend, a surfer, he was the 4th employee at iconic lifestyle brand GoPro, and played an integral role in growing that company into a global success. More recently, he became the co-founder and CEO of KindHumans, a social and eco friendly online marketplace that is B-Corp Certified, a member of 1% For the Planet, is Carbon Neutral Certified, and gives back 3% of every sale to non-profits.

In this convo we discover how Justin’s early family trips to a lake in upstate New York opened up his mind to the wonders of nature, especially when he didn’t have permission. Justin tells the serendipitous story of how being a student at the University of California San Diego and a regular surfer at Blacks Beach landed him a job at GoPro as it was about to go on a meteoric rise. We nerd out on the uniqueness of building purpose-driven, lifestyle brands and how it shaped his punk rock brand sensibilities that ultimately fueled the birth of KindHumans. Then we dive down the rabbit hole of what it takes to create an impact brand from the ground up - including the struggles of dealing with social media and innovating nature-friendly products when the system seems to push back at every turn. Justin also shares his nature-stacking techniques for bringing himself into the present moment as a grounding pre-surf ritual. This one will help stir the juices of what it means to intertwine fun, purpose, impact, and beautiful storytelling with our work. 

Episode Links

• Justin Wilkenfeld

• Kindhumans

• @kindhumans_movement

• Double Inhale Exhale (physiological sigh)  

• No-See-Ums

• Sacandaga Reservoir

• Kai Lenny

• Van Zanten Surfboards

• TD Ameritrade 

• GoPro

• Nick Woodman

• Whistler

• Crankworx

• Kris Jaimeson

• Mt. Hood

• White Rhinos

• Mountain gorillas  

• Our Breath Collective

• Reis Paluso

• X-Games

• Seth Godin

• Jack Kornfield on Tim Ferriss Show

• 1% for the Planet

• B Corp Certified 

• Climate Neutral

• Sea Trees

• 501CTHREE 

• Stoked.org 

• Growing Young book by Marta Zaraska 

• Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty

• Biodiversity blog on Nature Junkie by Jeff Johnson

• Environmental Working Group

• PFAs 

• Fair Trade

• Seaspiracy documentary

• The Honest Company 

• Expo West

• Wim Hof

• Center for Humane Technology

• The Social Dilemma film

• Cold Exposure from Huberman Lab

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Podcast cover art by Ahab Nimry (@ahabnimry, https://bigdaytheagency.com/)

Enjoy the Ride,

Jeff