Episode 21: Lead by Design with Jenny Kitchen

Is it possible to lead and run a company by embracing your purpose? How do you lead by design and build a business that supports people and the planet first? 

 In this episode, Lorraine brings in a truly inspiring business owner who embraces her purpose, Jenny Kitchen of Yoyo Design. Jenny is CEO of multi-award-winning digital design agency Yoyo Design. Working with clients such as Marie Curie, Vivo Barefoot, Mercedes Benz, and Universal Music the agency regularly wins awards for their work and their culture, recently scooping Campaign’s Best Places to work. Jenny was recently named the Management Today 35 under 35, Young Business Leader of the year.  She has also led the agency to make the legally binding commitment to manage the business using the triple bottom line of profit, people, and planet as a certified B corporation. And now as a B Corp ambassador, she promotes the B Corp values through supporting other companies through the accreditation process, as well as speaking at conferences and on podcasts about building better businesses that put people and the planet at the heart of the organisation.

Jenny shares how she started her company and her experiences during their first years. She shares her thoughts on naivete and taking leaps of faith. As mentioned above, Jenny is a B Corp ambassador and she shares how she became one. Jenny also shares what inspired her to lead by design, and how this helps in serving her clients.

This episode is fun and truly inspiring as Jenny takes us through some of her projects that shows how she leads by design and purpose.

Quote: 

“In terms of running a business, I think our strategy was we just want to do some good stuff. We want to be nice people.”

“Once you have those relationships, you get into a high level able to sort of strategically influence the brands and just have better conversations.”

“It’s really important for me to not only have those strategic business conversations, but also to make sure that not only our clients, but our team just get the best out of any partnerships.”

“Our niche is that we’re just really good at digital design and build, and our team wants the variety.”

“Be good. Do nice things.”

“You have a business and the business is more than an individual voice. There is potentially more impact that can be made as a result of using your business for good.”

“The community aspect of the team is really, really important to us.”

“Prosperity is not necessarily about growth for growth’s sake, but it’s about if growth can enable us to do more of the things that we want to do.”

Key Points of the Episode:

• Lorraine shares a quick introduction for this episode’s guest, Jenny Kitchen.

• Jenny talks about how she started her agency.

• Jenny talks about naivete, taking a leap of faith, and their first years in business.

• What kind of clients Jenny work with and her process.

• Jenny shares her thoughts on helping clients build their own teams.

• Jenny’s most recent project that meant a lot for her and her team.

• Why did Jenny decide to be B Corp certified and why is it important for Yoyo?

• What are the other things that inspired Jenny to lead by design?

• Jenny shares how she works with her team for the past couple of years.

Connect with Jenny:

Yoyo Design Website: https://yoyodesign.com/ 

Yoyo Design IG: @yoyodesign_

Facebook: Yoyo Design

Yoyo Design LinkedIn: Yoyo

Jenny’s LinkedIn: Jenny Kitchen