ChicoBag

Good Shepherd's Clothes Closet gave away $1.4 million in clothing last year. For free. With 2.5 paid staff.

On the ChicoBag Podcast, Dave McLaughlin gives the credit to his volunteers, around 40 of them. They sort the clothes and run the five micro closets. Many also chip in the money that covers rent and electricity. No big federal grants. Most of the budget comes from people who care about their community.

Full conversation live now. https://youtu.be/HedWDiisMlA

The first bag we ever made just got five new colors: Pale Green, Red, Malibu Blue, Navy Blue, and Ultra Violet.

Same Original underneath. Folds into a 3x4 inch pouch, clips to your keys, opens into a tote that carries 25 pounds. The rePETe + Refine fabric is 100% recycled bottles, dyed with 89% less water, so the color holds in the wash.

Pick your colors: https://www.chicobag.com/shop/reusable-shopping-bags-totes-5/original-repete-refine-297?attribute_values=5

Ever wonder why single-use plastic is so cheap? Kizzy Charles-Guzman of the Center for Environmental Health has an answer that stuck with us: "It's not in the price tag. It's in your medical bill."

On the ChicoBag Podcast, she broke down how to lower your everyday exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals:

Don't heat food in plastic, especially black takeout containers.
Store and reheat in glass, ceramic, or stainless.
Use cast iron instead of Teflon.

Pick one and start there. Center for Environmental Health

The people having the hardest time in this job market are often the ones who did everything right. Honor roll, Dean's list, told they'd always land on their feet.
Sam Wright from calls it the crisis of overachievers.

Why are the brands you actually want to watch winning? They stopped making ads and started making things people choose to come back to.

Huckberry began with 10,000 YouTube followers. Today their channel sits next to North Face. The shift wasn't a bigger marketing budget. They reallocated what they used to spend on paid ads into one well-made owned series called "Dirt."

This week on the ChicoBag Podcast, Andy talks with Kevin Willard, the creative director and copywriter behind brand stories for Ocean Conservancy, Hyatt, and Jack Daniels.

If you've ever wondered why we put time into a podcast instead of buying more ads, this episode answers it.

Watch the full conversation: https://youtu.be/5xRkgc2ebhk

You're already posting your morning coffee.
A coffee brand made every one of those posts send $5 to a mental health org for Black women. No new app. Just a hashtag.

Post On Purpose built that. Becca Ruiz breaks it down on the ChicoBag Podcast - episode 30, link in bio.