There’s nothing predictable about inspiration. Frances Leary’s journey toward becoming a socially responsible entrepreneur began with a study of Bigfoot in the swamps of Louisiana.
Halifax-based Leary established Wired Flare, her online communications company, in 2011.
It has become the 13th company in the Maritimes to gain the status of Benefit Corporation, a designation that communicates a company’s social responsibility to the world.
A growing American initiative, B Corp certification requires businesses to prove that they meet high standards in terms of social and environmental practices, accountability and transparency.
As of June 2014, there were around 1,000 B Corps in 60 industries and 34 countries.
“We’re the first company in Canada that specializes in social media to get B Corp designation,” said Leary, the company’s president.
“Twelve of the Maritime certifications happened in the last 12 months. That makes this region one of the fastest-growing B Corp regions, per capita, in the world.”
Social responsibility has always been important to Wired Flare, Leary said. The company’s main office is powered by green energy supplier Bullfrog Power.
Wired Flare is also a certified Women’s Business Enterprise organization, and it values supplier diversity. The company devotes more than 10 per cent of its resources to support non-profit initiatives.
Leary said that B Corp status also improves her company’s competitiveness in an economy that increasingly values sustainability, social accountability and transparency.
“And B Corp allows us to connect with other companies with the same values. It means real accountability, which will encourage us to keep improving in all areas.”
Leary said that studying the marketing of Bigfoot taught her a lot about marketing in general.
The Texan was a graduate student at Memorial University in Newfoundland in 2001 when she visited the Louisiana swamps to research her thesis.
She became fascinated by the myriad ways local people used the legend to make money, from selling Swamp Man T-shirts and giving swamp tours to making plaster casts of a footprint.
“I spent a month in Louisiana getting to know the stories of the Honey Island Swamp Monster and learning how local people commercialized the creature.”
At the time, she did not foresee a career in marketing. She had been a Grade 8 teacher for 10 years and imagined she would remain in teaching.
But when she began doing some online marketing work, she saw the connection between the selling of Bigfoot and selling everything else.
“I realized that folklore and marketing are much the same thing. Folklore is the process of how cultures communicate their belief systems. Marketing is the way companies communicate their core values and missions.
“Big Foot has influenced my approach to online marketing. For me, it’s become much more about story. I aim to capture the personalities and stories of the people I’m working with.”
Halifax has proven fertile ground for her brand of storytelling.
“The Halifax business community has supported and opened doors for us. We’ve experienced nothing but opportunities here.”
Disclaimer: Entrevestor receives financial support from government agencies that support startup companies in Atlantic Canada. The sponsoring agencies play no role in determining which companies and individuals are featured in this column, nor do they review columns before they are published.
