Michael Stausholm Creates Wholesome Sustainability Through The Sprout Pencil and Spoon, Which You Can Plant After Use To Grow A New Plant

Welcome to another episode of Action & Ambition with your host, Phillip Lanos. Today’s guest is Michael Stausholm. Michael Stausholm is the founder of Sprout. Since the company was founded in 2013, Sprout has sold more than 25 million plantable pencils in more than 80 countries from its head office in Denmark. Michael Stausholm began his career in the shipping industry, working for A.P. Møller/Mærsk and travelled to Indonesia in 1993, where he lived for 14 years. His most significant interests are green entrepreneurship and sustainability. Between 1996 and 2006, he worked for companies such as Nike and Walmart, helping them to establish more sustainable and responsible textile production processes.  You’re going to love this episode. Let’s get to it! What has been Michael’s past experiences with podcasts? (2:32) The way Michael usually prefers a conversation over an interview.  He thinks Interviews are things you can just Google, but a conversation is like an audience is a fly on the wall, and they weren’t supposed to hear the conversation. Conversations also follow a loose arc, usually starting with who are you and where were you before your business. In a conversation format, you can go into any amount of detail you want, and it doesn’t have to be by the books like an interview. That’s why conversational format allows for a lot more engaging podcast for your audience.  What were pivotal moments for Michael that helped him decide to start a company like Sprouts? (6:33) When Michael started working in garments and textiles back in the mid-late 90s, he was in Asia, and it was still sweatshop conditions and factories with workers.  It was all about price, but then Wallmart came. Along and they started questioning whether it wasn’t possible to give workers better conditions by paying them just a little bit more. They gave workers what today are considered fundamental human rights like allowing them to go to the bathroom during working hours and access to healthcare and so on.  It made Michael realise how you can make a difference in people’s lives with small changes for the people you work with.  It doesn’t have to be about the price if you make your workers happy and give them decent working conditions, they will work more efficiently and better.  What processes does Michael follow when preparing to speak? (11:22) Michael has been speaking publicly for many years. For him, it doesn’t matter if its 20 people or 1000, he is always nervous. He finds this amusing because he knows he knows what he’s talking about even if he is not the best expert on the subject.  Once he gets onto the stage or in front of a TV Camera, It’s challenging for individuals as consumers to understand what we as the human race can do about that.  For Michael, it is an essential, enormous impact. That is where Sprout came from, Sprout is not going to save the world by itself, but it can help inspire people to do other small sustainable environmentally friendly things in their everyday lives, eventually making a big difference.  What allows Michael to have the distribution access that he has? (13:46) Michael states that itis the natural consequence of having a great product because it is also a great messenger.  Broadcast is all about being used as a messenger, and companies are using it as an icebreaker to explain their own sustainable and green messenger.  Parents are using it to explain to their kids how sustainability works. Therefore Michael things it is a natural consequence of the patented product. Sprout is the only company in the world that is and can make seat pencils as they do. Because Sprout focuses on sustainability, early on they got a lot of publicity and media exposure from all over the world and that helped them get into new markets much faster than if they were selling closing products.  Sprout Sprout creates unique pencils, and once your Sprout pencil is too short to write with, plant it and watch it grow into luscious flowers, fragrant herbs, fresh vegetables or even spruce trees. The idea behind the Sprout pencil is that by taking small steps using simple, innovative solutions, positive change is possible. Resources Connect with Michael: LinkedIn Sprout: Website Connect with Phillip: LinkedIn