Empowering Small Business Owners Through Social Impact Travel

The show I host, Cleveland Hustles, is all about empowering small business owners to create a movement that can strengthen communities and revitalize neighborhoods. So when I heard about a company called Breakout that was doing that in cities throughout the country, I just had to sit down with them to discuss.

When I met up with co-founders Michael Farber and Graham Cohen, I got to learn what they’re all about. Breakout’s mission is to travel to “growth cities” and connect entrepreneurs to like-minded people, to both inspire them and drive change.

In short, they bring inspiring people to inspiring cities to create impact.

When I asked them to define an inspiring city, Graham explained that the company started two years ago with the idea to bring inspiring people from every industry together. He said that it just became abundantly clear to them that the more they connected talented people with each other the more everyone could do to positively affect one another. So, the two chartered an airplane and flew 100 entrepreneurs from New York to South Beach.

Miami, an inspiring city?

Not exactly, but it was the first place they decided to venture together to in order to “breakout” of their current surroundings and mindsets.

Post-Miami they decided to continue meeting together, but to instead travel to growth cities where they could actually make an impact.

New Orleans, Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland.

It was by traveling to these cities that they fell in love with the energy, the vibe, the opportunity that each held. They described Breakout as a fun learning experience that could foster relationships, shape perceptions, and reward curiosity… all crumbled up into a 48-hour weekend.

Do you see why I’m a fan of this company yet?

One interesting thing they decided to start doing was highlighting people who had a great impact on their communities through Breakout events, media, and local memberships.

The idea was to find local leaders who were already making a positive impact and just be a part of their growth.

I found this to be really smart because almost 80% of small businesses fail in the first 18 months for two primary reasons: 1. access to capital, and 2. these businesses don’t know how to scale.

And so by bringing these social entrepreneurs together with local business leaders, they could help these small businesses adopt big business thinking.

Big business thinking can help accelerate the growth of small businesses. Just because you’re a small business doesn’t mean you need to think small.

It’s all about creating relationships through events and then seeing how they lead to future growth.

Graham left me with this, which I thought was a really great summary:

“The first time I went to Detroit was the first time I felt like I really understood the American Dream. In New York, we’re small fish in a big pond, but when we go to Detroit, we feel like we can be a part of something.”

You need that support group of like-minded people if you want to affect change or disrupt something.

I’d love to continue this conversation, especially around bringing more support to small businesses. Or, if you are a small business owner, how can I connect you into communities that can add value to you and your business?

As always, TXT ME: (646) 759–1837 and let’s talk about it!

For my full interview with the co-founders of Breakout, check out the video here: