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Russ Stoddard

Russ Stoddard

Here's how I roll: B Corp & Brand Expert, 1% for the Planet, Farmer, #ClimateAction #SocialImpact 🚲; Founder, Oliver Russell; co-founder Unit Co, a benefit corporation; co-founder Social Good Network.

📍 Boise, Idaho

Stubborn Optimism and Other Things Worth Fighting For in 2026

Oh, hello 2026 – you big, mysterious dish of a year! My resolution for the year is to have NO resolutions – to float through the year and adapt as events, opportunities come at me, not committing to absolutely anything. Because for some damn reason – don’t ask me why – I’m

This Machine Kills New Year's Resolutions

I’ve got an ailment that flares up every year at this time. My affliction? Woody Guthrie, his life, and his enduring New Year’s Resolutions, or as Woody called them, New Year’s Rulin’s. Some of you are aware of my condition as I return to Woody’s

The Year I Become an Internet Meme

aka It's Birthday #67. Want to Help Me Party? Hey! Birthday number 67 today. Which I guess makes me a both a youthful, hip, viral slang term and internet meme worthy. So feel like celebrating that with me? Because I’m selfishly angling for a birthday gift from

Pantone, Politics, and Peace Prizes

A couple of items before we jump into things. Farewell, 2025 – this will be the last issue of Godspeed until the first of the year. I’m going to take a powder over the holidays and hope you are able to take time off as well. Second, I’m experimenting

Good Gravy! A Word Nerd's Alternative "Best Of" List

Well, it’s that time of year when the “best of” lists start cranking out all sorts of content. Since I’m a bit of a word nerd, and as the Oxford Word of the Year has just been announced (Rage bait), I thought I’d share a few of

25 Days of Awesome

I’m pulling one out of the archives today as it contains topics people here generally respond to: creativity, branding, community, and B Corps. Oh, it’s holiday themed as well, so we’re hitting relevancy here, right? And everybody loves the mystery and suspense of an advent calendar, yes?

The Crumpled Dollar Bill (and Other Stories to Restore Your Faith)

You're getting this issue a day early to test my suspicion that starting tomorrow – if it hasn't already happened – many of you will be escaping for the holidays. Happy Thanksgiving to you! It’s the week where we launch into the holidays, which for many brings

I Thought I Was Mentoring Them. Then These Two Founders Flipped the Script.

Every once in a while a story just falls into your lap – or walks through your front door, which is what happened when Paul and John came to my office one day. I do a lot of mentoring about B Corps and other business models focusing on social and environmental

Where Is Your Red Line?

There’s nothing I love more than values with a backbone – as I’ve often said, if your values don’t occasionally cost you something they aren’t worth anything. So I was gratified to read this piece by Yuval Ackerman, a Godspeed reader and one of the sharpest email

A Wolf Dressed in PBC Clothing

I was preparing to write a story about why OpenAI shouldn’t be allowed to become a public benefit corporation when this week brought news that it had already transitioned to a PBC as part of its corporate restructuring from nonprofit to for-profit. For me (shaking his head), the heart