Zaadz team member David Pearson, COO and director of Awareness, sees few obstacles in Zaadz' path

ZAADZ!!!!!!!!

by Cate Montana

TOPANGA, Calif - When you hear the word 'Zaadz,' what comes to mind? If it's enthusiasm and joy, self-empowerment and changing the world, you're in good company.

Actually, the word zaad (pronounced zahd) is Dutch for 'seed.' When Brian Johnson, Philosopher and CEO of Zaadz first sat down with the idea of joining his two great passions-his interest in spirituality, personal growth, and bettering the world with his passion for entrepreneurship and business-the notion of 'seed' kept coming up.

"Amazing how much potential is in a tiny seed," says Johnson. "That power reminds us of the amazing potential within each of us. We thought the idea of creating a company that inspires and empowers you to bring your 'seed' to actualization would be pretty powerful. So, we created 'Zaadz.'"

And Zaadz, now the world's fastest-growing social networking site for socially and spiritually conscious people, is living up to its name.

The company's mission is-yep, you guessed it-nothing short of changing the world. Their plan goes like this: you be the change + you follow your bliss + you give your greatest strengths to the world moment to moment to moment + we do everything in our power to help you succeed + you inspire and empower everyone you know to do the same + we team up with millions like us = we just affected billions = we (together) changed the world.

The Zaadz team isn't dreaming when it comes to the potential for dramatic positive change. It certainly has the know-how. Johnson led the creation of the world's largest amateur sports site, eteamz-which sold for over $13 million in stock and cash to the Active Network in 2000. Later, after successfully leading the integration of the two companies and setting the division's strategy, Johnson set off in a different diretion-taking a year for deep self-reflection in hopes of figuring out what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

Was he to follow a spiritual path of social and eco-responsibility, or follow his love of business and entrepreneurship? And it was this that lead to this ephiphany. Why think in terms of separation? Why not combine capitalism with consciousness, assuming a resonsibility to people and the planet?

"We can't escape capitalism," says David Pearson, Director of Awareness and COO of Zaadz. "A very, very small percentage of the population lives outside world of money and trade; it's a realm we can't help but engage in. And if that's the case, then why not use this force in a positive way, as a means of effecting real change in the world?"

The basic means of support Zaadz offers is community. A free social networking site designed for individuals vitally concerned with issues of sustainability, alternative health, ecology, spirituality and planetary transformation, Zaadz provides an online "oasis" of quality connectivity. Here, people and organizations dedicated to sustainable and spiritual ideals, products and information have a safe place to share.

Members blog on a wide variety of critical social issues, share ideas and the latest news, and talk about products, books, organizations, and events that otherwise might have limited visibility. And they have fun finding out about each other. Zaadz is a busy place where people, potentials and possibilities hook-up. A Canadian hemp grower finds out about a small estoteric t-shirt company in Florida looking for quality material. A massage therapist in Mexico developing a health spa connects with a travel marketing specialist in Illinois. A fan of Carlos Casteneda's books meets an anthropologist who was one of his students. Sustainable businesses blossom, friendships expand, news travels, and the planet is a better place for it.

In the process Zaadz has become an attractive media property for potential sponsors and advertisers, ranging from global brands to local practioners. Unlike most other commercial internet sites however, Zaadz only accepts advertising that is philosphically in alignment with the company's ideals.

"Part of what we really try to encourage at Zaadz is that sense of aligning the personal values with the values of one's pocketbook and wallet," says Siona van Dijk, Synchronicity Coordinator (more commonly known as the Director of Communications). "It's all very easy to say, 'I believe in social justice,' or 'I support the environment.' But if I look at your checkbook, what do I see? Your checkbook doesn't lie. Where you spend-and how you make!-your money is a very blunt and clear assessment of what you literally value in the world."

But Zaadz has plans beyond being a conduit between good business and concerned consumers. With this summer's launch of zPro, the company has started doing the legwork of empowering those small businesses and conscious entrepreneurs whose work is changing the face of capitalism. "We've spend the past year growing an incredible community of inspired individuals, and we're excited now about empowering the change-makers," van Dijk says. "It's not easy to make that leap from the nine-to-five to go into business doing what it is you love. Owning your own practice-or getting your small business off the ground-isn't easy. We're hoping to change that by helping those who are trying to make a living doing what they love." By giving these local independents-from life coaches to yoga practitioners to organic restaurateurs-the tools to help their businesses thrive, Zaadz intends to catalyze a change in the way the world-literally-works.

Zaadz itself already comprises a powerful model. The Zaadz team is quick to emphasize their commitment to the triple bottom line-people, profits, and planet. A for-profit corporation, Zaadz plans to implement profit-sharing for all its employees. The Zaadz Foundation will ensure that 5% of the corporation's equity, 5% of its profit, and 5% of its employee's time will be invested in the foundation's non-profit work. This will include projects from scientific research into spirituality and self-development ideas, to programs to help kids reach their potential.

To make the complicated triple bottom-line formula work, Pearson and van Dijk say the biggest guidelines are 1) awareness; 2 intention; and 3) integrity. Awareness includes understanding the community that you're serving-your audience, the needs of the environment, the needs of your team, availability of appropriate products and information, awareness of potentials-even being aware there are things you're not aware of.

Intention includes the decision to do something with this awareness. It's one thing to be aware, and another to use discernment-in buying the right products, developing the appropriate business vehicles, finding productive ways to spread the company's message and values.

Finally, integrity means sticking to those values-no matter what. Here, Zaadz found itself tested early on. Soon after its launch in 2005, the community exploded onto the internet scene-overnight, thousands of people were signing up. The site, intended to be a peaceful and calm oasis of support and inspiration, started drowning in new subscribers who didn't share the ethics or values of empowerment and deep respect-and the company was forced to make a decision. The choice came between growing fast (instant success and money) and growing appropriately to the company's vision (the triple bottom line). The Zaadz team chose to develop both a set of community guidelines asking members to state their personal alignment with the site's intention, and converted itself to an invite or application-based-only community. New users were asked to fill out a form describing why they wanted to join the site and their own commitment to changing the world. The result?

"It ultimately slowed the growth down," says Pearson. "But it really kept a high center of gravity to our membership. It really made Zaadz a safe place, because everyone understands what they're doing here and why-and they hold strongly to it."

To this day the Zaadz team has not had to police the site. Members self-moderate, treating each other with a generosity and respect not typically found on the web. Currently Zaadz has 71,015 "Zaadzsters" and approximately 1,000,000 unique visitors a month. The energy on the site is powerful, upbeat, and earnest. Members proudly talk about what it means to "get" Zaadz-and what it means to get the point about conscious capitalism, community, and changing the world by being the change. And, for the most part, they seem to get why they're there and what they can contribute.

"It's the emergent power of so many, many little connections that I think really characterizes Zaadz, and what the whole global movement of consciousness-raising and environmental change is all about," says van Dijk. "People always ask – 'Well, the actions of one person, what does that mean?' But when you multiply those – it's exponential. It's huge. So that, I think, is the epitome of Zaadz."

For more information: www.zaadz.com