Adrianne Gordon has been a major player in the B Corp community for years, so it comes as no surprise that her company, Practical Insight, has officially become North Carolina’s newest B Corp. After years of dedicating her time to B Local Asheville, the B + EOS Network, BLD Southeast, she and her company are now officially B Corp certified! 

Founded in 2023, Practical Insight focuses on providing corporate leadership teams with clarity, alignment, and traction; through these services, their clients go from reactivity to results. And because Practical Insight is dedicated to using their skills and services to make an impact, who they work with is as important as the work they do. Over 95% of their clients are mission-driven organizations and 81% are fellow B Corps! 

After becoming a Pending B Corp back in 2023, Adrianne joined two other Asheville-based, women owned businesses for the Solopreneur Cohort run by Profitable Purpose Consulting to finish up her B Impact Assessment and start her journey towards full B Corp Certification. 

Practical Insight is the first cohort member to get through the evaluation and verification processes and has certified with a final score of 104.1!!! We recently sat down with Adrianne to talk about her certification journey, what being a B corp means to her, and what’s next for Practical Insight. 

PPC: You did it!!! How does it feel to finally be a B Corp? 

Adrianne:  I never thought I’d be an entrepreneur, so it’s a bit surreal! I am incredibly proud of the work we have done to achieve certification, that we did it after being in business just 16 months, and that we earned a score of 104. It’s gratifying to have measurements on our efforts to support people and planet.  When I launched the company last spring there was no doubt I would certify as soon as I was eligible. Investing the resources to certify was simply something I factored in to everything from budgets to capacity planning. I believe in the certification and know the B Corp community are my people. 

PPC:  You’ve been a part of the B Corp community here in the Southeast for quite some time. Tell us about why you love this community so much. 

Adrianne:  I have been fortunate to be part of the B Corp community since 2018 both locally in Asheville, regionally, and nationally.  It’s a dynamic, growing collection of people doing amazing work in the world. The relationships you make are real connections that last. We see the problems in the world, understand their scope and importance, and are committed to doing what we can to have an impact. Each company is approaching the work of being a business as a force for good in their own way and are so willing to share both their triumphs and their flops. The B Corp community is incredibly supportive of one another. It’s unlike any other professional group I have been part of in my 25 year career. 

PPC: You organized this cohort and decided to bring PPC in as the lead consulting partner. How was the experience, and in what ways was it helpful to work with fellow entrepreneurs throughout the process? 

Adrianne:  Being active in the B Corp community for six years, I hear from a lot of people with questions about B Corp certification. I know enough about the B Impact Assessment and the certification process to know I am nowhere close to an expert. In talking to some fellow solopreneurs about why I wanted to certify as a B Corp and the process, they began asking me great questions that I couldn’t answer! I knew I needed guidance and support to get the most from the process for my own company. The idea of going through the journey with others for support and accountability really appealed to me. We could have muddled through on our own, but the process would have been harder and taken longer. Practical Insight definitely would not have been able to achieve a score of 104 without the expert guidance of Profitable Purpose Consulting. I felt more confident about submitting a strong application for certification and knew it would be much more efficient since I wouldn’t need to fix a lot of mistakes. We got a lot done in a short amount of time. I did the bulk of my certification work during my busy season for strategic planning which still amazes me. I was able to serve my clients because the PPC team helped me prioritize and they took some of the load. 

PPC: What advice would you have for someone interested in going through the B Impact Assessment and pursuing certification?   

Adrianne: You’re not too small, too large, too new or too established. It’s been done by one person companies who have been in business for a year all the way up to multi-nationals with thousands of employees.  Leverage the resources available – resources, guides, and courses from B Lab, connect with your B Local group to find out what support they can offer (you’d be surprised!), and don’t assume consulting support is beyond your budget. Involve your team to spread the load for decisions, research, policy creation and data tracking. And finally, don’t wait! The new standards come out in 2025 so now’s the time!

PPC: With your initial B Corp certification behind you, what can we expect to see from Practical Insight in 2024 and beyond? 

Adrianne:  While I’ve been involved in the B Corp community for several years, now that Practical Insight is certified we’re going to take our own advice about leveraging the certification to share our story, engage our team, connect with the community, and celebrate this accomplishment (link blog). We’ve just launched a completely revamped website (getpracticalinsight.com) to more clearly share how we support mission-driven companies in achieving clarity, cohesion, and tracking toward their world-changing mission without burning out their team. 

We’ve engaged PPC for support around content creation including articles and our annual impact report. Having outside support helps us share resources and learnings with the larger mission-driven business community that we may take for granted and ensures we produce regular content. I will continue to be involved in leading the B + EOS Network, B Local Asheville, and the BLD Southeast conference. We will recertify as a 1% for the Planet member and carbon neutral business with We Are Neutral every year.  The work of being a business that is a force for good in this world is ongoing for sure. 

Profitable Purpose Consulting is a full service culture and impact agency that specializes in B Corp certification. While they’re headquartered in Georgia and their heart is in the southeast, they work with clients around the world and have a network just as global. At PPC, it’s not just the certification, it’s successfully implementing every part of the process and telling the story of the good you do.