In episode 32 of the Disruptors for Good podcast, I speak with Tamra Ryan, the CEO of the Women’s Bean Project about ending the cycle of poverty for women who have been chronically unemployed due to addictions and/or incarceration.
Tamra Ryan is the CEO of Women’s Bean Project, a social enterprise that provides transitional employment, while operating a food manufacturing business, to women attempting to break the cycle of chronic unemployment and poverty.
Tamra is a former partner and board member for Social Venture Partners-Denver, currently serves and part-time Interim CEO for the Social Enterprise Alliance, and is on the Council of Advisors for the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver.
Congressman Mike Coffman (R-CO) recognized Tamra’s servant leadership and entered it into the Congressional Record of the 115th Congress, Second Session in May 2018. She was honored by the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce as one of the Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Colorado and is part of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Leadership Network.
She was a presenter at TEDxMilehigh and is a highly sought-after speaker for topics such as compassionate leadership and social enterprise.
Tamra is the author of The Third Law, a book which highlights the societal obstacles and internal demons that must be overcome for marginalized women to change their lives.
The Third Law has won numerous awards for women/minorities in business and social activism. She is currently working on her second book, Followship: How to be a leader worth following.
Interview Transcription
Grant: What’s up everybody, this is Grant from Causeartist. Today, we’re chatting with Tamra Ryan, CEO of the Women’s Bean Project, about ending the cycle of poverty for women who have been chronically unemployed due to addiction or incarceration. The Women’s Bean Project uses a traditional business model within its nonprofit structure to scale its ability to hire and change the lives of these women.
Tamra emphasizes how changing a woman’s life can often change her family’s life as well. The conversation explores the challenges women face in getting trained and skilled for the workforce, especially when many come into the program reading at a third-grade level. The Women’s Bean Project takes these women through a seven-month program, providing not only job training but also life skills to help them secure long-term employment.
The project produces products like coffee, tea, and lentil soup, which are sold in grocery stores across the country, allowing consumers to support their mission through everyday shopping. Tamra’s extensive experience in social ventures and her leadership at the Women’s Bean Project make this a powerful discussion. Hope you enjoy it!
03:36
Grant: I usually like to start with an individual’s journey. How did you get involved with the Women’s Bean Project and eventually become its CEO?
Tamra: My journey hasn’t been a straight line. I have two science degrees—an undergraduate degree in kinesiology and a master’s in physiology. I thought I wanted to be a researcher, but I realized that wasn’t for me. So, I moved to Chicago and got a job at a subsidiary of Rush Medical Centre, where we took ideas from the medical centre to market. It was a great opportunity to use my science background and also tap into my creative side as a marketer.
Eventually, I moved back to Colorado and joined a tech company during the dot-com boom. However, I realized I wanted to make a more meaningful impact in my community. I joined Social Venture Partners in Denver, where partners pool funds and give grants to organizations.
That’s where I learned about the Women’s Bean Project. I was handed a bean soup and thought the idea was brilliant—a business that advances its mission the better it performs. I began volunteering on their sales and marketing committee, and after six months, the CEO position opened up. A friend encouraged me to apply, and that was 16 and a half years ago.
07:41
Grant: The Women’s Bean Project is often described as a hybrid model of a business and nonprofit. How has the model evolved over the years?
Tamra: The Women’s Bean Project was founded in 1989 by a woman who was getting her master’s in social work. She saw that women using the services of a daytime homeless shelter kept coming back because they lacked the skills to keep a job.
She invested $500 of her own money, bought beans, and put two women to work making our first product, a 10 Bean Soup. That first year, they made $6,100 on that $500 investment. Initially, the mission was more central, and the business was secondary.
But when I came on board in 2003, I knew we needed to operate more as a business because sales create jobs, and our ability to hire more women is based on our ability to sell products. It took time to shift that mentality, but now we operate with a strong focus on both the business and the mission.
12:17
Grant: How would you describe the program at the Women’s Bean Project? What’s the process like for women who apply?
Tamra: We believe that all women have the power to transform their lives through employment. We hire women who are chronically unemployed and teach them to work by making nourishing products. Women can come anytime during business hours to apply.
We ask that they come in person as a first step towards change. We hire women based on certain criteria, like chronic unemployment. On average, the women we hire are 39 years old and have long histories of incarceration and addiction. What we’re looking for in interviews is readiness to change. This isn’t a place where you can stay the same—you need to be ready to do the work to create a new life.
Over seven months, we help women learn how to come to work every day, take direction, and pay attention to detail. About 30% of their paid time is spent on soft skills like computer training, financial literacy, and GED preparation. Our goal is to make them better employees, better moms, and better community members.
17:17
Grant: What happens after the seven months? Do they move on to other jobs, or do some stay with the project?
Tamra: About 70% of the women graduate from the program, and all of them go on to jobs. We spend a lot of time helping them identify their career entry-level job, which we define as a job with opportunities for advancement and benefits. We’re more concerned with their future than their past, and we focus on possibility rather than limitations.
We have relationships with employers, and we cultivate those. We also use a tool called CareerScope, which assesses their interests and aptitudes and generates a list of job ideas. It’s all about helping them see what’s possible.
20:52
Grant: You mentioned computer training as a key skill. Is that one of the top skills employers look for?
Tamra: Yes, familiarity with computers is critical. The average age of a woman we hire is 39, and many didn’t grow up with computers in school. Some don’t know how to turn on a laptop or attach a resume to an email.
Every job requires some level of computer skills today. We also see the impact of our public education system—many women come to us with reading levels between second and seventh grade.
If someone tests at a third-grade reading level, getting a GED in seven months isn’t realistic. In some cases, women with a high school diploma still test at a low reading level, which shows how broken the system can be.
23:22
Grant: Do women from other cities come to the Women’s Bean Project, or is it mostly local to Denver?
Tamra: We draw from the Denver metro area, but we do get women who hear about us once they’re in the community, whether it’s through a halfway house or a women’s prison. We’ve had graduates who move to other states and ask how they can bring a Women’s Bean Project to their community.
We often get calls from other cities asking how to replicate the model. While we’ve focused on national distribution of our products and serving as a technical assistance role in the field of social enterprise, we recognize the challenge of expanding to other cities.
27:13
Grant: Can you share some of the successes you’ve seen over the years?
Tamra: One of my favorite stories is about a woman named Selena. She came to us at 21, which is our minimum age. Her mother introduced her to cocaine at 12, and by 13, she was kicked out of the house and living on the streets. At 18, she was arrested, which likely saved her life. After being involved in the correctional system, her pastor referred her to us at 21.
She was eager to change her life, enrolled in an adult high school, and eventually got a job at Safeway. She now lives in North Dakota with her husband and daughter. Her daughter will have a completely different life, breaking the cycle of poverty.
30:25
Grant: How many women do you work with each year? Is there a permanent staff?
Tamra: We have 12 full-time permanent staff, and we hire about 60 transitional employees each year. At any point, we have 15 to 20 women working within the business. They work in various aspects of our operations—production, shipping, retail—gaining skills and experience.
The goal is for them to move on to other jobs, and while we do have one program graduate who is now a permanent staff member, we try to keep our permanent staff small to allow more opportunities for transitional employees.
32:54
Grant: The Women’s Bean Project started with 10 Bean Soup, but now you offer a wide range of products. How did that expansion happen?
Tamra: The expansion has happened over the past 20 years. Initially, we started with products that went with the soup, like cornbread mix and baking mixes. A few years ago, we hired a company that does new product ideation for big companies across the country. They helped us see how people’s eating habits have changed and identified about 10 new product concepts for us.
That led to the introduction of products like flavored popcorn and biscuit mixes. We’ve also introduced rice and beans cups, and in the new year, we’ll be launching breakfast cups. The fun part is taking these ideas and running with them to create new products.
35:42
Grant: Can you tell us about your book, The Third Law? What inspired you to write it?
Tamra: The book came from seeing how hard the women we work with are trying to change their lives, but also how many things push back against that change. Sometimes it’s family members who don’t like the empowerment that comes with earning a paycheck. Other times, it’s the systems they’re involved with, like the correctional system, which dehumanizes people and then expects them to reintegrate into society without support.
I also realized that the only difference between me and many of these women is the accident of birth. I was born into a middle-class family and knew I’d go to college. But how different would my life be if I had grown up in different circumstances? I felt a responsibility to tell their stories and change hearts and minds about what it means to grow up in those situations.
39:42
Grant: You mentioned that Selena came to the Women’s Bean Project after getting out of prison. Is there any possibility of working with women while they’re still incarcerated to start the program early?
Tamra: Funny you ask that—just yesterday, we met with the Executive Director of the Department of Corrections for Colorado. They’re working on a work-release program for the last year of someone’s sentence, and we’re discussing how we might be an employer for that last year to tee them up for success when they’re released.
We’ve also tried doing in-reach, where we go into prisons and interview women before their release, but it hasn’t been as successful because of the challenges in getting them to us on their first day out. We think the work-release solution might be more effective, allowing everyone to support them during that transitional time.
42:32
Grant: That’s interesting! Colorado has been an innovative state over the last decade. It’s great to see these types of approaches being considered. I wanted to ask about your time with Social Venture Partners in Denver. What did you learn from that experience?
Tamra: Social Venture Partners (SVP) is a model where partners pool funds and give grants to organizations based on their collective investment strategy. They also provide technical assistance to help nonprofits run on all cylinders. In the nonprofit world, there’s often a mentality of scarcity, which can lead to underpaying staff or not investing in the resources needed to grow.
SVP helps nonprofits overcome that mentality and brings a fresh set of eyes to help them operate more effectively.
However, there can be a tension when people from the private sector bring an arrogance to the situation, assuming they know how to run things better. It’s important to approach these relationships with a sense of abundance, recognizing that everyone has something to bring to the table.
48:20
Grant: Are you still on the board at the Barton Institute at the University of Denver?
Tamra: I’ve recently rolled off that board, as the Barton Institute has spun off to become its own 501(c)(3) organization. They did a variety of initiatives within the city and had a fellowship program where graduate students from different disciplines would work on social enterprise projects. It was a really cool model.
51:01
Grant: Universities have a great opportunity to innovate their curriculum in social enterprise and entrepreneurship. What are your thoughts on this?
Tamra: I’d love to see more students finish their curriculum by working in social enterprises rather than immediately starting their own. There’s often a perception that being an entrepreneur means you have to start something, but there’s so much to learn from being part of an existing organization. It’s valuable to see what works and what doesn’t before striking out on your own.
53:23
Grant: Are you still the interim CEO at the Social Enterprise Alliance?
Tamra: Yes, I am. It’s very complementary to my work at the Women’s Bean Project. The Social Enterprise Alliance (SEA) is the member organization for social enterprises in the U.S. It started as an annual summit and then became a member organization.
We’re currently looking at how SEA can be relevant in 2020 and beyond, helping lift up social enterprises by providing access to marketplaces, technical support, and more. In 2020, we’re introducing a certification for social enterprises, which we believe is much needed in the field.
57:35
Grant: Thank you so much, Tamra. I appreciate your work and the time you’ve taken to share your journey with us. I hope people look at the Women’s Bean Project model and think about how they can implement similar models in their own work. Best of luck with all your endeavors!
Tamra: Thanks so much, Grant. I really appreciate it.
