Speaker 1 0:00

My name's Adriana . As you introduced , I am the founder of the Allura's Embrace . What we do is we serve artisan soaps in a way that's whole , in a circular model . So what that means is every cell is reinvested into our technology division , Allura Technologies , and what we do is we grow

Introduction to Aurora's Embrace

Speaker 1 0:30

aeroponic grow towers or we produce or make aeroponic grow towers . We try to feed communities through community gardens , but our take is a bit non-traditional in a sense , because most community gardens they take soil , they take water , they take resources , and what we're trying to do is we're trying to cut back on resources but maximize yield . Doing that , we are launching our first pilot garden in PWC , right off Print Route 1 .

Speaker 2 1:02

Wow .

Speaker 1 1:04

So those gardens are meant to feed . One garden is 12 towers , so we're looking to feed and provide free produce which has multiple benefits less packaging , more healthy options Because , as we know , America is a lot more dependent on the fast food and more processed packaging foods and we're trying to cut that back and we noticed that it has a ripple effect in healthcare and in preventative health . So we're kind of touching on three birds with one stone .

Speaker 2 1:51

Yeah , that's amazing . Take me back a bit . What originally inspired you to focus on reshaping industries and communities through social impact and innovation ?

Speaker 1 1:56

That's a good question . So it all started with one issue . It was a personal issue . With one issue . It was a personal issue , so it was soaps . I couldn't find a skincare brand that didn't irritate my skin or did it dry it out or did it make it feel heavy , and so I formulated my own soap recipes and I researched and I researched , and I researched and I researched and we came out with a honey oat brand

The CARE Values

Speaker 1 2:27

that's light on the skin , it cleans , it's made with all natural , certified ingredients , which is really healthy for the skin . They moisturize and really calm the skin . So if you have anything like sensitive skin or acne , all the soaps are really good for that .

Speaker 2 2:49

Okay , so like eczema , things like that .

Speaker 1 2:58

Yes , we do have a sensitive skin or we're in the middle of formulating soaps for sensitive skin like mine . And it was that personal issue . And the deeper I dug , I found out that it was a more systematic issue with huge corporations , and that's what I'm out to tackle is those huge corporations using chemical , synthetic ingredients that just aren't natural for the human body , and our soaps are also biodegradable . So it all started from soaps and those soaps have a bigger purpose . They build towers , they fund our towers and they also portion of the proceeds , being a volunteer EMT , also go to Dell City volunteer fire department .

Speaker 2 3:41

That's really amazing . Aurora's Embrace is described as the foundation of your B Corp empire , reshaping industries and communities . Can you explain what that means in your day-to-day work ?

Speaker 1 3:53

Reshaping communities and , it being the foundation , the Aurora's Embrace , was incorporated as a 501c . To start , I didn't want a for-profit model , and there are five core values that I hold near and dear to my heart , so we go by the acronym CARE . What that means is CARE C stands for connection , a stands for authenticity , r stands for resilience , a stands for authenticity , r stands for resilience and the E stands for empowerment . And that's what I try to do in my every day-to-day life is I want to leave an impact and inspire people to go out and reach their dreams and accomplish what they set out to do . My dad raised me to always shoot for the stars , and he was part of the big inspiration for this whole project and the company .

Speaker 2 5:04

Yeah , that's really amazing . Your vision places people before profit , emphasizing grassroots social entrepreneurship powered by technology . How does this vision guide the decisions you make at Aurora's Embrace ?

Speaker 1 5:16

Social entrepreneurship , that's a good one . So social , what I mean by social entrepreneurship is a company that focuses on people and not just stakeholders or profit margins , or they actually reach out into the community that they serve , and we don't see a lot of corporations do that . So , with that said , we start at the local level

Social Entrepreneurship and B Corp Model

Speaker 1 5:48

, because I believe that if you make those who are near happy , that those that are far will follow , and that's what I accomplish when I mean our grassroots initiatives . So we start local and we focus on the people that are around us , which translates into community , which translates into counties , which translates into regions and states . Absolutely yeah .

Speaker 2 6:17

Wow , I haven't heard that term a lot either social entrepreneurship so that was very insightful and very informative .

Speaker 1 6:25

So , being a B Corp , it's a hybrid between a nonprofit and a for-profit . So what B Corp stands for and I'm happy you brought this up , because not many people know is it's a public benefit corporation and it's a corporation that serves the interest of the public and its benefit .

Speaker 2 6:52

Absolutely . Let's dive into your three-pillar operational ideology . Can you briefly outline what conscious innovation , community empowerment and regenerative economics mean within Aurora's Embrace ?

Speaker 1 7:05

All right , so let's touch on regenerative economics . So , as I mentioned a lot before , regenerative . It's a secular motto because , like Elon , with his fascination with X and the letter X , my fascination is with circles and I've learned a lot from a lot of the top players and a lot of them are a big inspiration to me . And circular economics means that every part of our operation feeds into the other , so our artists and social selves feed into funding , our towers , research and development , and then circles back around to the community and it's one big giant loop . We believe . I believe that if you can find a way to serve people and make it cycle and come back around , that it's a better way to invest in profits , because the more you invest , the more you'll get out of it . Yeah Well , thank you for educating our audience on that .

Speaker 2 8:34

It definitely makes a lot of sense and I like that you compared your fascination with circles to Elon's . Whatever fascination with With the letter X conscious innovation . You focus on human-centered design and ethical technology . Can you share an example of technology or service you've developed that embodies these values ?

Speaker 1 8:54

With the traction that Allura Technologies and our grow towers and our soaps have gained over the last few months , since the start of the year and since the start of the Aurora's Embrace .

Regenerative Economics and Circular Systems

Speaker 2 9:09

Too many examples .

Speaker 1 9:12

Yeah .

Speaker 2 9:13

We can come back to it as well if we need more time to yeah , yeah absolutely , that would be nice . Why is it important for Aurora's Embrace to access the sustainability and ethical impact of its innovations before bringing them forward ?

Speaker 1 9:27

Yeah , that's a good question . The reason we focus on ethical impacts of our innovations is because of our audience , of the Allure Embraces audience . We target our own generation , gen Z and millennials . You know , people who see the system , is it working , but not , are not sure quite how to take action . And that leads to the innovation hub , ethical design . We try to reach out to the community for their to see what is best needed in that one local area and we design around what is needed . Unlike major systems , we're able to direct funds to where it's needed most , so we can provide that really for what's needed .

Speaker 2 10:33

Is there a specific example of a community that you did this for that comes to mind , or like a time when you address specific needs ?

Speaker 1 10:43

That's another amazing question . So a good example of reaching out to a community would be being at EMT . Yeah , reaching out to in community would be being at EMT . I focus around public service because that's where a lot of my family is in and I have a cousin that's a social worker . My mom is a teacher , my aunts a nurse , so all in public service . And being an EMT plays a huge part in all of this , because I'm focused on helping people and making sure they have what they need to be empowered .

Speaker 2 11:27

Yeah , that's a great answer and thank you for your service and for your family's service as well , because they're definitely underappreciated roles that you kind of mentioned there . I definitely agree with it . In your community empowerment pillar , you emphasize building capacity and fostering leadership . How are you practically equipping communities to become self-sustaining ?

Speaker 1 11:53

That's another good question . So when we do , when we mean self-sustaining is we have a concept that's very unique , which means me and my team are working on designing grid-independent communities with solar and sustainable architecture which are entirely self-sustaining through our technology , our grow towers and that kind of circles back into the concept .

Speaker 2 12:41

Yeah , amazing . Do you have a story where your community leadership programs or skills initiatives transformed a local community or an individual leader ? Just a small story . If you can think of one , a local

AI for Environmental Monitoring

Speaker 2 13:00

community or an individual leader ?

Speaker 1 13:02

Just a small story . If you can think of one , One that transformed a community leader , that's a good one . Or just an individual leader ? I don't really . I don't really , I don't think I really notice . I'm too . I'm a lot of time I'm out on the front lines and yeah , absolutely that's okay . I was just so curious .

Speaker 2 13:28

But yeah , no , it seems like you're out there on the front lines , quite literally as an EMT as well .

Speaker 1 13:34

Yeah , so I just I haven't noticed .

Speaker 2 13:37

Yeah Well , I'm sure that other people have noticed , though and taken kind of the values that you instill and the programs and skills . I don't think those have gone unnoticed . Regenerative economics is a bold step beyond sustainability , focusing on restoration and circular wealth . As you mentioned , the circles , how does Aurora's Embrace apply regenerative models in its operations beyond what you've told us ?

Speaker 1 14:09

That's another good question . Applying regenerative to earth economics . We are currently designing AI systems that can monitor the climate and pollutants in the atmosphere , as well as rain , and we are trying to currently equip our towers with it . So , with that being said , our AI what we're looking to do is to create a data point , an analytics point , already built into our towers . That way , we can monitor the climate and see where we need to take action the most .

Speaker 2 14:53

That's fascinating . Yeah , I hear a lot of discourse about AI being bad for the environment , but it's interesting how you're using it as a tool .

Speaker 1 15:02

That's a great point that I think you brought up . A lot of people have discourse over the whole AI boom and being in AI and trying to design it . A lot of people use it to extract profit and not really as a tool that it should be . I think AI in the right sense , being used as a tool to collect data , analyze it and process it faster than we can to spot patterns that we can't . We can act quicker and be on top of emerging issues , and that's just another way that we regenerate with our circular model in our ecosystem .

Speaker 2 15:45

That is such a great point . Thank you so much for sharing that . Let's see you talk about social enterprise incubation and impact investment models . How do these strategies help communities build generational wealth while aligning with the Aurora's mission ?

Speaker 1 16:03

And we believe that when we are the hand reaching back down , that comes back . And when we reach out , we are creating a sense of empowerment . And when that empowerment does is it inspires people to save . And when we create wealth I'm not talking wealth in the sense of monetary or anything like that , I'm more along the lines of creating wealth in the terms of I would say I completely lost track Maybe in a more holistic sense of wealth .

Speaker 1 17:02

So I'm glad you said holistic , that's a great way to explain it . I'm glad you said holistic , that's a great way to explain it . So holistic wealth means being whole , doing what needs to be done for the mind as well as for the body , and I think to me , people focus on one aspect and we forget . We're a complex system , just like anything else .

Speaker 2 17:37

Exactly

Resilience and Overcoming Failure

Speaker 2 17:38

, yeah , and if you're not holistically well , that can potentially be passed on generations as well , because you're , you know , maybe raising kids or raising families and you need to be in that , you need to be well as well . So I totally understand how that translates into generational wealth , but not in the sense that we normally think about it .

Speaker 1 17:50

So that's really awesome . I'm kind of glad you touched on that . I'm going to go a bit more into detail . Yeah , and I noticed you said generational and I think that if we can't be , if we can't be , let me back up . So when we touch on that , we're touching on authenticity , which is another value of mine , and when we act authentically , we create a sense of self-reflection and which we can begin to see the problems that we have and begin to fix that , because a lot of us , I think that we live in a bubble and it's hard to self-reflect and be honest with yourselves , with ourselves , which translates , like you said , to families and generations . And if we can see our problems , we don't pass on that generational trauma that we inherited , that we inherited .

Speaker 2 19:06

Absolutely yeah , I love that you made that point . So thank you for circling back and going a little more in depth . What are some of the biggest challenges you've faced in aligning innovation , ethics and community impact , and how have you navigated them ?

Speaker 1 19:21

That's a good question . So the biggest challenge was not getting the hand that I needed to get going and getting started . Getting started was probably the hardest because fun rise and I think that when people think business , they think I need a ton of capital to get started . And I hope that with this story , we can inspire to or allow people to see that you don't need a ton of wealth to get started , that if you have an idea , you have a dream . All it takes is a little bit of action . Because when I first started this , I didn't know what I was doing , and I still don't to a point .

Speaker 1 20:15

But , with that said , I think that just jumping in and going headfirst , you don't make mistakes . It happens , it's part of life , and I think that those mistakes are turning points to ultimate , more ultimate wins . And people have a way of looking around to failure , working up at failure , and they say they look at failure and I used to be this way too and saying , oh , I failed , I can't do this , I give up , but without realizing that that failure was your most important lesson . And I failed so many times that I can't count . I lost track and each one of those stories they taught me something and I kept persevering . And that's where the R comes in resilience . And I believe in resilience because without a little bit of resilience it takes throughout life .

Speaker 2 21:27

Yeah , absolutely . I loved how you said mistakes are turning points to ultimate wins . Yeah , that is just an excellent takeaway . Looking ahead , what is your vision for the future of the Aurora's Embrace and what impact do you hope to see in future communities and industries as a result of your work ?

Speaker 1 21:48

Simply put , I want to see entire industries dismantled or entire systems rebuilt to serve not just profit .

Speaker 2 21:57

Yeah .

Speaker 1 21:58

And that's what I'm after .

Speaker 2 22:00

Yeah , I like that . It's a clear mission and you're very determined and you've done a lot of work to set you on that course and to start chipping away , so that's really great . Is there anything

Vision for Systemic Change

Speaker 2 22:12

else about the Aurora's Embrace , your vision for empowering communities or your mission in general that we haven't touched on ? That you want us to ?

Speaker 1 22:21

I think you did an amazing job of touching on all of the pain points that there are , so I do appreciate that .

Speaker 2 22:31

Yeah , of course . Well , thank you so much , adriana , for coming in and sharing your insights and story today . This has been a fascinating conversation and I know that our audience will leave inspired by how the Aurora's Embrace is driving ethical , sustainable and regenerative change , and I think we all have an incredible takeaway of you . Know , mistakes are just turning points towards ultimate wins .

Speaker 1 22:58

I'm glad you brought that back up . But yeah , I believe in resilience and I hope that if our audience takes one thing away , it'd be that yeah .

Speaker 2 23:12

Dare I say that's one of the most important things in life in my opinion .