Asheville has long been known as a place where creatives flock for the inspirational views, creative class, and its “Dig Local” mantra to keep downtown and all of Asheville a haven for independent entrepreneurs, makers, and artists. As Mountain BizWorks states about their Asheville B Corp Network, “Mountain BizWorks and the owners of area Certified B Corporations (B Corps) and like-minded business have joined forces to make Western North Carolina a B Corp hub. We’re the Asheville B Corp Network, and we want to educate our community about this powerful new type of company, help interested local businesses become certified, and bring existing B Corps here to WNC.” Mad Genius Studios, an aspiring B Corp, aims to be a part of this mission by encouraging all businesses–locally and worldwide–to become a B Corp and be accountable for our environment and worker’s rights as well as fighting corporate greed.
Mad Genius Studios will be headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina, with plans to renovate two Mad Genius Studios that will eventually be available for #4DaySprints for free to creatives and artists who pitch specific plans for their new business venture, artistic endeavor, or creative pursuit. Executives and startups will also be able to utilize MGS studios for these four day sprints, which will be curated experiences that will help individuals or teams get from where they are now to where they want to be in less than a week.
In addition to these spaces, which will eventually be located around the world, Mad Genius Studios plans to focus on these 5 initiatives in 2017:
Empower entrepreneurial women through $10,000 investments
Provide scholarships and grants
Advocate ideas as the new currency through compelling content and events featuring a renovated Skoolie.
Publish MGS Magazine, which will be dedicated to highlighting people who are doing creative, challenging, and socially conscious work (plus features on travel, lifestyle hacks, productivity, and more)
Launch MGS website, dedicated to adding a positive, thoughtful, and female-empowering content that will encourage action, activism, and living a life well curated
“As a society, country, and even planet, we are spending far too much time looking backward as opposed to sprinting forward,” explains Mad Genius Studios Curator-In-Chief Shawndra Russell. “It’s time we hold businesses and each other accountable for the future of our world. Government leaders may allow for dumping into our lakes and streams, unequal rights for women, or other mistreatments that plague our society, but that doesn’t mean businesses or individuals have to take advantage of these deregulations for profit.”
About Mad Genius Studios
Mad Genius Studios, an aspiring B Corp, aims to facilitate the creation and distribution of positive, smart, and challenging content including magazines, books, and eventually TV shows, music, and movies along with funding startups, awarding scholarships and grants, and supporting the working and creative class through free-to-use creative spaces and more. MGS is currently raising funds through their Kickstarter, which ends on April 24, 2017, two days after the team plans to drive up to the Science March in DC in their renovated Skoolie. Find out more at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shawndrarussell/mad-genius-studios-a-sanctuary-for-creatives and follow their journey on Facebook.com/MadGeniusStudios.
About Shawndra Russell
Shawndra Russell has called Asheville home for three years after living in and writing about Savannah, Georgia for ten years. She contributed to Visit North Carolina’s official 2017 travel guide and regularly writes for VisitNC.com, Capital at Play, Explore Asheville, and Craftbeer.com in addition to providing digital and content marketing services for clients for the past seven years. She is also the co-founder and Curator-In-Chief of Mad Genius Studios, an aspiring B Corp committed to helping Asheville reach its goal of becoming a B Corp hub.
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