The Brainy Business Podcast: Understanding the Psychology of Why People Buy
Melina Palmer: Welcome to episode 521 of the Brainy Business Understanding the Psychology of why People Buy.
Melina Palmer: In today’s episode, I’m joined by Dr. Diane Osgood to talk about sustainability, values based shopping, and how to use your shopping superpower to influence the world. Ready? Let’s get started.
Announcer: You are listening to The Brainy Business podcast where we dig into the psychology of why people buy and help you. Incorporate behavioral economics into your business, making it more brain friendly. Now, here’s your host, Melina Palmer.
The Power of Values-Based Shopping
Melina Palmer: Hello.
Melina Palmer: Hello, everyone. My name is Melina Palmer and I want to welcome you to the Brainy Business Podcast. Let me ask you something. Have you ever stood in the store staring at a shelf, wondering which product is better? Not just better for you, but for the planet, for the people who made it, for. For your values. Have you ever felt stuck in that moment, like your small choices don’t really matter? If so, you’re definitely not alone. But today’s guest is here to challenge that story. Dr. Diane Osgood is an environmental economist, author of Your Shopping Superpower and a trailblazer in sustainability and social impact. She has spent over three decades helping companies and now consumers make more ethical, more aligned decisions. As she says, demand is the strongest part of the supply and demand equation, and we’ve been underestimating the power of everyday shoppers for far too long. In our conversation, Diane takes us from the rainforests of Borneo to the grocery aisle, showing how even small shifts, in one case just 2% of consumer action, can transform entire industries. We talk about how to shop by your values, why you don’t need to be perfect to make an impact, and how to choose progress over paralysis really quickly. Before we get into the conversation, I want to be sure you know that there are links in the show, notes for my top related past episodes and books, ways to get in touch, and more. It’s all within the app you’re listening to and at thebrainybusiness.com 521. Now let’s jump right in.
Dr. Diane Osgood’s Journey as an Environmental Economist
Melina Palmer: Dr. Diane Osgood, welcome to the Brainy Business podcast.
Dr. Diane Osgood: Thank you. It’s so good to be here. I’m excited for this conversation.
Melina Palmer: Absolutely. So excited to be talking about, our superpower that comes in shopping. Before we jump into the book, though, for everyone who doesn’t yet know you, can you share a little bit about yourself and the work that you do?
Dr. Diane Osgood: Yeah. So I’m an environmental economist, which means I’ve spent my career thinking about how we can have an economy that thrives. And I define thrive. By one that creates better jobs for more people, restores the environment and makes and distributes products that are actually healthy for us and healthy for the planet. So I think about how that can happen and what are the mechanisms. Mostly I’ve spent my time thinking about inside companies. So I have spent 30 years helping companies make better widgets and services. Of course, better again, meaning more sustainable and more ethical. And in the last five or six years I’ve turned that on its head and I’ve been thinking, well, you know, as an economist I know that the demand side of the supply and demand equation is the stronger part. And duh, we’ve been missing the conversation and the work towards understanding consumer demand. And how can we engage with shoppers so they understand the trade offs?
Melina Palmer: Absolutely well.
The Impact of Small Changes: From Rainforests to Tuna
Melina Palmer: And I really like that. You know, your book starts with, you know, the story, of like feeling like you’re kind of small and you, you’re not going to have enough impact and a little bit deflated. But seeing that even, you know, those small changes can be having a big difference. Can, can you share a little bit about kind of the, you know, the, I guess the spark that got this moving for you?
Dr. Diane Osgood: Well, there were two critical sparks. One happened, when I was very young, in my early 20s, I was fascinated by the origins of humankind. Like where do we come from? And I followed the great, anthropologists, Jane Goodall, the late Dian Fossey and Birutė Galdikas, who were set up by Louis Leakey to understand how the great primates were related to us and to study them. For the first time ever, I had the honor and privilege of spending time in Kalimantan, Borneo with Birutė Galdikas, studying wild orangutans. And as I was sitting, it’s very deep in the forest, in the rainforest, and the only way there is by boats up tiny rivers. And after a day of chasing wild orang, following wild orangutans in the forest, I sit at the dock and dangle my feet in the water to cool down. And I would just see boat after boat of huge trees being floated down the river because they were going to be milled. And I had this very naive understanding that if people didn’t want that tropical timber, they would stop cutting down the forests because they weren’t doing it for fun, that’s for sure. It’s hard work. And then the second kind of aha moment came when I was following my passion on understanding deforestation and trying to find ways around it. I volunteered for a small, fairly, radical nonprofit environmentalist group, based in Paris. Back in the day, I lived in Europe and I learned that they were working on tuna and that many dolphins, scores millions of dolphins would get caught in fishing nets and die. And man, I got angry and I wanted to like, go on the boats and do direct action. And instead they said, no, you’re going to sit here and drink coffee, eat croissants and write letters to get people to boycott tuna that’s not caught in dolphin friendly nets. I wasn’t terribly pleased about that assignment. But, you know, less than 18 months later, we had 2% of consumers worldwide boycotting major brand tuna. And they capitulated. And from that moment on, they changed how they source tuna, which is the only source tuna that comes from nets that don’t catch dolphins as bycatch. It’s not perfect. I mean, that’s a whole nother long conversation. But the point is less than 2% of consumers changed that industry. I mean, that is really a David and Goliath moment.
Melina Palmer: Well, and like you’re saying, I know in the book you’re saying you have the 2% kind of response and feeling like we didn’t do it, right. It’s not going to be enough. It’s not going to make a difference. But they changed. The practice was enough to move the needle for them to realize that they needed to do something. And so I think that can be empowering. Right?
Dr. Diane Osgood: Absolutely. And you know that, that’s the moment where I kind of went, oh, this is all about how companies work internally. And if 2% of consumers, which, you know, having written those letters and just. I was so disheartened, only 2% of people responded, but it was enough to really catch their attention.
Progress, Not Perfection in Ethical Consumption
Melina Palmer: Yeah, well, and so I think you touched on this enough that I can make the segue here. I feel like, so there’s a feeling of, we need to be perfect in everything that we do. And it’s like an all or nothing, right? Like, if I’m going to, say no to this one thing like the tuna with the nets, then, I would be a hypocrite. And everything else, there’s some cognitive dissonance maybe sort of problem. Like if I, if I open the door a little bit and I care about one thing, I have to care about everything and go totally all in. And that feels really hard. So I’m just gonna stay, stay in my, ignorance bubble, and not do anything and not deal with the cognitive dissidency. Yeah. So what would you say to people that have felt that way, whether they realize it or not?
Dr. Diane Osgood: So I counsel one change a week. You just cannot boil the ocean. First of all, there’s no perfect product out there. Everything leaves a trace. And aiming for perfection is just going to put you in a tailspin. So I have a couple of principles. One is one change a week. Start easy, start small. Building habits is hard. We all know that. The second is really focus. Focus on progress, not perfection. So you know, sometimes I’m traveling, I’m in an airport and I can’t find a cup of fair trade or organic coffee. It’s just not available. And I’m not going to forego my caffeine hit. And so I buy what I think in the moment is the better option. And I just get on with my day because I know in general I’m making huge progress on, making sure the basic commodities, coffee, cocoa, sugar, things like that in my household have been. I’ve purchased ones that I feel very strongly aligned with in terms of their environmental commitment and their commitment to fair labor. But I really, it’s. It’s progress, not perfection.
Melina Palmer: Definitely.
How to Shop by Your Values: Four Categories
Melina Palmer: You talk a lot about shopping for your values within your book. And so as far as advice for people, so you talk a lot about, you know, shopping for your values, and being able to feel better about that, within the book. How can someone like even begin to understand what all the competing forces are to choose what they want to prioritize to get to the point of making a decision of one thing per week? Like what would that process be?
Dr. Diane Osgood: So I break it down to four kind of categories of issues. People. So how well are the people treated and the farmers treated that were involved in the entire production of your food or your, you know, object of clothing or your kid’s toy or piece of furniture? The entire value chain. How were, how are people treated? That also can include, you know, how companies treat their employees and things like that. The second is planet climate change, deforestation, water, soil health. These are the subcomponents of environment that I look at. The third is community. So do you want a thriving community that’s full of independent shops, where people are locally employed, where there’s a variety of things that are appropriate for where you live? Does it give you joy to see that? Do you want to support women and minority owned businesses that often have a hard time getting capital? So that’s the third category kind of community. And then the fourth is making sure that you’re not buying household, cleaning materials and personal care. Products and clothing that have potentially harmful chemicals. So I put that under the category of health. But with the big caveat, it’s really around avoiding toxins that could be dangerous for your health in those basic categories. And so with those four categories, which one of those pulls at your heart the most? Which one gives you the most pull the most? Energy or however you want to, you know, like tugs at your heart the most. Start there. You know, a lot of people start with their, their, their own health and family and choose one product a week to take a look at the ingredients and look up a product that has, that is a better choice in terms of, specifically in terms of avoiding toxic or potentially harmful ingredients. And they go through very, very methodically once a week and choose something else. And so when they finish that cleaner or that shampoo, they know what they’re going to buy other people. It’s the concept of, you know, chocolate is a luxury. I do consider it an essential food group, but most, you know, technically it isn’t. And how is it that I could possibly support buying chocolate that has a high likelihood of child labor involved in its production? And so I choose to start there. So it really depends on what impacts you the most and what’s right for you is right for you. Don’t worry about what’s right for me or what’s right for your neighbor or your cousin. You’ve got to start with what tugs at your heart the most.
Melina Palmer: Yeah, that’s really great advice. And to know, like you said, you can’t do all of it all at once and try to change everything. It’s just not, not going to work, not going to be sustainable. But if everyone does the one thing, you know, each week, it would make a huge difference in those numbers.
Boycotting vs. Buycotting
Melina Palmer: How vocal should consumers be with changes that they make? How vocal
Melina Palmer: One of the other pieces, I think as far as this, buying power that comes in here. So you of course have talked about, when you’re talking about the, tuna, you know, talking about the consumers who boycotted and would say like, we will not buy this thing. So there’s kind of two parts to this. So one piece. How vocal do you think people should be with the changes that they make? Right? So it may feel like if I’m doing this for some sort of reason, I then need to get like three other people to do the same thing or like I should go put it on my social media accounts to talk about what it is that I’m doing or else I’m not doing enough. So Kind of. What kind of line would you recommend for people there? But also, and someone else recently on the show also talked about, boycotts and buycotts. And I know that you had reference to a boycott in the book, and I think that that is something that can feel better for people versus like, you’re bad. And I’m boycotting you to say it well, but I can choose to buy the thing that’s better like that. Reframe mentally, I think, can make it easier for some people to make the change. Can you share a little bit, you know, about the full difference, right, essentially between boycotts and buycotts? And thinking about as we look to, do we have to get other people on board? Can it be a solo mission? Sort of. What do you advise there?
Dr. Diane Osgood: So I’ll start with the first question and roll on. It takes an ecosystem to create change. And what’s my skill and what’s my passion is not what may be your skill and your passion. And so if I like being on social media and giving my opinion, then great, share that. But if I don’t, then maybe just writing a letter to the company is my role and what I’m going to make me feel good. So it’s what, how you perceive what makes you comfortable and what makes you proud. So I personally have a campaign, a personal campaign. I’m not, you know, it’s the first time I talk about it publicly, but it drives me nuts that cosmetic companies use mica that is, that is sourced in a way that has made no effort to ensure no child labor. So mica is what makes things sparkly, be it your lipstick, your blush, your. I mean, it’s just in everything. Nail polish, it’s in so many products. Most of it comes from India, most of it comes from two states in India, which has a very high prevalence of child labor. So if you’re buying a product that includes mica that does not have any disclaimer about its source, it’s probably got child labor in it. And so I simply write to cosmetic companies. You know, I’ve gone through, you know, my old stash of cosmetics, and I say, hey, where’s your mica from? Are you part of, an initiative to make mica better for kids? Or are you just sourcing it, or are you using another source of mica or are you using a replacement for mica? And it’s shocking how many companies do not get back to me, but I know that if they get enough of those letters, it will Be heard. But that’s my private campaign. I don’t push it in social. Hey, join me in this campaign against Company X. That’s just not my style. But it might be somebody else’s style. That’s great. Now boycotts and buycotts. I agree. I love a good buycott, because it’s a positive action. And so right now in the conversation we’re having about major retailers and their rollback on DEI and the likelihood that that’s really harming minority owned small and medium sized businesses, my response is just go out and buy from them. You know, find a retailer that stocks them and buy them from that retailer. Buy those products. You know, be it Brooklyn Tea Company or sorry, Brooklyn Tea or Honeypot or you know, any of these other great companies out there and buy them purposely or buy them directly online. Use your dollars in a positive way. In terms of boycott, boycotts work only when the narrow, the issue is very narrow and specific. Canned tuna is one very narrow product. The boycott worked. It’s an industry with high consolidation. So three or four players can make a decision and make a difference. Major retail space, completely different animal. And so from a personality perspective, from what gives me joy and also from understanding boycotts, I would rather buycott any day.
Melina Palmer: Well, and I think too, and thank you for sharing that. And I think in the case of that mental reframe for someone who’s looking to buy better. Right. In these ways that you can say like, I don’t necessarily feel good, like you said in the mica, example to say everyone, you shouldn’t choose Company X because they’re bad and like, let’s fight them. A lot of people wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that. It’s not to say that someone shouldn’t do that in some cases and all, all good, like to each their own in that sort of way. Right. But I think a lot more people would feel better in being able to, on the other side to say, hey, I’ve switched to Company Y because they source their mica in this way. I just found out about this and I couldn’t, I personally couldn’t do this anymore. I didn’t know if you knew that this was a thing that exists. But that’s why I’m choosing Company Y and I’m proud to do that. Right. And that’s something that I can say that makes me feel like positive. I’m not saying that Company X and Company Z are doing something else. I’m saying I picked Y because they don’t. Right. And that can feel better. And then it’s out there, in a way that might spark some additional change and the company can start to hear about it and see that those positive shifts are important as well as we transition. And feel free to, of course, comment on any of what I said there. But I think the segue here being for companies that are looking to be better in so many of these ways, you know, what’s the value to a company, to proactively make that kind of shift, to be able to then. And then to say we do this because of this, like, to make those issues more prominent and really stand behind whatever decision that they would make. Why is this good for a business to make that shift?
Dr. Diane Osgood: Exactly. And the companies need to hear that. And very importantly, the folks inside the companies doing the hard work to, in the case of mica, source sustainable mica or innovate out of using natural mica. That’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of technical work, but it’s also a lot of political capital that they had to spend probably within that organization, make that decision. So the more appreciation you can show them so they have evidence that this is what people want. I mean, it just. It just makes their work much, much easier and also gives them, I think, that sense of accomplishments like, hey, you know, shopper X and you know, in. In this state really appreciated it. Wow. I had no idea people really cared, you know, because it’s kind of a niche subject. But, you know, once we understand what goes into our products, it behooves us to move in a way that works for us. You know, you. You asked the question. Or, there’s this issue of. Of burden, like, why is it my burden as a shopper to understand that? And if you don’t mind, I’d love to just kind of. This remains a big issue. Why place the burden on the shopper, on the consumer, to have to understand mica and carbon emissions and supply chains and child labor and all of this stuff? Why burden them? Why shouldn’t it be the responsibility of the company? And I kind of have three points to that. First, you know, in a perfect world, that would be the case. We wouldn’t have the environmental conditions we do today. We wouldn’t have situations where there’s abuse of labor and unfair pay. But that’s not the world we’re in. And if leaving it in the hands of the companies works, it’s kind of de facto we wouldn’t be where we are today. This work has been going on since the early 90s companies had tools to improve their supply chains and innovate and make things in a way with global supply chains that are ethical and sustainable. But other pressures have been larger than the pressure to do it that way. And so it takes us as the consumers again back to that basic premise that the demand side is stronger than the supply side in that equation to prove that we really want that. I think the second reason is right now we’re going through a period of government rollbacks and regulations on climate change, on water, clean water and air pollution. So companies that make stuff and grow things can now pollute more than ever before because they don’t have the government regulations as guardrails. I think that is a very strong reason that we vote with our dollars and that we continue to reward companies who maintain strong climate, water and air, clean programs and avoid those who don’t. And then the third reason, the little touchy feely, but when I act in alignment with my values, there’s less friction and it makes me happier, makes me more content with what I purchased and it just a nicer feeling. So I get the emotional hit from it as well that does endure. So those are the three reasons why I think it behooves us now as shoppers, as consumers to really take this on board. It’s not worked another way up until now. We’re in a period of deregulation and it’s just, it’s just a nicer way to be in the world is to be in alignment with your values.
Melina Palmer: Yeah, absolutely. And hopefully, you know, when there’s enough people that do that, that it can swing back around the other way. Right.
The Value of Transparency for Companies
Melina Palmer: As far as that for companies. So for those companies, right, that it may feel like it is easier to just live in the status quo, to wait it out and see what’s going to happen, to not invest in innovation that can be taking up, like you said, that political capital or just time and things to be able to do. You know, and if you’re able to lean on any stories of companies that you have worked with, you know, to show the value of this over the years. But like, what do you say to them? Like what is the value? Why should they be proactive in this process and not wait for, you know, the consumers to boycott them, like how can they proactively be something worth buycotting?
Dr. Diane Osgood: They know their industry and where their, you know, their skeletons are buried, so to speak. And and it’s sometimes hard to come clean, but we have seen. So I remember when, Dupont, which no longer exists and mostly a B2B company, came out with very aggressive and environmental footprint reduction goals, meaning they were going to reduce their amount of carbon, they’re going to reduce their amount of other gas, releases, they were going to reduce their amount of water, and they didn’t make their goals. And it was just like huge, like, what are we going to do? We can’t publish these numbers. And so finally it’s like, look, you do just be transparent. And sure enough, when they published those numbers, everyone applauded them for being transparent. And we’re seeing that right now in the fashion world, with companies attempting to clean up their supply chain. And now the spotlight’s much brighter than it was 10 years ago on these companies who work in fast fashion, who do source from areas where there’s tremendous risk of labor abuse. But we’re seeing companies start to make significant changes and efforts. And the same thing is true in Cocoa. So there’s a little scorecard I, absolutely love. It’s called the chocolate scorecard. The 2025 version just came out last week, and it ranks major brands, retailers and small brands across seven indices. And it’s very serious and rigorous. It’s really impressive work. And what I love about it is you can see year over year, major brands making shifts. And so, you know, I talk about in my book Godiva not being so great, right? And me deciding, ah, tastes, fantastic, but I’m just not going to buy it anymore. And what do you know, this year their score has really improved. And so that sense of external validation must feel really good for them. And they’re lucky they’re in an industry where there are that kind of really clear scorecards that are very robust and, time worthy. Whereas in the B2B world, it’s not so easy. But what I’m trying to say is, even if you stumble a little bit, the more transparent you are, you’re providing opportunities for people to give you positive feedback. And that’s what any brand wants right now. And so I really think it’s worth the effort. And again, in this period of deregulation for the big things, that really does matter.
Melina Palmer: And showing that you’re willing to stand up for what you still believe and believed in. It’s the time to, to, to walk the walk, for a lot of this. Right. For those companies.
Dr. Diane Osgood: Yeah. And it’s also time to innovate. So, only 3% of our clothes in the United States are made in the United states. And only 1% of clothes are made in the United States from US produced fibers, so. Or US produced fabric. So there’s a huge opportunity there for massively amplifying the circular movement. Those fibers that we have in the US need to be recycled and reused for environmental reasons and now for economic reasons. And so I think this is also a moment when there’s the economic driver to innovate around circularity, which starts to solve a lot of very serious environmental issues and involves the consumer because suddenly the consumer is not just a consumer, the consumer is also a supplier. You can’t have recycled textiles if people aren’t bringing back their old clothes. I think that’s also at this moment, a really interesting direction for companies to invest in.
Melina Palmer: Yeah, absolutely. And a good thing to start to just sort of see what those opportunities are. I would think that it’s very, similar in the case of. We were talking about, you know, as we started the show here, for the individual consumers, you have that same problem of. It feels like once I break the seal and try to do one thing, I have to do everything. And I am confident the same issue exists inside of a, ah, company. Right. That it’s like, how do I pick where to start? Do I start with the small thing, and like, kind of snowball my way into making changes? Do I have to take on, you know, the full elephant? And until we’ve perfected it, we shouldn’t talk about it because we don’t want to, you know, have people know about what’s going on.
Strategic Approach for Companies to Tackle Environmental Risks
Melina Palmer: You know, what’s the best advice you have from having worked with companies on this, to pick, you know, just to get started in that process and then when it inevitably gets hard to push through.
Dr. Diane Osgood: So luckily there’s some great tools that have evolved over the last decade and a half, two decades, for a company to really understand what’s their most material exposure, both in terms of the environment, but also to the extent of which it’s important to their economic model, to their business model. So it’s great if you’re, you know, a, huge company and you fiddle over the edge and you get rid of the equivalent of a plastic straw. Right? That might feel good, but it’s not part. It’s impartial. It’s not the main core of what you do. So I wouldn’t start there. So basically get some help. That’s, you know, that’s what we do and my colleagues do is help companies go through this strategic exercise of understanding where are their most material risks, their impact Their their impacts and then their risks and then how to. And then to create a strategy to tackle them. And always embedding the marketing and the communications folks because they will help guide. When is the moment to go public, when is the moment to start to tell the story of what’s going on within the company? And what I have found over the course of my career is companies are rewarded for being transparent early, even if they stumble. You know, we just saw Coke roll back some of its pledges on using plastics and recycled plastics. Good thing, bad thing, don’t know top scores for being transparent about it.
Melina Palmer: Yeah, yeah. So being open, trying some things, getting started, have that transparency and know that even if it doesn’t go as you intended, like sometimes we like to set really big goals and you know, it might be that it’s better to have that high anchor and you’ll push further than you would have if you would have had a really low sort of a goal there to something that was like very obviously easy and achievable, isn’t going to move the needle enough, you know. And so if you pick something that is a strive type of a goal and you, it might push you further than if you had gone another way. So wonderful.
Consumer Purchasing Drives the Economy
Melina Palmer: As far as, you know, last, tips that thoughts, what would you hope, for the brands and companies that are listening, for the individuals that are listening, knowing that people inside of brands are individuals too. So there’s a lot of good value there. But what would you want people to know, to think, to go do, based on the book, the conversation, everything.
Dr. Diane Osgood: So it comes down to where to start is where you have the most juice, like what pulls your heart. And for an individual it is that emotional pull. Right. Is it the environment or some, you know, is it deforest? For me it was deforestation because of my interest in great apes. But that led, you know, that then that kept going and unwinding and unwinding and then it became another issue. But start with that. And it’s very similar to the advice for a company which is don’t start necessarily where your heart pulls, but where it’s most material. And as I said, they’re now really great tools to use to diagnose where it is to start and to start there and to communicate it in a way that people can relate to it both intellectually but also emotionally. So my hope is that when we go to shop, because we all buy things, we realize our agency and that we’re creating the economy. So about 70% of the US economy is driven by consumer purchasing and where shopping goes, the economy goes. And we’re all a part of that. We are the economy. And so my hope is that we really remember that the next time we go and reach for a product and decide, you know what, next week I’m going to start, I’m going to figure out one thing to change.
Melina Palmer: Yeah, absolutely. And I really like that the so you have the four categories that you already talked through for individuals to say I care about this aspect of you know, community base or personal health and you know as we look at those options or climate and things, I think a brand can use those as a guide to where it’s not their personal heartstrings. As like I as an individual care about this and so the company should. But if they’re trying to decide where they would fit like which one of those is closest to what would matter for their brand and understanding their personas of the consumers they’re trying to appeal to what might tug at their heartstrings the most, that you can then use that as that first step to show that you’re making a change on behalf of them, something they’re going to care about to find the buycotters that’s going to help make a change.
Dr. Diane Osgood: Exactly. And for a company the equivalent the heartbeat is the business model. So you know, if I’m making furniture, sustainable timber is probably pretty close to the most viable thing in my supply chain. And maybe that’s where I start.
Melina Palmer: Yeah, absolutely.
Your Shopping Superpower: Making a Difference
Melina Palmer: I love it. Well thank you again so much for joining me on the show today. We will of course have links in the show notes for everyone but for everyone who now is so excited to go and get their copy of the book and to follow you to learn more, you know what what are their best next steps to do.
Dr. Diane Osgood: So the book is Your Shopping Superpower. Follow your values, embedded your world one purchase at a time. It’s available wherever you buy books and I love to plug your local independent bookstore. Give them a ring, ask them to order you a copy and go pick it up and enjoy that. Otherwise buy it online. Buy it at any major retailer. You can find me on my website. It’s very simple. It’s DianeOsgood.com. That’s just all one word. And from there you can also find me on Substack. The links there. You can find me at Diane Osgood on Substack.
Melina Palmer: Wonderful. Well like I said, we’ll definitely have links in the show notes to make it easy for everyone. And thank you again so much for joining me on the show. It was really delightful to chat with you tonight today.
Dr. Diane Osgood: Thank you so much.
Small Shifts Lead to Massive Change
Melina Palmer: So what got your brain buzzing as you listen to this conversation with Dr. Diane Osgood today? For me, it’s the way she frames decision making as both empowering and approachable. Whether it’s changing what kind of chocolate you buy, asking your favorite brand where their mica comes from, or supporting a company that aligns with your values, small shifts can lead to massive change, especially when they’re done consistently and thoughtfully. I also love the differentiation between boycotts and buycotts. That shift in framing from avoidance to active support is something people don’t talk about enough. Not everyone wants to get loud, aggressively call out companies or spend time investigating everyone and everything to avoid. And that’s okay. Buycotting gives people a way to create meaningful impact without needing to engage in public activism. Though if you are open to sharing about those brands you buycott, that’s amazing because it can spark more change as well. It’s about saying yes instead of no, supporting progress instead of just fighting against the past. Both are important, but that positive, proactive mindset makes it more accessible for more people, and that can drive real change. If you’re a brand looking to be buycotted, this episode was filled with pure gold. And if you’re a shopper trying to make better choices without feeling overwhelmed or discouraged, I hope Diane’s one change a week framework helps you breathe a little easier and take your next step with confidence. I also appreciated the reminder that we don’t need to be perfect to make a difference. There’s no such thing as a flawless shopper or a 100% clean product, but choosing to support a women, owned business, skip a toxic ingredient or back a brand that treats workers fairly, That’s a vote for the kind of world you want to see.
Join The Brainy Business Podcast for More
Melina Palmer: So I’d love to know what’s one change you’re thinking about making this week? Or one company you’ve chosen to support because they, align with your values? Come share it with me on social media. You’ll find me as thebrainybiz pretty much everywhere. And as Melina Palmer on LinkedIn, there are links in the show notes to make it easy, as well as links for my top related past episodes and books, including Your Shopping Superpower, ways to get in touch, and more. It’s all waiting for you in the app you’re listening to and at, thebrainybusiness.com 521 and just like that, episode 521 with Dr. Diane Osgood is done. Join me Tuesday for another brainy episode of the Brainy Business Podcast. It’s going to be a lot of fun. You don’t want to miss it. Until then, thanks again for listening and learning with me, and remember to be thoughtful.
Announcer: Thank you for listening to the Brainy Business Podcast. Melina offers virtual strategy sessions, workshops and other services to help businesses be more brain friendly. For more free resources, visit thebrainybusiness.com.
