Words by Morgan Mercer | Photos by Sarah White

Pollen is celebrating the 14 businesses that have come together in support of Pollen’s mission to build better connected communities. Together, these businesses challenge Pollenites to raise $15,000 by December 31, which they will match dollar for dollar. Donate today and join them in their investment to power human connection. 

Even as a high school student, Andy Berndt had a knack for advocacy. Back then he worked on an anti-tobacco campaign called Target Market (tobacco use among teenagers went down 54% in two years). After graduating with a degree in journalism he took his fire for grassroots activism on the road, speaking and consulting in 35 states and eight countries before settling in Minnesota.

Six years ago he started Community Blueprint, a social marketing firm using the power of communication to spur social change, influence behaviors, and inspire people toward positive change. Whether it’s getting clean water to people in Uganda or bringing fresh, local food back to elementary schools in Minneapolis, Andy hopes Community Blueprint’s campaigns give people the option to make the healthy choice every time.

POLLEN: What responsibilities do you feel you have as a business leader in your community?

Andy Berndt: I feel the responsibility to use the skills I’ve developed to help people.

I feel like it’s my responsibility to use my voice and my talents to make this city, and country, better. That’s what my career is about, using my talents in the area I’m passionate about to hopefully make healthy behavior changes.

POLLEN: What do you think is the secret to connecting across difference?

Andy Berndt: I’ve found, no matter how vast the difference may be, there is always a common human connection. When relating with people I first meet, my purpose is to find out what they are passionate about, what motivates them, and what gets them excited. We don’t necessarily have to have the same interests or things in common. What’s important is that we’ve both shared what we are passionate about, and that makes a bond.

It’s about revealing yourself to another by what keeps you going.

Connection is the key to many of the campaigns we develop. It helps people relate to facts, behaviors, and ideas. A good example of using human connection to change behavior is our One Reason campaign. We asked students from Hopkins High to tell us one reason they don’t drink. Students gave us a million reasons: faith, grades, and athletics. Our purpose was to use the peer connection to influence others. Our videos and posters showed students from Hopkins High, with the hopes that other students would relate to the reasons these teenagers gave.

POLLEN: What is the best way to get to know someone you are meeting for the first time?

Andy Berndt: I’m a journalism major and naturally inquisitive. I feel bad for some people I first meet because I basically barrage them with questions. In order to get to know someone you have to ask genuine questions to understand what they care about and what motivates them. My goal is to find their passions. Once people start talking about that, it’s hard to make them stop.

POLLEN: What is your greatest source of pride?

Andy Berndt: My greatest source of pride in my work is developing campaigns that make a significant impact. We’ve worked with youth empowerment programs that develop young people into young leaders. Many of them went on to pursue careers in public health and social advocacy. We’ve helped reshape school nutrition programs that impact the diets of thousands of young people across the country. We put together marketing plans for a project in East Africa that then created 400 jobs and provided 12 million liters of clean water to four countries.

Seeing our work translate into real world change is exciting.

POLLEN: Pollen invests in human connection to fuel empathetic momentum for social change by mapping critical narratives, overhauling traditional networking, and linking people to new professional and personal opportunities. How is our work relevant and intersected with the work of your business?

Like Pollen, our mission is social change. You guys just do it differently than us.

We don’t overhaul typical networking or link people to new opportunities, but every day we tell important stories and use human connection to drive change.

Our campaigns utilize the voice of the same people we are trying to reach. If we are trying to reduce alcohol use in a high school, we work with the students there to tell us one reason why they don’t drink. If we are trying to reduce violence in the Native American community, we arm young people with cameras to document what brings them peace. By sharing these stories and working directly within the communities we are trying to affect, people begin to understand the power of their voice.