When Derreck Kayongo founded the Global Soap Project, which recycles soap remnants from hotel rooms, turns the soap into fresh bars, and ships it to vulnerable populations around the world, he had to overcome something he calls the “yuck factor.”

There were doubters of the idea at first, he admits.

“The elephant in the room around recycled soap is that it’s ‘yuck.’ Somebody used it, therefore it must be horrible. So, I had to deal with the yuck factor,” says Kayongo, who will explore the four key factors behind his professional success—service, education, leadership, and faith (SELF)—during the CUNA’s Governmental Affairs Conference‘s annual ED (Filene) Talk.

After some trial and error, Kayongo eventually figured out the right recipe and how to make the project work. And now, the Global Soap Project even works with the Center for Disease Control.

Every business has a yuck factor. When you figure out how to solve that yuck factor, you create an amount of business that you cannot believe,” he says.

 

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