Neil Callanan
Founder, LooseGrip | Host, Measured Impact Podcast
Helping mission-driven brands prove that “doing good” and “doing well” aren’t mutually exclusive.
Neil Callanan has spent 17+ years figuring out how to answer the question that makes every purpose-led brand nervous: can you prove it?
As founder & CEO of LooseGrip and creator of the Grasp Impact Framework, Neil helps mission-driven companies connect their values to measurable commercial outcomes—from brand equity and audience growth to content performance and customer action.
Through LooseGrip, Neil and his team work with global brands like Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s, emerging B Corps, and tech leaders like Verisign & ePlus to turn data-driven storytelling into measurable impact.
His Core Argument Is Simple and Stubborn
Brand activism isn’t a risk to manage; it’s an asset to measure. When a company takes a public stand, there are real, trackable effects on purchase behavior, retention, and audience quality…unfortunately, many brands leave that story untold because they haven’t built the infrastructure to capture it.
He speaks the same way he runs workshops (and podcast interviews): candid conversations, no vanity metrics, less spreadsheets, and more sandwiches… always sandwiches.
We’re here to f**k around.
Signature Topics
Moving Impact from “Vibes” to Measurable: The Commercial Case for Purpose-Led Marketing
Every values-led brand knows its mission matters. Most can’t explain it to the person holding the budget. Neil unpacks how the highest-performing mission-driven brands connect their activism and storytelling to concrete commercial outcomes, and what any marketing team can do to build the same case.
Drawing on his work with brands from Ben & Jerry’s to emerging B Corps, he shows how data can reveal what actually happens to purchase behavior when a brand takes a public stand.
The Halo Effect: When Your Brand Activism Does the Selling
There’s real, measurable uplift in customer activity that follows well-executed brand activism. Most brands can feel it, but very few can prove it.
Neil walks through how to spot the commercial “halo” of brand activism: which behaviors to watch, how to attribute them, and how to make the boardroom case for sustained purpose investment in an environment putting downward pressure on ESG and DEI budgets.
More Legos Isn’t the Answer: Data Storytelling for People Who Hate Dashboards
You can build more dashboards and hope someone looks at them, or you can help leadership understand, at a gut level, why content that leans into your values outperforms content that doesn’t.
Neil shares how to tell the difference and what makes your quarterly readouts a meeting people genuinely look forward to.
A Framework for All: Building a Strategy Your Whole Team Owns
Impact measurement doesn’t fail because of the wrong metrics. It fails because no one agreed on them in the first place. Neil walks through the same collaborative workshop process he runs with LooseGrip clients, from getting the right people in the room to agreeing on the KPIs that bridge brand-building and conversion goals.
No spreadsheets required, just Post-it notes…and sandwiches.
One of the most important things about impact in general is being able to share the story of what’s actually happening.
Featured On
If you have no point of view, you run the risk of being relevant to no one.
Measured Impact
A new PODCAST series
exploring how purpose and performance intersect
Leaders at mission-driven companies are redefining what success looks like. We capture their candid stories of how activism, brand building, and revenue growth can work in tandem. Each episode features sharp conversations with changemakers proving that doing good and doing well aren’t mutually exclusive.
Ep. 3: Swirling Purpose & Performance with Jay Tandan
Ep. 7: Glitter, Sparkles & Social Activism with Seth Laxman
Ep. 9: Sustainable Hydration for Sizable Impact with Jennifer Krupey
Featuring changemakers from brands like
People will say that they want to buy from the most ethical, most sustainable source, but the revealed preference is that they’ll buy certain things that speak to them on a generally different level.
Let’s Chat!
Reach out to book Neil for your podcast, conference, or keynote.
Email: neil@loosegrip.net- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/neilcallanan
- Web: graspyourimpact.com · loosegrip.net
Neil is available for keynotes, panels, workshops, and podcast appearances. Based in Rochester, NY—available to travel.