Latest Blog Posts
Dear clients and future clients and friends and friends of friends,
I know you have all been wondering where I have been and why I haven’t been blogging. Well, let’s start with June…I relocated myself and the SOS HQ to Boise, ID. That’s been an interesting change and one for the better. Boise has a lot of fresh air, open space and green trees…and people love to garden here! The second big thing is that Ninja Wok jetted off to Europe, but not before leaving us with a super stealth new WordPress template. Natalia has been having a lot of fun with it and we have new sites popping up all over the place.
Here are a few of our latest…Juli Schulz, our good friend from Agents 99 has been hooking us up with all kinds of green websites that not only are for good companies, but also make us feel good building them. Here are a couple of them:
I went to California last week and worked on a PSA with the Buried Life for Plastics are Forever. It was super funny and will be airing in the next few weeks so keep an eye out on my site for that.
We’re also working on a site for an architect, a medical supplies company and for a director. Those should all be done by the end of this week! More on that later. Hope your summer is going well and you’re staying sun damaged free and hydrated!
–Shanti
WordPress has been a bit hectic this last week. They just launched 3.0 and some of the templates are not so happy with this big upgrade. For our custom sites this has been awesome and we think the issues with the templates that are a little buggy will sort out soon. WP is pretty good that way.
So here are a few new sites we have launched in June that we want you to check out.
We have three new lifecoach sites out there:
Bloom Life Design
Christina Brandt
Ann Marie Griffin
We also just finished a store for Acacia Swimwear so if you want a Brazilian bathing suit, this is the spot to find something to show it all off.
Another fun one to check out is Ruggid Gear. This is a new camping trailer that’s like an RV without walls. Pretty cool to check out.
And lastly if you are into Chinese Medicine we are about to launch an acupuncture site called Acuvida.
Another happy customer! This is Naomi and we just built acacia swimwear for her! She’s stoked and were stoked. Check out her super cute bathing suit line!
This cup is NOT green!
You will probably notice I have added this little stamp to my site…
Lately the SOS Collective has gotten a number of green projects and it’s made me take a serious look at my impact personally and as a money making company on the earth. This is something we all should do but forget about as we get caught up in our day-to- day.
Yesterday I was at a business/friend lunch meeting with a group of girls: Lindsey Jurca who works with the Environmental Charter School in LA, Lauren Gropper who works with SHFT.com, but she also owns a company called Repurposenow (corn cups instead of plastic!!!) and Juli Schulz of Agents 99. What a great lunch! So many ideas buzzing and coming so quickly….I am always in awe about how one hour of time can influence change and create so many connections and potential impact the world.
While chatting and chowing at Lemonade (a restaurant we all love) we noticed that their cups, which claim loudly on the packaging to be greenware….were not. They were straight up plastic. On the cup, Lemonade had printed the words ECO FRIENDLY PACKAGING. We were all shocked when Lauren quietly said they weren’t compostable. Lindsey looked on the bottom and said they were straight up plastic. We felt tricked, cheated and annoyed that this eco-claiming. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt that they just didn’t know better, but I can’t help but feel the need to let them know I am not going to support their business any more. It’s one thing when a business is straight up not eco-friendly but to claim they are when they are not??!!!!
All of this has got me thinking about better business, greening our businesses and how each one of us can make a difference by even the smallest changes in how we think as we grow. Being green or attempting to be more eco-positive while making money is possible. There are so many little ways we can do this.
One example of how I want to do this is that I am going to start putting this stamp on every site that says the site is eco-friendly. By charging my clients a $50 fee that is tax-deductible and non-negotiable, we can directly put this money toward a green project or toward supporting renewable energy. This is an easy way to start greening your business. I know it’s not nice to force someone to be green, but then again if it’s the price of the site there you have it!
Also we are going to start putting in screen savers that sleep your computer when the site is quiet. Movement obviously being the sign that you aren’t sitting there any more is what does this so it’s an easy free code to throw in.
But back to hanging with the girls yesterday…it’s really frustrating to all of us when you think you are supporting a business that is helping the environment and you find out it’s not. We can’t really expect to change the world over night, but we can change it a little with supporting and encouraging every business we all come in contact with every day to be a little greener through the paths of least resistance. Bringing awareness on your company website is one small way. Carrying products in your business that say green and really are green is another.
The biggest way to change the world is to start with your circle, your environment and your community. You can’t affect change all over the world unless you start in your neighborhood.
As I was leaving my friends yesterday my mind was traveling a million miles a minute. I realized I couldn’t judge any other business, even one doing something not cool like Lemonade until I looked at my own website and my own business and how I am encouraging my clients to green their businesses. So that’s the next step. Let me know if you want to green your site. I am here to help you with that….free of charge. That’s my contribution!
Greenly Yours — Shanti
Wanting to learn more about WordPress? Wok and I are doing a WordPress Gathering at my house on Thursday to answer all of your burning questions about WordPress. This is a precursor to a course we are doing later this month to teach people how to use WordPress. If you are interested in participating RSVP at shanti@sos-communications.com.
The intro talk will be 7:30-8:30pm on Thursday night. Bring a pad of paper to take notes.This will be a very introductory session to help you understand what WordPress and why you might want to get in the website game using this platform.
At wordpress camp in san fran. Listening to the founder of WP talk about the future of it all. I love it. I’m amped. The future of WordPress is exciting. We are going to be building out all kinds of great stuff in the upcoming months.
Will blog more on it later or you can follow me now here @shantisos. Get ready current clients and future clients things are about to get amazing!
