We had the pleasure of meeting Mike Rome and Muffadal Saylawala during their visit to New York last week. Filled with enthusiasm and purpose, Mike & Muff quit their jobs to follow their passion, starting the blog Buy Positively to push the coversation on conscious consumerism. Mike & Muff's inspiration is infectious--we are thrilled to have met them and so excited to see Buy Positively grow. I asked Mike to share a bit of their story with you: 

Yvon Chouinard just called my cell phone. I’m scrambling. My bones are quaking. Nerves are heavy, but I’m feeling alive – more so than ever before.

I’m juggling my final days of mind-numbing spreadsheets while playing co-founder to a big hairy audacious startup. It’s 2:30pm on a Monday, and I’m pinned down on a conference call for the life that I’ll soon be leaving. At the same time, my cell phone is ringing. The number reads “unknown”. I let it go. One minute later, my voicemail is buzzing. I put corporate America on hold. I play the voicemail. My life is about to change.

Yvon Chouinard, Founder of Patagonia, just called my cell phone. That’s right, the godfather of the business-with-a-conscious mantra. He’s a hero of mine, and old-fashioned persistence is about to pay off. He was just on line 1. (We’re a startup, we only have one line – this is already going to my head!)

I suppose I should back up. Muff and I met in October at a Chicago photography panel. When we met, Muff had recently parted ways with Big 4 accounting, and I was dancing on the edge of my 9-5 and following intuition. A lot of stars aligned that day – we were young, naïve, exploding with ideas and content with the idea of failure.

After a couple of months of collaboration, we decided to tackle 2012 together. We’re developing a model to help courageously responsible brands more effectively engage in philanthropy. For us, it’s about making consumerism’s benefits extend well beyond the individual. For brands, purpose is on fire right now; our aim is to make it burn brighter than ever before.

Fresh off an expedition to NYC where we met with socially innovative brands like Holstee, we’ve been inspired like never before. As we continue to brainstorm design and development on our new venture and talk with brands to validate our ideas, we’ll be blogging about smarter consumption and meaningful ideas at buypositively.com – we’re no strangers to Twitter either.

Woops! Almost forgot. Yes, I called Yvon back. We chatted for over 30 minutes on how social responsibility is the future of business. The brands that bake this into their DNA, the one’s that allow this line of thinking to penetrate every facet of their business will be the brands that thrive. Today, consumers have more momentum than ever before. We’re the influencers; our wallets can be the catalyst for positive change. If we continue to become more mindful of what we buy, how much we buy and where it comes from, we can shift the paradigm from buying excessively to buying positively. 

We couldn't agree more! Thanks guys!

(photo credit by Arthur Tsao Photography)

Our Manifesto Poster is one of the Holstee best sellers. We produce the poster with our friends from Aardvark Letterpress in LA and they work day and night to make sure we meet our high quality standards in production.

Check out this wonderful film by Ben Proudfoot about Aardvark Letterpress and learn more about Cary and his family. (Music by Kyle Malkin).

For us this film is a solid reminder of how proud we are to work with Aardvark. We are so thankful to them for their part in helping us provide a beautiful poster, made locally with a lot of love and human power.

I've been running sales the last several months and I'm thrilled to say Holstee is now available in over 30 independent shops from Portland, Oregon to Oslo, Norway :)

After spending most of the summer and early fall planting many seeds, it's all starting to pay off and the road ahead is bright. As we make our way across the US and beyond, I'd love to hear what shops you think Holstee would best fit in. 

Some cities on our radar are: Berkeley, Austin, Chicago, Boulder, Philadelphia, Boston, New Orleans and Baltimore. But there's plenty more places we'd love to establish a home away from home, so please reach out if you know a good fit for Holstee, regardless of where you live (email below).

I also want to announce that our wholesale page is looking real fresh these days by way of our superman developer team Thomas + Dave. Props to you guys for the painless facelift. 

2011 was a remarkable year for Holstee and my mind runs wild when I think of the possibilities for 2012 as we have one of the most amazingly strong and supportive communities one could ask for. 

Thanks for all the love + encouragement from all our shops, customers, fans, supporters, co-creators and producers. 

Cheers to setting the human soul on fire. 

MIKEY@holstee.com 

It's winter time and with that comes the frosty weather. My main defense against the cold is hot steamy drinks. I've been an avid drinker of tea for the past couple of years now and I absolutely love it.  My favorites are Yerba Mate and Oolong (I like my tea like I like my wine, dark and bitter). I also know that there are a ton of tea snobs out there who will judge you on the kind and quality of tea you drink, bagged verses loose-leaf, but just ignore the noise and drink what makes you happy. A big problem I often face is the tea making process. For the most part I just grab a small saucepan (pot) and boil me up some water. There are a lot and I mean A LOT of devices out there that can make this process easier but they also end up cluttering up your kitchen in the process. I guess what I'm saying is that the barrier to entry to start drinking tea or to just try it is really low, you don't need to really buy much to start as far as equipment.

All of this tea talk is great but in my opinion during the winter nothing compares to a cup of hot chocolate. I believe that there is a social taboo regarding adults drinking hot chocolate because it is widely regarded as a children's alternative to coffee. I'm here to say let your inner child out and scrap the caffeinated stuff and indulge. The irony here is that I'm pretty sure that the ancient civilizations like the Mayans regarded drinking chocolate very highly, it was a limited to  nobility, priesthood, and ritual occasions. No matter what you do this winter just keep warm and this goes without saying but don't skimp on the marshmallows.  

The Holstee Manifesto Lifecycle Video has made to the next step in the brilliant "TED's Ads Worth Spreading" challenge!! It is an honor to be included in the line up with such an incredible selection of videos.

Right now I am in the process of training for my second year running the World Vision Half Marathon. As I push myself to prepare for the 13.1 mile stretch through Queens' Flushing Park at the end of March, I gain more and more appreciation for the people who run the full 26.2 marathon. The half seems manageable to me (even though the motivation to get myself running on these cold winter mornings has been a little slow coming this time around). However, the full thing? Just don't think its going to happen for me.

That is why I am so incredibly impressed with Robert Reffkin. As you can see in the video, Robert has set the goal to run 50 marathons in 50 states in order to raise a million dollars to empower young people with the resources and tools to realize their dreams. In a sincere and inspiring effort to pay it forward, Robert writes:

My motivation for this stems from the fact that throughout my life I have received help and guidance from my loving mother, inspiring mentors, and outstanding organizations. I am deeply grateful for the assistance that I received and have combined my desire for personal achievement with a commitment to giving others the opportunities that were given to me.

He has already completed marathons in 48 states (that's 1257.6 miles!) and has raised over $750,000! To learn more about Robert, his organization New York Needs You, and how you can donate to his amazing mission, visit Running to Support Young Dreams.

Hopefully one day I will get myself up to Robert's level. Till then, 13.1 it is. :)