You probably agree that we can’t afford the wait of turning people into environmentalists one person at a time. A Seattle-based non-profit understands that it makes more sense to inspire whole communities to move progressively along the sustainability spectrum.

OUT for Sustainability was established last year as a platform for catalyzing community-based environmental and social change. The audience addressed comprises only 3-10% (or more…) of the American population. But once this community turns green, the US is meaningfully closer to being the country environmentalists everywhere want it to be. The non-profit aims to galvanize queers who have learned that the successful organizational efforts paying off in increased legal protections and benefits can be applied to improving environmental challenges we all face.

And data show promise for attitudinal shift within communities. A 2009 survey supports that 21% of lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender (LGBT) adults identify as “environmentalists,” while only 13% of heterosexuals do. Other survey results show that LGBT adults feel a deeper sense of accountability for environmental impact (see graphs below).

"I Believe..."

Thought and emotional leadership via the web is likely accountable for some of this intra-community conversion. One example is the It’s Easy Being Green column of The New Gay, an online collection of blogs on LGBT-related topics. Subjects range from the need to increase corporate efforts targeting queer communities with eco-product advertising to vegetarian recipes and cooking demos. While the author voices occasionally feeling like an anomaly rather than the norm as a gay environmentalist, Web 2.0 is a proven change agent.

Which community might you help lead along the sustainability spectrum?

My Storytelling Background

I haven’t formally introduced myself. I’m Melinda one of the Founding Partners at Re-Vision Labs. I spend the majority of my time working on Communications and Storytelling, both internally and for our clients.  I have an extremely – and some may say overly – diverse background.

My Languages of Storytelling

I majored in Cultural Anthropology (at the UW in Seattle), and during my last quarter I took an art class. Turned out I was good at art, so I went to art school in Manhattan (at SVA), where I lived as an artist for a while.  But I wanted a larger audience than art could give, so I traversed the country again to work in the film industry as an Art Director.  While in LA, I eventually also got a master’s degree in Documentary film (at USC) – with additional classes in cause marketing.

After 10 years in the grind of the LA film industry, I needed to rethink my life plan. So I moved with my new husband to rural Northern California and lived on a vineyard, where we tried to live self-sufficiently – and I blogged about it. Turned out I was pretty good at blogging, but not so good at self-sufficiency (mostly, we found out that it was unsustainable). So I moved back to my hometown of Seattle (after 15 years gone), and hoped to find the life and work I was looking for:

Throughout this entire quest of 20 years, I sought a way to substantially make the world a better place, while leading a life of personal satisfaction and sustainablity.

Have I found this here in Seattle? Resoundingly, YES!! A few months after moving back here, I met the amazing partners I now work with every day – a few months after meeting, we formed Re-Vision Labs. Living in Seattle, I’m able to live more sustainably (which, it turns out, is not the same as self-sufficiently), and I truly enjoy my urban lifestyle here. Better yet, I work on worldchanging projects, and I use every one of those skills I picked up over the last several years:

• Cultural Anthropology (the study of how communities work – very useful)
• Fine Art (graphic design and photography are some of the many things I do here)
• Art Direction/Production Design (all about creating spaces and places where people live and work – and how they evoke a personality in themselves)
• Documentary Filmmaking (we’re working on our own RVL video series, and have already done several documentary shorts for clients)
• Cause Marketing (clearly something we spend a lot of time doing here)
• Blogging (who knew how much I’d need that experience!)
• Oh, and of course the Desire to Change the World, which runs through everything I do and every decision I’ve made.

Well, hopefully my over-education and 20-year exploration into how storytelling can change the world will give me a bit of credibility when writing this series. Storytelling mediums are much like languages: if you know several different languages, it becomes easier and easier to learn new ones. Once one learns photography, painting, filmmaking, and cause marketing, one can easily pick up graphic and web design, social media, blogging, advertising, and so on. The languages get easier and easier to learn.

Onward, then….

BEST PRACTICES IN STORYTELLING #1:

Know Yourself and Cultivate Your Own Personality

Ah, you thought your job was about your business, didn’t you? Well that’s true to a certain extent, but a business is still made up of people. Often Marketers spend way too much time and effort and money trying to create a brand that transcends people. The result? It feels cold, impersonal, and like the product does not apply to “me” on a personal level. That is death for a brand!

Storytelling has changed over the years. Because of social media in particular, the line between personal lives and professional lives is becoming more and more blurred. I have a home life, a blog life, and a business life. And there is no way I can separate them anymore – they are totally intertwined. The way I have found to navigate them is… gasp!… TO BE MYSELF. Yes, that’s the secret!

Marketing is becoming personal.

Marketing is becoming transparent.

Marketing is becoming much more truthful.

Particularly during the current recession, the brands who are surviving best are those who are honest and open and personable with their stakeholders: meaning customers, constituents, donors, and investors.

I am a Storyteller. I have spent years looking for the best, most impactful way to tell a story – that makes me, through and through, a Storyteller. Not just any Storyteller, though, I’m a Storyteller who lives Sustainably and who is working hard to Make the World A Better Place.

I used to hide that, I used to think people didn’t want to hear my motivations, and that I needed to live within the business system where personal goals were separate from work. But alas, with the advent of social media and the internet, where everyone can see all the many things you do whether you want them to or not, I realized it was silly to try to hide who I was.

And you know what?  Once I wore my personality on my sleeve, my blog readership grew from 1,000 a month, to 1,000 a day in a matter of a couple of months! My Twitter readership has grown to 500 in a few months, without my even trying. My work has become much more enriching, and my business has become much more enriched, because I am able to utilize all of my skills and all of my ideas to solve business problems.  And because, lo and behold, my experience in storytelling and my motivation to save the world has become a selling point for our business!

This Is Counter-Intuitive (To Some Of Us)

Becoming a transparent person and cultivating your own personality doesn’t happen overnight, unfortunately. It takes a while to break down your own barriers, and let yourself hang out there. This is especially so if you are over 30, and weren’t born with the internet exposing your life to the world from the beginning. Those of us over 30 have a tougher time letting go, and it’s scary.

Start by letting yourself seep through what you do, what you write, and how you market your business.  It will become easier over time.

I guarantee that once you know yourself and let your true self be a part of your business, your business will be better for it.

Mabeline charges $$$ a week for her company

I met Mabeline the summer of 2005. She was soaking in the sun at Honda of Bellevue, most likely waiting for someone. There was something unpretentious but still polished about her I liked. I was there to purchase my very first vehicle. She was there to sell. I don’t believe in fate, but I do believe in pragmatic matchmaking that makes sense and saves cents.

I purchased Mabeline comfortably below the asking price. Flush with my newfound negotiating skills, I sat down to sign the paperwork. After Washington sales tax, excise tax, registration fee, six months’ worth of insurance, and a month of parking in my apartment building, the total price tag returned to almost exactly the initial asking price. How annoying. But I had my first car—my first vehicle of freedom.

I was 23 and simply nuts with the itch to drive. I didn’t have time in high school or money in college, and spent a year after graduation in rural Japan riding around on the conventional “mama cherry” (a low-riding steel basket bicycle which doesn’t go much faster than walking pace) between the rice paddies I lived among. Getting my license and a car immediately after returning to the US was the only thing I could think about—a natural next step upon returning safely to the land of milk and honey.

After my 7th parking ticket I went to Target and bought a $175 dollar mountain bike.

I didn’t have payments on Mabeline, she was in “excellent condition,” and my annual insurance payment was a little over a thousand dollars. There was no pressing need, either for cash or for an upgrade, to sell the car. There was also no pressing need to keep it.

Seattle’s Department of Transportation’s “One Less Car” campaign inspired me to consider leaving Mabeline, rather than just threatening to every time I had a less-than-positive experience driving or parking—which was the strong majority of the time. While SDOT’s “incentive” of a $200 commuter voucher for selling your car didn’t itself inspire me to sell, it did make me think critically about what I could have instead of a car. (Thomas Friedman makes a compelling argument regarding what the US could have with a $1 gas tax here).

It dawned on me that while $200 wouldn’t go very far, the proceeds from selling Mabeline and savings I could accumulate by not even owning a vehicle could. Instead of wondering, “what do I lose?” I began envisioning what I could acquire instead.

As everything I purchase is ultimately a contribution to my happiness, be it frivolous or functional, I began by weighing the hours of happiness I expected to receive from various items.

For example, Pad Thai. I love it. Ordering out Pad Thai 3-4 times a week would contribute to roughly 12-16 hours of happiness (Eating the yummy takes half an hour and happily digesting the yummy takes about 4). On the other hand, I drove my car about 3-4 times a week for a total of roughly 3 hours. About 1 hour of that was pleasant, and about 30 min of that was out of necessity. Additionally, it was costing me about $100 dollars a week (see below table from SDOT’s cost of car worksheet), while even if I gorged, I could only consume about $40-$50 dollars on weekly Thai take out. Given the ratio of expense to hours of happiness, Pad Thai was clearly triumphant.

This exercise in anal hour-tracking led me to wonder what the pros of owning a car were, and their equivalent cons. A few are listed below.

Pro: Being able to get places.

Con: Spending as much time finding parking as driving, rush-hour traffic, and the constant cognizance of being a moving liability, always on the precipice of getting hit and having to deal with insurance, paperwork, repair, etc.

Pro: Leaving the City.

Con: Having to leave the City.

Pro: Not being stranded in the middle of nowhere alone at night.

Con: Wandering out into the middle of nowhere alone at night.

Pro: Getting to a job interview out in the boonies.

Con: Having to accept a job out in the boonies.

Pro: Being an adult, free to be entirely mobile.

Con: Being an adult eager to drive away.

Ultimately, the above boiled down to my desire to be lazy, and Mabeline’s demands were getting in my way. I couldn’t enjoy a leisurely ride because I was too busy driving. She always wanted gas at the wrong time, insurance coverage when I was out of money, and maintenance during the holidays. I’d rather sit back and let someone else do all that work—like Metro or Yellow Cab.

I sold Mabeline on my birthday, a somewhat bittersweet present to myself, and being without her has been fine. I ride my bike more, and I finally have time to read the newspaper by taking the bus. I earn $75 dollars a month by renting my parking space, which I use for more liberal Pad Thai take out orders. My grocery shopping is more efficient because I plan my meals based on the space in my backpack. I don’t have to worry about paying the insurance on time, scratching the car, washing the car, keeping it maintained, or ever finding parking again.

I no longer own such a major responsibility, and in its place I have a new digital camera, new couch, more take-out food, a greater appreciation for my surroundings, and an overall better sense of well-being. I have never been anti-car or even particularly environmentally sensitive. I sold my car because it seemed like a life without it would actually be less taxing, less expensive, and more liberating. It has.

Calculate the Cost of Your Car (from the “One Less Car” Campaign)

Year: 2004
Make: Honda
Model: 4DR Civic EX
Average Miles Driven Per Year: 3500/12 = 292 miles/month

1) (1)Depreciation this year: $3000 this year
2) (2)License, Registration: $ 87 per year
3) Annual Insurance $1100 per year
4) (3)Annual maintenance, tires: $ 200 annual check up
5) Total items 1-4 / 12 months: $366
6) Monthly car payment: $0 per month

7) (4)Monthly gasoline, oil: $21

8) (5)Monthly parking fees: $19 per month

TOTAL ITEMS 5-8 ABOVE: $406.00
COST per WEEK OF MY MABELINE:$101.50

1 – http://calculators.aol.com/tools/aol/auto02/tool.fcs
2- According to Seattle DOL’s “annual registration and license fees,” registration ($53) + King County Excise Tax ($34) applied to my vehicle and location between 2004 and 2008.
3 – Estimate
4- Based on annual mileage, average MPG, and $2.05/gallon
5- A 4-year total of roughly $900 in parking fines = $225/year = $18.75/month (terrible luck + naivety = multiple $200 violations and towing charges)

It is clear that “business as usual” is changing for the good in the US as well as abroad.  Through this blog, the folks at Re-Vision Labs be writing a lot about the redefinition of doing business in the world – to focus on true sustainability, create valuable and lasting connections among communities, and harness the power of online networks to foster stronger in-person connections. But there is one key piece of the puzzle that is paramount to the success of future businesses in the US, which has fallen off the radar until now: collaboration.

It sounds woo-woo.  We know.  But the truth is, it’s critical to moving forward in a new direction, and we believe it will build better businesses in the end.

In the past, competition has been the standard business practice in order to stay ahead of the pack.  Fueled by Darwinian dreams, corporations have striven to be the strongest, the one to make the most money, and the one with the most customers.  All efforts are put into edging out the competition, one-upping one another with fancy sales tactics, and wooing customers away from one another in order to get their hands on the largest percentage of the pile as possible.  This has given us a country of isolated businesses (both physically and socially) who have forgotten that their most valuable allies out in the business world are each other.  From banks to car companies, we’re seeing the pitfalls of competitive business as we know it.  Stepping on one another to get a step ahead has not proved to be a sustainable, successful method.

Here’s the silver lining to the current financial crisis: collaboration is making a comeback.  Take local small business Biznik, for example.  Their goal is to encourage small business collaboration to foster mutual growth, ever-chanting the “collaboration over competition” mantra.  Innovation is now the centerpiece of business development, and collaboration is key to success.  We teach the values of collaboration to students in school, knowing that social learning encourages students to succeed and learn more.  So why is it that once faced with the world of business we have traditionally put on the boxing gloves and headed into the ring?

As we grow and develop Re-Vision Labs, we are constantly keeping our eye on how to collaborate with our local and national partners.  How can we utilize collective knowledge to create solutions that make sense and strengthen not only independent businesses but the wider community as a whole?  It is becoming more and more clear as time goes on that business success does not have to come at the sacrifice of community.