Sean Schmidt
Sean is one, interesting, bird. He’s worked at small brands, big brands, has a few degrees, speaks several languages, likes pentathlons…he’s sort of like a walking-talking Rubix Cube-meets-Swiss Army Knife—likes to play with brightly colored riddles as well as the intellectual means to move adeptly between disciplines.
Right out high school he went to work at Nordstrom because, in his words, “at the time, it was the coolest job in Tacoma because Nordstrom had the first espresso bars.”He worked the machines by day, went to community college and completed a 14-year tenure at Seattle-based fashion retailer Nordstrom which included positions in sales, corporate human resources, information technology, and sustainable business and development.
About (some of Sean’s projects…)
Sean seems to be one of those that always has a few irons in the fire. Here are some of his current projects:
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Sustainable Style: an international, member-supported nonprofit organization created to provide information, resources and innovative programs that promote sustainable living and sustainable design.
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Haberdash.org: A Gentleman’s Guide to Sustainable Living - from Audi to Zegna
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Corporate Gardens: Exploring the softer side of the world’s leading companies and organizations
About Sustainability (in Fashion)
SSF was founded in 2003 by Rebecca Luke and Sean Schmidt with the idea that we shouldn’t have to give up looking fabulous and living well in order to be socially and environmentally responsible. Together, Rebecca and Sean felt that there had to be more fun, positive, and creative ways to bring attention to - and ultimately solve - the many pressing social and environmental challenges facing our world. Their hope was that by demonstrating the amount and breadth of efforts underway across the many and diverse style and design industries, they might inspire even more producers and consumers to make even more sustainable personal lifestyle choices, at work, at home, and at play.
Like a lot of companies Nordstrom didn’t know where to put sustainability. Sean’s first job was to figure out what to do with their old computers—not the sexiest project, but impactful. “There is more to it than recycling and tree planting. It’s classic business stuff. Everyone thought that if it’s green the products would market themselves, but you still need to push it. You need to market it like anything else.” To support the SSF effort, they started SASS, an online magazine, the OSSA awards, the SSFtags program and MOSID – the Museum of Sustainable Industry & Design.
Espresso Shot Insights: (what’s this?)
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Think Creatively
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Make Your Message Accessible
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Think Holistically
For more info: Read the complete interview; More about Sean
Comments
“Every entrepreneur should figure out how to “commodify” their passion”
This is such a radical and challenging step for entrepreneurs to take. After all, when you start commidifying something it loses its uniqueness. In order to make a passion a business, this must be done but an entrepreneur will fight this internally.
Yes, there is the risk of both losing your passion because it becomes, well…work.
But here, Sean is speaking more to the spirit of “go with your heart and do right, but make money at it.”
This is a theme that really resonates with me. So often people think that in order to do what I like, and have it contribute to the greater good, I must have to work at a non profit - for really cheap.
I don’t believe that is the case. I think you can find a job you like, something you are good at and also figure out how to get paid for it.
It is the logical next step to the often quoted cliche of “do what you love.”
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