Why I’m co-founding TrimTab Media (and why it matters)

Leave a place better than you found it.

Co-founding TrimTab Media is a very personal business decision. I know that sounds almost like a contradiction in terms, but actually, it fits perfectly for me in these times. Simply, I was raised to leave a place better than how I found it – whether that was a campsite, a business, or the planet. TrimTab Media allows me to do just that…to bring all the skills, experience and relationships I’ve gathered over decades in advertising, television and documentary work, to bear on the most important issue of my lifetime – turning the tide towards a planet that runs on clean energy, with clean air, clean waters, healthy food, with equal access to all.

I think we could all agree that our planet is facing unprecedented challenges right now – the greatest being climate change and environmental degradation that threatens the extinction of many species, ours included. In his book, Getting Green Done, Auden Schendler characterizes the daunting prospect of changing the direction we seem to be headed in this way, “…As an opportunity on the scale of the Enlightenment or the Renaissance, a rare chance to radically change the face of society forever.”

Getting green done.

I am up to that challenge. In fact, I’m excited by the prospect of really being able to make a difference here. Everything I’ve done up to this point, professionally and personally, has prepared me to be most effective in all that I do – having persistent and responsive creative vision; leading and inspiring collaborative, creative teams; organizing work to get it done efficiently on budget and on time; and bringing my heart, my soul and my sense of humor into all that I now do.

The leverage point is business.

In addition, I know that in order to make the changes that must be made, we must have business with us all the way. Businesses – from small mom-and-pops to giant multinationals – become the leverage point for turning the tide. And now, a new kind of business – and way of doing business – has started to emerge: business that is as genuinely committed to doing good as it is to doing well. A new kind of consumer has emerged as well – a consumer who cares about the values of the companies with whom they do business. That’s where we come in and here’s what’s exciting to me. If we can connect those consumers with those values-driven businesses, then the more responsible businesses can become even more successful. Success begets success. As more responsible businesses become even more successful, the tide can turn. More people become responsible consumers. And the tide turns yet more. It’s an on-going process.

We are all trim tabs.

The vision of TrimTab Media is a world in which businesses are the driving force behind the health and sustainability of people and the planet. It’s how a trim tab works – a little bit of action, a big change in direction.