I am a co-founder of Holstee, where I design lifestyle goods with a conscience.

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Best Email Auto-Responder: focus on impact, instead of answering emails. - Fabian Pfortmüller

This email auto-responder of a friend brings it to the point: a lot of emails just don’t matter that much, even though it sometimes feels like we need to answer them all. In the end, we want to have a bigger impact in life, and should focus our time on that (instead of answering emails).

Dear friends,

I know how annoying these “I’m not responding to email as much” autoresponders can be… So I don’t do this lightly…

But I’ve made the decision that the biggest impact I can make in the world is through writing my books. (Yes, I’m up to my wily ways, at work at another one.)

Yet, I’ve found, there is almost a directly inverse relationship between me finding time to write my books, and me writing a lot of email. I can have one, but I can’t have both.

And, since I’d rather have my gravestone say “He Wrote a Lot of Great Books,” than have it say “He Wrote a Lot of Great Emails,” I’m radically restructuring my life to facilitate me making my biggest impact through book writing.

This means I’m going on writing retreat to finish the next book.

I may read email sent to this address, but I may not respond to all of it. I know this is not ideal—but I do ask that you please not assume I’m intentionally ignoring you if you write to this and don’t hear from me.

More likely, I’m intensely focused on writing— just as I hope you are intensely focused on whatever lights YOUR life and gives YOU greatest passion.

unconsumption: What a beautiful example of reuse.  Ballerina by Banksy.

unconsumption:

What a beautiful example of reuse. 

Ballerina by Banksy.

Fin de Siècle v2.0

Was quoted today in the Huff Po about @holstee’s approach to e-commerce! cc @shopify

Dave Radparvar, founder of Holstee, a clothing and accessories company that curates rotating collections of products founded in 2009, feels that small-business owners also need to go beyond just peddling products and sell their company’s values as part of the ecommerce experience, particularly when communicating through their social media channels. “We rarely post our own products on Twitter, Facebook or our blog,” he says. “Our customers can see those on our site. We use social channels to have conversations about videos, books or photos that represent our values. It all comes down to recreating the in-person sales experience and packing all our values, loves and goofiness into our online presence.”

I don’t like grammar but I love a food comma!
Me

Just read: Growth Hacker is the new VP Marketing | Andrew Chen (@andrewchen)

(Source: whiskeysoaked, via warbyparker)

Stop Redesigning And Start Tuning Your Site Instead

#Googamooga (Taken with instagram)

#Googamooga (Taken with instagram)

Hester st fair with @toutlemonde (Taken with instagram)

Hester st fair with @toutlemonde (Taken with instagram)

holsteemylife: IF YOU DON’T LIKE YOUR JOB, QUIT  But what if you actually love your job? What if you work with some of the kindest and most interesting people around? What if you get to make awesome products that touch people’s lives? And if the awesome products are constructed out of sustainable materials and produced at amazing family-owned factories? What if you actually work for HOLSTEE?  Then you’d probably never quit, right? Well, a few days ago I found out that I was selected for a US Student Fulbright Award to do research on the quality of life for garment workers in the Dominican Republic. Normally the opportunity to sell my stuff, move out of my apartment, and relocate to a sunny island nation I’ve never once visited would have been a no-brainer. Add in the opportunity to do research on a topic that I am extremely passionate about, and you can bet I would be gone on a jet plane. I’m a risk-taker and an adventurer by nature, and have done more impulsive things with much less cause before (just ask my dad). But suddenly I have a job I love, a studio apartment with the cutest vintage-inspired wallpaper, and some ongoing health concerns. Suddenly the thought of an adventure makes me feels… sleepy! And yet, I am writing this while literally surrounded by copies of the Manifesto poster. We are considering some new papers and designs, so I have a handful of samples to compare. In order to approve them for production, I will pass the day feeling the paper between my fingers, holding it close to my face to examine the quality of the print, and squinting to compare versions from a distance.  THIS IS YOUR LIFE. STOP OVER ANALYZING. TRAVEL OFTEN. It tells me over and over again.  How could I decide to stay after such a tactile love affair with these inspiring words? How could I go?  -Tylea Richard

holsteemylife:

IF YOU DON’T LIKE YOUR JOB, QUIT 

But what if you actually love your job? What if you work with some of the kindest and most interesting people around? What if you get to make awesome products that touch people’s lives? And if the awesome products are constructed out of sustainable materials and produced at amazing family-owned factories? What if you actually work for HOLSTEE? 

Then you’d probably never quit, right?

Well, a few days ago I found out that I was selected for a US Student Fulbright Award to do research on the quality of life for garment workers in the Dominican Republic. Normally the opportunity to sell my stuff, move out of my apartment, and relocate to a sunny island nation I’ve never once visited would have been a no-brainer. Add in the opportunity to do research on a topic that I am extremely passionate about, and you can bet I would be gone on a jet plane. I’m a risk-taker and an adventurer by nature, and have done more impulsive things with much less cause before (just ask my dad).

But suddenly I have a job I love, a studio apartment with the cutest vintage-inspired wallpaper, and some ongoing health concerns. Suddenly the thought of an adventure makes me feels… sleepy!

And yet, I am writing this while literally surrounded by copies of the Manifesto poster. We are considering some new papers and designs, so I have a handful of samples to compare. In order to approve them for production, I will pass the day feeling the paper between my fingers, holding it close to my face to examine the quality of the print, and squinting to compare versions from a distance. 

THIS IS YOUR LIFE. STOP OVER ANALYZING. TRAVEL OFTEN. It tells me over and over again. 

How could I decide to stay after such a tactile love affair with these inspiring words?

How could I go? 

-Tylea Richard

Font Awesome, the iconic font designed for use with Twitter Bootstrap

Yes!! This plus twitter bootstrap makes me very happy. Expect to see it in use for Holstee’s new ‘mowgli’ redesign.

Why @Holstee's Sustainable Approach to Ecommerce Works [VIDEO] (@pforti @mashable)

[image: Inline image 1] would love to hear from some current users or what other virtual servers people are using.

[image: Inline image 1]

would love to hear from some current users or what other virtual servers
people are using.

unconsumption: Banksy creates a piece in London on the side of an empty building and clearly makes a statement about consumerism. (via TreeHugger)

unconsumption:

Banksy creates a piece in London on the side of an empty building and clearly makes a statement about consumerism.

(via TreeHugger)