Alert: special discount offer at the bottom of today's post
Last week we talked about New Year's traditions from around the world designed to bring luck and/or good fortune in the coming year. Which is great! Most of them involve eating, which we are fully in support of.
However, here at Boredwalk HQ we subscribe to the belief that we make our own luck. In our math textbook, this is the formula for luck:
Luck = (Hard Work + Opportunity) x Optimism*
*This is why we'd make terrible aerospace engineers.
Every December from the 26th through the 31st, we work on our "corporate strategy" for the coming year — or as much of a corporate strategy as we can devise when our executives are wine-drunk and throwing out suggestions like "make shirts that smell like catnip" in between coughing up hairballs.
#GoodAtBizness
Anyway...we make a goals list with our top 3-5 "big" priorities, and then fill in the smaller actions/steps needed to achieve those big priorities throughout the year. It's like a list of resolutions, but in a color-coded spreadsheet.
Last year we resolved to be more public about our company values. It was a bit of a gamble, as the conventional wisdom in the business world is to avoid alienating potential customers by being politically vocal, but our conscience wouldn't allow it. Sometimes you have to speak up, march, take a knee, etc., to make sure your voice is heard. Voting and calling your elected officials on the regular helps in that regard, too, but as Charles Wright (and N.W.A.) said, the point is: express yourself.
Turns out we needn't have worried. Fan response was overwhelmingly positive, and it allowed us to in turn make charitable donations to worthy causes throughout 2017 to Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and CityofPromise.org in Charlottesville following the domestic terror attack there in August.
All that said, we regretted not being more directly involved in our civic future. Writing checks is all well and good — and something we'll continue to do throughout 2018 — but winning hearts and changing minds happens face to face. So one of those 3-5 "big priorities" for Boredwalk this year is to be more involved at the local level, and we want to encourage you all to do the same.
We've created a group on our Facebook page here for fans to discuss their own civic goals and organize meet-ups in their area for the coming year. We'll also be posting about our own efforts in that regard as we work with the SwingLeft chapter(s) close to us in southern California to flip swing districts and actively participate in making our own backyard reflect the progressive, forward-thinking values that are important to us as individuals AND as a company: stuff like prison reform, universal health care, closing the income gap, making voting easier, helping DREAMers stay in the U.S. and become citizens, securing (and expanding) access to reproductive care for women, pursuing real, lasting equality and opportunity for women and minorities, getting rid of gerrymandered districts and the electoral college, and spending more time and money on education & infrastructure across the board and less on tax cuts for the wealthy...to name a few.
Now about that discount we mentioned at the top...
For those of you who DO get active in your local community, whether it be via marches, sit-ins, protests, working phone banks for local elections, door-to-door canvassing, (respectfully) engaging with your local reps at town halls or Q&A sessions, etc. — if you post a selfie to the group of yourselves wearing your fave Boredwalk gear while engaging in those activities, you'll get access to an exclusive discount code that you can use toward your next Boredwalk purchase!
Speaking of which...
That's it until next week!
Peace, love, and tacos,
Matt
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