It’s been a busy summer so far. I have five interns working for Ocean SF, I’m dog sitting and teaching leadership to 24 girls ages 7 to 28. After quarantine having so many new people in my life has been beyond refreshing.
Over the 4th of July weekend I took a trip to New Port Beach and while there I marveled at how my free time and my work meld together. I am just as happy teaching a group of third graders the merits of different leadership styles as I am at a party in Newport with 100 people spilling onto the dock overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
When I was young people would say find the work you love and you will never work a day in your life. This is definitely true for me and has become even more true as I’ve grown older and narrowed down what I really want to do with my time.
LEADERSHIP
Teaching leadership has been one of the more difficult things Ive done. Because it is not enough to study leaders, you have to unpack how they became great leaders and look at how we can emulate them today in our own roles and modern lives. One of the things I had the girls do is design a boat out of plastic straws and packing tape. They created a drawing and then had to oversee the other girls while they built the boat. They were not allowed to touch their own boat, but had to direct the other children. I am happy to report that none of the boats sank and the girls had a ton of fun.
If you are local you can sign up for one of my classes by clicking here. I donate a portion of the tuition to the Malala Fund that educates girls around the world. I will be doing some Zoom classes and workshops for parents this Fall. Please contact me or leave me a comment below if you are interested and I will add you to my mailing list.
OCEAN SF INTERNS
It feels good to be planning and moving forward with Ocean SF after having so much on hold over the past 18 months. I am enjoying my interns. They are an amazing group of innovative, talented and committed individuals. We are all looking forward to seeing what Ocean SF can be post Covid-19.
I am getting so much support from my community and people around me to continue to build a sustainable and ethical company and a brand with a sustainable point of view. I am grateful to be forging ahead knowing that my brand is something people want and will continue to be more and more committed to in the future. Working with my interns makes me see that this really is our future.
I’ve been teaching my interns everything I’ve learned along the way running Ocean SF and in my past in corporate marketing. Today, we talked about brand identity. Leadership is so much about teaching others. I didn’t really understand this until I committed to ensuring my interns had a rich and educational experience working for me. I’ve always loved teaching, so its not surprising that I do so much of it within my own company, at UC Berkeley and with my young leaders.
Wear Your Values
At Ocean SF we are working on several initiatives. One of them is our Wear Your Values campaign which encourages people to wear sustainable clothing and to avoid fast fashion as much as possible. We’ve updated our Ocean SF website with more affordable 100% cotton options. Please take a look by clicking here and let me know what you think.
OCEAN SF FRESH FACES
Because we are bringing on new products we are looking for models of all ages. Ocean SF is a brand for everyone and we want our website and social to reflect that.
We will be photographing our fall Look Book next month. Contact me directly or send photos to events.oceansf@gmail.com.
LEARNING NEW THINGS
In addition to this I’ve been spending time at the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco where I’ve added new skills to my boating ability. I’ve learned to drive the Kodiak. It’s been a very windy spring and this has been an especially challenging and fun experience. Doing things like this proves that it is never too late to learn new things and have new experiences. I’m looking forward to spending more time there and for the upcoming races. The Rolex Cup is September 16-19th.
Stay Safe and have a wonderful summer.
Love and Blessings.
Sydney 