Sandra Nomoto | Why It’s Important To Work With Ethical Businesses

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Joel: Welcome to the publishing for profit podcast. This is your host, Joel Mark Harris. Today we are interviewing Sandra Nomoto the content doctor for ethical businesses. She worked in the PR industry before switching gears and moving into content marketing. We talk about what inspired her to make the switch and how businesses can be more ethical and conscious about making better choices to build a better world, which is something that is desperately needed in today’s world. As I record this in 2020. So without further ado here is Sandra.

Sandra: Hi, Joel. Thanks so much. yeah, it’s an honour to be here with you.

Joel: It’s great having you. I you know, obviously I’ve been watching your videos and  taking your content for a while and we’ve been friends on Facebook and everything for some time and I’m super impressed with everything you do and the types of businesses you work with. I want to start off with what, you know, what, what goes into it to telling a business story. 

Sandra: Oh, gosh. That’s a big question: beginning, middle and end is, is always a good one. I guess if we’re talking about businesses, you know, just starting off with the tools, I think is the best way to go.

You know, every business needs a website, first of all. And then, you decide to go on the right social network, depending on the audience you’re trying to connect with. And then from there, I think you can layer on, all these other different types of marketing techniques. 

Joel: When a business comes to you how do you decide on how to proceed and how to, what platforms I suppose to tell their story and, and what is important in their brand message?

Sandra: Alright. So first, I do content writing and editing for a specific audience. I’m vegan. I’m officially going on about two and a half years now. And, at the start of 2020, I really wanted. and my gut kind of told me this is the industry that I can really focus a lot of the talents and skills that are built up for the last 13 or so years and really help this industry grow.

And so, number one, I look for value that value alignment. So if at first I was marketing specifically to vegan businesses and using the word vegan in my marketing and realize that although there are vegan businesses, there are not a lot of vegan people. So when you say you’re going to work only with vegans, you’re really the only nailing down on 10%, maybe if at best of the global population. And although that would be great, it’s a little bit hard to market to those folks. So I realize I need to be a little bit more inclusive. And so now I’ve just switched the terminology from vegan businesses to cruelty-free businesses or ethical businesses.

And with that, hopefully,it’s a little bit clearer that as long as you are not harming animals or people in some way with your business? That’s kind of my ideal client. And then from there in terms of brand messaging, like I said, it really depends on who your audience is. So, number one, have a website, number two choose the social media platforms that are best or be used to reach that audience. And then from there,we can layer on, more marketing techniques from there, which I may or may not be involved in. Like I said, I’m more involved in the content writing and editing process.

Joel: What level of cruelty-free or vegan do they have to do that? I guess what I’m asking is do they have to meet a certain standard or is there businesses that you won’t work with? 

Sandra: Business. I will. I won’t work with, obviously, if it brings harm to people or animals. I would say even the environment you could classify that as cruelty-free, but that’s going into kind of this whole other rabbit hole.

As long as it’s yeah, not overly obvious, you’re doing harm. if you have certifications, so if you’ve done B Corp or, you know, certified organic, that’s probably in the good section, but there’s a lot of people, I think, especially if you’re in the small to medium level, you may not identify with either.

You may not consider yourself being cruelty-free, your, your business being cruelty-free, and you’re not ready to yet leap into the certifications. But I would say if you’re in that spectrum, yeah, definitely let’s chat. again, it’s all about that value alignment. 

Joel: Cool. and so why is it important that ethical businesses have a voice and how do you promote that side of the business?

Sandra: Well, let’s answer the second question first. I think, again, I’m not doing any fancy tricks here. Content writing and editing is just a natural part of communications. It doesn’t matter kind of the form that you’re putting out there. You’re going to have to write. Right. And I think it’s, it’s super important in 2020 that ethical brands get out there more because, the future of the planet depends on it.

I mean, like I might reference this later, but I just watched, the New Corporation, which is the documentary sequel to. The Corporation, which was made in 2003. And I thought it was so brilliant that they did a follow a movie because you can see how much worse things have gotten in the world in terms of environment, people’s health, just how we treat each other.

And so if you’re in a business in a business, you know, like I think ethical brands and ethical businesses, more so than ever. We need you because the future of our world like I said, depends on. 

Joel: You mentioned, I think, a corporation B, is that the correct term? 

Sandra: B corporation 

Joel: B corporation and what is that exactly?

Sandra: Yeah. So it’s a certification organization. What it does is it certifies businesses to determine whether they’re a socially and environmentally responsible business.

So any business can go online on their website. Which I believe is bcorp.net. You can sign up for free and you take their assessment. which is basically a number of questions about your business and you can go online, fill all that out and what it does. Yeah. And it is it’s our score.

Based on your governance. How you, how your business treats the environment, how the business treats employees, your community impact, and you, if you have a minimum 80 points out of that possible 200, you can go on to the next, to the next phase, which is to them. Apply for certification. The first time I filled it out for my previous business I was not at the 80 range, but I built up my points to get to that point because it was something that was really important to me at the time. Basically,when you earn that certification and there are rough, I think, just under 3,000 businesses around the world with the certification, you can use that in all your marketing, throw it up on your website, put it on your packaging.

It basically tells your consumers and clients that you have the certification. You’ve been verified by a third party that you are working towards more ethical practices in your business. 

Joel: And so what sort of things do you need to do or need to show in order to get that certification?

Sandra: Yeah, like I said, it’s so there’s different categories for environment. They’re going look at emissions. If you’re a home-based business, like I am you’re going to be, you’re going to do pretty well in that area. If you’re a car company you’re going to have to actually track that and submit sort of some sort of documentation that shows that number one, you’re tracking it.

First of all. And then number two, like what are the actual emissions? There’s a whole number of factors. So again, community impact, are you giving. Getting back to your community. Are you a member of any sort of, organization? I was a member of 1% for the planet at the time. So that again counts for one or a few points, government governance as well.

So if you’ve got a woman on your board of directors or your woman-owned, you earn a point there. There’s a whole number of these questions and they all lump into sort of five different categories. 

Joel: Cool. And is that something that people look for when they decide on buying certain brands or supporting certain companies?

Sandra: Well, I would hope so. At the time when I was certified, so I still am a business, a business. That’s the type of business I run. I find here in Canada is still it’s a total certification that not many businesses have and it’s still getting out there. So there’s some certain, there is a certain level of marketing that still needs to be done

and. I think it’s more of a bonus like when people, people are coming to my website, they’re looking to hire me for their specific service. And then if they actually know what the B Corp logo means, that’s more of a bonus, but I think in the U S people really understand what that means. And if they don’t, it’s probably a good signal that they can go on the internet, see what does this B logo all about and learn about. I learned about it because yeah. it’s only one of the many ways that we can learn whether a company is, socially or environmentally responsible.

Joel: I’m wondering if, just to take us that back here, I’m wondering if you can tell us a little bit about your journey because I know you started in PR and I think you still do a little bit of PR practices. but yeah, if you can tell us like how you arrived at to your, your present job and your present company.

Sandra: Sure. So I started my PR business after, after school and after I was working for a public relations firm for about a year and a half, that was my first job out of school.

And I thought I could, could run my own business. I started it in 2008. And then I actually rebranded it to the name conscious PR in 2012 because I wanted to attract more of the types of businesses that we’ve been talking about so far. and then I decided to close that business in 2018. cause I just realized, the media landscape here in Canada was changing and traditional media outreach was being quickly replaced by digital marketing. And it was around 2016. I kind of knew that was happening. And I was taking steps to actually we expand my agency into more of a full-service communications firm, but, for a number of reasons, it just didn’t work out. So it closed that in 2018.

And then, last year, 2019 was my soul searching year. I knew I didn’t really want to stay in marketing, but, I was just freelancing for a number of different clients. but in 2020 it just became really clear to me that writing was going to be a big part of my life, whether personally or professionally.

And I just really wanted to home in on my writing and editing skills and that brings us to, the business that are in today. 

Joel: Is PR still a viable tactic in today’s I guess, landscape or is it purely like a digital marketing play? Do you think? 

Sandra: That’s a great question because public relations, when people hear that word, they typically think of publicity, which is the process of reaching out to media.

I’m hoping that you can get your story told and then seeing the coverage and then hopefully getting sales out of that or. Or just even, influence or, proponents out of that. But the practice of public relations actually means communication to your audience and ideally, having your audience engage back with you.

So the funny thing is PR the PR industry in my opinion, was very slow to see that social media was actually a PR tool but once they realized that I think it was too late to, go back and change the terminology around social media and digital marketing. So now there’s all these, the different terms that are, you know, seem separate, but are actually quite intertwined.

And I would call social media, definitely a PR tool because you know, the messages that you put out, you can have your audience instantly. Commenting, on that, through your comments, whether that, you know, and it doesn’t matter what channel that is, whether it’s Twitter or YouTube, so long as you have that channel, it’s definitely PR tool.

Joel: On your website, you talk a lot about your spiritual practice. You have meditation. I’m wondering if you can tell us a little bit about your journey, and what you’ve discovered about yourself with those tools?

Sandra: Yeah. I would say my sense of spirituality goes back to probably three years old when, like I grew up in a Catholic family and my mom taught me prayers and stuff like that before and took me to church obviously.

And I grew up in a Catholic so from kindergarten way up until grade 12, I was in Christian education and I would say I was still practicing Catholic up until 2003. It just was really clear to me that my personal values weren’t hugely aligned.

And so I decided I’m a spiritual person but I would say it didn’t really play another big presence in my life until I started practicing yoga. around 2006 and through yoga, I was led to meditation. I would say once I started really regular meditation practice.

I learned it. I learned transcendental meditation in 2014 and I’ve been doing that twice daily for six years now. And I would say that’s really good heightened my sense of spirituality. 

Joel:  What is transcendental mediation? You hear about that all the time in the media, but I don’t actually know what transcendental meditation is.

Sandra: Yeah, TM for short. That’s how we all name so before I started practicing, I’d heard of TM, just, just sort of online and you, it was a type of meditation and if you’re a film buff like I am, David Lynch is a really big, ambassador of TM. He attributes it to getting a lot of his creativity.

In 2014, I was ready to just learn about it. I went to an information session here in Vancouver and, yeah, and I was just sold on it. Like these, they did say that it was the most practice form of meditation in the world. I think knowing people around the world. So I said, Hey that’s good enough for that many people.

It’s good enough for me. What I love about it actually is first of all, it’s, it’s rooted in the Vedic tradition. It goes back like it predates even either beta. It’s thousands and thousands of years old. And the folks in India have been doing it forever and it came to the West around the seventies like the Beatles were a big part of bringing it here.

So you’re meant to do it twice a day before breakfast and more for dinner and for 20 minutes each session. You don’t like no less, no more. That’s your time and that’s yeah, basically I get 40 minutes a day where I’m going inward, and I think it’s huge. It’s been hugely beneficial to me in managing my stress level and just getting to know myself.

Joel: Do you think it translates into your business at all? 

Sandra: Hm, that’s a good question. I’m certainly very open on my, my website, which is my, both my personal blog and has some of my business stuff on it. I’m very open and talking about it. but yeah, I don’t know. I think it’s helped me indirectly. So in learning more about myself

I’ve really gotten to know what my values are and how I want to practice those values in work. And so I actually was meditating at some point.

I think it was the first Friday of December in 2019. And that idea for content writing and editing for business for beacon businesses came to me in meditation. I get a lot of these. What I call downloads when I meditating, even though you’re not supposed to be thinking thoughts. yeah, I guess that’s how it interests.

Joel: Super cool. I want to go back to ethical businesses for a bit. Is that a perception that only young people. Yeah. You know, care about ethical or vegan business. And it’s not something that like the older baby boom generation right. Really think about is that, you know, more of a myth or is that actual fact. 

Sandra: I mean, I don’t know if I can verify that as fact, but I would lean towards the idea that yes, it’s more true that younger generations are more open to seeking out, ethical, not just ethical businesses, but just being ethical.

I mean, look at the global climate strength that was all led by youth. And I think it’s, it, it all comes down to information. They’re growing up in the internet age and they know. All the stuff that we’ve done and I’ve noticed, and that’s not to say that baby, the boomers don’t care. I think absolutely.

They would care if they had the information. Right. And they grew up without that without the internet. And so all they knew was what they read in newspapers, and had a lot of that shielded to them. I think if we do listen to what younger people are saying, we would be moving in the right direction as a human race.

Joel: Part of an ethical business’s responsibility to educate people who may not know.  What’s going on in the world and how they can help. 

Sandra: Yeah, I think so to a certain extent. That’s the question about, do you consider yourself an ethical wreck? You bloat, you don’t have that responsibility, but I think we’re moving more in a direction where businesses are feeling. They have that responsibility.

They have that voice and. It doesn’t have to be all issues. Right? In fact, it’s almost better and I’m learning this on my own. It’s almost better to home in on one issue that you really care about. Whether that’s black lives matter, whether that’s the environment. If you can use your, your business platform as a way to highlight that one issue and, and tell your consumers, we care about this and you should do, I think that’ll, that’ll have more and more ripple effects.

Joel:  So this product, this next question probably applies to both personal and businesses, but for it, like just, you know, cause we’re talking about marketing and business for a business who wants to do become more ethical. What are the first couple of steps that they can do? Or what would you recommend to them that say, Sandra, I want my business to, you know, care, not, not so much, but like to work towards a more environmentally friendly business or to be more ethically, sustainable.

Sandra: That’s a great question. And I don’t think I’m the best person to answer this, but because of, yeah, I’ve, you know, I’ve done the B Corp and all that. I, I feel like I’m sort of on the cusp of, or the baby steps of learning about, social responsibility. I think the number one, you can hire experts.

So there are CSR experts. There are sustainability experts and, and their job is to come into your business, assess your business and see what first step you can make. The other is just ask your team. Right. If you’ve got a small team right now, then you’re almost in the best position just to ask them, Hey, what do we want to step for?

Right. What do we stand for? If your values are already, outwardly facing, right? It gets harder when your corporation is bigger and bigger, because then, you know, you can, it’ll be harder to, get all these opinions when you have hundreds of thousands of employees and get everybody on the same page.

But I think, I think there’s always the first place to start and. Social media, your own networks right now, like tap. No, the folks on the dead, who you may already be connected with it connected with and who are already doing this work. the acronym Jedi is great to think about.

So justice equity. Diversity inclusion. And I would also add anti-racism to that if you’re at all interested in those, in those areas for your business, and you should be, that’s a great place to, to search for those types of experts in your area and, and hire them. 

Joel: You mentioned the documentary New Corporation and on your website, you also mentioning EarthLink.As like, you know, as a big inspiration for you. as wondering, can you talk a little bit about how I would see those documentaries, were hugely impactful? T can you talk a little bit about how they impacted you?

Sandra: Yeah, so Earthlings, I believe originally came out in 2005. It’s a documentary, narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, and the director has gone to produce more documentaries. So I saw it I think about two years after it came out at the end of 2007, and I grew up, in a, you know, in a household that we ate a lot of Filipino cuisine, which is very meat-heavy. So. it’s interesting that that year, I said to myself, you know what, it would be nice to be vegan, but it would be really hard.

And I saw that documentary and I sort of made that commitment to myself that I would start moving. It’s more in the direction of eating less meat because I couldn’t unsee what I had seen. There’s a common phrase that we vegans, even if slaughterhouses had clear walls, there would be a lot fewer people eating me.

And so that was the catalyst for me. and I was very much flexitarian up until 2017. I think is when I gave up finally gave up seafood and then 2018 is when I gave up dairy, which was the last animal by-product. And so now I’m into two and a half years and they begin the journey. 

Joel: What are some steps that you could recommend to people who want to, become vegan or vegetarian? 

Sandra: Oh man. There are tons of resources out there. So, so my own website, I mean, I’ve got recipes up there. I blog very often about the journey. So Sandra animoto.com. if you’ve got friends, who are asking them.

And I’d say if you’re ready to take the leap in terms of your, personal diet, you can, what I did and kind of do it like elimination over a number of years, that way your, your bodies and sort of going in shock. If you choose to go, To do it all at once. I, yeah, I didn’t hire a nutritionist or anybody, but I think somebody like that would be very valuable if you want to start making that transition in terms of food.

but there’s yeah, there’s a lot of vegan media outlets, live kindly plant-based news. I think those are the top two veg news. Just follow those folks on social media. if you’re not, you know, if you’re not quite ready, then maybe subscribe to their newsletters or their magazine, they put out really amazing articles, not just on the food side, but yeah, but veganism touches, different areas.

Is it your lifestyle? Right? So what you were, impact on the environment. And there’s so many ways of getting into that, vegan lifestyle. even if it’s not food.

Joel: So you mentioned documentaries, but also I’d like to know what sort of books have inspired you. And specifically, if you have any favourites you’d like to recommend.

Sandra: Yeah. I wish I had the list in front of me, but, I think the two that I picked up early on, actually I was gifted with them, the kind diet, from Alicia Silverstone, quantum wellness, by Kathy Freston, who has also put out a number of cookbooks. And then the last that I, the other one I can remember is eating animals by Jonathan, Jonathan Safran.

For who writes a lot of opinion articles in the New York times and other outlets. And he also produced a documentary based on his book and that’s also called eating animals. 

Joel:  Awesome. And so how did they inspire you? 

Sandra: Of the books, especially, I would say, say I’m with recipes. Cause that’s, again when you’re transitioning to a vegetarian or vegan diet, the first thing you’ve got to change is this, what are you going to eat instead of meat?

So just, and I already was not a great cook so that really helped me hone in on my cooking skills. Because let’s face it, it is easy to. Be a vegan, but not a healthy one. you can, you can definitely live off of French fries, veggie pizza, but it’s not exactly healthy. So, you do have to hone in on your cooking skills and I would say, I’d say primarily it helped me with that. And then secondarily, just learning a lot of the other reasons why you should go vegan because. Initially, for me, it was just for the animals. And then as I started reading more of these books and watching more documentaries, I learned this has a huge impact on the environment, as well as our own health. So again, lots of reasons, for, for moving into that lifestyle. 

Joel: Awesome. Well, Sandra, thank you so much for being on this show. Super appreciate. And, learning more about you, for people who want to reach out to you, where’s the best place to find you. 

Sandra: I’m everywhere on social media and my name Sandra Nomoto. And then specifically for content writing and editing, I’m at the Content Doctor.  

Joel: Well, thanks so much. 

Sandra: Thank you.