This Christmas why not gift experiences instead of things?

When my step kids were young, I couldn’t help but notice how many ‘things’ they were gifted every Christmas – often toys and nicnacs that wouldn’t even make it out of their boxes before I had to take them to a charity shop in the Spring.

As a family we sat down and discussed this with them, deciding collectively that the most important things to us were the experiences that we shared together and the adventures that we had. Ever since then, our Christmas gifts to each other have been experiences instead of things.

Experiences, create memories.

Memories create connections.

Connections create opportunities.

Opportunities to grow, meet new people, try new things and build our confidence through direct life experience.

Translating this into my role and work at Equinox Kombucha where I am responsible for our people, sustainability and story, this year has been both challenging and rewarding. We are a consumer goods brand, albeit one that produces healthy, organic, living products, so selling ‘things’ are the heart and core of our business model.

Conversely, how we choose to do business, connect with our people (our staff, our community and our customers) and work with our suppliers creates the experience of working at Equinox. This builds the foundation of who we are and why we exist as a business. How we treat each other and everyone else is the central mission and the way of working at our company.

Our mission is to disrupt the soft drinks market with healthy, organic, award winning, living Kombucha – providing people with a new experience of health and wellbeing through the choices they make, the products they consume and the companies they support.

We are a B Corp because we believe that business can be a ‘force for good’ in our local and global ecosystem and the people who buy from us can have a positive experience in the process. Beyond just pretty words, this means that we take the time to really involve and listen to our employees, our local community and our customers. We can then listen to their feedback and adapt our ways of working.

The Equinox experience goes far beyond our Kombucha but definitely starts here. When we choose to drink it or indeed consume other healthy, organic, ethical products, we are choosing a journey towards holistic health and wellbeing that ultimately creates a new experience of life, if we stick with it.

This Christmas, why not consider gifting yourself and others experiences that help them to grow and become healthier – mentally, emotionally and physically? 2020 has been a year where we have all had to focus on the health of our individual, social and environmental ecosystems, so let’s embrace companies and products that put health and collective wellbeing at their core.

Why not start with the B Corp community of businesses?

Or perhaps take more time than usual to consider which companies you wish to support through your purchases?

This choice in and of itself is a new experience.

Let’s make our experiences count this year.