Who are you, Stevie?

26 years old (ask me about my 26th birthday).

Born/Raised in New York.

Currently living in Seattle.

Duke University graduate.

Full-time Product Marketer @ Microsoft

Cultural Observationalist and Renaissance Soul with a high EQ, the gift of gab and strictly good intentions.

 

Dope. What is SGE?

In April of 2015 I started Strictly Good Energy (SGE) as a lifestyle movement rooted in love, individuality and self-expression. I wanted an outlet where I could authentically express my most honest self and I created SGE as a platform to do so. The SGE platform digitally resided on this site in the form of refelctive sotrytelling and parable pushing & my personal Instagram through quotes, videos and swaggy yet spiritual imagery. SGE spiritually resides in the minds and hearts of the brave souls who’ve had the audacity to listen to me. Now, SGE has become the tagline of who I am. It’s my personal, evolving lifestyle. And a catchy brand message that helped introduce mindfulness, authenticity and spirituality to a group of 80k+ millennials who were not formerly familiar with the courageous benefits of introducing raw positive energy into their lives.

 

Okay. And how did SGE come to be?

July 2014…I am at a global conference for Microsoft in Atlanta. I made friends with a group of British and Brazilian guys. We’re at a happy hour and the Brazilians are having the best time anyone has ever had, ever, so I lean over to my British friends and say “Man, these Brazilian dudes are strictly good energy”. The Brits, aficionados of gab, LOVED the phrase. They started using the abbreviation “SGE” as an adjective to describe moments and people of strictly good energy for the rest of the trip. And with that, SGE became a thing.

In the months that followed, every time I posted to Instagram or Facebook I included #strictlygoodenergy to round out my content. A pretty sunset in Seattle? #strictlygoodenergy. Me dancing at the Canadian border in a Onesie? #strictlygoodenergy. Eventually, it caught on. So I created a website, changed my IG handle to @strictlygoodenergy and dedicated myself to spreading and sharing content indicative of the SGE lifestyle.

 

Interesting. So what have you “created” since?

An assortment of random projects intended to expand my personal, creative and entrepreneurial development. Every few weeks for a year I took on a new project to spread strictly…good energy. My writing has been the primary mode for SGE’s expressions while Instagram has been the main canvas for sharing my work.

 

I see. Give me some examples?

Well, to start….
  • I made a series of videos suggesting small ways for you to increase SGE in the everyday lives of those around you. Messages like “Why you should tip more” or “Call your grandma today”….I released a new video each week on Instagram with a corresponding blog post on my website.
 Then…
  • I wrote an article about how mindfulness meditation was the catalyst for some very positive personal development during a time of high anxiety for me. The article was published in both Elite Daily and the Huffington Post.
 For fun…
  • My friends sewed me the “SGE” flag before the Sasquatch Music Festival. I started to carry it around with me when I knew I was about to do something epic. I brought it to Bali and snapped this photo after hiking a volcano at sunrise.
  • I made one SGE tank top and gave it to my friend Gideon. He wore it at Sasquatch. Way to rep, Gid!
  • I turned one of my Instagram quotes into a small 12×12 painting, brought it to Seahawks training camp, had Pete Carroll sign it and then I posted the evidence online.
  • I printed out a series of SGE “business cards” that say “I handed this card to you for a reason. Be a part of the SGE lifestyle” and I hand them out to strangers & friends of friends.

Some other stuff…

  • I gave a SGE themed leadership workshop back at Duke.
  • I created about 200 pieces of Instagram content over a two week period. I started posting the content every day. Here is an example of what I am talking about. On Thursdays, I TBT’d old school Kanye lines that were SGE.  The new content felt unnatural for the most part, so I stopped posting them and deleted a bunch. You live and you learn.
  • I wrote an article called “13 Lessons I Learned from a Season of Subletting” which was picked up by Thought Catalog.

And then…

  • I created a series of 11 highly personal poems. I wanted to release them the same way a musician would release a mixtape. I called the collection “Invitations”, created cover art for each Invitation and released them over a ten day period on my Instagram and website.
  • Then I did it again and called the short E.P, I mean, collection, “Memos” on my website and IG
  • I filmed a DJ Khaled impersonation video. I thought I was great, YouTubers were less kind to me but YOLO!

 

Where is SGE NOW?

I put the project in a proverbial box and put it on the shelf of my proverbial cupboard. I gave myself the latter half of 2016 to focus my energies inward through reflection, reading, meditation, time with friends and relationship building. I DID however continue to write and I shared my pieces on Medium and this site as well. Outside of mindfulness and positive energy, I’m passionate about empathy, psychology, branding, politics, hip/hop, fashion and whole lot more so some of my most recent works reflect my diverse interests.

 

Next steps….?

I am in the planning stages of my next BIG project and without SGE, I would have never had the gracious opportunity, platform and inspiration to even be CONSIDERING what’s next.

The project will be Outliers meets Complex meets Beats meets Thrive Global meets Siddhartha meets a Tony Robbins personal development weekend. That’s all I will share for now. I am beyond excited.

 

Peace, Love, SGE,

 

SK