#runfatso

There is a lot to be said for running your own business and at times, there is a tendency to let other aspects of your life suffer when you get absorbed in something that you are passionate about. For me (Avik writing here), exercise is one of those areas that I had been making the excuse of “I don’t have time” and I know full well that it is a pretty lame excuse. Jonathan, to his credit, has kept up on his exercise since we embarked on our adventure and has put me to shame.

I love to take inspiration from great entrepreneurs and for me, there are few greater than Sir Richard Branson. Sir Richard’s approach to being more productive, energetic, confident, healthier, having more time, staying focused is simple:

WORK OUT.

Well, my wife and friends thought that I had been neglecting this aspect of my life since we took So Money full time and threw me an unexpected challenge: they signed me up to run the Geneva half marathon withexactly 4 weeks to prepare! 

After close to 2 years of little to no exercise, the thought of running 21KM was somewhat daunting but I was willing to give it a go. So, with an iPhone and a handycam I documented a mini video series to track my progress upto race day with my friend Chris.

Did I make it? Check out Episode 5 of #runfatso below to find out!

Posted by Avik

#ideasworthspreading

For those that are not familiar with the initiative, TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to “ideas worth spreading”. Started in 1984 in California as a four-day conference about Technology, Entertainment, Design, TED has broadened its scope and grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives.

TED created a program called TEDx, consisting of local, independently organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.

So Money are huge fans of TED and TEDx and we have taken much inspiration from the talks as we have built our business. When we got a call to be involved with TEDxLausanne, it was like a dream come true for us! 

The event takes place on Jan 18^th 2013 at IMD in Lausanne and the theme for this year is “What if we do(n’t)”. The aim of this year’s event is to give visibility to people who have dared to make difficult decisions in times of uncertainty, to question conventional wisdom, and to drive their ideas forward in the interest of a better world. Each of our speakers will have their own unique story to tell about perseverance, courage and achievement. 

We are really excited to be involved and we hope to see you there!

Update on Monday, January 21, 2013 at 9:10AM by Avik Ray

#happybirthdaysomoney!

This week we celebrated the first year anniversary of taking So Money Productions full time! We've had some amazing adventures whilst out filming, so thanks to all those that we've met on the way!

We put together this playlist on our youtube channel for all those that have supported us this first year - a compilation of songs that have been playing on the radio during our road trips or that we've been listening to whilst editing over the past 12 months! Enjoy!

#videolovestheradiostar

We have met tons of interesting people whilst we have been building our business. One of those was Catherine Nelson-Pollard who runs a blog called Living in Nyon (www.livinginnyon.com) who we filmed for the British Swiss Business Awards.

Catherine also hosts a regular show on World Radio Switzerland (WRS) called "the Connectors" and she asked if we would be interested to come on the show to talk about our experience of speaking at Brits in Business along with Amy Davis from the UK Mission.

It was our first time on the radio so we shot a quick video diary of our experience on the show which you can see below.

We are very grateful to Catherine, Brits in Business and WRS, we had a lot of fun!

#savewrs #videolovestheradiostar

Servette FC - A fascinating story

Back in February, we had the pleaure of running a video workshop with Hugh Quennec from Geneva Servette Hockey Club. When Mr Quennec made a bid to save the local football club we were honoured to be asked if we could help out.

We produced some videos for the Servetton campaign in English and in French and it was truly a unique experience. Whilst there has been a lot of hoo-ha about the future of the club in the local press, we got to meet with people that work for the club and to speak with them about the impact of the club closing. This type of thing effects real lives and we got quite caught up in the whole thing.

The players were all really cool and welcomed us to their training facilities, it was great to have worked with them. 

Today is an important day for SFC as they are having their 3rd audience with the judge and this is the most decisive hearing until now.

We are now fans of SFC and wish the club all the best. Here are a few of the videos we produced for the club that were also run as TV spots on Leman Bleu.

Update on Thursday, June 21, 2012 at 4:01PM by Avik Ray

There is no better feeling than turning your dreams into reality. When we started So Money, we thought about all of the things we wanted to do and how we would benchmark whether or not we had achieved those goals. Today, however small it may seem, we achieved one of those dreams.

Maybe we set the bar too low or perhaps we just have very simple pleasures, but when our latest clip for Servette FC was used as the pre-season clipfor the trams and buses in Geneva as well as being run on the local TV station Léman Bleu, it felt pretty good! The clip is also running ahead of the Euro 2012 games at Les Vernets in Geneva - if England stay in the tournament, you will probably see us down there!