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creativemorningsvancouver · 3 years

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We’re excited to explore the theme of Matriarchy with our next speaker, Zoë Pawlak.

Contemporary artist and industrial designer Zoë Pawlak is known for her evocative and intuitive command of colour, material, and composition.

‘A mother and leader, Zoë guides with confidence and humility, with a commitment to expand what’s possible — for her clients, ourselves and those who intersect with her vision. Raising two kids and creating a successful studio practice as an entrepreneur at the age of 24, her deep faith and spirituality have been essential touchstones, helping her weather the inevitable ups and downs as an artist. In 2018, Zoë recognized her unhealthy relationship with alcohol and found sobriety.

How do you define creativity and apply it in your life and career? When you monetize how you’re creative, it shifts your relationship to art making. Why you create changes everything about what you make and who you make it for. My business is largely based on customer love and excellent service. To reconcile this with a creative life, is quite the feat.

Where do you find your best creative inspiration or energy? I listen to a lot of music. I love exercise, it keeps the blood flowing.

What’s one piece of creative advice or a tip you wish you’d known as a young person? Save money. And keep asking for help. I had a LOT of good mentors along the way.

Who (living or dead) would you most enjoy hearing speak at CreativeMornings? Tom Waits. Wait, would that be interesting? Hard to tell.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done? Cliff jumping in the Philippines.

What’s your one guilty creative indulgence? I’m currently writing a pilot and have NO idea what I’m doing and it’s an indulgent blast.

What are you reading these days? Dare to Lead and Pleasure Activism (both SO good).

What fact about you would surprise people? I think people assume I’m brave. I am scared all the time.

How would you describe what you do in a single sentence to a stranger? I’m an industrial designer and painter, making custom, original artwork for private clients and interior designers.

What’s the most recent thing you learned (big or small)? Easy does it.

If you could open a door and go anywhere where would that be? Chile back to my family there.

What keeps you awake at night? My cat.

What myths about creativity would you like to set straight? You have to work for it. Good work ethics promotes good work. This is not a cruise. Also, I love this talk.

Who has been the biggest influence on your life? What lessons did that person teach you? I look to many strong, female, creatives who have paved the way: Missy Elliott, Anne Lamott, M.I.A., Erykah Badu. To thine own self be true and that this is not only creative work, but that there’s power in the paving of a creative career.

What are you proudest of in your life? My kids being kind and the young people who have worked with me claim they learned something.

Where was the last place you travelled? New York three days before shut down.

What was the best surprise you’ve experienced so far in life? Sobriety, I never thought that would happen to me.

Where is your favourite place to escape? My studio or Naramata.

What was the best advice you were ever given? Listen to your life.

What books made a difference in your life and why? The Untethered Soul, again and again and again. Too many to count. Winners Take All, Just Kids…the list is endless. Being a READER has made the biggest difference in my life.

What practises, rituals, or habits contribute to your creative work? A strong, consistent-but-fluid morning routine and constant snacks.

When you get stuck creatively, what is the first thing you do to get unstuck? Call someone funny.

If you had fifteen extra minutes each day, what would you do with them? We have the same amount of hours in a day as Beyoncé.

What has been one of your biggest Aha! moments in life? Knowing that I am unconditionally LOVED by God/Universe/Love etc.

What is the one question we haven’t asked that you want to answer? Are you afraid of dying? Working on it.

🎶 This month we are excited to be joined by Rap & Soul singer Missy D.🎵

Missy D is a bilingual female emcee who was born and raised around the motherland and represents a blend of African cultures in her life-force and in her music which is a blend of Hip-hop and R&B she calls Rap & Soul.

You don’t want to miss this!

#cmvan #creativemornings #community #matriarchy #vancouver #creative #yvr

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sesamesaysme · 5 years

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BOOKS FINISHED IN AUGUST 2019 + word cloud of their subjects

(listed in the order that I finished reading them)

Most of this month’s books were so good that I wouldn’t be surprised if half of them make end up making my Top 10 books that I read within this year.

BAD FEMINIST by Roxane Gay / July 21, 2019 - August 1, 2019 / audiobook version / Summary - Essays exploring being a feminist while simultaneously loving things that could seem at odds with feminist ideology. / Reaction - Roxane Gay’s writing is SO RELATABLE! She allows that we may have principles we strongly support but we are human. Sometimes we find ourselves grooving to songs while knowing the lyrics are degrading or that are made by artists whose actions we don’t agree with. Sometimes we enjoy shows or movies that we know are mediocre and whose messages are flawed. Sometimes we believe in strong women but we want a man to lean on. These are the kinds of things she discusses in this collection of essays. I also previously read her book Hunger and loved that one too. I need to credit her as the writer who made me start enjoying essay collections.

ANCILLARY JUSTICE by Ann Leckie / July 29, 2019 - August 6, 2019 / Summary - A sci-fi book set thousands of years in the future in a time and place where the empire uses AIs to control human bodies as soldiers. First book of a trilogy. / Reaction - The reason I was drawn to reading this book is because I heard that it really makes you think about our use of binary pronouns. There are some characters in this book who do not distinguish between gender. Sometimes the same character will be referred to as she by someone and he by someone else and then she again by another person. Furthermore children are not referred to by gender. It disoriented me and I really appreciate that! Sadly that was the only aspect of the book I really liked. The world and characters felt cold to me. I couldn’t feel anything for any of them and I won’t be reading the rest of the trilogy.

SHOE DOG by Phil Knight / July 23, 2019 - August 6, 2019 / audiobook version approx. 13hrs / Summary - Memoir by Nike co-founder Phil Knight which chronicles the story of the Nike company from even before it was named Nike. / Reaction - I didn’t realize I’d be so interested in a book about how the Nike brand was developed but now I think it’s probably going to end up in my Top 10 books I read this year. How was I supposed to know that Shoe Dog would turn out to be an underdog story? In fact, you can even think of this as following the format of one of those heartwarming sports team movies or anime in which one team member after another is recruited into the fold, each with their own quirks. They meld and develop, then defeat their opponents against all odds. Phil Knight writes that these guys are all losers in some way or other, himself included, and almost none of them are athletic, yet they end up being the perfect team to build one of the top athletic brands in the world. They tackle all sorts of business-y problems with gumption and perseverance and are constantly trying to top their rivals adidas. Of course, since the author is one of the Nike owners, it is all from his POV, so you gotta be careful not to come out of reading it thinking the entire company is right in all of its actions. I’m sure there are criticisms about Nike that are still very valid. But that doesn’t take away from the book being a good read.

CARRY ON, WARRIOR: THOUGHTS ON LIFE UNARMED by Glennon Doyle Melton / August 7, 2019 - August 10, 2019 / audiobook version approx 8hrs / Summary - Glennon Melton believes that if we stop striving to project a mirage of perfection we can get closer to people and build better lives. / Reaction - From the title alone, I thought this would be a book about gun laws! It wasn’t. It’s a nonfic by a mother who is a recovered substance abuser and now shares her struggles with friends/neighbors/readers to connect with them. I’m not a mother or a wife yet but I could still relate to many of the things she talked about. One part I particularly liked was when she described step by step how to get through your day(s). It felt like much of the advice could help anyone whether they are struggling with addiction, depression, or just having a really bad day.

THE ARTIST’S WAY by Julia Cameron / August 7, 2019 - August 16, 2019 / Summary - An international bestseller which millions of people have found to be an invaluable guide to living the artist’s life./ Reaction - I would say this is like a textbook or workbook for how to unblock your creativity. A lot of creativity, motivation and productivity gurus these days use morning pages and this is the book from which morning pages originated. I’ve already been doing morning pages for about half a year prior to reading this so I’ve been interested in this book for awhile now. This time I borrowed it using the Libby app so I just read it without doing any of the activities. But I plan to get my own physical copy and go through the program in the book. I have a feeling this’ll turn into like a creativity bible for me that I’ll come back to over and over until it’s dog-eared and in rough condition.

A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW by Amor Towles / August 15, 2019 - August 24, 2019 / audiobook version approx. 18hrs / Summary - Count Alexander Rostov is sentenced to house arrest at the grand hotel Metropol in 1922 Russia. The book then spans several decades of his life there. / Reaction - As I listened to this, it was so easy to picture everything that happened. If you like books that cover a long period of time this is a great one. Rather than trying to tell about every month and every year, the story is formed out of perfectly crafted little vignettes that represent different times in his life and they are all so charming. For example, testing out the sounds that different objects make when they are dropped from the floor above and hit the ground, or subtly helping out a young man on a first date by subtly stepping in to suggest the perfect wine that will neither bankrupt him nor make him look like a cheapskate, sneaking in ingredients to cook the perfect dish behind the back of your enemy, or trying to outsmart a 5 or 6-yr-old in a game of hiding. It’s not a particularly quick read, but it’s so freakin’ charming. And the ending turns unexpectedly thrilling as you find out if our Count makes it out of the hotel or not.

THE COLLECTOR by John Fowles / August 16, 2019 - August 24, 2019 / Summary - A story of obsession about a young butterfly collector who kidnaps a young art student and traps her in the cellar of a house. /Reaction - I guess this would be categorized as a psychological thriller. The setup is very simple but the character development and interaction digs very deep. Essentially you take two very different people, put them in a small space together and watch the interactions. One is male, the other is female. One knows less culture (as in books, art, music etc.) while the other loves those things passionately. One has no relationship experience while the other does. At times you think, ok, this person’s motives are understandable, and at other times you find their actions incredibly disturbing. Then you start wondering what’s wrong with yourself because of those earlier moments when you found the person kinda relatable. Great read. And you can’t predict at all if the girl will survive. At least I couldn’t.

BAD BLOOD by John Carreyrou / August 24, 2019 - August 30, 2019 / audiobook version approx 12 hrs / Summary - Wall Street Journal writer John Carreyrou goes in depth into how it was possible for young entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes to build a multibillion-dollar biotech startup (Theranos) that deceived countless people even though its supposedly revolutionary blood-analyzing device didn’t even work. / Reaction - Man, it really makes you realize how far money and connections can get you. People were fooled and bullied so easily. Throughout the whole book I was like I can’t believe this happened and I can’t believe that happened and holy crap, they seriously got away with that? The second I finished the book I was online googling what happened to Elizabeth Holmes and apparently she’s happily engaged like nothing even happened.

WHAT AM I READING IN SEPTEMBER?

- currently halfway done with The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (but really JK Rowling)

- To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey

- Somewhere Only We Know by Maurene Goo

and the rest will just depend on what becomes available from my holds list on Libby

#books #books read #august 2019 #bad feminist #roxane gay #ancillary justice #shoe dog #nike #carry on warrior #the artist's way #a gentleman in moscow #the collector #bad blood #elizabeth holmes #word cloud #currently reading #audiobooks

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anitabyars · 5 years

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Title: A Perfect Lie

Author: Lisa Renee Jones

Release Date: May 14, 2019

ABOUT A PERFECT LIE

Secrets. Lies. A man. There's always a man. And there's always a truth to be told.

I'm Hailey Anne Monroe. I’m twenty-eight years old. An artist, who found her muse on the canvas because I wasn’t allowed to have friends or even keep a journal. And yes, if you haven’t guessed by now, I’m that Hailey Anne Monroe, daughter to Thomas Frank Monroe, the man who was a half-percentage point from becoming President of the United States. If you were able to ask him, he’d probably tell you that I was the half point. But you can’t ask him, and he can’t tell you. He’s dead. They’re all dead and now I can speak.

BUY A PERFECT LIE

Amazon US → https://amzn.to/2PUIGLj

Amazon UK → https://amzn.to/2PUBNtq

Amazon CA → https://amzn.to/2PRbsMI

Audible → https://adbl.co/2TJMTb1

iBooks → https://apple.co/2p09PB4

Nook → http://bit.ly/2MrIqB5

Kobo → http://bit.ly/2NCgK18

EXCERPT

“Can I join you?” he asks, motioning to the table.

There’s interest in his eyes, the kind a man has for a woman, but who knows, maybe it’s real or maybe it’s not real. Maybe he knows who I am and sees a path to power and fame. The way Tobey wanted me for money and power, right up until the moment I’d called his number aka his agenda; thus, he has not called me since I left. Maybe Harvard will lie even better than Tobey did. Maybe Harvard will at least kiss better than he did, and the lies would taste like temptation rather than convenience. At least then, if I’m used, I’ll enjoy being used.

Whatever the case, it’s clear I might actually be angry with Tobey and that aside, the interest that Harvard has shown in me, must be controlled before my Denver sanctuary is destroyed. “You can join me,” I say, “but only because I’m trying to save the rest of the place from the attorney in the house.”

I am pleased when Harvard laughs, where Tobey would have scowled, proving that Harvard has a sense of humor, which is rare for those in my life. I’ve barely completed this thought when he moves forward and claims the seat next to me, not across from me, settling his briefcase on that chair instead. In the process, his leg brushes my leg and for the briefest of moments, I’m transported back to the place that I’m now trying to forget: to Austin, to Drew’s leg next to mine, his wink, and I do now what I did then. I jerk back. If Harvard notices he doesn’t react. “Since we haven’t been formally introduced,” he says, resting his naked hands on the table. “I’m Logan. Logan Casey.”

“Logan Casey,” I repeat trying to ground myself in the present, at least for now, but some part of me is still swimming in that memory, which naturally has me wondering if this man is a shark in the water around me. “Two first names,” I add. “Sounds like your parents fought over who got to pick your first name. Did they draw straws for which choice became your middle name?”

“You’re actually right on target,” he says, laughing again, and it’s a nice, masculine laugh, and oddly this thought feels familiar while Logan does not. “No one has ever guessed that,” he adds. “My mother won the name war. The women always win. Speaking of names. Do you have one?”

“Hailey Anne Pitt,” I say, “and in my house, my father won the name war.” Because in my father’s world, I add silently, the women don’t win the wars. At least, not that he knows, not in an obvious way. I’ve learned this well.

“Well then, Hailey Anne Pitt,” he says, “what’s a Stanford girl like you, doing in a place like this? You’re a long way from school.”

I’m smacked in the face with a lesson I’ve long ago learned and forgotten with this man; strangers do not always remain strangers and all offhanded remarks can come back to haunt you. “That was a joke,” I say, shutting the door connected to my real life, and a path that leads to my father. “I hate attorneys, remember?”

He narrows his eyes on me, and for no reason other than instinct, I believe he’s looking for a lie that he won’t find. I’m simply too well-taught from birth, too skilled at being more than one person to allow such a detection. Well that, and the fact that I really do hate attorneys, which is why I’ll be a good one.

“That was a joke?” he confirms.

“Yes,” I say. “Are you amused?”

“Yes, actually. I am. What does a lawyer-hating smart ass like yourself do for a living?”

“When not busy taunting those who went to law school,” I say. “I’m an aspiring artist.” Both honest answers, if you put a “was” in front of the “aspiring artist” which I’d thought that I’d come to terms with, but the knot in my stomach says I have not.

Logan motions toward the art room. “Your career explains why you ended up here.”

“I guess it does,” I say, as this place serves me well to reconnecting to the Pitt part of my life, which is a place I really need to be right now, for all kinds of reasons.

“Are you good?” Logan asks, as if he’s read my mind.

My father’s words answer him in my head. Art is useless unless you’re famous, he used to say often, because of course, it was inconceivable that I might be good enough to be famous. “Art is like movies and food,” I say, shoving aside that bad memory. “Good is subjective.” I don’t give him time to reply. I ping the conversation back toward him. “What kind of law do you practice?”

“Corporate,” he says, and this time he pings back to me. “Do you live in the neighborhood?”

“Yes,” I say simply. “Do you?”

“I bought a building a few years ago where I live and work which means this is my home turf, and why I know you’re new here.”

“I am,” I say and since he’s clearly going to ask for details, I quickly preempt with an on-the-fly story. Actually, it’s the suggested story, Rudolf included in my file. “I came here for a job, and my new boss owns a house he’s rented to me for dirt cheap.”

“And what does an artist do but create art for a living?”

“I’m working for a private art acquisitions firm. I now hunt for treasures for a living.” This lie is actually my dream job that I’ve never been allowed to entertain.

The horror flick loving waitress delivers my coffee and brownie. “Thank you,” I say, because every politician’s daughter has manners beaten into her.

“No problem,” she says, “but if you come to your senses and want a better version of that coffee, just shout.” She eyes Logan. “I already know you want a crappy tasting coffee, on endless pour and a chocolate chip cookie. Coming right up.”

“Thanks, Megan,” he says, giving her a wink that I don’t classify as flirtatious, just friendly, and Megan is gone.

“Obviously you’re a regular,” I comment, “and they even like you.”

“And they like me,” he confirms, “despite knowing I’m an attorney.

“Because you’re good looking and use it to your advantage.”

He arches a brow. “You think I’m good looking, do you?”

“Oh, come on,” I say, crinkling my nose. “Everyone thinks you’re good looking. I’m simply stating a fact. We use what we have and those of us that are smart, know what we have.” I move on from what is really quite inconsequential. “Why work here, not at home, or in the office?”

“I find I get a lot of work done with a cookie, coffee, and no access to streaming television,” he explains.

No one in my D.C. crowd would make an admission of being human and distractible. Some people in my situation might take comfort in that fact, but I don’t. Logan’s an attorney, and my gut, which I’ll confirm with research, says he’s a powerful one, the kind that radiates toward my father. Maybe that’s a coincidence and maybe it’s not. Maybe he’s testing how well I execute my cover story. The possibilities are many. Though in all fairness to Logan, perhaps I’d lean toward his innocence, if not for the laundry list of recent events such as Tobey being gay and the FBI agent, who is likely working for my father, that I slept with to prove I was a) still desirable and b) not a killer.

ABOUT LISA

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones is the author of the highly acclaimed INSIDE OUT series.

In addition to the success of Lisa's INSIDE OUT series, she has published many successful titles. The TALL, DARK AND DEADLY series and THE SECRET LIFE OF AMY BENSEN series, both spent several months on a combination of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling lists. Lisa is also the author of the bestselling WHITE LIES and LILAH LOVE series.

Prior to publishing Lisa owned multi-state staffing agency that was recognized many times by The Austin Business Journal and also praised by the Dallas Women's Magazine. In 1998 Lisa was listed as the #7 growing women owned business in Entrepreneur Magazine.

CONNECT WITH LISA

Newsletter ➜ http://lisareneejones.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Bookbub ➜ http://bookbub.com/authors/lisa-renee-jones

Amazon ➜ https://amzn.to/2MoWosB

Twitter ➜ https://twitter.com/LisaReneeJones

Instagram ➜ http://instagram.com/lisareneejones

Goodreads ➜ https://www.goodreads.com/LisaReneeJones

My Review!

5 ⭐️

Riveting!!!

Wow! This is a riveting, suspenseful, mystery that is about greed, destiny, betrayal, secrets, lies, power, money and ambition. It’s about what some powerful people may do to get ahead. But is also the story of a young woman Hailey Anne Monroe whose father has political aspirations to become the President. A father who appears to be disdainful of rules, of laws and of ethics. Raised from infancy to be the perfect daughter, Hailey tells us her story, as she searches for answers, and finds out what she is truly made of. Written in past and present tense it takes you on her journey of what she says is the truth. But is it? Or could it be the perfect lie?

This story took me on a wild ride, making me question every single character and situation the whole way through. There were little hints along the way that built this story, so many little things that started to tick off this list of what was real and who was behind all of this. I spent most of the chapters mentally keeping track of all the big and small clues. My mind constantly racing trying to figure out where this was all leading next. Because we have learned that in politics and life that lies can and are avoided by the many versions of the truth.

Lisa Renee Jones did a phenomenal job crafting this story, and I was held captive until the end. I loved its fast pace and unexpected turns. So clear your schedule. Bring a snack. This will keep you reading late into the night. I couldn’t put it down. I highly recommend this story.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

#lisa renee jones #the perfectlie #riveting narrative

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sciencespies · 3 years

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How Black Women Brought Liberty to Washington in the 1800s

https://sciencespies.com/history/how-black-women-brought-liberty-to-washington-in-the-1800s/

How Black Women Brought Liberty to Washington in the 1800s

A city of monuments and iconic government buildings and the capital of a global superpower, Washington, D.C. is also a city of people. Originally a 100-square-mile diamond carved out of the southern states of Maryland and Virginia, Washington has been inseparably tied to the African-American experience from its inception, starting with enslavement, in part because of commercial slave-trading in Georgetown and Alexandria. In 1800, the nascent city’s population topped 14,000, including more than 4,000 enslaved and almost 500 free African-Americans.

Before the Civil War, Virginia reclaimed its territory south of the Potomac River, leaving Washington with its current configuation and still a comparatively small city of only about 75,000 residents. After the war the population doubled—and the black population had tripled. By the mid-20th century Washington DC had become the first majority-black city in the United States, called “Chocolate City” for its population but also its vibrant black arts, culture and politics.

In a new book, At the Threshold of Liberty: Women, Slavery, & Shifting Identities in Washington, DC, historian Tamika Nunley transports readers to 19th-century Washington and uncovers the rich history of black women’s experiences at the time, and how they helped to build some of the institutional legacies for “chocolate city.” From Ann Williams, who leapt out of a second story window on F Street to try and evade a slave trader, to Elizabeth Keckley, the elegant activist, entrepreneur, and seamstress who dressed Mary Todd Lincoln and other elite Washingtonians, Nunley highlights the challenges enslaved and free black women faced, and the opportunities some were able to create. She reveals the actions they women took to advance liberty, and their ideas about what liberty would mean for themselves, their families, and their community.

“I was interested in how black women in particular were really testing the boundaries, the scope of liberty” in the nation’s capital, Nunley says. Putting Washington into the wider context of the mid-Atlantic region, Nunley shows how these women created a range of networks of mutual support that included establishing churches and schools and supporting the Underground Railroad, a system that helped enslaved people escape to freedom. To do that, they navigated incredibly—sometimes impossibly—challenging situations in which as black people and as women they faced doubly harsh discrimination. They also improvised as they encountered these challenges, and imagined new lives for themselves.

Her research took her from the diaries of well-known Washingtonians such as First Lady Dolley Madison to the records of storied black churches to the dockets of criminal arrests and slave bills of sale. Finding black women in historical records is notoriously difficult, but by casting a wide net, Nunley succeeds in portraying individual women and the early Washington, D.C. they helped to build.

A beautiful photograph of Elizabeth Keckley adorns the cover of your book. She published her memoirs called Behind the Scenes about her life in slavery and then as a famous dressmaker. What does her life tell us about black women in 19th-century D.C.?

Early in the Civil War, as a result of emancipation, many refugees were flocking to the nation’s capital and Keckley rose to the occasion, along with other black women, to found the Contraband Relief Society. She’s collecting donations, having fundraisers, working her connections with the wives of the political elite, leveraging the Lincoln household, and the Lincoln presidency and her proximity to it in order to raise her profile as an activist in this moment and do this important political work of addressing the needs of refugees. We often assume a monolith of black women. But Keckley was seeing this moment not only as a way to realize her own activism in helping refugees, but she’s also realizing her own public persona as someone who is a leader—a leading voice in this particular moment.

Before Keckley and the Lincoln White House, you had Thomas Jefferson, the first President to live his full term in the White House. What role did enslaved women play at the White House where he famously served French food and wine and entertained politicians at a round dinner table?

Even as political leaders were engaged in creating this nation, enslaved laborers were integral. I think about the cook Ursula Granger, who came with him from Monticello at 14 years old, and was pregnant. Despite not knowing a full picture of her story, we know that she was important. The kinds of French cooking she was doing, the kinds of cooking and entertaining that two other women who were there, Edith or Frances, might have been helping with, are some of the same things that we look for today when we are looking at the social world of a particular presidency. There was value that they added to his presidency, the White House, and to life and culture in those spaces.

How did slavery become so important to the early history of Washington, D.C.?

The federal city is carved out of Virginia and Maryland. To cobble together what’s going to be the nation’s capital, Congress relied on legal precedent from those slaveholding states in order to begin to imagine what this capital is going to be. Politicians who come from the South want to be able to conduct the business of Congress and Senate while also being able to bring their slaves and their entourage and the comforts of home with them. [The creation of Washington] becomes this national symbol of compromise, but also a place of contestation, not only between abolitionists and pro-slavery political thinkers, but also the black inhabitants themselves who were opposed to slavery.

This detail from an abolitionist poster showed how the nearby port city of Alexandria, Virginia trafficked in enslaved individuals.

(Library of Congress)

In 1808, the transatlantic importation of African captives was outlawed. At the same time, in Virginia and Maryland there was no longer a huge need for gang labor slavery on large plantations that had been producing tobacco. Instead, deep south states were starting to produce sugar and cotton and many of the “surplus” slaves from the Chesapeake region end up being sold into the deep south. Washington and also Richmond become important hubs for slave traders to organize and take those enslaved people further south.

Another phenomenon is the hiring out system in which people might rent out a slave for a period of time. This became a very prominent practice not only in Washington, but also in rural areas with smaller households. This impacts women in particular ways. Many of these hired out slaves are women who were coming to work for households in the capital. When you look at bill of sale records, you see lots of women and their children being exchanged intra-regionally around the Chesapeake and D.C. in order to meet this demand.

Ann Williams leapt out a window from a tavern right in an act of refusal from being sold into slavery, into the deep South. Resistance was happening even in the city where it seems unlikely because of the degree of surveillance. These acts of desperation are really tough to grapple with. I can never give you an accurate picture of what Ann or others were thinking, but I can tell you what she did, even at the risk of her life. A lot of these stories are unfinished. There are fits and starts throughout the book, some fuller pictures and some where there is no concluding way to think about their experience other than the fact that it’s devastating.

Within this context, Washington’s black community is developing—and black women are very important to that community.

One of my favorite stories is about Alethia Browning Tanner, an enslaved woman who worked her garden plot and goes to the market to sell her goods, and eventually in the early 19th century made enough money that she was able to purchase her freedom and then the freedom of quite a few of her family members. After she became free, she became quite the entrepreneur and also begins to appear in the historical records as having helped founded a school, one of the first schools to admit African-Americans. [She also shows up] in church records as a founding member of a couple of black churches in D.C.

Her story is, to me, more typical of what was happening in D.C. than maybe some of the more prominent women that are associated with D.C. history. Just imagine the logistical feat of going from having been an enslaved woman to having a small garden plot to now being a philanthropist that is one of the major sources of financial support in order to build these autonomous black institutions.

This mutual support and kinship that manifests in these early decades of the 19th century is really how these black institutions are possible. Even if black men and women are free, they’re at the bottom of the economic rung. And so for them to be able to even have these institutions is quite exceptional. But what really makes it happen is this mutual support, this sense of kinship, and this willingness to work together and collaboratively to build something autonomous. And that’s how these institutions come about.

So, by the time we get to Elizabeth Keckley, creating the Contraband Relief Society at the 15th Street Presbyterian Church, that church was made possible because of Alethia Tanner! I find a lot of inspiration, just even imagining the leap that you have to make to say, not only am I going to earn this enormous amount of money to purchase a whole lot of family members, but now I’m thinking bigger. I’m thinking about institutions and things that can just be for us.

Networks in and around Washington, led in part by women like Harriet Tubman, helped people escape to freedom. What impact did they have on the region?

Tubman was a part of a broader network, and her ability to return back to the same region to keep taking people to freedom had a lot to do with being linked into networks. And in similar ways, we see that happening with other women in this book. Anna Maria Weems, for example, dressed in men’s clothing and pretended to be a boy carriage driver in order to become free from an enslaver in Rockville, Maryland, just outside Washington. But that happened with collaboration with other people within the city.

A map included in an abolitionist poster detailed the scope of the enslaved population in the nation’s capital.

(Library of Congress)

Studying these networks is incredibly challenging because they’re intended to be secret! But what we see is that there’s a broader cast of characters that are willing to make this trek, just like Harriet did. Anna’s mother, Ara, returned back to help bring a baby across state lines. She was channeling that same ethos as Harriet. And in some ways I kept Harriet as this marginal figure [in the book], not because she is marginal, but because I wanted people to be able to see that other women were also acting in parallel ways, in the same time, in the same region as her. And they were part of a broader network that was spiraling out really from Philadelphia, and then spiraling out both south, and then also further north to Canada.

You write about how these networks also came into play when enslaved blacks were suing to gain their freedom. How successful were these lawsuits?

Oftentimes, the freedom suit is triggered by something: the threat of sale; the sight of seeing slave coffles along the National Mall or Pennsylvania Avenue; a death in the family of the slave holder and knowing that you might be up for sale to resolve the estate debts. For other suits, it really was a hunger for just seeing if manumission was even possible.

The networks become really important. They include lawyers who are willing to represent these enslaved women. These are folks who don’t necessarily see black women or black people as racial equals, but they do believe that slavery is a problem. I imagine that once Alethia Tanner became free, she starts telling everybody, “This is what you have to do… You need to go to this person. You need to have this amount of money. And you need to be able to do this and say this.”

Black Washingtonians are mobilizing their own desires to become free. And they’re trying to figure out ways through this legal bureaucracy and different logistical challenges in order to realize it.

Tell us a little bit about Anne Marie Becraft, the first African American nun, who opened the first school for African-American girls in 1827.

Whereas many of the other black schools are very much in line with a black Protestant tradition, Becraft founded a school in Georgetown upon a Catholic tradition, which also really illuminates for us the theological diversity of black D.C. Becraft is really deploying a strategy of racial uplift, instructing little girls on how to carry themselves, how to march through the streets in line, how to be tidy and neat, and what to learn and what to focus on and on their own spiritual growth. She models it herself and so, when people see her and her pupils passing down the street, it’s a really interesting visual of what’s actually happening ideologically for black women who are in education.

They see schools as this engine for creating the kinds of model citizens that will make claims to equality later on in the century. Much of these schools are an example of black aspirations. They’re not just training the students to embody moral virtue. They are training them up to be leaders and teachers that will then translate this tradition to future generations.

D.C. could be an incredibly difficult place for women to earn a living. You write about some pretty desperate choices they faced.

The chapter about prostitution and local entrepreneurial economies helped create my title about the “threshold” of liberty. Even when enslaved women become legally free, what does that mean? There are only so many different professions that black women can enter in order to provide for themselves. And often they are still doing the same kinds of work that they were doing in the context of slavery. So, when legal freedom actually is a reality for them, where do they go from there? What are their options? That picture became very desperate in a lot of ways.

This gives us context for the women who are able to become teachers or own their own businesses. But it also gives us context for why women might go into sex work, into prostitution, into leisure economies. These kinds of industries that are not illegal, but they are seen as immoral and seen as degrading. And so if they were a madam, they were able to realize some of their financial aspirations. But if you were barely getting by, making very little money and a prostitute, it can be incredibly devastating. It can be violent. It can still lead to poverty. You’re going to be criminalized. You’re subject to surveillance. All those very much circumscribe their ability to thrive.

What kind of sources have you used to tell this history?

The sources for the history of African-American women are not abundant. But there was an opportunity to dig into the worlds of more prominent figures, like first lady Dolley Madison or early Washington social figure Margaret Bayard Smith, and see if I could find some black women in them. I would look in diaries or letters that have been read by scholars in a different context. And lo and behold, I found them. I also looked at as many newspapers as I could, church records, slave bill of sale records, court arrests, arrests and workhouse sentences. I also used the court cases analyzed and transcribed in the O Say Can You See: Early Washington DC, Law & Family website.

I may not have a fuller picture of these women’s lives but I chose to name them anyway, to begin to get the conversation started so that anybody else writing about D.C. can now take that and dive deeper. Part of the process of working with all of these different kinds of sources that are imperfect in their own way, is also in a spirit of transparency to be able to say, this is what I know, this is where the record stops.

You’re very intentional in your use of specific terms to help us understand the history of these women, and Washington, D.C. Could you tell us why liberty, navigation, improvisation and self-making are themes you return to throughout the book?

This book really is about liberty, how Americans have used it in a political national context, but also how people at the time imagined this idea and this concept in their own lives. I was really interested in how black women in particular were really testing the boundaries, the scope of liberty, particularly in the nation’s capital.

I also used the terms navigation, improvisation and self-making to make sense of what I was seeing happening in these women’s lives. There are harsh conditions and barriers that are imposed upon these women at and they are learning how to navigate them. Improvisation is how they respond to uncertainty, how they respond to the things that they could not anticipate. And then, self-making, I think, is really important. Because so much of our history around enslaved people and resistance has really emphasized that there are various different ways to resist. Self-making is the imaginative possibilities of these women’s worlds. Even where we don’t find women in their acts of resistance, these black women, these little girls were imagining their selves, imagining their world, imagining their identities, in ways that we have not even begun to understand.

#History

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sylviekk-blog · 6 years

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Scavenger Hunt

For my ten people to follow on Twitter I chose:

1. BuzzFeed- I love BuzzFeed and its ultimately my career goal to work for BuzzFeed one day. I love what they do and how trendy they are.

2. Now This- The lesser of the modern day news sources is still fun and interesting and I would work for them too.

3. Nifty- I love anything that BuzzFeed does, so for their Nifty page I think it is both interesting and informative. The things they think of are pretty cool.

4. Tasty- Again, BuzzFeed can do no wrong. Tasty is interesting and I like when they post the videos of them making little foods.

5. Today- I love Today. I think its a good News source and I like they way they run everything.

6. Trump- I think Donald Trump as a business man is very successful and can be used as someone to model your business plans after. Not necessarily as a human being, but for the sake of money.

7. Ann Curry- I think Ann Curry is an amazing news reporter and the way she holder herself is admirable.

8. Kim Kardashian- She’s just an icon and an entrepreneur and I want to be as rich as her one day.

9. Kylie Jenner- Honestly love her or hate her she's our age and a millionaire. She knows how to make money and thats awesome.

10. Bill Gates- He started with nothing and now has it all and I think he’s got to be one of the smartest men on Earth.

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magzoso-tech · 4 years

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New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/how-to-build-a-diverse-board/

How to build a diverse board

Ann Shepherd Contributor

Ann Shepherd is co-founder of social impact venture Him For Her. She serves on the board of fintech startup HoneyBook.

Over a recent dinner with twenty C-suite executives, one founder-CEO recounted how he was preparing a slide for a company all-hands with headshots of his board of directors when he was struck by the contrast between his gender-balanced employee base and his all-male board.

“It wasn’t something I was proud to share with the team,” he told us, as heads around the table nodded.

The other CEOs in the room got it. A board populated exclusively by men is at odds with efforts to promote diversity and inclusion throughout the organization. For too many CEOs, the composition of their boards can feel more like a liability than a strategic asset.

Board diversity offers an array of benefits, including new perspectives that can improve decision-making and reduce “groupthink,” access to a broader talent pool, and of course the symbolic power of women and minorities at the top rung of the corporate ladder. Yet, according to a collaborative study published today by Crunchbase, Kellogg School of Management and Him For Her, the boards of 60 percent of the most heavily funded venture-backed startups don’t include a single woman.

As the study shows, some of the gender imbalance can be explained by the dearth of women founders and funders. With investors composing the majority of private-company board seats, the paucity of female check-writers in the venture community carries through to the boardroom. But the problem goes beyond that. Only 19 percent of independent directors — those appointed without a prior operating or investing relationship with the company — are women.

Why should CEOs care about building boards that bring more women and minorities to the table? To answer this question, we sought input from three chief executives who’ve developed standout boards with an eye toward diversity.

What follows is a synthesis of the advice they shared.

View your board as a strategic asset

Well-functioning boards help CEOs see the bigger picture by providing an external perspective. For Stephane Kasriel, CEO of Upwork, “our board has been the most useful in discovering blind spots, by asking questions that force us to think outside of our day-to-day way of looking at things.” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse says his board brings “a satellite view of the world so that we can analyze global macro trends that may converge or diverge, affecting Ripple’s future.”

For early-stage startups, board members can help address tactical needs, providing introductions to candidates or lending functional expertise to shape strategy. “Over time, you’ll rely on the board for flexing its fiduciary muscle,” according to Zander Lurie, CEO of SurveyMonkey. But “don’t be afraid of governance,” he advises. “A strong board is not your enemy — it’s there to help you thrive.” The bigger risk, he warns, “is in surrounding yourself with a bunch of ‘yes’ directors who heed your commands; that has proven to be a flawed strategy for all stakeholders.”

Build a board that makes you proud

If the most valuable contributions a board can make are to provoke thinking and see around corners, then having a range of voices in the boardroom is critical. For Kasriel, more diversity “means more viewpoints on the same problems. The whole point of having an eight-person board is to have eight very different and complementary — though sometimes conflicting, and that’s OK — perspectives.”

“It’s important to have diversity of thought to protect the company from groupthink,” adds Garlinghouse. “Also, diverse boards bring different personal networks to bear… as companies scale, especially for startups, the most effective, impactful boards are diverse ones.”

A broader set of skills, life experiences and ways of thinking give CEOs more resources to draw from for assistance. Says Lurie, “a diverse set of perspectives and experiences will help you anticipate and respond to all kinds of challenges in your organization.

Make sure your board has the skill sets and diversity attributes that make you proud to show your employees and customers. You wouldn’t make a TV commercial starring only seven white guys; make sure you exercise the same duty of care when creating your board.”

This isn’t about optics. Lurie points to “one study [that] found that companies with one or more women on their board have 26 percent better share performance than companies with all-male boards. That’s part of why I’m so proud the SurveyMonkey board is comprised of 50% women and 50% men. More voices lead to better leadership.”

Reach outside your network

You’ve heard the argument that board diversity reflects a pipeline problem. Actually, it’s a marketplace problem. There is no shortage of exceptionally-qualified female and minority candidates. The real issue is that within the personal networks responsible for appointing most directors, these candidates are often simply invisible. So how can CEOs tap into this wealth of talent?

“Plenty of us suffer from affinity bias,” Lurie acknowledges. “We unconsciously gravitate toward people who look like us, share the same work background, or maybe went to our alma mater. This homogenous network isn’t going to serve you in building a diverse board, a diverse leadership team, or a diverse organization. Start going out of your way to connect with people who are dissimilar to you.

Find events to attend that wouldn’t normally be on your radar. Ask people you know to connect you with folks they know who might add a unique perspective. Investing in diversity takes effort in the beginning, but it’s well worth it for the gains you’ll see in performance, employee engagement, and more.”

“It’s not really different from any other executive search,” observes Kasriel. “If you’re just leveraging your personal network, then it’s likely to have the same level of diversity as everything else in your personal life which, for many entrepreneurs, isn’t a lot. I’ve also found that simple InMail via LinkedIn works quite well: find someone you really admire, approach them directly, explain to them why you think they could be an amazing addition to your board and why being on your board could be interesting to them.”

Garlinghouse cautions CEOs that, “building diverse boards and leadership teams take time and intention, so make it part of your mission from the beginning — it should not be an afterthought… otherwise, those with the ‘right’ experience who get the big jobs will continue to look the same.”

Always be recruiting

According to Garlinghouse, “CEOs should always be recruiting…it’s always the right time to take that coffee meeting.”

Kasriel concurs. “Recruiting is the number-two priority for a CEO — number one is, don’t run out of money — and this includes recruiting your board. A great board can have an outsized impact in your ability to succeed, helping you navigate difficult decisions, making sure you have the right strategy and helping you attract great executives, investors, partners and customers.”

Focus on competencies, not titles

When it comes to defining the ideal new board member, traditional wisdom says to look for a current or former CEO. But increasingly today’s chief executives reject that advice which inherently favors male candidates. Instead they focus on adding key competencies to fill out the expertise in their boardrooms.

The first step is to assess your current board. “Take stock of where your board stands today and where you have gaps to fill,” counsels Lurie, “and draw a distinction between the titles listed on someone’s resume and the competencies they bring to the table.”

Kasiel explains that, in building out the Upwork board, “We were very thoughtful in finding people who brought a specific expertise.” Recently added directors were selected for their deep knowledge of finance and operations, enterprise sales and M&A and tech marketing.

“But equally importantly,” he adds, “we wanted board members who were passionate about the mission of Upwork — to create economic opportunities so people have better lives — and were aligned with our value of maximizing value for all stakeholders, not just our stockholders.”

Garlinghouse suggests that CEOs “pay attention to what’s happening in adjacent verticals, especially if you’re in a space that’s constantly evolving; the perfect director might not — and likely won’t — have a career dedicated to what your company does, but skills always transfer.”

“One potentially controversial tip,” offers Kasriel, “consider hiring ‘more junior’ board members. In tech, things move really fast and someone who has been a CMO for 20+ years may not know as much about recent marketing technology tools or marketing practices such as ABM and Inbound Marketing. The first 15 years of that 20-year experience may not be all that useful.”

Add independent directors early

When should a startup add its first independent director? According to these CEOs, it’s never too early.

The first independent director at Upwork joined the board about six years before the company’s IPO. “I don’t think it was too early,” recalls Kasriel. “In fact, I often advise early stage companies to add an independent board member as early as they can.”

“It’s never too early to have an independent director on the board,” agrees Garlinghouse at Ripple, where the first independent was appointed only a year after the company’s founding. “The advantage of having independent directors,” he points out, “is that CEOs can prioritize diversity of thought because they are not constrained by board seats controlled by shareholders… With independent directors, CEOs have more flexibility in choosing an expertise in a specific area or a unique experience that’s currently lacking to bring companies to the next stage of scale.”

To CEOs worried about upsetting board dynamics, Kasriel responds, “the whole point of adding a new director is to change board dynamics! Obviously, you can make a bad hire on the board, just like you can make a bad hire on your management team, so it’s very important to make sure that the new board member is not only chosen well but also onboarded professionally so they can contribute fully to the functioning of the board. The onboarding may require existing board members to also evolve how they themselves operate. It goes both ways.”

#Miscellaneous

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williamexchange · 5 years

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How to Identify Your Target Audience for Better Marketing?

What is the target audience? And why does your specific target audience matter? That’s what we’re going to cover today.

When you’re in business, you serve a specific segment of the population. Too often, when an entrepreneur gets asked who the target audience is, they answer, “Everyone.” That’s almost never the case.

Instead, you have to narrow down “everyone” to a smaller group of people who both want and have the means to get your product or service.

For instance, if a consumer lives in an area to which you don’t ship products, he or she doesn’t belong in your target audience. Similarly, a consumer who can’t afford what you sell isn’t part of your audience.

We’ll break this down in more detail later, but for now, understand that the target audience is the group of people to whom you direct your marketing and advertising efforts. They’re the ones who might actually convert into customers.

Let’s explore the target audience in more detail break down the process of defining your target audience into easily manageable steps.

What Is Target Audience Segmentation?

Imagine for a moment that you’re designing a Facebook Ad campaign. You don’t want everyone to see your Facebook Ads because you’ll just want money. Instead, you want to serve up your ads to your target audience.

Facebook allows you to narrow down your audience based on demographics and other qualities. You might set an income range, target males or females, eliminate anyone who doesn’t have children, and so on, depending on your marketing agenda.

However, you also know that your product or service might appeal to different segments of your target audience.

Let’s say you sell sporting goods. Part of your audience might consist of teenage boys and girls who play sports. Another could incorporate professional athletes. Yet another segment might encompass middle-aged men and women who want to get back in shape.

Target audience segmentation allows you to create buyer personas. Each of these groups represents a different part of your target audience, so you serve them different ad creative and marketing assets.

What is the difference between the target market and target audience?

Many people mix up the target market and target audience or use them interchangeably. They’re actually different marketing terms.

A target market is anyone who might be interested in your products or services. Your target audience is the group of people—one of the groups described above, for example—to whom you direct a specific marketing asset or ad.

What is the target audience in marketing?

It’s people who might respond to your marketing asset by converting. A marketing asset might be a landing page, Facebook post, squeeze page, or the product page. It might be an email you’ve written to an audience segment or a direct mailer you’re sending out.

Your target audience is a part of your target market. You want to use segmentation so you send the right message to the right consumer at the exact right time. Just as you segment your email list, you must also segment your entire audience for marketing.

Why Is Defining Your Target Audience So Important?

Imagine visiting a car dealership. You partner up with a salesperson, but he doesn’t ask you any questions about your specific needs and wants. Over the next hour, he shows you sports cars and sedans, waxing poetic about the fine leather seats and gorgeous beltlines.

Finally, exasperated, you say, “I’m a mother of four. I need a minivan my kids can’t destroy.”

That should tell you how much defining your target audience matters. Trying to sell a two-seater sports car to a mother of four won’t win you any sales.

Sometimes, the segments are less dramatic, but you must treat them as important.

Consider the landing pages on your website. If a consumer visits one of your landing pages, you want to create an instant connection. The imagery, headline, body, and CTA should all appeal to what this particular consumer wants. If it doesn’t, the consumer will click away.

You master this by defining your target audience and sending prospective customers to marketing assets that will resonate with them. You don’t just throw landing pages and emails against the proverbial wall, hoping at least a few of them stick.

How To Define Your Target Audience in 6 Steps

Ann Handley of Marketing Profs once said, “Even when you are marketing to your entire audience or customer base, you are still simply speaking to a single human at any given time.”

It’s great advice for any entrepreneur who is gradually coming to terms with what a target market or audience is.

Handley’s making a good case for narrowing down your audience as far as possible. If you’re just speaking to a single human being — the person on the other side of the computer screen — you need to know everything you can about that consumer.

What are his or her pain points? Fears? Insecurities? Objections? If you know this information, you can deliver a message that’s both resonant and persuasive.

If you’re struggling to define your target audience, you’re not alone. Let’s break it down into six easy steps.

Step 1: Survey your current customer base

Surveys are highly underrated. They give you tons of pieces of data you can use to define your target audience as long as you prepare effective questions.

According to a SurveyMonkey study, the average market research survey is about 13 questions long, while all surveys range from four to 14 questions.

Just remember that your customers lead busy lives. If you give them a survey that takes too long to complete, they’ll give up.

Consider erring on the side of brevity while asking more probing questions. Fill-in-the-blank questions tend to offer more insight than true/false or scale-style questions because the survey taker has to put more thought into his or her answers.

To get you started, you might ask questions like these:

What is your main frustration when it comes to [your niche]?

How much are you willing to pay for [product] with [list of features]?

What social media sites do you spend the most time on?

Do you have any pressing questions related to [niche]?

Use the answers to your survey questions to build buyer personas, then to create landing pages, emails, and other marketing assets. For instance, the last question might be used to generate blog post ideas with a related CTA for a landing page at the ends of each.

Step 2: Interact with your audience

There’s a reason content marketing has become so essential to every entrepreneur in every industry. Not only does it drive website traffic, but it also opens up topics for conversation.

For instance, do you answer comments on your blog? Neil Patel, the co-founder of Crazy Egg, answers every question. He doesn’t always give detailed answers, but he lets his readers know he’s listening.

Step 3: Turn frustration into motivation

Now that you’ve surveyed your audience and begun participating in conversations, mine your notes for pain points and objections. Figure out what problems your existing customers and followers have.

Maybe you’re in the SAAS industry with a CRM tool. You figure out what your prospective customers are unimpressed with their ability to connect with their own customers via multiple channels. That’s a frustration.

Turn it into motivation. If your SAAS product offers a better way to deal with cross-channel customer service, use it as a selling point as you communicate with your target audience. You understand the frustration, so reverse the equation and give your customers a useful alternative.

Keep a running list of frustrations and motivations. That way, you can keep returning to them as your business evolves.

Step 4: Know who your target audience

You’re getting a better idea of how to define your target audience now, but you also need to know who to exclude. This comes in handy when you’re advertising via search or social, in particular.

Weed out potential customers who don’t fall within your target audience description. Determine who doesn’t deserve your time and attention.

For instance, maybe you’re marketing exclusively to women. That cuts out roughly half the population right there.

Or maybe it’s less dramatic. If you’re not catering to consumers over age 50, you need to know that.

Step 5: Check out the competition

You never want to copy the competition. That’s a recipe for disaster.

However, if you keep tabs on your direct competitors, you can further refine your target audience.

Check out their homepages, landing pages, squeeze pages, and product descriptions. Figure out what they’re not doing so you can give your target audience something they want.

Step 6: See how your audience navigates your website

Above, we talked about using your website as a way to communicate directly with your visitors. However, your website can provide far more data and insights.

Use a tool like Crazy Egg to monitor audience behavior. User behavior reports tell you where visitors click, how far down each page they scroll, what percentage of visitors click on a particular link, whether your signup forms are receiving sufficient attention, and more.

Crazy Egg also offers Recordings, which allow you to monitor a website visitor’s precise navigation through your site. You’ll see when the mouse pauses over an interesting testimonial, for instance, or where a signup form looks confusing to the visitor.

You’ll get tons of relevant data and insights to help you further narrow down your target audience and address their needs directly. If they’re not paying attention to your CTA, for instance, consider moving it higher up on the page or redesigning it to have more visual impact. There are Best SEO services in Frisco from where you can find out all the services related to SEO and digital marketing which will help you to enhance your business online and generate more and more customers.

#Digital Media #digital marketing #web design #web development #logo designs

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artandmindfulliving-blog · 7 years

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6 Powerful Questions That Will Change Your Life Forever

Found this article by tiny buddha, and duh I’m going to do this exercise. They have the best articles to understand yourself!

So here goes.

1. What do I absolutely love in life?

List anything that you love about the world and the people in your life. Think about any activities that get you excited and enthusiastic and make you feel most alive. This can be absolutely anything: music, sports, cooking, teaching others, learning, watching movies—anything. Within your love for these things lies deep passion.

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Hmmm. I always find this question to be tough. I love so many things, but how do I get to the root of it all? Not to mention, I constantly overthink every question that I’m faced with. I think I’ll just list out everything - in no particular order.

Cooking

Singing

Painting

Educating others

Learning how other people think (psychology in a nutshell)

Design

Dancing

Espresso

Mindfulness

Basketball

Being crafty

Managing my money

Waking up early (once I get up, I feel so good about it... the hard part is getting out of bed)

Home decorating

2. What are my greatest accomplishments in life so far?

List all of the moments that you are proud of as well as the times that you’ve succeeded. To have accomplished these, you would have used some of your key strengths. See if you can identify why you succeeded. Also, list any activities, hobbies, or anything else that you do that you complete with ease. Within these lie greatest strengths.

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Honestly, I’ve never really thought about this question before. It’s challenging for me to thing about the things I’ve accomplished or the things that I’m proud of... I suppose that’s because I’m extremely self-critical of myself. I always want to do better so I never settle or sit back to say, hey, Cristina, take a moment and recognize how awesome you are for accomplishing that. To be honest, that’s just not how I roll.

But as I’m sitting here, a couple of things are coming to mind.

Singing and playing the piano in front of my school

Winning a state championship in softball - I was so proud of myself and definitely very happy. I’d say on paper, this was a great accomplishment, but sometimes I question how much it really means to me?

Attempting to make my art a business; IG: Cristina Anne Art

Getting out of a deep period of depression in my life

Helping my friends out of bad times in their lives

3. What would I stand for if I knew no one would judge me?

List everything that you would do if you weren’t afraid, even your wildest dreams. This will help you discover your greatest values.

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Quit my job and work full-time as an artist, and just be as crafty as possible

Travel around the world and break through my comfort zone

Start some sort of business

Explore the idea of going back to school for psychology

Do graphic design or UX design

Start singing again

Be an stronger advocate for anti-racism (I do this today, but I could be better at it)

Stick up for myself more

Do you ever feel like you like the idea of a lifestyle, but you’re unsure if it’s the right path for you?

4. If my life had absolutely no limits and I could have it all and do whatever I wanted, what would I choose to have and what would I choose to do?

Describe your ideal lifestyle. List what you would do throughout the day if you knew that you were bound to be successful, what kind of person you would be, how much money you would earn, and where you would live. This question allows you to realize who you would truly want to be if there were no limits. By aligning with this you can begin working towards the life that you truly want to create. Know that you wouldn’t have a desire if you didn’t also have the ability to fulfill it.

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I sort of feel like I just answered some of this question in number 3. My ideal life style? Gosh. This is a really tough question for me. I always ask myself, what’s feasible? what can I do and still make it financially and with stability?

I label myself as a control freak sometimes - and that’s because... hey I’ll admit it, I’m scared of not having control over my life. At the end of the day, I have the power to change anything I want and what if I make the wrong choice? On the other hand, if I feel that way, then what’s stopping me from being successful right? If I’m careful while I’m outside my comfort zone than what’s stopping me?

Ideal lifestyle:

I’d wake up early and work out

I’d go sit on my porch and drink an espresso in the morning, or tea

I might meditate before getting my day started

I’d spend time painting outside... in the sun :)

I might work on my singing skills and learn more on the piano

I’d somehow start my own business... not sure what yet.

I’d be crafty, maybe take old things and make them new again

I love decorating, so maybe I’d help people decorate their houses

It’s hard for me to put a number on how much money I’d make... I’d like to make at least 60k a year to be comfortable. (Right now at least.)

Where would I live? Somewhere that’s sunny, somewhere where I could walk to a coffee shop, somewhere full of art culture, somewhere that is more liberal

I would be the kind of person who gives more, who makes others happy, I would be more selfless, I would laugh more, I wouldn’t care as much about what other people think

5. What would I do if I had one billion dollars?

List everything that you would really love to do if you had all the money in the world. Okay, so you would probably travel the world, buy a house or two, and give some money to your family. Then what would you do with your time? This question helps you to think without limitations. When we are able to remove limitations and boundaries, we can discover what we really want to do.

---

This is the hardest question for me. Do we want to do certain things because that’s what society tells us to do? Probably.

Of course, I’d probably pay off debt, help family out, I’d travel and maybe buy a lake house ;) but at the end of the day...

I’m not sure. It hasn’t really been about money for me. I know the world is at my fingertips and that with hard work, I can make things happen. So maybe I would give it to others that need it more? Other than that... this is the best I got:

I would start my own business

Probably do most of the things in question 4

6. Who do I admire most in the world?

List your greatest inspirations and the qualities that you admire about these people. Think about what really inspires you in this world. What you admire about others is also a quality that is in you. Know that you admire someone because they have similar qualities to you.

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My sister, Caroline - hard work, selfless, giving, goes after what she wants, deals with confrontation, sticks up for herself

My mom, Jean - tactful, warm, nonjudgemental, easygoing, understanding, loving, never gives up, strong

Artist, Amira Rahim - (Now, I don’t know her personally, but... here are some qualities I see.) woman entrepreneur, driven, strong, focused, colorful, in a world where there’s so much sadness she shows the happiness through her artwork

There’s this girl on America’s Got Talent - Mandy Harvey - (I also don’t know her personally but... listen to this story): “Mandy lost her residual hearing in 2006-2007 at age eighteen due to a connective tissue disorder that effected her nerves and left the program. She pursued several career options, including education, but returned to music in 2008, her true passion could no longer be denied. Though her hearing loss is profound, her timing and pitch are perfect and her passion is tremendous. With support from friends, family and her faith, Mandy continues to find joy in music.” Can you believe her?! I don’t even know her but she inspires me to never give up - no matter what. She is deaf, but still sings. She made her dream possible even though she was faced with the ultimate obstacle.

It’s interesting that this article says:

“What you admire about others is also a quality that is in you. Know that you admire someone because they have similar qualities to you.”

This is such an interesting viewpoint. I’ve never thought this, rather I’ve seen it as qualities that I aspire for. I still see it this way even after reading this article and writing down the qualities they have. I think there are some things that are alike between me and these 4 women, but I’ll continue to strive to be like them... to be who I strive to be.

Taking the time to answer these questions will change your life.

The more that you can implement your passions, strengths, values, desires, and motivations into your days, the happier your life will become! You can study to become a doctor, lawyer, teacher, or anything else, but this knowledge will only take you so far. Meanwhile, discovering the deep wisdom of self-knowledge will ensure that your life is far more meaningful and fulfilling. I’ve got a feeling that is what Einstein meant when he said “Information is not knowledge.” The most valuable knowledge that you will ever discover is, and always will be, within.

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What are you answers to this questions? Would love to hear them!

XOXO, Cristina

IG: Cristina Anne Art

#self-improvement #self discovery #change your life #Mindfulness #mindfulliving #life #how to live a happy life #selflove #self-love #lost #depressed #self criticism #self reflection #buddha #today #amirarahim #mandyharvey

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togreeceandbeyond · 7 years

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17th of June we took our time getting ready for the day then went out to find the fabled Tram 28. We went to a metro station to buy a 24 hour ticket. While there we were having trouble with the machine not wanting to take our credit card instead of a debit card. A little old man was helping everyone including us. We finally got our cards bought using cash and he said to me could you help me out a little bit since I helped you? I knew that was coming so I gave him some euros by dropping them in his pocket while he was talking to someone else. He smiled and understood I didn't want people seeing me give him the money. It took a while to find Tram 28 and when we did there was an hour-long wait to get aboard. We almost walked away right then but instead we visited with a British couple, Richard and Anne. We had a good discussion with them about politics,being responsible for your own actions, and not looking for a handout. We also talked about being safe and careful in the less touristy parts of town. I showed him my secret weapon, the car keys that had a spring loaded key. He said yes that sounds like a switchblade knife and might make people think twice about bothering you. I told him I thought I could also do a lot of damage with that key if necessary. His back started hurting and they couldn't stay for the tram ride. The couple behind him were from Italy and we enjoyed a good conversation with them before we got on the train. Philippe and Marta live north of Venice and she is a graphic designer and he's a trainer with the Volkswagen Corporation. Whatever you do when you go to Lisbon, don't ride Tram 28 unless you ride it at 7 in the morning or so. By 11 it was very crowded with tourists and commuters. It's too crowded to get a good look at anything unless you're in the back where we were. Then you only see things as you are pulling away from them and you don't know what it was. There was no narration or any explanation of what you were looking at. Just don't believe the tour guides. We got off at the end and had lunch in a cemetery before heading down to the seaside. We were walking along and found out there was going to be a celebration of Navy Day which included a visit from the president of Portugal. We waited around and listened to some boring and unintelligible speeches for about an hour or so. We did get to see and hear the president of Portugal before we caught a bus back to our hotel to rest before our dinner with Stephanie and Nuno. We met them at a plaza not far from the hotel and we recognized Stephanie very quickly. We then proceeded to a neighborhood restaurant which only had about eight or nine tables for dinner. They wanted us to have a typical Portuguese meal. I had small sardines that you don't have to debone. You just chop off the heads and tails and eat the fish. I wouldn't want to get a large portion because I can only eat two-thirds of mine along with the rice and wine. E had a chicken sausage with french fries. While we were eating a couple sat at the table beside us. He is a clinical psychologist and had met his wife in Buenos Aires when he went there to study the tango. They have been together ever since and is currently touring Europe looking for someplace to work and teach. He is Lithuanian who was born in Germany and moved to the US when he was a child. Quite an interesting background for both of them but we didn't get much information from his wife. Stephanie and Nuno walked us back to our hotel about 11. It was another difficult goodbye because we had really bonded with them very quickly. There was a undercurrent of asking us to spend another day on Sunday and we could have but the decision was never really made. There were lots of hugs and goodbyes and promises of meeting again someday. That rarely happens on a cruise. June 18 On Father's Day we left for Porto. We never got there because we decided to go to a little town just outside Lisbon called Sintra. There a man started, and his family finished, a magical wonderland. It was like his own fairy land where you come in touch with the cosmos, relax and enjoy life. Maybe you could even learn a little something about yourself. It is probably a 30 acre garden with a mansion. The map was not very good but we were able to find all the things we wanted to see, including a giant sequoia. After that we headed toward Porto. I knew we would only get part of the way there. We found a beach town that had a tourist rural place about eight klicks out of town which was inexpensive including breakfast. We found out why it was inexpensive. It was clean but it was like a 1950s or 60s motel on Route 66. Only one outlet in the bedroom connected a TV refrigerator and one cell phone. The people were very nice. We had a good night sleep because it was very quiet. We left fairly early for Porto. We wanted to see the best preserved Roman ruins on the Iberian Peninsula so we stopped there on the way to Porto. It was very nice, well-preserved, and very extensive. The smoke from the large forest fire that was northeast of us was very thick and pungent. As of Monday afternoon, 62 people had been killed in the forest fire. Most of them were killed in their cars as they were trying to flee the forest fire. It has been very dry and hot in Portugal and Spain the spring. After that we headed to a another must see place called Mata de Forest which is a 2000 year old monastery for people to go visit and meditate. It was started by some monks who planted over 700 species of plants from around the world. It is a spectacular place with miles and miles of paths through the forest to see many things including the cedar of Joseph. It's supposed to be the oldest tree in the forest. At some point people came to this area and harmed the plants. Pope somebody the six made an edict that anyone who destroyed anything at the forest will be excommunicated. While wandering around on a one and a half hour walk that had been suggested by the information office, we encountered a couple from Israel who were looking for the same sights as we we were. They were lost and decided I couldn't do any worse. We finished our walk with them and had coffee before we left the park to go Porto. They are very interesting and we exchanged emails so we can keep in touch. We now have a place to sleep in Jerusalem if we decide to go to Israel someday. I think that brings us up to Monday evening. We got to Porto late but found an apartment near downtown that we couldn't drive to, or so we thought, with GPS directions. I found a parking place but GPS said we were less than 100 m from our apartment. Two guys were in the street directing people into the parking places that you had to pay for so I didn't know their racket. We weren't sure of the parking restrictions and Elizabeth went into a local store to find out. They said we could park there until 8 in the morning. When I parked one of the gentleman came up to me and started talking. I asked him if he were going to keep an eye on my car. Not sure if he understood or not but I said I didn't want anything to happen to my car and I took a picture of him and said in case something happens, I'll show your picture to the police. His friend said can you take my picture to? That's when I knew they were just looking for a handout, but I went in to ask the store owner if that were true and should I be worried? She said not to worry, they won't bother your car. They just look for $0.50 or an euro. It turned out our hotel was about 75 feet from where we parked. Luckily for us the clerk had not gone home on time and he was still there when we rang the doorbell. He helped us get settled before he left for the evening. We went to the grocery store for provisions because we were too tired to go out to eat. The apartment is a really nice place, king bed, living room/dining room combination with a fold-out sofa, full kitchen and a great bathroom. It's obvious that some entrepreneurs are renovating apartment buildings downtown for rental properties. There are a lot of buildings being renovated and the one across the alley from us is renovated on the front portion and the back, off the street, of the same building is in ruins. We got up early so we could move the car and find a 24-hour parking garage. Google was no help so we started driving and found one about half a mile from the hotel. We then headed downtown to see the church that everyone recommends and the bridge that was designed and built by Gustave Eiffel's student around 1886. It was a rather interesting walk up and down through narrow alleys and streets, sometimes along the waterfront. We were walking up a long flight of stairs and met a young woman from Vancouver, British Columbia, looking for a church. We got her going in the right direction and as we were saying goodbye to her, a French couple came up and asked if we knew where the bridge was. We said we thought we did but we should Google it. It was only 150 meters away but we couldn't see it for the buildings. They had walked right past it to where we had met them. We walked across the bridge part way with the French couple. After taking in the sights, we decided to go back to our hotel for lunch. On the way back across the bridge, we ran into the French couple again and had a 30 minute conversation about French politics, England getting out of the EU and how convenient it was to travel with one currency, the Euro. John Peter (Jacques? Pierre) had moved to Paris to try to find a job because it was hard to find a job as a software engineer. His wife Laure works with an import-export company and her English comes in handy. She had actually studied in the Lake of the Dardanelles in Arkansas on an exchange trip many years ago. It's very interesting when people open up to you and tell you what's really on their mind, the second time you run into them. We had a very open, interesting and intellectual conversation about travel, enjoying the fruits of our labor and travelling while healthy. Since we have bumped into them twice and had really enjoyed their conversation, we gave them a business card in case they ever come to America to visit. On the way back to the hotel we bumped into Michael, who is selling tickets on a train ride around some wineries, with sampling, followed by a 40 minute river boat cruise for only 22 Euros. We said we don't usually do that but you seem like a nice chap. He was curious about my accent. I told him I was from New York but he said it sounded more southern to him. I teased him for a little bit before we told him the truth. He speaks English, French and Portuguese probably with a little Spanish thrown in. He was supposed to go to England to work this summer but decided he wanted to stay home with his friends. We're glad and we reserved a seat on the train and on the boat. We’ll have a late dinner tonight (for us) on the river before going on the Douro river valley road tomorrow on our way to northern Spain.

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hodanibrahim-blog · 7 years

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Reality of Being a Muslim Woman in Business

Whoever sought the pleasure of Allah though it was displeasing to the people then Allah becomes pleased with him, and will make the people pleased with him, and whoever sought the pleasure of the people though it was displeasing to Allah than Allah becomes displeased with him and will make the people displeased with him" (Ibn Hibban/ Tirmidhi)

This may sound like a very different me. Because it is.

My beliefs about who I am as a women and my role in the world is shifting beneath my feet.

And I wanted to share them.

I've been an entrepreneur for years now. I consciously made the decision at 22 that I wanted to live my life this way.

My dream was very simple: I wanted to make a 6-figure salary working from home.

I am such a homebody. I love the comfort of my home and if I could do what I loved in my favourite place, then that sounded like a good deal to me!

As a young women, I'm blessed to have accomplished a lot alhamdulilah.

I've lived in so many countries like Chile, Egypt, Canada, Dubai and Malaysia. I've written books, started and grown 2 successful companies and met incredibly influential people. Im truly grateful for what I have been able to do as a solo girl who grew up under an immigrant family in social housing projects.

With Allah's blessing, I've gotten so far because my mother instilled the belief of God in me and the fearlessness to do whatever I set my mind in. She taught me wealth was always in my heart and I always wealthy. It made me always feel like I was in a state of abundance and could have whatever I wanted. She gave me the attitude to be successful.

But as with everything, success can also have a downside.

Success is probably one of the most dangerous words in the world today. How we define success can make your life happiness or total hell.

The general definition success is materialism. The more you have, the more successful you are. However, the consequences of that is so utterly devastating when a person figures out, like many, that "stuff" cannot buy you happiness.

What I didn't realise that what was to come was a feeling of deadness in my heart once I got what I thought I wanted. It felt like an emptiness - a hunger that could never be filled.

I suppose looking back, I had it coming.

When Success Becomes a Survival Mechanism

I define success for years, albeit unconsciously, as revenge. Revenge for the world that push my parents out of the only land they knew and belonged in, Somalia. Revenge for a system that was built against me. Revenge for never finding anyone that looked like me or understood me. It was pure revenge for living and being because the system told me. Revenge for having spent 16 years in public prison(ie education system) and only becoming how I am in spite of it, not because of it.

Success was everything I was not. And come anything, I was going to get it.

But success & empowered meant something totally different when it happened.

If You Lose Your Hayaa, You Lose Your Eeman

Haya according to Islamic is modesty. It holds such a huge importance in our faith. Our believed Prophet Muammad(s) said:

“Haya’ (modesty) and Iman (faith) are two that go together. If one is lifted, the other is also lifted.” [Recorded by al-Hakim]

The more time I spent in business, the more my hayaa became compromised. Haya and eeman are one. Once you lose haya, you lose eeman.

The beauty of Islam is that our deen offers the women such a dignified position in society that, once you learn about it, it is very hard to accept otherwise.

The Western narrative likes to shame a women who wants to stay-at-home and raise kids. It likes to shame women if they don't want to be in the public life. It shames people who follow tradition instead of modernity.

I grew in an ultra feminist society that encouraged women to do whatever men could do. But now I am questioning this narrative having live this reality for so long: is this the best way I can live as a woman?

I've spent most of my life in the public eye and with no male guardians in my life, I have also spent most of my life exposed to the world. I had to take full responsibility for myself.

It's not about only being physically protected; being emotionally protected is something society doesn't afford to women. Women are most vulnerable for that reason.

More than that, I want to look at what have I sacrificed to get here?

This is what I want to talk about.

Living the startup world rat race, I have nearly lost my soul. Really, I learned first hand that money and success is not where happiness lies.

Happiness is from Allah. Its a journey, not a destination. You can never arrive at being "happy" and this realization made me realize I was more happy sleeping on a mattress on a floor for almost a year to build my 2nd company than ever being able to achieve anything materialistic.

As a women in business, you lose a lot in the process of getting to the top. You lose your modesty especially if you work in male driven environments, which I have exclusively worked in. Modesty is the first thing that has to go because it is the one veil you need to remove in order to thrive in a male-driven business environment.

You adopt characteristics of a man because you have to in order to survive

But unless you hire them, most men don't take you seriously in business. Men take other men seriously in business.

I've been harrassed, abused, taken advantage of, disregarded just because I am a woman. Say what you like about gender equality but it doesn't exist and I don't believe in it.

Sure - men can respect you. That isn't what I am talking about.

The fundamental belief that caused my suffering for so long is the idea that men and women are the same. And because they aren't the same, they can't be equal!

If they were equal, I would not have had the experiences I have had. I would not have had to work harder; I would not have had to look pretty or feel that I need to "dress up" or simply change my demeanor in order to be more favourable in a business deal; most men wouldn't have hit on me and would have treated me like an equal - but alas it never happened.

It's a painfully sad reality. My work ethic and idea were never enough to stand on their own.

I was always that young, nice girl "trying" to do stuff. And this led to a cycle where I had to become more aggressive to go after what I wanted and compete even more to "prove" myself worthy.

As I said, grew up in the most secular, liberal feminist society and from an early age was taught to believe I could be and do what a man can do. Hypothetically, my capacity to accomplish my dreams is unlimited. I can and fully intend to accomplish all my goals insha allah, with Allah's help.

The reality I have come to is women sacrifice way more than men in their way to success and building their own legacy.

I remember reading Anne Marie Slaughters, the first women director of policy planner in the US State Department, who wrote article in the Atlantic years ago on "Why Women Still Can't Have It All". There was a little voice inside of me that hurried with such enthusiasm when I read it.

Years later, I am living a little piece of what she has lived: I don't want to play a game that makes me work harder to reach the same results as men.

You know why? I wasnt built to play this game.

I was built to live in the complete honour it is to be a women and not have to sacrifice my femininity, my honour and modesty to get business deals.

Any deals I've closed: a man had to be next to me or I had to look pretty to do it. Why? Majority of those cutting my checks were other men.

What does the future look like?

Taking the step to changing the way I do business is hard but neccessary. First step is that I wanted to share my thoughts because I know there are many Muslim women in my place who've experienced the uncomfortable inequalities of being a working women and have had no outlet

I understand many women work like I do.

I understand being abandoned by one of your parents- I have.

But the cost of building business to leave legacy and lose myself in the process, I will not do it anymore.

Second step I've taken is to go back to wearing the niqab. I briefly wore it when I was 17 and stopped wearing it due to pressures in my life as a young teenager.

For me, the niqab always represented continuous beauty in striving for the pleasure of God - quite literally turning your back on a world; the very world I've chased for so long.

Be clear: covering yourself as a women isn't my way of excluding myself from society or separating me from others. It's a way for me to participate in in the world in a much more dignified way without compromising my haya. It is a way to protect my faith.

Lastly, I wanted to start a whole new blog - Women of Tahira - for Muslim women in business. I wanted to document stories that don’t get told; offer new ways for Muslim women to live as Muslimahs without getting lost in our chaotic modern world and still live the lives we have always dreamed of; I wanted to share my journey to building very success businesses and a life without compromising my values.

The Journey Continues

So this new chapter being a businesswoman but taking a new approach to building my businesses will be interesting.

I will finally be able to do the business I want on my terms. No compromising.

Ive always believed living with a mindset of freedom. This is my freedom.

Nothing in this world is more important for me than my faith in Allah. He is my protector and provider. He has been the only being to be there for me and support me. The only reason I have reached the success I have is from Him(swt).

Business as a woman is difficult and in the accomplishments and success I have achieved Alhamdulilah. But I absolutely will not lose my soul in the process.

There is a lot of fitnah living a public life. I want to be sure to protect my honour and eeman in the process and give other women the courage to do so.

Ultimately, taking away a woman’s modesty moves her away from her faith and the natural inclination with which she was created.

I want to show women that you can adhere strictly to your values and traditions and still achieved your goals on your own term.

You don't have to model yourself into what society wants you to be to find your rizq or success. You don't have to do what "you think" you have to do to find success.

Understand your sustenance is only from Allah and you should only rely on Him(SWT). I am fully confident my rizq will come to me no matter where I am - nobody can take it away from you.

My happiness is only with Allah and my success is with Him. As such my trust should be in him 100% also.

#muslim #muslimah #niqabi #business #entrepreneur #small business #blogs #growth #haya #khadijah #beauty #entrepreneurship

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endenogatai · 4 years

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The Europas Awards goes virtual: Votes, workshops, pitches, networking, live awards & DJs

The Europas Awards for European Tech Startups is doing what everyone in tech has done before: pivoting! Given the COVID-19 pandemic, we will be ‘going virtual’ on an amazing new platform, to be unveiled. (OK, but not VR – just yet!). A percentage of proceeds from the event will be donated to charities across Europe helping to fight the pandemic.

Judging will be entirely virtual and the Awards themselves will be announced live on 25th June at an online event which will feature special guests, and live entertainment — so we can party!. All long-listed companies in the People’s Vote will be showcased on TechCrunch.

Of key interest to startups short-listed in the awards will be the opportunity to attend over 20 workshops built around the awards categories, to which investors will be invited. That’s 20+hours of programming. Shortlisted companies will be able to pitch live on the platform, with slides. IN addition the “Pathfounder Sessions” will offer exclusive workshops with specially invited guests, aimed at European startups raising money at this time.

If you’d like to talk about sponsoring, please contact Claire Dobson on [email protected]. Sponsors will be able to attend and participate in workshops.

The application form to enter is here.

NEW CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS: 24 April 2020

Our new platform will even allow everyone to network virtually and easily exchange contact details, just as you would at a real-world event.

Our virtual attendees will be limited to only 500 people, and will include only Investors, Founders and Senior Executives of mid to late-stage companies as well as some of the newest companies on the scene.

The Europas is always attended by journalists from major tech titles, newspapers and business broadcasters, and will still be.

The initial long-list will draw from late-stage seed and Series A companies tackling these ambitious goals with proven product-market fit and growing traction who have been carefully scouted and invited to apply.

We are delighted to unveil our judges for the awards, listed below.

The Awards — which have been running for over 10 years — will be live held on the evening of 25 June 2020 from the London time zone.

TechCrunch is once more the exclusive media sponsor of the awards and conference, alongside The Pathfounder.

We’re scouting for the top late-stage seed and Series A startups in 23 categories. After a decade of identifying the most innovative tech startups in Europe including Spotify, Transferwise, Soundcloud, and Babylon Health, The Europas has shown itself capable of finding Europe’s hottest startups. The Europas Awards have been going for the last 10 years, and we’re the only independent and editorially driven event to recognise the European tech startup scene. The winners have been featured in Reuters, Bloomberg, VentureBeat, Forbes, Tech.eu, The Memo, Smart Company, CNET, many others — and of course, TechCrunch.

You can nominate a startup, accelerator or venture investor that you think deserves to be recognized for their achievements in the last 12 months. This year we are particularly looking at startups that are able to address the SDGs/Globals Goals.

Timeline of The Europas Awards deadlines:

24 April___________Final deadline to submit applications 27 April___________All startups notified of longlist 04 May_____________Public voting begins 17 May_____________Public voting ends 25 May_____________Shortlist announced 26 May – 16 June___Awards Category Deep Dives + Pitches 17- 23 June________Pathfounder Workshops 25 June____________Winners announced / Virtual Awards

The Pathfounder Workshops Prior to the awards we will be holding special, premium content events The Pathfounder, designed be a “fast download” into the European tech scene for founders looking to raise money or enhance their business. This will be followed by the awards!

The Europas “Diversity Pass” We’d like to encourage more diversity in tech! That’s why we’ve set aside a block of free tickets to ensure that pre-seed female and BAME founders are represented at The Europas. This limited tranche of free tickets ensures that we include more women and people of colour who are specifically “pre-seed” or “seed-stage” tech startup founders. If you are a women/BAME founder, apply here for a chance to be considered for one of the limited free diversity passes to the event.

Lastly, remember: stay home, stay safe!

Meet our speakers and judges:

Anne Boden CEO Starling Bank Anne Boden is founder and CEO of Starling Bank, a fast-growing U.K. digital bank targeting millions of users who live their lives on their phones. After a distinguished career in senior leadership at some of the world’s best-known financial heavyweights, she set out to build her own mobile bank from scratch in 2014. Today, Starling has opened more than one million current accounts for individuals and small businesses and raised hundreds of millions of pounds in backing. Anne was awarded an MBE for services to financial technology in 2018.

Bernhard Niesner CEO and c-founder busuu Bernhard co-founded busuu in 2008 following an MBA project and has since led the company to become the world’s largest community for language learning, with more than 90 million users across the globe. Before starting busuu, Bernhard worked as a consultant at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. He graduated summa cum laude in International Business from the Vienna University of Economics and Business and holds an MBA with honours from IE Business School. Bernhard is an active mentor and business angel in the startup community and an advisor to the Austrian Government on education affairs. Bernhard recently received the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 UK Awards in the Disruptor category.

Chris Morton CEO and founder Lyst Chris is the founder and CEO of Lyst, the world’s biggest fashion search platform used by 104 million shoppers each year. Including over 6 million products from brands including Burberry, Fendi, Gucci, Prada and Saint Laurent, Lyst offers shoppers convenience and unparalleled choice in one place. Launched in London in 2010, Lyst’s investors include LVMH, 14W, Balderton and Accel Partners. Prior to founding Lyst, Chris was an investor at Benchmark Capital and Balderton Capital in London, focusing on the early-stage consumer internet space. He holds an MA in physics and philosophy from Cambridge University.

Claire Novorol Co-Founder & Chief Medical Officer Ada Health Dr. Claire Novorol is Chief Medical Officer and co-founder of Ada Health. Prior to founding Ada, Claire worked as a Paediatrician within the NHS before specialising in Clinical Genetics. She has degrees in Pathology and Medicine as well as a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Cambridge. Claire is also the founder of Doctorpreneurs, a global community for healthcare professionals interested in innovation and entrepreneurship. She is a member of the Advisory Team Steering Group for the AHSN Network Community for Artificial Intelligence, an Entrepreneurship Expert with the Entrepreneurship Centre at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and a member of the UK Digital Health Council. In 2018, Claire was featured on Business Insider’s Tech 100: The 100 coolest people in UK tech and Forbes’ Europe’s Top 50 Women in Tech, and she is a regular contributor to Forbes, writing on healthtech.

Clare Jones Chief Commercial Officer what3words Clare is the chief commercial officer of what3words; prior to this, her background was in the development and growth of social enterprises and in impact investment. Clare was featured in the 2019 Forbes 30 under 30 list for technology and is involved with London companies tackling social/environmental challenges. Clare also volunteers with the Streetlink project, doing health outreach work with vulnerable women in South London.

Emily Orton Co-founder & Chief Marketing Officer Darktrace Emily is responsible for global marketing and communications, a role she has held since Darktrace’s foundation in 2013. She is also a commentator on cyber security issues and has appeared in leading media outlets including BBC News, Sky News and Channel 4. Emily has ten years’ experience in technology marketing. She has an MA in Modern Languages from the University of Cambridge.

Husayn Kassai CEO and co-founder Onfido Husayn Kassai is the Onfido CEO and co-founder. Onfido helps businesses digitally onboard users by verifying any government ID and comparing it with the person’s facial biometrics. Founded in 2012, Onfido has grown to a team of 300 across SF, NYC and London; received over $100 million in funding from Salesforce, Microsoft and others; and works with over 1,500 fintech, banking and marketplace clients globally. Husayn is a WEF Tech Pioneer; a Forbes Contributor; and Forbes’ “30 Under 30”. He has a BA in economics and management from Keble College, Oxford.

Julia Hawkins Partner LocalGlobe Julia Hawkins is a Partner at LocalGlobe. Previously, Julia worked at Goldman Sachs, Last.fm, BBC Worldwide and most recently Universal Music where she set up their Corporate Venture arm and led investments in ROLI and Sofar Sounds among others. Julia enjoys working with mission driven founders and has a keen interest in consumer, entertainment, media and health tech from wellness to genomics. She holds a 1st from LSE, is a Kauffman Fellow and Board Trustee of Shwachman Diamond Syndrome UK, a charity dedicated to finding a cure for SDS, a rare genetic disease.

Kieran O’Neill CEO and co-founder Thread Thread makes it easy for guys to dress well. They combine expert stylists with powerful AI to recommend the perfect clothes for each person. Thread is used by more than 1 million men in the U.K., and has raised $35 million from top investors, including Balderton Capital, the founders of DeepMind and the billionaire former owner of Warner Music. Prior to Thread, Kieran founded one of the first video sharing websites at age 15 and sold it for $1.25 million at age 19. He was then CEO and co-founder of Playfire, the largest social network for gamers, which he grew to 1.5 million customers before being acquired in 2012. He’s a member of the Forbes, Drapers and Financial Times 30 Under 30 lists.

Lina Wenner Principal Firstminute Capital Lina joined firstminute from the Boston Consulting Group, where she worked alongside global corporates across Consumer, Energy and Heavy Industrials, advising on digital strategy, restructuring and M&A as a member of the corporate finance team. She gained an MPhil in Management from the University of Cambridge and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, Economics and Statistics from the University College Utrecht, the Netherlands, where she graduated with Summa Cum Laude. At firstminute, Lina leads on sourcing for the Nordic and German-speaking regions and has a strong interest in digital health, robotics, direct-to-consumer brands and femtech. She sits as a board observer of Evolution AI.

Luca Bocchio Principal Accel Luca Bocchio joined Accel in 2018 and focuses on consumer internet, fintech and software businesses. Luca led Accel’s investment in Luko, Bryter and Brumbrum. Luca also helped lead Accel’s investment and ongoing work in Sennder. Prior to Accel, Luca was with H14, where he invested in global early and growth-stage opportunities, such as Deliveroo, GetYourGuide, Flixbus, SumUp and SecretEscapes. Luca previously advised technology, industrial and consumer companies on strategy with Bain & Co. in Europe and Asia. Luca is from Italy and graduated from LIUC University.

Nate Lanxon (Speaker) Editor and Tech Correspondent Bloomberg Nate is an editor and tech correspondent for Bloomberg, based in London. For over a decade, he has particularly focused on the consumer technology sector, and the trends shaping the global industry. Previous to this, he was senior editor at Bloomberg Media and was head of digital editorial for Bloomberg.com in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Nate has held numerous roles across the most respected titles in tech, including stints as editor of WIRED.co.uk, editor-in-chief of Ars Technica UK and senior editor at CBS-owned CNET. Nate launched his professional career as a journalist by founding a small tech and gaming website called Tech’s Message, which is now the name of his weekly technology podcast hosted at natelanxon.com.

Tania Boler CEO and founder Elvie Tania is an internationally recognized women’s health expert and has held leadership positions for various global NGOs and the United Nations. Passionate about challenging taboo women’s issues, Tania founded Elvie in 2013, partnering with Alexander Asseily to create a global hub of connected health and lifestyle products for women.

Holly Jacobus Investment Partner Joyance Partners, New York Holly Jacobus is an Investment Partner with Joyance Partners, investing in companies with the capacity to deliver Delightful Moments in US and EU. Her focus is new foods, consumer packaged goods, sexual wellness, femtech, farmtech and earth-positive manufacturing methods. Holly spent her career growing startups through early stage sales and PR, most recently as the Chief Revenue Officer at Citia, a NYC based global content creation, storage and distribution platform servicing Fortune 500 brands including GE (global), Mastercard (US), Viacom (global), and P&G (global). Holly was raised on a farm in California where she became the first graduate of Stanford University’s online high school (EPGY OHS) and an Academic All American Volleyball Player. She later studied bioengineering at UC Berkeley and French at Georgetown University where she played D1 Volleyball. When Holly isn’t investing or helping companies scale, you can find her backpacking the Sierra Nevadas or skiing the Tetons with her dog Smoky. Recent investments include: Unbound, WholyMe, TeaCrush, Finless Foods, Loli, MushLab, Weller, & Sigrid Therapeutics.

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motivationsuccess · 5 years

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Leadership quotes frompresidents and statesmen ...

leadership quote

Motivational quotations from experts and entrepreneurs ... tips from tycoons and trouble-shooters ... famous quotes, business quotes ... leadership quotes from captains and CEO's ...

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. General George S. Patton

Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with the important matters. Albert Einstein

Inventories can be managed, but people must be led. H. Ross Perot

I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

Half-heartedness never won a battle. William McKinley

The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority. Kenneth Blanchard

Every man who takes office . . . either grows or swells, and when I give a man an office, I watch him carefully to see whether he is swelling or growing. Thomas Woodrow Wilson

The price of greatness is responsibility. Winston Churchill

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worse when they despise him ... but of a good leader who talks little when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, "We did it ourselves". Lao Tzu

"The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal." Erich Fromm

We must become the change we want to see. Mahatma Gandhi

The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist. Eric Hoffer

Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning. Warren Bennis

Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely. Karen Kaiser Clark

One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency. Arnold Glasow

The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to them their own. Benjamin Disraeli

A real leader faces the music, even when he doesn't like the tune.

Delegating work works, provided the one delegating works, too. Robert Half

The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. Ralph Nader

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. Muriel Strode

The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on. Walter Lippman

Leadership is doing what is right when no one is watching.

A boss creates fear, a leader confidence. A boss fixes blame, a leader corrects mistakes. A boss knows all, a leader asks questions. A boss makes work drudgery, a leader makes it interesting. A boss is interested in himself or herself, a leader is interested in the group. Russell H. Ewing

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it. Theodore Roosevelt

Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things. Jesse Jackson

Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion. John Welch

Class is an aura of confidence that is being sure without being cocky. Class has nothing to do with money. Class never runs scared. It is self-discipline and self-knowledge. It's the sure footedness that comes with having proved you can meet life. Ann Landers

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage. Anais Nin

Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who believed that something inside of them was superior to circumstance. Bruce Barton

A good leader inspires others with confidence in him; a great leader inspires them with confidence in themselves.

The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on. Walter Lippman

Anything worth doing, is worth doing now! Ralph Stayer

Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means. Albert Einstein

The question, 'Who ought to be boss?' is like asking 'Who ought to be the tenor in the quartet?' Obviously, the man who can sing tenor. Henry Ford

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and help them become what they are capable of becoming. Johann von Goethe

Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when you have only one idea. Alain

Character is a victory, not a gift. Ivor Griffith

There is no dishonor in rethinking a problem. The Royal Bank of Canada Monthly Letter

Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up. Gilbert Keith Chesterton

One man with courage makes a majority. Andrew Jackson

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michaelfallcon · 5 years

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Funding Your Cafe Dreams

Have you ever wanted to launch your own coffee business but didn’t know quite where or how to seek funding? While this perennial question can present major challenges to all aspiring business owners, there are myriad methods to choose from—or mix and match—to get the launch money you need, each bringing with it a unique set of pros and cons. In this piece, I’ll outline some first steps to apply to your business before you pursue funding, then explore a handful of the countless pathways to acquiring the funds you need to bring your vision to life.

First Steps For Everyone

1. Create a Business Plan

Before pursuing any kind of funding, you’ll need to make a formal business plan. This step is especially critical for obtaining bank loans, but also important for crystallizing focus and gauging needs and costs no matter your funding strategy.

Puerto Rico-based Café Comunión co-founder Ábner Roldán studied business administration before getting into coffee and opening his own cafe; even so, he still felt intimidated by the process of crafting a business plan. Roldán used the online platform liveplan.com to help him with focus and format. “They have templates that you can use, and they give you examples for every part of the plan to help you to write out your idea. When I first sat down to write out my business plan I got stuck, but once I started using this website I did it in no time.”

Coffee veteran Anne Nylander has previously launched two consulting services and is currently in the process of opening her own cafe. She recommends that people drafting business plans be as detailed as possible. “If you’re thinking about starting a business, get as much as you can on paper,” says Nylander. “And don’t be surprised when people expect you to provide more details than you’d ever imagined. The process can take a very long time, so if you want to do it, start now and chip away at it.”

2. Build Your Following

Another thing many business founders I spoke with recommended is developing clientele and/or gauging interest before investing large sums of money in your business. “Build your audience first. Do pop-ups on loaner gear, tastings, whatever,” says Kalle Freese, founder of the now-closed Freese Coffee Co. “This way, you can be sure you’re making something people actually want. ‘Build it and they will come’ is not a good move 99% of the time.”

Getting The Money (And there’s no one right way)

Many of the founders I spoke to raised funds multiple ways, so don’t be afraid to mix and match funding methods—they each provide their own benefits and challenges.

Method One: Small Business Loans

One of the most popular tools for funding a new business are SBAs, or small business loans granted by the U.S. Small Business Administration. There are different types of SBA loans and all of them offer many benefits over conventional business loans, but they also require more paperwork.

Equipped with a thorough business plan, Roldán applied for an SBA loan in May 2016. “After a lot of paperwork, quotes, calls, and stress, my loan was approved on September 2016,” he said. He thought that meant he would receive his money the next day, but instead, he had to go through what’s called the closing process. “It meant that I needed to submit a lot of more paperwork. The closing process was done on December 2016, and we started to get checks to start the construction work on January 2017.” Although Roldàn’s experience shows one timeline, the multi-stage process can move faster in other cases.

“It took a lot of time and stress but it was worth it,” Roldán said. “You need to be very prepared with your concept, plan, numbers, and business idea and ready to answer extensive questions.”

While SBA loans offer freedom from investors, a major pro listed by Roldán, it can be challenging for certain entrepreneurs to get them. Factors like credit score and ability to put down collateral can make it difficult to get approved, especially for people from marginalized groups.

Method Two: Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is a popular and versatile option for many first-time founders. There are many different crowdfunding platforms specifically geared toward launching businesses and products, each with its own pros and cons. Some, like Kickstarter, work through a single fundraiser for a one-time capital injection, and some, like Patreon, allow patrons to support monthly and provide consistent capital injections. In general, crowdfunding offers a way to obtain money without being accountable for recouping the investment of a bank or investor.

Crowdfunding is a great option for people who, for any number of reasons, have a hard time getting a traditional business loan or SBA loan. It’s also a great way to build your audience and make sure the interest is there before you sink a lot of money into your business idea, and it offers the benefit of being able to fund specific parts of your venture, like an espresso machine, or the whole enchilada.

Luke Tomlinson, co-founder of Grindsmith Coffee in Manchester, used crowdfunding to launch his company. Having previously founded a coffee cart through a traditional bank loan, he met his current co-founder in 2013 and raised 10k in 30 days in order to get their space. On top of that, they raised another 10k through a government startup loan program in order to fund equipment. “Utilizing the Kickstarter platform allowed us to experience the ups and downs of fundraising without becoming a debt-heavy business so early on,” said Tomlinson. “It helped us appreciate the value that people are willing to invest into your brand and idea. If we’d failed to deliver a strong brand value, people wouldn’t believe in our concept and wouldn’t have backed it.”

It’s important to note that many crowdfunding platforms involve the fundraising party laying out a series of rewards for supporters, so make sure to think about what you’ll be able to sustainably offer in return for support. Another constraint to keep in mind is your community’s income: can your community offer the funds to make your fundraiser successful?

Method Three: Investors

Investors are another popular way to gain revenue for a business launch. There are different pathways to finding investors for your brand.

After their initial crowdfund and loan combo, Grindsmith went on to launch another shop, then a roastery and lab, via private equity fundraising. “It’s hardest with your first business: it’s difficult to get funding for a business that isn’t yet tangible,” said Tomlinson. Just as with crowdfunding, he says that if investors can’t get behind the idea, then maybe that’s a good indicator that it isn’t ready yet or isn’t strong enough.

Freese went a very different route: using a family member as an investor. Only 17 when he launched Freese Coffee Co., he had already been working in coffee for four years. After holding a lot of pop-ups and events to establish an audience, he partnered with his father in order to be able to qualify for a bank loan, using his parents’ apartment as collateral. “I was a little unsure about working with my dad as a business partner for the first time, but it worked out well,” said Freese. “It was also scary taking a loan from the bank and being personally liable for it.” He emphasized that personal compatibility is a must when partnering with a family member as an investor, and that, especially in the case of family, using a primary residence of you or a parent as collateral is not a sound idea (his parents used a former residence).

Another way to get investment money is from your social network. Alex Merrill founded Hammerhand Coffee with help from an angel investor he met through a mutual acquaintance. “I had a business plan and was looking for funding and a location,” says Merrill. “[My investor] owned a building in a budding historic downtown area (among other investments he has downtown) and wanted to find someone to open a coffee shop. It was the perfect scenario for both of us.”

Looking back, Merrill, who manages Hammerhand while not technically owning it, can’t imagine funding the business any other way. After a series of unfortunate events wherein the building collapsed, they experienced major clerical errors around taxes, and construction eliminated parking and walkability for over eight months. They had to find another location, and it cost much more than intended. “If we had used a bank loan, we would have been belly-up in six months,” said Merrill. “If my investor had been more eager to get his money back or run, we would have been out in the second six months, but he believed in me and in the brand. We’ve finally leveled out and got ourselves in the black. We have become a staple of the community and that was [our] main goal: to create a space for people of his community to connect and converse over a product that is prepared with thought and care.” While the plan was to move Merrill into a 20% ownership position over the first year, he is holding off in conjunction with his investor while the business earns back lost funds.

One major potential drawback of working with investors is that you lose sole control of your business. Investors may—and likely will—have their own opinions on the best use of their money. “Technically, my investor could come in and change everything I have built and I couldn’t say no,” said Merrill. “Even if I owned 20%, he could out-vote me. This is a real and honest danger doing things this way. You must have a trusting relationship with your investor.”

Eric Squires helped open Three Crowns Coffee in Warsaw, IN, although he’s since parted ways with the business. Interested in starting a coffee company, he was approached by an angel investor through a mutual friend. The investor, who already owned a successful social club and wanted to build in a coffee shop, was a perfect fit for Squires. “It lined up with what I was hoping to do almost exactly. I had no capital to start a business and [my investor] Dave didn’t have the coffee expertise. So Dave bankrolled the project and I ran the shop,” he said.

While the arrangement was a great way to bring a dream to life, Squires ended up leaving the business. “At the end of the day, I didn’t have complete control over how things were done and how money was spent,” he said. “While I had autonomy day to day, there were a number of things that eventually led to myself and Dave parting ways. His vision changed over time and some of the ideas I had were rebuffed. It’s easy to forget that investors are simply trying to turn a profit and their priorities may not always line up with yours.” However, he doesn’t want his story to act as a cautionary tale. “For me, having an investor was good for a season, but if I could give anyone advice on it I’d say know your non-negotiables and get everything in writing.”

Savings

The last major funding option I encountered certainly isn’t for everyone: opening your business out of savings, potentially while working another job. This option depends entirely on your personal situation: cost of living, debt, income needs, and more. However, it’s worth mentioning because many are able to do it and find success.

Davis Sears is currently in the process of launching Welcome Coffee in Portland, OR, with co-founders Sarah Ricks and Justin Boek. The trio is launching solely on savings earned while working as baristas and servers, jobs in which they are still employed while gearing up for launch. Davis acknowledged that this funding method is far from universally accessible. “We’re lucky. We live in a city that has two separate shared roasting spaces where you can rent time on a roaster, two of our owners are in double-income households, and there are three of us, which makes a huge difference. All of these factors are what enabled us to create a plan for growth, and make a timeline for when we’re going to invest how much. But I do think it’s important to note that it can be done.” Sears emphasized that Welcome’s approach revolves not around an expensive brand identity and buildout, but on creating relationships with guests and wholesale partners who view their mission as authentic and valuable to the community.

. . . . .

As you can see, there are many different ways to approach funding a first-time venture. The constants from method to method are that you as a founder need to know what you want to do, why you want to do it, and what parts of your vision you’re willing to compromise. Once you know that, there’s no shortage of ways to get your launch money and bring your vision to life.

RJ Joseph (@RJ_Sproseph) is a Sprudge staff writer, publisher of Queer Cup, and coffee professional based in the Bay Area. Read more RJ Joseph on Sprudge Media Network.

The post Funding Your Cafe Dreams appeared first on Sprudge.

Funding Your Cafe Dreams published first on https://medium.com/@LinLinCoffee

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shebreathesslowly · 5 years

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Funding Your Cafe Dreams

First Steps For Everyone

1. Create a Business Plan

2. Build Your Following

Getting The Money (And there’s no one right way)

Many of the founders I spoke to raised funds multiple ways, so don’t be afraid to mix and match funding methods—they each provide their own benefits and challenges.

Method One: Small Business Loans

Method Two: Crowdfunding

Method Three: Investors

Investors are another popular way to gain revenue for a business launch. There are different pathways to finding investors for your brand.

Savings

. . . . .

RJ Joseph (@RJ_Sproseph) is a Sprudge staff writer, publisher of Queer Cup, and coffee professional based in the Bay Area. Read more RJ Joseph on Sprudge Media Network.

The post Funding Your Cafe Dreams appeared first on Sprudge.

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walterlitfyafricablog · 5 years

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Why digital literacy

Part two

In part one I did not get the chance to clearly point out the advantages of why we should invest in digital literacy. In 2017 together with friends we founded a charity organisation called Mabvazuva Trust. Our mission was "To raise a generation that does not complain but is optimistic for the future". By not complaining i don't mean roll over and take it from behind i mean stop complaining for a second and see the opportunities around us. People who complain never found out the truth and they never contribute anything. The reason why we don't see the vast opportunities right in front of us sometimes. A dude from America Jeremy Johnson discovered that in Nigeria, Africa's largest country over half of young people were unemployed and he founded an organisation called Andela. This brings me to my first point:

JOB CREATION

We can create jobs in the field of computer science for those who are unemployed. Andela has a goal to produce 100 000 developers by 2024. Initially they launched in Nigeria receiving funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Andela is trying to solve the global tech talent shortage because their stats reviewed that there are five open jobs for every software developer looking for one in the U.S. alone. That means in the US they are looking for people to fill these job post and we are crying about unemployment here. The good part you don't need to go to America or struggle to get a visa etc you can work remotely. I read an article by Andela that claim that over two thirds of firms in america prefer to have remote employees. I believe we can create more jobs in the technology area if we invest in digital literacy and this is not fiction there are people already doing it. Andela has only accepted 1 200 developers out of 130 000 applications they have received. That means the other 128 800 applicants did not get the opportunity to fill this gap. I guess that's why econet launched Muzinda Hub to try to train as many developers as they can and its another article for another day about what they have done so far, whether they are succeeding and the fact that they can't close this gap alone.

HELP ENTREPRENEURS BECOME COMPETITIVE

African entrepreneurs especially my fellow zimbabweans need to understand that they can use technology to become competitive in a global world and use social media platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter not just to post how great they were when they went to church last Sunday but to use social media as a business tools. Some try by opening facebook pages and just post their logo or something and that's it the page is abandoned. Would one claim to be on facebook or whatsapp if they are there once a year. A few months back when i was doing research about digital literacy i bumped into a company based in South Africa called Digify Africa. Digify Africa & Facebook Africa are on a mission to "DIGIFY" businesses owned by young people through their digital PRO STARTUP which is a 12 weeks digital training course to help young entrepreneurs take their business to the next level. The programme is aimed at helping youth enterprises become competitive through digital skills, in particular understanding facebook and Instagram as business tools.

HELP ARTISTS MARKET THEMSELVES

When we founded Mabvazuva Trust it was one of our objectives to equip musicians, actors, poets, comedicians, painters, footballers etc with the digital skills they need to market their talent and expose themselves at a global stage. Having knowledge about technology enables one to use the internet to meet customers, fans, promoters and agents etc. The agent who discovered Lionel Messi by the name Josep Maria Minguella acknowledged in a interview the importance of technologies like fieldoo to discover talent. "Absolutely! Internet has totally changed the way a football agent does his/her job and the transfer industry. There are no more boundaries and limits – you can see, observe and connect with way more players (and other people) than years ago, as you’re not limited to physical presence. Not so many years ago you had to go around the world if needed, to see and meet players, while nowadays you can do it through the internet – with videos, detailed information and all you need to learn about the player you’re interested in." I remember in 2017 talking to football players trying to get them to open youtube channels so that they could upload their videos as a way to get noticed. Josep Maria Minguella also noted it was difficult to discover talent back then because the internet wasnt as developed as it is now. "Back then we hadn’t been operating through the internet on a daily basis as it had not been developed yet in all parts of the world. Because of that, I had to rely on videos I received from Rosario, where Leo Messi was playing." Now life is easy if you know how to use technology. Artists like Ann Kasiime used digital platforms to showcase their talents and it helped her grow. "According to recorded interviews that she gave in 2014, Anne began posting some of her sketch comedy skits on YouTube. She received positive feedback and that encouraged her to post more videos."

Iam happy these days when i see comedians like Comic Pastor using YouTube as a business tool to get their content to their audience and so many comedians are popping up online here in Zimbabwe. Digify Africa realised the need for equiping artist with digital skills and they have what they call OWN YOUR MARK. This programme is designed to give artists the skills they need to grow their creative hustles. The training program is designed to give artists the skills they need to make the most of the digital world and to grow their creative markets.

MAKING MONEY ONLINE

In this section im going to talk about someone i met on LinkedIn. His name is Taylor Chiyangwa a Digital Marketing and Online Entrepreneurship enthusiast.

After chatting with him online i started researching anything i could find about him and i started reading his blog. He has posted several blog posts about digital marketing. What inspired me the most was his story about how he was tired of his day job and knew that wasnt it for him until he used the exposure he had to computers and started teaching himself digital marketing. He kept his day job for a while when he was learning until he took a leap of faith quit his job and focused fulltime on his digital marketing and online entrepreneurship passion. Since then Taylor went on to open three online businesses that focus on digital marketing, content and copywriting services to businesses and forex education. He is now an entrepreneur and he has employeed a few guys in his company some working full time some as freelancers. Taylor wrote a free ebook called 25 ways to make money online. This book will show you that they are many ways one can make money online. And guess what all you need is a phone or laptop and internet to get started.

PROBLEM SOLVING

Steve Jobs: “Everybody in this country should learn to program a computer, because it teaches you how to think”. I believe i think and have a problem solver mentality because im a programmer. Programmers write programs to solve problems. I think programming doesnt teach you to thing only but it teaches you endurance, perserverance and a never give up mentality. My friend Lionel said to me that the reason my ventures havent succeeded was because i did not have a thick skin. For a second i believed him but then it dawned on me the reason why i have succeeded as a software developer was because i had a thick skin. So maybe i was only thick skinned when it comes to code but if i apply the same concept in my business ventures i will suceed. It was because of my thick skin and never give up mentality that i did the Truworths Zimbabwe in a month with drupal a CMS i had never studied before. It was because of my thick skin i developed a ussd application with technologies i did not know about like nodejs, express, angular and mongodb that when you dial *558# on your econet line you will see a seedco menu. I did that project with Tapiwa Jeka at Dataage Solutions and i remember we took turns having sleepless night to code that application and we usually slept at the office 2 nights a week until we finished that application. I remember talking to Seth Mutasa one of my students that you dont learn to code but you learn how NOT TO code. Which means you learn through the failures so a programmer should embrances errors and fix them otherwise you are toast. The worse thing for me when im programming is code that doesnt give me feedback where i did wrong that way im clueless what to do next.

I strongly believe if we had more programmers we wouldn't be whinning too much but do something using technology to change our world one community after another. I taught my brother Rann web design and it 6 weeks he made a site to aware youths in our community about the dangers of drugs they were taking

OTHERS

I did not point out every reason why we need digital literacy but i think you get the idea.i left out some other good stuff like reducing the digital divide, economic growth and reduced poverty.

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