Sunday Morning Read: Partnership Wisdom From Odell Beckham Jr. and Ajay Sangha, In Entrepreneur Magazine

When Entrepreneur magazine came in the mail this time and landed on the bench in the front hall, I felt compelled to read it. Compelled, like, drawn to. Like there was an article in there that was speaking from behind the cover that whisper-yelled: “Reeeead meeee”.

So I picked it up for my Sunday magazine read, and started with the cover story for Odell Beckham Jr. Not knowing who he is. The article promised a story on “the art of the perfect partnership.” That’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about, so I started there.

Wow. What a mind-cycle-breaker to read about how he and his partner and best friend, Ajay Sangha, came to be business partners. And how Ajay grew in the relationship, balanced by Odell.

Takeaways From The Business Partnership

The journalist and magazine’s Editor In Chief, Jason Feifer, pulled out a few secret ingredients to what has been making this business partnership work, that started in friendship. Here are a few:

- Fear: Ajay was afraid of failing Odell, from it seems like, the very beginning. It’s a fear that stays with him through the many investments they have done together. But Ajay is able to harness that fear, and let it fuel him. However, it is with Odell’s outlook on life that makes balancing this fear possible. Said Ajay after their latest large investment: “I mean, it’s not my money. It’s a lot of money, right? It’s a lot of fucking money. And it’s a venture investment. It could go down the drain. I didn’t sleep for a month and a half.”

On the other hand, Odell’s approach is this: “I’m okay with taking the risk in hopes that it pays off. And if it didn’t, I was going to beat him up and then we’d move on to the next one.”

- Burned For Kindness Being Weakness: When Odell, an NFL player, he had fun dancing and taking videos of him out having a good time. But he said that started to change when the videos began to be “used as a downfall.” When he was open and authentic, he felt it backfire, and viewed “Kindness is taken for weakness.” The reporter noted that Odell closed himself off, quoting Odell as saying: “It’s hard to live in a lens where I’m going to be judged for those moments.”

- Short Term vs Long Term: As an NFL player, Odell was living a short and fast life, with big money going in, and big money going out. He began to think about his mortality, his unpredictable career, and how to make his career more scalable.

- Looking Around: When Odell invited Ajay to live with him in his big football house (according to the article, this is common for celebrities to do who need their social life close and private to them), Ajay accepted and they started moving and grooving. When Odell approached Ajay about doing the business development stuff, Ajay immediately looked around to find out: “Who can I trust? Who can I learn from? Who is doing it right?”

- Calmness: From the article, you’ll learn that Ajay is constantly thinking of what can work, what needs to change in order to grow, and what is fulfilling to their business and their people. But - Odell brings Ajay back down to calmness. Eventually the two moved apart from each other, and this improved Ajay’s mental health. “It gives their relationship more of a rhythm. ‘When I visit, [Odell’s] like ‘Hey man, you’re here for the weekend. Stop thinking, stop talking, just relax, enjoy a beer.”

- Wisdom: Here is some wisdom Odell shared with the reporter, that he tells to friends who are struggling: “I’ve said this so many times - I’m like bro, just remember the other time where you thought you weren’t going to be able to keep going, and the worst fucking possible thing happened, and then you got over it. And then it happened again, and this one was worse than the last. And it’s like, you just have to know that it is going to happen. It is. And that’s kind of what you’re saying about a moment, not the moment. I don’t really know if there is the moment. There might be that once-in-a-lifetime thing, but I feel like if you’re waiting for that, you’re not being present, and you’re not living in a bunch of moments that are happening right in front of you.”

Go read the full article. Better: subscribe to the magazine in print so that you can experience it as a page-turner on paper.

Money Monday: Go Get Those Taxes. This Financial Template Can Help

Nothing like a good accountant to set clients up for success by sending them a Client Organizer packet! This tax season may be a real head spin with all of the pandemic federal stimulus money that went out. Some money that was sent as a grant (like the PPP loan if you applied and got it “forgiven”), and some money that was sent as an advance (like the Child Tax Credit that is simply an advance of the credit you were getting before…it’s not free money and you may need to pay it back depending on how your 2021 income/expenses balanced out).

A few tax tips for this year:

• Pat Yourself On The Back:
  First of all, if you did something different than you did last year, like if you stayed up on your bookkeeping so that issuing 1099s and W2s is a breeze, then do pat yourself on the back for that accomplishment!

• Note Which Expenses You Aren’t Using:
  There are some subscriptions you may have forgotten about, and can cancel this year. Make note of them, and carve time out in your day to pursue their logins, and cancel. Or, revive use of a good thing if you forgot about it!

• Use A Bookkeeping Software:
  If you haven’t switched to Quickbooks, Waveapps, or another bookkeeping software yet, now is the time. We saw in the pandemic times, when applying for loans or grants, quickly issuing reports for payroll and expenses was imperative to getting that government money. Tin Shingle does offer a fancy Excel spreadsheet for freelancers and business owners who haven’t stepped into software yet, if you prefer living within the lines of Excel. But remember, the dynamic effects of Quickbooks are really special and time-saving.

• Use Quickbook’s Payroll Feature:
  One of the best decisions I ever made. The Quickbooks Payroll Feature can do all of your federal and state filing for you if you pay the top tier. You can also issue a paycheck whenever you want for no additional cost. Other payroll services may charge you $90 or more per check. Ouch! And no. That is so old school.

• Pandemic Money:
  Track it. All of those stimulus payments, rental assistance, everything. Put it into the spreadsheet that you give to your accountant.

• Hire An Accountant:
  Could be very good for you, rather than going in circles with the changing rules of the IRS. However, if you do do your own taxes, hats off to you! That is major.

• 2020 vs 2021 vs 2022:
  Go easy on yourself if you mis-state the year. So many people have been wishing everyone a Happy 2020. These pandemic years have blurred together! If you think you didn’t pay a vendor this year for 1099 income, do a double check in your books, as it may have indeed happened in 2021 and not 2020.

Members of Tin Shingle get all of our templates for free. You can buy the Finances template separate, and have lifetime access to updates when we release them.

Making The News: The Media Learns From You, Just As You Learn From The Media

In a college Ethics in the Media course, the question was asked:
"Is media mirroring society? Or is society mirroring the media?"

In Tin Shingle's opinion, the answer is both.

The #1 question we get at Tin Shingle is:
"How do I get featured in the media? I want someone to interview me!"

The way to get that interview is to tell the media what is going on in society as you know it. Believe it or not, reporters don't know everything. They may hardly know anything! With all of the topics they could write about, they may not know about your corner of the world.

That is why you must tell them. Telling them is called "pitching the media." You are telling them about something going on in your corner of the world - how you and your business are making a difference.

How Do I Create The News?

It's a liberating thought - you creating the news. You think you don't have control, but you do. Here are some places to start:

• If you are up against a challenge, tell the media about it. Spell it out on why it's a challenge - what's going on? Who are the players?

• If you are one of the only ones in your field or community doing this, make that very clear in how you present your accomplishments and what you got going on.

• Write these points in an email to a producer or writer that you have researched by reading that media, or skimming through Tin Shingle's Media Contact Idea Center.

Can I Control The Story? Will They Run It?

Two things you must understand about getting PR:

• Nothing is guaranteed. You might get interviewed for 30 minutes, and 1 sentence of what you said was used. If it was used at all!

• You can't control the narrative. A story may go in the opposite direction than you intended. That's OK. It's a wave you can ride. Talk to us in Tin Shingle's Community or book a Private Session should this happen, to see how you can ride with it.
  

Look At Homeschooling As An Example:

This article at Wired magazine provides a lot of stats on the rise in homeschooling this year, especially in Black families. The fact that it was covered at all with this positive spin is a surprise, as people of color have been homeschooling for some time for various reasons (bullying, religion, teacher/administration disagreements, etc.). Positioning it in this light is refreshing for homeschooling families.

The freedom to cultivate the curriculum was an appeal. As people stretch into their new normals and values after enduring the shutdown, the complexities of public schools, unions, charter schools, homeschooling, and the community around those options may be at the forefront of discussions.

Homeschooling has (or had) a reputation of being isolating and possibly elitist. Often snubbed by public schools for after school activities, will they now be accepted after families have pulled out to control the educational narrative at home, but want to benefit from tax-funded community events happening at public schools?

These are questions you can pose. Use examples of the past, and what is being asked for now. Use statistics and studies to back your claim, and provide names and links to those studies. Even if you have no studies, use voices from your community.

The Media Learns From You

Yes, it’s true! The media learns from you! Reporters are trained to hear topics that resonate with people; that will make a difference in their lives; or that their readers don’t know much about. You can inform the media about this. Even if you think a reporter knows about it already. They might not. Or, they may have heard about it, but don’t know how to approach it from a different angle - because they don’t know the different angle to come at it from.

You can pitch the ideas you wish the media would write about! Need help? Use Tin Shingle’s Pitch Whispering benefit that comes with your membership.

Happy Monday! The "How To Be Antiracist" Edition - Catch Our IG Lives

Happy Monday!
Every week, there is a new majorly racist development that happens, which makes its way into the media, how people shop, what they are talking about in social media, and what the news media is looking to cover.

Tin Shingle is here to understand it with you, as these national and wordly developments do make a difference on your business because this is a human issue, and your business serves humans!

During this year of 2021, while we try to focus on what we used to focus on, these developments, like the Meghan and Harry Interview, or the Sharon Osborn fallout/departure, and even the Scott Rudin Total Takedown (!!), occupy the minds of the media, academia, public school curriculum, job applications and hiring, and so much more.

Therefore, from time to time, Tin Shingle's owner Katie will appear on IG Live with widely respected/loved/quoted empathy-based relationship therapist and antiracism counselor Moraya Seeger DeGear, LA, LMFT (see her latest feature in Refinery29 on Ghosting feeling worse during the pandemic).

Catch some of our past IG Lives here at Tin Shingle's Instagram, where we discussed the Rachel Hollis HOT MESS of a Wow (yet did not surprise many who knew her), as well as the Meghan and Harry Interview, and what Moraya was hearing from interracial families regarding uncomfortable conversations, as well as the importance of talking about anxiety, and believing people who express feeling it.

To Be "Not Racist" Needs To Be Antiracist

Time and again, when Big Things happen in the local or national media, people respond. When business or local government does not respond, it is sending a big signal. Tin Shingle wants to be sure you are aware of this, so that silence might not be interpreted supporting a message you actually don't support.

Listen to this TuneUp with Moraya and Katie: "How Can/Should Your Business Handle Race Publicly?" to better understand your role in these everyday developments. Tin Shingle is leaving it open for all to access any time. It's an easy listen - we are really friendly! There may be points covered you hadn't considered.

Being antiracist can take many shapes, or come in the form of different hats. You don't need to wear all of the hats! Some forms antiracist behavior takes:

• Sponsoring or supporting a business who is actively and very visually antiracist, or promoting education about it.

• Putting a sign in your window or yard (goes a long way! listen to Moraya, who is Japanese, Black and White, say how it makes her feel)

• Liking someone's post. Super simple, I know. But some people won't even do that!

• Saying "Hi!" to people you normally shy away from.

• Putting up something in your social media (but you need to back it with a few other behaviors as well, like carrying a Black-owned designer, or hiring a Black friend, or amplifying messages your Black friends or clients are trying to get across).

• Including an antiracism and coaching session in your Mothers Day Gift Giveaway - Wow, Togetherish Mom!

This Movement Even Results In Scott Rudin

Scott Rudin is a major producer behind so many movies and plays you love. He is currently being wiped from the boards. The canceling of Scott Rudin is major because everyone knew about his bully behavior. Many experienced it. As a power player, he shaped lives.

He is being taken down now - in Tin Shingle's opinion - because ears are open. Beyond racism - this isn't a racially based takedown. As people speak out about injustices, other people are Caring Out Loud. Before, people might of cared inside, but now power players are acting to stop these behaviors from being ones that most people need to live with.

For those in the back of the room who are thinking: "I wish media would stop fanning the flames of racism and treat everyone equally," know this: this is how equality gets here. Scott Rudin is mentioned in today's message because of what the 2020 Injustice Movement did. The Black Lives Matter movement. Instead of rejecting racism, know that it is a world-wide problem and exists every single day.

The only way to keep it at bay - every single day - is to be antiracist. Not angry. All love! Acknowledging and believing. Being antiracist doesn't mean someone is angry all the time - it just means that they point something out that is uncomfortable to sit with. But sitting with it is required, and then taking action on that reality is the next step. Which is something your business can be part of in different ways.

Learn more about this on Ibram X. Kendi’s new podcast, “Be Antiracist,” which you can read more about here.

Peace, and have great Mondays!

[PR] TuneUp: The Insurrection: How Should Your Business Handle It Publicly? Discussion With Moraya Seeger DeGeare, MA LMFT

We interrupted our usual scheduled Office Hours for a live TuneUp with Moraya Seeger DeGeare, a licensed marriage counselor in NY and MN, certified in Emotionally Focused Therapy. Moraya and Katie (owner of Tin Shingle) live in Beacon, NY, and Moraya is one of the thought leader/guides that Katie has been following since the protests started in May.

Moraya is the granddaughter of Pete and Toshi Seeger who were leaders in the effort to bring about environmental change in the Hudson Valley region of New York. She grew up in a protest environment.

Moraya had put out a question to her Twitter following: "So I'm curious, do we unfollow all the influencers/food/mombloggers who are not pausing scheduled posts to acknowledge the domestic terrorism that happened this week? Or are we just forever side eyeing them with BIG trust issue energy?"

We reposted her question to Tin Shingle's Instagram, which prompted another question: does a business who is Black or Muslim or other races need to put up a statement right now? Would that further insight discomfort in their places of business? Do white-owned businesses have a special responsibility to put up a statement right now? Or open up to include further in their branding?

Which prompted more questions, like how should a business handle the insurrection, even if you did like some of the policies of the 45th president? Or if you are afraid of isolating or losing customers?

Moraya agreed to be our guest for for this TuneUp to answer this question, and more. As a person of mixed race, she has a Black perspective that she is contributing to this national conversation. Being that she is a relationship therapist, she knows how to dialogue from a vulnerable place. She tells Tin Shingle: "I thrive on deep vulnerability. Ask me any question in any way, it's OK to just roll with it and muddle through."

HOW TO WATCH

Anyone can watch a Tin Shingle TuneUp from their computer, mobile phone or tablet. The process is different for premium members and the public.

MEMBERS OF TIN SHINGLE (FREE)

Stream any TuneUp Webinar anytime with your Tin Shingle membership. No need to purchase it, this TuneUp is ready to play from this page! When you are logged in, you will see a big screen.

NON-MEMBERS ($65)

Once you buy a TuneUp, you own it forever. The video or audio recording will appear on the TuneUp page that you just purchased from, and all you need to do is press play.

Words Matter

Hello Tin Shinglers!

The media is on fire with breaking news, and you need to know how to pitch it. This note is a mention on the pulse of the people since the election. We won't mention COVID, because that news is everywhere, and hopefully you are enjoying a safe holiday with your immediate sphere and not mixing households. Right!?

At the time of this writing (this article has been in Drafts for a bit), most people were referring to the early election results cautiously, as: "the news." Friends didn't know where friends stood, so the election became "the news" after the media was the first to declare it once presidential absentee ballots were counted. Still on the local level, assumed outcomes are being upended by absentee ballots.

This week, "the news" has been made official. Finally. First by Twitter and Facebook on Monday (here's how it will work), when they declared that they would transfer the POTUS and FLOTUS accounts to Joe and Jill Biden. Now that the new president and vice president are officially coming, that doesn't mean that this transitional year - this year of a renewed racial revolution - is over. It has only just begun. There are a few things you need to keep in mind:

What I've Learned - As A Local Reporter

The past few months, I have been deep into producing local news for my blog, A Little Beacon Blog (21,500 views/month, over 7,000 Instagram followers). As one of the first local news outlets to report on COVID - back before there were testing sites and everyone was newly freaking out and New Yorkers were literally dying by the hundreds every day - local news was slow to respond. Everyone was in shock. A Little Beacon Blog was one of the first to respond because our neighbors needed to know what was going on.

And then the racial revolution opened up. George Floyd was killed in the street in broad daylight by a police officer, and the world erupted in protests. Because of my local reporting, I have different leads and relationships with people in the Black community (not to mention my fabulous long-time hair stylist), so this was also an area I was comfortable diving into (as you might remember).

Readers have been hungry for this information, when I share racially rooted content with you. Every single time I publish it, it's hard, and I know that some kind of reaction will happen. Largely it is very supportive. Like with anyone, when there is a single negative or angry person, it makes an impact on me, and I take it to heart. Not sadness heart, but "what can I learn from this?" heart.

Based on this, here is what I have learned: denial is deep. Words matter, and saying the right words helps fight denial of actual events. Here's what I mean:

"It didn't happen....I was there...I didn't see that...Did you see it from his mouth moving?"

On the Wednesday before the election, I published a story about a truck train coming to my small town of Beacon. There are about 15,000 people living here, just 60 miles north of New York City. Often a darling of a tourism section of the New York Times, people like to  believe Beacon as bucolic, so was pretty shocking with a Trump train rolled through.

For a Trump supporter, it was a beautiful sight. For Black people, it was traumatic. A man on a motorcycle in the line driving past our Post Office, shouted "white power!" and a person got it on video. You could hear the shock of the person recording it, as she followed him with the camera, let him out of view, then did a double-take and refocused on him when she processed what he said.

Trump supporters in A Little Beacon Blog's Instagram denied it. A woman who loved the truck train said she was at the rally, and never heard it. Another woman who was in one of the cars highlighted in the article said that from her car, she never heard anything shouted. There were other examples and testimonies from readers about what they encountered. People wrote into me with their experiences. For the people I knew, I believed them and published their stories. I also published the video of "white power."

The denial from the Trump supporters knocked the wind out of my chest. I really didn't know what to say. One reader said she liked the blog, but found it bias right now. I responded by saying that I didn't like typing that someone yelled "white power," and wasn't sure what the other side of that was.

Her comment got 4 likes. Mine got 88 likes. We don't run a lot of high numbers around here, so that spread was significant. But I was still speechless as that Wednesday wore on. As a person who teaches media, and now a person who creates media content, I had never encountered someone labeling the story #FakeNews, and someone in Facebook accusing the article to be a Russian bot.

The thing is, by denying something in your mind - because it's too upsetting - is contributing to racism. That is why all people must commit to becoming anti-racist, and doing that every day. The whole event at my local blog made me expand and tighten my comment policy, that even included No Grammar Shaming. Because all people - on both sides - were suffering and lashing out.

Words Matter

This is where the theme of this newsletter comes in. Words matter. What you say to your customers matters. What you don't say to your customers matters. I've seen a lot of newsletters that refer to the word in vague terms, and my guidance on that is to use the real words of what is happening: racism exposed. It is here. It is always here. It will always be here by any person at any time, and recognizing it to resist it lies in your hands.
The words you use in your newsletters to describe this year of 2020 matter. Here are simple terms being used in newsletters that I recommend you change:

• "With the world being upside down"

• "This has been a crazy year"

• "Everything is chaotic!"

Each of these terms can and should be changed to what they are: "With this racial revolution amidst a pandemic." Take a minute to reflect on how things are. Are things upside-down? Or are they right side up? Or are you just seeing them for the first time? And we have been living upside-down? And we are trying to turn things right side up? "We" meaning white people who have been part of the creations of many rules and laws that limit and oppress Black people.

Black people and People of Color are generously sharing their trauma with us, so that white people can recognize when something doesn't fit or stings.

Here are the next set of words you can delete from your vocabulary and replace:

• "racial slur" 

• "racial epithet"

Both of these terms are disguises for "racial insult." A slur is when someone is drunk. And yes, "slur" also means an implication to hurt someone, but who really uses this word in that context, unless it's with "racial slur." And do you even know what an epithet is? Or how to pronounce it? And is it "epithet" or "epitaph?" Let's stop being polight.

You get what I mean. It's an insult. A sting. A dart. Forget these numbing words and use the words with feeling behind them. It hurts!

Where To Find Your Words

Digging down rabbit holes is crucial right now. Let yourself explore and discover new voices, and new comfort zones. Here are some people I have been following:
@amandaseals @yellowswagger @alitawfiqmuhammad @millennial_matriarch @__izdihar__ @bfftherapy @iamdaniellepitts @innkcoffeeyoga @becauseofthem @theblackmancan @blavity @iamtabithabrown @the.coloredgirl

And so many more...

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and keep saying your words.

xoxo

A News Site Led By Women Of Color: Prism

In an article written by Hanaa' Tameez, Prism, a news site led by women of color, is discussed in regards to marginalized people.

Senior reporter, Tina Vasquez, shared a story last month about a doctor in Georgia, Mahendra Amin, “who allegedly forcibly sterilized immigrant women in the Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC) in Georgia.” Vasquez, a seasoned immigration and reproductive rights reporter, used her resources from the south when she first heard about whistleblower Dawn Wooten’s complaint against the doctor.

“Whenever there’s something breaking, it always starts with a Slack message from Tina where she just says, ‘ASHTON,'” said, Prism editor-in-chief, Ashton Lattimore. “Once that story broke, Tina sprang into action. She’s well-connected within the circles of migrant folks, particularly in the South, so she started reaching out to people within the community where this was happening, and to the advocates who were behind the complaint to see what she could learn.”

“This wasn’t “a clear-cut narrative about a whistleblower being a hero,” Vasquez said. “It also came from my understanding, covering immigration for a very long time, that so many of the injustices we hear about in detention centers — especially as they relate to in-custody deaths and people becoming ill — start with the medical department.” A cut-and-dry whistleblower story “didn’t gel with what I knew as a reporter and didn’t gel with what I was hearing from affected women and sources that I trust.”

From Hanaa' Tameez -

Vasquez interviewed residents of Douglas, Georgia, who knew Amin and said he was a “pillar in the community” and started a Facebook page to support him. She also spoke to immigrant women who had encountered both Amin and Wooten, a nurse who used to work at ICDC, and alleged that Wooten was “complicit” in their mistreatment and “made jokes at their expense.” It was important to include these threads in her stories, Vasquez said, even if they complicate what originally might have seemed like a saga with a clear hero and a clear villain.

Lattimore agreed that it was more important to bring these women’s stories to the forefront. “We’re not going to silence their voices just because what they’re saying might be complicated or confusing,” Lattimore said. “This is about them…This is a systemic problem, and these are the women who are bearing the brunt of this systemic, long-term issue.”

The approach of centering the voices of marginalized people in its stories is core to Prism’s mission. “No matter the subject, Prism’s editorial content is rigorous, fact-based, and starts from the ground up by centering the perspectives of impacted people, community leaders, and grassroots organizers,” the site’s Mission page explains. 

Nonprofit entrepreneur Iara Peng founded Prism in 2018. Lattimore, a former attorney and graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, is Prism’s editor-in-chief, a role she stepped into this past summer after serving as managing editor there since November 2019. The team also includes a senior editor, three reporters including Vasquez, an operations manager, an administrative assistant, a digital communications manager, and an intern. Most of the staffers (including all the reporters) are women of color, and they all live in different cities, which allows Prism to keep tabs on stories happening across the U.S.

Prism’s journalism is about a number of different themes: gender, elections, criminal justice, immigration, race, and worker’s rights. But those issues often intersect. “As we built our reporting team and our relationships with freelance folks, we started to see the degree to which all of these issues are interconnected,” Lattimore said. “A lot of our workers’ rights stories are also gender justice stories, and a lot of our immigration stories are also racial justice stories. On the website, it’s helpful for readers who have a particular interest area to know what to click on. But our reporters and editors have a deep understanding that a lot of these things are more than one thing at once.”

As a nonprofit, Prism is funded through donations and the support of foundations like Open Philanthropy and Women’s Foundation of California. Another key funder is the liberal news site Daily Kos, which also republishes all of Prism’s stories. The site’s Code of Ethics lays out how it thinks about the concept of impartiality:

As a non-profit, non-partisan media organization, Prism does not contribute, directly or indirectly, to political campaigns or to political parties or groups seeking to raise money for political campaigns or parties. 

However, we recognize that journalists are as much members of our society and polity as anyone else, and as such can be significantly impacted by policies enacted at the local, state, and federal levels. Our aim is not to set our newsroom staff apart from the political process or their roles and obligations as citizens and community members. Nevertheless, to maintain our readers’ trust and our editorial independence and integrity, we ask that editorial staff refrain from taking an activist role in partisan political activity, including volunteering for campaigns, signing petitions, participating in marches or rallies, displaying lawn signs or making political contributions. This policy applies only to political activity specific to a candidate or party. Issue-oriented political activity is permitted and encouraged, along with participation in civic, charitable, religious, public, social or residential organizations.

Prism also has a republishing partnership with Migrant Roots Media, which translates Prism’s stories into Spanish. The targeted partnerships with national and local organizations allow Prism to build trust with different communities of readers. “If you’re going to shift narratives in this country, you need people to actually read what you’re doing,” Lattimore said. Going forward, the focus will be on building more publishing partnerships with local organizations across the country.

As part of that goal, Prism on Tuesday announced its senior fellowship program, in which writers will work with Prism’s editorial team to shape coverage of key issues and solutions in their communities. The fellows will write for Prism, and at least one story by each fellow will be part of a larger investigative series produced by staff reporters and freelancers. The first class of senior fellows includes Patrisse Cullors, the cofounder of Black Lives Matter; Mary Hooks, the co-director of LGBTQ group Southerners on New Ground; Mónica Ramírez, the founder of Justice for Migrant Women; Maurice Mitchell, the national director of the Working Families Party; LaTosha Brown, the cofounder of the Black Voters Matter Fund; Kevin Killer, a former South Dakota legislator and cofounder of Native Youth Leadership Alliance and Advance Native Political Leadership; and Aimee Allison, founder of She the People and president of Democracy in Color.

Much of Prism’s editorial strategy has centered around leaning into the reporters’ expertises and filling the gaps in reporting left by mainstream news outlets. And while all of the beats focus on heavy issues, Prism’s culture section (“that tab is my happy place,” Lattimore said) works to uplift and amplify the work of creators of color. Prism doesn’t employ a full-time culture reporter, but Lattimore said all of the reporters are empowered to do culture reporting through the lenses that they’re interested in, whether it’s criminal justice or gender justice or something else.

“Our approach to culture reporting is, like everything we do, fundamentally rooted in the justice and resiliency of communities of color,” Lattimore said. “I think it’s important to cover culture in a way that’s not explanatory. It’s just letting people share their work, trying to understand more deeply the significance of it, and what it means in our own lives.”

Tin Shingle has added many of these media contacts to our database! Become a member to have access.

Co-Founder Of Black Lives Matter Movement, Alicia Garza, Signs With ICM

Photo Credit: Lady Don’t Take No

Alicia Garza, known for co-founding the international Black Lives Matter movement, has signed with ICM Partners.

Garza has been featured in Politico, The New York Times, Essence and Time. She has been named one of Time's 100 Women of the Year and Essence's Woke 100 Women for 2017. She also hosts a podcast, Lady Don’t Take No.

Alicia Garza, proficient in writing, public speaking and freedom dreaming, has become a powerful voice in the media. Garza shares, “In order to truly understand how devastating and widespread this type of violence is in Black America, we must view this epidemic through a lens of race, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”

With this, Garza has a number of future projects in the making. Her first book, Purpose Of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart, will be released on October 20th. She is also set to appear alongside Oprah Winfrey for HBO's, Between The World And Me, the New York Times bestseller by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Lady Don’t Take No is geared towards those who “like their political commentary with a side of beauty recommendations.” Garza will share her thoughts and opinions on everything from why Fenty Beauty, by Rihanna, saves lives, to how to manage microaggressions. Listen every Friday HERE.

PS. We added Alicia Garza to our Media Contact Database! HERE is how you can search for her and many other Media Contact Ideas.

NowThis Launches A Video Brand For Children Called "NowThis Kids"

Naomi Wadler
Photo Credit: The Guardian

NowThis, a news brand for Millennials, recently launched a new weekly series, NowThis Kids, who will be hosted by 13-year-old activist, Naomi Wadler.

Naomi Wadler was first interviewed in 2018 by NowThis after she held a gun violence walk-out focusing on Black women at her school. After the trending video was seen by George Clooney, Wadler was invited to speak at March For Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C.

The Cheerios-sponsored series, will share positive and uplifting news and promote optimism. Each episode will provide the tools necessary for parents to talk with their children about the complex stories that matter today. Along with the YouTube channel, NowThis Kids will have a podcast and a newsletter, too.

The series launched at a time when schools are contemplating opening and parents are debating whether or not they should send their kids back to school this fall. If kids aren’t attending in-person classes, they now have Naomi Wadler and NowThis Kids, to occupy them!

Ladies: Regarding #ChallengeAccepted And The Black And White Selfies

What Is Happening…

The #ChallengeAccepted Instagram hashtag trend percolated up a few weeks ago. Beautiful pictures of women you knew were popping up in your feed, with messages of empowerment. Women supporting women. Women nominating women to step into their power. Ok fine. But why now?

As we are quickly learning, trending hashtags need to be looked into before participating, to make sure that one understands them fully before passing them along. Passing along mis-information is so easy right now. The easiest thing is to say nothing - risk nothing - and be silent. That’s not an option you want to take. You are a leader for your people, and they want to hear from you.

The Turkish Angle

A young female reporter from the New York Times first broke the story: Taylor Lorenz. She is a reporter for the Style section and writes about technology, memes, influencers, and online culture. After she traced the trend back to 2016 Brazil, and pointed out that by the time the trend made it to the United States, many women’s black and white selfie’s were posted with sometimes no message or meaning, yet some women were asking the question of “why?” Her article did receive backlash for being critical, which she defended on TMZ. Fellow New York Times travel reporter, Tariro Mzezewa, also defended Taylor’s article.

Taylor credited Imaann Patel’s tweet with explaining the Turkish association, but Imaann’s account at Twitter has since disappeared. Her quote, however, lives on in this Apeshka News article: “Turkish people wake up every day to see a black and white photo of a woman who has been murdered on their Instagram feed, on their newspapers, on their TV screens. The black and white photo challenge started as a way for women to raise their voice. To stand in solidarity with the women we have lost. To show that one day, it could be their picture that is plastered across news outlets with a black and white filter on top. I have seen many of my international friends participate in this challenge without knowing the meaning. While I am aware that there is no ill will, it is important to remind ourselves why posting a picture with a black and white filter is a “challenge” to begin with.”

According to Apeshka News and other media outlets: "Many Turkish women are putting their faith in the Istanbul Convention, a Council of Europe agreement from 2014 on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. The signatory nations committed themselves to creating the requisite conditions for fighting the problem. Turkey ratified the agreement 5 years ago and gave it a legal basis as a law for the prevention of violence against women and the protection of the family."

Fresh efforts by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling party have been made to repeal the Council of Europe treaty, the Istanbul Convention, which protects victims of domestic and gender-based violence and effectively prosecutes offenders, according to Apeksha News and other media outlets.

Gokce Yazar from the Sanliurfa bar association sees patriarchal family structures and cultural customs as the problem. "It is normal for a woman who is threatened by her husband and fears for her life to seek protection from the state. The legal provisions are clear, but even so, they are often told: 'Go back to your husband.'"

On November 25, 2019, some 2,000 women gathered in Istanbul on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women to protest against femicides, among other things, police broke up the rally with tear gas and plastic bullets, according to Apeksha News.

Fidan Ataselim, the general secretary of the campaign group We Will Stop Femicide (this is the English translation of their website), reiterated the intention: “The black and white photo challenge and #challengeaccepted movement did not start in Turkey, but Turkish women sparked the latest round of pictures because we are worried about withdrawing from the Istanbul Convention. Every day, after the death of one of our sisters, we share black and white photographs and keep their memory alive.”

So when Pinar Gültekin was killed "by a jealous ex-boyfriend - who strangled and beat her before killing her, then dumped her in a bin and filled it with concrete when he was unable to burn her body," according to every news outlet, shock waves were sent through Turkey, and the tool of #ChallengeAccepted was revived.

What To Do…

Research.

Take deep dives down people’s Instagram accounts. News media might not have published stories on this yet, so word of mouth may be leading the way. Regular people just like you, but who are experts in their field and are confidently voicing their opinions. Listen to their opinions, but form your own. During Blackout Tuesday, feelings were mixed on if people should post a black square or not. Logically, if you should do something that makes sense for your business, do it. But what to say? And what to show?

Absorb The Message.

Take this opportunity to learn something. This challenge was for women dying in Turkey whose killers are people - men - who they know. The men may be arrested, and are let off with light sentences. If they are arrested at all.

Is Participating Right For Your Brand?

If this is a cause you believe in, then carve out the time to see how your brand will participate. If you are a solo-entrepreneur, this will be an easier debate. If your brand is a company with people working with you, you may want to have a team meeting to discuss their feelings as well, as it can help shape your broader view of the issue. Some people will have dissenting opinions, or have their head safely in the sand. All of this is fine, and you’ll need to decide if showing support for this will strengthen your brand or distract.

What Should You Say And Show?

Ruminate about it, and find your words. In this case, Turkish women need a platform. They need the global spotlight. Their freedoms and respect is way behind ours (in the United States) it seems, so they need our help. We live in a global community now, so showing support for your global sisters is important.

If you can’t find your own words, or don’t trust your style or can’t say something succinctly enough, borrow someone else’s, but give them credit. The slides shown below were first seen on BFF Therapy’s Instagram account (run by Moraya Seeger DeGeare, a therapist based in Beacon, NY). They were used in the sharing of the post, to help explain to follows quickly and easily what they need to know. Credit was given to her in the caption. Original hashtags were used. If the hashtags are in a different language, dig down and find the translation, and keep the hashtags. Don’t ignore them just because you don’t recognize a word. That’s how a social movement gets diluted and erased. For instance, in the most #ChallengeAccepted of July 2020, this hashtag was used: #İstanbulSözleşmesiYaşatır, which means “Enforce the Istanbul Convention”.

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If this challenge revives in another form a whole new set of hashtags may be used. Just pay attention to which ones, look them up first, and include them.

After learning about this version of the #ChallengeAccepted, I still wanted to participate. Women’s rights - and lives! - are very important to me, and are often taken for granted now after the fight to attain them. Raising awareness of this in other countries is also important to me. So, #ChallengeAccepted, and I used Tin Shingle’s platform to add to the conversation. On my picture, I used the words: “Turkey. Here’s Why.” to be very clear about the message contained in the photo, that it wasn’t just another selfie for the sake of posting a selfie.

Where To Learn More

During this whirlwind, I dedicated a Tin Shingle TuneUp to teaching about how to handle Instagram Hashtag Challenges. Listen to it here (members of Tin Shingle get to stream it for free). The hashtags for this challenge have been added to Tin Shingle’s Instagram Hashtag Cheat Sheet, so that you’ll have them all in one place as you research. If this challenge gets revived to spotlight another group of people, then we will add to that list in the Cheat Sheet.