Acting Responsibly – A Guide for Brands During a Crisis

It’s been 53 days since Hurricane Helene devastated my hometown of Asheville, but I’m going to level with you: I showered in a FEMA trailer this morning, so it’s still really hard to care about send rates and conversion optimization.

Lucky for you and me (and my editorial calendar), I found a story that I do care about. And my sense of humor is still (mostly) intact.

It’s a story of cleverness and kindness. A story about how one business owner used her clout to help her community. And a story about how your brand can do the same, should you find yourself in the middle of a crisis.

And don’t worry: we’ll also check out examples of how businesses of different sizes chipped in, so there’s plenty for you SMBs and enterprise marketers, too.

Making Magic in a Time of Trouble

Charla Schlueter sits in front of me meticulously shuffling a deck of Magic the Gathering cards. Yet each time the door beside us opens, she greets each newcomer with a smile and their first name.

Schlueter’s the owner and operator of Gamers’ Haunt, a little game shop in Asheville, North Carolina. Since the hurricane hit, my son and I have been visiting weekly in search of something the shop gives away for free: normalcy.

But we’re not actually in Gamers’ Haunt. Not properly. We’re seated in the two-room kung fu studio that’s graciously allowed Schlueter to host a makeshift shop after a maple tree rudely inserted itself into her roof during the hurricane.

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Despite the change in venue, the studio is packed wall-to-wall with Schlueter’s regular customers. It’s game night and the turnout is high. They’re here for a bit of normalcy, too, but they’re also here to support Schlueter and her team.

This is the kind of community your social media director would commit crimes to have. It’s fiercely loyal and consistently engaged. And it’s anchored by Schlueter’s unflagging friendliness.

Her friendliness is belied by only two things: The way she absolutely annihilates my 9-year-old kid in Magic. And the shrewdness with which she leverages her business influence to help this community.

A Stormy Surprise

We each draw seven cards and begin trading stories about how the hurricane flipped everything on its head.

“After the storm, I did my best to try to track down as many customers as I could to see how they were doing and make sure that they were good,” Schlueter tells me while arranging her hand.

During one such check-in, she and her crew helped a customer clear wreckage from his flooded home.

“We go to his room, and it’s all covered in mud because the whole house was submerged,” she says. Yet among the silt and sludge, there was a surprise: The cards he’d bought from Gamers’ Haunt had survived. The boxes they were stored in, designed to protect against casual wear and tear, were apparently also disaster-proof.

“Sure enough, we open up the Boulder boxes, and they’re totally fine.”

To spread a bit of levity during a tough time, Schlueter shared the discovery on the Gamers’ Haunt Facebook page. That’s when the brand behind the boxes took notice.

Schlueter lays down a card.

“Once I posted about it, Ultimate Guard reached out to me and was like ‘Oh, that’s incredible. Do you mind if we share this?’ And I said ‘Absolutely!’”

She turns the card sideways to signal her attack.

“As long as you’ll share my customer’s GoFundMe with it,” she grins.

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If I have enough, I’m good.

Ultimate Guard agreed to share the customer’s GoFundMe with their audience — about 10 times the people that Gamers’ Haunt could otherwise reach. (As a bonus, they also sent some free swag to both the customer and the shop.)

I asked Schlueter why she didn’t request that they share her own GoFundMe. After all, the shop had to be gutted after the tree hole let the hurricane in without asking.

“I’ve always had this motto, ‘If I have enough, I’m good,’” Schlueter says. “At this point, the community had risen up and done a lot of wonderful stuff for my business.”

To that end, the shop’s own GoFundMe had reached its original goal in just over two days. And the community gave her more than just financial support.

“It was unbelievable. Six people brought tables and chairs. I had hordes of people come help me get inventory out of the shop when it was still flooding. I can’t even name the number of customers who came and helped me.”

So, why did the community rise up for them? Maybe it’s because all of the employees know them by name. Maybe it’s because the shop is run by the kind of people who shovel mud for casual acquaintances.

Schlueter thinks it’s something deeper.

“It sounds corny, but I very strongly believe that if you take care of a community, it will take care of you. And the hurricane proved me right.”

Takeaways from a Typhoon

I recognize that building a community is a different exercise for a mom-and-pop shop, but if you zoom out, there are lessons here for brands of any size.

I sincerely hope you never need these lessons, but you should consider them before a crisis hits.

1. Take care of your community.

When disaster strikes, it’s okay to worry about your own business. Put your own oxygen mask on first. But once you’re safe, your next thought should be your community.

Following the storm, Schlueter and her team created free decks of Magic cards for people who lost theirs during the storm.

And while that’s a kind thing to do on an individual level, it isn’t just about replacing material goods. Without their cards, community members can’t join in on the weekly games.

“If you lose your Magic deck, you lose your community. So I think there’s a lot more tied to it than just belongings.”

2. Use what you have at hand.

As a business owner, Schlueter had the attention of a supplier, which she leveraged to bring wider awareness to her community’s needs.

That’s what she happened to have at hand. Your business may have different resources.

When local restaurants Blunt Pretzels and Bear’s Smokehouse had to shut down normal operations following the storm, they could have just closed their doors. Instead, they partnered with World Central Kitchen to use their kitchen space to offer free hot meals to the community.

Highland Brewing’s main resource was an abundance of space, which they offered up to relief organizations like Beloved Asheville, World Central Kitchen, and Wine To Water. These organizations used the brewery as both a central hub and a storage area for the massive amount of supplies needed.

3. Patronage is a resource, too.

Don’t forget that the money you spend (on daily operations, relief efforts, or even your own recovery) can also be a form of relief.

When Red Fiddle Vittles and Mother Earth Food began offering fresh-cooked meals to shelters, they sourced the ingredients from local farmers. That support means the world to small businesses that may have lost their ability to support themselves.

4. You don’t have to fix it all.

In the aftermath of a crisis, the scope of what needs to be addressed can feel overwhelming to those who want to help.

Take a deep breath. You don’t have to fix everything. Find an area that you can address and focus on that.

When our schools were shut down for several weeks, kids needed something to occupy their time. (Keep in mind, we also had no electricity during those weeks.)

Comic Envy, a local favorite comic shop, responded by offering a sale on children’s books and comics.

As the parent of a 9-year-old, I can tell you that the sale was deeply appreciated.

5. Don’t treat it like a campaign.

Throughout October, a community care station with showers, laundry machines, and potable water was set up in the parking lot of a nearby grocery store.

It was quietly paid for by Pratt & Whitney, an aerospace company with a manufacturing plant in Asheville. There were no signs announcing this. No banners stating that it was proudly sponsored. No brand awareness was being generated.

But word gets around. And locals remember these things.

How You Can Help

While Western North Carolina has fallen out of the news cycle, we’re still very much in need of your attention.

In the days and weeks immediately following the hurricane, an outpouring of food, water, clothing, medicine, and love helped us to simply survive.

But as we transition from survival to recovery, the kind of help we need is transitioning, too.

The resource I happen to have at hand is a newsletter and a blog, with a big audience full of beautiful people like you. So I’ve loaded this article with links to incredible local brands that could use your support. If you find yourself moved to help, consider clicking a link and checking out what they’ve got to offer.

The post How Brands Can Act Responsibly During a Crisis appeared first on Marketing & Business News.

by Caroline Tremblay, The Daily Yonder August 5, 2024, Kansas: Elevate the work of younger people In rural Kansas, if you’re between the ages of 21 and 39ish, you might be considered a PowerUp —  but not just because of your age or location. A PowerUp is someone who is rural by choice. “The name […]

by Caroline Tremblay, The Daily Yonder
August 5, 2024

Kansas: Elevate the work of younger people

In rural Kansas, if you’re between the ages of 21 and 39ish, you might be considered a PowerUp —  but not just because of your age or location. A PowerUp is someone who is rural by choice.

“The name was created to illustrate the goal of empowering and moving younger people in rural communities into positions of leadership and influence,” Simone Elder said.

She is the PowerUp & Engagement Manager for the Kansas Sampler Foundation (KSF), which focuses on preserving and sustaining rural culture. “For years, returning to rural has gotten a bad rap — the perception that it’s less than or someone failed at their bigger endeavors elsewhere,” Elder said. But KSF has been working to shift that mindset.

Despite old narratives about small towns being places to escape, grassroots leaders and policymakers in rural communities nationwide are exploring ways to attract young people to these places and make them feel at home there.

For example, KSF is challenging residents to envision new possibilities by getting out on the back roads to experience overlooked assets in their hometowns. “Through the Big Kansas Road Trip, we help Kansans and other visitors from outside the state to see Kansas with new eyes,” Elder said.

After identifying PowerUps as some of the strongest assets available, KSF has emphasized cultivating rural influencers. “There’s tremendous value in having an older person visibly and intentionally elevate the work of younger people in rural,” Elder said.

Many PowerUps KSF has interviewed express wanting a sense of community, especially when it comes to raising kids, and a number have voiced entrepreneurial aspirations. Elder noted that while being rural by choice can mean loving where you live, it can sometimes feel lonely or frustrating. “It doesn’t mean you chose wrong,” she said. It’s about having a strong network of champions that can move forward together.

Nebraska: Community funds address top needs

In neighboring Nebraska, Megan Helberg has become one of those champions. Fifteen years ago, she was a “returner.” Similar to Kansas, Nebraska was having an issue telling its own story. “We used to kind of joke about how small we were,” Helberg said. “But we started to realize that people listen to what you say.”

Helberg, who decided to return despite that old narrative, is now a local rancher and secondary school teacher. She also sits on the Board of Directors for the Nebraska Community Foundation and serves as chairperson for the Calamus Area Community Fund.

She is one of many spreading the message that young Nebraskans should go explore but then bring their greatness back. “We need you here, we want you here, and you can make a great life here,” she said. In 2024, her school’s senior class had six graduates, all of whom were heading off to college. However, 75% are committed to coming back to help with an existing business or start one of their own.

Creating the climate for those kinds of endeavors is where the community fund comes in, relying on unrestricted endowments, and local bank accounts that accept donations from community members. Only the accumulated interest can be spent and all funds must be poured back into the community.

“It has been absolutely transformational,” Helberg said. In her area, the community fund has supported the renovation of neglected homes, making the properties available again to combat the housing crisis. Two new childcare centers have also opened with local support, as well as additional funding sources.

New Hampshire: Housing and childcare top barriers

While these grassroots efforts show the power of community when everyone joins in, there is also critical work happening at the policy level across the country. New Hampshire-based Stay Work Play is a non-profit making it easier for young people to call the Granite State home.

Part of its approach is non-partisan, issues-based advocacy informed by statewide data collection. Take, for instance, Stay Work Play’s Policy & Pints series, which gathered young locals at area breweries for focus groups to identify barriers to feel welcome and secure in New Hampshire.

Unsurprisingly, housing and childcare were high on the list. “We’re not experts ourselves in housing or childcare, but we do work with partners across the state for whom this is their business,” said Will Stewart, executive director.

Stay Work Play is supporting greater investments in the state’s workforce housing fund and advocating for the ability to build smaller units on smaller lot sizes. “Things that young families need to get a toehold here in the state,” Stewart said.

In addition, he’s seen “a return to older models,” like employer-supported housing. Some companies are paying existing employees to house new ones until they’re able to secure stable living situations. A leading healthcare provider has also been exploring options to develop on land already under its ownership. “But they’re just one example of a company that’s looking for novel solutions,” Stewart said.

Beyond these logistical factors, social infrastructure is a key element that’s sometimes less talked about. In New Hampshire, young residents reported high satisfaction with “being able to get out of work and 30 minutes later be on the ski slopes or out hiking or on a paddleboard,” Stewart said. But making friends or finding a date can mean an ever-expanding search radius on social apps. The need for more “third places” where people can gather organically is strongly felt.

As small towns rise to the challenge, sharing a new narrative through effective branding and marketing is essential. Stewart points to Littleton, a rural New Hampshire town that has cultivated a buzzing downtown, food and drink scene, and outdoor recreation network.

For potential “returners” who may not have been back except for holiday dinners, “they probably don’t have an understanding of places, like Littleton, that have changed, and to use a scientific term, gotten cooler,” Stewart said. That’s an opportunity for a redefined rural place to find its people.

Caroline Tremblay is a freelance writer who covers Radically Rural, an annual two-day summit on rural issues held in Keene, New Hampshire. This year’s event, featuring the people and organizations cited in this story, will take place September 25-26. For more information, and to register for this year’s summit, visit radicallyrural.org.

This article first appeared on The Daily Yonder and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Global branding agency How&How has launched GetEven, a pro-bono, studio-funded initiative designed to support women in the creative industry. We chatted with founder Cat to discover more.

With gender disparity still a significant issue across multiple creative sectors, GetEven is a new initiative that aims to provide women with expert advice on various essential topics, including leadership, confidence building, financial literacy, and salary negotiation.

The idea for GetEven originated from a growing demand for mentorship and guidance from female creatives. “We get several requests a day from female creatives looking for feedback, mentorship, and advice in navigating their careers,” explains How&How founder Cat How. “We never have enough time in the day to get back to everyone with actionable advice, and I felt like I was failing these calls for help. So we decided to launch the initiative as a studio-run project where every female in the team would help shape what we did.”

Rather depressingly, despite women making up 63% of graphic design students in the UK, they hold only 17% of creative director positions. Additionally, diverse representation in leadership roles sits at just 12%, and the gender pay gap remains at 20.3%. These stark statistics underscore the urgent need for projects like GetEven to address the imbalance and help women take control of their careers.

So what does it entail? Initially, there are four webinars, each designed around themes suggested by the creative community. How&How gathered input from their followers on Instagram and LinkedIn, resulting in topics that resonate with women facing challenges like imposter syndrome and navigating leadership roles. “We asked what they were worried about or wanted to learn. We got hundreds of replies, which we then sifted through and bundled into pillars,” Cat shares. “We chose the four with the highest number of people asking about them.”

Each webinar will feature a fireside chat with a female How&How employee and an expert coach, followed by a helpful Q&A session. Attendees can also join an aftercare community on LinkedIn to continue conversations and seek further advice. This supportive online community aims to foster networking and mentorship opportunities beyond the webinars themselves. As Cat explains, “We wanted the Aftercare Group to be a place where women could make, develop, and establish these connections after the course had finished.”

The series started in late September with a session titled Know Your Worth, focusing on financial literacy. Led by ex-How&How brand consultant Nina Arshagouni, financial educator Alina Burlacu, and Mykail James, it aimed to break down the stigma around discussing money. The experts provided actionable advice on developing good money habits, negotiating salaries, and setting up financial futures. Cat emphasizes the importance of this topic: “So much about financial literacy is empowerment… knowing your basics when it comes to finances… will help women in any later negotiating situation and at least give them more of a chance in evening out the very sizable odds.”

Upcoming sessions include Make Yourself Heard on 23 October, which will address confidence building and overcoming imposter syndrome. This will be followed by How to Fail on 12 November, which covers how to handle failure and burnout. The final session, Learn to Lead, will be held on 11 December to explore leadership skills. On that occasion, Cat How herself will be joined by executive coach and author Alisa Cohn.

A central mission of GetEven is to create a nurturing community for women, both online and offline – something that resonates with our own focus at Creative Boom. The LinkedIn aftercare group is designed to support continued learning and interaction among those attending the webinars. Even better, there will be an in-person celebration in December at How&How’s London studio. “We knew that we wanted to physicalise this experience too somehow—to make these connections real,” says Cat. “Because I firmly believe that when you meet someone, you do form a closer and more meaningful connection.”

The initiative’s goal is clear: to empower women in the creative industry by providing them with the tools and confidence they need to succeed. As Cat states, “Success for me would be for someone to be able to take even just one actionable takeout from each of the sessions that could have a direct and lasting impact on their life from that moment onwards.”

By addressing the specific challenges women face in the creative industry and offering practical, actionable advice, GetEven seeks to create a more equitable landscape. For many, the initiative offers an invaluable opportunity to gain insight, develop new skills, and form lasting connections with other creatives. Sound good? Join the private LinkedIn group or follow How&How’s page for upcoming events.

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Even work in the creative industries is largely administrative. So, how do you balance the needs of your career with the need to thrive creatively?

It was all going to be so different. When you were young and dreaming of a career in a creative profession such as design, art, photography, or filmmaking, you imagined every day would be focused on the joy of creation.

In reality, you spend your day responding to a billion emails, wading through tedious and complex admin, wrestling with intractable technical challenges, and trying to keep everyone from co-workers to bosses to stakeholders happy and in the loop.

Not to mention the all-consuming headache of pleasing clients, who aren’t always the most polite and helpful and keep changing their minds.

And breathe.

The thing you actually love – the creative part where you get to unleash your imagination, come up with fresh ideas, and then bring your vision to life – you never seem to spend much time doing. Never mind, you think: I’ll focus on personal projects instead. And yet, when you get home and have some free time, you’re so emotionally and physically exhausted that you just want to have a bath and crash out in front of Netflix.

But don’t worry; you’re not alone. Hence, today is the start of National Work Life Week. Running from 7-13 October, this annual campaign encourages both employers and employees to focus on work-life balance and well-being in the workplace.

This annual seven-day event provides an ideal opportunity to reassess our approach to balancing career and creativity. So, with that in mind, let’s explore some thoughtful strategies that will allow you to thrive in both your career and your creative life without sacrificing your well-being.

1. Assess your current work situation

First of all, take an honest look at your job and how it impacts your creative energy. Be honest with yourself: is it draining you completely? Or does it provide a decent balance between the boring office stuff and actually being creative?

A lot of that will come down to whether your job complements your personality and artistic goals or fights against them. For example, suppose you’re working for a production company that makes socio-political documentaries. In that case, you may ultimately be happy to do a lot of crappy admin and a few late nights if you’re ultimately committed to the groundbreaking work you’re helping produce. But if that’s instead a dumb reality TV show made purely for the money, that equation starts to change.

We all have to pay bills and rent, and there’s no shame in staying in a job you hate until you find an alternative. But once you recognize a job is sucking your creativity, the important thing is to get your head out of the stand and start actively looking for something better. For tips on this, read our piece on How to change careers to one that’s more creative.

2. Create clear boundaries

Once you’re in a job that balances the boring and creative stuff, the next step is to maximize the latter and stop the former from taking over your life and crushing your soul. And that means establishing firm boundaries between work and creative time.

Firstly, this means not taking your work home with you and not answering phone calls and emails out of hours. Don’t feel bad about this: it’s already a legal requirement in many countries, so no one should think badly of you. And if they do, they’re probably not an employer you want to stick with.

In addition to negative boundaries, consider setting positive ones. For example, you might want to reserve specific hours of your day for creative side projects. Use ‘calendar blocking’ to allocate time for professional, artistic, and social endeavors, as well as exercise and relaxation, to ensure a balance in your life.

It can also be useful to designate separate spaces for different activities: your home office for remote working on your day job, a separate desk for side projects, and a studio for painting or photography.

3. Learn to say no

Setting boundaries is one thing, but there are also only so many hours in a day. So, the key to work-life balance is learning to say no.

Say no to invitations or opportunities that don’t align with your priorities. No to freelance clients that don’t feel like the right fit. No collaborations or partnerships you don’t have the time to develop properly. No to late-night social events when you know, you’ll suffer the next day.

This can be very difficult: we’re all people-pleasers at heart. But that’s exactly why learning to say no confidently is crucial for maintaining focus on your creative goals. Overcommitting will hurt your productivity, creativity, and ultimately all your relationships, work, and social. So start using phrases like “I can’t do Sunday because I always use those days to paint” to establish clear boundaries with everyone you know.

4. Optimise your peak creative hours

One of the best strategies for creative side projects is to identify when you’re most creatively productive and schedule your artistic pursuits during these times. This might mean, for example, waking up earlier, using your lunch break, or setting aside weekend mornings for creative work.

As well as times themselves, think about what physical state makes you most creative. For example, are you firing on all cylinders after exercising, meditating, or eating a large meal?

5. Start small and build consistency

This all sounds like a lot, and depending on how different it is from your current routine, it may well be. So don’t put pressure on yourself to dedicate hours to your creative pursuits immediately. Start with small, manageable chunks of time and gradually increase as you build the habit.

Even just 10 minutes a day can be a good start; it’s certainly better than zero minutes. If you gradually increase this time until it reaches an hour, it will make your progress feel meaningful and manageable.

6. Embrace imperfection

Yes, we all want our work to be perfect. But typically, too much emphasis on this can mean projects never get finished, so ultimately, what’s the point of them?

Ask yourself whether you really need to spend more time on a project before putting it out into the world or whether you’re just scared of doing so. It’s natural to fear negative feedback, but actually, that’s the only way we’re going to grow and develop our skills and creativity. So, instead, you need to learn to welcome it.

For more on this, read our five-step plan to positively tackle criticism of your work.

7. Make time for rest and reflection

Achieving a balance between career and creativity is about making the best of the time you have available. But it doesn’t mean spending every single hour on these pursuits: that will just leave you to crash and burn. So, setting aside downtime is crucial for restoring both your career drive and creativity.

In other words, don’t feel guilty about taking breaks or doing nothing occasionally. We need them for the sake of our mental and physical health. Plus, these moments often lead to new insights. Who hasn’t had one of their best ideas sitting in the bath or going on a long walk in nature?

8. Seek support and community

You don’t, of course, have to do this alone. Having a support system can provide encouragement, feedback, and motivation. And the creative community, on the whole, is a pretty friendly bunch. So, make an effort to look for local creative groups, online communities, or even just a few trusted friends who you can connect with and who understand your creative goals.

Conclusion

Above all, remember that finding balance in life is an ongoing process. So be kind to yourself during the highs and lows of your creative journey.

This National Work Life Week 2024, take some time to reflect on your own work-life balance. Consider implementing some of these strategies to nurture your creativity alongside your career. Remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach: experiment with different techniques to find what works best for you.

As a result, you’ll not only enhance your overall well-being but also bring fresh energy and perspective to all aspects of your life. Use National Work Life Week as a springboard to create lasting changes that support your career, fuel your creativity, and ultimately lead to a more fulfilling and balanced life.

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