How Creator Diversity Drives Innovation: The Future of Work is Gender Equal
Illustration by Cathy Libnic, modified by author in Canva
ICYMI: Republished excerpt from “Shouting into the Void is Tiring, but Working for “The Man” is Exhausting.” Originally published by the Goodmen Project in “Equality Includes You” [April 13, 2022]
As small business owners, independent consultants, academics, writers, and entrepreneurs, the people in our Collective are constantly writing, speaking, and posting. We write blogs and poetry, long form (if your Gen X and emo), tweets (if you’re a hold out), toots (if you’re a nerd), snaps (if your Gen Z). One thing’s for sure in the age of “We are the Media”— we all have a lot to say, especially me.
I write A LOT. Like a lot a lot—a few thousand words a day. I even started a 2nd blog for my long form, but alas…I had some things to do this spring. In 2019-2020, I wrote a 37 page research papers on The Future of Work and how we got to this moment of global unrest, inequity, burnout and collapse. This was the foundation and impetus for The Collective.
3 years later I updated the intro and gave it a makeover. Why? We don’t always need to post FRESH content. Recycling is healthy, including working papers. As a social entrepreneur, I pride myself on not reinventing the wheel. It’s one small way to make work better: leveraging existing work and building on it, conserving energy and creating regeneratively. Bonus: Credit people.
With that, I, along with those in our Collective, will always reuse, reshare, and repost solid creative with good information. With 9 Billion humans out there, and the amount of information on the internet doubling every half day, odds in 12 hours someone may have missed this content.
In case that’s you...
Does this sound familiar: 3+ hours to write a post. Find the best pic. Schedule it at the optimal time. Tag just the right person, pick the perfect hashtag. Hit Publish…
2 likes from your mom and partner, (if they even read it this time)? 😳
We lament if we should give up already, and there’s no shame in quitting. With no “engagement” to speak of, except from your karass (from Vonnegut; it essentially means “your people”) or occasional hater, self-doubt creeps in.
All the negativity makes you wonder: “Maybe my ideas aren’t that good after all?” Somehow deep down you still KNOW your work is more than good. You know it and they know it…“The people will come Ray,” and they sure do.
The reality is while we feel invisible…they* are listening, a lot.
*“The Powers That Be” are taking what we have to say to the bank. They debate your points before figuring out how to spin it as their own. For their concept or product they got $1.3 million in a seed round, investment-worthy ideas they got from you. Sure. They didn’t hear that from us.
For plausible deniability, they must feign ignorance, but people are listening. They’re reading. Pressing play. Taking note. Synthesizing. Lifting our ideas and throwing them into academic journals, pitch decks, highly SEO-ed blog posts, Twitter threads, and McKinsey’s Insights.
As outspoken women and non-binary writers, one of our regular readers is the “bro troll.” These guys find ways to disagree with statements like “Women are paid less” or “Our voices are not valued and respected.” Oh the irony! They show up to bicker for attention and simultaneously start to absorb your content. (At least they boost your signal, right?)
Bigger organizations with tons of cash pay consultants to surf the web for new ideas — they might be called trend researchers or cool hunters. They spend all damn day listening to us.
Culture and Business “experts” are reading your work, too…they aren’t [necessarily] amplifying, sharing, or boosting. Your idea is about to be expertly repackaged.
Meanwhile, we gifted the world (and these guys) the roadmap to saving the planet and humanity, as we try and claw our way out of another hole, the result of their “innovations.”
All we can do is do the work, “Leading with Purpose.” Because we know exactly where we’re headed if we don’t. Keep going! Read the rest of this article here, but first...
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