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victoirebisset · 4 years ago

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[ VICTOIRE ELISE BISSET. 28. CISFEMALE. SHE/HER] is here! They’ve lived in Silver Lake for [ SIX MONTHS ] and are originally from [ WELLESLEY, MASSACHUSETTS ]. They are a [ PUBLICIST ] and in their downtime love [ CATCHING A MOVIE AT CINEMA PARADISO ] and [ ENJOYING A NICE BOTTLE OF RED WINE ]. They look a lot like [ ELIZABETH OLSEN ] and live [ ON SILVERWOOD TERRACE ].

the basics

full name: victoire elise bisset.

nicknames: v or vic. never, and i do mean never, vicky.

birthplace: wellesley, massachusetts.

birthdate: january 9th, 1992.

zodiac sign: capricorn.

alignment: chaotic good.

personality type: estj.

personality traits: dogmatic, loquacious, reliable, patient, rancorous, affable, critical & forthright.

gender: cisfemale.

sexual / romantic orientation: heterosexual / heteroromantic.

the biography

the daughter to a (now) disgraced politician coming from old money and a disgruntled, yet loyal to a fault, housewife, there was never a time victoire didn’t know luxury — or chaos.

as a matter of fact, her entrance to the world was an example of both. the first — and what would ultimately be only — child to gabriel and nicolette bisset, there was no expense spared as they prepared for her arrival; hundreds of designer onesies she’d grow out of within weeks were purchased, an italian artist flown in and commissioned to hand paint a mural in her nursery and her mother only received the finest of prenatal care. for most, it was an ostentatious display that was NOT needed. but that has always been the bisset way. flamboyant and shameless flaunting of their wealth was the norm as it was, so of course they’d go all out when expecting a baby.

at the same time, there was a certain level of disappointment. as far as her father went, at least. he had been hoping for a son to follow in his footsteps. but, he’d tell his wife in an attempt to convince them both, a little girl wasn’t so bad — he’d love, cherish and spoil her regardless. and he did do at least two of those three things. but that son he’d been hoping for never came. once victoire was born, his wife refused to let him touch her. he assumed it was “baby hormones” but really it was because hours before her baby shower, nicolette had received a call from one of his mistresses confessing the affair because she felt “bad” knowing she was pregnant. nicolette never confronted her husband but their relationship was never the same.

growing up in the lapse of luxury, most would assume vic had nothing to complain about. while her material needs were always met, the emotional ones were often neglected. her mother, bless her heart, tried. but it wasn’t easy for her. nicolette was responsible for raising their child and presenting the bissets as the picture perfect family all while knowing her husband was fucking around on her. who wouldn’t become resentful dealing with that? snide comments were thrown across the dinner table, there were times she’d disappear in her room with a bottle of wine. she’d try to be there for her daughter as much as she could but she struggled. and her father, on the other hand, focused more on his career than his family. a lawyer turned politician, he campaigned, had frequent business meetings and a long list of secret lovers to split his time between. hard to be present with a schedule like that.

gabriel’s career choice was confusing for young victoire. there were those that publicly villainized him and thought he was the devil. there were those that put him on a pedestal. it was overwhelming... and alluring. her father was the mayor of wellesley her entire life and was even campaigning for senate when the “scandal” happened. it was always a part of her life and politics intrigued her. she’d dreamed of being the first woman president.

her father vowed to help her get into politics and the first step of that was hiring her to be his publicist as soon as she graduated from college. it was a blatant act of nepotism but at least she was really freakin’ good at her job. she gets word accusations of bribery would be hitting the local news and that same day there’s a press conference so shots of him shaking hands, kissing babies and making grand promises distracts from the news. his morality is called into question and he’s front and center campaigning for every local charity for six months. it was a bit grimey witnessing fully the seedy underbelly of politics and her idealistic view of it changed drastically. she no longer wanted to be president or a senator or anything else like that. she did, though, learn she really did like pr and enjoyed the role she had. at least until she was expected to pay off her father’s pregnant mistress who was threatening to spill the beans about their illicit affair.

while her mother had known about his infidelities for years, vic had no clue. she always assumed her father was working. that was why he couldn’t come to her recitals or presentations in school. that was why he was late to every single one of her birthday parties. she had convinced herself that her father wasn’t a scumbag but a highly ambitious politician and anyone else in his position would do the same.

to an extent, she had idolized her father — glorifying the parent who was never really there and whose approval she would have died to get. the version of him she had created was destroyed. she was furious, heartbroken and confused. she quit that very day and a week later, the news broke. that one woman speaking out opened the floodgates and years of affairs and other naughty behavior was broadcasted across the state. her mother would have made tammy wynette proud with how she stood by her man but victoire did not follow suit. she worked in public relations so she never outright spoke against him because no one would hire her after publicly blasting a former client in the press. even if it was her father. but she knew how to expertly throw shade. and she did. quite a few times, actually.

after she quit, victoire ended up in new york where she worked with a pr firm for a couple of years before getting a job with a more prestigious one in los angeles which prompted her move to silver lake. it’s been surprisingly difficult for her to adjust to life on the west coast. she’s a new england girl through and through and there’s just something about palm trees and sunshine that feels wrong. she also just really misses her family. well, just her mother really. they make do by facetiming twice a week and they’re even in the middle of discussing flying her out for the holidays. unfortunately, though, it’s unlikely to happen as her mother is insistent on bringing gabriel. victoire hasn’t seen or spoken to her father since the day she told him to go fuck himself and stormed out of his office. not because of any guilt from “abandoning” her father. — she’d add ‘essentially ruined my father’s political career’ to her resume if she thought it’d help her — but because she is still so damn angry. the closest thing to contact they have is him wiring her money every month. this “allowance” isn’t really needed, victoire makes a very good living without needing any of what she calls bisset blood money. but she allows it to continue because she considers it restitution for decades of lackluster parenting and lies.

where victoire really shines is her career. she’s relatively new to the scene — at least compared to most publicists in hollywood — with only seven years of experience under her belt but don’t confuse quantity with quality. if you are a public figure, you want vic on your team. she’s tenacious and, while some may view her methods as underhanded, there is no story she can’t get ahead of. and if she can’t distract from it entirely, she can turn it into a positive or at least paint her client as the victim. duis, public disagreements with significant others, leaked sex tapes. she’s seen it all. she’d dedicated to the cause and makes up her own rules, but also has a strict moral code so she won’t do something or work with someone that goes against that.

victoire thrives in social situations and really loves to hear herself talk. she also tends to assume she’s the smartest person in the room and just expects everyone to go along with what she says. and she doesn’t really handle it well when that doesn’t happen. some may say she’s stubborn, she says she’s a leader who likes to take charge and handle things. she’s a very honest and straightforward person who is clear about her intentions in a relationship whether it’s professional, platonic or romantic. she doesn’t play games, she’s not wishy-washy and she has a tendency to see the world in black and white.

coming from a long line of elitists, vic is proud to say that is at least one pattern she broke. she just isn’t one to parade around her wealth. yes, she has a nice house and she does tend to favor designer brands when it comes to clothing, but there really isn’t anything pretentious about her. the closest you’ll get is her having dinner at a five star restaurant or buying a ridiculously expensive bottle of wine. but that’s only because she likes good food and even better wine. she’s not one to show off and is just as likely to be seen at a fancy hollywood party mingling with clients as she is laying on her couch, wrapped up in blankets and watching golden girls reruns. she’s a combination of dorothy and blanche, by the way.

anyways, i think this is long enough so i’ll wrap it up and just say i am excited to be here and that i look forward to writing with you all. i’ll be reaching out to everyone regarding plots at some point (i say some point because i’m a slow typer with a small attention span who is currently working 60 hours a week so i’m easily distracted AND tired) but you can expedite the process by sending me a message or liking this and i’ll put you at the top of my list. in the meantime, though, feel free to just assume connections. we can go with the flow and i don’t require connections before interacting anyway. aaaand now i’m really stopping!

#slintro #oh my god this is a READ #i'm sorry this is so long #pls love me and her anyway

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iatselocal764 · 4 years ago

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National Hispanic-Latinx Heritage Month, 2020.

A Personal Essay by Andrea González

"My hope is that I will take the good from my experiences and extrapolate them further into areas with which I am unfamiliar. I simply do not know exactly what that difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage." -Justice Sotomayor. BrainyQuote.com, Sonia Sotomayor Quotes.

My parents left Guayaquil, Ecuador in search of a better life for their kids. At the time, Ecuador was under civil strife, considered a third world country internationally, and a military state. My dad's business destroyed; my parents tried to seek refuge in the United States but were denied. Canada allowed them and their little boy in. They found government housing near fellow Latinos from South America, in the greater Toronto area. It was tough going for a long time despite their skills. Both parents had thick accents and neither spoke or looked "Canadian". Eventually, they separated, and under my dad's custody, my brother and I continued our struggle that is common to immigrants: fitting in while different.

My dad's accent hampered his ability to climb the ladder in the clothing and manufacturing sector in Toronto. My stepmom, first generation Canadian of Polish-Transylvanian decent, had an easier time. Dad’s accent was “too thick”, and “couldn't be understood”. He lost a lot of work in Canada, and later in the United States; I never noticed his accent but ever slightly. Despite this, he created a successful consulting business while my stepmom’s career soared. In 1995, she was offered work in the United States, and we moved to Massachusetts. I had about a week to study the SAT’s before starting that fall at a university based on Beacon Hill. I graduated cum laude four years later.

Being an immigrant on a student visa was its own process of stress and humiliation. I had biometrics and blood samples taken at least twice, for two different federal and state departments. I was almost denied reentry into the US after attending my brother's wedding in Toronto. During my work-study program at the university, I became a young assistant supervisor at a well-known regional theater box office. Ready to graduate, I spoke to the managing director about sponsoring me so I could remain on a work visa, looking to eventually become a supervisor. Although they tried, I fell under the scope of taking away a job from an American. My career came to a full stop. Coincidentally, I met my former husband at that theater, but it was a few years yet before I found my way to the wardrobe union.

In 2001, we I moved to Manhattan. After 9/11, the soul-draining administrative work I had been doing at a classical music PR firm became too much to continue. I found myself at a non-union box office in midtown, with an opportunity to advance a few months in. At my interview, my supervisor shared her excitement that another woman, a minority woman, would be joining management. The conversation turned to salary, where talks stalled. I was asked, "…but you’re married, aren't you?" Two shocking turns of events in one meeting. I managed to state that it was illegal to be asked that question. As a man and head of household, married or not, she wouldn't have dared to ask.

Switching gears, they offered more money to start up a box office they were launching. I had to beg for help; when my part-time help eventually took over, they paid him $10,000 more. The question about pay parity, and women being head of their household, married or not, continues to haunt.

"…without women’s groups knocking on doors, I wouldn’t have gotten where I am. We need women to support each other. We still don’t have equal pay.” -Justice Sotomayor, interview with Sasha Galbraith for Forbes, Feb 5, 2013.

When I left that job, I was done with America seemingly shutting its doors on another struggling Latina. No more humiliation as an immigrant, while subjugated to “conditional legal status” of a spouse living under post 9/11 Department of Homeland Security. Alas, more was to come. More biometrics. More hours standing in line at the federal building downtown. More medically sealed records of bloodwork. More financial proof of not being a burden on the state. For about year, I couldn't get work and sunk into depression. By luck, I got a life-changing introduction to a wardrobe supervisor via a friendly connection. This led to another interview, eventual work, and training at a musical playing at the Music Box.

My career with the wardrobe union started that day.

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion." -Justice Sotomayor. Dana Bash and Emily Sherman contributing reporters to “Sotomayor's ‘wise Latina' comment a staple of her speeches”, CNN Politics, June 8, 2009.

To see this featured essay and more visit:

http://isabelalvear.com

#nationalhispaniclatinoheritagemonth #nationalvoter #unionvoter #unionvoices #local764strong #local764 #iatsewomenup #iatse764 #iatselocal764 #ia764 #latinovoices #hispanicvoices #isabelalvear

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kkruml · 7 years ago

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I don’t even know your name Chapter 17

@smoakingwaffles my yoda, love ye I do.

AO3

Previously

He heard the shower turn on and he smiled reflexively, looking down at his dusty and disheveled appearance, the exertion from her move still on his skin. One hand was already discarding his shirt as he stepped into the hallway towards the bathroom.

He stopped to take one final sweep of the flat, their flat- and eyed the pile of envelopes on the counter.

The corner of a thick manila envelope caught his attention- he saw the distinct mark of a hospital name printed. His smile faded and his brow creased as two fingers, slightly shaking, pushed the pile of envelopes enough to see the return address and he froze.

Massachusetts General Hospital- Surgical Residency Admissions Office

His eyes stared at the envelope as his pulse filled his ears; his world slowly faded to black as he stumbled backwards and hit the hardwood floor.

Jamie

It was her birthday; she deserved a perfect night.

She deserved to be happy. No matter where she was. He wanted- needed- answers. He feared what she would say. He was desperate to know. But he would have to wait.

One more night to cherish her before it all crumbled away.

One night to imagine every possible scenario that ended with her leaving.

Just make it through tonight.

Claire

I had never thought much of my birthday. My childhood had been spent on archaeological digs, scouring books in libraries for ancient secrets. The calendar hadn’t meant much to me until med school. And now, with Jamie, I eagerly checked my schedule against his, looking for precious hours to spend together.

Having spent the better part of the day packing and unpacking my little corner of the world and settling it amongst his, I had been given the best gift of all.

Jamie.

And- that- I intended to celebrate.

We had ordered another round- two drams of Glen Grant and two pints of stout. Jamie’s arm stretched along the back of my chair as my arm rested softly at his side. The final syllables of Joe’s punch line prompted a snort from Gail as I hiccupped into my glass and I laughed, trying to find my breath. I felt the low hum reverberate from Jamie’s chest and I leaned into the sound, one hand cupping his knee as I felt the line of his thigh press against mine.

Flashes of the life I had always wanted finally came into focus. Nights were not filled with formal dinners and expensively ostentatious bottles of wine, with etiquette and manners at the forefront and education and politics meticulously woven in. No. Instead, they were filled with pub food, cheap beer, good whisky, and my favorite stories made new again with Jamie by my side.

Joe launched into another memory from our neurology rotation and I felt a long sigh from Jamie. His eyes were focused on Joe, head nodding slightly as he listened but I caught the slight tick of movement in his cheek, as if he was wincing, though it did not fit the story he was hearing.

He had been quiet tonight; I had eyed him speculatively more than once, sensing fatigue. His breath came hard at times, as if a weight lay on his chest. His eyes were hooded and I scarcely saw the sea of deep blue, but felt the familiar heat emanate from his chest and I settled myself next to him, basking in the warm glow of bliss I hadn’t felt in a long time.

I felt the drum of Jamie’s fingers along the chair, against my shoulder. My eyes searched for his, but he stopped short of meeting my gaze. Instead, one corner of his mouth curled slightly as he pulled his arm from me to take a drink of whisky.

Jamie

Boston.

His ears heard the deep, velvety voice, but all he could focus on was the neat, even print on the envelope.

Boston.

That word, that thought, kept trickling back into his mind despite his best efforts. He fought every urge to ask, and each time their eyes met he felt his tongue fight the word as it tried to form. Instead his hand found hers and pulled it to his mouth, gently kissing her knuckles. He heard, almost felt her sigh as his lips lingered against her skin for a moment, soaking in her smell and touch, before resting them both on his thigh. His heart pulsed both in love and in pain at the light hum of her laugh while anticipating the next line in a well-worn and beloved story.

Boston.

He wanted to be near her, encompass her, pour himself into her and drink them both together. The sting of the word would shock his senses and it took all his energy not to retreat. He needed space, needed to be near her, needed to be alone and yet together all in one moment. His thoughts spun in an endless circle as Joe’s voice seeped in, feeling ivory skin locked between his fingers. He set back against the chair, cold and firm, exhaling hard as he nodded, hearing faint traces of the words floating around him.

The tension between his shoulder blades could have snapped with a light touch. They walked slowly up the steps to their flat. Their flat- the words sent a hot spike into his chest as his mind started swirling once again.

As he pushed the door closed behind them, he turned to see her staring at him, close- too close, not close enough. Her eyes found his, whisky eyes glowed in the dim light- embers burning into his soul.

“Jamie,” she whispered; her voice low and full. She smiled as her eyes softened and her hand reached for his. “Take me to bed.”

He felt the hot spike penetrate his rib cage as her words hit him. His feet were locked in place, his hands burning to feel her skin against his. He wanted nothing more than to kiss, touch, caress every inch of her but felt his heart contract at the thought.

Her eyes flickered in doubt, her smile fading as her hand fell slightly. “Please?”

The word broke his spell. He stepped towards her and without a word his lips found hers as his fingers locked into her curls. His tongue traced hers as she moaned into his mouth, her hands reaching for his arms, fingers pressed into muscle. Without breaking their kiss, he slowly walked her back into the apartment, his hands moving to her waist, pulling her closer against him.

Her skin pulsed against his. Fingertips traced the lines of her curves as her breath filled his lungs. His tongue dipped from breast to rib cage and across her ivory skin. His lips grazed her collarbone and lingered against her neck, soaking in the faint traces of lavender on her and as it mixed with the honey on his breath. Small gasps escaped her lips as her back arched, their hips pressed against each other. Her fingers grasped for his curls and pulled his face to hers, deep blue drinking in her deep amber.

He entered her slowly, savoring each sensation, watching her lower lip quiver as he moved gently, purposefully. His eyes traced the lines of her face from her cheek to her chin, the curve of her lip as she brought her face to his. His eyes watched every movement, memorizing every sound that escaped her lips. Shadows of this moment would haunt him long after heat of her skin had left his fingertips. He pressed deeper, seeking for possession, both of her and his own. As the rhythm slowly brought them to pieces, she cried out his name- her voice written on his soul as he shattered around her.

Claire

I felt weightless, adrift. My hand reached for him and found his pillow, empty. The deep contentment that coursed through me the night before dissipated as I yearned for his warmth, his steady heartbeat pulsing around me.

I found him sitting at the table; shoulders slouched slightly as he sipped his coffee, eyes fixated on the crack in the wood. My cup of tea was sitting next to him, as it was every morning.

I smiled as I walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder and as I kissed his cheek, I felt his muscles tense. “Good morning, Sassenach.”

“Good morning, sleep well?” I asked, trying to coax a smile but was met with hooded eyes.

He took a small sip and as he swallowed, I heard a low, “Mmph.”

“Jamie,” I asked, “Is something wrong?”

One hand rested on a thick envelope, fingers drumming lightly as he slowly slid it to me. His eyes finally met mine and burned my skin.

Massachusetts General Hospital- Surgical Residency Admissions Office

My eyes stared at the emblem, and my heart stopped. One hand trembled as I broke the seal and slowly pulled the top sheet out enough to see the first few words. I blinked twice before trying to focus on each letter.

Miss Beauchamp, We are pleased to announce the opening of a position in the Surgical Residency Program.

A thousand fragmented thoughts flashed across my vision as I stared at the words, unable to move or speak.

“… Boston, then?” His voice was low, almost a whisper, but it was thick with anticipation.

My face lifted from the blue and white emblem on the envelope to see his eyes- a dark storm behind a carefully crafted dam- staring back at me, waiting. “Jamie…”

My heart was pounding against my ribcage and my lungs struggled for air as I tried to piece it all together.

Boston. Scotland. Jamie. Home.

“Jamie,” I tried again, my voice was hoarse and shook slightly. “I applied for this program but that was over a year ago, that was before…”

“Before me.” His eyes dropped back to the table, he pressed his hands together and rubbed one palm with his thumb.

“Before a lot of things.” I tried to clarify, but his eyes were a thousand miles and two hundred years away.

“If ye hadna met me, would ye go?”

“It’s more complicated than that.” My hand reached for his and tried to interlock our fingers. His hand did not resist but his fingers lay motionless. The movement that had all been but a reflex was suddenly a distant memory. I tried to clear my throat, to find focus, “I was weight-listed there, a position opened up so I’m next in line… if I want it.”

“Claire,” he paused, and raised his face to mine, eyes wide and unassuming. “Do ye want to go?”

“To this program?” I clarified, trying to find a few precious moments to sort out my thoughts.

“Aye.”

“It’s an incredible program. Anyone would lucky to be there.” My voice shook slightly as I tried to steady it.

“Yer no’ answerin’ my question.” His accent was growing thicker as I felt a distance form between us.

“Do you want me to go?” I felt my chin quiver as tears threatened.

“No-“ The word sounded broken as he took a deep breath, and shook his head slightly. “No I dinna want ye to go,” his eyes were a tumultuous storm as his voice shook. “But ye need to do this. Ye need to go to Boston.”

“But Jamie-“ the panic was seeping into my voice as I stared at him, his face as flushed as mine felt. “Things are d-different now.”

“I wilna be the reason ye miss out on this,” he pushed his chair away from the table, eyes focused as he took a deep breath before turning to leave the room. The sound of his feet on the hardwood floor pulsed in my chest to the beat of my heart.

“Please,” my voice cracked as I my head fell into my hands, fingers shifting into my curls as I felt the tears form. “Please don’t do this.”

He paused, turning back to see me. I heard two deep breaths before I felt slow, careful footsteps behind me and I felt large hands encompass me. His arms locked around me as his chest rested against my back.

“Mo nighean donn,” his face nestled into my curls, his lips finding my cheek as he sighed heavily.

My hands grasped his arms, strong and warm as I tried to steady my breathing. “Jamie-” but the words wouldn’t come. I closed my eyes, feeling the nearness of him and letting him fill my senses.

“I dinna want ye to leave, but I canna bear to be the reason ye stay.” His arms tightened around me as I felt a warm droplet meet my cheek, and I felt a small cough from Jamie’s chest.

The tension in the air was snapped by the deafening sound of my phone ringing. I stared at the screen, unmoving, still clenching Jamie’s arms, unwilling to let him move. My eyes locked onto the name calling and I felt my heart beat loudly in my chest. One hand slowly reached for the phone, shaking slightly.

On the fourth ring, I finally hit answer.

I tried to compose my voice, failing miserably, "Gail?”

“Claire-Claire! Please, you have to come to the hospital. It’s Joe…” My mind went blank as the phone slipped out of my hand and hit the table. Arms around me tightened as I felt a cold chill in my bones, his heat unable to penetrate my thoughts.

“Claire? What’s wrong?”

Flashes of images ran through my mind but all I could manage through a wisp of a voice was “Joe.”

#idekyn #i don't even know your name fic #outlander #fan fic #outlander fan fic

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thesproutpr · 5 months ago

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Public Relations Firm | The Sprout PR Elevate your brand with a leading public relations firm. They manage media relations, handle crises, and execute strategic communications to enhance public images and build strong audience relationships.

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blog-cosmosuniverse1 · 3 years ago

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The Conspiracy That Allows Murder Without Accountability

In October 2020, Purdue Pharma — owned and operated by members of the Sackler family — pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges and reached a settlement totaling $8.3 billion. August 11, 2021, a federal judge granted the Sackler family legal immunity against future litigation In July 2021, Johnson & Johnson and three drug distributors agreed to pay a combined settlement of $26 billion in a multistate settlement over their roles in the opioid epidemic. They too got a sweetheart of a deal, as the settlement amounts to just 4% of the four companies’ annual revenue In May 2021, the Massachusetts attorney general filed a lawsuit against Publicis Health, accusing it of helping Purdue create the deceptive marketing materials used to mislead doctors into prescribing OxyContin The Publicis Groupe is a partner of the World Economic Forum, which is leading the call for a Great Reset in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Publicis also funded the startup of NewsGuard, which is now censoring COVID-19 information NewsGuard’s health-related service, HealthGuard, is partnered with the Center for Countering Digital Hate — a progressive cancel-culture leader with extensive ties to government and global think tanks that has labeled people questioning the COVID-19 vaccine as “threats to national security”

At the end of October 2020, Purdue Pharma, owned and operated by members of the Sackler family, pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges and reached a settlement totaling $8.3 billion.1The U.S. Department of Justice probe found Purdue had intentionally fueled the deadly opioid epidemic using unethical, untruthful and illegal marketing practices. At the time, Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, commented:2“For there to be accountability for the corporate-fueled opioid addiction epidemic, which has cruelly taken hundreds of thousands of lives, there must be prosecution of those members of the Sackler family who, along with other executives and owners, were responsible for Purdue Pharma’s deadly deception, as well as a stripping away of their ill-gotten gains from an evil scheme to push addictive drugs for profit.”Sackler Family Let Off Scot-Free Well, that simply wasn’t to be. August 11, 2021, a federal judge granted the Sackler family legal immunity against future litigation over their role in the opioid epidemic.3 The obvious question is why?The Sacklers knew their drug was highly addictive and responsible for nearly half a million U.S. overdose deaths in the decade between 1999 and 2019,4 yet they chose to hide that fact and encouraged doctors to overprescribe.Purdue’s sales representatives were extensively coached on how to downplay the drug’s addictive potential, claiming addiction occurred in less than 1% of patients being treated for pain. Meanwhile, research5 shows addiction affects as many as 26% of those using opioids for chronic noncancer pain. The results were predictable. Patients became addicted at record rates, and when they couldn’t obtain more OxyContin, they turned to street drugs like heroin and fentanyl. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,6 841,000 Americans died from drug overdoses between 1999 and 2019, and opioids were involved in 70.6% of the overdose deaths that occurred in 2019.It’s quite remarkable that our legal system is letting the Sacklers get off scot-free, seeing how they were clearly in charge of the company’s deadly decisions.7,8,9 Adding insult to injury, the Sacklers decided to cash in on the problem they created by developing and selling addiction treatment.10,11 As reported by Nation of Change:12“Purdue will be bankrupt, but members of the multi-billionaire Sackler family — who were responsible for the decisions that led to these deaths and profited the most from Purdue’s opioid dealings — will gain near-total immunity from future litigation. By the time the settlement is paid out they most likely will be as wealthy as they ever were. So where does personal responsibility come in?”Hold the Sacklers Accountable in the Public Sphere In 2018, Paul Hanly, a leading attorney in the case against Purdue, referred to the Sacklers as “a crime family … drug dealers in nice suits and dresses.”13 Indeed, yet the Sacklers had carefully built a public image of themselves as a family of “philanthropists,” donating a fraction of their ill-gotten wealth to prestigious medical schools and fancy museums through the years.As noted by Nation of Change, “In return for the donation, honorees are imbued with moral approval.” Well, it’s time to retract that moral approval, and the only ones who can do that is us. We need to demand that those who took Sacklers’ donations recognize the harm the family has done, and strip the Sacklers of their honors.“Richard Sackler and other family members involved in this tragedy deserve to be shamed,” Nation of Change writes.14 “Institutions that took their blood money should remove the Sackler name from their centers, professorships, buildings, and pediments. If they won’t be held accountable in a court of law, they must be held accountable at least in the public sphere.”In the video below, Patrick Bet-David interviews Dr. Chris Johnson, an emergency medicine physician, about the opioid epidemic and the role of unethical drug companies. As noted by Johnson, drug companies appear to

view fines for illegal activities as a routine business expense. It’s a great business model. They can easily afford the fines if caught so shareholders are protected, and no one goes to jail. The only people who get hurt are the patients.

Other Opioid Makers Get Sweetheart Deals

Purdue isn’t the only opioid maker whose executives have been spared accountability for their deadly decisions. In July 2021, Johnson & Johnson and three drug distributors — AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson — agreed to pay a combined settlement of $26 billion in a multistate settlement over their roles in the opioid epidemic.15

They too got a sweetheart of a deal, as the $26 billion settlement amounts to just 4% of the four companies annual revenue. In an article for CounterPunch, Richard Eskow writes:16

“Apparently, that’s what attorneys general for a number of states thought was adequate compensation for all the lost lives, for the mothers living on the street and the children born addicted, for the grieving families, desolate neighborhoods, and dying communities.

��Distributors can easily bear this burden,’ analysts at a stock market firm wrote. ‘We haven’t popped the champagne yet, but the bottle is definitely chilling.’ Having lost a close family member to an opioid overdose, I was unable to get over my fury for days after reading this sentence.”

Great Reset Promoter Sued for Deceptive Marketing

While Purdue’s owners, the Sackler family, got off without so much as a slap on the wrist, states struggling with the exorbitant cost of opioid addiction aren’t ready to bury the hatchet just yet. Instead, some are going after the PR firm that created and ran Purdue’s deceptive marketing campaigns.

As it turns out, that PR firm is none other than the Publicis Groupe, a partner of the World Economic Forum, which is leading the call for a Great Reset in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While Publicis is part of an enormous network that includes international drug companies, fact checkers, Big Tech companies, the banking industry, the U.S. government, the World Health Organization and the World Economic Forum, just to name a few, Publicis appears to be a key player when it comes to coordinating the global effort to censor COVID-related information.

Publicis Health admitted its involvement in this censorship agenda as recently as April 27, 2021. In a tweet,17 the agency announced its partnership with NewsGuard, “to fight the ‘infodemic’ of misinformation about COVID-19 and its vaccines.” In short, Publicis Health is dedicated to suppressing any information that hurts its Big Pharma clients.

Publicis is more than a partner with NewsGuard, however. NewsGuard actually received a large chunk of its startup capital from Publicis. NewsGuard, a self-proclaimed arbiter of truth, rates websites on criteria of “credibility” and “transparency,” ostensibly to guide viewers to the most reliable sources of news and information.

In reality, however, NewsGuard ends up acting as a gate keeper with a mission to barricade unpopular truth and differences of opinion behind closed gates. Its clearly biased ranking system easily dissuades people from perusing information from low-rated sites.

PR Has Replaced the Free Press

To understand the power that PR companies such as Publicis wield, you also need to realize that PR has, by and large, replaced the free press. In decades’ past, pro-industry advertising stood in stark contrast to the free press, which would frequently expose problems with products and industries, thereby serving as a counterbalance to industry propaganda.

When a free press with honest reporting based on verifiable facts actually does its job, ineffective or toxic products are driven off the market. All of this changed in the late 20th century, when media outlets started relying on advertisers for the bulk of their revenues.

Journalists came under the control of advertisers, who now had the power to kill stories they didn’t like. Today, news organizations simply won’t run reports that might harm the bottom line of its advertisers and, not surprisingly, the drug industry is among the top-paying advertisers.

By further partnering with the “big guns” of media — such as the Paley Center for Media, which is composed of every major media in the world18 — Publicis and its industry clients have been able to influence and control the press to virtually eliminate the public’s ability to get the truth on many important issues, including COVID-19.

Seeing how Publicis represents most of the major pharmaceutical companies in the world and funded the creation of NewsGuard, it’s not far-fetched to assume Publicis might influence NewsGuard’s ratings of drug industry competitors, such as alternative health sites. Being a Google partner,19,20 Publicis also has the ability to bury undesirable views that might hurt its clientele.

NewsGuard’s health-related service, HealthGuard,21 is also partnered with the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) — a progressive cancel-culture leader22 with extensive ties to government and global think tanks that has labeled people questioning the COVID-19 vaccine as “threats to national security.”

Publicis Knowingly Promoted Over-Prescription

Getting back to the issue of opioids, at the beginning of May 2021, the Massachusetts attorney general filed a lawsuit23 against Publicis Health, accusing the Publicis subsidiary of helping Purdue create the deceptive marketing materials used to mislead doctors into prescribing OxyContin.24,25,26,27 As reported by Yahoo! News:28

“The lawsuit alleges that Publicis ‘engaged in myriad unfair and deceptive strategies that influenced OxyContin prescribing across the nation,’ a statement by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey's office said. Those strategies were carried out through dozens of contracts between 2010 and 2019, worth more than $50 million …

Tactics included combatting doctors' ‘hesitancy’ to prescribe the medication, and persuading them to prescribe OxyContin over lower-dose, short-acting opioids, thus increasing the risk of addiction. Massachusetts is asking that Publicis Health pay ‘compensatory damages’ of an unspecified amount for having ‘created a public nuisance.’"

The complaint further notes that:29

“By design, Publicis’ schemes worked to counter public health measures intended to reduce unnecessary opioid use, because more opioid use generated more profits for Publicis’ opioid clients.”

Publicis Health’s Damaging PR Is Just ‘Business as Usual’

Publicis Health argues that its work for Purdue was lawful and limited to “implementing Purdue’s advertising plan and buying media space.” But according to the lawsuit, Publicis’ work included:

Placing illegal advertisements for OxyContin in the electronic medical records of patients

Creating training materials for Purdue sales reps on how to combat doctor’s objections to the drugs

Developing strategies to counter opioid guidelines issued by the CDC

Creating “patient stories” to “humanize” the OxyContin brand and counter negative press about addiction risks.30,31 One such patient vignette featured a 40-year-old man who had his dose increased from 10 milligrams (mg) a day to 20 mg in just three weeks

Creating and sending thousands of deceptive emails to doctors, encouraging them to not only increase patients’ dosages but also to prescribe the drug to patients who were already on less dangerous pain meds32

The lawsuit also alleges that Publicis instructed Purdue to target doctors who were already writing out dangerously high numbers of prescriptions, even in the midst of a raging opioid epidemic,33 all while agency executives gleefully discussed the record fees they’d collect from the Purdue account. A March 2016 email exchange reveals the Publicis subsidiary was expecting to make up to $12.28 million from Purdue that year alone.

Time to Reevaluate Marketing Ethics

While Publicis is trying to downplay its role in what has been described as the crime of the century, the lawsuit against it will hopefully result in a reevaluation of marketing ethics. The agency, knowing full well there was an epidemic of opioid abuse underway, took on the job of increasing Purdue’s profits by making that lethal trend worse.

Publicis’ view that public health is of no concern when creating drug PR also tells us something about the COVID shot PR push we’re currently experiencing.

Publicis claims they were just doing what advertising agencies do — they created promotional materials that boost client revenue. However, this argument circumvents any notion of ethics and concern about public health. They’re basically admitting that it’s all about making money, regardless of the cost.Even if their actions were within legal limits (which the Massachusetts case will eventually establish), their actions were immoral and clearly undermined public health.Seeing how Publicis represents most of the biggest drug companies in the world, this raises the question of ethics in drug advertising in general. Publicis’ view that public health is of no concern when creating drug PR also tells us something about the COVID shot PR push we’re currently experiencing.Censorship Works Against Public Health as Well Publicis wants you to believe they are protecting public health by supporting COVID-19 censorship, but this is actually having the opposite effect. How can you possibly make an educated decision about COVID “vaccination” if you’re not allowed to learn anything about the risks?What Publicis calls “misinformation” is simply information that contradicts the propaganda dictated by the hands that feed it, i.e., the drug industry. History tells us companies driven by profit interest make poor truth tellers, as negative information will clearly have a detrimental impact on their bottom line. So, they lie and obfuscate. It’s that simple.Public relations firms like Publicis are mere arms of these notoriously untruthful industries. They do their bidding because that’s what they’re paid to do. To think that Big Pharma and paid propagandists are looking out for anyone but themselves is naïve in the extreme.It is actually ironic doublespeak that Publicis claims to defend against misinformation that puts the public at risk, while having played a crucial role in a lethal health care scheme that was built on lies and deceit.Struggling With Opioid Addiction? Seek Help! In closing, remember that opioids — regardless of the brand — are extremely addictive drugs that are not meant for long-term use for nonfatal conditions. Chemically, opioids are very similar to heroin, and if you wouldn’t consider shooting up heroin for that toothache or backache, you really should reconsider taking an opioid to relieve your pain.If you’ve been on an opioid for more than two months, if you find yourself taking higher dosages or taking the drug more often, you may be addicted and are advised to seek help from someone other than your prescribing doctor. Resources where you can find help include:Your workplace Employee Assistance Program The Substance Abuse Mental Health Service Administration34 can be contacted 24 hours a day at 1-800-622-HELP

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newstfionline · 7 years ago

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In the Philippines, divided politics, divided web

Jessica Mendoza, CS Monitor, April 9, 2018

MANILA--Mocha Uson sweeps into her office at the presidential compound, assistant at her booted heels. She’s late, rushing in from another engagement that ran longer than planned. But she appears composed, almost reserved, as she arranges herself on a faux-leather settee and waits for the interview to begin.

In this setting it’s hard to picture Esther Margaux Uson, known countrywide as “Mocha,” sashaying across a stage in vinyl hot pants or dispensing advice on sex and relationships. Yet for the better part of a decade, provocative entertainment was the core of her career--first fronting for the Mocha Girls, an all-female music group known for racy numbers, and later responding to intimate reader questions via a series of written and video blogs.

Then in 2015, she learned about Rodrigo Duterte.

“He was different from traditional politicians. And at the time … there weren’t any well-known personalities who publicly supported him,” Ms. Uson says in a mix of English and Tagalog. “So I said, ‘I have to make a stand.’”

Through the first few months of 2016, she stunned the Philippine political world by converting the Mocha Uson Blog to an online rallying point for supporters of President Duterte. Its transformation was in some ways the singular product of a nation that regularly elects celebrities into government and ranks first in the world in social media use.

Her ascent, however, also reflects an evolving global political landscape, where information is democratized and every opinion has the opportunity to find a platform. Citizens can directly hold institutions like media and government accountable, while the latter can respond to their constituents sans mediator. Given reach and charisma, anybody with a voice--sex symbols, high-school students, TV comedians, real-estate moguls--can scale the heights of political influence and authority.

The price is often decreased civility, and consensus, say experts. Tribal lines are quickly drawn and held, and fact becomes flightier, hard to pin down and easy to manipulate. The social-media savvy--both individual and corporate--possess more power than ever to shape the tone, trajectory, and themes of political discourse.

Few countries today epitomize this new reality as clearly as the Philippines, the social-media capital of the world, with a norm-breaking president whose campaign supporters harnessed this shifting online landscape to win the election. And few individuals embody it as clearly as Uson. As the 2016 campaign season picked up steam, her name became inseparable from the Duterte lobby, drawing animosity and acclaim in near-equal measure from Filipinos at home and abroad. Her Facebook base has since ballooned from 2.5 million to more than 5 million--a figure that remains unrivaled even by the head of state she serves. In May 2017, after a brief stint with the government’s entertainment regulation board, she was named assistant secretary at the Presidential Communications Operations Office.

Uson shrugs when confronted with her apparent success. “The journey has been colorful and exciting. And I have a sense of fulfillment,” she says. But to her, much of the road thus far seems inevitable. Her feelings about Duterte’s candidacy compelled her to speak out on his behalf, she says, and she felt just as obliged to use Facebook to do so. Because what better way to spread an idea than on a platform that boasts up to 67 million users in the Philippines?

“Everything is on social media,” Uson says. “We can’t avoid the fact that it’s the direction information dissemination is going.”

Experts around the world have been making similar pronouncements since at least 2008, when Barack Obama became among the first politicians to leverage social networks to get out the vote. Less than three years later, the Arab Spring--the series of revolutionary protests that, thanks to Twitter, swept across Tunisia, Egypt, and the Middle East--became, briefly, a symbol of social media’s potential to reinvigorate democracy.

Today about 2.6 billion people use social media worldwide, up from fewer than a billion in 2010. From India to Sudan, the US to the U.K., social media--and the very public web of information and misinformation it weaves--has helped elect leaders, birth movements, crush rebellions, and intensify divides.

Mr. Duterte’s election proved to be the watershed moment for social media and politics in the Philippines. Leading up to 2016, frustration with political leadership after decades of what was widely perceived as weak and corrupt government coincided with a rise in affordable mobile data plans. Filipinos yearning for political change had better access than ever to the online political sphere.

“It made it so much cheaper to engage with each other,” says Tony La Viña, former dean of the School of Government at Ateneo de Manila University. “People felt very liberated to be able to participate in debates, to have [their] opinions disseminated.”

For those who understood the social media space, it also meant new opportunities to amass both profit and political capital. Bloggers like Uson--”influencers,” in public relations parlance--rose to prominence, becoming the most powerful voices for those who had felt excluded from public discourse. Indeed, much of the success of social media in Philippine politics has pivoted on the perception that it is the unvarnished and authentic alternative to traditional media: the newspapers, television and radio stations, and online news sites that Duterte supporters say all but ignored the president’s campaign and continue to smear his administration with negative stories.

“It was the erosion of trust in mainstream [news outlets]. People were looking for an alternative voice,” says pro-Duterte blogger Rey Joseph Nieto, also known as “Thinking Pinoy” (a Tagalog slang term for Filipino). “They found me, [blogger] Sass [Rogando Sasot], and Mocha--for better or for worse.”

“Fake news” is a constant preoccupation of bloggers on the other end of the political spectrum, as well. But their goal is to support, not subvert, traditional media.

“Most of my posts are about debunking false propaganda and calling out the shortcomings of government officials,” says Jover Laurio, whose Pinoy Ako Blog (“I am Filipino”) drew attention for its cutting letters addressed to the administration and its allies.

“And to stop the killing,” she adds, referring to the president’s violent antidrug campaign. “Every time I write a letter, I pray that they read it.”

Less conspicuous than the blogger cohort are the PR and marketing firms who manage politicians’ social media campaigns. A report released earlier this year explored the extent to which such firms, and the strategists who run them, have developed a blueprint for manipulating political opinion in the Philippines via social media. Using the techniques of corporate marketing, these “architects of networked disinformation” hire teams of “digital influencers” to push a particular message on Facebook comment sections and Twitter feeds. The campaigns, which can involve seeding revisionist history or hijacking attention through artificial hashtags, are motivated largely by profit, according to the report.

“The thing about social media is, its incentive structures are about visibility,” says Jonathan Corpus Ong, co-author of the report and associate professor of global digital media at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. “What comes up on our news feed is the one that is more popular and is most liked. There are ways in which these algorithms can be gamed and manipulated. That’s made it easy for particular operators to weaponize [it] for politics.”

The effects of all this on the Philippine political space have been far-reaching--and familiar, to audiences following social media’s effects in the West. Online vitriol is at an all-time high. Trust in traditional media outlets is at an equivalent low, with Filipino webizens saying they trust social media more than mainstream publications.

And there’s the sense that, especially on social media, there exist two realities. In one, the Philippines is a place of fear and chaos, where innocents are gunned down in the streets and a foul-mouthed despot encourages ruthless justice against those who defy him. In the other, the country is just beginning to ascend to economic heights and international prestige through the ministrations of a strong, if somewhat vulgar, leader willing to do what needs to be done.

#Philippines #social media in the Philippines #Esther Margaux Uson #Rodrigo Duterte

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primascriptura · 4 years ago

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FDIC Names Five New Members to Its Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee

Press Release

July 23, 2020

FDIC Names Five New Members to Its

Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee

WASHINGTON—The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) today named five new members to its Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee (SRAC), which was created by the Board of Directors in 2011 to provide the agency with advice and recommendations on a broad range of issues regarding the resolution of systemically important financial companies.

"The FDIC is fortunate to have these distinguished individuals join this Advisory Committee. Their collective knowledge will be a tremendously valuable resource for us to draw on," said FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams.

The SRAC, which is comprised of 16 members, is intended to facilitate discussion on how the FDIC’s resolution authority granted under the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 may impact covered entities and others. It serves in an advisory capacity and does not have final decision-making authority, or access to any non-public, confidential information on any organizations.

Committee members have a wide range of experience managing complex firms; administering bankruptcies; and working in the legal system, accounting field, and academia.

The five new members of the SRAC are:

Dr. Ben S. Bernanke, Distinguished Fellow in residence with the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution, Former Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Gary Cohn, Former Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council

Hon. Robert Drain, United States Bankruptcy Judge, Southern District of New York

Timothy J. Mayopoulos, President of Blend, Former President and Chief Executive Officer of Fannie Mae

Sandie O’Connor, Former Chief Regulatory Affairs Officer for JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The 11 current members of the SRAC are:

Sheila C. Bair, Former Chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Michael C. Bodson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation

Hon. Shelley C. Chapman, United States Bankruptcy Judge, Southern District of New York

H. Rodgin Cohen, Senior Chairman, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP

William H. Donaldson, Former Chairman, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

Peter R. Fisher, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Business and Government at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University

Richard J. Herring, Co-Director, The Wharton Financial Institutions Center and Professor of Finance, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Donald Kohn, Former Vice Chairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and Senior Fellow, Economic Studies Program, Brookings Institution

Douglas L. Peterson, President and Chief Executive Officer, S&P Global

John S. Reed, Former Chairman and CEO of Citigroup and Former Chairman, Corporation of Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Gary H. Stern, Former CEO and President, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and Presiding Director and Chair of the Board Risk Committee at the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation

For more information on the SRAC, visit the FDIC's website at https://www.fdic.gov/about/srac.

# # #

MEDIA CONTACT:

David Barr (703) 622-4790 [email protected]

FDIC: PR-85-2020

The FDIC does not send unsolicited e-mail. If this publication has reached you in error, or if you no longer wish to receive this service, please unsubscribe.

Stay Connected

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thesproutpr · 5 months ago

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PR Agencies in Sacramento | The Sprout PR

Looking for top PR agencies in Sacramento? These firms specialize in media relations, crisis management, and strategic communication, enhancing the public image of individuals, businesses, and organizations to foster positive audience relationships.

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arplis · 4 years ago

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Arplis - News: Telling exceptional truths Ft. Katie Martell (Inbound Success, Ep. 146)

How can brands stand out and drive incredible customer loyalty?

This week on The Inbound Success Podcast, Katie Martell talks about what it means to find your "exceptional truth" as a brand, and why that should be the guide for everything you do as a marketer.

As Katie says, "the only thing in the middle of the road, is roadkill," and brands that fail to speak their truth get lost in the crowd.

In our conversation, we wade into the controversial waters of whether and when brands should speak out and take a stand, and how to do it in a way that keeps you tightly aligned with your customers.

Highlights from my conversation with Katie include:

Katie says it is the job of the marketer to understand what is happening in the world.

Marketing controls brand perception, and brand perception influences whether someone will buy from you.

If you're in marketing, you have to understand where your brand fits in the world of your buyer's identity.

When you know what your buyers care about, you can align that with your brand values, and you have an opportunity to take a position that will strengthen your place in the market.

Katie says that brands that don't take a position get lost in a crowded marketplace and are not a part of the conversation.

By taking a stance about what you believe, you can change the conversation in your market and, in doing so, become a market leader.

Katie says brands need to find "exceptional truths" - little kernels of truth that get buyers to stop, pause, and rethink the way they see the world.

When you've created that seed of doubt, buyers are open. They're leaning in, they're listening to what else you have to say. And that is when marketing works at its best. That's when they're more receptive to your pitch.

This takes knowing buyers so well that you know where they're misinformed or what they don't know or what they don't understand so that you can challenge that.

This approach is based on the concepts outlined in the book The Challenger Sale, which is typically used in the sales world but has a lot of application to marketing.

Marketers need to be confident to convince the organizations they work for that this type of challenge is the right approach.

This can be hard because marketing is a "voyeuristic" profession - meaning that everyone can "see" marketing so they think they are an expert and know how it should be done.

As a marketer coming into a new company, its important to determine what your exceptional truth is and then find ways of rolling that out across your marketing in a way that makes your brand unique and different.

Resources from this episode:

Visit Katie's website

Follow Katie on Twitter

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn

Listen to the podcast to hear Katie's take on why it is so important for brands to find their exceptional truths, and how to use that in your marketing to gain a competitive edge.

Transcript

Kathleen Booth (Host): Welcome back to the Inbound Success Podcast.

I'm your host Kathleen Booth. And this week, my guest is Katie Martell, who is an on demand communications strategist based out of Boston, Massachusetts. Welcome Katie. Katie Martell (Guest): Hi Kathleen. Thank you so much for having me.

Katie and Kathleen recording this episode.

Kathleen: I am excited to have you here. For everyone listening, I heard Katie speak at Marketing Profs B2B Marketing Forum in, what was that? September or October? October of 2019.

Back in the days when we still went to conferences in person. And I was just so blown away. She gave such an amazing talk on Rabble Rousers and it really not only struck me for the content of the talk, but also, you were just an amazing speaker.

We can have a separate conversation about that. But anyway, that's why I wanted to have you on and share some of your amazing wisdom with everyone who's listening.

So I could go on and on about you. but before I go down too much of a tangent, I would love it if you would explain what an on-demand communication strategist is and what you do, and also a little bit of your background and how you wound up doing that.

About Katie Martell

Katie: I would love to, and I have to start by saying thank you for the kind words about that talk last year.

So the title of that talk was something like "Market Like a Rabble Rouser" and it came from this fascination I have with the world of politics and persuasion mixed with what I do as a marketer.

So I've been a marketer in the B2B realm for 11 years now. And what's been interesting is, I've been marketing to marketers for the majority of my career.

And that was first at a B2B data services company. We were an early sponsor of the Marketing Profs event. That was a startup that I grew up to acquisition. And then it was a PR firm, an analyst from my own MarTech startups.

So I've kind of lived multiple lives, worn many different hats, but always marketing in this world of B2B tech, and MarTech specifically.

So I've been a student of marketing in a time when it's completely changing from what was the kind of capital M marketing that we've known it to be.

And so this talk was just honestly, they had asked me what I wanted to talk about, which is a moment in time where you go, "Oh, that's a dangerous, that's a dangerous ask of me." And I was honest. I said, "Let's talk about what's happening in the world of misinformation, persuasion."

I'm talking Russian trolls, I'm talking campaign interference. I'm talking all the stuff that, you know, you read on the headlines, on whatever news outlet you choose to follow. And let's talk about what marketers can learn from it.

So I get up on stage. I give this talk. It went over a little bit of time because that's, hello, it's me. Well, people were absolutely polarized in the audience. We had half the room, a little more than half, I will say, who were like, "Yeah, we got the takeaway. This is great. Thanks so much."

And the other half that I just think, I don't know what, didn't go across as well for many, because I presented a lot of information about Russian trolls and some of the exact campaign ads they used and it was pretty incendiary stuff, but that was the point. I was trying to get people riled up and hey, achievement unlocked.

Kathleen: But I also think, isn't that polarized response just such a perfect reflection of why that talk was needed in the first place?

Katie: I hope so. I was encouraging folks to really, you know, rouse the rabble, you know,? Create emotional responses, shake things up, and that's kind of what I did on stage.

Kathleen: Well, and to be clear, just to interject, your talk was not an inherently political talk in the sense that you weren't taking sides, you were presenting facts, right? And people can take that and do with it what they want, but I just wanted to put that out there.

Marketers need to pay attention to what is happening in the world

Katie: Well, I appreciate it. And let the lesson and the takeaway here be that we need, as marketers, to pay attention to what's happening in the world.

I mean, the world around us, look at this past week and today's date. I don't know if you're going to give the date here. It's June 1st.

So we are coming off of a weekend of civil unrest, Black Lives Matter protests. It is a time where, if you check social media, you're bombarded with hashtag activism and names and everybody from brands to individuals getting involved in this current conversation.

We as marketers should be watching this and learning.

Kathleen: Yes. I mean, actually, it's interesting that we are having this conversation today because I literally, just this morning, was online on social media and I saw one person saying something about how you have to speak out and you have to make your positions known.

And another person's literally saying "I'm not going to support businesses that don't say anything."

It's interesting. There's so many different sides to what's happening right now, but it really doesn't matter what you believe about the current situation.

The fact is that the world around us is going to make judgments and make personal buying decisions. And they could be different ones, person to person, but they're going to be made based upon what you do and or do not say right now, right.

So if you're not paying attention as a marketer, you're not doing your job

Katie: Because this is our job. It is our job. Marketing controls brand perception, right? Brand perception is the reality for consumers. They make a decision about us before they engage with us by the way we act through marketing.

That's the kind of inherent "duh" that we know about our jobs, but what that means at a time like this and what it started to mean over the past, I would say, decade or so as the world of social movements, identity, and brands and corporate world they've started to intersect.

And so what that now means is, if you're in marketing, you have to understand where your brand fits in the world of your buyer's identity, whether they believe in the Black Lives Matter movements, right? These kinds of areas that were kind of gray areas before of, we don't want to get political.

It's not appropriate for every brand to have a comment on what's happening.

For example, we're talking about the treatment of African American individuals in the US, if your brand happens to live values that embrace diversity and inclusion and have large representation from that community and you take steps to make sure that their employee experience is great and yada, yada, yada, you might as well leverage that in marketing.

You might as well show the world that you're on the same side as the giant movement that's now building in States and cities around the world.

My God, this is a great opportunity for marketers, which I know sounds dirty to say out loud, but it's absolutely a time to take advantage of the global zeitgeist right now, and be part of the conversation, be part of the narrative, earn trust. It might help you differentiate.

It is a way of saying to the world, "This is where we play, this is what we believe, this is who we are as a brand" that may go well beyond what your product or your service does.

That is an opportunity.

Kathleen: I agree with you. This is such an interesting conversation. In the past year, I had a conversation about this with someone who I've always considered to be very much a professional mentor/idol/role model.

I've come to realize as I've gotten to know this person better that they feel very strongly about keeping all politics, all commentary on social issues, completely out of business. And that is their personal belief.

It has come into focus, I think, with this last election cycle, and we had a big debate where the person was saying companies should never post about politics. I personally don't believe that, nor do I think every company should post about politics.

People will disagree with me and that's fine, but I think that it all comes back to really understanding your brand. And in this case, especially for privately held companies, brands are very inextricably interwoven with the person that owns the company.

This is going to come right down to the owners of the company and what they personally believe in.

There are some companies where the person that owns it is never going to talk about politics because that person, as an individual, doesn't talk about politics even in social settings.

But then you have companies, and there's some examples I'd love to cite, like Penzeys Spices. They are a spice company out of the Midwest. I had discovered them years ago because I was looking for some really niche spices. I like to cook and I had followed them, and then I started seeing this stuff on Facebook and they come out really, really strongly.

This is a long story, but I got into a really big debate with this person. And the person was saying, you are going to lose customers and that's not good for your business. And you're going to alienate people and that's not good for your business.

And my feeling is, that might be fine.

If you're somebody who believes that you want to live your beliefs and you want your business to live those beliefs, you may lose customers, but you will probably have the ones you keep drive tremendous loyalty and you may gain as much, if not more, than you lose.

So, diatribe over. You're the guest, not me!

Katie: Oh, please! I love your point of view. I'm honored to be here because I think you are just brilliant and I love your work.

You hit on something really polarizing right now which works at multiple levels. It also kind of hearkens back to the fundamental truth that not all marketing advice is going to apply to every company. And I feel like that's an important disclaimer, because we tend in marketing to say, brands should do this, they shouldn't do that.

It's really, to your point, what is right for your business, your customers, and most importantly, your goals.

Now that spice company, I don't know them, but I guarantee their goal is not to be the spice for everyone.

It sounds like they know exactly who their buyer is and they know exactly what that buyer wants from them. They want a spice company that stands for more than spice. Great.

Not all car companies are going to be a car for everybody, right? Just like with Patagonia, right? If you're buying a jacket to go skiing and they have a set of brand values that they know aligns with the subset of the total market, but that subset will be inherently loyal to them because Patagonia is an example of a brand that's been consistent against their values.

For years, they've always been kind of counterintuitively anti consumption. They sell retail products. They need to drive consumption. Remember that famous ad that was like, "Don't buy this jacket"? You don't know it. You have to Google it.

And it's Patagonia saying "We cause too much waste in our industry. We build products that may cost you a little more, but they're sustainably made and we want you to wear them for longer.

We're going to help you repair them. We're going to give you some tools to make sure that you can make sure you get the most out of them. They're longer lasting."

These are brand values that the buyer can relate to because the buyer also shares those values.

So this really isn't a new marketing problem. We like to think it is because of social media and hashtag activism and all the propaganda that's happening. But this really isn't old school marketing best practice. Know your buyer, know where you fit in their world.

Bill Bernbach has a great quote that's like, "If you stand for nothing, you'll find some people for you and some people against you. And if you stand for nothing, you'll find nobody for you and nobody against you."

Which is worse for a marketer? To be completely out of the conversation or to be clear about where you sit and stand and who you're intended for?

I love old time radio. There's a great Sirius XM station about the radio shows from the era of when that was entertainment. Somebody had this quote in the old timey accent. They were like, "The only thing you find in the middle of the road is roadkill my dear."

Right now, today, brands do not have to have a comment on who should be president.

That is politics. That is up to the individual. We each have a right to vote. Stay out of it unless you're relating to the campaign or you're lobbying for a certain group.

Honestly, we need to have a say about issues that matter for our buyers. That's it. If it doesn't matter to your buyers, it shouldn't matter to you and your marketing.

If you're a founder, I'm going to kind of disagree with you on this, but if you're a founder trying to lever your organization for your own political, personal views, that's a mistake because not everyone in your company is going to agree with you. Just like not every one of your buyers is going to agree with you.

You have to find middle ground. That's what this is about.

When you canvas for a political campaign and you're going door to door for, I don't know, Bernie Sanders, you don't open the door and knock on the door and say, let me tell you why you're wrong about insert political candidate. You find common ground. You say, what do we share? What are we aligned on? And how do we then move forward together?

It's not about polarizing. It's about recruiting people to see the world the way you do. And those people likely bring the same set of values that you do.

Kathleen: To be clear, I should say because I probably didn't explain this, I'm not advocating that businesses come out and say "Vote for so and so."

I'm more coming out and saying that the context that came up when I talked about it with somebody, was that there were things happening politically that impacted other issues, whether that's the environment or social issues, et cetera, there was like a trickle down.

And there were businesses that at the time were coming out and standing for or against those environmental or social issues. That was what sparked the conversation.

It's very interesting to me because the things that swim in my brain when I get into this conversation are, there is an increasing amount of data that started to come out, particularly with younger generations, that they are actually much more likely to buy from businesses that are willing to say what they stand for.

Again, I'm not talking about politics, I'm talking broadly about things that you stand for. And I loved your statement about the only thing in the middle of the road is roadkill.

Because you know, you look at social activism and business today and you see companies like Tom's shoes, which stand for something, and Patagonia, which stands for something. These businesses are doing very, very well, particularly amongst a younger demographic.

And so I think part of it is knowing who you sell to, as you said. Part of it is also recognizing that over time, things are going to change as this younger demographic ages and people follow them, who knows?

I don't know what will happen with the next generation, but today's 20-year-olds are going to be the 30 and 40-year-olds of tomorrow and the next decade, et cetera.

And so as our customer populations age, their preferences come with them as they do.

It reminds me of the conversation that I've had with people about niching down as a business. I used to own a marketing agency and agencies talk about this all the time. Should we be the agency for everyone? Or should we declare that we are serving this one niche?

And the fear that everybody always has when you get into that conversation is the fear of having to say "no" and turn people away.

What most data shows, and most people find when they do it, is that when you niche down, you actually thrive. You make more money because you really find the right fit customer and they have a higher perception of you. They stick with you longer, et cetera.

And so, there's an echo of that going through my head as I listened to us talk about this.

Understanding your brand promise

Katie: Absolutely. And again, it comes back to branding basics.

You have to know the promise that you're going to make to anyone. That's what brand is. Brand is a promise. When they engage with you, they want to know that they're going to get something that you've promised them.

You don't have to take a stance around hot button issues. Stay away from hot button issues, unless you're ready for that, unless that's really core to your business and your values and live throughout the organization.

There are many examples, from our history, of B2B companies that stand for something in their industry. This is where this needs to be applied to B2B. B2B listeners might be thinking, this doesn't apply to me because I sell, I don't know, refrigeration.

And I'm here to tell you, there is, within the world of refrigeration, a company called Stirling Ultracold, that was kind of a smaller player within this world of refrigeration. They would sell to pharmaceutical companies, and we're talking commercial grade keeping stuff cold, right?

That's the extent of my knowledge, but they are ultra low temperature freezers that companies need. This is a great example of a company in a world that we would think, what is controversial about this space?

The way they were disrupting their own industry was just with this idea of sustainability and energy costs and carbon footprint -- these things that their product enabled companies to decrease. They saved something like 70% of energy costs.

Energy and sustainability and carbon footprint was never a consideration point for this buyer before. They just didn't look at it along that list of criteria that they're making their decision against. It didn't matter.

Suddenly, here's a company who comes forward with a great PR program, really strong thought leadership, a leader who says, "I believe we have a responsibility to have a smaller carbon footprint. And guess what? My products enable you to have it."

It suddenly changed the entire perimeter of an industry.

That is the exact same advice that you and I are preaching right now. Just take a stance in what you believe in your own market. That's how you're going to change the conversation in market.

That's how you're going to find buyers that are aligned with you around this value that now matters, and in a broader sense, you know, to the world, but really in this industry. And that's how you're going to differentiate and earn that trust, is when you declare "Here's what we're about."

And you do that with confidence, because that allows the buyer to look at you and say, "I know exactly what I'm signing up for."

Change the conversation in your industry

Kathleen: I love that. And it reminds me of a talk that I heard by April Dunford.

Katie: Love April Dunford, high five.

Kathleen: I heard it at HubSpot's Inbound conference. April Dunford is an expert on positioning and she gives this talk about the four different ways you can approach positioning for your business.

And I don't remember the nickname she has for it, but the example that she gives for one of the ways is about changing the conversation. And she talks about Tesla and how before Tesla, the leader in the electric car market was the Prius. And the whole conversation in electric cars was about battery life. How long could you drive before you needed to recharge?

You could substitute refrigeration, but the bottom line is that, as a new entrant, if you think about coming into an established market, you're not going to have the first mover advantage.

You're not creating a category per se. So how do you catapult yourself to the head of that market? You do it by changing the conversation.

And so she talks about how Tesla came in and totally changed the conversation by saying, "Yeah, whatever. Battery life. Of course, we all have battery life. It's really all about how sexy is the design and how fast does the car go?"

And now, you see a completely different dialogue happening in electric cars. You see Tesla as a front runner. And you see a lot more electric car manufacturers focusing on design and speed because they made it sexy.

And that's the new conversation. And it sounds like that's exactly the same thing this refrigeration company did.

Finding your "exceptional truth"

Katie: They had to. And this is really where I think, and I know I'm a little biased. I come from a communications background. I've seen the power of content marketing and PR and all of that working in tandem to lift up brands.

I mean, I'm a startup girl at heart. When you can't be the loudest voice in the room and you can't be the dominant player of which, by the way, there's only one in every industry. So the majority are not dominant players.

All of us need to figure out how to get more strategic with the way we leverage PR and content. I think we've fallen into a bit of a trap, and I'll use that word gingerly because of the rise of inbound marketing, because of the rise of the tools and tech that allow us to publish a lot of content.

What we've sacrificed are the kernels of little ideas that we're using to seed the market. We've become really good at publishing education tips and best practices, which are great and necessary. This podcast is a great example of one.

The issue is that we've lost sight of what creates movements, what creates change in people. It's that little kernel of truth.

I call them exceptional truths that get people to stop, you know, pump the brakes and go, "Wait a minute. I've been thinking about things all wrong."

And when you get a person, a human being to stop and kind of pause, you've got them, that's it.

When you've created that seed of doubt, the way that they saw the world may not be that capital T, truth, they're open. They're leaning in, they're listening to what else you have to say. And that is when marketing works at its best.

That's when they're more receptive to your pitch, to your ideas and your path forward, but it takes knowing the buyers so well that you know where they're misinformed or what they don't know or what they don't understand so that you can challenge that.

This is drawing from, everyone knows, The Challenger Sale.

Applying The Challenger Sale to marketing

Kathleen: I was just going to say, I used to be in sales and in the sales world, this is The Challenger Sale.

Katie: Yes. I don't know what happened. I mean, how can The Challenger Sale extend its way to marketing? Not to say that it hasn't, but you know, is that a puppy?

Kathleen: Yes. I have two who are laying at my feet and every now and then they lift their heads up and say, "Wait, there's a world out there!" They're getting excited about The Challenger Sale.

Katie: They probably are just as confused as I am as to why The Challenger Sale didn't work its way into the world of PR and content marketing. To me, we need to challenge the way the buyer sees the world. I think very few brands do that.

Kathleen: It's very true. I have worked in sales before and when I was in that job, I read The Challenger Sale. I used that approach in sales and it made me very successful.

And you're spot on. That has so much applicability in marketing.

I owned an agency for 11 years and I worked with a lot of different companies and there is, in marketing, this lemmings syndrome where we see the lemmings running ahead of us and we want to follow them off the cliff. If they're doing it, it must be the right thing to do.

And it extends from everything, from messaging and the way we talk about what we do, to things like brand colors. I used to do websites for attorneys and they all wanted forest green and maroon and these very stodgy, old attorney colors.

And I remember I had one client and I was like, "Let's just do something crazy." And they were like, "But nobody else did that." And I was like, "Precisely."

There's this inclination both amongst marketers and within the business world to play within the lines. And I think that does hurt us.

There's a sea of sameness out there and it's the content we create, it's the colors on our websites, it's the way we message. It's, you know, "Hey, you should or should not talk about this in our industry. We don't talk about that so I'm not going to" and I really think that that has tied our hands behind our backs,

Katie: I have a lot of empathy. I mean, I'm a Pisces. I'm gonna look at every situation from both sides. And it's empath to the Nth degree over here. But I do have a lot of empathy for the modern marketer.

And this comes from being one, but also selling and marketing to them for 10 years. I've been on the megaphone side of MarTech vendors back in the day when there was a hundred of us, marketing solutions in a world of digital marketing that was now starting to shift.

Don't forget, 10 years ago, we now had to be good at becoming top ranked on Google. We now had to start using social media to develop a two way dialogue. We then had to automate everything. Then we had to start measuring everything.

Now we're trying to leverage AI. It has moved at such a pace. It all happened in nine years.

It has moved at such a pace that the marketer, the poor beleaguered marketing ops person and lead gen new roles that are being created because of this ecosystem in MarTech have inherent uncertainty, an inherent doubt and inherent fear because thinking about it, you and I work, we do marketing for a living.

This is our income. How are we going to support our families? This is more than a job and an industry, buyers and marketing.

I always had this kind of point of view when I was marketing to marketers. The buyer is more than a director of marketing at an IT company. They are an individual who's just trying to figure it out.

And a brand like a HubSpot who comes out right at the turning point of an industry in flux to say, we have 10 ways that you can do this better. And five tips for this and seven strategies for success in that, that brand is going to win.

That fearful buyer who's like, I just need a job, and I need to keep ahead. The biggest fear for the marketing buyer is falling behind. If we fall behind, we're no longer relevant. If we're no longer relevant, guess what? There's some 23 year old who's going to come up and take our spot because they know Tik Tok.

I'm being hyperbolic, but that's constantly on our minds. And so we have to have empathy for that marketer who's like, we are going to do the things that work and copy the things that work because they work and we need a win.

It's really those organizations that can allow their marketing team to do what they do best. That means leave them alone. Let them understand the buyer and the market, the way that they're supposed to.

The challenge of being a marketer

Katie: Somebody else said to me that marketing is a very voyeuristic profession. Everyone can see it. Unlike finance, unlike R&D or engineering, or even sales, to an extent. Everyone can see marketing.

Everyone in a business thinks that they're an expert in marketing because they see marketing all day. They see billboards. They see ads. They feel like they know the science and the practice of marketing.

That creates a lot of pressure on the marketing team to kind of do whatever everyone else thinks they should be doing.

So we have a department that's not only fearful of falling behind, but also facing pressure from the business to do things that may be counterintuitive to what marketing should do.

To your point, the lawyers with the maroon versus doing something different.

The telling of exceptional truths, the disruption, the rabble rousing, it works on teams that allow marketers to operate with confidence and hire marketers that are allowing them the space to push back and say, "No, this is what marketing does.

Our job is to understand who the buyer is, what they need and why we're uniquely fit that market. And that may look different than what you expect, but that's why you hired me."

If you're listening to this and you're young and you love marketing, but you're unsure of the path ahead, that's the strongest thing I think you can do is to hone this sense of what marketing does for business and the sense of confidence that you need to bring to every meeting. You almost have to defend your job at every go, but the more you do it, the more resilient you get, the better you get at it.

Kathleen: Well, I think it also points to what you should look for in a place of work. I completely agree with everything you just said, and, and I don't often talk about where I work now, but I'm at this company Attila Security, which is in cybersecurity.

I knew I had landed in the right place and I had this sense when I interviewed.

When I got into the company and I met with the CEO and I presented him with my 90 day plan and strategy, this was about 30 days in, he said, "Yeah, just do it. I hired you because you know what you're doing", you know? "You don't need my permission." And I was like, "Wow, what a great feeling".

When you're interviewing, that's a thing to really watch for and to dig into and to see if that's a trait that you're going to find amongst the leadership team of the company that you go and work for.

Katie: I wonder how to ask that in an interview. I'm a startup girl who's just been at companies where inherently, there's no one to tell me what to do. What would you ask if you were interviewing?

Kathleen: As somebody who hires a lot, I've always been a big believer in behavioral based interview questions. Those are basically, you don't ask people "What would you do?", you ask, "What did you do?" And you ask people to talk about actual experiences.

So I would probably ask something along the lines of, you know and it depends on if it's a company that's had marketers before. I would say, "Tell me about a time when a prior head of marketing proposed something that you weren't sure about or didn't necessarily agree with, what did you do?"

And if they haven't had marketers before, if it's a startup, I would probably ask them something about being at a prior company. Or I would say, "Tell me about a time the head of sales proposed something," or somebody else in the company presuming that there are other leaders. Because I think past behavior speaks better than hypotheticals.

Everybody can come up with the right answer, hypothetically.

For what it's worth, that's kind of the approach that I've taken, but some of it is also just a feeling that you get from talking with people.

And I think that's something that you hone over time as you work in more places and you're exposed to more different types of people.

Standing out in a world saturated with marketing content

Kathleen: But one of the things I was thinking about as you were talking, you mentioned HubSpot and how they solve for something very specific at a time when it was a real need. And, it got me kind of circling back to a little bit of what we started with here, which is this need to tell exceptional truths and should companies go there? Should they not go there?

One of the things that I started thinking about as you were talking is that the interesting unique moment that we live in right now is that content marketing has become so commonplace. And there are so many companies creating content that there is this saturation.

There's just a lot out there. There's a lot of blogs. There's a lot of newsletters. There's a lot of video out there. We're all busy. Nobody has the time to read all of it. So how do you choose what you're going to consume?

And this applies to anybody, any buyer out there has this dilemma whether they're actively searching for something or not. And it seems to me that one of the factors that's really affecting what works now in marketing is that one of the most effective ways to stand out amongst a very saturated world of content is to have a point of view.

We've talked a lot about in the marketing world about authenticity, and a hot topic lately has been email newsletters and getting really real in your email newsletters and showing personality and individuality, even in company newsletters.

And the reason that that's working so well, I believe, is because it is different. Just the fact that it's different and just the fact that it doesn't sound like everybody else, people gravitate to that.

So I'd love to know kind of what you think about that.

Katie: I a hundred percent agree. Mic drop because you said it yourself.

This idea that everyone is a publisher, everyone can produce content - it makes it more important than ever to do what we were suggesting 20 minutes ago, which is to know exactly who you're talking to, what they value, the ways you share that value and just be confident that that is the niche that you have decided to own.

You cannot be all things to all people. I'm hearkening back to my marketing undergraduate. This was a long time ago now. It's the one thing I learned.

This is not new, right? We just have a proliferation of information now available to us. It makes it more important than ever to have not only a clear point of view, but first a very clear intended audience.

You cannot be the solution, in your case, for all CIOs. You're the solution for all CIOs that are extremely risk averse or something.

There's something about your buyers that you are really aligned to. Well, many companies fail to understand what that niche looks like and where that alignment happens.

I have a newsletter. I call it the "World's best newsletter." I started it when I started consulting, frankly, honestly, truthfully as a way of reminding the world that I wasn't gone.

I was leaving a startup at that time that I had co-founded and I was the public face of, and I needed a way to take that momentum and transfer it into my consulting, speaking, whatever it is that I do, practice.

So I started a newsletter. I had no intentions with it. I had no best practices around it. I probably break every rule in the book.

People love it. And what I do with it is what I've done from day one. I collect the things that hook my attention throughout the week, that I believe more people need to read, and I send it out weekly. And I say, "Here's what is important to me".

I am a human being with other other interests outside of marketing. I'm a fierce advocate for feminism, and I'm a fierce advocate for human rights.

And I have a documentary coming out about the intersection of marketing and social movements. And all of that is jam packed into this little newsletter, seven links and a quote of the week.

It makes no sense. If you were to tell me, as a marketing consultant, it wouldn't make any sense. There's a lot of marketing stuff in there, but sometimes there's a really important New York Times cover story about racism in America.

It works for me because people know what they want from me. It's neat.

I have been really reticent to do that. It feels wrong. It goes against everything I'm taught as an email marketer, but you know what? It performs.

It might be because it's real. I think it's because it's honestly what people want from me. I think that's really what matters. And they come back to it week after week because it serves that need and it's fresh. They don't get it from other people.

Finding your unique brand voice

Katie: If you're a business, trying to figure out what to send in your newsletter, think about that first. Just like a product and the way that you develop a product, look at the consideration set. What are you up against? What are the other emails looking like from your competitors or even others in the same general industry? Do something different.

Maybe it's just doing it shorter. Maybe it's coming at it from a totally different angle, right?

Content and thought leadership should be treated like product development. Not only is it something new and different, but it's like this muscle that you have to work on.

You've gotta be really good at coming up with the processes to uncover those insights from inside the business to say, "This is what we believe, what we know." And then really, really good at delivering that in a fresh and new way.

That's what makes the job of content fun and hard. But it's not what most people do. Most people opt for the easy ebook, the 10 tips, best practices. And then they wonder why isn't this performing?

How to find your exceptional truth

Kathleen: So true. So if somebody is listening and they're a marketer, who's come into a company and they're thinking about - and let's talk about startups because I think that's the best way to illustrate how this works.

If you come into a startup as the first head of marketing, it is a green field, right? You get to shape the clay. If you're coming into an established company, that's a different story, but it's still, the challenge is still there. It's just how you navigate. It might be different.

Putting on my hat as head of marketing at a startup, I'm coming in, it's the first time we're going to have a marketing strategy. If I wanted to come in and really mine the richness of what you talk about as exceptional truths, what is the playbook for doing that?

Katie: Well, good luck finding a playbook. The place to start, in my mind, is to ask yourself the question, just like you would if you were starting a movement and activism, "What is the change that you want to see in market?" What is that end result that you're hoping to get people to switch?

It could just be, you want them to choose you instead of a competitor. Great. So what does that mean? What belief do you need to shift? What misinformation do you have to correct? What new insight, to quote the Challenger model, do you have to bring to the table to get them to see the world a bit differently?

I'll give you an example from HubSpot again, because I think HubSpot did this so well. And it's an example that we can all relate to.

Your podcast. The name is a great example of the power of what they were able to do, how this came to market. I hate to say it, they were just a blogging, search engine optimization, social media, and eventually an email tool mixed into one.

They were not the only player doing this at the time. However, they thought about this brilliantly. They needed people to see the way they wanted things to change. They were advocating for us to use these tools instead of cold calling, billboards, et cetera.

The way that they got people to make that shift was to create a dichotomy or create an enemy. I actually presented on this at their conference two years ago, create an enemy. You can find it on their inbound library. And they saw the world in two ways.

There's inbound and outbound. There's the new way forward, Mrs. Beleaguered marketer, who doesn't want to lose her job, the way that you're not going to fall to irrelevancy. And there's the old way that you're going to fall behind if you keep using it.

They were extremely polarizing with this perspective. It was just one article that started all of this, right? They were like, "Here's the way forward. This inbound and outbound. One is good. One is bad. White, black, right? Devil, whatever it is." And 80% of the market was like, "Oh man, there's no way I'm going to go there."

They were pissed because HubSpot is over here, challenging the existing status quo, the way they sell. 20% saw that and went, "Oh, you're right. Let's opt into this." And so HubSpot now of course built an entire movement around inbound marketing.

It is a practice. It is a job title. It is a category in and of itself because they started with that kernel of what changes do we need to create. We need to figure out a way to get people to move from A to B, to go from what they think they know to what we want to advocate for.

And then they brilliantly built a movement around it.

And they did so with a ton of content ideas, a community of people that were proud to call themselves inbound marketers and this kind of repetitive, consistent muscle they use to push the movement forward, now extending years and a $125 million IPO and 19,000 people at their conference.

It just has ballooned because they were smart about this kernel of truth that they've never deviated from.

Are you going to be the next HubSpot? No. This is right place, right time, right conditions and market. But, you do have to find and be willing to provoke, with purpose, the existing beliefs of buyers, and then be consistent about that. If you can do that, your startup is going to make a lot of noise.

You're going to punch well above your weight. Even if you don't have the biggest budget, you're going to make waves and you have to be willing to do that or risk falling into irrelevance.

Kathleen: It's a really incredible story, that story of HubSpot and it's certainly not the only one.

You have Mark Benioff at Salesforce who famously picketed outside with a sign that had a big red X through the word software. And he similarly named the enemy and it was software and his solution was move to the cloud, software as a service.

That is an approach that absolutely works. I would say to go out and read The Challenger Sale. So many sales people read it, but so few marketers do, and I love that you brought it up in this conversation.

Kathleen's two questions

Kathleen: We are going to run out of time soon so I want to make sure I ask you my questions. I could talk to you forever.

My first question that I always ask my guests is of course, this podcast is all about inbound marketing, and is there a particular company or individual that you think is just a great example of how to do inbound marketing in today's world?

Katie: I think Rand Fishkin and his work with Moz and now with SparkToro which he actually details really well in a book called Lost and Founder. It's a great book. If you're thinking of starting a company read this first.

It may scare you away, but he always was the example for me of somebody who was again, challenging white hat versus black hat, giving away all the industry secrets to become a trusted industry resource, to ranked the highest, but it really builds trust in his company and him as an individual.

And I think it's just his consistency, Whiteboard Fridays, he was writing five days a week. That's still the best example of consistent inbound marketing.

Kathleen: You know, it's so funny because I could not agree with you more. He is somebody that I have followed really closely. I read his book. I read everything he does at SparkToro. I follow him religiously.

And I have been very surprised. I think you might be the first person that has mentioned his name. I ask this question of every single guest and that has baffled me because I think he's amazing. So I'm really happy that you said that.

Katie: He's also the world's nicest guy. We both spoke at the SpiceWorld conference in, I want to say, 2018. Both of us were speaking in the marketing track and I'm sitting here backstage fan girling because I love him. Who hasn't read his stuff?

He comes off stage with the mustache. He's the nicest guy. He's just, you know, very down to earth. And I think that's the secret. He wrote this content to truly help others. And I think that genuine purpose behind the content is really what sets him apart.

More people should have mentioned him.

Kathleen: Yes. I agree. And maybe they will now because we'll turn them on to his stuff.

All right. Second question. You mentioned earlier that the biggest fear of marketers is falling behind. And the second question I always ask everybody is exactly that.

It's like every marketer I talk to says, they feel like they're drinking from a fire hose. There's too much to keep up with. So how do you personally stay up to date and keep yourself educated?

Katie: 100% LinkedIn. I'm a huge advocate for using LinkedIn appropriately. I have a big following there, so I love it as a platform, but I also use it to consume a lot of best practices. I ask a lot of questions. I'm constantly looking through comments. It's become a resource that just, I find invaluable. It's a mess. Sometimes now people take advantage of LinkedIn to post some really nonsense stuff, but at the core of it, it's there.

Can I give two answers? There's a lot of Slack communities that are being built around specific topic areas. I'm not in marketing, but I'm part of a great marketing operations Slack group that keeps me knowing what's going on.

I work with a lot of MarTech vendors still as an amplifier now and a community evangelist. I need to know what's going on. And so even on that, in the practice, these Slack groups are hidden sources of insight.

So if there's not a Slack group for your world, your community, build it, invite people. They will come. This is not field of dreams. They're desperate to connect, one-On-one, sometimes outside of the loud world that is LinkedIn.

Kathleen: That group would not happen to be the MoPro's would it?

Katie: No, but now I want to join that one.

Kathleen: I'll send you a link. A guy I interviewed once for this podcast has a marketing operations Slack group that I am in.

But I agree with you. I have a ton of Slack groups and there's only like, let's say, two or three of them that I'm religious about checking every day. They're just insanely valuable.

But, love all of those suggestions. Again, I could talk to you all day long, but we're not going to do that because we both have other things we need to do. Great conversation.

I'm sure people will have opinions, both ways, about what we said here today, but that's okay. That's why these conversations are important to have. If you listened and you disagree, tweet me. I would love to hear your perspective. This is all about learning and listening and I'd love to hear what more folks think about this.

How to connect with Katie

Kathleen: But Katie, if somebody wants to learn more about you or connect with you online, what is the best way for them to do that?

Katie: They can Google me. I'm very, very, very Google-able. You can LinkedIn me. You can find my website. I'm just, I'm everywhere.

Kathleen, congratulations on over 150 episodes of this. This is a service to the community and we are grateful for it and it's a lot of work to put these together. So thank you for doing what you do and thank you for having me, really.

Kathleen: Well, I very much appreciate it. And I will put links to your personal website as well as your LinkedIn in the show notes. So head there if you want to connect with Katie, and she does produce some amazing stuff, so I highly recommend it.

You know what to do next...

Kathleen: If you're listening and you liked what you heard today, or you just felt like you learned something new, I would love it if you would leave the podcast a five star review on Apple podcasts, because that is how other people learn about the podcast.

And finally, if you know somebody else who's doing amazing inbound marketing work, please tweet me @workmommywork, because I would love to make them my next guest. That's it for this week. Thank you so much, Katie.

Katie: Thank you, Kathleen. Everyone take care.

Want to stay updated when the podcast is released?

Drop us your name and email address below and we’ll send you the show notes every Monday!

Arplis - News source https://arplis.com/blogs/news/telling-exceptional-truths-ft-katie-martell-inbound-success-ep-146

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blog-cosmosuniverse1 · 3 years ago

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progressiveparty · 5 years ago

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If You Can’t Pay Rent This Month, You’re Not Alone

Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images. As you're probably painfully aware, today is May 1 and rent is due. Yet millions of Americans aren't able to pay because of mass coronavirus-related layoffs , hour reductions, and pay cuts. In the past six weeks, over 30 million people have filed for unemployment, a figure that makes this the worst joblessness crisis in U.S. history. Keeping in mind that most Americans don't have enough emergency savings to last three months, it feels cruel to force people to pay rent month after month amid a cataclysmic crisis, when there's no income coming in. Beata Dul, 24, was laid off as a publicist from a travel PR firm in late March. She had just moved into an apartment in North Bergen, NJ, and said she doesn't have much in savings since this is her first job. While New Jersey is letting tenants pay rent with a security deposit, she said rent forgiveness is what she ultimately needs. "I didn't expect a total loss of income, so the uncertainty of what is to come and when I will find another job that aligns with my career path is a bit scary," Dul told Refinery29. "I believe that having something statewide and nationwide in place for people who have lost their jobs would help not only with the financial burden, but the mental stress as well." According to real estate firms that analyzed data for 13.4 million renters, about a third of tenants didn't pay their April rent, reports The Wall Street Journal . Some of them will be temporarily protected from eviction or able to pay by forfeiting their security deposit. But these are temporary solutions, and a burgeoning movement nationwide is calling for a more comprehensive measure: #CancelRent. This movement is gaining popularity in the large cities that have been disproportionately affected by the rent crisis. From L.A. — where the City Council recently failed to pass various measures to protect renters — to Philadelphia to Chicago to D.C., tenant-rights organizations are holding strikes. But, little has happened on the legislative level to address the scope and urgency of the problem. Some states, like Massachusetts , have passed temporary eviction moratoriums, which many view as simply a BandAid. In other places, people don’t even have that protection: In Kansas City, MO , 75 families faced eviction by conference call yesterday, according to Tara Raghuveer, director of housing justice group KC Tenants, who is calling for an eviction ban and rent forgiveness. "People are donating plasma, skipping meals, not sleeping, taking out payday loans, maxing credit cards, leaving prescriptions unfilled, all to pay rent," Raghuveer tweeted . "During a global pandemic. In the richest country in the history of the world. It doesn't have to be like this." Today, New Yorkers started the largest coordinated rent strike in nearly a century, standing in the rain with signs and calling on the state to cancel rent for the duration of the crisis, freeze rent, and re-house New Yorkers experiencing homelessness. Much of the action This Piece Originally Appeared in www.refinery29.com Read the full article

#coronavirus #homelessness #housing #pandemic

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asfeedin · 5 years ago

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TripAdvisor Cuts 25% Of Workforce Amid Pandemic

TripAdvisor’s Massachusetts headquarters.

AP Photo/Steven Senne

Topline: As the coronavirus pandemic keeps Americans confined to their homes, nearly every industry has been negatively impacted by the disease, and businesses losing out on cash flow have started laying off workers.

Here’s who’s axed staff so far:

Airlines & Transportation

Air Canada will lay off 5,100 members of its cabin crew, about half of its current roster, as its planned flights for April have been cut by nearly 80%.

Air New Zealand will let 3,500 workers go, equaling about one-third of its workforce.

Avis Car Rental Boston’s Logan International Airport reportedly laid off an undisclosed number of workers.

Enterprise Holdings, the parent company of car renters Enterprise, National and Alamo laid off 743 workers in North Carolina.

Flight Centre, Australia’s largest travel agent, is laying off and putting on leave a third of its 20,000 employees.

Helloworld Travel, an Australian travel agent, let 275 employees go.

Car rental company Hertz plans to lay off 10,000 workers from its North American business.

Norwegian Air said that it would temporarily lay off up to 50% of its workforce, meaning 7,300 workers, and suspend 4,000 flights due to the pandemic.

Scandinavian Airlines said Sunday it will temporarily lay off 10,000 employees, equal to 90% of their staff.

Stena Line, a European ferry operator, announced that 950 jobs would be cut in Sweden due to a sharp decline in travel bookings.

Canadian airline and travel company Transat AT let go of 3,600 workers, or about 70% of its workforce.

TripAdvisor eliminated 600 roles in the U.S. and Canada, and 300 more in other countries, as part of a 25% workforce reduction; an undisclosed number were furloughed.

ZipCar, a car rental company, laid off 20% of its 500 workers.

Airports

Arts, Culture & Entertainment

Film studio 20th Century Fox dismissed 120 Los Angeles-based employees.

The Houston-based Alley Theatre laid off 75% of its staff and implemented pay cuts for those remaining.

Caesars Entertainment Corp. has also begun pandemic-prompted layoffs.

Christie Lights, an Orlando, Florida, stage lighting company, laid off 100 employees.

Toronto-based movie theater chain Cineplex Inc. laid off thousands of part-time workers after being forced to shut its 165 locations across Canada and the U.S.

The Circuit of the Americas, an Austin, Texas-based concert, automobile racing, conference and entertainment complex, said it was laying off an undisclosed number of workers after being indefinitely closed due to coronavirus.

Montreal-based circus producer Cirque du Soleil will lay off 4,679 people—95% of its staff.

Talent agency Endeavor laid off 250 workers, with the first wave focusing on those who cannot do their jobs from home, such as restaurant workers.

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, IATSE, estimated that 120,000 jobs for film workers, including technicians, artisans and other crew positions have been eliminated.

Lifestyle branding agency Karla Otto laid off approximately 28 New York City employees and several others in its Los Angeles office.

Public relations firm Krupp Group laid off an undisclosed number of New York and Los Angeles employees.

About 300 workers across the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Norman Rockwell Museum and the Hancock Shaker Village will be out of jobs by mid-April.

New Jersey’s McCarter Theater said an undisclosed number of full-time and seasonal workers across every department will be laid off from May 15.

Production company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios let 7% of its workforce go, resulting in about 50 positions being eliminated.

New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art laid off 81 employees.

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, California, let go of all 97 part-time staffers.

About 85 freelancers in Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art have been cut.

Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut laid off approximately 200 workers.

Hollywood talent agency Paradigm laid off around 100 employees and reduced payroll for the remaining 500.

New York-based agency PR Consulting let 32 employees go.

The Science Museum of Minnesota temporarily laid off 400 employees.

Boutique fashion and hospitality agency Sequel let an undisclosed number of workers go.

SkyCity Entertainment laid off or furloughed at least 1,100 workers.

At least 50 employees of music and culture festival South By Southwest were let go after this year’s event was canceled, the Washington Post reported.

Creative agency Spring reduced staff in Los Angeles and London.

TeamSanJose, which oversees events at multiple California theaters and convention centers, temporarily let go of approximately 1,300 workers.

New York City’s Whitney Museum laid off 76 workers.

Improvisational theater and school Upright Citizens Brigade laid off dozens of workers.

ViacomCBS let an undisclosed number of contract workers go.

Education

Finance

Government

Healthcare

Hotels

Carmel Valley Ranch in California laid off 600 workers.

The Carlyle and Plaza Hotels laid off hundreds of workers.

Claremont Hotel Properties in California’s Oakland and Berkeley areas has let go of 514 people.

Eden Roc Hotels, in Miami, Florida, laid off 257 employees from its housekeeping, spa and banquet workforces.

The Four Seasons hotel in Vail, Colorado dismissed about 240 staffers.

Colorado’s largest hotel, the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, laid off 800 workers.

Great Wolf Lodge is laying off around 440 employees from its Colorado Springs location.

Kimpton Hotel Aventi in Manhattan, owned by the InterContinental Hotels Group, reportedly laid off 40 employees, while the Ian Schrager-owned Public temporarily laid off an undisclosed number of workers.

Las Alcobas Resort & Spa in California’s Napa go of approximately 140 employees.

Marriott International, the world’s largest hotel company, said tens of thousands of hotel workers will be furloughed, and will lay off a number of those workers.

McMenamins, the Northwest’s largest hotel chain and brewpub, let 3,000 employees go.

MGM Resorts said it would furlough workers and begin layoffs on Monday, but immediately let some staffers go from undisclosed parts of its business.

Over five dozen workers were laid off from West Virginia’s Oglebay Resort and Conference Center.

SoftBank-backed Oyo Hotels laid off 3,000 of its China employees earlier in the month, equaling 30% of its workforce there, part of a global layoff of 5,000.

The Palace Hotel in San Francisco has temporarily eliminated 774 positions.

Pebblebrook Hotel Trust, which owns 54 hotels, laid off half of its 8,000 workers and may need to cut an additional 2,000.

Australia-based Redcape Hotel Group will cut most of its 800-person staff.

In San Francisco, California, the RIU Plaza Fisherman’s Wharf dismissed nearly 210 workers.

Sage Hospitality Group let go of 465 workers across three properties in Denver, Colorado.

Scandic, the largest hotel operator in Europe’s Nordic countries, also said it would give termination notices to 2,000 Swedish employees.

Sydell Hotels dismissed around 180 workers.

Workers at President Trump’s hotels—160 in Washington, D.C., 51 in New York City and an unknown number at his Las Vegas, Nevada location—were laid off.

The Warwick Rittenhouse Square Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania laid off 53 workers.

The Westin Boston Waterfront cut 435 workers.

Ventana Big Sur, also in California, let go of around 260 workers.

Industry

North Dakota-based water management and well logistics company MBI Energy Services laid off over 200 workers.

Manufacturing & Logistics

Lightweight metals manufacturer Arconic laid off 100 workers from its Lafayette, Indiana plant.

Power substation and transformer manufacturer Delta Sky let go of an undisclosed number of employees.

General Electric laid off about 10% of its jet engine workforce, around 2,500 workers.

Union leaders at a General Motors plant in Ontario, Canada have recommended a two week layoff due to concerns over the virus.

Metal plating finisher Marsh Plating Corp. in Michigan temporarily laid off 97 workers.

Mitchell Plastics of Charlestown, Indiana, has temporarily laid off 36o workers.

The Port of Los Angeles let go of 145 drivers after ships from China stopped arriving.

Michigan-based woodworker Schafer Woodworks Inc. temporarily laid off 25 employees.

Tilden Mining Co., located in Michigan, temporarily laid off over 680 workers after idling operations April 26.

Minnesota-based cabinetmaker Wayzata Home Products had to lay off its entire 141 person staff.

Real Estate

Restaurants & Dining

“All restaurant staff” were reportedly let go at Aqimero, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s Ritz-Carlton hotel.

Bon Appetit Management Company, a retail dining employer for college campuses, laid off 140 workers from the University of Pennsylvania.

Oregon-based Burgerville laid off 162 workers.

Cameron Mitchell Restaurants furloughed 4,500 workers, with 90 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s Ocean Prime restaurant reportedly laid off.

Compass Coffee, a Washington, D.C. Starbucks competitor, laid off 150 of its 189 employees—equaling 80 percent of its staff.

Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group laid off 2,000 workers, which is 80% of its workforce.

Austin, Texas-based Dyn365 is laying off 95 office workers.

Earl’s Restaurants, Inc. in Boston laid off around 360 workers from two locations.

Eatwell DC, a District of Columbia-based restaurant group, let go of 160 employees.

Founders Brewing Co., a Grand Rapids, Michigan beer maker, let 163 workers go.

Six Friendly’s restaurants in Connecticut temporarily laid off about 120 workers.

HMSHost, a Seattle, Washington, global restaurant-services provider said it would lay off 200 people and an area corporate shuttle service would lay off 75, HuffPost reported.

Austin, Texas-based JuiceLand let go of of approximately 225 workers.

Landry’s Inc., the parent company of Del Frisco’s and Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. (along with the Golden Nugget casinos) had to temporarily lay off 40,000 workers.

Levy’s Premium Foodservice, which provides services to Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, has let go of 613 workers.

Detroit, Michigan-based Punch Bowl Social laid off 97 workers.

Shake Shack let 20% of its New York City-based corporate staff go.

Trump National Doral restaurant BLT Prime in Miami, Florida, laid off 98 workers.

California-based Vesta Food Service has let 310 workers go.

Retail

Tech boutique B8ta reportedly laid off half of its corporate staff.

Massachusetts-based marijuana dispensary Cultivate laid off an unknown number of workers.

Destination XL, based in Massachusetts, cut 245 brick-and-mortar store jobs.

Shoe retailer DSW put up to 80% of its workers on a temporary unpaid leave of absence, according to a statement from a spokesperson to Forbes.

Australian department store chain Myer Holdings has temporarily laid off 10,000 of its workers.

Stationery and crafts store Paper Source let go of 88 workers across Massachusetts.

U.K.-based retailer Primark laid off 347 workers from locations around Massachusetts.

Cosmetics retailer Sephora let go of some part-time and seasonal workers in its U.S. business; Canadian corporate employees are working reduced hours.

Laura Ashley, the British homewares and bedding maker, filed for administration (the U.K.’s version of bankruptcy) after rescue talks were impeded by the coronavirus outbreak.

New York City bookseller McNally Jackson, which operates four locations, temporarily laid off its employees, but intends to hire them back “as soon as we can,” according to the company’s Instagram account.

Mountain Equipment Co-op, a Canadian outdoor recreation retailer, will let go of 1,300 employees by March 29.

Simon Property Group, America’s largest mall owner, laid off an undisclosed number of employees while furloughing an additional 30% of its workforce.

Inclusive bra maker ThirdLove laid off 30 to 35% of its staff.

Mattress upstart Tuft & Needle let go of an undisclosed number of retail store workers.

Sportswear maker Under Armour laid off around 600 warehouse workers in the Baltimore, Maryland area.

Silicon Valley & Technology

Vehicle sharing platform Bird laid off 30% of its workforce, which came to 406 employees out of its workforce of over 1,300.

Employee equity management startup Carta laid of 161 employees, or about 16% of its workforce.

Fitness platform ClassPass let go of 22% of its employees, while furloughing an additional 31%.

New York City real estate startup Compass laid off 15% of its workforce.

Cryptocurrency incubator ConsenSys laid off 91 employees, about 14% of its workforce.

Cloud software startup D2iQ (formerly known as Mesosphere) reportedly laid off 34 employees.

Boston-based AI company DataRobot let go of an undisclosed number of staffers.

Smart office startup Envoy laid off or furloughed 30% of its 195 workers.

Event management service Eventbrite laid off half its workforce as events worldwide are canceled.

Fashion startup Everlane laid off and furloughed 200 employees from its retail and backend departments.

Boston-based corporate catering startup ezCater laid off over 400 of its 900 employees.

Minneapolis-based food delivery service Foodsby laid off an undisclosed number of workers.

In Silicon Alley, four startups—online mattress retailer Eight Sleep, technical recruiter Triplebyte, hospitality startup The Guild, and luxury sleeper-bus service Cabin—laid off about 75 people between them.

Car rental startup GetAround let go of around 100 workers due to the impact of the coronavirus.

Discount services and experiences platform Groupon will lay off or furlough around 2,800 employees.

Iris Nova, a drink startup backed by Coca-Cola, let go of 50% of its staff.

Trucking unicorn KeepTruckin let go of one-fifth of its employees.

Office space leasing company Knotel cut half of its 400 employees.

Komodo Health reportedly laid off 9% of its workforce.

Cannabis startup Leafly dismissed 91 workers, following a round of layoffs from two months prior.

Boston-based travel startup Lola laid off 34 employees, reportedly among the first full-time tech casualties of the coronavirus crisis.

Mixed reality company Magic Leap reportedly laid off 1,000 employees.

Interior design and e-commerce platform Modsy let go of an undisclosed number of employees.

Homebuying startup Opendoor let 600 employees go, equaling about 35% of its workforce.

Overtime, the Kevin Durant-backed sports media company, parted ways with 20% of its employees.

HR tech company PerkSpot let 10 employees go.

IT infrastructure company Pivot3 laid off an undisclosed number of workers.

High end clothing rental service Rent The Runway laid off all retail employees across the country.

Remote work and travel company Remote Year laid off about 50 employees.

Oil, gas and alternative energy marketplace RigUp let go of 25% of its workforce.

Petsitting platform Rover laid off 41% of its workers.

Sales enablement company ShowPad laid off 52 employees.

Apartment rental startup Sonder laid off or furloughed 400 employees, equaling roughly 30% of its workforce.

Chicago parking startup SpotHero laid off an undisclosed number of employees.

Artificial intelligence writing platform Textio laid off 30 workers.

Tasking platform Thumbtack let go of 25o employees.

Travel manager TripActions laid off 300 workers—about 25% of its staff—mostly across customer support, recruiting and sales.

Photo editing app makers VSCO let 45 employees go.

Wonderschool, backed by Andreeson-Horowitz, let go of 75% of its staff.

Yelp laid off or furloughed more than 2,000 workers—a 17% staff reduction.

Online hiring marketplace ZipRecruiter laid off or indefinitely furloughed 400 of its approximately 1,200 full-time employees.

AirBnb-backed business travel company Zeus Living cut 30% of its staff.

Sports & Fitness

The NBA’s Utah Jazz laid off an undisclosed “small percentage” of its workforce.

Maryland-based yoga chain CorePower Yoga let go of 193 workers across five studios.

Golden Gate Parks racetrack in California laid off around 140 workers.

The WWE, owned by billionaire Vince McMahon, cut at least 15 wrestling stars from its lineup.

After canceling its comeback season in March, the XFL, also owned by Vince McMahon, suspended operations and laid off all of its employees.

Utilities

Satellite TV provider Dish is laying off an undisclosed number of its 16,000 employees.

Elsewhere

Boston’s Tea Party Ships & Museum, along with Old Town Trolley Cars, laid off an undisclosed number of employees.

Central Ohio’s YMCA cut 85% of its workforce, consisting of over 1,400 part-time workers and 320 full-time workers.

The Fitler Club, a dining, accommodations and co-working space in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, dismissed nearly 240 workers.

The Greater Philadelphia YMCA laid off 4,000 workers after its childcare and gym revenue dropped.

In California, Lucky Chances Casino let go of nearly 490 workers, while California Grand Casino cut 190 positions.

The National Rifle Association reportedly laid off 60 employees following the cancellation of its annual meeting.

The Oneida Nation Native American tribe laid off or furloughed nearly 2,000 workers after revenue dropped at its casino.

The mayor of Tombstone, Arizona, who runs a historic stagecoach tour business of the town, had to let go of 175 workers.

Women’s co-working company The Wing laid off almost all of its space teams and half of its HQ staff.

What to watch for: If any U.S. airlines end up laying off workers. Delta Airlines said it would cut flights and freeze hiring. American Airlines is also cutting flights, and delaying trainings for new flight attendants and pilots. United Airlines said it might have to reduce its staff this fall if economic recovery proves to be slow.

What we don’t know: Exactly how many restaurant workers have been laid off due to the pandemic. New York City, a dining mecca, has about 27,000 eating and drinking establishments that were staffed by over 300,000 people. Restaurants are able to fulfill delivery and takeout orders, but can do so using skeleton crews.

Big number: 50%. That’s how many U.S. companies are considering layoffs, according to a survey released by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the country’s oldest outplacement firm. And the Federal Reserve of St. Louis estimated that 47 million jobs could be lost due to the coronavirus crisis. The numbers come on the heels of the 26 million American workers who filed for unemployment since the crisis began, according to data released Thursday, an all-time high.

Key background: There are now over 979,000 reported coronavirus cases in the U.S. and more than 55,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide cases now amount to over 3 million infected and 209,000 dead. Meanwhile, President Trump signed a coronavirus relief bill into law that provides free testing and paid sick leave, along with a $2 trillion stimulus package and a subsequent $484 billion relief bill. At least 42 states have enacted stay-at-home orders that affect 316 million people or more. Cancelations of concerts, sports leagues, festivals, religious gatherings and other large events have impacted millions of people. President Trump enacted a 30 day travel ban from Europe that sent airlines and travelers scrambling to adjust, before declaring a national state of emergency. Some states, like Georgia, South Carolina, and North Dakota are beginning to ease restrictions, but most health experts agree that social distancing and business shutdowns continue to be necessary to reduce the virus’ spread. But the uncertainty over how and when the entire country—and its citizens—can resume normal life is a specter hanging over businesses, as they decide whether to cut workers.