Blog
Welcome to
My Blog
Recent
You Don’t Have to Pay with Your Suffering
I used to be mystified when people didn’t leap. Risk, schmisk. I’d been through a lot of shit. All the horror, all the anguish — I survived it all. So I knew I could survive it again. So, when I was 21 and wanted to start a coffee shop with zero help? What’s the worst…
Automatically Track the Dollar Value of Your Pro Bono Work and Scholarships
Business Tip for Culture Makers #409: Track Your Culture-Making Metrics and Quantify the Value of Your Pro Bono Work A lot of our effort and work is invisible — sometimes, even to us. We help out here and there, and if we’re working pro-bono we might be scrambling for time, which means that sometimes our…
“How Do I Price for Affordability?” and “How Do I Make My Prices More Accessible?” are The Wrong Questions
The only right answer to those questions is “lower your prices”, which can be a disaster for under-earning and start-up entrepreneurs — yet doesn’t necessarily create more economic justice. And economic justice is the point. As a business development coach, I work with seriously principled people. They are specifically committed to building businesses with justice…
What To Do In Overwhelmingly Troubled Times
I’ve been sending this email every few months for several years, to rally people when we’re most despairing. The world should NOT be as it is, and we do have the power to change it. Here’s some deeply practical advice about how each of us can do that, even in the midst of the worst.…
Books I Read in 2020
My 2020 Reading List I read. A LOT. I also get asked a lot for book recommendations, so I decided to wrap up 2020 with a list of all of the books I read (or attempted to read) this year. Some of these books have significantly influenced my thinking and ideas. Maybe they’ll add creative…
How NOT to Get Swamped by It All
No one person can respond to all the need for change. But what each of us CAN do is sharpen our tools and show up to our spots on the wall. We create the most change when we leverage our talents and gifts.
Business Tip for Culture Makers #731: Fonts are a Social Impact Opportunity
We all use fonts in our businesses, so there’s an opportunity make a feminist font choice by selecting fonts created by under-represented typeface designers
FLEB Marketing Tactic #10 Testimonials as Triggers
Client testimonials are not an honest indicator of real outcomes for most people, and you don’t need these unjust social triggers to hit your income goals.
FLEB Marketing Tactic #9 Social Triggers = Social Conditions
Using social triggers as sales devices without evaluating potential impact = leveraging injustice to create profit.
Dear Multi-Passionate Maker,⠀
⠀
Maybe you don`t have Shiny Object Syndrome.⠀
⠀
Maybe you`ve been studying & practicing all of these modalities because you`re developing a rich body of work, across time.⠀
⠀
(No maybe about it.)⠀
⠀
Multi-passionate professionals often get told that they`re "scattered" & need to focus.⠀
⠀
They then internalize negative messages insisting that their orientation towards lifelong learning, curiosity & creativity is a barrier to success.⠀
⠀
IT`S NOT.⠀
⠀
It`s how we build the deep work & creative solutions needed for these urgent times.⠀
⠀
Often, when I work with multi-passionate professionals, it`s wildly obvious to me that they`re collecting tools, synthesizing across traditions -- and making a whole new thing! -- in order to solve complex social problems.⠀
⠀
They`ve been gathering all.the.tools.⠀
⠀
You know what all those tools add up to? ⠀
⠀
A practice. A way of doing things. A framework. Your unique process.⠀
⠀
***You have a methodology.*** ⠀
⠀
So let`s build language for it and NAME IT, specifically.⠀
⠀
Naming your method makes it tangible AND SALEABLE.⠀
⠀
Now it now gets a lot easier to explain it to other people...⠀
⠀
...and becomes more obvious why they might want to work with you :)⠀
⠀
Once you name it, you substantiate it. ⠀
⠀
****Including to yourself.****⠀
⠀
Now YOU can see how everything you`ve trained in has led up to this, has prepared you for this work.⠀
⠀
Because, dear Multi-passionate Maker, you`re NOT spinning your wheels or getting distracted by shiny things.⠀
⠀
You`re growing the solutions & institutions of the future.⠀
⠀
Let`s make sure you`ve got the language to describe them. ⠀
⠀
love + justice,⠀⠀
Kelly⠀⠀
⠀⠀
🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺⠀⠀
Copywriting for Culture Makers is now enrolling.
link in bio @kelly.diels to learn more -- and thank you
#feministcopywriting #feministbusiness #wearetheculturemakers #feministfounders #entrepreneurialfeminist #consciouscopywriting
Mar 12
Power can be a creative, life-giving force for good.
But it`s my experience -- personally, and in working with culture-making leaders for more than a decade -- that we often:
🌺don`t see ourselves as powerful
🌺don`t want other people to think we`re trying to grow power (lest we seem selfish or dangerous)
🌺struggle to see ourselves as "leaders"
🌺hesitate to truly take responsibility for our own power and impact
Why? Because we believe power is bad.
If we believe power is bad, obviously it`s going to be hard to see it in ourselves.
(Hello Mirror, Meet Face. I`m talking to myself here, too.)
It`s going to be even harder to deliberately grow it and steward it.
**And why wouldn`t we believe that power is bad? **
Most of us have direct experience with power being used against us.
But power doesn`t have to mean abuse.
It doesn`t have to be mean oppression.
Nor does that have to be the way we use it.
Power can be a transformative force for good -- one that we use to create new realities for ourselves and each other.
We can use power to protect ourselves and each other, and to grow a future in which we all flourish.
That kind of power can take three forms (h/t @BreneBrown in #DareToLead):
❣️Power to -- our ability to make things happen
❣️Power with -- our abiltiy to come together as small teams and large groups and leverage our power (this has an exponential effect)
❣️Power within -- our internal spirit/source/capacity
And so...I encourage all of us to get free of the notion that power is one hegemonic, destructive thing.
I encourage us to stop avoiding and under-using our power.
Instead, let`s cultivate and grow and SHARE our power.
Because doing that will change our lives (let`s flourish!!) AND undermine the systems based on that other nefarious kind of power.
Let`s step into our life-giving power and use it to change EVERYTHING.
PS I trust you with power and resources
#WeAreTheCultureMakers
www.kellydiels.com
#powermoves #womensempowerment #empowerment #thepowerconversations #powerto #powerwith #powerwithin #nonbinaryentrepreneurs #womenentrepreneurs #equity
Mar 11
If it is not good for you --
even if it isn`t their fault
and ESPECIALLY when it IS their fault --
you get to take a break
temporarily
or permanently
Your attention is a gift
Your followship builds careers, fortunes & movements
So how you invest it is a culture-making decision
You get to be in charge of your own attention
(she says while looking in the mirror at the worst offender 😀)
#WeAreTheCultureMakers
🌺🌺🌺
I`m Kelly Diels and I`m a business development coach for culture making entrepreneurs.
I help you turn your strengths into structures...
...so you can can grow a flourishing life & business that truly makes a difference.
My programs:
Copywriting for Culture Makers (now enrolling)
Social Media for Culture Makers (April 2023)
The Flora Mastermind for Culture-Making Entrepreneurs (September 2023)
We Are The Culture Makers (Jan 2024)
#creativebusiness #feministentrepreneur #goaldigger #bossbabe #womenentrepreneurs #consciousbusiness #feministcoach
#feministcopywriting #feministbusiness #feministfounders #entrepreneurialfeminist #buildingtheinstitutionsofthefuture #emergent #consciouscopywriting
Mar 9
Time to incubate an idea is essential for output…and allowing yourself that time is NOT procrastination.
And actual procrastination — as in, you have the idea fully cooked but do not want to sit your ass down and do it — might not always be a bad thing.
In fact, procrastination can be a source of good information.
In Antifragile, for example, Nassim Nicholas Taleb talks about the value of procrastination for a writer:
“If I defer writing a section, it must be eliminated. This is simple ethics: Why should I try to fool people by writing about a subject for which I feel no natural drive?”
I’ve started using this as a point of discernment.
Sometimes I’ll outline a book or an essay…and then do.not.want.to.write one chapter or section. Often it’s a topic I feel obliged to cover rather than excited to consider.
So, Taleb suggested, maybe my procrastination is instructive.
Maybe if I don’t want to write about it, maybe it’s not for me to write.
Maybe it doesn’t really need to be written by me nor included in my essay/chapter/blog post/book.
Maybe I need to reclaim and honour my no.
**No maybe about it**
So now, if I’m procrastinating hard on a topic and it’s not fear of going into hard places but simple nope-don’t-wanna-do-it, I delete that section or chapter or letter and move on to what does interest me and what I DO want to write.
Because procrastination can be GREAT information.
Listen to it. Leverage it.
***
www.kellydiels.com
#CopywritingForCultureMakers
#creativebusiness #copywriting #onlinecopy #consciouscopywriting #WeAreTheCultureMakers #bossmoves #makers #creatives #writersblock #procrastination #motivation #inspiration #perfectionism #artist #entrepreneur #writerslife #wrotetoday #amwriting #writer #writing #writersofinstagram
Mar 6
How To Run A Principled, Money-Making, Socially Conscious Business
Without Killing Yourself
A culture-making, change-making, equitable business - a FEMINIST business - is designed to deliver three outcomes:
🌺 Good for the founder/business
🌺 Good for clients
🌺 Good for the collective
But what I see, over and over again, is that sincere, socially conscious entrepreneurs compensate for the defects of mainstream business models with their LIVES.
If business-as-usual is exploitative, then socially-conscious entrepreneurs over-correct in the other direction.
They over-focus on the people & causes they serve
(the intersection between Good For Client & Good For Collective)
AT THE EXPENSE OF THEIR OWN WELL-BEING.
That pink circle of "Good For Self" is often not built into their businesses at all.
So I have to INSIST to my principled clients that they put themselves back in the equation.
If you recognize yourself in this, here`s what I want you to know:
Building your wellbeing into your business does not have to be extractive. It can be a culture-making move that facilitates economic justice.
If we don`t...well that`s just the ol` systems of suffering working exactly as intended.
(As you can see from the diagrams, whenever a business delivers on only 2 out of 3 priorities, the intent of equity gets undermined in a profound way.)
Developing business practices that support all three priorities (Self, Client, Collective)
- AND ACTUALLY INCLUDING YOURSELF IN THE EQUATION -
is how we develop culture-making, equity-making, feminist businesses.
So dear Culture-Maker, what that means is that you`ve got to put yourself back in the equation. Stat.
:::::::::::::
My thanks to @cvharquail, author of FEMINISM: A Key Idea for Business for our many, many, MANY conversations over the years that have shaped my thinking about what it takes to run a culture-making business.
::::::::::::::
I`m Kelly Diels. I`m the founder of #CopywritingForCultureMakers, a non-exploitative copywriting method that helps you sell without selling out your principles (or your people!) -- no shame, blame, or fake scarcity required.
link in bio @kelly.diels to learn more (and thank you!)
Mar 3
