An interview hosted by Bailey and Kevin with Nate Nichols and Steffi Behringer of Allyship & Action. Over the past year, their creative production house, Palette Group, has met uncertainty with community building—creating the Freelancers Cyber Summit to make sense of the ad industry during the pandemic and Allyship & Action in response to George Floyd’s death. We talked with Nate and Steffi about the role of storytelling, brand, and live events in bringing people together for collective action.
“We need people to see the power they have in themselves to make a very small change that can compound over time.” - Nate Nichols
Nate Nichols and Steffi Behringer are life and business partners and the founders of Allyship & Action. The Allyship & Action Summits took the advertising community by storm these past few months.
Like many others, their creative agency, Pallete Group, faced challenges when the pandemic hit. But they flipped the challenge into an opportunity, producing Freelancer Cyber Summit to connect freelancers and to “learn WTF is going on in the advertising industry.”
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, Nate and Steffi spun up the Allyship & Action Summit as an urgent source of information on allyship, providing tangible next steps on anti-racism for ad land. The summit and supporting Slack groups and workshops connect allies to Black creatives and allies to learn and continue the conversation. They are also calling on major brands and organizations to sign the Allyship & Action Pledge, “a commitment to transparency with a common, core code we use every time we enter into our business transactions.”
Today on the podcast, we talk with Nate and Steffi about how they responded to uncertainty with action and filled a need for a community within their industry that promotes, facilitates, and pushes conversations related to anti-racism.
Highlights, inspiration, & key learnings:
👋🏻Say hi to Nate and Steffi and learn more about Allyship & Action and Palette Group.
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Note: This transcript is automatically generated, and there may be some errors. Timestamps may vary based on episode announcement & commercial placement.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Get Together
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Our show about ordinary people, building extraordinary communities. I'm your host Daley Richardson. I'm a partner at people and company and a co author of get together how to build a community with your people. I'm Kevin Bailey's business partner and friend.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Well, the company advise organizations
Speaker 1 (00:24):
On how to cultivate meaningful communities.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Absolutely. You're my friend, Kevin, in each episode, we interview everyday people who have built extraordinary communities about just how they did it. How did they get the first people to show up? How did they grow to hundreds, thousands, more members today we're talking to Nate Nichols and Stephie. Berenger two of the founders of the allyship and action summits that took the advertising community by storm these past few months in the wake of George Floyd's murder, the allyship and action summit emerged as a source of information on allyship providing tangible next steps on anti-racism in ad land, the summit and supporting Slack groups and workshops, connect allies to black creatives and allies to other allies to learn and continue the conversation. Kev question for you. You're a big fan of Nate and Stephie's why were you so stoked to bring them on the podcast?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Yeah. So I've been friends with Nate for, you know, seven or eight years now. I feel like our early careers just kind of continue to grow in parallel. And I met Stephie after they first met are now life and business partners. So baseline excitement, just always a pleasure getting to interview friends in particular though, I've just been so impressed and inspired by these two this year. You know, the origin story of allyship in action, as well as freelancer cyber summit, which is sort of the event series that falls under comes from a place of struggle. You know, they run an agency called pellet group. They lost business when the pandemic hit and I witnessed them flip that challenge into an opportunity. You know, if they were thinking, if we have to navigate this like tough time for our business, others in the advertising industry probably do to, you know, let's organize them, let's organize the freelancers and creatives and have a conversation of like how the F are we going to get through this? And then after the murder of George Floyd, they stepped up again, seeing the need for a community within their industry. That's promoting, facilitating and pushing conversation related to anti-racism. They've just met uncertainty with community building multiple times. You know, they've addressed uncertainty with organizing people to provide guidance to each other. And so I just really appreciate them. I love them. And so glad we were able to talk a bit about their stories today.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
I know you Kevin well enough to know that you have a crush on action and people who take action, like action over-talking so, so hardcore in your preference list. And I think that's, that's one thing that we both love about them is they just make stuff happen. And you'll hear more about that in the podcast today. Should we jump in? Yeah, let's do
Speaker 4 (03:00):
It Nate and Stephie, welcome to the podcast. We're so happy to have you here and finally get to talk to you about the allyship and action summit that y'all been working on hard for the last few months. I want to kick off with the question, Kevin, I love to ask everyone who comes on the podcast. We like to say that you can't fake the funk when you're organizing a community. When you're getting a group of people together, you personally have to care about that. Community's purpose and mission that yourself. So I'd love for you to just share what drove you both to this point where you were getting together an allyship and action summit. What part of your background, what part of your personal experiences led you to this point? That's a great question. I think looking back of how 2020 started you know, we were full of what do you ration and like had our plans down how 2020 should look like for us on a professional level, but also personal level.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
And in March covet walked over to New York. We found ourselves in, you know, the situation like so many others that all of our projects were put on, hold on, I got canceled or postponed and we didn't know what to do. And we're super into our strategic phase where I'm like, okay, let's see how we can still be of service. And we started thinking with why don't we do a virtual event that brings together the freelancer community that we a part of because we work with a lot of freelancers. I've been freelancing the past two years. And we started doing the, created the freelancer cyber summit, which is basically a continuous series of virtual events to bring the creative people together with the advertising industry and to talk about that situation. But we all found ourselves in of like what the fuck is going on. And what is this pandemic?
Speaker 4 (05:13):
And, and what does opportunities and the challenges look like right now and in a couple months. And so we, we gathered people from agencies and brands and the advertising industry together and had a conversation very real and honest. And obviously no one had the answers, but just the exchange of what everyone was feeling and going through just helped a lot to go to the next step and feel more confident that you are not the only person in this. And it's a shared struggle that first summit was in March. And we continued the series once a month, you know, in June, everything was different. I remember Nate and I, we were actually celebrating his birthday on May 25th, which was also when happy birthday, Nate happy. Yeah. But we decided to, you know, celebrate a day early because it was the holiday Memorial day. And that was kind of crazy because it was also today when George Floyd died and it was a very surreal and heavy time.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
And with the upcoming freelancer cyber summit that we wanted to host in June, we couldn't think about anything else and immediately decided to do something different. It was kind of like the universe calling likeminded people, amazing, you know, allies actually reached out to us a day after and said what we wanted to create an event and talk about this revolution that all of a sudden popped off. So we had a handful of amazing people on the line, and we all decided to using our platform that we started in March, continuously, you know, grew and scaled to a point where we had around, I think around 700 people joining us to use that platform and transform it into a new platform, which is now allyship in action. And to have a conversation about the systemic racism in our industry. And that's when allyship in action was born. And we hosted that first event on June 18th that we had 2,500 registered within a week. And like 2000 people showed up, which is really awesome.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Yeah. You guys absolutely served a very clear and urgent need you adjusted to show up for that. I think the name is really powerful. I'm was curious, what's behind the words, allyship and action.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
And how did you decide on those, those two names subscribe to summit? The word allyship is a funny word for a black person, right? Because basically you're trying to state, if you're like a self proclaimed, anything you're standing that you're stepping into you know, identity is specific identity. And as a black person, you're walking around with zero allies in the world because your suffering and your pain and sadness is something you, you walk with every single day and no one cares. Everyone looks past it. And you're constantly just getting passed up professionally by colleagues who can't see you and are getting promotions while you take a back seat, you know, as an agency owner and operator, it's like, I don't see as much deal flow as other white owners and operators.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
And it's, it's just clear as day. You can see it through the award ceremony, you get the, you see it through the top list of whatever the 30 under 30 or whatever those lists are that the majority of these
Speaker 4 (09:07):
No more 30 under 30 good stop.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
But, you know, you could just see how, you know, media and how people just prop up and via NYSE, you know, people that aren't black or people of color and nice white people. And so when the word allies specifically to me, it does not absolve you from being a part of the problem. All you're doing when you state that is you are taking the next word into consideration, which is action. You are claiming that you are being productive with your allyship. You are existing, and you are being in a productive space every single day. And what that looks like is sacrificing things, you know, sacrificing your time, sacrificing your emotional space, sacrificing whatever you're reading to read about, you know, colonization of black spaces in black culture and black land and black community and people of color spaces and places and et cetera, like you just, you're just doing what you need to do to learn and become educated and understand the systems that have been oppressing as oppressing people of color and black people. And so the idea of allyship and action is really just something that people can feel like they are a part of a community where they don't feel alone in their discomfort of reconditioning themselves, trying to figure out how they're going to support and prop up people who were oppressed and discriminated against for centuries and for years personally, and practice.
Speaker 4 (10:54):
Yeah. And I think if I can add on to this as, you know, a white woman, allyship is really, like nature said is it's about that. We all need to implicate ourselves as part of the problem, so we can all be implicated as part of the solution. So how can I, you know, as a white woman be an ally for, you know, black women, for example, and it's this revolution, you know, we really wanted to go beyond these like black square posts and Instagram and all the statements, and it has this part of accountability to it where we wanted to, again, bring these people, you know, virtually on stage and really asked him, okay, so you posted your supporting black lives matters, but what are the actual steps that you're taking
Speaker 6 (11:54):
And what is that type of allyship that you're foreseeing for yourself and your organization? And so we all kind of brainstormed about different names, but what really, what really, it came down to how what's the role, what's your individual role in this revolution? How can you be an ally and, you know, go beyond just words, what are the actionable steps that you can take?
Speaker 3 (12:25):
I'm not, I'm not really one for a war and battle analogies, but you know what you're saying makes me think about how oftentimes when the word ally has been used, it doesn't mean that the ally has always been supportive of your cause. You know, that these oftentimes it's sometimes is reaching to people who have been either not so involved in supporting before, or have even been a part of the problem or part of the enemy in a way. And that allyship is like an active stance and it's it often requires sort of shifting one's position or perspective to one that is more so supportive of a certain people and what they care about. You bring in a battle analogy.
Speaker 6 (13:10):
You're like a warrior is like sacrifice, you know, you're, you're, you're risking your life. You know, there's two options. There's you defeat the enemy in the opposition or you die. You know, it's a huge sacrifice. It's, it's binary a F you know, and that's what true allyship should be. It's like, you're just committed and that's it, period. You know, like what are you going to be sacrificing to be committee periods?
Speaker 3 (13:42):
One thing that I've found really compelling about the work that y'all are doing is the focus on the group of people. One thing we talk about with starting up a community is how it's, it's powerful to be very specific about who you want to bring together. It needs to pass this test where someone can raise their hand and be like, Oh yeah, I am that I am an advertising professional. So, so much. So that sort of like the language speaks to them. And I know that allyship in action is centered on bringing together people within and around the advertising industry. Could you, you know, for folks that aren't as familiar with advertising and Nate, you, you alluded a bit to this, but can you share more around, you know, what are these challenges facing the industry? Like why does advertising specifically need an allyship in action summit? What are some of those nuances of what is going on within advertising?
Speaker 6 (14:32):
Yeah, it's a great question. And, you know, we find ourselves in meetings at times with our clients and they have requests is our job to service the brand, the client, and our specific capacity is like production. So it's either experiences or a video film, photo
Speaker 5 (14:53):
Design. And you know, when you're sitting at a table talking about like a video treatment or a photo treatment, there are like subtle microaggressions or just blatant racist things being said and done in a way that everyone's sort of passive about. And a very clear example is you're sitting at a table and you're talking about casting and your client's like, we want to cast white people. Like we don't want to class anybody. And we want to cast this type of person. It's very clear that they're not open to a diverse set of casting options or someone on set has a certain look. And they're like, Hey, could you put that person in the background? And you're like, it doesn't, this is a person. It doesn't matter where they are. You know, this is a wedding scene. Like all people at weddings, like it shouldn't matter what they look like and where their place on set, you know, if there are extra or not, you know?
Speaker 5 (15:49):
And so there are just these blatant disregards of humanity in advertising the happen a lot and there's appropriation. So you have people writing copy of and telling stories and advertising. They have no idea about, you know, an experience, a life experience. For example, you'll have a man writing a copy for, you know, some some drink that is made for pregnant women. It's like, why is a man writing copy for women at all, period, let alone a pregnant woman. And that happens all the time where someone who has no idea about a life experience is creating and contextualizing a message and crafting the messaging, positioning creative for community that have zero context of, they have no experience existing in that life experience. And so that's just wrong, right? Just wrong. And so in our industry, it just happens every day. And on top of that, there's just a lack of black people and people of color and executive levels, not just in our industry, but in every industry.
Speaker 5 (16:58):
And you know, a lot of the time in specific industries in, in, in categories for on the brand side, you have like brands like footwear, like Nike or a foot locker where Footlocker is actually very, very, very rich and diverse. There's a lot of black people, people of color that work for foot locker in the main consumer for a footwear brand is mostly black people, people of color, they make footwear a billion dollar industry. And so you have these big businesses being operated in and in, in built and propped up by white people who don't have any idea how the life experience and the culture exists around footwear. And so that's the challenge that we're dealing with, and that's why allyship in action exists for the time being in advertising.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I've never worked as much in production or as, as you guys have done a lot of like pixel pushing kind of work. And it sounds like really like the advertising and entertainment industries are the tip of the spear for the stories we tell about who our heroes are or who gets to play, what role in the society. So it's a very sharp point for a lot of these tensions and a lot of the systemic racism that shows up. I want to ask you a question about Stephie, you, you mentioned this, you had so many people register in tune in like over 2000 people. And one thing that struck me is that a lot of these folks might have been lone wolves in their agencies, at their companies. What was your thinking about how you might be able to get a signal out to those folks
Speaker 4 (18:40):
About the summit?
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
We're so blessed and grateful that we have such awesome partners working alongside of us, you know, organizations like the one club or working, not working or picture like those organizations and they have platforms, you know but a huge reach internationally with, to all the creative people around the world. And they've been with us from the early start, from the very first virtual summit that we hosted. And so with that kind of support, we were able to build a solid foundation to, you know make room and space for these types of conversations and reach so many people and what it really struck us too, like we've we had no expectations. After the first allyship in action, we were flooded with such like amazing, powerful, meaningful feedback comments, tweets of people that are looking for this kind of, you know, this type of support.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
And it was, you know, obvious that this was much needed and that we need more of this in the future. And so what we did was in the beginning, we found it groups on Facebook and LinkedIn to stay in touch and stay connected, even, you know, after a virtual summit, we also found it a Slack channel. That's when the true magic really happened because these people joined the Slack channel and it grew every, like every day. Now we have like around 300 people and a Slack channel. And like you said, that all are sort of like lone wolves in their own organizations and agencies and brands, and trying to
Speaker 6 (20:48):
Bring the conversation inside, like half the leadership team, their own team come to the table and discuss kind of, you know, this conversation, the challenges about diversity and equity in our system and drive that forward. And with the Slack channel, it was so humbling to see how these people founded their own groups and founded initiatives and programs that they individually wanted to work on. That was really something that we've never really saw coming and but are super grateful. And we are definitely looking forward to continue to grow with everyone.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
I want to talk about the Slack group and the community element. I also want to maybe ask a little bit more about how you've communicated about the summit. I think one thing that struck me is the graphics and the imagery are so, so unique and so striking. And also Nate in particular, you've been so personal and so honest in your communication throughout this time. And I think it's really made me think about how maybe a big agency or a big organization or a big brand, you know, they kind of Polish and, and review and review and water down a lot of things that they do in the space. There's so many people sort of reviewing and editing and editing and changing that they don't end up saying very much in the end. And I think I've been really struck by how personal and like honest all the conversations are. And also how you guys have presented what the summit is, both visually and in language. How have you felt being coming such a public sort of leader and the space and being so communicative with the general world,
Speaker 6 (22:54):
You know, when Stephanie and I originally thought of the freelancer cyber summit and I was bopping around our direction ideas in my head, you know, the whole Corona and pandemic and quarantine experience just felt very surreal. And honestly, this surrealism is like my, one of my favorite art forms. And, you know, I have a designer friend Dewey Saunders out in LA raising from Philly. You know, we're homeys, we've worked together in the past on small projects that were fun. And again, surreal. And he's one of my favorite artists, right? He has these collage is that he does. And then in the moment of being independent make, I'm like, you know what, all of this feels a surreal, but then be the advertising industry. You just one big hodgepodge of just like
Speaker 5 (23:46):
Layers of Jews, shit. Like it's just a bunch of different people's life experiences just kind of slapped onto each other in a way that no one has been able to sort of depict or talk about. And that's sort of at the core of the creative is that the industry is just a collage of just life experiences that have just been slapped together in a way that creates an environment and an ecosystem that we've all just agreed. That makes sense. And in reality, it just doesn't, you have white people, you know, at the helm of these advertising agencies and these brands making decisions on how consumers and people who don't have the same life experience should consume their messaging in buy a thing. It's all surreal. It all just doesn't make sense. And so the art direction is really a reflection of that. And you know, that sort of our brand ethos as it from a pallet group perspective is we're raw.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
We're unfiltered, we're honest and go back a bit further. It's sort of like how I exist personally, you know, walking through the world is I like to be just as unfiltered and raw and honest person. And I sort of just am that in, when I get into a space with other humans, I just, I'm going to be myself. And the expectation for me is you're not going to alienate me and what I share and how I exist, because that's just wrong. Like no one should ever alienate and make anyone feel bad about themselves and how they be our self expressed and my goal and showing up as my whole self and being self-expressed is that hopefully this person or persons in the same room get to be themselves as well. They get to be fully self expressed and not feel alienated either. And we can just meet each other where we are.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
And so when you see me being honest and raw on social media, it's really just to again, push up against the system and be like, yo, y'all, don't have to, you know, confined to every tick tock challenge. And you know what, like not for nothing, like it's the level of their self expression. And I get why Instagram has done that. You know, I just, I just want people to realize that, you know, you could just be your whole self on these platforms and there are people that will accept you for who you are and, you know, reflect that back onto social media. Because quite frankly, I think we need more of that on social media. We need more of the honesty and truth. And, you know, for this moment that we're in, in the, in the, in the revolution that we're in, it's just, we need more black people to speak up and share their stories because it's just fucked up what we've gone through. And for the first time we're actually being seen and heard and felt, you know, and if
Speaker 6 (26:44):
We don't tell our story, Holy and honesty will never be heard and will never be seen. And you just need to see and feel the sadness and frustration and just be with it because your shame and your guilt was ounces. The way of our generational trauma weighs tons, and we need to heal whether you like it or not. And true allyship is knowing that whether I like it or not, they need to heal and we need to confront that sadness and that shame and anger and do something about it. And so that is where I'm coming from when I speak the way I do and what I share, what I share is because, you know, I'm just tired. You know, my family has been tired for generations and people have been tired for generations and ain't got time for it anymore. She gotta be, I just want to be,
Speaker 3 (27:40):
As we've researched communities, one of the things we have come to believe is that it believe is in the power of role models and how by role modeling and spotlighting role models. You can encourage other community members to participate and contribute in ways they may not have been ready to, or did not think to. And I think what's humbling at the moment is that, well, what we need in the revolution is more people who are further away from the trauma to act and contribute and to participate and for you, especially to step up you know, if you continually stepping up, but especially stepping up with Stephie and bringing your team along and, and bringing others along in this moment, I think shines as a role model of like, you know, this is how I am contributing, as you said, is someone who, you know, feels a weight of tons. And if you feel the weight of balance is like, now is your time to step up to and I think that's, that's magnetic and something that, you know, I really respect you for, as, you know, as a leader and a friend.
Speaker 6 (28:43):
Yeah. I got to say too, this is, you know, what I love so much about Nate and admire. And it's just like a constant daily reminder of there's no room and space for shame. Like it's so important that we all, you know, lift various different stories and voices, and that we are not afraid to tell our stories. I think if we, if we learn to be publicly imperfect and to Pok with that in front of each other, I think that's really the baseline of, you know, creating more rawness and equality amongst each other. And that's really through storytelling, right? Like Nate has been an open book about his life and, you know career and all the steps. And that's also a way to build empathy really. And that's what we all need more and more than ever.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
You guys have touched a little bit on how personal and honest communication has been. The storytelling has been the, the freshness of the graphics. You know, both of you are professional creatives and Stephie producer. I want to ask, is there anything else that you're really proud of about how you designed this summit? What what's something that you would call out that you think has been a really valuable design decision?
Speaker 6 (30:17):
I think what we've really learned doing well is two things. One is the programming putting together an agenda you know, kind of looking for the people that come that we can bring together and really establish a resourceful and meaningful conversation is one part. And the other part is the creative that you know, we've put together from the start of the collage, like nature's describe to now, what's like allyship in action. We have amazing creators and designers helping us with building and designing these loud, colorful acids that really speak to the brand ethos of allyship and action. And I think that's, that's really what puts us apart of other, you know, virtual summits. I think those two parts the programming and the creative has been kind of our, our yeah, secret sauce. If you wanna, if you wanna take it that way, I'll add that, you know, the, the virtual conference experience since pandemic in quarantine has popped off, has been quite stale and not innovative.
Speaker 6 (31:50):
You know, they, they've just been sort of like come to this virtual conference and come to this virtual thing and you like, pop will bring your laptop and you show your face. So you don't show your face and you see talking heads. And so it's very like a flat, very linear experience. It's not, it's not very engaging and interactive in any way. So what we did very intentionally, you know, me having a director background and creative prowess around like editing and my design background, one of the key decisions we made was to develop these holding room experiences, these like long, 10 minute holding periods, where you're just with your screen being entertained by the screen. And the screen is setting the tone like this video, this 10 minute video is setting the tone
Speaker 5 (32:40):
For what you're about to jump into at our event. And I'm very intentionally doing sound design, I'm using copy, and I'm writing a very intentionally things that are playful or very serious. I'm using colors very intentionally, and it's a very like fun, creative way to make this square that we all stare at all day during quarantine, more fun and interactive and less of like something you've done before. It's not like watching Netflix. It's not like watching a TV show. It's somewhere in, in the, in the middle of this is a whole new experience because it's not prerecorded, it's live and I'm watching the screen, but I'm entertained by it in a way that it's telling me to do things like send a tweet. So I'm going to send this tweet, right? Like if I use the hashtag and I'm going to go follow you, and I'm going to think about things in, wow, there's this amazing guy, James Baldwin. I never heard of him before and I'm going to learn. And so it's, it's a, it's, it's like a, a multitude of these different experiences because we understand that the computer can be dull and flat during quarantine. So it's, how can you innovate on the experience of a human being staring at their computer in a way that's dynamic and fun.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
Yeah. Adding to that too, is really the, the emotional message that Nate puts into these videos are like you said, it's setting the tone. It's really something that we created in a way that we can speak right through this camera, in this screen, in front of you, but we really wanted to speak, right? Like to you, you know, there's still this virtual obviously aspect to it. We can't be together social distancing, but we really wanted to create this virtual experience as close as we would be all together in the same room. So my background in production, I've, you know, produced huge conferences and summits for Google, YouTube, like a bunch of different companies and organizations. And you go through each touch point that you have with your, with the consumer, right with the client is from the way they get the invitation via email or a mail to when they come on site and register and then dive into the immersive experience.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
And we took that same approach and designed the virtual experience based on these touch points and thought about, okay, how can we be as close as possible to our audience, even though we all in our own homes on our own couch. And with these videos and breaks in between, we found a way to do that. And also very strategically how we designed a different sessions. So you will never find a longer session than 30 minutes and hour summits, just because the attention bandwidth issue is short, and we want to keep it short and crisp and tangible in everything that we create. And so the feedback that we received are all, you know, these videos, the creative the music, everything is just very engaging and fun, and the people just want to stay with us. Yeah. I love that you described it as a show because I felt the weight of it like that. You guys, with your backgrounds, you know, you just put words to the feeling I had, which was like an emotional show. This was thoughtfully made, and it was an experience. And I think for anyone who hasn't been yet, please sign up and go, if you want to see what a virtual experience done with energy and thoughts on this looks like, because it was so striking to me that I hadn't been on any virtual shared live experience that felt anywhere near what, what the scholarship and action summit felt like to me,
Speaker 3 (37:02):
It also speaks to the group of people that you're bringing together. You know, when we talk about advertising creative freelancers not only is the sort of the content and the substance of what you're discussing so relevant, but you're also speaking to them in a language like a creative language that they want to converse in. I feel like it honors the group of people you're trying to bring together.
Speaker 4 (37:26):
Yeah. I think that language is definitely a key part in this too. Like we, we just always kept it super real and just honest and, you know, we drop F-bombs. We just say, say it as it is. There's no hiding, there's no pandering. It's just, you know, say it as it is. I want to get into the community side of, of the summit. What are some of the elements that you added into the summit? We talked about the Slack group, but did you think about connecting attendees with one another from the outset, or was that something that you designed in later? And if so, how?
Speaker 3 (38:02):
I think it just sort of happened based on demand, you know, they, and there was just a request. And I think this is really good book called people in company [inaudible] in a book, they always say, you should like, you know, listen to your community and serve them in the way they want to be served. If they have requests, you know, immediate where it is. And if it's it's at a level, you know, that is sustainable. They
Speaker 5 (38:37):
They're committed to sustaining and attributing value and energy into it, build it. So, yeah, very quickly, I think the first summit, everyone was like, how do we keep the conversation going? And they were like a Slack, let's do a Slack. And some dude was like, Oh, I'm gonna start a Slack. And I'm just like, cool. And, you know, we're just trying to, I think we're still trying to design it in a way that sort of self sustainable and like the energy is consistent and scaling up. We wanted to bring community together to redefine the systems we have, and that takes new policies. It takes new structures, do new systems and just education. And so this is a part of allyship. And so yeah, we're just continuing to do that and, you know, meet them where they are and figure out how to, what they want next. And you just be there to support them. Cause we're the community is theirs. Where does there to help facilitate?
Speaker 2 (39:30):
I want to ask you also about the certification, which I think is a really innovative idea. What is the certification and why did you bring it into the summit? Why did you guys introduce that to attendees?
Speaker 5 (39:47):
So at the end of the day, POC is still pretty cheap, right? The format that we've developed is about talking heads, fundamentally. It's about bringing people in and sort of like, [inaudible] like, you know, it's still very performative in nature, you know, and we know that, and I'm not going to sit here and just let that just be the end of it. You know, if there are systems that we can develop to reset corporate America, let's do it. Let's figure out how to create unique systems. And so the idea of the certification platform was simple. Like agencies just started out of nowhere, just got really defensive and we're like, Oh my God, we don't want to be racist. And so just like dumping their workforce diversity numbers into the internet ether and while that's great, it still doesn't showcase a clear plan. And it didn't show clear, clear reality on retention.
Speaker 5 (40:49):
And it's not really a high level overview of how corporate America looks in where safe space is for various communities. You know, these reports were like EOC data, which is like black people, white people, Asian people doesn't say anything about LGBTQ plus communities. I didn't say anything about chronically ill or disabled communities and say anything about sexuality or gender non binary communities. Like it just, it just very surface level data. And that's just the government being the government and we can't trust them. So it's like, why not build something that's very clear and unbiased on getting the details and withholding privacy of the humans that work at brands at agencies at law firms, just the corporate America in general, in, in serving up to the world, that's transparent public. And so the longterm vision is to build a tool where organizations big and small can sort of be certified by being transparent with their data and having a certain number of products.
Speaker 5 (41:55):
They have to staff diversely every year. You know, staffing diversely is broad because again, there's all these different types of communities that are being discriminated against and need opportunities. And that's our goal is to make sure that these communities have opportunities and these communities can see what industries and what verticals they're opportunities in, if you're chronically ill or disabled. And that's your life you need to, if you don't have any context of how you can work professionally with the level of ability you have, it's going to be challenging. And so imagine if there was a state of equity report annually, that's a beautifully designed visual report or dashboard that can showcase, you know, the communities that you are feel like you identify, and you can see where there's the most retention so that this culture is safe in the film industry, or this culture is safe in the consulting industry on the business side.
Speaker 5 (42:52):
And that your community is also being promoted, right? You can see how many people of color or black people are going or being promoted year over year in certain verticals of, of industries or certain sectors. So the vision is to be able to have data back in create transparency and accountability, but also serve the communities that were discriminated against in a way that they can make strategic and intentional decisions with their lives and their professional careers. You know, whether it's, I want to put a dent in this sector and the banking sector, because I don't see enough of us here, or I want to go work in advertising because I can see opportunity here in their safe space for me there,
Speaker 4 (43:27):
It really pretty much comes down to, to really hold the advertising industry accountable, to, you know, really commit, to be more transparent and give them another opportunity to actually take action. We want the agencies and brands and tech startups, everyone to, you know, be proud of hiring diversely of giving multiple perspectives and experience a platform and a voice and come together. And just, hopefully if you are a and a certified, we want you to also demand of all your partners and clients and vendors to also be a, and a certified. This should become the norm and a standard in our industry that we don't have to hide it anymore and, or not be open about this. You should be proud of it. So we're hoping with this certification platform, it will be some sort of like domino effect in the industry and longterm vision is that it will also go beyond the advertising industry and really, you know, trickle down and across other industries as well.
Speaker 4 (44:45):
So it's really about the accountability part and transparency. And like Nate was saying we're working with an amazing tech team already to also, you know, make it fun and make it, make it more creative and innovative to actually see this diversity data on like publicly on this website later on, we can weigh it to, you know, kind of design it in a way that fits to all sizes and all types of organizations from a small boutique agency to the largest corporate company. It should be for everyone. It will be for everyone. So you have an amazing show. The actual summit, the experience of it is remarkable. You have a community now of attendees who want to on an individual level, keep taking action, share resources, share accountability with each other. And now you have a certification program for also corporations and businesses to be accountable, to keep acting, to keep being allies through action. What's next on your guys' mind? What are you focusing on? And is there anything that you want to put out to our listeners put out to the universe that they can help you with?
Speaker 6 (46:04):
A message is something I would like to send out to your listeners is that this work is thankless and there's no overnight fix. There's no switch. You can just flip and it's hard, but you still have power. You have, you have so much power in your everyday life to read more and educate yourself to share your reading and your learnings with your friends, with your peers, to make friends, to make friends that don't come from the community you come from, or the culture you come from and imagine what the world would be like. If you just set that intention, we just made new friends. Imagine if every CEO just made a bunch of new friends and just made their way out of the same old circle jerk, this is what we need is we need just people to see the power that they have in themselves to make a very small change that can compound over time. And yeah, I just be with us on the journey and we'll keep you posted on different actions you can take that are more, I guess, tangible, so to speak, to get the certification out there and prep for the next summit. But for the most part, it's really just a message and a see yourself as powerful and having power in your journey as an ally.
Speaker 6 (47:50):
Yeah. I think my hope originally that we are all together are only responding to this, you know, very moment of crisis that, you know, we really allow this moment of like catalyze ourselves in a new way of being a new way of thinking and like learning and coming together and listen to each other and also building community, right? Like we love to brainstorm. We love bringing people together and we want to continue these summits to providing this platform and a forum where we can all learn from each other. The final question I want to ask you is, is a personal one. You guys are partners in the summit partners in work, but also life partners. And I'm curious if you're open to sharing, you know, what, what has hosting this event meant to you to personally, or to your relationship? How has it been for you to share something like this?
Speaker 6 (49:05):
Well, yeah, that's such a good question. I personally, I'm so proud and grateful for our relationship and especially the way that we work and live together. Like we are literally 24 seven together, and these virtual summits from the freelancer cyber summit to allyship and action is actually the first project. I would say, where we both really full time on work together. The previous projects were jumping in if there was support needed, or, you know, I was doing my freelance gigs and helping out in or vice versa, Nate was helping me out. But the past six months that has really been such an amazing journey and I'm incredibly proud of what we've accomplished together. And I'm just super grateful to be Nate's partner. That can be part of his journey and just like learn together, grow together. And I would have never thought that this is going to be part of our lives.
Speaker 6 (50:29):
Like looking back, it feels like this has always meant to be though the work that we've put in all the energy and everything was the reason for where we are today. And I truly believe that, you know, everything is meant for a reason. And I feel super humble to be part and to build something so profound and relevant and resourceful for hopefully a wider reach and yeah. Can contribute to this conversation and revolution. So yeah, this has been a really fun ride and I look forward to much more and take every, every day as a new surprise and a new blessing and continue doing this together.
Speaker 5 (51:26):
I was hoping you would go first now for me, it's, it's really just humbling. Honestly, you know, this whole life is just a dream. You know, I'm on Stephie's house. She grew up on her balcony right now, reporting this Cod podcast. And I'm looking at the Swiss Alps, you know, and this is my life partner. This is her family's home. This is where she grew up. This is where she lives. And so much history and life experience exists for her. And you know, now we have a whole future life experience to sort of design and build here. And I'm just humbled by it because I don't know, I just didn't see any of this coming my entire life. I didn't have access to things. And so, you know, I barely had growing up. I didn't know what love from, you know, a women truly was and how that could exist until I was in my twenties.
Speaker 5 (52:35):
And so to be fortunate enough to stumble into women like Steffi, who's been so loving and caring and graceful and just like a hustler, like what the fuck? Like, she, it's just like, I haven't had a business partner like her before who has stepped towed a toe where, you know, can put in the same amount of hours I'll put in just having fun and being like, nah, we need to push a bit further. And then even further, you know, in the, that tenacity, I've never had a business partner like that ever, ever let alone a life partner, you know, let alone a woman that I can admire and enjoy just because she's just so sincere and nice and kind to everyone she's with. And so for me, it's just like, Whoa, how did I end up here? You know, on the other side of that is, you know, we we've both individually worked so hard to be the people we are and worked on ourselves that, you know, to Stephanie's point, like there's no doubt that we should have stumbled into each other and should have been working together and should have now be designing our lives together in a way that we've always wanted to have a life as individuals, but we're doing it together, call it faith, call it, luck, call it fate, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 5 (54:00):
It just is what it is. And yeah, I just feel very fortunate and I'm just, I'm happy. You know, I'm just happy and proud of her and proud of us and that we get to figure this out together.
Speaker 2 (54:21):
I'm excited to see what's ahead. You know, you guys have a lot of power in your relationship and, and in this focus. So I'm happy to be near what you all are doing. All right. Well, thank you both for your time. We're excited to see you. See the next summit. See what you guys are cranking on. Thank you so much, Bailey. Thank you, Kevin.
Speaker 7 (54:44):
If you want to connect with the allyship and action summit, you can learn more@allyshipandaction.com. That's a pledge they've started for the advertising industry. You can see their events@freelancercybersummit.com. And if you want to work with Nate and Stephie, they're producing a rad campaigns as well as summits as part of their agency. Now. So check out pallet group P a L E T T E G R p.com. It's like pallet group. Got great. Thank you to our team. Thank you to Arizona cabin for sound engineering and editing this episode, Katie O'Connell for marketing it. And Greg David for his design work,
Speaker 2 (55:23):
Brad, you can find out more about the work we do as people in company, helping organizations get clear on who their most important communities are and how to build with those people. By heading to our website, people and.company, it's a.company.com. Also, do you want to start your own community or be a super member, a supercharged member of one you're already a part of our handbook is here for you. Visit get together book.com to grab your copy. It's full of stories and learnings from conversations with community leaders like this one with Nathan Stephie. And last thing, if you have the time, if your fingers are nimble, please review this podcast or click subscribe, or do both. They really help the podcast. Get out to more people and stories like Nate, and Stephie's be heard by more ears. So we appreciate it. See y'all next time.
Speaker 7 (56:12):
Thanks. Y'all.