Get Rid of "Communication Debt"

Get out of what I call "communication debt." If you owe someone a return phone call or email, set aside time (every day if you have to) to get ride of those debts. Even if your reply email is to say "It's going to take a little extra time for me to get back to you. I'm unusually busy right now..." then do that. And be sure to connect when things slow down (in other others, mean what you say).

There's not much value in having people you care about think that you're ignoring them. And as a business person, you don't want colleagues and/or clients thinking that you can't manage your time. I learned the hard way. It's a horrible reputation to have. I've since learned to pace myself, touch base (even if only for a moment), and temper people's expectations. The less I owe, the lighter I feel. Works for me just fine! 

Here's to releasing that heavy load of your back. Make that call or reply to that email today.

Why I Don't Use The Term "Brand"

Words are not simple. Maya Angelou said they are things. They are absorbed by people, they fill up rooms, they settle on furniture. Maybe. Like dust. Further, I believe that words carry spirits and intentions. They are magic in that they have the ability to transform, be it for creative or destructive purposes.

So as the daughter of ancestors who were enslaved Africans and as one who is a public relations and marketing professional, I take exception to the word “brand,” the industry term that is so commonly used to articulate one’s identity in the market place.

Yesterday, I was at the New School in New York City where I spoke at a conference entitled “Re-Mixed and Re-Mastered: Defining and Distributing the Black Image in the Era of Globalization.” I was a panelist at the Developing Your Brand and Audience Using Social Media discussion. It was targeted for media makers, mostly those who make films. The discussion was robust and I think invigorating for all of us.

At one point, however, I expressed my long-standing objection to the marketing terms “brand” and “branding.” I actually loathe the words and don’t use them at my agency. I get that they are popular industry terms. Don’t care. And I understand the possible dismissive reactions to my stance. Still don’t care. (I also don't refer to my ancestors as "slaves." Rather, I acknowledge what happened to them: They were enslaved Africans. (At the panel, no one seemed to disagree with my explanation, by the way.)During the American era of enslavement, Black people in this country were sold as chattel and marked, with branding rods, for identification and ownership purposes. So when I hear “brand,” my mind conjures up images of sizzling, burned flesh. I hear people wailing. I hear screams like sirens, piercing. I don’t want to yet I can’t help but see images of a great, great, great aunt perhaps, restrained and anchored by rusty chains. The “slave trader” is holding a fired-up branding rod. Maybe it has the letter “W” on it. My aunt is scrambling for her life - madly, desperately trying to dodge the scorching iron that is aimed at her left shoulder blade. She can’t escape and must submit. Her family is nearby watching her body jolt and wither. Her eyes roll back and she passes out. Her husband, her daughters, and her siblings are nearby watching, horrified. They would give their lives to have her released but they have no power that will save her in that moment. Barely able to breathe themselves, they smell her seared flesh. They also taste their own vomit. They are next.

--

I am tethered to my history and my ancestors are ever-present. Their presence is not rhetorical. I recall them as real live people who had skin and bones. I think about their feelings, their ideas, and their aspirations. I think about what they cooked, what smells lingered in their homes. I hear girls laughing, I see hands playing in the earth's soil...all of it. When I gaze at the moon on pensive nights, I wonder about what they thought when they did the same. They constantly call me by name. Always in my left ear. I honor them by not taking their lives, nor what was done to them, lightly.

As a business owner of African ancestry whose work requires that I shape and transmit messages, I opt not to use the word “brand” in my conversations about marketing. Of all the freedoms that I have today, surely I can disregard industry norms that don’t suit me. Navigating the marketplace in today’s business world need not be analogous to inhumane behavior. The notion or process of identifying and promoting one’s mark (marketing) is, in essence, about finding one’s own signature. At AKILA WORKSONGS, we simply use "signature" or "identity" to replace the word "brand."

I do understand that it’s common for people to use words, but not know their depth or historical context. I get it but I’ve never been that casual. It’s doubtful that my feminine energy, search-for-the-deeper meaning Gemini self will ever have such a superficial relationship to anything, especially words. I’m grateful that I am free to define my own terms.

Updated 11 June 2013

Just Answer the Question

If someone asks you "How long will it take for you to get here?" and your reply is "Well, I have to stop by the store and then go pick up something from Karima's house, so I should be to you by 6 or later," then this article is for you.

If the request is "Let's pick a day to do lunch. What day works for you?" and you respond with "I have meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday. Next week is hectic," then this is post is for you, too.

Our need to explain, to put things in context, and give unsolicited back-story is crippling. Feminine energy, loquacious Gemini that I am, I have been chastised about this since childhood. Today, however, there's improvement, mostly because I have more work than time on my hands.


In business communications, unless asked, don't top your responses with your process and thoughts patterns for how you arrived from point A to point B. No one cares. Just answer the question.

5 Top Tips on How to Just Answer the Question (Especially in Business Communications)

5. Listen and pay attention. In most conversations, people don't listen to other people. They actually wait their turn to speak. Not cool.

4. More often than not, it's best to keep the personal out of it.

3. Resist the urge to give the back-story, unless asked. Meat first, gravy later.

2. Say "I don't know" if you don't know. It's a perfectly acceptable response and 100% better than improvisation.

1. Seek precision. 

Get a "free space" partner. 
My business partner and I have been best friends for over 20 years. With him, I have the free space to whine and to share all my rants, frustrations, and even my irrationalities. There's a healthy balance of push back as well as commendation in this space. I do all this with my business partner so that I'm as clear-headed as possible when I engage with my staff, clients, and colleagues. Your communications will improve if you disconnect from festering emotions. Find a free space partner to help keep your field of vision clear.

Ask yourself why.
Examine why you have a need to share so much context and nuances when answering questions. For me, I had a strong aversion for misunderstandings. I have always believed that only if you have all the letters in the alphabet, so to speak, could you tell the whole story. Without all the pieces, nothing fully works as it should. While that's true, it manifested in me over-communicating. Similarly, a friend admitted that the reason he talks so much and talks so fast is because he was a naturally curious child who was stifled, often violently. He would get hit in the mouth for asking a question or just for speaking. Now, as a grown man, his idea of being fully expressed is to get it all in...all the time, even if it means talking over people.

Identify the tools that will improve your communication, in business and beyond. Remember that listening is critically important. It involves a focus on "the other," which may be challenging in our "me, my, and I" focused culture. But it's worth it.

"The Spin" on WBAI: Same Brilliant Women, New Name!

Another Select Item from Put On BLAST! (TM) Be the *FIRST* to get ALL special notices and discounts such as the one below by signing up to Put On BLAST! (TM) at www.putonblast.com (the email marketing service from AKILA WORKSONGS, Inc.)


The ALL WOMEN MEDIA PANEL that so many of you have listened to faithfully for the past year on WBAI's Wake up CallThe Spin, we're all over the media, and we're on Facebook, too!

Conceived and hosted by has a NEW! name. We are now Ester Armah, The Spin is a weekly segment heard on the radio talk show program Wake Up Call. Every Tuesday at 7:30 am EST, Armah moderates a discussion with rotating guests and with regular panelists April R. Silver and/or Stacey Patton (Senior Writer and Editor of The Defenders Online, a blog by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund). Broadcasting to some 19 million listeners in the New York tri-state area (and heard globally on the Internet), WBAI is a listener-supported station known for its progressive programming. The Spin is dynamic, intelligent, and sometimes over-the-top in its examination of the news behind the news. The focus is local, national, and international politics...from women of color every week!

Thanks for your support!

ars.
April R. Silver

---

Every Tuesday Morning
at 7:30am (EST)
WBAI Radio 99.5 FM's
"Wake Up Call" Brings You The
'All Women Media Panel'
now known as THE SPIN

The Spin Goes Multi-Media!
On Radio / WBAI Radio 99.5 FM / www.wbai.org
On TV / GRITtv / www.gritv.org
Online / Facebook / The Spin

Every program on WBAI Radio is archived. If you missed a show,check the archives at www.wbai.org

"Will Whore for Fame"

A few personal stories have emerged in recent weeks, and as early as this morning, that have reminded me that fame has a dark ability to transform smart people into fools, and some fools into whores. As a professional in the PR and marketing field, I used to say that it is my job to make people famous. In lay people's terms, I am a publicist. That means that clients hire my company to make their visions known to the world. I have to re-write my job description.

It is not my choice to make people famous. My role is deeper and more enduring than that. I work to have people and their projects respected. I start each day so that fame is a consequence of my clients' life/work. If I merely wanted to make clients famous, I could tell them to create silly videos and we'd post them on YouTube. They could become instantly known to hundreds of thousands of people who do not know them right now. But I work differently. I ride my clients about sustaining, at all cost, their already high levels of excellence. I ride them about being thorough, accountable, and efficient in all that they do. I remind them that they must care about the responsible marketing of their work as much as they care about the work itself. Not all press is good press (I have never agreed with that age-old adage). Instead, all our press must have a positive purpose and it must be strategic.


***

I have come to learn that high achievers have big egos and they have extraordinary ambition. They tend to see further, wider, and deeper than most people. With that comes a parallel desire to be heard, seen, read, and/or understood. I am happy to say that I have seen people handle their egos ways that are healthy and even humorous. They use their PR currency for more than just their fleeting need to be adored. Those people make my work rather rewarding. I have also seen the ugly. When the cameras o on or when it’s time for Facebook or Twitter, I have watched others become slaves to their need for attention and for stimuli, any kind of stimuli. I’m reminded that there are cheats, liars, and thieves amongst us (seen and unseen) and that some people will do just about anything to override or delete you (consciously or subconsciously) from the conversation.

A mentor once told me, "There's nothing wrong with saying ‘I'm intelligent, powerful, talented, and resourceful.’ There is something wrong, however, if a person can't demonstrate that they sincerely believe that about everyone else, too."

I prefer the truth. I prefer to deal with people whose egos are visible and not hiding under a cloak of false humility. More importantly, I prefer to work with clients and colleagues who do more than value and tolerate other people. I prefer to work with those who appreciate other people. There's a voluminous difference.

Even still, I say let your light shine. Speak clearly. Learn when to whisper and when to shout. And at the heart of it all, keep your hands clean and your path clear. Nothing endures like good character. If there's a difference between what you agree to and what you do, then close that gap. If you express a commitment but don't believe it, then don't say it. If, in the moment, your talk is passionate, full of emotion, and you feel fiercely passionate about what you're saying, then 9 times out of 10, it's just that: a feeling. Dead words are for cowards. The living word is for healers. If you do the work, the respect will come. In the mean time, don't be a fame whore.

Defining Arts and Activism

Recently, I was asked to define arts and activism for an upcoming book project. I have maintained that arts activism and arts and activism are different. To those in the field, here are my working definitions:

Art: In a global sense, there are many definitions for "art" and they range from using the word as a concept - as part of a branch of philosophy known as aesthetics - to using the word as a process of creating. Historically, art has also come to be defined as a vehicle for the expression of human thoughts and emotions, or as an indirect means of communication. For the purposes of this book/project, we will use the word "art" to mean the process, the outward expression, and the end result (be it an object, an environment, a performance, or an experience) of one's skillful and creative imagination. In other words, art is the skillful mastery and the communication of one's imaginative self, and it is created to evoke thoughts, emotions, and/or action. Art's practical and everlasting value lies in the fact that it is shared with others.

Culture: Culture, simply defined, is the expressions that generally characterize a group of people, their shared experiences, ideals, aspirations, and traditions. The most popular expressions of a people are often thought of as performance or visual-based expressions (i.e., music, dance, sculpture, etc.), yet cultural expressions may also manifest in other forms such as dialect, clothing, cuisine, hairstyles, literature, social games, group tendencies, and much more.

Activism: Activism is a purposeful act or series of actions designed to affect social, political, economic, spiritual, personal, or environmental change. For the purposes of this book/project, the change that activism seeks to affect is a positive change, a change that is enlightening and beneficial for both the individual and the community. Activism may be in support of, or in opposition to, an idea, law, value, policy, behavior, or practice. These supportive or dissenting actions may take on a vast range of expressions such as boycotts, rallies, marches, sit-ins, teach-ins, vigils, petitions, grassroots organizing, letter-writing campaigns, and many other intellectual, creative, and practical forms.

Arts Activism: For the purposes of this book/project (and perhaps in general), arts activism describes a unique kind of activism that uses the arts (visual, performance, theater, and/or literary arts) as a vehicle for affecting social, political, economic, spiritual, personal and/or environmental positive change.

Arts and activism: For the purposes of this book/project (and perhaps in general), arts and activism is the concept, study, and practice of relating and/or intertwining the various fields of art with various methods of activism. It is an interdisciplinary approach to understanding, experiencing, and sharing one's life and it supports the idea that art has holistic, practical, and transformative meaning to individuals and communities, and that activism is necessary for individual and collective development.

Thirteen (VERY RANDOM) Things I Learned While Off Facebook/Twitter for Two Weeks

1. PutOnBLAST!/Facebook/Twitter junkie that I am, even I recognize that fasting from social media, email, and even the telephone is good for the soul er’ once in a while. I survived!

2. TV and news fasts are even more nutritious.

3. My cue to exit: Right before the “can’t we all just get along” beer fest amongst Obama, Gates, and Crowley, the top news story of the day focused on the beer of choice for these men. I promise you that that set back race relations a few years. Harriet had to be turning in her grave.

4. Human interaction and hugs are underrated these days.

5. So is in-depth thinking.

6. “Morning Pages” work! (For my fellow Julia Cameron readers).

7. The power of positive attraction is very real, but I find that it is most amplified within this context: “a clean heart, clean hands, a clear head, and a clear path.” When I get rid of the crud that’s all around me (my own and that of others), I tend to make the healthiest choices. The blessings flow instantly.

8. Conversely, when I focus on fear, guilt, and lack, I make narrow-minded, crippling decisions.

9. “THANK YOU GOD for not answering some of my prayers. If you had listened to me and I ended up with ---, I’d be pitiful and miserable right now. What the hell was I thinking?”

10. Given my path, some may find this hard to believe, but for real…I ain’t mad at Creflo Dollar.

11. My heart still hurts thinking about Michael Jackson. I am writing an open love letter that I will share on or near his birthday.

12. From Kwame Ture: “Corporate media always lies. When they tell the truth, it’s a double lie!”

13. If you are an independent artist, activist, advocate, or otherwise public figure and you believe that ownership is fundamental to independence, then why don’t you have your own website that you control? Why don’t you have a way to stay in communication with your friends, followers, and subscribers beyond Facebook, Twitter, and/or MySpace? What if the next DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack lasts more than a few hours or what if it causes irreparable damage to your communication network? What becomes of your online communities then? If you can’t do it right now, then make it your primary goal for the future: invest in a communication platform that YOU control…lest your online lifeline be cut from beneath you because some hacker has an axe to grind. My primary mean of online interaction is via the email communication system that I created. I invest a lot of time and money into my Put On BLAST! service. There are no short cuts here. It’s not without flaws, of course, but if Facebook, Twitter, and Google go down again (like they did last week), and if the next time is more widespread and radical, then I am well poised to connect with thousands of people regardless, and can do so my own terms and without interruption.

"Identify yourself, please."

In the "Two Lesbian Women of Color Beat Down by NYPD!" post that I announced earlier today, there's an acronym in that announcement that might stump you, as it did me: LGBTSTGNC. When I was in college I once saw a slogan posted on one of the bulletin boards: "DEFINE, EXPLAIN, CLARIFY." That's all it said but it stuck with me all these years. So today, I looked up LGBTSTGNC to find its meaning and here is what I found: http://www.utne.com/The-Most-Inclusive-Acronym-Ever-LGBTSTGNC.aspx. More specifically, here's a direct quote (the links marked in this quote are not mine):

"LGBTSTGNC refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, two spirit, transgender, and gender-nonconforming people, according to an article in Left Turn magazine’s April-May issue (original article available here)."

A teachable moment was lost in the announcement today. The larger issue was clear: "The NYPD remains out of control and we will not stand for aggression nor violence against the LGBTSTGNC community. Let's come together!" With my organizer's hat on, however, I wondered how many people would get stuck on and turned off by what seems so foreign, this new label of "LGBTSTGNC." Plenty. In fact one comment spoke to one person's willingness to attend but the "LGBTSTGNC" was off-putting. It's childish to be so shallow or narrowly-focused. That said, a teachable moment was lost, nonetheless.

Practicality is important if the goal is to ignite an at-large community into positive action. To explain to an ignorant audience what LGBTSTGNC means would go a long way. It matters not if we think that people should be knowledgeable about social justice and human rights issues. Too many people are not. And it doesn't matter about what internal struggles a group endures when they try to define and re-define themselves. Many people outside that group could care less about that struggle. It's all fodder for the laugh mill for some people...be it: Negro vs. Black vs. African-American vs. Afro-American vs. African-In-America vs. Colored. Or be it feminist vs. womanist. Even funnier to some is "I'm not religious, I'm spiritual."

At every corner, it's important use our communications to identify and explain who we are and what we do...in 30 seconds or less (or in under 140 characters ), lest the masses flip the channel.

AKILA WORKSONGS Honors Esther Armah

[from my Put On BLAST! (TM) email service]

Peace, Fam.

I am happy to announce that on Sunday, May 3, 2009, AKILA WORKSONGS, Inc. will honor Esther Armah with its 2nd Annual Founder's Award. Ms. Armah is an international journalist, playwright, and radio host on WBAI 99.5 FM Radio in New York. Deeper than that, she's a woman of great character.

If you were with us this time last year, you'll recall our 15th anniversary celebration at Joe's Pub. Over 200 hundred people sold out the venue and we had a magical time! Between performances, we presented the first Founder's Award to Nana Camille Yarbrough. This year, it's Esther's turn on the "throne." The concept behind the award is to, either during or near our anniversary month, lift up those who epitomize what we call arts & activism - the very context for why we were founded in the first place. We're humbled to be surrounded by such great artists and activists and this gift is our way to say THANK YOU!

So if you have listened to and enjoyed Esther's work on WBAI radio, been to any of her dramatized readings, or just had a dynamic conversation with her, then come out and show your love. The details are below. Feel free to forward this to a friend.

Lovingly,
ars.
April R. Silver
AKILA WORKSONGS, Inc.
www.akilaworksongs.com

In the beginning there was the word

Words are the units of language that we use to carry meaning, to ascribe value, to speak or write our truths. Throughout the history of the world, words have been perceived to have a sacred power, one that could be constructive or destructive. Like living beings, words have an origin and a history. They change form over time, they adapt to their environments, and they carry a lot of energy.

Energy is from the Greek word energos which means "active, working". It is also the word we use to define all kinds of natural phenomena. We also know that energy is converted from one form to another, but it is never created or destroyed.

Somehow, in popular culture, we have come to devalue this mighty vessel, the word. "B*tch" is a safe curse word these days...like "hell." Few people born after 1978 understand why all the fuss over the word "nigg@." Our language continues to be misguided, aggressive, or straight up violent. It does sneak up on you:

• "Let me hit you back" is synonymous with "Let me call you back"
• "Holla" is actually a greeting.
• "That's my nigg@ right there!" is, today, a phrase used to announce a proud kinship in regular everyday talk amongst Black people...just like it was regular everyday talk amongst White slave owners when they were referring to their human cattle.
• "Guys" is synonymous with people - men and women. That grates my nerves. Not long ago, it was acceptable to open a letter with "Dear Sir." That was standard business communication. And it wasn't that long ago when the people would be blanketed referred to as "mankind." That has changed. Modern language usage in today's society has indeed evolved to be less oppressive and less disrespectful to women...except on the "guy" thing. People can't seem to shake that one.

As our minds expand, so will the words we use and the meanings we ascribe to them. Best that we stay focused on the fact that words house energy. They can brighten up or darken a room. They can nurture or negate our own sense of worth. They can even help guide a nation into a new way of thinking. Yes, they can.

I Am Not Blogging!

Remember Richard Pryor's classic piece about his children lying? (see Jan. 13 entry or go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x541sggu4x4

Well, that's how I felt about previous announcements about me re-launching my blog. I've had my blog for years. My interest in "blogging" would shift as easily as my moods, but I'd always encourage my clients: You just HAVE to blog! It's a great way to connect with people." I'd bark about the power of the blog, but wasn't even invested myself.

Then sometime last summer, I challengened myself. I said I would blog EVERYDAY and I was all super aggressive about it...in my mind. Then I wore myself out. It's damn near impossible to do that with a schedule as demanding as mine. Still, I had to prove to myself. I tried. Then I'd decrease the frequency. Still, I'd blog, but only privately. I wasn't ready just yet to go live.

And then it hit me: I'm not a blogger. Duh!

What the hell is a "blogger" anyway? It sounds like a cheap tag for non-writers who vent online. I, and so many other creative people I know, are writers who take the craft for more seriously. So with that in mind, the pressure is off. I'm not blogging, but I do write commentary, poetry, and I love sharing info info on this site, a blog named "aprilisms."

Now that's the God honest truth.

The Kidding of Children

"God has lessons for us, but sometimes God has The Devil to deliver them."

That's the soul of the message that I got from wise woman NANA CAMILLE YARBROUGH a few years ago. Don't know what we were talking about, but it applies to this next entry.

I dated said deliverer once, but I learned a few things from him. For example, he used to always correct people when they referred to children as kids. "A kid is a baby goat! Our children are human beings."

Good grief! That was the epitome of over-analyzing a thing. So over the top, I thought. As much as I adored him at the time, he could be overbearing.

Today, I share the same disdain for the word "kid." It didn't take much for me to look more deeply into this. I, as an English Major, surely couldn't shy away from the fact that language has deep meaning and those meanings are attached to the essence, the spirit, the energy of a word.

I used to teach 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students in Brooklyn. It sensitized me to how young people think...and how they hear us. It often reminded me of how I viewed the world as an adolescent. There is a world of language that adults use when referring to young people. "Kid" is not normally heard as a loving term. It carries the weight of dismissive-ness and detachment, very subtly.

My disclaimer: I am not a parent. I have not raised children. My most direct daily relationship to children was years ago when I was in the classroom. My closest connection to a child is my eight year old sister and she lives in Florida. To the extent that I can help guide her through life via my frequent phone calls is the extent of my regular engagement with children. So I don't profess to know more than any parent or teacher whose lives are immersed in raising children.

I do remember that as a child, that I wished that adults would show more respect to children and would listen more. That whole "do as I say, not as I do" irked me then and irks me now. But who was I to say anything, just some kid who didn't know any better.

"Kindly Say Your Number Twice"

If, for some archaic but occassionally useful reason, you are going to leave a voic email message for someone, leave a short but informative one. And if you are cold-calling and we (the world outside your world) don't know you from a can of paint, then be smart about your communication. The smart communicators leave their telephone numbers twice. The wisest folks leave the number at the beginning of the message and at the end of the message (that trick I learned from Maeshay, who used to work here at AKILA WORKSONGS).

If you're speed talking when you leave your voice mail message, you do know that you force us to rewind the message, right? First, we don't like analog but we know that it's necessary. Secondly, we certainly don't have time to rewind messages just to get a number right. Please, either say it slowly or say it twice. You will stand out if you do...which is a good thing!

5 Tips for Business Email

Like many of you, I live on email and conduct the bulk of my business correspondence via email. And like many of you, I'm sure, I feel oddly disconnected if I'm away from desktop or BlackBerry for extended periods of time. It becomes this big "thing" in my head if I'm going to be offline. I feel like I'm losing a race, missing out...guilty even. God help me.

But with so many people depending heavily on email to make the world a better place, then how come folks are still doing it so inefficiently? It boggles my mind. It's 2008 and there's still a need for email etiquette tips. Who knew? Well, here's a brief re-cap:

5 Things You Should Know By Now When Emailing for Business
1. ALL CAPS = NOT COOL! "Caps" is a formatting technique used for emphasis, not for communicating in regular tone. When you email someone in ALL CAPS it is tantamount to yelling. PLEASE STOP YELLING AT US!

2. If you're hip enough to know what "EOM" means then you gotta be smart enough to avoid looooong subject headings that require us to open the email anyway, right? One would think? If I have to open your EOM-labled email because your subject heading is long, then what's the point, knucklehead?

3. Refresh your subject headings as often as you can. If - during the course of those lengthy email conversations with colleagues that include a reply from everybody - we have to sort through a hundred messages that all have the same subject heading (i.e., "About Tomorrow's Meeting"), then you're making our brains work harder. Flip it up a little, change the subject heading, but keep it logical. It will help your reader track the email thread better. Maybe your heading can address a new point in the conversation, as in "I Agree: Let's Change to 6pm."

4. Subject headings are best if short. And if you're in the email marketing business and your subject headings are longer than 40 characters or so, then you're losing your audience. No need to say everything in the heading. Instead, create a heading that compels the reader to take action or be excited about what you have to tell them. I've learned this the hard way and some of my clients still don't abide by this "best practice." But where you can, keep it short. Long headings come off as amateurish.

5. Sorry, some may disagree, but if you are conducting business - even over email - then include a contact number as a back up. Business is business and if I need to connect with you about something that I don't want transmitted over the Internet, then make it easy for me to reach you. A telephone number says that you are prepared for possibilities...even the unthinkable: that email may not be the appropriate means of of communication for every single exchange (human interaction is still an option, you know). And let's keep it real, maybe I don't want to talk to you either, but in case I have to...

Arts & Activism 101

It was in 2005 that I had one of my "A-Ha!" moments. I was directed to connect with an organization in the south that "spoke my language," an organization that I should know: Alternate ROOTS. It was exciting to discover them. I felt like I should know them already, given my background. But I had been so busy with the work of growing my company (AKILA WORKSONGS, Inc.) that I rarely found time to pause and process the context of my work. Sure, I could explain it. In fact, I'm sure I could over-explain it. Therein lied the problem: I could not succiently articulate the essence of my work. Then I landed on the Alternate ROOTS website and there it was, "arts and activism." I have been wearing out the phrase ever since. It says just enough, and in some ways too little. Perfect!

I'm noticing that folks are adorning their work with the phrase more and more. For example, after talking with a peer recently about my work, my approach, my marketing techniques, and what I call this body of work (arts and activism), I discovered that that work (what I shared with this gentleman earlier) actually re-presented as this gentleman's own lecture...under the heading that he just learned from me.

Well, I think it's a good thing when good things expand. I think it's also important to tell the truth about what we know. In my speeches and in casual settings, I often link this catchy phrase back to the folks I heard it from first just a few years ago. I have stamped my work accordingly for the past three years. And with media, public relations, and marketing being a huge part of the work I do professionally, that makes for a pretty big stamp.

So, let me archive it here now, in writing, the origin of this "new" catch-phrase: as far as I know, the poetic and intelligent folks at Alternate ROOTS birthed the phrase "arts and activism" and AKILA WORKSONGS popularized it...the description, not the concept, of course.