social justice marketing

May

2017

Social Justice: How to Fuel Your Purpose and Practice with Educational Niche Marketing

Focusing on a niche in your field is beneficial to the long-term growth of your business and career. The problem with today’s job market is the over-saturation of people in numerous job fields reaching for the same generalized group. General practitioners easily spread themselves too thin, resulting in working on cases and jobs that don’t interest them, and even worse, aren’t cases they ACTUALLY have experience working with.

But when your purpose in life and your professional career collide to make a magical combination, this is the stuff that fuels change in the world. It may seem odd that a combination so great might need P.R. or “marketing” but these efforts can fuel the fire needed in this world’s current state. We are battling some forces that need a push back. Marketing your niche is the corporate term and excuse to promote good in the world and push pro-people agendas as well as re-education.

Finding your niche isn’t always easy, but some leaders do an amazing job at using their niche to fuel their passion and stand out as leaders, advocates, and philanthropists!

If there is a lesson to be learned, these leaders are teaching it. Here is what we learned from some of our favorite social justice stars!

Leader 1, Lesson 1:

Talila Lewis advocates for people with disabilities, specializing in deaf, deafblind, deafdisabled and hard of hearing cases. Lewis is one of very few lawyers around the world working to defend deaf wrongful conviction cases. Besides being an avid educator to congress, attorneys, and law enforcement, Lewis is also the creator of the only national deaf prisoner database. Lewis works tirelessly to defend those who have not been able to defend themselves. Lewis is the Founder and Director of Helping to Educate and Advance the Rights of Deaf Communities (HEARD), which is an all-volunteer nonprofit that works to assist and advocate for the deaf, disabled, abused and wrongfully convicted.

Lewis stands out for hard work, dedication, being knowledgeable, and vocal in order to defend those who need specialized advocacy. Education is big for Lewis, as it provides a truly valuable resource to those who need it most. Recognized as a White House “Champion of Change” and was named one of the “Top 30 Thinkers Under 30” by Pacific Standard Magazine, Talila Lewis shows us that serving as a defender and resource allows for unparalleled success. Lewis’ focus is specific, which helps in truly understanding and helping clients, followers, and community members far beyond lawyers in this field of practice.

A big reason we believe niche marketing is the way to go is because of leaders like Lewis who leverage their purpose to serve as field specialists for those who need them the most. Thanks for your brilliance, heart, and dedication, Talila!

Leader 2, Lesson 2:

Andrea Ritchie is black lesbian police misconduct attorney, researcher, writer, and advocate for criminalization surrounding women, girls, and LGBT people of color. Ritchie also helped found and coordinate Streetwise & Safe (SAS), which serves as a leadership development initiative that focuses on sharing “know your rights” information along with strategies and visions for change among people facing the issues she seeks to represent. Ritchie now also serves as the SAS Senior Policy Counsel.

Ritchie is also a co-author of:

Like our previous social justice star, Ritchie is also quite active in education, pushing forth her vision, her views, and her experiences with groups that need the most advocacy in our society.

We love Ritchie because her work spans further than her federal litigation to her commitment to educating and speaking out for the civil rights that many others are too fearful to speak up for. A visit to Ritchie’s site gives access to her blog, videos, publications, and access to her business services.

Because police misconduct is still a huge problem, Ritchie’s specialty is still broad enough to handle a wide array of cases, but small enough to allow her to quickly assess an issue and come up with the best possible solution for that case. Richie has gained enormous trust amongst her clients and with her community, not just because of the number of similar cases she has handled but also because of her respect, education, and advocacy for a very particular group of people who need her, and more advocates like her.

Leader 3, Lesson 3:

Photo Credit: Norm Betts/Bloomberg News

The NoVo Foundation, a Warren Buffett family foundation run by Buffet’s children, is a leader in providing girls all over the world with opportunities for advancement. This organization focuses on supporting the development of capacities in individuals and as a whole to create a balanced and caring world that women can thrive in. The NoVo Foundation is also donating $90 million dollars over 7 years to help girls of color fulfill their mission.

Buffett is known as one of the most successful investors of all time. His families philanthropic work, although different than our last two, demonstrate a strong commitment to using your voice, your name, your privilege, and your finances to support a meaningful cause. The NoVo Foundation gives hope, inspires change, and advocates globally for the women who need it the most.

At the end of the day, specializing in a specific niche allows you to ENJOY the work you do. If you specialize in a field that interests you, then it won’t even be a job, but more of a commitment to fueling your passion. Like Buffett, Ritchie, and Lewis, if your passion is to help others overcome societal & natural-born obstacles to live a fulfilling life, you can specify where it is that you best fit into this field and tackle it whole-heartedly!

At A.R. Marketing House, we focus on helping you use your voice, your knowledge, and your skill set to become the leader that your field needs. We believe in the power of education and using what you know to provide the information that others are seeking.

Marketing comes down to more than just selling, getting your name out there, and making money. It is an opportunity to do good by those who are seeking your service and an opportunity to gain recognition by providing meaningful content, services, and information.
Need help becoming the leader your clients need? Contact us today!

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” – John C. Maxwell

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Mar

2017

A Unique Way to Fund Your Much Needed Research, Content, and Educational Efforts with Crowdfunding

Benefits, Resources, and Examples for Crowdfunding Your Research & Educational Efforts

Crowdfunding for educational purposes and the common good is not a new idea. However, with education and research accessibility at an interesting crossroads, this form of funding for the collective good could become more common. Consider where we are today when college tuitions are at an all time high yet Ivy League Schools are offering free courses online at edx.org and similar free educational sites. Where independent research grants are awarded by pharmaceutically backed giants yet holistic healthcare has to rely on its own nimble yet dispersed abilities to successfully fund research and educational content.

It’s an interesting time to examine where much needed public education and research fit into the grand scope of educational online content and who and what are funding this content.

There are countless multi-billion dollar corporations with a huge financial capacity to create their own misleading educational platforms and frame them as valid. So we, the people, need to create more clever ways to fund the educational platforms for the leaders and fields that are integral to humanity and include holistic health, environmental technologies, and social justice advocacy.

It is vital, necessary, even revolutionary, to take your expertise and share your knowledge with your community, your audience, and the world.

There are many opinions of crowdfunding, especially when you consider the vast array of randomness that people have decided to raise money for, like the cringe-worthy efforts of some people to crowdfund their “much needed” trip to Las Vegas.

But consider the most honorable reasons society could be using crowdfunding. Consider how you might fit into this honorable reason as a vital researcher and/or educator in your specialized field. Then let me propose to you, small business owner, with your specialty practice, highly helpful service, or uniquely genius products, that crowdfunding your educational platform could be an invaluable tool to spread your message. Education is the cornerstone of how your audience makes decisions. What would the world be like with YOU as the option? Without YOU as the expert? Without your business, practice, or clinic as an Educator not just in your field but for your field? Here is a list of 8 crowdfunding sites that can help you fund your dream educational and research projects!

1. Experiment

2. Indiegogo

3. RocketHub

4. GoFundMe

5. Razoo

6. Crowdrise

7. Crowdfunder

8. Kickstarter

Benefits to Crowdfunding:

You don’t have to wait for payment of your published scholarly articles or published books. If you are using crowdfunding, your goal is to make your educational material accessible to people, so you don’t have to sell it on platforms like JSTOR or Google Scholar. Though these tools are valuable and amazing, they are not available for free, nor are they academically accessible to the general population. Your produced content was paid for by the people, so give it to them and you won’t be waiting around to get paid for this work on a residual income basis.
Get your research funded! Did you know that there are sites now set up to crowdfund research? One of them is Experiment.com. In addition to raising the money you need for important research, you will have access to a support network of professionals helping you plan out and create milestones to complete your much-needed work.
Create hype and excitement around your research, education, or project by adding a data dashboard to your site that projects live updates when you have donations, shares the research or educational tools those funds are going to, and gives a live ‘thank you’ to donors on your crowdfund dashboard. This will allow people to get excited about what they are contributing to. It’s exciting to feel like you’re a part of something groundbreaking and bigger than you are, something that will live on and benefits future generations.

Example 1: Crowdfunding your Specialty Clinic’s Research

To give this idea some meat, let’s say you’re a practitioner of some particular holistic healthcare practice and you find that when speaking to random people about your work that they often generalize it into something else, something incorrect. You see a huge lack of education and huge misconceptions about your field of practice. Are there any studies, hypothesis, or data you collect that you can develop research on? Why not develop your research and submit it to the ‘go fund me’ of research and experiments, Experiment.com? The have generated over $7 million dollars in funding for over 600 research projects. So yes, now start conceptualizing that YOU can be contributing to the much-needed research, education, and content that will shift public perception to a deeper understanding of their health options.

Example 2: Crowdfunding for PSA Style Education for Victims of Abuse

You’re an attorney that practices law in an area that carries a lot of shame for your clients. It’s difficult to discuss and normalize the experience of victims of child abuse, sexual assault, and elder abuse. Many times this shame keeps victims in the closet of their nightmare experiences. You know that your job isn’t just about supporting your own clients but also creating a general space where any victims of violent crimes can feel safe to come forward. So you want to develop educational and emotionally supportive content to support people who experience these atrocities. Why not crowdfund this amazing and much-needed endeavor? You can develop it as a special page on your website where interested, supportive, and privileged individuals can donate to your important educational agenda. You can start a Go Fund Me specifically for creating your own form of education whether it be to speak at schools, retirement homes, or developing digital content and disseminating on places where people won’t feel ashamed to view it. Whatever your act of education, you can use the interest of your community to generate the funds necessary.

So, when your budget isn’t holding you back from making waves in the world for the better, what exactly will you do? Who will you open your practice and heart to that will join forces with you to conduct, finance, and execute learning for the masses? There are so many people IN desperate NEED of the information, compassion, and truth that you have in your brilliant mind, please do the world a favor and share it!

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