152. Giving-Back and Imperfect Allyship® with Emily Thompson
Making Space to Be an Imperfect Ally®
Imperfect Allyship® applies to more than just race and gender.
And we need space to think about how our allyship efforts intersect with creating systems of collaboration, support, and giving back.
Building those systems into your work and life can make allyship feel like less work and more full of ease and joy.
Emily Thompson joins Erica to discuss how Imperfect Allyship® shows up for her, the systems she has put in place to make allyship feel easeful, and her December crystal party collaboration with Pause on the Play®, The Community.
Listen on your favorite podcast player or keep reading to learn:
Why Imperfect Allyship® requires space and self-awareness
Why a company culture of giving back starts with a core of caring
How to give yourself and your team space to find out what matters
How to build systems to support giving back
Growing Creative Businesses
Emily Thompson is the co-founder and host of Being Boss, a resource, podcast, and community for creative entrepreneurs, and founder and CEO of Almanac Supply Co., a retail brand that makes and curates products that help people connect with nature.
For over a decade, Emily has worked closely with creatives to help them make money doing work they love, focusing on building online business models and growing creative businesses. She’s also the co-author of Being Boss: Take Control of Your Work and Live Life on Your Own Terms.
Embodying Imperfect Allyship®
People have preconceived notions of what it means to be an Imperfect Ally® or that it is only about race or gender.
On the Pause on the Play® podcast, Erica says, “I think it’s really about deciding that there is a disparity somewhere, this is something that matters to me, I have a platform, I have resources, I’m going to support that.”
Emily Thompson adds that part of embodying imperfect allyship is to show up with self-awareness and as the truest version of yourself and your values whenever you're showing up.
“It is showing up and embodying your truth while holding this ideal that you want to leave wherever you are better than you found it.”
She continues that imperfect allyship shows up around race and gender in her work, but also around supporting non-traditional family setups and stewardship of the environment.
“I’ve found as I’ve navigated a non-traditional business model…I had to immediately break down my own thought processes of what it means to run a business and show up for the business.”
Know the System You’re Breaking
Erica says that when we create systems that shift away from traditional modes of thinking, first, “we have to figure out, what is this that I want to break?” Then we can ask, “What I would want to do and how this supports the people that I’m working with,” in a way that is aligned with and customized for your values.
Emily says one of the ways this has played out at Being Boss was in doing away with vacation days. “I’m not counting them; I don’t care.” Her attitude toward her employees taking time off is, “Have fun. I’ll see you when you get back.”
She continues, “That’s not the kind of trust most bosses give to their employees…[But] we’re seven years into it, and we’re still doing a great job, and everyone’s still showing up to work most days. But everyone has flexibility, and they’re able to show up for their lives in a way that makes them really love working for us.”
She admits that kind of shift is easier to make with a remote team of professionals, and she is still working to figure out how breaking old systems around management works in the retail setting of Almanac Supply Co.
Space to Find What Matters
That trust and freedom in her team supports Emily’s allyship and efforts to give back to causes that she values.
For example, she says, a team member who took a day off to go for a hike might come back with information about supporting a local nature preserve through an upcoming event.
“When you allow people to go out and experience the world with an open and full heart…a world of possibilities opens up…[That] opening up for people to create priorities for themselves, gives you the opportunity to really see what is important to you.”
She says giving back has been built into the way she does business from day one, from sponsoring community events to committing to having a forever give back product at Almanac Supply Co. that supports a local land trust.
She says it gets lost for people sometimes that “every business is a part of its local community. Even if you sell online, you are absolutely part of your local economy…So we’ve always built that into what we do.”
Erica agrees, “you cannot…understand what matters to you and to connect it with what’s possible when it comes to giving back if you don’t have space.”
Systems Support Giving Back
When it comes to creating systems of ease to support giving back, Erica describes the crystal party she, India, and Emily held in December in Pause on the Play® the Community and how they built on Emily’s existing system to raise money and awareness for L-CMD Research Foundation.
“There was an opportunity not to break a system…and there was a way for us to talk about something that mattered…and it supported a cause that mattered…There’s multiple things that can happen at the same time, and this was not something that was over the top to put together.”
Emily adds that Almanac Supply Co. has intentionally created their systems around crystal parties to support that kind of collaboration because that is a strong company value as well.
One of the other keys to support give back that Emily has built into Almanac Supply Co. is ensuring that their product margins and pricing support giving. “We’ve priced everything with the idea that we can show up any day and be like, today a portion of all proceeds is going to this organization.”
On the flip side, she says she intentionally has not built discounts into her pricing. “That is not a part of my brand story. That is not a part of my values….I cannot support the things that are important to me and do sales.”
Erica adds, “if you are trying to be an intentional and imperfect ally and it comes from a place of like, I’m going to give you this, but I know I’m going to lose and I’m going to have lack with this; that’s not what we want.”
Emily agrees and says that small things can be built into your routine, like the candle she sells that supports the land trust. Reviewing the sales and writing a check is a quarterly task on their calendar that takes twenty minutes.
Erica says, “I think sometimes people think all of this has to be a big thing. It doesn’t. It could be a recurring thing that happens on your calendar.”
A Core of Caring
Emily says that giving back also has to be built into your company culture. “I cannot feel fully good about giving back to some trees, you know, if I don’t feel that good within my own team.”
Giving back starts with a core of caring for the cause, for your team, and yourself. “It starts with you. It extends to your team and extends to your clients and customers. It’s this thing that radiates out from this core of caring and wanting to give back, not just to the trees, but to the people who make it happen.”
Erica adds that “it’s easy to compartmentalize it as it’s a thing I do versus this is how I do anything,” but that giving back and being an imperfect ally should be infused into how you do all things.
Emily says it all comes back to giving yourself space to recognize what’s important to you.
“If you give yourself space to recognize where your priorities like and what feels great to you in terms of how you want your business to serve something bigger than your mortgage, then everything else will fall into place so much more easily.”
Connect with Emily Thompson:
Almanac Supply Co. *affiliate link
Instagram: @BeingBossClub, @AlmanacSupplyCo
Resources:
Ready to dive deeper?
In order to create systems of collaboration and Imperfect Allyship®, you have to be clear on your values.
Join Erica and India From Implicit To Explicit Masterclass, where you’ll have the space you need to get explicit about your goals and what you support and shape your company culture through your values.