Author: ink

Every once in a while, you come across someone so selfless that you seek a way to give back to them. They put their all into everything all they do… and more. Some people have a natural inclination to give more than they receive.

We are honored to introduce you to Brandi Riley and Courage to Earn. Brandi started Courage to Earn several years ago as a way to help influencers build their brands and find their authentic voice. Brandi is a digital influencer herself and social media specialist. As the founder of the Courage to Earn community for outrageously brave entrepreneurs, Brandi is known for personalized blog coaching and career development. She has managed blogger outreach for hundreds of campaigns and uses her knowledge of what brands want to help influencers get paid more, and her intuitive nature to help bloggers create better content! She’s an equal opportunity encourager! In her words…

Lots of folks can motivate you to want to do more, but when you ask them how to execute, all you hear are crickets. They want you to have feel-good feelings about the things they say, and aspire to do the things they do. How many people do you know who are really honest with you about what it takes to succeed, though?

We are thrilled to partner with Courage to Earn in the hopes that Brandi will be able to continue to inspire people with her gifts. Brandi started a Courage to Earn MORE retreat that allows a small group of entrepreneurs to come together in an intimate setting to learn MORE. Brandi is providing scholarships to women who are unable to attend otherwise.

We created an adult and women’s Courage to Earn t-shirt and tote bag. The profits from these items will go back to the Courage to Earn community. Brandi writes about life in Northern California with her baby boy, little girl, and handsome husband on her blog, MamaKnowsItAll.com.

When your time is valuable, and you’re working hard to make a difference, you don’t want others wasting that time. If something gets in the way, reclaim your time. We’re now in an environment where it is imperative to use our time wisely and get things done.

Thanks to U.S. Representative, Maxine Waters, we know not to let others avoid our questions by wasting our time and filling it with meaningless drivel. We demand answers. Rep. Waters has become a trailblazer fighting the current administration, encouraging women and minority groups to reclaim their time, speak up, and use their voice. As citizens, we have each earned our time to speak up and stand for what we believe, and we refuse to let others take that away from us.

All proceeds from Reclaiming my time t-shirt go to the NOW Foundation, because amid a lot of work around women’s rights issues, they also work to raise awareness of the importance of women’s participation in the political process. We need more women role models who are not afraid to stand up for what’s right.

The NOW Foundation focuses on a broad range of women’s rights issues, including economic justice, pay equity, racial discrimination, women’s health and body image, women with disabilities, reproductive rights and justice, family law, marriage and family formation rights of same-sex couples, representation of women in the media, and global feminist issues.

Visit the NOW Foundation for more information on their mission and objectives.

One of the simple lessons we’re attempting to instill in our children involves giving back. In our consumption-driven culture, we take and take and take, often without thinking about the repercussions of depleting resources or how much others will get to enjoy or benefit from the same thing we enjoyed.

Giving more than taking is an ambitious and audacious goal. And does not seem to be a perfect concept that can be applied to everything 100% of the time. But by constantly reminding ourselves that we need to give back, to pay it forward, to leave a place better than we found it, then actually doing so as much as we can, we can truly improve parts of our world, our environment, and our society. And when we can give back more than we take, we make a selfless investment in our world for the benefit of others.

We chose to pair our Give & take products with Southern Poverty Law Center because of how they work tirelessly in seeking justice, equality, and opportunity for the most vulnerable and oppressed members of our society. All proceeds from our Give & take t-shirt go to SPLC.

The SPLC is dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society. Using litigation, education, and other forms of advocacy, the SPLC works toward the day when the ideals of equal justice and equal opportunity will be a reality.

Visit the Southern Poverty Law Center’s site for more information on their mission and objectives.

We’re adding a new shirt (“Not normal”) to the store, and this is one of my favorites. Its concept is simple, though the execution adds a few different layers of meaning or implication.

During one of the protests around the 2017 presidential inauguration, we saw a clip of someone walking with a handwritten cardboard sign with the words “THIS IS NOT NORMAL!” At the same time, we both thought, “that should be on a shirt so it could last much longer than the life of a cardboard sign.” We had a hunch this phrase would be brought up over and over again as a reminder to not ever think what we’ve been watching unfold was normal. That we would continue to see ugly behavior, greed, lying, deception, and disenfranchising like we’ve never seen before in our lifetimes.

We took the design through multiple iterations and hosted several rounds of feedback with friends before landing on the final version.

All proceeds from our Not normal t-shirt go to United Way. United Way goes above and beyond to try to bring some normalcy to people that otherwise may not ever see the opportunity to live “normal” lives come their way.

United Way improves lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities around the world to advance the common good. United Way envisions a world where every individual has an opportunity to succeed, and entire communities thrive as a result. We’re getting a little closer everyday, with help from millions of people around the world.