Commitment to Social Justice

Restarted my podcast Slowpreneur to make my ideas & teachings more widely accessible for free

Will be attending SURJ's 2023 National Strategy Meeting sharing their plan to organize white folks to end authoritarianism

Finished reading Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do

Discussed the problematic The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling and Contrapoints' great rebuttals.

Donated to Spectrum Waterloo Region's Rainbow Community Space

Signed this petition voting against the privatization of public hospitals in Canada

Hosting a free workshop on Small Business Taxes with the CRA to make tax advice more accessible

Watched Deconstructing Karen on CBC Gem, which was extremely powerful and upsetting

Learning from The Slow Factory about Challenging Anti-Blackness for Collective Liberation

Currently reading Have Black Lives Ever Mattered? and still finishing the book Biased

Hosted a Social Justice Productivity Party in The Profoundery to encourage members to implement values-based projects

Launched a low-cost legal workshop to bring affordable & high-quality legal business advice to our community

Currently reading Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do

Updated The Profoundery sales page to explicitly list our community values, including the fight for social justice

Re-added the direct checkout link for our Accessible Pricing option to the sales page make it more self-serve & prominent

Finished reading The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together and The Body Is Not An Apology

Focused on seeking treatment & support for my own mental health, which I believe is an important form of activism

Donated to Together Rising, Up With Women, Ian Anderson House, and Pencils of Promise (these are recurring donations)

Started planning an upcoming free tax support session, a social justice Productivity Party, and a low-cost legal workshop for the community

Participated in a survey about the 2023 Region of Waterloo Plan & Budget to weigh in on the projects I think are important

Learned more about accessibility best practices for captioning and alternative text in this article & this one

Celebrated that we read only books by women this year in The Profoundery Business Book Club, half by women of colour

Created a Charity Report to share all the charities & independent bookstores I supported this year

Donated to the Sexual Assault Response Centre of Waterloo Region

Did some of The ON Canada Project's Bite-Sized Advocacy actions (including this one)

Signed up for Engage Waterloo to provide community feedback on local policies (and made friends with my ward councillor!)

I will be hosting a Social Justice Productivity Party to encourage members to implement values-based projects in their businesses

Next up on my reading list: Five Little Indians by Michelle Good and finally finishing up The Sum of Us by Heather McGee

Attended the Decolonization & Anti-Racism with No More Silence webinar hosted through SURJ Toronto

Donated to the Center for Human Rights in Iran in support of Iranian protestors

Signed this petition to protect Ontario's wetlands and this petition asking RBC to stop funding climate destruction

Attended the Time Isn't Neutral training session from Whiteness at Work (highly recommend)

Registered to vote in my new city and made plans to vote in the local municipal election

Shared resources for Truth & Reconciliation Day with my clients & community

Hosted a low-cost Community Reflect & Reset Session to plan ahead & set goals

Donated to the Legacy of Hope Foundation for Truth & Reconciliation Day

Created a clear structure for these monthly updates to ensure sustainability

Planning a Profoundery Birthday Party to make my coworking & group coaching more accessible to the community

Published a YouTube video and blog post about building an anti-racist business & bringing your social justice values into your work

Updated and analyzed my 'Reading Life' book database for author diversity of the books I've read this year & set some new reading goals

Still reading The Sum Of Us by Heather McGhee in audiobook format

Donated to The On Canada Project & made two microloans on Kiva

Signed this petition in support of the fight to preserve free healthcare

Watched the SURJ webinar Beyond Zero-Sum from Heather McGee and Erin Heaney on white people's shared interest in racial and economic justice

Organized a Social Justice Productivity Party to encourage and mobilize community members to take values-based actions in their businesses

Attending the Network of Neighbours Violence Intervention Training presented by The Feminist Shift of Kitchener Waterloo

Planning to read The Sum Of Us, Hood Feminism, and Deep Diversity next.

Purchased this zine in support of the Ukranian defense fund, and donated to SURJ Toronto

Signed this petition to repeal Bill 124 and support nurses in Ontario

Attended Cove Collective's Diversify Your Bookshelf workshop discussing What White People Can Do Next

Made donations to Friends of Ruby and the Toronto Kiki Ballroom Alliance in support of queer youth services

Reading books by or about LGBTQ+ people, including Detransition, Baby, People Change and The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting

Listening to Maintenance Phase and You're Wrong About to learn about moral panics

Voted strategically in the Ontario election and reminded The Profoundery of how to vote on election day.

Watching content that centres LGBTQ+ people: Disclosure, Passing, Heartstopper and Legendary

Set up systems to make transcriptions an ongoing part of my podcasting process & shownotes

Hosting a Social Justice Productivity Party in The Profoundery to create more of a ripple effect

Picked another business book club selection written by a woman of colour to diversify who we are learning from

Listening to Sounds Like a Cult & reading The Storm Is Upon Us to learn about misinformation & undue influence

Made donations to the National Abortion Federation of Canada and Planned Parenthood Toronto in support of abortion rights

Re-registered to vote in the Ontario general election this June and made my plan to vote in advance

Set up a free, ongoing Productivity Party Pass as one way to make my community & work more accessible

Attended 5 Ways to Keep Purpose-Washing Out of Your Business from In The Business of Purpose

Continued to divest my business from Instagram & Facebook and focus on other sources of advertising

Hosted an Unbound book club discussion on power & how to use it to create change in the world

Donated to the Food Share Toronto Campaign and The ON Canada Project

Signed this petition for clean drinking water & this one for the Right to Food Toronto campaign

Hosted a Social Justice Productivity Party in The Profoundery for members to take action

Watched the Defining Your Business Values in Three Easy Parts free workshop from In The Business of Purpose

I am hosting a free community Productivity Party to make my community & work more accessible

Chose another book written by an unconventional woman thoughtleader for our Business Book Club in The Profoundery

Donated to CARE.org, the International Medical Corps, and Voices of Children in support of the citizens of Ukraine

Reading Cultish to learn about the unethical manipulation & misinformation used by cults, companies & coaches

Moved Transparency Tuesday updates to my newsletter in an attempt to decouple my business from Instagram

Subscribed to the On Canada Project & Friday Things newsletters for more cultural analysis

Signed this petition for global vaccine equity, this one for ending library fines & this one for banning hate symbols

Did a lot of reading, learning and had some hard conversations with people I know surrounding the Freedom Convoy

Donated to The Shepherds of Good Hope who were harassed by protestors & The Ottawa Hospital and Hopital Montfort

Read Seven Days in June & had an important book club discussion about Black joy, excellence & humanity

Put together a Charity Report for The Profoundery with all the charities & bookstores we supported in 2021

Analyzed my personal reading throughout 2021 using Ameema Saeed's Book Tracker Template (see my reading breakdown here)

Watched the replay of Trudi Lebron's Anti-Racism, Anti-Capitalism & Scaling in 2022 seminar for coaches

Signed two petitions (here and here) to fight Bill 21 in Canada which disproportionately impacts Muslim women

Donated to The Shelter and Housing Justice Network to provide urgent care to those in Toronto's failing shelter system

Read Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism and You, and Nice Racism: How White Progressives Perpetuate Racial Harm

Made Payment Plans the default option for the retreat pricing (with the option to pay in full de-emphasized)

Donated to the PCFB Cornucopia, Halton Women's Place Shelter Wishes, and sending care packages to Northern Inuit.

Kept reading the Anti-Racism book list, including Citizen by Claudia Rankine and White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

Set up Otter.ai to experiment with creating automatic transcripts of Profoundery calls

Hosted a giveaway with Embiria as a way to give back to a deserving entrepreneur this holiday season

Hosted a Social Justice Productivity Party to create momentum & share resources

Standardized hosting of Social Justice Productivity Parties in The Profoundery to be every 3 months

Watched the replay of Kelly Diels' Money + Justice Workshop about building values into business

Read The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

Started working through the content for Reconciliation Through Indigenous Education

Advocated for more expansive & inclusive housing options in Toronto by filling out this survey

Made a loan to an entrepreneur in Togo and donated to the Parkdale Community Food Bank

Attended Trudi Lebron's live workshop Dismantling the Racist Patriarchy in Coaching on October 6th

Offered free coaching to members and free course access to those who attended The Profoundery Birthday Party

Registered for the Reconciliation Through Indigenous Education course from the University of British Columbia

Shared and solicited resources & tools in The Profoundery on the National Day for Truth & Reconciliation

Updated and analyzed my 'Reading Life' spreadsheet for diversity & set some new reading goals

Made donations to the Indian Residential School Survivors Society and Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction

Created & hosted The Profoundery Birthday Party to make my coworking sessions and group coaching available for free to my community

Set up a monthly recurring donation to Together Rising to contribute to humanitarian crises that can be super overwhelming to know how to help with

Reading and discussing We Should All Be Millionaires by Rachel Rodgers for The Profoundery Book Club to learn about business from more diverse teachers

Listened to The Racial Reckoning That Wasn't episode from Code Switch, which was both disheartening and galvanizing

Watched the replay of Jenny Jay's 5 Common Content Mistakes You're Making That Aren't Actually Inclusive webinar

I proudly voted NDP in advance in the Canadian Federal Election - if you haven't yet registered, you can do so right here!

Watched Trudi Lebron's "Build an Anti-Racist Coaching Practice" webinar and subscribed to her podcast

Planned another Social Justice Productivity Party to help my clients build this work into their businesses

I am reading Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown and taking part in a book club discussion about it

Restarted my business peer mastermind group and implemented a monthly social justice check-in

Added Alt Text to all my recent Instagram posts from the last few months because I forgot to add it at the time

Donated to the Indigenous People's Solidarity Fund and made new loans on Kiva to an entrepreneur in Tonga

Created two energy exchange spots at my upcoming retreat for BIPOC, members of the LGBTQ+ community, or folks with a disability

Was part of the matching team for a Donation Matching Initiative supporting Indigenous people and communities (we raised over $12,000)

Changed up one of my recurring monthly donations to support the Legacy of Hope Foundation, which educates about residential schools

Watched two documentaries on Canada's history of residential schools: Canada's Dark Secret and We Were Children

Read through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's ninety-four Calls to Action on Canada Day

Continued reading my anti-racism book list by reading Just Mercy, From the Ashes, and When They Call You a Terrorist.

Hosted a Social Justice Productivity Party for my community members & am planning to run more of them

Created a totally free Productivity Workshop as part of my goal to make my work accessible at varying price points

Attended SURJ's White Supremacy Characteristics webinar which was moving & thought-provoking

Watched sessions on event inclusivity & accessibility from the RECONVENE Summit

Finished studying How to Be an Anti-Racist; started reading Just Mercy.

Donated to Earth Seed Land Collective, Islamic Relief Canada & Legacy of Hope Foundation

Hosted a Social Justice Values in Business workshop & planned a Social Justice Productivity Party for my community members

Installed the Userway WordPress plugin on my website to automatically improve my site accessibility across the board

Continued reading through my anti-racism book list, including I'm Still Here & Minor Feelings (which I also discussed in my book club)

Signed up for the Parkdale Food Bank's Curbside Food Drive this weekend

Wrote to the Premier directly about paid sick leave & signed another petition about it

Donated to the Canadian Red Cross India COVID-19 Response Appeal initiative

Took Hollaback's Bystander Intervention Training to stop Anti-Asian/American Harassment & Xenophobia

Finished editing & adding accurate Closed Captioning information to all the YouTube videos on my channel

Updated this page to further clarify my social justice stance as inclusive of Asian people and folks with disabilities

Started watching the PBS documentary Asian Americans to learn more about the history of anti-Asian discrimination in the United States (with parallels to Canada)

Signed this petition in support of paid sick days & emergency leave for all workers and this petition in support of income support and rights for Asian & migrant sex workers

Donated to Butterfly in support of Asian and Migrant Sex Workers and the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice in support of their Stop the Spread of Racism campaign

 I am continuing to actively study the book How to Be An Anti-Racist

Started adding accurate Closed Captioning for the #AskSteph YouTube videos on my channel

Signed this petition to demand that temporary tiny shelters can remain on city land

Watching the PBS documentary Reconstruction to learn more about Black history after the Civil War

Participated in group calls with We Are the Culture Makers discussing anti-Asian racism and seeing time as a feminist issue.

Loaned to a woman entrepreneur on Kiva.org for International Women's Day and donated to the Period Pop-Ups GoFundMe

Finished the last four lessons from the Indigenous Canada course offered through the University of Alberta

Joined We Are the Culture Makers to learn about self-development and personal power from a feminist, intersectional lens

I am actively studying and discussing the book How to Be An Anti-Racist for Black History Month

Committed to always adding Alt Text to my Instagram posts from now on (h/t Creating Inclusive Content)

Started The Profoundery Business Book Club to promote learning from alternative voices in the business world

Donated to the Ontario Black History Society to champion the inclusion of Black history in Ontario curricula

Worked through another four weeks of lessons for my Indigenous Canada course through the University of Alberta.

Taking Jenny Jay's Creating Inclusive Content training to learn more about communicating in an anti-racist way

Updated my Reading Life spreadsheet to analyze the diversity of the authors I read in 2020

Joined Storygraph to get a better sense of my reading diversity in an ongoing kind of way and support a Black woman founder

Scheduled all of my anti-racism monthly check-ins tasks for 2021 into my Notion (I had fallen behind and this wasn't automated)

Donated to SURJ Toronto's Birthday Campaign to support BIPOC-led initiatives and organizations

Worked through four weeks of lessons for my Indigenous Canada course through the University of Alberta.

Adjusted my retreat pricing to make it more equitable (ie. the same price for instalments as when paid in full).

Edited The Profoundery welcome message to encourage folks to add their pronouns to their Slack account.

Donated to the Parkdale Community Food Bank and the Halton Women's Place Shelter Wishes campaign.

Downloaded The Ultimate Shop & Support List of inclusive businesses owned by BIPOC and LGBTQ+ folks, from Jenny Jay.

Signed this petition in support of allowing temporary shelters in Toronto and not clearing encampments.

Created a new #anti-racism Slack channel in The Profoundery to share anti-racism resources & changes we're making

Added journaling & reflection questions to my bimonthly anti-racism check-ins to encourage deeper intention & accountability

Enrolled in the Indigenous Canada course from the University of Alberta though have not yet started to study the materials

Donated to The Loveland Foundation's Therapy Fund, which provides Black Women access to therapy for free

Added an Anti-Racism project and interest area in my Notion database to track resources and tasks

Signed this petition and contacted my representatives via this website regarding the Mi'kmaq people's rights to fish on their land

Joined We Should All Be Millionaires for four months to learn about business from Black coaches

Fixed the language around accessibility for disabled folks on my sales page for The Profoundery.

Took two incredible webinars run by SURJ Toronto: one on talking to racist family members, one on the Indian Act.

Honoured Orange Shirt Day by sharing resources that have helped me learn more about Indigenous History.

Moved money through SURJ to be distributed to eleven local Toronto organizations led by BIPOC doing anti-racism work.

On our first Profoundery call, I reiterated our community values of inclusion and zero tolerance for discriminatory language.

Got my Mental Health Crisis Response Certificate, so I have skills to respond in emergency situations without calling police.

Finalized my Accessible Pricing option and set up a pay-what-you-can system for The Profoundery.

Added clauses about my commitment to anti-racist business & non-tolerance for discrimination to all my contracts.

Updated my policies page to include information about my commitments to anti-racism and social justice in my business.

Added more podcasts hosted by BIPOC to my regular rotation, including Sandy & Nora and What A Day.

Updated my reading spreadsheet, reviewed the diversity of the books I've been reading lately, and recommitted to reading broadly.

Took the Spiritual Activism 101 Workshop, led by Rachel Ricketts, as my quarterly anti-racism training.

Set up recurring donations to the Afri-Can Food Basket, Up With Women and Black Lives Matter Toronto.

Talked to software service providers (including Memberful & Drip) about their commitment to anti-racism.

Started designing a tiered pricing structure for marginalized folks for my new offering, The Profoundery.

Setting up more regular calendar reminders to keep me on track with making time for anti-racism work & research.

Listened to two podcast series on the history of racism, Uncivil from Gimlet and 1619 from The New York Times.

Implemented an ongoing anti-racism component to my biweekly peer mastermind group.

Researched organizations aligned with my business mission to donate to on a recurring basis.

Talked to Up With Women about donating my time & services to their clients.

Created Transparency Tuesdays, a monthly community update about anti-racism work on Instagram.

Created an anonymous Suggestion Box to collect feedback on my business.

Fully updated my reading spreadsheet to track the diversity of the authors I'm reading.

Participated in Reimagining Small Business: a town hall from Hello Seven.

Donated 25% of Productivity Party sales to Black Lives Matter. See the receipt here.

Read So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo & The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

Participated in the #AmplifyMelanatedVoices Challenge on Instagram.

Subscribed to the Anti-Racism Daily Newsletter from Nicole Cardoza

Signed several petitions related to racial justice & emailed my representatives