Category: Statement Makers

Nicole Antoinette wants to live in a world with less bullshit. She helps people change their stories – the ones they tell about themselves to themselves. She’s the founder of A Life Less Bullshit, an online powerhouse that provides simple, actionable and powerful strategies for ditching what you think you should want in favor of what you actually want. She’s been featured on sites like LifeHack and the Huffington Post UK, and recently we got to steal a few minutes of her time.

First off, love the name. Tell us the backstory of Lifelessbullshit.

Sure! LLB is more than my business, it’s my life philosophy. I want to cut through what people say we have to be, or what we have to do.

LLB really started to come about in 2011 when I made some pretty major life changes. I was the party girl who didn’t really do anything athletic; and I decided to quit drinking, pick up running, and blog about the messiness of it all. LLB really started to take shape through my desire to run a half-marathon. I blogged about the entire training process, and I refused to be fake about it. I shared every gritty detail and I found that people really connected with it.

So, how did LLB grow from a personal blog into your career?

People started following my journey and asking how they could do something similar. I woke up one morning and realized that my story could be about helping people believe a better story about themselves and I wanted to draw some lines around that.

I started with helping people who were beginners to the running game. I mean, real beginners. I partnered with a running coach and offered a beta training guide to help beginners train for and complete a significant race. Over a hundred people downloaded that first guide – and things have just continued to evolve and grow from there.

Why do you think people are so inspired by your story?

I think it has to do with reversing the Pinterest effect. There’s this tendency we have to want to show the best version of ourselves to the world – the neat, pretty, well put-together parts. That means, generally, that we talk about things after they’ve happened and we’ve had some time to put together our thoughts.

But for me, I want to make a conscious effort to talk about things as they happen. I find that it’s more empowering to talk through things than to share our results after we’ve accomplished something.

There’s a lot of vulnerability in your writing and approach to life. How do you handle the fear of failure when so many people are watching?

I think that we never stop being afraid of things and we never stop wanting to be liked by people. But, I’ve found that the more you allow yourself to be open and honest, you develop skills to control the fear, rather than letting it control you. I believe in taking 100% ownership of your life. We create our own reality based on our thoughts.

Running really taught me this. I was notoriously a procrastinator – you know, the type that would write papers the night before they were due. But you can’t wait when it comes to running. You can’t cram all your training miles in the night before a marathon and expect to finish that race. Running taught me how to say, “Hey, I’ll just do that” rather than hiding stalling or over-planning.

Running your own blog and business must be pretty overwhelming at times. How do you stay motivated and inspired through everything?

Hands down, by reminding the people that I serve everyday. The internet has this wonderful way of instantly connecting people – I write a post and publish it, and suddenly I’m talking with people through comments and social media to further their stories.

I ask myself every morning, “How can I help someone today?” It’s easy to get bogged down in faceless tasks and to-do lists, especially when you own your own business, but I’ve found that starting with this question gives heart to every single one of my tasks.

What’s the legacy you want to be remembered for? What’s the one statement that you want people to associate with your name:

What a great question to ask! It’s got to be something about the fact that we are all storytellers, and the most important story you tell is the story that you tell yourself about yourself.

You work a lot with dreamers. For those of us who are pursuing big dreams in our lives, what simple advice can you give?

Start with a tiny step. What’s one thing you can do in the next 24 hours to move your dream forward? Every step is important, and we never really know how we feel about something until we try it. Big sexy dreams happen one unsexy step at a time.

Your job seems like a lot of fun! What’s been the most rewarding moment for you since creating LLB?

Oh, when that first round of half marathoners completed their first races. When you do the impossible thing in your life, everything else suddenly opens up. Watching those runners struggle through the process, fight through the doubt, and then cross the finish line – that was really incredible.

What’s next for Nicole and Life Less Bullshit?

The next big thing for both myself and LLB happens in 2015. My friend Liz and I are going to run from LA to New York City in five months. Right now, this seems totally impossible and there are a lot of things to figure out between now and then. But, my hope is that this becomes a community-supported kind of thing where I can meet lots of people and share lots of stories along the way.

Nicole is making a statement by help people ditch what they think they want in favor of what they actually want out of life.  What is it that you actually want out of life?

Erin Hoppe was recently recognized in our hometown of Columbus OH with the Emerging Arts Leader Award. She serves as the Executive Director for the VSA – a community of inspired artists that seek to bridge art and disability. Spend three minutes around her and you’re inspired. We recently had the opportunity to chat with Erin, and here’s her story.

When did you first become interested in art?

I guess you could say as a kid. I was always kind of a nerd. I’m not really into creating my own art and never really was but I have always had an appreciation for it. My parents raised me that way.

You are the Executive Director for an organization called VSA. What exactly does the organization do?

It was founded in 1986 as a non-profit organization and we now have 34 locations throughout the U.S. and are an international organization. We work to advocate for accessibility and equality, advance careers in the arts, help communities, and improve academic achievements of Ohio’s students through art integration.

So, what exactly do you do?!

We provide professional opportunities for artists by helping to set up booths at local events so they can sell their work without having to pay the fees that would keep them from doing it on their own. We have art education residencies and we’ll have master artists come in and teach students geometry through dance or how information can be presented visually, verbally, or kinesthetically.

What’s one of your proudest accomplishments?

In the fall we had our 2nd Annual film festival called Reel Abilities, which started in New York and shows international award winning films about people with disabilities or by people with disabilities and then we held workshops and panels to go along with the event.

What’s your biggest challenge right now?

Well I’m the only full-time staff there so I wear a lot of different hats. And I don’t really look good in hats so I’m trying to make it work. I wish I could have a larger team to work with but the funding just isn’t available right now so until then it’s a lot of self-motivation and working with a small team.

Did you always know you wanted a career in the arts?

No, not at all. I attended college in California, where I’m from, and originally thought I was going to school to become a pharmacist because that’s what my whole family does. But once I started I realized that was not for me. Then around graduation my mom began asking me what I was going to do and I still had no idea. It wasn’t until I talked to one of my professors that he introduced me to art administration. So I moved to D.C. after graduation for an internship and realized it was a perfect fit.

Has this job changed your perspective on your career or life?

A lot of people don’t realize that art is so much more than painting or theater; it is writing, or architecture, or even branding. I always say we should shut down everything that has to do with the arts for 2 days so people can see how important it really is. We wouldn’t have any music, our streets would be a mess because we wouldn’t have the architecture behind them; everything we do and use has some form of art behind it.

This job specifically has really opened my eyes and changed the way I looked at the world. I never thought I knew anyone with a disability but it doesn’t always have to be an obvious disability. I realized a disability could be anything and happen to anyone at anytime. And art feeds your soul, so sometimes we need to not focus on all the big issues like implementing healthcare programs.

What has been the most rewarding moment in your career?

I love the advocating aspect of it. Going to meetings and talking about why art matters and can make a difference even if people aren’t always interested. It’s important to be involved and you can advocate every single day in different ways.

What advice do you have for young women today that are trying to make a difference?

I guess I would say if a job seems too hard just go for it anyway. If it’s what you really want to do just go for it. It’s essential to take part in democracy so get involved.

You recently were awarded the 2013 Emerging Arts Leader in Central Ohio by the Greater Columbus Arts Council, how was that experience?

Yeah it was definitely an honor. I’m very humble and don’t like talking about myself but it was nice to be recognized.

Erin is making a statement that art should be accessible to everyone; that at the core, everyone is an artist. What kind of artist are you?

Customized Girl is seeking out “custom girls” – women who are doing extraordinary or interesting things. This month, we caught up with Beth Masters. Beth runs the Dikatole Scholarship Fund – a non-profit organization she established to help children get out of the dangerous squatter camps of Johannesburg. Here’s her story:

Where, or what, is Dikatole?

Dikatole is located in South Africa on the outskirts of Johannesburg. It is considered a squatter camp and is riddled with drugs, crime, and extreme poverty. [Squatter camps] are for people with nowhere to go, and unfortunately many orphans are forced to call squatter camps “home.”

What is life like in Dikatole?

The first thing you will notice is the smell – an overwhelmingly terrible smell of raw sewage and garbage. The streets are covered in sewage, and there is garbage everywhere. I’ve seen a stray dog being torn apart by another dog. Drugs and violence are predominant – it’s just NO place for children to live.

How did you become so involved with children in South Africa?

It began in 2006 when we made our first trip to South Africa for my son’s (Jake) high school project. While we were over there we saw a small child crying because he simply wanted a toy but there were no toys for him to play with. We realized we could bring these kids joy by supplying a simple toy so we decided to go around and start handing out beanie babies to AIDS orphans in South Africa. We later took it a step further and began throwing pizza parties for the children as well.

What were the children like when you first met them?

At first they were very shy because they weren’t used to being spoken to, hugged, or even read to. They needed to be socialized. One of the women who ran a nursery in Dikatole referred to them as kittens that needed to be loved and cared for.

How did this transition into the Dikatole Scholarship Fund?

After one of the pizza parties on our way back to the airport we saw a boy walking home with one of our bright party bags but he still had a look of desperation on his face. He was walking “home” with his feet in raw sewage. This image haunted Jake and I because we realized this boy had nothing to go home to. On that flight home we decided we needed to stop giving out toys and start giving kids an education to benefit their future.

Why did you decide education was a solution?

These kids needed something more and we felt like we needed to do more and we could do more. They needed a chance to better their future in hopes of getting them out of Dikatole. We just knew that education was one of the most important things we could give them.

Are there public schools in Dikatole? Why not just enroll these children into these schools?

There are public schools in Dikatole, but they are worthless. They are government run schools with no teachers, no books, and no supplies. If children are really going to overcome these circumstances, they have to get into good schools. That’s become our goal … getting these children into great schools.

So what is next for these children?

We decided we needed to get these children to a day school outside of Dikatole. When we started we made a pact with 8 children that if they stayed out of trouble, worked hard, and did well in school we would be there to shake their hand at their high school graduation. This day school wasn’t going to be easy though. They would have to walk 2 miles to school everyday and it was going to cost about $400-500 a year for each student. But we knew we could do it and they wanted to do it. We quickly saw that this day school was a good start but we needed to do more. We needed to get the children out of Dikatole completely. They couldn’t go to a day school and come back to Dikatole with all of the violence and drugs. It is especially bad for the girls because they are endanger of being raped or trafficked. So we needed to raise the bar, from beanie babies to boarding school.

How many children have you helped so far?

When we initially started we made a pact with the 8 children who are now about to enter 7^th grade. We since then have expanded to 15 children who are slating for boarding school and have an estimated 9 children to actually start boarding school within the next year.

How else have you impacted these children’s lives?

One of our boys, Andrew, was tragically hit by a car and put into a government run hospital with no doctors, no medication, and no help. He was basically left alone grasping for his life. We got him out of this hospital and into a private hospital where he was able to get the care he needed to save his life. We also have provided an eye surgery for one of our girls who had a vision problem that was affecting her education and life.

What have been some of your favorite/most memorable moments?

Well I’ll tell you my funniest moment and my most memorable moment. The funniest moment is when I asked one of our boys if he remembered our promise about graduation and his was reply was “yes” but he was concerned that I would be in a wheel chair when the time came. These kids aren’t used to seeing someone as old as I am. I’m only in my 50’s but they are used to their parents passing at an early age.

My most memorable moment was when NBC was filming our project and they asked one of the boys to tell them something about me that they (NBC) didn’t know and the boy responded by saying that I am a great mother. This really touched me because even though I only see them 3-4 times a year, they think of me as their mother figure. It truly made me realize the difference I am making in their lives.

You’ve talked about so many challenges and hard things that you’ve seen.  Do you ever consider quitting or giving up?

No. Never. I’ve cried a lot, but I never considered quitting. I consider these kids a part of my family and think of them as my own children. You would never just quit on your own child.

What advice do you have for women today?

Your journey will never look like what you thought it would. It will always continue to change and morph. You may not know what your journey is but just go with it, roll your sleeves up and do something!  You have to just get out there, observe your surroundings, and find things that need to be done. Your message and your purpose will come to you.

Beth Masters is a truly Customized Girl making a statement in our world. What questions do you have for her? Ask them in our comments section below!

And, check out her recent interview on the today show

 

In 2006 I was diagnosed with Melanoma Cancer and was treated by the OSUCCC-James.  I have held the passion, mission and amazing dedication and talent that The James provides close to my heart ever since and when the opportunity to work in fundraising came along, it truly was a wonderful fit.

The people.  Everyone has an incredible passion, determination and desire to help us in this fight against breast cancer and being able to work with these individuals every day is incredible.

The Stefanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer Research is actually a fund within Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute (the OSUCCC-James) and there are many other disease specific cancer research and support funds that are included in the various fundraising by our Community Partners.

“Hope is a good thing, it maybe the best of things…and no good thing ever dies.”

Thanks for being a part of our Statement Maker interview series, Katie. And thanks for making a difference in the world!

We heart statements.

Statements are interesting little things.  Simple words strung together to leave an impact, encase a memory, or instigate a response.  Sometimes they are hilariously funny and inappropriate.  At other times, they are heavy and significant.  Sometimes, they have an air of sadness about them.  And still, sometimes statements are just plain cute.

At Customized Girl, we see all kinds of statements everyday.  Our customers often send their stories with their orders; talking excitedly about their hopes for their design and custom shirts.  This is interesting because these women aren’t passionate about shirt fabrics and print methods (which are the kind of things we geek out about). Rather, they enthusiastically talk about the idea behind their shirt design.

All of these women, stories, and statements have helped us discover something; statements have a unique way of connecting and moving us.

We like to think that we can help these statements make a beautiful impact.  From now on, our blog posts will fall into one of four main categories:

• LABEL REBELS: Real-life stories from our customers who have interesting and important statements to share. Our customers create many powerful designs every day around their own passions and meaningful events using our design center. They aren’t buying the latest item from the latest fashion label. They are creating their own. (Check out the story behind our first Label Rebel: Chicks Crushing Cancer.)

• THE CUSTOM LIFESTYLE: Statements and thoughts that will make you laugh out loud and shake your head. There are numerous stories and trends going on right now that will fill you with emotions and we want to bring them to surface.

• STATEMENT MAKERS: Interviews of women across the world who are making statements in small or large ways in their cities and communities. These powerful women should be celebrated for taking the initiative on a cause that is making a difference. We hope these women will inspire you to create a statement and message that is your passion.

• BEHIND THE SEAMS: And, of course, we’ll still share some of our favorite designs to spark your statement-making potential. Since we’re constantly adding new designs and products, we want you to know what’s available to customize so you can make your statement and at the same time, look great in the latest styles!

There are few more changes you might notice today. The Customized Girl tagline has changed to “Make your statement.” And we’re launching a series of new “About” pages too. Check ’em all out:

• OUR MISSION

• OUR STORY

• OUR ADVANTAGE

We’re not just doing things differently with our blog and our brand. In the printing business, there is always room for improvement, and over the past nine months we have greatly improved our print quality thanks to state of the art techniques and our new drying system. We’re pushing the boundaries of digital printing to new levels!

Together, we are a community of statement makers.  We’ll be looking forward to your statements as you respond in the comments and across our social feeds.

We hope that you’ll join us as we celebrate statements!