This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.
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Finance minister gives Rs.10 lakh crore boost to building infrastructure
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Labor won the political donations race in the Election year 2022 picking up $6m more in political payments than the Coalition. This was the first time Labor has surpassed the Coalition in political funding since the 2007 election won by Kevin Rudd. Stephanie Tran and Callum Foote report.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Dallas, TX-based candy company Pecan Deluxe Candy recently reformulated its recipes to be vegan in an effort to avoid new British export regulations, which impose hefty taxes on animal products. To do this, the American wholesaler replaced the butter and eggs in its products with plant-based alternatives that don’t require the same European Union border checks.
Following Brexit, the new export regulations require exporters of animal-based foodstuff to submit veterinary certifications and other costly paperwork. And, depending on the interpretation of the rules, border control officials could also stop deliveries and have them returned and destroyed, further straining supply chains to customers in Europe.These have been issues that companies like Pecan Deluxe Candy have been dealing with.
Unsplash“One of the biggest issues that there has been is the implementation of border control checks,” Graham Kingston, managing director of the Pecan Deluxe Candy Europe, told AFP. “[They have been] stopping a lot of deliveries going through depending on interpretation of the rules, which has caused a number of issues with products being returned to us all having to be destroyed.”
Vegan products, on the other hand, are not subject to the same restrictions, making them cheaper and more efficient to transport.
Pecan Deluxe Candy is a family-owned manufacturer of candy products, including key ingredients for desserts such as toppings, baking inclusions, fudge, cookie dough, and popping candy with locations in the United Kingdom and Thailand. The company says the new regulations have cost them more than £100,000 (US $123,450), so its board of directors decided to remove animal products from their manufacturing facility in the United Kingdom to reduce these export costs for the European market.
CanvaNow that the range of products are all vegan candy, the company says that the products are cheaper to produce and also tap into the current vegan movement. “A plant-based range has had some other benefits to offer, which are reduced pricing, and also hitting a number of trends that are in play at the moment, not least veganism,” Kingston said.
Making vegan ingredients more affordable
Although vegan products are often considered to be more expensive, the new British export rules have turned this stereotype on its head and may have other businesses reconsidering their use of animal products for the same reasons as Pecan Deluxe Candy.
With the growth of veganism, plant-based food companies have had the extra challenge of matching the price of their animal-based counterparts because, traditionally, animal agriculture has been heavily subsidized by the government, ultimately making these products more affordable.
People ImagesAccording to the Agriculture Fairness Alliance (AFA), in 2020 the United States government spent more than $50 billion on agricultural subsidies and bailouts, the majority of which favored the meat and dairy industries. AFA is a national advocacy organization pushing for policy changes that make sustainable plant-based foods accessible to all consumers at an affordable price. The answer, according to AFA, is to level the playing field.
AFA is currently lobbying for changes to the 2023 Farm Bill, which supports farmers with safety net, farm loan, conservation, and disaster assistance programs. One of AFA’s recommendations is to connect local plant-based farmers to local consumers by increasing subsidies, funding and/or programs for domestic plant-based crops, and to ensure plant growers get a fair share of programs that utilize the Commodity Credit Corporation and other monies when there are bailouts.
“Meat eaters eat fruits and veggies, too, and should agree with us that the food system needs to change. We should not be allowing our taxes to fund Global Ag to get richer and more powerful and to control our land and the repercussions of using up our resources,” AFA posted on social media. “This is one of our Farm Bill priorities and more … making sure that our taxes are used for Direct to Consumer fruits, veggies, and grains. Not livestock-grade crops. Our tax dollars need to prioritize consumers, not global ag investors.”
CanvaIn 2020, AFA urged members of Congress to support legislation that would shift the US food supply away from factory farms and into more sustainable forms of agriculture. At the time, AFA met with Congress to discuss its At-Risk Farmers pilot program which would grant funds to nonprofits to assist animal farmers who want to transition to sustainable endeavors such as supplying the plant-based food market.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the group pushed Congress to support the At-Risk Farmers Act as part of the next coronavirus relief package, along with other proposed legislation that aimed to dismantle Concentrated Feed Animal Feeding Operations (also known as factory farms)—which, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), account for 98 percent of the way meat is produced.
Pexels“When we are taught our whole lives that the American dream means anyone can start a business and be successful so long as they offer a superior product, I never dreamed we’d be babysitting the livestock and dairy industries into imposing their own success,” AFA cofounder Connie Spence said at the time. “It’s time to let the American people decide [which] products are superior, to let our demand be felt, and to stop corporate farming interests from falsely representing American small farmers.”
This post was originally published on VegNews.com.
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BMW, IIndia’s second largest German luxury car maker, is targeting strong double digit growth this year
This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.
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Vegan seafood startup Boldly is taking aim at the $600 billion global seafood market with the launch of a wide range of plant-based fish products, including calamari, salmon and tuna sashimi, shrimp, crab sticks, and white fish filets. The startup believes the key to disrupting the market is speed and resilience, in addition to products that deliver on the taste and texture of conventional seafood.
“Plant-based seafoods are still uncharted territory for millions of people, and with consumers increasingly seeking alternatives to conventional meat and dairy, I believe the time is right for the next evolution of plant-based seafood products,” Boldly founder Allen Zeldon tells VegNews.
Getty ImagesThese days, more consumers are becoming aware of the environmental and sustainability issues tied to seafood, including the impact of overfishing and the health concerns associated with conventional seafood’s high mercury and heavy metal levels.
Bringing vegan seafood to restaurants
Boldly is part of a growing vegan seafood industry and, like others, uses konjac (a root vegetable) as a core ingredient. Boldly is also on a mission to accelerate the proliferation of plant-based proteins in foodservice by creating a positive experience centered around community while addressing the health and environmental concerns of conventional seafood.
“Seafood dishes are amongst the most popular in foodservice, hence why we have specifically optimized our versatile range of seafood alternatives so chefs can add their own creative spin to it across all cuisines, while reshaping consumer perceptions around taste, texture, appearance, availability and pricing,” Zeldon says.
Boldly“Boldly Foods is on a mission to drive consumers towards the better choice with no compromise, bringing all the classic seafood tastes to restaurant tables, better than ever,” he adds.
Disrupting the global seafood market
And when it comes to how plant-based seafood will disrupt the global market, Zeldon says there are two key aspects. “As with all emerging disruptive categories, speed and resilience is everything,” he says. “With the plant-based food industry still very nascent relative to the overall food and beverage market, it is also at an exciting tipping point, hence this unique opportunity to fuel foodservice ecosystems with classic seafood alternatives at the ‘growth-stage’ of the plant-based trajectory.”
This can happen by providing a more sustainable product at competitive prices. “With fragmented distribution and increasing cost-of-trade pressures, the global foodservice industry needs access to more competitive and strategic partners if we are to drive radical systems change to address the climate crisis and sustainably meet our needs as a growing population,” he says.
BoldlyZeldon is leading Boldly with more than 25 years of experience behind him. He is also co-founder of PlantForm, the private label arm of a plant-based manufacturing operation with global distribution across five continents and more than 1,000 SKUs on the market.
“With the fishing industry fraught with public health issues and threatening the future of marine biodiversity, it’s clear the future will either be filled with fishless fish or fishless oceans,” Zeldon points out.
Drawing from his experience with PlantForm, Zeldon will be launching Boldly across the US this summer with what he claims is the widest range of plant-based seafood currently on the market.
Innovation in plant-based seafood
The plant-based seafood category is indeed booming, and experts believe the range of options will only continue to grow this year, providing fish-free alternatives for nearly every sea animal that humans have exploited for food.
According to the first-ever State of the Industry Report of vegan seafood by the Good Food Institute (GFI), $175 million was raised globally by companies in 2021, a 92-percent increase from 2020.
Emerging brands include Austria’s Revo Foods, which has created a whole-cut vegan salmon filet with 3D-printing technology; and Aqua Cultured Foods, which makes seafood alternatives with fungi-derived mycoprotein. There’s also Current Foods’ sushi-grade vegan tuna made from bamboo and potatoes, and ISH’s vegan shrimp made from coconut, konjac, and soy protein, among many others.
Aqua Cultured FoodsGFI suggests that alternative seafood is well-poised to capitalize on the momentum of the broader plant-based industry. And widespread commercialization of alternative seafood is a promising approach to alleviating pressure on both wild fisheries and aquaculture systems while helping to meet global demand for an important source of food.
“Every year, we see advancements in the alternative protein industry that are opening the door for a global shift to a far more sustainable, secure, and just food system than the one we have today,” the report update notes.
This post was originally published on VegNews.com.
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Hollywood blockbusters Fall Guy and Planet of the Apes are filming in Sydney, sci-fi remake Metropolis in Melbourne – all at high public expense, heavily subsidised by state and federal governments. Is it worth paying for Americans telling American stories? Or would the money be better spent on Australians telling Australian stories. Michael West follows the money.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Vegan fast food empire Slutty Vegan will soon open its first drive-thru at its new location currently being built out in Columbus, GA. Set to open later this year, the new drive-thru outpost will offer the same popular menu the brand has become known for, with playful and provocative vegan burgers such as Sloppy Toppy, One Night Stand, and Fussy Hussy, along with sides such as Slutty Fries and Skinny Dippers.
The new location builds upon a booming business venture that has seven locations through Georgia and beyond, with more being announced—including new outposts coming to Columbus, Harlem, NY, and Washington, DC.
Madelynne BoykinFounded by entrepreneur Pinky Cole, Slutty Vegan first launched in 2018 as an Instagram-based delivery service out of a shared commercial kitchen in Atlanta, GA. Within weeks, Cole invested $10,000 into her own food truck, and by 2019, she opened the first brick-and-mortar restaurant to a crowd of 1,200 customers.
In less than six years, Cole built a $100 million business with her catchy slogans, signature vegan burgers, and vibrant energy. Last summer, when Slutty Vegan expanded to New York City, the city’s mayor, Eric Adams, hopped on a stationary bike with a superfood smoothie in hand to record a personal welcome message to Slutty Vegan.
“On behalf of 8.8 million New Yorkers, let me be the first to say, ‘Welcome to New York City, the big time.’” Adams said in the welcome video. “Anyone who knows me knows that I like to eat healthy and plant-based. We love our brothers and sisters in Atlanta but it was about time you brought your vegan burgers here to the greatest city in the world.”
Slutty VeganLast year, Slutty Vegan secured $25 million in a Series A funding round that it is using to fund the brand’s continued expansion. Some of the funding came directly from Danny Meyer, who is known for scaling his successful fast-food concept Shake Shack.
The Slutty Vegan empire
When not slinging burgers, Cole is growing her Slutty Vegan empire in other ways. So far, she has opened sister restaurant Bar Vegan in Ponce City Market and launched vegan CBD gummies and other plant-based products.
Last summer, Slutty Vegan partnered with Steve Madden on reimagined versions of the footwear brand’s classic POSSESSION sneakers and BSETTITUP bag styles made with entirely vegan materials and accented with the burger chain’s vibrant color palette.
Drea NicoleAt Costco in the Southwest and Midwest regions, the debut Vegan Spinach Artichoke flavor of Pinky’s Dips has been flying off shelves with additional flavors in the works.
The entrepreneur is also constantly looking to innovate the menu at Slutty Vegan. Earlier this week, Cole announced on Instagram that she’s working on a Slutty Vegan breakfast concept. As part of her research and development, Slutty Vegan’s Edgewood location gave out free vegan breakfast sandwiches to gain feedback on the items.
Pinky Cole gives back
As a social justice activist, Cole also created the Pinky Cole Foundation to help build generational wealth for communities of color, including gifting LLCs to last year’s graduating class at CAU, her alma mater.
Slutty VeganCole’s non-profit organization is always working to help others succeed. Recently, she spearheaded Square 1: The Liife Experience, an initiative to provide life insurance policies to 25,000 Black men by this coming December.
Cole was also recently nominated for an NAACP award for Outstanding Literary Work for her first cookbook, Eat Plants, B*tch. Cole posted a video showing the moment she received the news while riding in a car with her fiancé and team.
“God really has a sense of humor,” Cole captioned the video post. “20 minutes ago, I got nominated for an NAACP Award … If this ain’t bout the wildest roller coaster ride.”
The nomination came shortly after Cole was named in a lawsuit in which a former employee of Bar Vegan alleged that Cole and her partners had withheld tips and other wages—claims that Cole fully denied in a lengthy Instagram post.
This post was originally published on VegNews.com.
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By Repeka Nasiko in Suva
Fiji was regarded a bully, flexing its muscle as a selfish and arrogant player in regional forums, claims Association of South Pacific Airlines (ASPA) president George Faktaufon.
He said he hoped Fiji would rejoin the regional aviation community with the election of the new coalition government.
Faktaufon said Fiji — through its national airline Fiji Airways — had a lot to offer to the development of the region’s aviation sector.
“As one who worked for the Pacific Island region for most of my working life, it saddened me to watch Fiji slowly but surely lose its status as a credible leader in the region,” he said.
“Apart from climate change, which Fiji only joined the bandwagon years after countries like Kiribati and Marshall Islands and their leaders, [former presidents Anote] Tong and [David] Kabaua, had been in the forefront in every international forum, including COP and other forums, Fiji has been seen as a bully, flexing its muscles and often regarded as a selfish and arrogant player in regional forums,” he said.
“In 2022, I attended three regional high level ministerial meetings — Forum Aviation Ministerial Meeting, virtually, Forum Leaders/Private Sectors Dialogue in Suva and then the Forum Economic Ministers/Private Sector Dialogue in Vanuatu,” Faktaufon said.
“In all these meetings, Fiji came out as the stumbling block to enhancing regional air connectivity with its stringent air services agreements with other PICs [Pacific Island Countries], that were not only outdated but favoured Fiji and its national airline.
“Fiji Airways has a lot to offer to other PICs and their national airlines, but it has to be in a mutual partnership.
“Fiji Airways has the resources both in expertise and also equipment that it could use to benefit other PICs as well as itself.
“It is called regional collaboration and co-operation where there are winners and no losers.
“We had done it before, with a joint lease of a B737 between Fiji Airways and Royal Tongan,” Faktaufon said.
Repeka Nasiko is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
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This year, the global fast-food market is predicted to be worth nearly $19 million, and by 2033 it is expected to grow to nearly $28 million, according to a new report by market research firm Future Market Insights (FMI). This growth is likely due to increased knowledge about the benefits of a vegan diet.
In recent years, people are choosing more plant-based foods as their attitudes toward human health, animals, and the environment change. According to the report, the growing awareness of animal cruelty in the fast-food industry has encouraged consumers to transition from animal-based fast food to plant-based fast food, contributing to the rising demand and market growth of vegan fast-food options.
The report also notes that the rise in awareness of consumers’ own health and well-being, as well as changes in lifestyles, are contributing factors to the market’s growth.
ChipotleThe countries predicted to have the most growth are the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, and Japan. Notably, the US is expected to have a 30 percent share of the vegan fast-food market, with rising disposable incomes likely supporting the expansion of the vegan fast-food business in North America over the forecast period.
The growth in China will likely be due to an increasing penetration of global companies in the region that are promoting vegan fast food.
The rise of vegan fast food
As awareness grows, fast-food chains are focusing on providing new vegan fast-food offers to attract customers’ attention. Burger King, for example, has introduced plant-based burgers in 70 countries to date with an ultimate goal to offer plant-based options in its restaurants all over the world. In the UK, Burger King has also committed to transitioning its menus to become at least 50 percent plant-based by 2030 as part of its efforts to cut carbon emissions.
Burger King“Burger King is expanding its plant-based menus in different countries to offer tasty alternatives for everyone who would like a substitute to animal meat without sacrificing on the unmatched BK taste,” Burger King’s Head of International Marketing, Sabrina Ferretti, previously told VegNews.
“Our ultimate goal is to position Burger King as the leader and go-to for the best-tasting plant-based food in the quick-service restaurant industry,” Ferretti said.
However, the FMI report notes that certain constraints and limitations are expected to stifle the demand for vegan fast food. For example, fast food-related obesity is expected to stifle growth during the projected period. Nonetheless, rising demand for vegan fast food due to several health benefits such as reducing plaque and fat in arteries, as well as the untapped potential in new markets, provide exciting growth opportunities.
The evolving fast-food market
The report suggests that global players will see an increase in demand for vegan fast food, primarily from the food and beverage industries, in order to improve existing product portfolios and increase the use of vegan ingredients in processed food products and beverages, all with the goal of attracting the vegan population.
Companies are also attempting to provide personalized flavors to meet the diverse needs of food and beverage manufacturers. They are focused on providing vegan fast food that meets the needs of vegan fast-food makers, such as organic and natural food products.
A&W/Beyond MeatAdditionally, the rise in vegan fast food is also seeing new partnerships around the world. One of the first major partnerships happened in 2018 when A&W Canada launched its first Beyond Burger build, marking Beyond Meat’s biggest partnership at the time as well as its entry into the Canadian market. A&W Canada sold more than 90,000 of the vegan-friendly burgers within the first three days of adding the Beyond Burger to the menu.
In 2019, Burger King caught onto the plant-based trend and added the plant-based Impossible Burger to its menu. Vegan fast-food offerings have now expanded to plant-based chicken at Panda Express and even vegan steak at Taco Bell.
Taco BellLast year, McDonald’s signed onto a three-year partnership with Beyond Meat to co-develop the fast-food chain’s McPlant platform, which is expected to result in the launch of various plant-based options globally. Thus far, McDonald’s has tested the McPlant burger in various countries, including the United States, Sweden, Portugal, Australia, Denmark, and Austria, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.
Last month, the global chain also rolled out a new Double McPlant in all restaurants in the UK and Ireland, where McDonald’s says the McPlant has already proven to be “wildly successful” with customers since its launch in September 2021. “It’s no secret that people went wild for the taste, with many taking to Twitter to express their desire for a doubled-up version,” the chain said in a statement. The Double McPlant features two Beyond Meat patties with ketchup, mustard, vegan special sauce, onions, pickles, lettuce, tomato, and dairy-free cheese on a sesame-seed bun.
This post was originally published on VegNews.com.
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This year, the global fast-food market is predicted to be worth nearly $19 billion, and by 2033 it is expected to grow to nearly $28 billion, according to a new report by market research firm Future Market Insights (FMI). This growth is likely due to increased knowledge about the benefits of a vegan diet.
In recent years, people are choosing more plant-based foods as their attitudes toward human health, animals, and the environment change. According to the report, the growing awareness of animal cruelty in the fast-food industry has encouraged consumers to transition from animal-based fast food to plant-based fast food, contributing to the rising demand and market growth of vegan fast-food options.
The report also notes that the rise in awareness of consumers’ own health and well-being, as well as changes in lifestyles, are contributing factors to the market’s growth.
ChipotleThe countries predicted to have the most growth are the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, and Japan. Notably, the US is expected to have a 30 percent share of the vegan fast-food market, with rising disposable incomes likely supporting the expansion of the vegan fast-food business in North America over the forecast period.
The growth in China will likely be due to an increasing penetration of global companies in the region that are promoting vegan fast food.
The rise of vegan fast food
As awareness grows, fast-food chains are focusing on providing new vegan fast-food offers to attract customers’ attention. Burger King, for example, has introduced plant-based burgers in 70 countries to date with an ultimate goal to offer plant-based options in its restaurants all over the world. In the UK, Burger King has also committed to transitioning its menus to become at least 50 percent plant-based by 2030 as part of its efforts to cut carbon emissions.
Burger King“Burger King is expanding its plant-based menus in different countries to offer tasty alternatives for everyone who would like a substitute to animal meat without sacrificing on the unmatched BK taste,” Burger King’s Head of International Marketing, Sabrina Ferretti, previously told VegNews.
“Our ultimate goal is to position Burger King as the leader and go-to for the best-tasting plant-based food in the quick-service restaurant industry,” Ferretti said.
However, the FMI report notes that certain constraints and limitations are expected to stifle the demand for vegan fast food. For example, fast food-related obesity is expected to stifle growth during the projected period. Nonetheless, rising demand for vegan fast food due to several health benefits such as reducing plaque and fat in arteries, as well as the untapped potential in new markets, provide exciting growth opportunities.
The evolving fast-food market
The report suggests that global players will see an increase in demand for vegan fast food, primarily from the food and beverage industries, in order to improve existing product portfolios and increase the use of vegan ingredients in processed food products and beverages, all with the goal of attracting the vegan population.
Companies are also attempting to provide personalized flavors to meet the diverse needs of food and beverage manufacturers. They are focused on providing vegan fast food that meets the needs of vegan fast-food makers, such as organic and natural food products.
A&W/Beyond MeatAdditionally, the rise in vegan fast food is also seeing new partnerships around the world. One of the first major partnerships happened in 2018 when A&W Canada launched its first Beyond Burger build, marking Beyond Meat’s biggest partnership at the time as well as its entry into the Canadian market. A&W Canada sold more than 90,000 of the vegan-friendly burgers within the first three days of adding the Beyond Burger to the menu.
In 2019, Burger King caught onto the plant-based trend and added the plant-based Impossible Burger to its menu. Vegan fast-food offerings have now expanded to plant-based chicken at Panda Express and even vegan steak at Taco Bell.
Taco BellLast year, McDonald’s signed onto a three-year partnership with Beyond Meat to co-develop the fast-food chain’s McPlant platform, which is expected to result in the launch of various plant-based options globally. Thus far, McDonald’s has tested the McPlant burger in various countries, including the United States, Sweden, Portugal, Australia, Denmark, and Austria, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.
Last month, the global chain also rolled out a new Double McPlant in all restaurants in the UK and Ireland, where McDonald’s says the McPlant has already proven to be “wildly successful” with customers since its launch in September 2021. “It’s no secret that people went wild for the taste, with many taking to Twitter to express their desire for a doubled-up version,” the chain said in a statement. The Double McPlant features two Beyond Meat patties with ketchup, mustard, vegan special sauce, onions, pickles, lettuce, tomato, and dairy-free cheese on a sesame-seed bun.
This post was originally published on VegNews.com.
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Is there a big, signature challenge you can think of that you faced as you’ve navigated your career?
The first thing that comes to mind is the feeling of starting from behind. You don’t realize that you’re starting from behind until you meet people who haven’t started from behind, or you meet people who have started a few steps ahead of you. You hear these terms like, “Pulling yourself up from your bootstraps,” but if you don’t have bootstraps to pull yourself up from, it’s pretty difficult. I grew up in Richmond, Virginia in the south side of the city, which was notorious and still is. A lot of the people that I grew up around had never left a few block radius. Not even to go to another city, not even across town. So you were in an environment where there weren’t a lot of new ideas, there wasn’t a lot of creativity.
I remember being super young and being interested in the arts. I loved art, theater, and music. And I loved different types of music, not just hip hop and R&B. I remember getting teased for that when I was a kid, and feeling this pressure to assimilate into what was accepted. One of my biggest challenges as I got older was finding who I really was inside and being comfortable with that person, and not trying to live my life in a way that was accepted in this very small bubble of a world. I go home a lot of times and the same guys are still on the block smoking a blunt, doing the same things they were doing 20 years ago, and it’s like, “Wow.” I feel like I’m stuck in time.
So I think that was the biggest challenge. And it’s a challenge for so many people who come from socioeconomic areas where they don’t get a lot of opportunity or aren’t around people who have the ability to really see and know different things. Being able to have the wherewithal to say, “Hey, I want to see something different. I want something different for myself.” I think that was the first major hurdle for me.
How did that experience affect the path you took to become an entrepreneur?
I had no blueprint. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t have any mentors—outside of my mom. There weren’t role models or anyone to teach me the ropes. I didn’t have a blueprint so I had to create my own, and I had to fail a lot, make a lot of mistakes. I feel very fortunate that even though there were times I messed up and made mistakes, I was able to keep pushing along.
But that’s really hard. When you don’t have a blueprint or someone that can educate you on how to do certain things, it’s really difficult. I didn’t know how to start my own company. The business side of being a creative and an entrepreneur—I didn’t know how to do any of that stuff. I remember getting in trouble with the IRS because I was like, “Oh, I owe taxes? What? This is how this works?” Or selling my first company and thinking I made a lot of money when I actually didn’t.
You mentioned your mother, but were there other people, maybe a little later along in your life, who helped you see that the road you chose was open to you?
I was homeless my senior year of high school, and I would go to the local public library to use the computers there. I’d read the news online and I remember coming across Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey. These guys were in their twenties starting these billion dollar companies, and I was like, “Yo, that’s so crazy.” For me, coming where I’m from, you either played ball, you rapped, or you sold drugs. That was it. And those weren’t viable options for me. I couldn’t rap—my bars were pretty trash. I was really good at basketball, but not good enough to be a professional. And I didn’t want to sell drugs because so many men in my family had gone to jail or were dead over drugs.
So I was like, “Whoa, this tech stuff is cool, but I’m not white and from privilege.” But then I discovered this guy Q, who started the website World Star Hip Hop. It sounds crazy now because that site is horrible in a lot of ways, but for me, at the time, it was like, “Wow, someone who looks like people from the hood is out there doing this stuff. If this guy can do it, then I can do it.” That was my first time seeing somebody that looked like me and talked like me doing something in the internet and tech space. It inspired me to apply to Virginia Tech and try to pursue a career in tech.
The second thing I would say is that in my mid-twenties I had been grinding, grinding, grinding. I moved to LA and started to meet people in tech and music and art—young Black people who were making moves. It was really inspiring for me. It’s really important to find inspiration from your peers and people that you can lean on for different things. I didn’t have that at the beginning, in the first part of my career. I started my first company at 19. So the first five, six years of my career was really me trying to blaze a path. It was really important to start meeting all of these different people in different spaces that were going through similar things as me.
How do you make sure you don’t burn yourself out? How do you think about self care?
It’s just conscious decision making. Last night I got back from Paris and I was exhausted, jet lagged. And it was still pretty early—maybe eight or nine. I could have done emails and got to some work. But I made the conscious decision to say, “No, I’m going to go rest.”
When you’re just completely on all the time, you don’t think you have the option to take care of yourself. A lot of times when we overwork ourselves or go overboard with things, it’s with stuff that could wait. We only have one life to live. I used to just work, work, work, work. I didn’t enjoy my evenings. My evenings were work. And now I have a social life. Now I have built a community of people, especially through the art world, which has been one of the biggest things that has helped my mental health.
I like to call myself a creative entrepreneur. And, when your head’s down, it really stifles creativity. When you’re not able to take a step back and smell the roses and live life—that’s where the inspiration comes from. It’s about being conscious of the decisions we have and making the right decisions to take care of ourselves. It’s like, hey, your body’s hurting? Go get a massage. Oh, you’re exhausted? We’ve all been there where we’re damn near falling asleep in meetings. You should just go take a nap. If you have meetings all day and you’re like, this is going to kill me—move some of those meetings. Just understand that you have that option.
You mentioned the phrase “creative entrepreneur.” When I was younger, the relationship between art and commerce was looked at a little more skeptically, I think, than it is now. There was a real focus on what was indie, what was mainstream, and there was maybe more cynicism about the influence of money on art. As someone who has been working at the intersection of creativity and business for a while, how have you seen that relationship change? And what do you think creative people can learn from those changes?
Being a creative does not mean you have to be broke. I feel for some of these creatives that have found success. Sometimes their own community can turn on them because they see money as something that’s bad. I think it’s a beautiful thing to be able to get paid for something you’re passionate about. I think that’s one of the most beautiful things in the world. And it’s a privilege. A lot of people don’t realize how much of a privilege it is.
The world is changing. Big brands and companies are embracing creatives and looking for collaborations and partnerships more than ever, especially in a time where ads are performing worse and people are being oversaturated with content. Creatives have become this new avenue for a lot of brands to really reach people in a genuine way and to really do positive and cool things. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
But I do think the minute you sacrifice who you are is the moment you have to step away. If there’s something that’s asked of you that’s a clear step across the line and makes you change who you are, then it’s not worth it. But if you’re able to still be yourself and express yourself freely and do the things that you love and get paid for it, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
When you’re getting ready to start a project, do you have any tried and true ways that you approach moving things forward? You said you started a company when you were 19. What did you do to get started on making your idea for a company actually become a real company? I remember talking about a lot of ideas I had when I was 19, but making something actually happen is a different thing.
I wasn’t as intentional with my first company. I was working a minimum wage job and I would buy lunch and I was like, “Wow, half my day’s pay is gone.” I needed to take care of myself and my family. So it was more driven by a sense of survival. As I’ve gotten older though, I realize that there are a few things that are tried and true for me. Number one is really, really getting to know my audience in the space. Before I even took the job at Artsy, I’d put years of time into learning the art world and making connections and seeing what was needed in the space.
Number two is having product market fit. It’s about going beyond just learning the audience, and making sure there’s both an audience and product market fit for anything I want to create and put into the world. Whatever you’re putting into the world, whether it’s music, whether it’s design and technology, a comic, a game, whatever it may be, it’s so important to make sure there are people out there that actually want to consume it.
And I think the last piece is faith. I’ve gone through a lot of stuff in my life, but I just have an overwhelming sense of faith in myself and my ideas. Man, it’s rough to create and put something out there. And if you don’t believe in yourself, what do you have? You’ve got to have faith that it’s a possibility. If you have a cynical or pessimistic nature, that stuff tends to manifest itself. An overwhelming faith in myself has really served me well.
How do you keep your creative side fulfilled while you’re working? And where do you look for inspiration?
Honestly, recently, it’s been looking at projects on Kickstarter. I’ll tell you, I wasn’t looking at Kickstarter too much before I took the job here. I would go to Kickstarter sometimes if a friend of mine was doing something. But wow, you can literally go on Kickstarter any day of the week and see so many cool things. I just went on the site today and I found this French woman who’s making a magazine highlighting old hip hop album covers from the 2000s. I was like, “Whoa, that’s my childhood.” I’m looking at her video and I can’t understand what she’s saying, but the fact that she found this niche level of creativity that brought so much nostalgia back to me—it’s really cool. It inspires me so much to see different people around the world chasing their dreams and trying to put things out into the world.
The second thing I would say is talking to my friends and my tribe and my community. I get more happy and excited about my friends’ projects than I am about my own. Having people in your life that really inspire you and do really cool things—that fills my cup.
The last thing is having creative outlets for yourself. I love to write, I love to paint sometimes. I love to sing when no one’s watching. And art obviously has such a special place in my life, and it’s been my escape in so many ways, whether it’s creating art or going to see art. I feel like art saved my life.
You’ve talked about the importance of your tribe, and the need to find inspiration in the group of people you connect with. How do you build a tribe?
So, I’m a loner. I know that about myself. I’m also an introvert—a lot of people don’t think that I am because they see the personal brand. But I’m very much an introvert and a loner. I remember leaving Los Angeles and feeling like, wow, I don’t know if I’ve made one real genuine friendship. It’s crazy. I lived here for years. I was like, “If I was locked out of my house, who would I call?” “If I needed something, who would I reach out to?” When you start thinking about these hypothetical questions and you’re drawing a blank on people, that’s a problem.
I moved to New York right before the pandemic hit. It was very tough, but I feel like people here showed me how much they cared about me and I finally started to pay attention to it. I don’t think I’d ever actively paid attention to that before, and that had been my problem.
That’s deep.
Yeah. Once you start to pay attention, you start to realize who the people are that you want to hold close, and who the people are that truly, genuinely have your back. I think that’s how I’ve built my tribe here. I started to be in spaces that inspired me, the art world. And I started to listen. I started to pay attention to the love that people showed for me without the need for reciprocity. And that really changed things. People accepted me for who I am, good and bad. Just spending time with people, just being like, “Yeah, I just want to be around these people.”
It’s been a process. It’s very new to me, but it feels really, really, really good. I started to really pay attention and also invest in relationships. It sounds so simple to invest in relationships, but it’s not simple. Being with people just for the sake of who they are and not because you need something is so important. That’s a very foreign concept for a lot of people.
Everette Taylor Recommends:
La Sirene (Restaurant in SoHo, NY)
Sheng Wang: Sweet and Juicy (Comedy on Netflix)
Storage Art Gallery (Black-owned art gallery in Tribeca, NY)
Raury – Strawberry Moon (Music Album)
Natty Garden (Black-owned plant shop in BK)
This post was originally published on The Creative Independent.
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This Concept SUV eVX is slated to hit the Indian market by 2025
This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.
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Television New Zealand has filed an opposition claim against Vodafone’s attempt to trademark the name “One NZ”.
In September last year, the telecommunications company revealed it wanted to change its name to One New Zealand to better reflect its legacy in Aotearoa, having separated from the global Vodafone group three years ago.
But a TVNZ spokesperson said its own TVNZ 1 and One News were reputable and valuable brands, and it was keen to protect them.
“Given these discussions are ongoing, we are simply exercising our rights until the parties reach a position they are comfortable with,” they said in a statement.
“We continue to partner with Vodafone commercially and on a range of projects.”
An initial three-month extension to the opposition period was filed in October but could not be renewed, and discussions had paused for the holiday break.
In a statement, Vodafone NZ corporate affairs head Conor Roberts said they expected TVNZ’s objection given the extension period could not be renewed.
They were “constructively working” with TVNZ on the matter, Roberts said.
“The remaining issues are minor and procedural and relate to various uses of the brand — rather than whether it can be used at all — and as such we believe they can be resolved,” he said.
Vodafone has up to two months to file a counterclaim or withdraw the application.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
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Brooklyn, NY’s famed Barclays Center has welcomed its first vegan vendor, fast-casual vegan barbecue restaurant Pure Grit BBQ. This is the first expansion for the eight-month-old restaurant, which opened in Manhattan, NY’s Flatiron District last year.
At Barclays, Pure Grit BBQ is serving its popular, award-winning house-smoked Jackfruit Nachos and two exclusive sliders (House Smoked Jackfruit Sliders and Smoked Impossible Cut Brisket) served on cornbread waffles alongside house-made barbecue chips.
Pure Grit BBQ is part of the Barclay Center’s Brooklyn Market concept, a coveted space where three to five brands are chosen as vendors, with an opportunity to move up to the majors by securing a permanent presence on the concourse.
Pure Grit BBQ“People were very excited to find fresh vegan options on game night,” Jenny Mauric, co-founder of Pure Grit BBQ, told VegNews about their opening night.
Bringing Texas vegan barbecue to NYC
Founded in 2019, Pure Grit BBQ started by selling vegan barbecue essentials—a barbecue sauce, hot sauce, and a spice rub—accompanied by cooking and smoking tutorials. This was soon followed by the opening of a brick-and-mortar eatery where it offered vegan and gluten-free smoked barbecue mains such as fried chicken and waffles; pulled jackfruit, Impossible burgers sandwiched between cornbread waffles; and classic sides such as coleslaw, baked beans, potato salad, and mac and cheese.
Everything is smoked in-house and prepared with the brand’s signature sauces and rub, which are also available for sale along with its branded merchandise.
Founded by Mauric and Kerry Fitzmaurice, the Pure Grit BBQ concept was born following a trip to Austin, TX where Fitzmaurice experienced the infamous Texas barbecue scene. When she couldn’t find vegan options at local barbecue joints, she had an “aha” moment and decided to fill the void herself.
Pure Grit BBQUpon returning to New York City, where she lives, Fitzmaurice confided in colleague and now business partner Mauric about her desire to bring vegan barbecue to NYC—and that’s when Pure Grit BBQ was born.
To create the menu, the duo collaborated with vegan chef Nikki King Bennett, who was previously head chef at shuttered vegan restaurant Pure Food and Wine and featured in the Netflix series Bad Vegan. While Bennett worked to perfect the sides, the founders tapped nationally-renowned pitmaster Daniel Jacobellis of Top Gun BBQ to ensure the authenticity of barbecue in every dish.
To top off the dream team, they welcomed trained vegetarian chef and Hell’s Kitchen contestant Emily Hersh, who previously worked at famed NYC vegetarian restaurant Dirt Candy and moved back to New York City from her native San Antonio to helm the restaurant.
Vegan barbecue for all
Through pop-ups and tastings, the team knew NYC was the right place to introduce plant-based barbecue. “Barbecue is family. Whether it is gathering for a backyard barbecue or queuing up at your favorite local spot you’ll get friendly faces, delicious food, and lots of laughter,” Fitzmaurice told VegNews. “It is that sense of belonging that drove me to create Pure Grit BBQ: a space where everyone can pull up a chair.”
Pure Grit BBQAlthough the brand originally planned to start in foodservice in 2020, because of the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, they pivoted to retail, selling vegan barbecue sauces and rubs online and in select stores. Last year, Pure Grit BBQ received a cash infusion from an angel investor to not only open their flagship NYC location, but also operationalize their concept for scale and rapid growth, as well as streamline and expand their retail offerings.
“We serve delicious, satisfying food that happens to be vegan, gluten-free, and mostly soy-free. We call this BBQ for all,” Fitzmaurice said. “Our first location is in our up-for-anything, always authentic NYC, but our plans are to expand across the country, sharing our table with anyone who wants in.”
Southern plant-based barbecue
Pure Grit BBQ isn’t the first brand to take on the challenge of veganizing classic Southern barbecue dishes. In 2021, vegan meat brand Barvecue opened the world’s largest plant-based smokehouse, called the Carolina Smokehouse. Located in Cornelius, NC, the 10,000-square-foot facility started with an initial capacity of producing 800,000 pounds of the brand’s meats, including Pulled BVQ (vegan barbecue pork with original sauce), Chopped BVQ (a gluten-free version of the Pulled BVQ) and Naked versions of both (lightly seasoned with no sauce).
BarvecueFounded in 2017, Barvecue is on a mission to create the world’s best-tasting plant-based barbecue meats. “As the plant-based meat market surges, so, too, does the demand for our wood-smoked, plant-based Barvecue,” Lee Cooper, Barvecue founder and CEO, said in a statement. “As we grow to keep up with demand for Barvecue products, we decided that it was time to expand production and lead the way in the plant-based barbecue market.”
In nearby Atlanta, GA, vegan barbecue eatery Grass BBQ Joint opened its first brick-and-mortar location in 2020 after operating as a local grab-and-go pop-up. With a goal to “provide traditional southern Q, without the guilt,” Grass BBQ Joint cold-smokes its vegan meats and slow-simmers its sauces for several hours before using them as bases for menu items such as the VicRiib Sandwich (with smoked vegan pork), Groveway (which features pulled jackfruit), Sloppy Joe (made with “veef” brisket), and Nashville Hot Chick’n.
This post was originally published on VegNews.com.
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Is “bad news” out of US Congress about an AUKUS nuclear submarine deal a blessing in disguise? Former submariner and senator Rex Patrick says US politicians, although acting in the interests of the US, may save Australia from itself, and a $170bn sell-out.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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The global vegan food industry is expected to reach $91.9 billion by 2027, according to a new report by market research firm Research and Markets. This means the plant-based food market is forecasted to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.1 percent over the next four years.
The report’s analysts say consumer interest in vegan food is driven by several factors, including expanded research into the health benefits of plant-based diets, rising support from medical professionals, and expanded media coverage of the diet’s advantages.
Nensuria
Additionally, the analysis points to benefits such as reducing the risk of zoonotic disease and the ability to feed more people with fewer resources. “Customers can lessen the adverse effects of the food system on the environment, reduce the risk of zoonotic disease and antibiotic resistance, and feed more people with fewer resources by producing meat from plants, fermentation, or cultivation of actual animal cells,” the report says.
With environmentalism top of mind for many consumers, the report notes that by adopting a vegan diet, consumers can also help minimize air and water pollution, slow biodiversity loss, and protect the oceans.
Unsplash
“Vegan diets are the future of the food industry, just as renewable energy sources are the future of the energy industry,” the report says. “As the international community works to reduce climate risks, vegan foods represent a vast opportunity to help humans achieve net-zero emissions, however, more funding and open-access R&D are required.”
Vegan food on a global scale
The report notes that the vegan industry experienced its most active growth in 2021, and many signs point to this as the beginning of a race for new vegan products on a global scale. Key companies driving the market include Beyond Meat, Daring Foods, and Impossible Foods.
“New developments in the vegan sector emerge every year, paving the way for a global transition to a much more just, safe and sustainable food system,” the report states.
The growing availability of vegan food products in mainstream supermarkets as more mainstream processors enter this market are two more important factors driving growth. Pea-based vegan meat also has a sizable market share, the report notes, likely because of its reasonable price, versatility, and nutritional profile, as well as its widespread availability and applicability.
Stateside, the vegan food market is innovating rapidly alongside the global sector. According to a 2021 vegan market analysis by non-profit organization Good Food Institute (GFI), plant-based products are a key driver of sales growth at grocery retailers nationwide, growing three times as fast as overall food sales.
SPINS retail sales data released March 22, 2022, shows that grocery sales of plant-based foods that directly replace animal products grew 6 percent the previous year—and 54 percent over three years—to $7.4 billion. Additionally plant-based foods have outpaced total foods in both dollar and unit sales for the past three years.
Beyond Meat
The report also notes that plant-based meat and seafood dollar sales grew 74 percent since 2018 to $1.4 billion. “As appetites grow for different plant-based meat types and formats, the category continues to expand and diversify,” the report says. “The plant-based meat market today is, in ways, reminiscent of the plant-based milk market when it was in its early stages.”
While plant-based milk currently accounts for 16 percent of all dollar sales for retail milk, the study says that with continued product innovation the vegan meat category has the potential to earn a similar share of the total meat market, representing a 14-point growth in the share which is worth $16 billion.
Vegan seafood sees innovation
And although vegan seafood remained a small fraction of plant-based meat sales in 2021, the following year saw greater innovation in the category. According to the first-ever State of the Industry Report of vegan seafood by GFI, $175 million was raised globally by companies in 2021, a 92 percent increase from 2020.
Loma Linda
GFI suggests that alternative seafood remains a market whitespace and is well poised to capitalize on the momentum of the broader plant-based industry. And widespread commercialization of alternative seafood is a promising approach to alleviating pressure on both wild fisheries and aquaculture systems while helping to meet global demand for an important source of food.
“Every year, we see advancements in the alternative protein industry that are opening the door for a global shift to a far more sustainable, secure, and just food system than the one we have today,” the report update notes. “Like 2019 and 2020 before it, 2021 was the most active year yet for growth in the alternative protein industry, and many signs indicate that the world is on the cusp of a global race for alternative protein innovation.”
This post was originally published on VegNews.com.
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A two-member bench declined to grant any immediate stay the operations of Competition Commission of India (CCI) penalty
This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.
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As per the survey, new businesses received by Indian services firms increased for the seventeenth month in a row in December
This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.
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India’s manufacturing sector activity continued to expand in December, with the S&P Global Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rising to 57.8
This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.
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Court documents reveal that pubs and pokies baron Bruce Mathieson’s Endeavour Group may have underpaid $700,000 in stamp duty when buying the Captain Cook Hotel in Sydney. Callum Foote reports.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Qantas’ Sydney to London double decker jumbo QF1 flight has been forced to land in Baku after a fire reached the cockpit
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Wall Street calls for Musk to step down had been growing for weeks and even Tesla bulls have questioned his focus on Twitter
This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.
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The post 10 Blak Businesses to support during the festive season appeared first on IndigenousX.
This post was originally published on IndigenousX.
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Unions in New Caledonia have secured a 4.2 percent increase of the lowest salaries from January 1, 2023.
The concession by the employers’ organisation MEDEF was announced as a large crowd rallied for a general strike outside its offices in Noumea.
According to police, 1500 people had gathered to press their demands while the unions said they mobilised 5000 members.
The unions had sought an across-the-board pay increase of six percent in the private sector to offset the impact of inflation, which in November was 4.4 percent.
The wage hike applies to those earning between the monthly US$1440 minimum pay and those earning up to US$1775.
MEDEF said inflation has hit businesses hard as production costs are rising faster than product prices, in particular with the rise in the cost of energy.
Decline in GDP
The organisation said New Caledonian companies faced a decline as GDP had dropped by 5.9 percent since 2018.MEDEF said the social partners became aware early on of the negative impact of imported inflation on the purchasing power of New Caledonians.
It said that as early as May it and the unions unanimously and jointly asked the government to hold a conference on wages.
MEDEF said since April there had been proposals for tax reform which combined economic recovery and resetting of net wages.
It said raising wages had therefore always been a key aspect of the planned tax reform.
The government plans to hold a conference next week to discuss reforms in view of the crisis facing public finances.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
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The government has also cut the rate on export of diesel to Rs 5 per litre from Rs 8 per litre
This post was originally published on The Asian Age | Home.
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Australian Super have been locked out of their accounts for over three weeks now as the financial giant struggles with technical issues.
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Whistleblower Troy Stolz’s defamation trial against ClubsNSW will run into next year. He ended up in hospital in the wake of five days of cross-examination last week
This post was originally published on Michael West.
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Let’s face it, it’s been a tough year. We were all hoping for a bit of respite from disease, famine and fire but 2022 has, in many ways, thrown us even greater challenges. So right now I need some optimism, something to celebrate.
And that something does exist. It’s a new program that makes me smile in gratitude because it’s a simple idea that seems to have made life better – for women, their families and their communities.
The Women’s School of Leadership has been rolled out in the Pacific – Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea (PNG) – for the first time ever in 2022. It’s run by Fairtrade Australia New Zealand (ANZ), with a little help from our friends (like the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs in Australia and the NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs).
Around twenty students from Fairtrade coffee farming cooperatives in both Timor-Leste and PNG took part in the program over the course of the year and graduated recently. Their subjects included topics as diverse as income diversification, sustainable farming practices and gender equality.
Amy Child, Gender and Child Protection Advisor for Fairtrade ANZ, said that the initiative is life-changing for everyone involved.
“It’s not just women who participate, although they are in the majority. The school is really about getting both men and women to understand the value of women in business, leadership, farming and across all parts of society,” says Amy.
Traditional dancers from Unen Choit coffee farmer cooperative welcomed the graduates and special guests to the graduation ceremony for the Gender School of Leadership in PNG. Picture: Supplied
“The hope is that all the participants go on to become gender equality ambassadors and leaders in their own communities so that change happens from the ground up.”
The schools were well received in both countries with local dignitaries and government officials, including President Dr. Jose Ramos Horta in Timor-Leste, attending the graduation ceremonies. This was, in part, a result of the program being designed from the grassroots and utilising in-country expertise so that the lessons were relevant and culturally appropriate. For example, the PNG school had a name change. It became the Gender School of Leadership despite the program usually being referred to as the Women’s School of Leadership in other parts of the world.
“We felt that Gender School of Leadership made more sense in the PNG context after consultation with lots of different stakeholders. I am also proud to say that we drew upon local skills to deliver the curriculum so that it worked for PNG,” says Gabriel Iso, PNG Team Leader for Fairtrade ANZ.
“The coffee growers know that we understand not just the coffee business but also what the community needs. Our work is about fair pay for coffee but also assisting in areas like women’s rights, child protection and environmental sustainability.”
The program is delivered in modules and in PNG, the facilitators were thrilled to learn of the popularity of outreach work that participants were doing in local communities between classes. It was reported that in some remote villages more than 100 people travelled to listen to school participants speak about what they had learnt about how to change the gender paradigm.
PNG participant Veronica Akianang expressed it in this way: “In all rural communities, women and girls are often neglected, yet they are passive achievers… They plant the trees, they plant crops, they do care for land, rear animals, and work on the farm each day, yet, their voice is not being heard. They are left behind … and are unable to reach to their full potential.”
Her feelings are echoed in international research. A UN study showed that on average, women make up about 43 percent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries. Evidence indicates that if these women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20 to 30 percent, raising total agricultural output in these countries by 2.5 to 4 percent.
Madalena da Costa Soares, 23, graduate of the first Fairtrade Women’s School of Leadership in Timor-Leste. Picture: Supplied
Amy Child says the program aims to address this: “Recognising womens’ contributions is crucial for both the women themselves and their communities because when womens’ work is valued, it means their opinions and ideas are also valued. This enables them to become decision makers and leaders, which are all steps towards gender equality, especially in rural communities.”
Madalena da Costa Soares, a graduate from the Timor-Leste Women’s School of Leadership, spoke at her graduation ceremony in front of President Ramos Horte and was encouraged by him to think big: “I was very excited… it was my first time meeting him and speaking in front of him. And he said that he was so impressed that he would support me to become a member of Parliament.”
It seems 2022 did deliver something then.
- Picture at top: Some of the first cohort of students at the graduation ceremony for the Gender School of Leadership in PNG. Picture: Supplied
The post A new gender school of leadership in the Pacific appeared first on BroadAgenda.
This post was originally published on BroadAgenda.
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Can you tell me a little bit about your role at your game design studio, Forever Stoked? It seems like it’s cooperative or non-hierarchical. How does that work in what you do?
I don’t like being a boss of people. I’m okay at it I guess, but I am a pretty radically-to-the-left person who’s continually lived a life where that is what’s important. I used to play in bands and tour full-time and did a label. I don’t necessarily have success averseness, but also I honestly don’t really care about money. I want to make sure I have enough to pay for the apartment and whatever. I’d been talking about wanting to do the studio as a co-op for years, and we finally made the jump. Basically everybody that’s worked for me is now a partner.
In terms of organizational structure, it’s largely flat. There’s a degree of different roles—we have design leads on various projects because we do systems design, we do graphic design, we do writing, we do content generation type stuff like writing trivia questions or adventures for games that have narrative stories, stuff like that with games, and then we do some stuff with comics. Within that creative space, functionally, we’ve decided that it’s very difficult to have it purely, entirely non-hierarchical in terms of the creative work side. So all the business stuff is flat. We basically vote on stuff. We try to figure things out. Creatively, there needs to be someone who’s the final authority on any given project.
If there’s a disagreement, we talk about. We want to make everybody happy. We try to reach consensus. But practically speaking, there are times where it’s like, “Yeah. Well, we’re split on this one.” What we do is we establish that early in the project; we have a clear tiebreaker that’s established before anyone knows if they’re going to disagree or exactly how they’re going to be involved in it and how their involvement’s going to develop over the life of making that project.
What was something that you wish someone had told you when you had first started doing this business and working in this industry?
One of the biggest things for me is be true to yourself and have a vision of what it is you want to be doing, and then do that. Don’t worry as much about fitting into the boxes that other people have created for how you can exist in the industry and the kind of stuff you can make and the way you do business. I think looking back, I wish I had embraced that earlier, but I was still the weirdo when I was first doing little bits and pieces of stuff. A lot of it comes from doing a DIY, punk and hardcore label and bands; that attitude and energy is something that I brought with me when it came to starting to make things.
Sacrifice is a big thing. I think I did it but I wasn’t as intentional about it early on in my career. I’m very in the mindset that we need to remove barriers to entry to help get more people involved, and we need to keep it from being a thing for people that have the money to do—they need to fuck off and not make money for a while. But, yeah, I am also a big believer there are sacrifices you can make to get to the place you’re in.
I don’t have kids. I’m not interested in kids and that means that that’s a whole full-time job that costs a ton of money that I don’t have to deal with. No judgment in any direction, but people are like, “Well, how did you do it?” And I’m like, “Well, I lived very DIY punk rock lifestyle and don’t have kids or expenses,” and so, sure, I was able to go volunteer for this company and chase after this thing and do that. I didn’t think about it as directly as that at the time.
Being more mindful about the choices I was making and the impact they were going to have and thinking a little bit further ahead, maybe that’s it. I wish I had told myself to think a little bit further ahead. Think about where you want to be, think about what your dream situation is in a more specific way, too, because I think it’s very easy. It’s important not to be unrealistic in the realities of what it takes to do the stuff.
You have to recognize that if you want to put time into this, you have to lose time somewhere else.
I feel like “I don’t have time” is largely not actually what the situation is. It’s that I’ve not prioritized this in my life. And there’s zero value judgment around how people should or shouldn’t prioritize things in their lives, but it’s like, “Yeah. Well, I don’t want to give up my day job, I really want to have a bunch of kids. I want to have this. I want to have that.”
Another big piece of advice: Don’t compare yourself to other people. I think everyone says this all the time. No matter how many times any of us hear it, it’s impossible to actually do, but we’re still all going to say it because really the best you can do is not compare yourself to other people because you don’t know their circumstances.
The flip side to that is you can make as much luck as you can. You can really up that. That’s why I do so many conventions a year and used to do even more. My biggest game on the road year, I did 236 days on the road, I just cranked out conventions and was going everywhere, talking to everyone. Even things that were one in a thousand chance, I gave myself a few thousand chances, so that volume of chasing those opportunities I think is really hard. It’s not going to find you, right?
Everybody can look at that one person who, “Oh, well, I don’t know. I just got plucked out of obscurity, fucking around and look at me now,” right? Yeah, sure there’s always outliers and exceptions to the rule, but really you got to put in the effort.
How did you manage to create a path for Forever Stoked outside of the established system of the tabletop gaming industry?
I’m 40 and our generation, a lot of parents in my mom and grandparents who raised me very much like, “You can do anything, you’re smart. You’re talented. Whatever you want to do, you can do it. I believe in you.” Then when I was a teenager and getting into punk, which I’m going to use as a giant umbrella, I was reading Henry Rollins’ Get in the Van. That sort of energy has run as a thread through what we do with Forever Stoked, where we say yes to kind of whatever, we chase stuff that we probably have no business chasing after as potential clients. Part of the joy of being able to have that kind of path is that we largely do what we want. We’re very values first as an organization, myself as a person, and we’re able to do that because we have carved this path.
We’re kind of the cool weirdos in the game industry. I’m not a cool weirdo in the wider world, and I’m not trying to insult the game industry either, but there’s not a whole lot of people covered in tattoos that are ridiculous cartoon characters that played in bands, just the profile that we cut is our branding is all. We look like a black light poster. Our aesthetic is this very out-there thing. There are enough people that are into what we do that when they find us or we find them, whatever, it’s like, “Oh, we totally vibe.”
How do you avoid burnout in your career?
When you have a good answer for that, I would love to hear it. As much as I want to say that I’m not the boss and that it’s not hierarchal, everyone still screens me that way, and it means that there’s a lot of extra pressure on me. But I’d say honestly for me, a lot of it is just keep going. The just keep swimming philosophy of, “I can’t be burned out so I’m not,” or I try not to be. But that said, I’m trying to be better.
Something that I get to do because the studio has been growing is that I do have the ability to shift my focus day-to-day. If I’m feeling like my brain’s just not interested in being creative right now, that’s not going to happen. There’s plenty of other shit I can work on. There’s a diversity of things that I can do that are still furthering the work that we’re doing and the cool stuff we’re making, but that doesn’t require me to be as on. I can look at a calendar and try to figure out who we want to meet with at a convention. Stuff like that is a lot less demanding and taxing mentally, so I can sort of half work. I mean, now I sound like a psycho who just works all the time. But I mean, the thing is that I legitimately adore what we do.
I think there’s a doggedness that comes from that DIY culture where you’re like, “I’m always trying to find a path to that success,” and the success is whatever you define it to be, right?
Yeah. That’s something that’s really stuck with me for the co-op: I would rather have a dope life than a bunch of money. I’m fortunate enough that at this point in my life, we do okay. Well, we do more than okay. I mean, we do great. If you’re a business bro, we don’t do great. But for my standards, we do great.
I’m also very not interested in any of that materialistic consumption type stuff. I wear jeans until they fall apart, which I think comes from the punk rock, but also just years and years of not having stuff. Growing up, we went through periods of time where we didn’t have money, certainly not to a degree that a lot of people have had to struggle through. We weren’t worried about ever being homeless, but we had to move with my grandparents. So thinking about what you spend money on, and what it actually makes you happy, which also comes from punk rock where it’s just that kind of anti-materialism.
I am very proud of the fact I live my values in the sense that I try as much as possible to make as little money as possible when it means that I can help other people do cool stuff, and we can build something together. That’s been the attitude before we were officially a cooperative for a long time, and now I’m excited about really putting our money where our mouth is, to go somewhat esoteric. It’s one of the core tenets of Leninism that set it apart from some of the other competing lead interests in building the USSR before Stalin turned it into absolutely fucking garbage.
I think a lot about business structure and co-ops and how we can do things in the world at large. This idea that if we had good people who made a thing and then were great and now we’re giving it to the people. When the labor movement really took off, it seems like most of the most successful things in business followed that sort of pattern where it was a more traditional business, or it fell within that kind of like, “Yeah, there’s a boss, there’s an owner, there’s a couple owners,” or whatever it is. Then at some point it was decided, “Hey, we have this successful company, now let’s convert it to a co-op, make it work. Let’s do that.”
I’ve been involved in a lot of political work over the years and various other sort of co-op type things, both creative and otherwise, and it’s difficult to get you going when you have a bunch of opinionated weirdos that are like, “Well, I don’t know, I read this book and that book,” and then all of a sudden you’re debating Trotsky. It’s good and interesting, but also difficult to get over that hump to make a sustainable business from the ground up. I want to say that that’s what more people should do.
I want to say that that’s where society should be, and I think that that is where I would like society to get to. This business is a real-ass business and everyone makes salaries the same that you would make if you were doing this, in, say, a more corporate world. That money’s there. Business is making that kind of money. It’s just now we’re distributing it more equally amongst everybody, and having that money makes it so much easier to then redistribute. It’s difficult to redistribute wealth when there isn’t any wealth.
Matt Fantastic Recommends:
Watch Everything Everywhere All at Once
Be more like Ted Lasso and Roy Kent
Listen to new music
Read Emma Goldman’s autobiography, Living My Life
Give up the whole idea of “guilty pleasures” and take unabashed joy in the things you like
This post was originally published on The Creative Independent.
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This post was originally published on Michael West.