Rallying allies ✊🏾 Nate Nichols and Steffi Behringer, Allyship & Action
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EPISODE AT A GLANCE:
GUEST: Nate Nichols and Steffi Behringer
COMMUNITY: Allyship & Action Summits
HOSTS: Bailey Richardson & Kevin Huynh
“We need people to see the power they have in themselves to make a very small change that can compound over time.”
- Nate Nichols
Show Notes
Nate Nichols and Steffi Behringer are life and business partners and the founders of Allyship & Action. The Allyship & Action Summits took the advertising community by storm these past few months.
Like many others, their creative agency, Pallete Group, faced challenges when the pandemic hit. But they flipped the challenge into an opportunity, producing Freelancer Cyber Summit to connect freelancers and to “learn WTF is going on in the advertising industry.”
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, Nate and Steffi spun up the Allyship & Action Summit as an urgent source of information on allyship, providing tangible next steps on anti-racism for ad land. The summit and supporting Slack groups and workshops connect allies to Black creatives and allies to learn and continue the conversation. They are also calling on major brands and organizations to sign the Allyship & Action Pledge, “a commitment to transparency with a common, core code we use every time we enter into our business transactions.”
Today on the podcast, we talk with Nate and Steffi about how they responded to uncertainty with action and filled a need for a community within their industry that promotes, facilitates, and pushes conversations related to anti-racism.
Keep an ear out for Nate and Steffi’s insights:
You’ll notice their keen attention to production and design details. Everything from creative to tech to programming is thoughtfully executed with the intention to make the audience feel as close as possible when meeting virtually.
Digital-savvy format decisions.
Knowing human attention only shrinks behind a screen, Allyship & Action Summit sessions max out at 30 minutes in length.
They also integrated holding periods within the three hour experience–intermissions with music and art–that allow the audience members to reflect and also build anticipation for the next segment . “It’s not like watching Netflix. It’s not like watching a TV show.” Nate explains, “It’s somewhere in the middle. It is a whole new experience because it’s not prerecorded, it’s live.” These pauses sets the tone for what you are about to jump into much like a pre-concert or pre-theater experience.
Fast Forward to 1:37:09
Participatory prompts.
Steffi asked: “Even though we are all in our own homes on our own couches, how can we be as close as possible to our audience?” The square screen that we stare at all day can feel flat and linear. Nate and Steffi carefully crafted prompts during holding periods to bring the stillness some humanity. Some were playful and others, serious. Each was dynamic with careful color choices and accompanied by music that called people to action.
Conversation prompts during holding periods at first Allyship & Action Summit.
Purposeful aesthetics.
From the voice to art, Allyship & Action has emerged with a brand that reflects the ecosystem. The surreal collages mirror Nate’s experience in the advertising industry. “In many ways, the advertising industry doesn’t make sense. White people are at the helm of these advertising agencies and these brands making decisions on how consumers and people who don’t have the same life experience should consume their messaging. It’s all surreal,” Nate explains.
Nate and Steffi push against this system in all aspects of the summit, from the aesthetics to how they emcee. They, moderate and produce on camera, and lean into their natural voice to evoke a raw, unfiltered and honest voice.
“My goal in showing up as my whole self is that hopefully this person or persons in the same room get to be themselves as well,” Nate says. “They get to be fully self expressed and not feel alienated and we can just meet each other where we are.”
Building with.
One-off events are the enemy in building community. They don’t provide enough time for people to get to know one another or the spaces to actively contribute. Most summits and conferences are organized this way. They happen once, often annually.
However, at the end of the Allyship & Action Summit, there was an urgency to continue the conversation. An attendee took it upon himself to create a Slack group. From there, Nate and Steffi continued to empower attendees on their allyship journey. The community has volunteer Slack moderators and has been experimenting with workshops.
👋🏻Say hi to Nate & Steffi and check out Allyship & Action.
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