I did that poor little sock puppet, too.

I love it.

Yeah, so we were inundated with this message that print would go away, that we would be supplanting print and only digital formats.

And because I came of skill set, I don't know, I came of age, came of skill set, in that era, I initially started out with all digital.

And even though at the same time I was actually developing a DIY zine that was printed and thrown into little bookstores and stuff, it's very, I'm Gen X through and through, and I love it.

And so I could simultaneously experience where the value of a printed product was, right? Because it was in the hands of people, it was easy for people to access, they could carry it with them, it had a permanency that the digital experience doesn't have, and I loved that.

But I was cutting my teeth in code and digital design and the, what archaic feels of early [laughs] Photoshop and a variety of those experiences, right? So I'm grateful that I got to experience both of those things.

When you're developing a project, at what point do you bring your printer in to the conversation, or maybe more than one, and what is it that you expect from them? And this is the part of the conversation where we're gonna give back to all the printers out there and help them understand what you expect from them.

my it was on weekends it did not interfere with my corporate job i

think more americans have second jobs not because they want them but because we need them and so to to make fun of someone to to sort of is really to me i think missing kind of the the realities of what it is to be in america I do want to also bring up, so my first TED Talk is actually really, I would say, kind of relevant here.

And forgive me for digging into that a little bit, because my first TED Talk was actually trying to deal with stigmas in workplaces and really thinking about the complexity of workplaces, especially for millennial workers, millennial workers and Gen Z workers.

Because what I was speaking to in the first TED Talk, and I hope people get a chance to listen to it, is really about the role that I would say more provocative work histories provide.

So for individuals who, for example, work in adult industry spaces, and in the era of the pandemic, there were a record number, as we all probably heard in the news and saw in the news, millions of millennials who took to OnlyFans and other strategies in order to make ends meet.

And my argument in the second talk, and it comes from several decades of working in harm reduction spaces, and harm reduction just means working in non-judgmental spaces to advocate for access to services, for legal health, all of these things for individuals, working alongside many people who chose to work in the industry, right? And I felt really compelled, especially as part of my 50th year, to kind of speak in a new voice because I could do that rather than just an activist who's coming from the grassroots, but coming as somebody as a professional, as a business owner, to talk about the stigma that we actually put on individuals who work in what are non-criminalized spaces.

So we could talk separately about spaces that live a little bit more in the shadows.

Have there been any experiences that have shaped you into being a speaker and an expert on the subject matter?

So how can we build trust within the ecosystem of a society where We're always being divided and I'm curious about how do you not lose your individual identity when you're advocating for something? What are your thoughts there, my friend?

Wow, there's two different things you highlighted there.

So I want to hit on the first one first, which is I'm in the process, I think a lot of my own reflection these days has been, we don't talk about what we do with difference.

And I say this in the sense that I think we're in a time that's incredibly divided, 100%.

And I think we could say that we've always been and always had divisions.

But we're always focused on like, you know, I want to find what the common thread is that gets us to kind of like each other in that process.

And I'm not 100% sure that I'm kind of on board with that anymore.

From a browse to a bike ride, this summer, find more on Facebook.

I do not.

At all.

And if you go to our site, if you go to insights, you can actually download a map.

And it's actually a tool, it's a PDF tool.

You can fill it in.

And it's actually talking about how you develop your brand story and how your brand story is experienced by all these different dimensions and levels of individuals who are invested in that brand story.

Because in this modern day and age, and you could argue maybe it was never true, but it was more true in the past where there were very controlled channels of communication.

past.

After 20 years of experience, what inspired you to focus so deeply on advocacy and empathy?

Oh, that's a great question.

Thank you for sharing that.

It really comes down to, so I was raised in the Midwest, so I was raised in rural Illinois, and I come from a family that I would consider, and it would be considered very unstable.

A lot of different traumas.

My mother passed away at 11, when I was 11, sorry, from cancer, but that was prior to divorces.

In the household, there were alcoholism, there was violence.

Shane, let's talk about how you got inspired to create this great ideal.

Wow.

And back then they were bombing them, you know, and this is the 1980s into the '90s.

And so this conversation all the way from Roe v.

Wade to passing, all the way through the destruction of Roe v.

Wade, there has been just a constant desire to try to take brick by brick to take away the decisions and the abilities for people who are allowed to, or people who have the biology to have birth, to, to give birth, to be able to control those, tho- those processes.

And that is incredibly frustrating, right? Because it should seem like a no-brainer.

In fact, it was in some cases, right? The Roe v.

[laughs]