Incorporating Social Justice into Your Business

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In this episode, Dani Bruflodt focuses on how to use your social media platforms as a place for social justice advocacy -- even as a business owner. She and her team get really fired up about sustainability and fighting injustice and do everything they can to ensure their business aligns with their desire to build a better, more equitable world.

Dani Bruflodt is the creator of The Daily Page, a small-batch paper goods studio creating holistic, sustainable products for people who give a damn. Their mission is to help people reclaim their time, increase their energy, focus their efforts, and have more impact on the world.

Website // Instagram // The Daily Page 10% off code BADASS10

The episode:

Katrina Widener: Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of the Badass Business Squad podcast. I'm here with Dani Bruflodt and I am so excited to have her on. We met basically because some mutual friends of mine recommended her Instagram, and then I followed her for a really long time and slid into her DMS. So, I'm really excited to have you on today. We're going to be talking about including social justice advocacy within your social media platforms. Which is something I'm really, really passionate about, and I love the way that Dani has been able to do this with grace, but without compromising her own personal values and beliefs. So I am so excited to have you here.

Dani Bruflodt: Thank you so much for inviting me on.

Katrina Widener: Yeah! So really quickly in your own words, can you tell everyone who's listening exactly what you do, what your business is, and kind of like what your passions are within your business.

Dani Bruflodt: Yeah. So I'm Dani and I'm an online shop owner, online educator, and advocate. I own a paper goods studio called The Daily Page and we create sustainable holistic paper goods for socially conscious change-makers on a woman owned printing press in Minnesota. And my mission is to help people reclaim their time, increase their energy, and ultimately just have more impact on the world.

Katrina Widener: That's awesome. I purchased your hydration challenge from you when I first found out about you, because this is another thing that she talks about is hydration and the power of water. So I just want to make sure that I drop that in there too. I started following you leading up to the 2020 election. I want to say like early in 2020 is when I first started following you. And so obviously there was a lot of content and conversation around the election and around social justice at that point in time. So I just wanted to get started and ask you how you really have been able to navigate being a public more visible figure, but also incorporating your personal social justice values within a very public platform.

Dani Bruflodt: Yeah. So I think for me, it kind of came with my background. So for the better part of a decade, about eight or nine years, I was running a social media agency. So I was working with brands of varying sizes, you know, 10,000 followers, 80,000 and 5 million. Managing their content and their social media, all of their online campaigns. And so going into the 2016 election, I really had a very intimate understanding of how these networks worked, how they could target people, how we could segment and appeal to people, all of that. And after the election I was taken aback, I guess, by the role that social media had really played in influencing the American public. And so coming out of 2016, I felt like I just really before the next election wanted to do whatever I could, with the knowledge that I had of social media and marketing to market the values and things that I thought were the most important. Things that I thought would move us in a direction towards a world that's just better for everybody. That's more equitable and kinder to everyone.

And so that's really what motivated me to start integrating social justice work into what I was talking about online. And a big motivation for that is the fact that I grew up in a really rural part of Minnesota. So my hometown has a population of under a thousand people. I graduated with 28 kids. And I guess it's an area that you would probably call Trump country in Minnesota. And so when people would talk about Trump supporters, that's my high school classmates, my family members, my teachers, people that I know.

And so, although I was just as frustrated as everyone else was, I also in ways could understand where these people were coming from. You know, our communities had been stripped of jobs. Farmers have been watching their livelihoods slip away now for decades, and I understood their frustrations. And then combined with that being a white woman in my mid thirties, I also saw just kind of the ability of a lot of my peers to ignore what was going on around us. Combining that with my social media experience, knowing that social media was working against us, to silo us off, to pit us against each other and making things more polarized. And so all of those things came together to make me realize, "Okay, I can talk about these issues and help get some of this information in front of my fellow white women that they might not ever see in their Facebook feed if somebody in their peer group doesn't put it there." Or "I can get some of this information in front of my rural, farming, hometown community that they're never going to see on Fox news," you know?

And then also moving abroad and moving from Minnesota to Denmark in 2017. And just really seeing what a different government looks like. What it's like to live in a society with a really great social safety net and seeing that things can be different. Things aren't perfect here, but it's definitely opened my eyes up to how things can be different and more supportive and better for everybody. And what a different work-life balance looks like. Just so many things that I feel really passionate about kind of sharing with other people and helping people understand that it is within their power to change the way government works and make it work for them.

Katrina Widener: First of all, I want to say thank you so much for sharing that. Because I think that a lot of people get intimidated by sharing about social justice and really about politics in general on their public profiles. And so getting a little bit of an understanding of the reason why you wanted to do this, but also just like what led you to start sharing on your public profile, can be really illuminating and helpful for some people who are like, "how, how do you even get started? Where do I begin?" And so I guess that very naturally leads me into my next question, which is what would you recommend to someone who is like, "Okay, I really am interested in doing this. I want to incorporate this more in my world. But I'm really intimidated or I'm really afraid." Right? And so just curious what you would say to that person.

Dani Bruflodt: The thing I always suggest is that you just step back for a minute and if I asked you to like stand up in front of the room right now, and for five minutes, tell us about a policy or an issue that you really care about. Something that really fires you up. That you feel at least somewhat informed on, and you don't need to use fancy terminology or big words. But you could just speak really passionately about how American health care has negatively impacted your life or somebody that you love. And why you want to see it changed, and how you want to see it changed. Or why you really want parental leave for everybody, or whatever the issue is -- what's the thing that you could stand up right now and talk about for five minutes. And whatever that thing is, that's where I would suggest that you start. And so just kind of recognize that you don't need to be an expert at everything. You don't need to get online and be able to answer everybody's questions about Black Lives Matter or a police evolution or whatever the issue might be.

Just pick the thing that's really personal to you. That you honestly really, really care about and want to see change with. And focus on that and advocate for that, and just realize that it's perfectly fine to not know the answer. It's perfectly fine to tell people that you aren't informed enough on a topic to speak about it. It's fine to tell people that you will do more research and get back to them. And it's okay to be wrong. It's okay to fail. It's okay to fuck up. Everyone has done it. We're all going to do it. That is such a big part of advocacy. Messing up, getting called out, getting called in, doing better. And I don't really know where the saying comes from but, when you know better, you can do better.

So I think it's just a process of like jumping in with something you really care about, something that has really impacted you or someone you love. Picking that one thing. Getting in there and doing the work. And you'll figure out along the way that once you care about one thing, you'll notice how it links into another system. And that they're all interconnected. And that liberation and equality is just very interconnected and you'll find your way through the whole thing.

Katrina Widener: I think that so many people, like I was saying, do get really intimidated. And just breaking it down to that one topic that you feel really, really passionate about, also allows us to kind of humanize it in a sense. Because politics and advocacy overall can feel like this big, humongous, how do I even get started? Like how can I even make an impact? But really bringing it down to something that's so intimate and personal to us makes it feel way easier. Right? It makes it feel way, way more intuitive and a little bit more of "Okay, I can speak on this thing at the very least."

Dani Bruflodt: Yes. And I think just knowing also that it's okay to be wrong, and it is so okay to fail and anyone who's working in organizing or advocacy, or any form of activism has messed up and been wrong and been called out before. It's just so much a part of the work and it really is an important part of the work. Being wrong is when you've learned. Those are the hard moments when you really grow in the movement. And I think it's just important to really lean into those. Once you realize that it's okay and totally part of the whole thing, it becomes just something that you no longer fear, you're not scared of messing up. You kind of get excited to mess up again. Cause you realize those are like the big moments.

Katrina Widener: That's like a great way to reframe it too. I talk about this with my clients in terms of business things where it's like, what if instead of failure was viewed as something bad, failure is viewed as something that you're striving for, or you're aiming for. Like, "I want to aim to fail big five times a month. Because then that means I'm learning, right? That means I'm trying things that I didn't think would work out. I asked someone to collaborate with me and they said no. Okay. That's one failure this month. But that means that I also asked four people who said yes." So it can really apply to this too. " I'm able to say maybe this one time I made a mistake, but that means that there were four other times that I said something I wouldn't have said beforehand that really made a difference." That's a really great way to reframe it.

I was curious also, if you wouldn't mind sharing people who maybe weren't following you before the 2020 election or around the 2016 election, or really are new to finding out who you are, what are some of the ways that you have shared about advocacy and made a stand on things? Because I feel like a lot of people are like, "Okay, this is great. I'm ready to get started, but like, how do I do it? What's the implementable actions that I can actually take? Or how are the ways that I can share what I believe in?"

Dani Bruflodt: Big question, but let me try to tackle it a little bit at a time. So I think the biggest thing for me has been curating and sharing information. And that's not an easy thing for everyone to do. I feel lucky that for me, being able to curate and tell a story does come somewhat naturally to me. So I think for everyone, you're going to kind of figure out what your talents and toolbox looks like. And there's so many roles in advocacy and activism work that you'll find where you fit in. So don't feel like what I say or what I've done is like what everyone should necessarily do. I think it's about leaning into what does your audience respond to and what kind of content do you really enjoy creating? Or what do you like talking about? Or how do you prefer to deliver the information?

But for me, I guess a little bit of what it's looked like is trying to push out messages from people of color, particularly black women. Whatever they're talking about, whatever issues they're discussing or messages they seem to be trying to get out, I do my best to amplify those. So through Instagram story, my Facebook page, whatever it is. Because I kind of see my role as a Midwestern white woman to help those messages get in front of people who otherwise might not see it, might not hear it, don't want to hear it, aren't going to listen to it.

And so it's kind of disseminating, sending out the information wherever I can. I also have a weekly newsletter that goes out every Friday called the weekly page. As of now it's 11,000 people strong. And I also use that as a place to get in front of people. So it's where people can get all the free downloads off my website. But I also share recipes, cocktail recipes, the best thing I watched on Netflix this week. Just kind of like give people great information, have a good week. But then I'm also going to talk about police abolition. And I'm also going to talk about parental leave. And I'm also going to talk about why we need universal health care. And every week there's also an article that I suggest people read. And I try my best to make them really valuable and credible sources. So I don't usually get a lot of people pushing back on like, I don't know, indoctrinating people with some kind of left-wing liberal agenda. I really do my best to pick really high quality informative articles that can just provide people with an overview on a topic.

And my goal is really not to appeal to people that are really right-leaning extreme. Right? It's the people in the middle. The people that are curious about some of these topics that they could move just like a point or so in a more progressive direction. Right? And just trying to get those people to shift a little bit.

To summarize, I have social media posts, my weekly newsletter, and then leading up to the 2020 election I also started a private Facebook community called Unite and Build. And this was a group for anybody that was interested in kind of getting more involved, doing canvassing, phone calls, emails, texting, just having a place to come and like bitch and complain about your Trump loving relatives and what they're saying on Facebook. And how to talk calmly to them and try to provide them with better information. And so I got over a thousand people to join the group. We did a four week training. We got really involved with like the Pod Save America crew. They had an adopt-a-state program. So we got really involved with that. And then following the 2020 election, after that all kind of wrapped up, I got involved with registering Georgia voters abroad before that runoff election.

So that was a summary of what the activism and stuff looked like leading up to 2020. And then just kind of between 2016 and 2020, it was really just developing my voice, learning how to talk about these things, a ton of learning and different issues and getting good at sharing stuff and talking to people.

Katrina Widener: So I have followed you for a while and I really love all of the stuff that you do. But I can only assume that you have some people who clap back and maybe do either call you out, or are directly, politically opposed to your views. Who maybe come into your DMS or hit you with some, uh, not so positive feedback.

So I want to make sure that I also ask about that because again, from my personal experience, talking to people about getting more involved about more advocacy, there's a lot of fear there. And so I'm curious how you handle those situations or if you have any recommendations for people too. Because you've obviously gotten involved in a lot of ways, and sharing and storytelling, but also real on the ground, like in the trenches activism. Getting people registered, et cetera, et cetera. And so what advice would you give people who are like, "I really want to get started, but I'm absolutely terrified of the people, of my family members coming back at me. Or of strangers coming into my like online space to tell me that I'm dumb or whatever."

Dani Bruflodt: Yeah. So it's such a good question. And one that I get a lot, because I really agree with you that this is one of the top concerns for people that really want to get involved and be advocates, but are just really nervous about the online clap back as you called it. So the first thing I would just say is like being aware of the fact that we all have a certain amount of energy every day and it has to be up to you where that energy goes. And so first and foremost, use the controls that you have at your fingertips. You can turn off commenting on posts. You can block people from being able to respond to your Instagram story. It's within your control to respond to people. And so, as I said earlier, like it's totally okay to tell people that you aren't an expert on this topic. That you need to do research before you respond to them. It's okay to just say "no, like not today" or delete their message all together and don't respond.

I do this frequently, because this is about protecting like my energy, my space, and my time. And so I very often will just not respond to somebody. Or I will say, you know, "it's 7:00 PM I'm going to respond to this in the morning. Thanks for your comment." And I'll wait a whole day, sometimes a whole week to like respond to somebody. So it's really having those strong boundaries. Obviously that's something that kind of takes time. It wasn't something I was great at in the beginning, but you get better at it.

The other thing I would say is understanding that you really need to meet people where they're at. And this can be really hard because you know, you get somebody in your inbox and they're pro-life and everything that's coming out of their mouth or their keyboard, you know is not even factually correct. And you have a counter point to make. But you really just need to step back and start asking them questions. And that can really go a long way to just really understand, "Okay. Where did this opinion that you have come from?" And it's always incredibly helpful and insightful just to ask people questions. Don't expect to completely change their mind, but can you meet them where they're at and just move them slightly?

The other thing I would say is just kind of placing people on a spectrum. And this is something I picked up from my mentor Elle Dowd, who I kind of want to credit with this as I explain it. But when you're talking to somebody, kind of placing them on a spectrum of 1 through 10. And those people that are like a 10 on the extreme side where they are anti LGBTQ plus. All of their ideas are so far from your own. Those people are probably not reachable. You're probably not going to shift them. And it's really a huge waste of your energy as an advocate to just go around and around in circles with these people. And they love it. They love taking up your energy and your time.

And so it's about being able to identify those people that are like sevens, eights, nines, tens, and are just a waste of your energy. And really zeroing in on people that are fives, sixes, maybe sevens that can be shifted. That their views can kind of be changed. And maybe not immediately, but maybe over time. The more interactions you have with them, or as they kind of sit back and continue to absorb your content and maybe it'll shift slightly.

And it's not about taking everyone from tens to ones or even fives to ones. It's really about those people that are sevens moving them to fives. Like we need to move the people in the middle. And I think the 2020 election showed us that it's really like the people in the middle we need to move over. It's not the people on either ends of the political spectrum that are going to get us anywhere we want to go. It's the people in the middle of that we need to be talking to.

Katrina Widener: Thank you so much for answering that. I think that that's also a great place to wrap things up. Before we fully log off though, you have been so generous in offering people a 10% off of their order at yourdailypageshop.com. And so I wanted to really quickly make sure that we made some time so we can promote you just a little bit more.

Dani Bruflodt: Yeah. So if you want to start out with www.dailypageplanner.com, that'll take you to a main website. On there I have all kinds of resources, blog posts, a ton of free downloads if you like organizational calendars, habit trackers, meal planners. All these things are going to just help you reclaim your time so that you have more time and energy to put into things like advocacy. You can find them all there. I have a podcast as well, and then I have an online shop. So you can just check those out if you want. Yeah, there's a code for podcast listeners and it's BADASS10.

Katrina Widener: Thank you so much. I just want to like again honor how much I appreciate your time and your energy on this topic. And how passionate I am about it, and how much I value it, and how excited I am to bring it to the audience. So thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Before we fully sign off, how can people find you online? Obviously we talked about the shop, but your social media, et cetera.

Dani Bruflodt: Yeah. My personal Instagram is @thmye_is_honey like the herb. And then my shop is on Instagram at the @thedailypage.

Katrina Widener: Perfect. Thank you so much for coming on here. I really appreciate it.

Dani Bruflodt: Thanks so much for asking me.