Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand

KELLY COLLAGE_Female Empowerment Brand

The Female Lifestyle

Empowerment Brand

(It's not a good thing.)

This page includes my definition of The Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand + all my essays and blog posts explaining why it’s bad for women, our businesses and our culture.

flora-flowers

Definition:

A "perfect woman" archetype must comply with and embody in order to be deserving of rights and resources

AND

A marketing strategy that leverages social status and white privilege to create authority over other women.

KD – Square Images-07
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In Our Culture

Every Woman Is a Brand

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Start here

Pop art vintage comic. A woman with a poster and place for text. Girl in retro style. Advertising
04 Jan

The Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand. An introduction.

empowermyth | Leadership | Marketing For Culture Makers | Power | The Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand
Somewhere, on the edge of consciousness, there is what I call a mythical norm, which each one of us within our hearts knows “that is not me.” In America, this norm is usually defined as white, thin, male, young, heterosexual, Christian, and financially secure. -...

Featured posts

Ixtapa, Mexico + John Rawls + No Pedi. Unthinkable now, right?
25 Mar

#tbt Toes in the Sand but NO PEDI. Also, The Beauty Myth then and now.

cartoon of 1950s man in suit with his feet propped up on table saying "it's not my problem" about the so-called "feminist pendulum"
11 Feb

Feminism, Femininity and The Swinging Pendulum. A Question for You.

The Context for The Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brrand
25 Jan

Not Enough Compensation in the World

December 8 2019

on “lying to ourselves”. (I’m not so sure we do.)

empowermyth,  Leadership,  Power,  Self Worth,  Shame,  Sunday Love Letter,  The Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand,  We Are The Culture Makers

This is your Sunday Love Letter.  Many a delicious volume has been penned about the existence and adventures of elves, fairies, pixies and trolls.  And ...

September 23 2019

nope, ‘Queen’ is not a feminist business model

Business Tips for Culture Makers,  empowermyth,  Leadership,  Power,  Sunday Love Letter,  The Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand

welcome to your Sunday Love Letter. Before we get started, here's what's going on this week at www.kellydiels.com: I'm teaching an online workshop on Saturday ...

August 11 2019

The Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand, Mental Triggers, and Weaponized Imperfection

Copywriting,  empowermyth,  Leadership,  Power,  Self Worth,  Shame,  The Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand,  Visibility,  We Are The Culture Makers

Business Tip for Culture Makers #811: Avoid Using Weaponized Imperfection or Leveraging Privilege to Build (Fake) Authority. If you haven’t seen this particular post, you’ve ...

June 9 2019

Who’s running our social media accounts? Us, or our social conditioning?

Power,  Social Media,  Sunday Love Letter,  The Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand,  Visibility

This week a friend of mine and I closed our eyes and imagined what a successful woman looks like. I'm a fat woman with biracial ...

May 31 2019

Business Tip for Culture Makers #1220: A Culture Making Approach to Stock Photos

Business Tips for Culture Makers,  Leadership,  Marketing For Culture Makers,  Power,  Social Media,  The Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand,  Visibility,  We Are The Culture Makers

Images are an essential business resource and they have culture-making power. For a long time, I knew that but I didn't know how to herd ...

May 17 2019

What it Means to Be a Culture Maker in Your Business and Media

Business Tips for Culture Makers,  Copywriting,  Leadership,  Marketing For Culture Makers,  Money,  Power,  Social Media,  The Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand,  Visibility,  We Are The Culture Makers

On my website, the first thing you'll see is the statement: "We are The Culture Makers”. I say this because it's true. We have the ...

July 30 2018

Dear Women’s Empowerment Coaches: Is Your Teacher’s Teacher a Men’s Rights Activist?

empowermyth,  Leadership,  Power,  The Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand

Note: The following essay is an excerpt of a chapter of the book I'm writing about The Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand; I first published it as ...

May 3 2018

Talking with My Hands and Trying to Be Good with Emelia

Leadership,  Power,  The Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand,  We Are The Culture Makers

#tbt to those times I was on a radio show hosted by the incomparable Emelia Symington-Fedy of Trying To Be Good with Emelia . . ...

April 27 2018

Sorry! The Lifestyle You Ordered is Currently Out of Stock

The Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand

Graffiti by Banksy; photo by Bruce Krasting https://www.flickr.com/photos/bruce_krasting/7695349260 This feels like some anti-FLEB (Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand) awesomeness in graffiti form. It's by Banksy. So ...

April 26 2018

“Prettiness is Not a Rent You Pay…” by Erin McKean

Power,  Self Worth,  Shame,  Social Media,  The Female Lifestyle Empowerment Brand

YES. AND ALSO: I've seen this quote floating around on Instagram, usually attributed in error to Diana Vreeland. In fact Erin McKean, the founder of ...

Every week, I send you a

Sunday Love Letter

I write them so that…

  1. You remember your culture-making power
  2. You have the inspiration + tools you need to grow a future in which we all flourish
Are you in?

kelly.diels

When it comes to social media, here's what I ...

View

Aug 15

Open
When it comes to social media, here's what I want to whisper into all of us...⁠ ⁠ 🌺You don't have to perform a character⁠ ⁠ 🌺You don't have to conform to repressive social expectations⁠ ⁠ (and in fact I can teach you how to use hashtags in a counter-cultural and truly delightful way. TRUE STORY)⁠ ⁠ 🌺You don't have to be on all the time⁠ ⁠ 🌺You don't have to be constantly scrambling to be present and visible ⁠ or waging mini-wars with yourself about how much is too much ⁠ (or not enough)⁠ ⁠ 🌺You don't have to be on a daily content-creation hamster wheel⁠ ⁠ 🌺You don’t have to assemble a virtual highlight reel⁠ ⁠ 🌺You don't have to get glamorous photo-shoots in luxury locations ⁠ (but creativity is an asset here -- what could you do differently with your photos?)⁠ ⁠ 🌺or post selfies ⁠ (but you can if you want to - I think selfies can be a genius form of self-expression. #WWFKD)⁠ ⁠ 🌺You don't have to post fluffy memes and generic platitudes⁠ ⁠ 🌺You don't have to flaunt your lifestyle or your wardrobe ⁠ or pretend that you've got it like that.⁠ ⁠ I don't do any of that stuff.⁠ ⁠ I show up and say what I believe in and what I'm working towards ⁠ and an audience gathers.⁠ ⁠ Because when you say something that matters, people come sit by the fire.⁠ ⁠ This is the essence of my Social Media for Culture Makers Certification Course.⁠ ⁠ Of course there are steps, exercises and a replicable system that goes with it -- and that's what I'll be teaching in this 12 week program.⁠ ⁠ (BONUS -- you also get 30 GORGEOUS Canva templates when you sign up before Aug 26)⁠ ⁠ The goal is to get you to into a groove that produces consistency, confidence, cash, and culture-making -- without grinding.⁠ ⁠ We start Sept 12. Join us?⁠ ⁠ love + justice,⁠ ⁠ Kelly⁠ ⁠ ---⁠ Cash. Consistency. Confidence. Culture-Making. ⁠ Social Media for Culture Makers is a certificate program for building power on social media. ⁠ ⁠ link in profile @kelly.diels to learn more -- and thank you. Your attention is a gift.⁠ ⁠ https://www.kellydiels.com/social-media-for-culture-makers/

kelly.diels

We talked about this yesterday...⁠
⁠
...

View

Aug 3

Open
We talked about this yesterday...⁠ ⁠ IMHO, Multipassionate Makers study all.the.things because they are gathering the full range of tools and modalities needed to solve a complex social problem.⁠ ⁠ 🌺What you are NOT doing: being flaky or distractible or indulging in 'shiny object syndrome'. ⁠ ⁠ 🌺What you ARE doing: making a whole new thing. You've been synthesizing across traditions and intuitively developing a nuanced, sensitive methodology designed to produce a particular transformation.⁠ ⁠ That thing you've been making, intuitively: it's real. There's a process and a framework there.⁠ ⁠ Our challenge is to raise your internal, intuitive process to the level of consciousness, so you can turn it into a FORMAL, repeatable process that you teach other people.⁠ ⁠ We need to get it out of your muscle-memory and into a teachable, shareable system.⁠ ⁠ I call this process *Surfacing Your Methodology*. ⁠ ⁠ To surface your methodology, we need to go in, determine the core set of skills you're teaching across all your modalities, and what the central outcome is. We need to explicitly map it out.⁠ ⁠ And then we need to name this wondrous thing you've created.⁠ ⁠ Once you name your methodology, you can see how everything you've trained in has led up to this, and prepared you for this work. ⁠ ⁠ It then gets a lot easier to explain it to other people, and a lot more obvious why they might want to buy it :)⁠ ⁠ Mapping out and naming your methodology makes your work REAL. ⁠ ⁠ (To you and to other people.)⁠ ⁠ It also makes it TEACHABLE.⁠ ⁠ And that's the point of all your seeking and learning and dreaming and doing, across time.⁠ ⁠ Because, dear Multipassionate Maker, you're NOT spinning your wheels. You're growing the solutions and institutions of the future.⁠ ⁠ *******⁠ ⁠ If you'd like some help Surfacing Your Methodology, I have a training that can help you do that. Link in profile to get it!⁠ ⁠ NOTE: It's a 3-hour video lesson followed by a LIVE Q+A on August 8 where you can get feedback and ask questions about YOUR model.⁠ https://www.kellydiels.com/surface-your-methodology/⁠

kelly.diels

Friends! Romans! Culture Makers!⁠
⁠
I,...

View

Jul 19

Open
Friends! Romans! Culture Makers!⁠ ⁠ I, Kelly Diels, am on vacation...⁠ ⁠ ...and while I'm swimming and gallivanting, we've got some automated processes running.⁠ ⁠ One of them is really important: we're refreshing consent on our email list, because consent is a core cultural value + practice for our team.⁠ ⁠ That means our email robots sent an email to everyone on our list who has NOT opened an email in 3 months, asking them to click a link to re-affirm their subscription.⁠ ⁠ So...if you got this email and you WANT to keep getting the Sunday Love Letters, please make sure you click that link.⁠ ⁠ Another way to refresh consent and make sure you keep seeing my newsletter is this:⁠ 1) Search your promotions folder in Gmail⁠ 2) find an email from me⁠ 3) open it⁠ 4) hit reply. That will help make sure you keep getting my Sunday Love Letters in your inbox rather than the promotions or spam folder.⁠ ⁠ Happy boundaries! (And swimming!)⁠ ⁠ love + justice,⁠ Kelly⁠ ⁠ PS if this post piqued your interest and you want to subscribe to my Sunday Love Letter for the first time -- it is a blazing epistle of encouragement, if I do say so myself -- the link to subscribe is in my bio @kelly.diels and thank you!

kelly.diels

When things need changing -- urgently --⁠
...

View

Jun 25

Open
When things need changing -- urgently --⁠ and they are outside our individual areas of influence or expertise, ⁠ that doesn’t mean we’re helpless or useless.⁠ ⁠ It means we get to work undergirding the work ⁠ of people & organizations ⁠ who ARE serving in exactly this space.⁠ ⁠ Outrage, overwhelm, despair, desperation: they are all righteous information. ⁠ ⁠ Feeling them, ⁠ and using them as a compass, ⁠ gives us an action item to complete: Who is already on the ground doing work that you can support?⁠ ⁠ ----⁠ I outlined a 3-step model we can use to create positive change ⁠ even AND ESPECIALLY in overwhelming, troubling times.⁠ ⁠ If that could be helpful to you right now, it's here:⁠ https://www.kellydiels.com/what-to-do-in-overwhelmingly-troubled-times/⁠ ⁠

kelly.diels

I trust you with power and resources.⁠
...

View

Jun 24

Open
I trust you with power and resources.⁠ ⁠ *I literally cannot say this enough.*⁠ ⁠ Many fat women and women of colour and queer women and disabled folks and trans and non-binary folks (and, and, and) have experienced power being used abusively against us...⁠ ⁠ ...which often means that some of us are going to be wildly uncomfortable with power-building -- in all forms.⁠ ⁠ Many of us believe, on a cellular level, that money + power = abuse. Because that's what we've lived.⁠ ⁠ Which raises a critical question for our lives: what will we think about ***ourselves*** if we earn money and power?⁠ ⁠ ***⁠ If you recoil from holding power or money even as you need them and explicitly seek them, please know that there is nothing wrong with you. This tension actually a sign that your sense of justice is finely honed.⁠ ⁠ It means you don't want to become that which you oppose.⁠ ⁠ This, obviously, is a very good thing. Let's be relieved that our moral compasses are working.⁠ ⁠ And let's break the spell*. ⁠ (h/t @amandaklaird for this *language)⁠ ⁠ ***⁠ Here's how we break cultural spells and intervene in unconscious sequences and patterns:⁠ ⁠ We surface them. Expose them. Make them conscious.⁠ ⁠ To break the money-power-abuse spell, let's explicitly, consciously ask ourselves if what we have been conditioned believe about ourselves and power and money is true:⁠ ⁠ Is it true that if you have power, you will abuse it?⁠ Is it true that if you have money and power, you will use it to exploit people?⁠ Is it true that the only way to get money is to harm people?⁠ ⁠ ***⁠ ⁠ When I inquired into my own beliefs about power and explicit asked myself, do I want to use money and power the way it's been used against me (To hurt people? To dominate? To hoard?)...⁠ ⁠ ...the answer is NOOOOOOOOOO.⁠ ⁠ And so the spell is broken.⁠ ⁠ ***⁠ ⁠ I trust you with power, money and resources.⁠ ⁠ Let's get them, grow them, and use them to flourish -- personally and collectively.⁠ ⁠ Because we are the culture makers.⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ***⁠ kellydiels.com ⁠ Business and Self Development for Culture Makers ⁠ ⁠ #wearetheculturemakers #powerbuilding #feministlife #earnedpower⁠

kelly.diels

When it comes to social media, here's what I ...

View

Aug 15

Open
When it comes to social media, here's what I want to whisper into all of us...⁠ ⁠ 🌺You don't have to perform a character⁠ ⁠ 🌺You don't have to conform to repressive social expectations⁠ ⁠ (and in fact I can teach you how to use hashtags in a counter-cultural and truly delightful way. TRUE STORY)⁠ ⁠ 🌺You don't have to be on all the time⁠ ⁠ 🌺You don't have to be constantly scrambling to be present and visible ⁠ or waging mini-wars with yourself about how much is too much ⁠ (or not enough)⁠ ⁠ 🌺You don't have to be on a daily content-creation hamster wheel⁠ ⁠ 🌺You don’t have to assemble a virtual highlight reel⁠ ⁠ 🌺You don't have to get glamorous photo-shoots in luxury locations ⁠ (but creativity is an asset here -- what could you do differently with your photos?)⁠ ⁠ 🌺or post selfies ⁠ (but you can if you want to - I think selfies can be a genius form of self-expression. #WWFKD)⁠ ⁠ 🌺You don't have to post fluffy memes and generic platitudes⁠ ⁠ 🌺You don't have to flaunt your lifestyle or your wardrobe ⁠ or pretend that you've got it like that.⁠ ⁠ I don't do any of that stuff.⁠ ⁠ I show up and say what I believe in and what I'm working towards ⁠ and an audience gathers.⁠ ⁠ Because when you say something that matters, people come sit by the fire.⁠ ⁠ This is the essence of my Social Media for Culture Makers Certification Course.⁠ ⁠ Of course there are steps, exercises and a replicable system that goes with it -- and that's what I'll be teaching in this 12 week program.⁠ ⁠ (BONUS -- you also get 30 GORGEOUS Canva templates when you sign up before Aug 26)⁠ ⁠ The goal is to get you to into a groove that produces consistency, confidence, cash, and culture-making -- without grinding.⁠ ⁠ We start Sept 12. Join us?⁠ ⁠ love + justice,⁠ ⁠ Kelly⁠ ⁠ ---⁠ Cash. Consistency. Confidence. Culture-Making. ⁠ Social Media for Culture Makers is a certificate program for building power on social media. ⁠ ⁠ link in profile @kelly.diels to learn more -- and thank you. Your attention is a gift.⁠ ⁠ https://www.kellydiels.com/social-media-for-culture-makers/

kelly.diels

We talked about this yesterday...⁠
⁠
...

View

Aug 3

Open
We talked about this yesterday...⁠ ⁠ IMHO, Multipassionate Makers study all.the.things because they are gathering the full range of tools and modalities needed to solve a complex social problem.⁠ ⁠ 🌺What you are NOT doing: being flaky or distractible or indulging in 'shiny object syndrome'. ⁠ ⁠ 🌺What you ARE doing: making a whole new thing. You've been synthesizing across traditions and intuitively developing a nuanced, sensitive methodology designed to produce a particular transformation.⁠ ⁠ That thing you've been making, intuitively: it's real. There's a process and a framework there.⁠ ⁠ Our challenge is to raise your internal, intuitive process to the level of consciousness, so you can turn it into a FORMAL, repeatable process that you teach other people.⁠ ⁠ We need to get it out of your muscle-memory and into a teachable, shareable system.⁠ ⁠ I call this process *Surfacing Your Methodology*. ⁠ ⁠ To surface your methodology, we need to go in, determine the core set of skills you're teaching across all your modalities, and what the central outcome is. We need to explicitly map it out.⁠ ⁠ And then we need to name this wondrous thing you've created.⁠ ⁠ Once you name your methodology, you can see how everything you've trained in has led up to this, and prepared you for this work. ⁠ ⁠ It then gets a lot easier to explain it to other people, and a lot more obvious why they might want to buy it :)⁠ ⁠ Mapping out and naming your methodology makes your work REAL. ⁠ ⁠ (To you and to other people.)⁠ ⁠ It also makes it TEACHABLE.⁠ ⁠ And that's the point of all your seeking and learning and dreaming and doing, across time.⁠ ⁠ Because, dear Multipassionate Maker, you're NOT spinning your wheels. You're growing the solutions and institutions of the future.⁠ ⁠ *******⁠ ⁠ If you'd like some help Surfacing Your Methodology, I have a training that can help you do that. Link in profile to get it!⁠ ⁠ NOTE: It's a 3-hour video lesson followed by a LIVE Q+A on August 8 where you can get feedback and ask questions about YOUR model.⁠ https://www.kellydiels.com/surface-your-methodology/⁠

kelly.diels

Friends! Romans! Culture Makers!⁠
⁠
I,...

View

Jul 19

Open
Friends! Romans! Culture Makers!⁠ ⁠ I, Kelly Diels, am on vacation...⁠ ⁠ ...and while I'm swimming and gallivanting, we've got some automated processes running.⁠ ⁠ One of them is really important: we're refreshing consent on our email list, because consent is a core cultural value + practice for our team.⁠ ⁠ That means our email robots sent an email to everyone on our list who has NOT opened an email in 3 months, asking them to click a link to re-affirm their subscription.⁠ ⁠ So...if you got this email and you WANT to keep getting the Sunday Love Letters, please make sure you click that link.⁠ ⁠ Another way to refresh consent and make sure you keep seeing my newsletter is this:⁠ 1) Search your promotions folder in Gmail⁠ 2) find an email from me⁠ 3) open it⁠ 4) hit reply. That will help make sure you keep getting my Sunday Love Letters in your inbox rather than the promotions or spam folder.⁠ ⁠ Happy boundaries! (And swimming!)⁠ ⁠ love + justice,⁠ Kelly⁠ ⁠ PS if this post piqued your interest and you want to subscribe to my Sunday Love Letter for the first time -- it is a blazing epistle of encouragement, if I do say so myself -- the link to subscribe is in my bio @kelly.diels and thank you!

kelly.diels

When things need changing -- urgently --⁠
...

View

Jun 25

Open
When things need changing -- urgently --⁠ and they are outside our individual areas of influence or expertise, ⁠ that doesn’t mean we’re helpless or useless.⁠ ⁠ It means we get to work undergirding the work ⁠ of people & organizations ⁠ who ARE serving in exactly this space.⁠ ⁠ Outrage, overwhelm, despair, desperation: they are all righteous information. ⁠ ⁠ Feeling them, ⁠ and using them as a compass, ⁠ gives us an action item to complete: Who is already on the ground doing work that you can support?⁠ ⁠ ----⁠ I outlined a 3-step model we can use to create positive change ⁠ even AND ESPECIALLY in overwhelming, troubling times.⁠ ⁠ If that could be helpful to you right now, it's here:⁠ https://www.kellydiels.com/what-to-do-in-overwhelmingly-troubled-times/⁠ ⁠