132. Reconsidering How You Vote With Your Dollars
Every time you take out your wallet is an opportunity to put your values in action.
Investing in DEI doesn’t always have to be a major initiative. Adjusting your daily actions with your values in mind can be an easy way to put those efforts into your everyday life.
Voting with your dollars doesn’t have to mean an overnight overhaul of where you spend your money.
You can make incremental but important changes by being cognizant of what your money supports, both directly and indirectly, in your business and in your personal life.
Erica and India work through what it means to vote with your dollars and why it doesn’t have to be an overwhelming process.
In this article:
How the choices you make on everyday spending can support your values
Why voting with your dollar is about where you don’t spend your money too
How customers and consumers hold power to make change
Keep the dialogue going: Concepts are better explored in community. Actions are more lasting when taken alongside other imperfect allies. Connect with a cohort of entrepreneurs and changemakers at the intersection of values and visibility.
Join us at pauseontheplay.com/community
This article is based on a Pause On The Play® podcast episode called “ Reconsidering How You Vote With Your Dollars.”
Everyday Choices Add Up
Where you spend your money every day is a chance to live your values.
Where you buy your coffee or tea and your groceries are regular opportunities to shift where your money goes and who you support.
So are where you spend your entertainment dollars and where you buy your clothes.
All of these choices have implications for where your money goes and what it supports.
Ask yourself if you know who owns the places you shop. Do you know what the brands that you buy from support?
Erica says, “whether it's coffee, whether it's clothes, whether it's grocery stores, whether it's crystals, whether it's body products, like, do you know what they support?”
India adds that when you think about who owns a business, ask too what are they doing in their community? Do they connect with nonprofits to give back? Is the business committed to DEI?
India says when she can’t shop locally for certain products, she gets information on the company’s ethics and what their business practices are. “What is their overall vision, and is the vision of their brand and what impact they want to make on their world aligned with mine?”
Customers Have the Power
Not spending your money is a vote as well.
When you spend money in one place, you’re effectively choosing not to spend money at another similar business.
As India says, “Every single time you spend your money, you are voting for what stays open and what closes, because we'd like to think that brands have the power, but it's really the customers. If you get enough customers to change how they shop, you can literally make businesses blow up overnight and become an overnight success or shut businesses down.”
It may be top of mind for people as they’re starting to think about holiday shopping or travel, but India and Erica both emphasize that voting with your dollars can be part of your daily choices.
That choice extends beyond even where we do or don’t spend our money, but also to the brands and businesses we amplify by telling your friends and family about. Your word of mouth is a vote too.
Where you spend your money, where you choose not to spend, and the brands you share with your community are all opportunities to vote with your dollars and redistribute wealth in ways that align with your values.
Keep The Dialogue Going
Concepts are better explored in community. Actions are more lasting when taken alongside other imperfect allies. Connect with a cohort of entrepreneurs and changemakers at the intersection of values and visibility.
Join us at pauseontheplay.com/community