If you self-identify as absolutely fabulous, own your business, want to grow your customer base and help others, we have the women’s group for you. In June of 2009, Massey Media Owner Sarah Massey started a new meet up for women business owners in DC. Four friends got together to talk about how they launched their enterprises, kicking off the Fabulous Women Biz Owners DC group. As a woman business owner and a boss, Sarah wanted to learn more about how other women approached business issues and problems. Also, as a long time worker activist, Sarah knows that women are still not earning the same as their male counterparts, and she believes that empowerment can make the difference.

Massey Media is all about empowerment. “Empowerment refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social, or economic strength of individuals and communities. It often involves the empowered developing confidence in their own capacities,” says Wikipedia. By coming together as a group, we can share more and learn more. Every month, Fabulous Women Biz Owners DC Group offer workshops on business topics, like how to set your financial goals and how to eat for health and wellness. Each meeting has a workshop component and time for networking. Says Sarah, “This is a group that gets work done and does business together.”

Today, the Fabulous Women Biz Owners DC group has grown to over 200 on email and on a Facebook group. Monthly meetings have an average of 30 participants, and an online directory of regular attendees has 45 members. Members come from all types of businesses, including doctors, lawyers, real estate agents, make-up artists and photographers. The Fabulous Women Biz Owners DC group has grown through word of mouth. “We ask members to invite their friends and colleagues who will benefit from the organization. We ask women to self identify as absolutely fabulous. This approach works to bring members who truly want to contribute to each others’ success,” says Sarah. Two group members launched their businesses over the past year and gained clients and support for success. Women are encouraged to come to the network first when looking to make business purchases.

In December, the Fabulous Women Biz Owners DC group launched its mentoring program. Members can offer their talents and get help with areas of growth. For example, Sarah is helping a member with self-efficacy. According to guest speaker, Kathy Korman Frey, women who have mentors are more successful. We know this to be true. In 2011, workshop topics will be on style and fashion for the workplace, setting and maintaining a budget, and much more.

The Massey Media team is thrilled to announce that we are the newest Live Green spot! Whoop, whoop, do a little dance … But, what does that mean for us and for you? Live Green is an awesome organization with a mission to make environmental living easy and affordable. They vet businesses to make sure their practices are truly environmentally sustainable and then negotiate discounts for their members.

How is Massey Media an environmental company?
How we work at Massey Media is all about being green. Massey Media is a member of the Affinity Lab, which is a collaborative workspace (and a Live Green spot!) We use only recycled paper in copiers and printers, high energy efficient light bulbs, green cleaning products, and we recycle. Massey Media offers flex-time to our team members to work from home, and we’re located right next to metro to encourage commuting by public transit.

In addition, Massey Media’s client focus is social justice and social responsibility. Our vision is to put the spotlight on living green and working green so that others will learn from the example and follow. As a public relations company, we know best how integrity influences perception. We are dedicated to creating a better world by broadcasting the values of caring for the planet and each other.

Massey Media's leadership team bike to work.

Read more here on our blog, ownthepress.com: What is Green PR? and Why I am an Environmentalist.

Are you thirsty for good news? Here is an inspiring story: two years ago, three DC teenagers get together to form a rock band, they teach themselves how to write lyrics, how to build a recording studio in the basement, how to build a website and perform in DC’s hottest rock clubs, like DC9 and Black Cat. Then, in the summer of 2009, they approach Massey Media to help them build new audiences and take the band to the press. With the help of Massey Media’s team and golden rolodex of contacts, Power Pirate landed a live spot NBC 4 news, promoting their place as DC’s youngest (and best!) electronic rock band.

Power Pirate’s Annika, Michael, and Emily truly are inspiring, which is why Massey Media was ready to jump in and serve these amazing clients. Today’s media is filled with negative messages for youth, and Power Pirate is the exception to the rule. Young people can succeed, but they need to see positive messages and examples in the press.

Massey Media’s outreach worked to create new attention for the band and propelled them to winning the semi-finalist round of a national battle of the bands. Power Pirate is off to Los Angeles in January to compete live. We look forward to helping Power Pirate show other teenagers that they can achieve their dreams.

We always knew that public art deserved to be on the front page. The Aug 23, Sunday Washington Post covers the new DC mural, “From Edgewood to the Edge of the World,” created by public art non-profit Albus Cavus and supported by the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities.

Let Us Spray, Five artists have just painted the District’s largest-ever mural, by Reporter Dan Zak and Photographer Megan Rossman, tells the story of the art from the artists’ perspective. Click on the online version of the story to listen to Artists Pose 2 and Joshua Mays discuss how people will view the mural and how they approached their creative process.

“The artwork is just amazing,” says Wayne Sumpter, 52, who lives on nearby Channing Street and cuts behind the Rhode Island Avenue Shopping Center nearly every day. “It definitely gets your attention. It wakes you up. When I come through here I’m not thinking about a lot, but the wall stopped me. It pulls you to it.”

The mural, titled “From Edgewood to the Edge of the World,” will pull focus from many directions, from many kinds of people. People will see it from the Metro, the parking lot, the train tracks, as they return home to the Edgewood Terrace public housing complex, as they use the Metropolitan Branch Trail, a planned bike-and-walking path that will skirt the mural on its way from Silver Spring to Union Station. People will see it in spite of nearby trash-strewn ditches, in spite of parked cars with smashed windows, in spite of the fact that they may only ever see it at a distance, from behind Metro plexiglass.

Massey Media worked over the summer to assist Albus Cavus tell its story of how the group created the capital’s largest mural. Albus Cavus worked with 40 young people from the Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program and guided them to develop plans, engage community members, and build the skills necessary to tackle a huge public art program. Massey Media pitched in to offer spokesperson skills and “press pitch call” training to the group, giving them phone call lists and scripts. We issued eight press releases and treated the mural project as though it were a campaign to bring more public art to the city, and it worked. The Edgewood mural project was covered by all four local TV station, WAMU (twice), WPFW (twice), the Washington Post (three times), the Current Newspapers, El Pregonero, Associated Press, Washington Examiner, Cox broadcasting, Washington Hispanic, and the District Chronicles.

Have you checked out the Massey Media blog at Ownthepress.com?

Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one,

A.J. Liebling

Ownthepress.com is the “corporate culture” blog of Massey Media, the communications strategy firm based in DC, serving social justice movements, arts, and businesses. We put “corporate culture” in quotes because we’re inventing what it means to run a business with a vision of justice. We usually try to turn these things on their heads.

Own the press comes from A.J. Leibling’s famous media criticism, “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.” As media activists, we live this everyday. We have the inside view of how the press can distort as it reports and the vital role of news and information is to freedom. So, please come along with us on our journey to understand the media and make headlines for social change.