Strands of Genius: Bystander Intervention, Shift is the Answer for Reconciling Gmail Accounts, Apple Wins IWD

Guest Curated by Caroline Tseng

Mar 12, 2020

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, CAROLINE TSENG ::

LOCATION: New York City
PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT: Various Agencies - Freelance

Hello hello -- I'm Caroline Tseng and I am very excited to be contributing for the SECOND time on Genius Steals, wahoo! I have had the pleasure of working with both Faris and Rosie and stolen many of their ideas, fervor for advertising, and quippy email etiquette. Other than stealing other people's things, I do some Brand and Digital Strategy stuff in my day job, and about a thousand side hustles otherwise. Follow me on Insta to find out more :)

Editor’s Note (Faris): Caroline is a joy. Faris had the pleasure of working with her and was so impressed that when he left the agency Rosie got her to come work with her. She’s a positive force, a strategic powerhouse, and the founder of Sweet Nova, a healthful frozen smoothie brand. We are excited to hopefully attend her wedding this year in Taiwan!

:: THE LINKS ::

COMBAT HARASSMENT WITH BYSTANDER INTERVENTION: LET'S STOP CORONAVIRUS-INDUCED XENOPHOBIA

Building from Monday's Panicdemic POV: Unfortunately, many of you have probably heard about, witnessed, or experienced some of the xenophobia around people of Asian descent (particularly Chinese) that is happening around the world due to the widespread fears around Coronavirus. I am Taiwanese American and have experienced mild microaggressions at work which have made me feel acutely aware of my Asian-ness and potential mis-association with the virus. Much worse still, a Korean mentee of mine was recently on the subway and some white teenagers spit in her face, telling her to go back to her country. This is not ok.
In solidarity, I ask all the readers of this brilliant, brave, tolerant and racially diverse community to consider practicing "Bystander Intervention." As HBR notes, "[Bystander Intervention] is leveraging the people in the environment to set the tone for what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable behavior." The article focuses specifically on sexual harassment, but many of the principles apply. We have the power to prevent the normalizing of off-color comments and casual digs around Coronavirus as it relates to race. In addition to the existing safety protocol emails I'm sure your companies are sending, I implore you to ask your HR or leadership team to also share a message about cultural sensitivity and tolerance during this time of fear and confusion. (Harvard Business Review)

SHIFT IS THE ANSWER FOR RECONCILING YOUR 1000 GMAIL ACCOUNTS

Apparently Shift's been around for a minute, but if you haven't heard of it yet, check it out. Shift puts all your Gmail accounts into one application so you can switch seamlessly between them (crucial for managing aforementioned side hustles). It's been a productivity game-changer for me...instead of constantly logging in and out of my Gmail accounts, I can just click on different "tabs" that get me in and out of individual accounts easily. I highly recommend upgrading to the yearly subscription (you can Google a coupon code for 50% off pretty easily). (Tech Republic)

BEHIND THE MAC - APPLE WINS WITH ITS CELEBRATION OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

Apple won for my favorite International Women's Day campaign this year. Played to the chilling and powerful "Flawless" by Beyonce ft. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the spot celebrates a huge range of powerful women actually using Macs (my favorite being Black Mamba: South Africa’s women-run anti-poaching unit). The spot elegantly and authentically ties the product to women who truly are changing the world. Check it out. (YouTube)

:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

:: Game :: Drawful on Jackbox

:: City :: New York and Taipei (is that cheating :D)

:: Book :: "How To Be Alone" by Jonathan Franzen

:: Podcast :: "Hidden Brain" by Shankar Vedantam

:: Album :: "Honey" by Robyn

Caroline and Faris with Corey and Matt!

I'm dedicating this newsletter to the people in my life who have either experienced the xenophobia or did something about it. Follow these people. They are brave, kind, and brilliant.

My ray of light mentee Grace who endured a physical assault born out of fear and ignorance

Gabs who raised a flag about xenophobia to the whole company in my honor

Corey who checked in to see if I was okay after he witnessed the microaggression

And… me!

Caroline Tseng
email: caroline.c.tseng@gmail.com
linkedin | instagram

Know someone who could use some inspiration in their inbox? Send ‘em our way!

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

SPEAKING
We're currently booking speaking gigs for the year.
Check out full descriptions and key learnings from our talks on here:
http://bit.ly/TalkDescriptions2020

If you're pitching us to others, here's a handy press kit:
http://geniussteals.co/press-kit

Strands of Genius