For the month of December, I’m dressing up and wearing a tie every day as a part of Dressember’s annual effort to fight human trafficking. You can donate here to help me reach my goal.
I’ve worked from home since 2004, so I don’t exactly have a business-friendly wardrobe (and let’s be honest: I’m still wearing jeans and untucked dress shirts, so “dressing up” is subjective).
So why am I doing this?
Because someone shared their story and I couldn’t not do something.
I write content for Salesforce guru Jon Cline and he asked me to help him share his Dressember story. I’ve researched human trafficking before and written about it for previous clients. But that was a decade ago. It was a little disconcerting to see that not much had changed. The more I researched and wrote, the more I dug into the story, the harder time I had sitting back in December doing nothing while Jon dressed up. I figured the least I could do was join Jon in his effort.
There’s power in sharing your story.
Jon raised $5,000 last year and this year—as of today—he’s blown past that and is more than halfway to his goal of $10,000. I had a more modest goal of $500, and so far I’m nearly halfway there.
Human trafficking is an ugly, messy story that most people would rather turn away from. It doesn’t help that the topic has been coopted for misinformation in recent years. But that doesn’t mean we give up and walk away. It means we keep sharing the story. It means we double down on the truth, digging deeper to share those realities. It means taking on a silly style challenge to address a serious topic.
It’s typical for a content writer to tell you to share more content. But I really believe that sharing your story is invaluable, whether you’re a nonprofit, a political candidate, or a local business (here’s a local business story I shared last week—don’t tell me that story isn’t a huge help to that business).
Just look at Dressember, telling a story through dresses and ties and raising more than $13 million.