Author | Speaker | Marketing Mentor
“As a marketing consultant on Wall Street, I helped investment firms attract big money. Over the span of my career, I discovered my investment marketing method was perfect for bottom-up social change. I tested my method in Africa, and it worked.”
The sign on my door reads “Let’s go bottom-up.”
What does that mean? It’s about using your privilege and resources to support those with fewer opportunities. It’s about showing up where the need is greatest and helping build a fairer world.
The idea came to me whole: Go to Africa, find a village and start a microlending program.
She was right. Back home my second guessing began – I nearly didn’t go back. The work ahead seemed impossible. But her words stayed with me. I sold my second car for seed capital to fund the program. Over the next decade, I returned 27 times. The results? Life-changing.
On my 60th birthday, I became a “bottom-up girl.” I had a yearning to begin what I called my return phase of life. The idea came to me whole: Go to Africa, find a village and start a microlending program. The country I chose was Ghana. One of my contacts forged the way to a village called Pokuase by talking to the chief who arranged a place for me to stay. In the second week of getting to know the community, an elder woman stopped me in the middle of the dirt road: “White people never come back. They make promises. We never see them again.”
Today, this bottom-up movement is growing.
We have a chance to define it — to show how it works to accomplish what top-down never could. We’re building tools and resources to help you get on the ground and take the first step to help communities get ahead. They are waiting for us.
Going bottom-up means starting at the ground level with a partnership model.
You provide access to essentials they lack: money, encouragement, recognition. They bring their dreams, drive and discipline. Together you create systems which lead to consistency and trust. Partnering with a shared can-do spirit leads to unstoppable momentum.
